Tempo runs (just a bit slower than 10K pace) for 3-5 miles help me greatly.

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Blog: https://swimbikerunrinserepeat.wordpress.com

The McMillan calculator predicts a half marathon time around 1:45 based on your 10K time, so I wouldn't say 1:48 is really an underperformance.

That being said, to answer your more general question of how to dig deeper, you might check out the book Endure by Alex Hutchinson, specifically the chapter on Pain.

If you want to suffer more in races, you probably need to suffer more in training. How much high-intensity training do you do? It's been shown to help increase pain tolerance in addition to fitness.

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Short, fast intervals close to 5k pace or faster during a run, all evenly paced so the last few really suck, once, maybe twice a week:

- 16x30s fast/30s easy,
- or 8x60s fast/60s easy,
- or 3x3min fast/3 min easy,

My current favorite workout is a 20 min warmup, 20-min tempo @ HM pace, 5 min Easy, 5x30s fast/30s easy @ 5k pace, 10 min cooldown: Example

Didn't know the McMillian calculator yet, thanks! Nice tool.

However, when I enter my information I do get a half marathon time of 1:39. More close to what my Garmin watch is telling me as well (1:38). So not sure where you got the 1:45 from?


The key is probably going to be to suffer more during training. Currently I run about 3 times a week. 1 interval training, 1 tempo run and 1 long run. Maybe I do need to push my tempo runs even harder.

I'll also have a look at the book Endure, good tip!

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Hmm, strange that that site would differ so much from this one:

https://www.mcmillanrunning.com/

I had to assume your age, but it doesn't change the time much from 1:45.

In any case, as others have suggested, fast intervals will help with your speed as well.

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Coach at TriForce Triathlon Team: https://www.triforceteam.com

If you want to suffer more during a race - run faster. At some point at X speed - you will know the definition of suffering haha

Weird... suffering while running is pretty much the norm. I’d prefer to learn how not to suffer while running.

This is something I'm sure I have figured out, at least what you describe and what your goals are.

Contrary to the above, the answer is NOT to:

- "Just run harder". No.
- "Just learn to suffer more. It's mental." Also No.


The REAL answer is that you almost certainly don't have enough run training in your legs (mainly volume) to support a sustained HARD half marathon run. As a result, when you want to give it your suffering-all, your legs give up on you, and you putter into the finish tired, but not dog-dead as you'd hoped.

If your legs had a bigger run base and a sprinkling of speed on top, you would be able to push longer, harder, and into the deep run suffering zone on race day.

This is NOT a mental thing - it's a training thing, and interestingly, you don't have to suffer like a dog in training so much, but just incrementally pushing your run volume up and speed up tiny amounts at a time over long periods.

This is exactly the reason why when you go to most triathlon clubs' 'track speedwork day', where you're doing gutbusting 800m intervals, over half the group looks like they're barely even working hard. I used to believe they were all big slackers and didn't know how to really suffer, but in reality that's as hard as their legs will let them go given their limited run training. I got the exact experience handed to me when as a new AOS-swimmer, I tried to do 'real' swim workouts with speed and tempo sets, and couldn't hammer myself aerobically at all since my arms were too wimpy. Also for my 1st two years of racing tri, I couldn't get my HR in the swim above my equivalent of a mild jog - if I did pump it up by thrashing, my arms couldn't sustain it for more than a minute.

This is also exemplified dramatically in full for anyone who starts racing full marathons, especially their first one, where the legs will give out around mile 18-20 despite your endurance level feeling totally fine, which is extremely frustrating. Once you've got 70mpw over months in your legs though, you'll be able to hammer mile 26.

It's all about the long-term volume (and some speed) base for raceday suffering and performance, not the short-sighted "I just need to learn to dig deeper on the same limited training."

I agree that it's a physical and mental thing.

I always recommend to beginner runners or runners with still a lot of development potential to choose a race and attack it like a madman. At some point you have to find your true limit in order to know how to work near to that limit without overstepping it in the future. In that race, have no fear, don't worry about blowing up, having to walk to the finish, vomiting, or whatever else that could happen. Learn your limit once and you'll never have to do it again!

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http://www.howesgreg.com

That's actually a really useful reaction. I've always been a little hesitant about doing a lot of speedwork while training for a 70.3. Somehow it feels counter-productive to focus on speed while the race will be endurance focused. It can be that my running base is just to undeveloped, especially since I only started this years for longer than 10k distances. So it could be due to not enough kilometers in my legs to be able to endure the length of the run yet.

