This may be a very stupid question, but if I ran a half marathon and have absolutely zero soreness afterwards did I run too slow? Just curious how hard most people would go at the 13.1 distance.
All out effort.
Trust that your training has done its’ job.
“all out effort” is obviously wrong. I love half-marathons because you can run a good hard race and not have much soreness afterwards, especially if it is relatively flat. I would judge your effort by how tired you are when you cross the finish line, not how sore you are the next day.
You should have some muscle (mostly quad) soreness/fatigue after a race-paced 13.1 miles. Maybe not the stiff legged marathon shuffle where you can’t walk down stairs, but you are apparently second guessing yourself with posting, so I think you know the answer. Were you happy with your time from your estimation from previous races/training?
I was kind of disappointed with the time. Though I probably should not be. I had not done any training specific for this race (it was just a catered training day, really)and have been only base building for the last few months. But looking back I think I had more gas in the tank and could have cut 3-5 minutes off my time, which would have made it a PR. My quads aren’t sore at all, nor is anything else. I’m probably just getting greedy. Like I said, the race was not even a c-priority event for me - just a training run with a tshirt and medal. Thanks for your feedback.
I was having a conversation about a similar topic with a buddy on my long run today. It was related to the post-ironman hobble that you see so often. I said that even if you only raced a 1500m or 5k you should have some soreness the day after if you raced hard enough. If you finished a half marathon and it didn’t cause any discomfort the day after then I would say that you didn’t race it hard enough. I try to approach a half marathon with the goal of hitting the midway point between 1 and 2 minutes off of the time I could run 10k in at the time and then try to keep the pace the same or faster for the second half which can be tough.
What did your training going in to the event say you could do?
Look at that and find your answer. The rest is guessing, speculation and what if’s. Rarely do they yield the truth with any accuracy.
I think it depends upon the terrain of the course and mileage you do in buildup. If I run a half marathon on 80+ miles a week, I rarely feel any soreness afterwards unless it is really hilly. If I run a half marathon on 20 miles a week, I’m sure as hell gonna feel it the next day even if it is flat as a pancake
HR monitor
.
My training wasn’t much of an indicator. I was just doing relatively easy base stuff and ran probably as few as 4 or 5 tempo runs in the last 2 months. I ran the HM at a pace/HR that traditionally would be a bit under my LT. I’ve been running ~50 mpw over the past 4 months. It’s possible that my LTHR has moved higher as a result of this base period. It’s also possible that I’m an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.