There are a thousand ways to skin a cat. I ran 1:24 and found 4-5 miles inside of one of those 40 min runs (I'd stretch to an hour to give you some warm up miles) at a pace that's 10-15 seconds quicker than your half goal pace was key. They suck at first but your body will get accustomed to that and half pace will feel easy. I'd tack a few miles onto some of those 40 min runs but keep them super easy so you can nail the hard stuff! Best of luck !

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Big Sexy Racing 2018

Thank you!

Indeed, I'm missing the tempo stuff :)

The 40min sessions are often lunchtime dictated - but some are mornings, I can extend those. Mornings runs are difficult for speed work I find, but I'll try adjusting and making one of them 60min with 4-6miles at tempo.

Next race will be 20th November :)

I see no running in the 90 minute range. Something magical happens when you build up your running to 50 mile weeks that includes a couple/ several double digit mileage days.

Gall

run more. Run frequently, mostly easy, sometimes really hard, for months and years, and you will get really fast. It really is that simple. There are no shortcuts.

#truth!

That's not enough running for any real improvement, and will require more speedwork, which is inherently more risky that more volume, for someone injury prone. That long run is much too long without only 3x40 minutes the rest of the week. Again, a high risk plan that I'd only suggest if you're time crunched.

I'ts simple. Run more, more frequently. But not so much that you're too fatigued to run well/smoothly. I've never had an athlete no improve following this strategy. I've almost always had athletes get injured when I attempt too much "quality" for marginal gains. It becomes counterproductive quickly.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

Except for the Wednesday session, all your runs are either recover or LSD - so your body adapts to that pace. Hence why you see hm pace = 5k pace.

As everyone else says, more and more but you're going to have to take your time with it. I myself used to be quite injury prone as well. Your volume is going to need to be increased slowly and carefully. For me, it was frequency which was the killer instead of volume (I injure myself when I go from 3x to 5x per week overnight but can handle more kms per run easier), so I saved my good workouts for running and added more cycling and swimming on the off days.

If you need a recovery session, move it to the middle of the week and as one of your cycling workouts. Is there a reason you have 2x consecutive recoveries the day after your rest?

Thank you very much all for the replies.

Take home: put in a tempo run, and increase the running volume.

Since I switched to biking more and running less, I've not had any injury issues, but I've also lost a lot of weight.

So, I'll extend one of the 40min to 60min to add tempo, and switch a bike for a 40-60min run.

Thank you all again.

Hopefully I can knock the precious 50s off :)

The question is: are your easy runs really ran easy? Its entirely possible that you run them too fast and this stresses your body too much. Like someone else says, when you're running easy run easy, and when you have to run hard run hard! Otherwise you're gonna be great at that medium to medium hard pace, which is about your HM pace. But I'm not sure how much improvements you're expecting in 5 weeks. Running slow is not sexy or flashy, it doesnt give the idea of immediate improvement, and causes many people to abandon it or up the volume *and* intensity, which generally ends badly.

Hi,
I found following one of the marathon plans in the Jack Daniels book worked very well for me. I'm not a great runner by any means. This was my progression of times:
1:54, 1:49, 1:47, 1:43, 1:39 , Jack Daniels book for ~6 weeks out of beginning of a 20 week program, 1:27

The difference was the book had me doing 2 quality sessions per week of tempo (much faster than I'd normally train at) and one at close to marathon pace. They were nightmare sessins for the first few weeks!
During this period of doing HMs I was doing one 10-10:30 IM a year so had decent fitness. I would usually do the HMs for fun in the winter and cut out most of the cycling and running for a couple of months.

Good luck

I used to swim at a University Masters swim squad. The coach was average at best. We managed to convince him that we should take advantage of brains on campus. We got an agreeable physics prof to come watch us and tell us how to swim faster. He watched for an hour and at the end we stood on the deck, in dripping budgie smugglers. Someone asked "So what did you see? What do we need to do to swim faster?"

Absolute deadpan he replied. "Take longer strokes, more often" and walked away......