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I've always been more focused to make it to the finish line that to just go all the way and see when (and if) I blow up. Maybe that should be my approach for my next run race.

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100% agree. OP needs an epic blow-up or two.

Not quite related to the original query, but if you're only running 3 times a week a think that might be a root cause of the problem with not meeting your expectations. Add a few easy runs to your week and slowly build up your weekly mileage. Get used to consistently running 5-6 times per week and I think you'll see your times drop.

interesting I feel like im in exactly the same boat as you OP. I have similar times in the 10k and 1/2 and I feel like I can absolutely bury myself in the bike and swim and have great results but in the run it seems like as soon as its a little hard I just settle there and that's it.

I would build up to hill intervals...nothing like more hills, shallow of steep to get used to the late race hurt....mile repeats will do it too, but more risk of injury

I'm working on getting more comfortable with discomfort this year. It started with my coach suspecting that I could push harder on the run. Since then, I work on this in two places, weekly track practice and races. I can't tell you the exact workouts he has us do but I can tell you he'll try to get us to a point where you think you need to stop and then have us continue for a bit. It proves to yourself you can run with a higher level of discomfort. We review my heart rate data from races. I think I started at a threshold of about 175 BPM and am now training with a threshold of 181 BPM. I think I can run short distances up to 184 BPM. My threshold has probably always been that high but I just didn't think so.

Recently, coach implemented a dollar fine for negative self talk during track. I think things like that help.

I thought this article was a good one: https://www.wsj.com/...ns=prod/accounts-wsj

There's a running example where the coach makes the athletes do a set of all out mile repeats and at the end makes them do one more...and surprise they can do it.

A good portion of the book Iron War discusses mental toughness as well. Good luck!

I'm not sure suffering is a skill that can be learned. Either you embrace pushing the suck or not.

Same.

@mlagerwerf, I have two suggestions, which are similar to what most of the others have said. The first thing I would do is work on one-mile repeats (e.g., 5 x 1-mile with a minute or two of rest in between) and 5k time trials. When I do these, they're maximal efforts. Hopefully you have a GPS watch so you can watch your times decline over the coming weeks/months. That's super motivating for me. The second thing I would recommend is a heart rate monitor. Glance at it occasionally throughout these efforts, and if at the end of them, your heart rate is still below 90% max, you're being a sissy. A solid 5k performance should average about 95% max heart rate. One thing I always say (scream) to myself during these is "It's a mile....you can do ANYTHING for a mile". These workouts will make your 10k and half marathon pace seem like a piece of cake. Also, don't forget a solid warmup for these. Have fun and post some progress!

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Honestly, the importance of positive self-talk, particularly before and during strenuous training is so critical! Your brain has an incredible repertoire of coercive strategies to make you slow down. And totally agree with the HR monitor also. Particularly for threshold and above, it's provided some pretty important data for me also.

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It can be learned to an extent. But there is an upper limit that some people can get to. Part of it I think is just how your body responds. Some people’s bodies just don’t react to pain the same way.

My wife can handle about a 2 out of 10 on the suffering scale before it’s too much. I separated my clavicle from my sternum in hockey in college and played another period before it was too much. I don’t think I can inherently suffer that much more than her, I just don’t think things hurt as much for me compared to her.

Dan wrote and article about this subject a while ago, if I remember right it was what everyone else has said running more and running harder makes those activities hurt less allowing you to push harder.

Military selection programs use a similar strategy. One guy's recollection was that on day one, when all of the recruits were completely fresh and well-prepared for selection, they were made to run a ~3-mile best effort that was incentivized in one way or another. Several weeks later (e.g., during hell week) when they were completely fatigued from constant stress and sleep/food deprivation, they were told that if they didn't beat their original best effort, they'd be kicked out of selection (which was just a psychological tactic). Most of the recruits quit immediately, but those that stayed all came very close to improving their time. The message was clear: your actual ability to suffer physically is much greater than we tend to believe.

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I found that aspect of the book very inspiring. I did a Parkrun after I read the book and pushed myself hard just to see what would happen. I've taken those learnings into every race I've done moving forward, trying to learn the difference between my brain telling me to stop and my body physically being too tired to continue.