Sometimes it is that simple, and there are no shortcuts :-)

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

If you want to run faster, you have to train faster.

I worked my way to a sub 1:30 at 40yrs old using the Run Less Run Faster program. You can get the app on your phone and set the race date, distance and goal and it will give you a plan to follow.

When you first start the program you won't be able to hit the goals. Just do your best and based on your current times posted, by the end of the program you will be hitting the pace goals in the training plan.

I just ran a 1:26 yesterday, I ran 6 days a week with 2 60 minute rides. Here are my key workouts, basically I ran a mid week workout and a long run.

Wed-Usually ended up running 8-10 miles
1-6 x mile at Goal Pace
2-60-120' fartlek with 30 second surges every 5-10 minutes. Pace would start easy then drop down to marathon pace (or half if I felt good). Surges were basically 3-5K effort/pace. Usually ended up running 8-10 miles
3-6 x 800, starting a goal pace down to 5K.
Unstructured tempo around marathon-half marathon pace.

Sunday-went for 15 ended up with a few 17 milers.
1-easy long run (15 miles)
2-9 x In and Out miles-1 mile at GP, 1 mile 30 seconds slower. Next time I'm going to work down to 1 mile 30 sec faster then GP, 1 mile at GP.
3-Progression run, started easy then worked down to goal pace.


10 Days before the race I ran a simulation run-1 Mile at GP, 3 miles at GP-15 seconds, 1 Mile at GP, 3 miles at GP-15 seconds, 1 Mile at GP. Basically a confidence run for me.

Other than that I ran daily 40-60 minutes easy with a 2-3 strength workouts (glute/hamstring). This was my last 3 months of training, I felt the frequency with a little harder running really paid off for me. Fartlek with surges helped me close the gap to get with other runners during the first half without killing me.

Lots of good advice here, namely doing some more fast intervals in runs to make the HM pace feel easier. Seems like you have a little too much 'easy' running in the mix. For your hard run sessions, I'd add these two workouts, alternating and doing one each week...
Main Set: 4 x 200, 2 x 800, 4 x 200, 2 x 400 all @ Zone 5 with full recoveries
Main Set: 2 x 1/2 mile (3min recover between), 2 x 1 mile (5min recovery between) all @ Zone 4.

Something that's not mentioned though, that I think should be, is weight loss.

A few years ago I gave up my guaranteed entry to the NYC marathon (hurricane Sandy pushed my entry) for the NYC Half assuming I'd run fast enough to get the NYC Marathon entry. I hadn't realized that the time required was 1:19 (moved down from 1:23 that year). Since I learned of the new time just ~2 weeks out from the race, my training was the same -- which had me at about 1:20-21. To get faster, I focused instead on getting light during these last two weeks. I went from 140lbs to 135lbs. I fueled all my training the same-- ate before running, fueled during, ate after -- but had only big kale salads for meals outside of that. It was definitely a risk, but it worked. I ran a 1:18.

Good luck!

I would

• Add strides to the easy runs
• Swap the intervals for a tempo run. Once within 6-8 weeks of the race, alternate weeks between tempo and speedwork
• Make every other long run a progressive pace run. Spend the last 1/3 to 1/4 of the run at race pace or a little faster
• Add a fifth run each week (and even a sixth if you're not too fatigued), gradually ramping up the volume
• Add a couple of 5k or 10k races to track your progress, and project a reasonable HM pace

Thanks again for so many informed replies.

First I think maybe 20th November is a bit ambitious, so I'll aim for a sub 90min try end February / March time.

Reading the posts above, I think I'll adjust the training to something like this:


Mon off
Tue 40min Easy Run / 40min Spinning
Wed 40min Easy Run / 40min Run Intervals (800m-1km)
Thu 30min Swim / 40min Easy Run
Fri 60min Run with 4-8km tempo
Sat 30min Spinning / 30min Run
Sun 105min slow run


That's a big increase in running, so I may phase it in, the first thing will be to add the tempo run.

That's a reasonable plan. You might want to look at the "Hal Higdon Advanced Half Marathon" plan which has a similar setup, to see how he phases the pieces in. Your biggest injury risk is too much intensity with both intervals and tempo each week, so you may want to scale back the intervals for a bit when you add the tempo run. Hill repeats can also substitute for intervals at lower risk.

To run sub 1:30 I need to run around 4:15/km


Many tend to over-think all this.

For whatever you goal is, you need to become more efficient at running at that pace or faster.

Assuming a good to decent base* spend more time running at that pace and for shorter periods, running at faster than that pace.

* I asterisk this, because MANY triathletes, even ones who do reasonably well, don't really have a decent base in any of the three sports. To really do this and do this well, you have to toss the usual training out the window and for a time, just run, or just swim or just ride. Most people who do this for running, and focus on running as many days/week as they can (5 - 7), and they do it right, for a couple of months, automatically break all their existing PB's for everything from the 5k - 1/2 Marathon!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Hi, old thread, I didn't end up doing a HM early this year due to other issues, and ended up running a Marathon for fun in April (which was a 3:18, 1:42 first half, 1:36 second half)

Anyway, I started training again for a sub 90min HM, and thanks to the simple 'do tempo' advice, it worked really well - I did a 1:29:18 with energy to spare.

I didn't increase the mileage, longest run was 10miles, and May / June / July / August average was 23m / week, but I did include a good tempo and interval session each week and this really helped. Bear in mind I do about 6 - 9 hrs week training overall, as I cycle as well, which I assume helps with fitness.

So thanks again to all who took the time to reply. Very happy.

Thanks for this. I'm an avid cyclist and would like to start running, so it's nice to see folks maintaining the bike while training for running goals. How many days a week were you running, and what was your bike volume like during your buildup?

Well, I'm not really a 'cyclist'.

Basically, due to family / work, I am quite restricted to training - mornings for max 40-50min, and lunch max 40min (usually 30). Saturday maybe 90min, and Sunday 120min. Lunches often get ruined by unplanned work stuff. Sometimes I get to do a 180min bike on Sundays.

So a really good week looks like this (Tueday - Friday can be a mix, it's more the number of sessions):

Mon Off, always
Tue 50(am) 40(pm)
Wed 40(am)
Thu 40(am) 40(pm)
Fri 50(am) 30(pm)
Sat 90
Sun 120

That's 500 minutes, a measly 8 - 9 hours after all those sessions!!

A bad week, as happens often looks like this:

Mon Off, always
Tue 50(am)
Wed 40(am)
Thu 40(pm)
Fri 50(am)
Sat 60
Sun 60

A horrible 5 hours!!!

So, to answer your question, a 'typical week' is this:

Mon Off, always
Tue 50 Bike Intervals on the trainer (am) 40(pm) Easy Run
Wed 40 Tempo Run(am)
Thu 40 Bike Intervals (am)
Fri 50 Run Easy(am), Run 40 Intervals(pm)
Sat 60 Run
Sun 120 Bike (trainer intervals if 90 or less, otherwise outside, aim for IF of > 0.8)

So you see I do mostly trainer based cycling, almost all hard intervals, for about 3.5hrs a week.

Before children / new job, I used to train a lot more, but not as consistently - big weekend blocks, mostly.

I've been training as above for a a year now, not missing a single week, and I really think there is a lot to be said for consistent training. Bike training must help in some way, as on that little running, sub 90min would be tough (I imagine) - for speed reference, last test I did I ran a 19:45 5km.

My plan now, though, is to take the other piece of advice above - really up the miles. I'll do almost all running (which will mean lots of double days) and see if I can get to 1:28 or less.


HTH, or at least makes some sense.

That does help. Thank you. I put in 530 hrs on the bike in 2017. Should do abt 500 this year. Run just a bit for CX (injury prevention). But I'm 34 and unmarried/no kids. I imagine that'll end and I'll need to transition into more of a runner someday. And eventually I'd like a new challenge- maybe a HM or some distance trail stuff. Looks like you get abt 4ish hrs a week on the bike. I was hoping to do 5ish and run 5-6 days a week. Seems responsible based on your n of 1. Thanks again.