How do you pace for a straight-up half marathon (ie not a 70.3)? What HR zones would you want to be in during the beginning, middle, and final thirds?
I just did a 10k race and was in Zone 5 the whole way. I have my first HM in a few weeks, but I’m not sure if pacing 7 miles in Z4 and 6 miles in Z5 is realistic.
thanks–SS
This is just a suggestion:
You appear to know what your 10K/threshold HR is. A lot of people would argue that is the top of Friel zone 4.
I would start off about 10 bpm lower than that and see how you feel. If it feels fast enough then stay with it until ~5K to go then open it up to what you figure you can handle.
jaretj
I don’t pace with HR so my strategy would be to take your 10k race dump it into McMillan and get the equivalent pace. Then decide if that is close to your goal time, if your training was up to snuff and what the course is like. Adjust from there and run even splits (baring any crazy hills) and forget about HR. I don’t think that HR is “stable” enough to be used to judge effort in a race and I never liked the idea of chasing a HR zone
How do you pace for a straight-up half marathon (ie not a 70.3)? What HR zones would you want to be in during the beginning, middle, and final thirds?
I just did a 10k race and was in Zone 5 the whole way. I have my first HM in a few weeks, but I’m not sure if pacing 7 miles in Z4 and 6 miles in Z5 is realistic.
thanks–SS
Steve,
How about running your 10k time through either Daniels’ VDOT chart or the McMillian running calculator and find an appropriate pace that way? If you have a GPS watch you can then use the projected pace for a half marathon as your guide. You might want to go out just a bit slower to be conservative and then pick up the pace during the second half if things are going well.
YMMV,
Hugh
Thanks - those suggestions make sense and in fact i’ve been training by pace based on those charts (using Daniel’s VDOT) rather than HR zone. That said, my new 10k pace based on a good race blew up my assumed HM pace and at the new HM pace suggested i am averaging high Z4/low Z5 HR. If i have my zones right, i would blow up after about an hour. that’s my concern.
Thanks - those suggestions make sense and in fact i’ve been training by pace based on those charts (using Daniel’s VDOT) rather than HR zone. That said, my new 10k pace based on a good race blew up my assumed HM pace and at the new HM pace suggested i am averaging high Z4/low Z5 HR. If i have my zones right, i would blow up after about an hour. that’s my concern.
As long as the course is reasonably flat, pace is king. Going by heart rate alone will send you out too fast and hold you back in the later stages of the race. If the course is hilly you’ll need to temper the pace appropriately up the hills.
Hugh
The old rule-of-thumb is that (assuming you’ve done sufficient training for the longer distance), your pace should be ~15sec/mile slower for double the distance. So, (again, assuming you’ve done sufficient training for the half), your half-marathon pace should be ~15-20sec/mile slower than your 10K pace.
Thanks - those suggestions make sense and in fact i’ve been training by pace based on those charts (using Daniel’s VDOT) rather than HR zone. That said, my new 10k pace based on a good race blew up my assumed HM pace and at the new HM pace suggested i am averaging high Z4/low Z5 HR. If i have my zones right, i would blow up after about an hour. that’s my concern.
If you’ll post your 5K and 10K times I will tell you the pace recommended as your critical velocity pace. Then you can compare to other formulas like the one suggested by McMillian or Endurance Nation.
that is boring…
Pace:
this is my pacing strategy!
Pace:
this is my pacing strategy!
Pace:
dammit, I know I was doing it wrong!
I was as crazy running like this last half-marathon. 82% in the red zone (5).
Maybe I have higher AT and max HR. Polar HR gave me the default based on age, height, weight.
“The old rule-of-thumb is that (assuming you’ve done sufficient training for the longer distance), your pace should be ~15sec/mile slower for double the distance. So, (again, assuming you’ve done sufficient training for the half), your half-marathon pace should be ~15-20sec/mile slower than your 10K pace.”
Yep. Easier said than done. Not a lot of 40 min. 10Kers can pull off a 3-3:05 hour marathon though …
Amazing how many people can run 60+ min in Z5. Didn’t think that was possible 
I go by pace and know my HR zones that correlate to each pace (in case it’s a hot day or something like that and realize that my normal pace needs to be dialed back because my heart rate is higher).
You can take your 10k PR and plug it into here: http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm
How do you pace for a straight-up half marathon (ie not a 70.3)? What HR zones would you want to be in during the beginning, middle, and final thirds?
I
Perhaps the most reliable method for a fast time, is to stay at the upper end of Zone 2 for the first two miles. For mile 3, go to the upper end of Zone 3 and time that mile. Run that mile pace for Miles 4-10. Heart rate will rise accordingly throughout while pace stays the same. With 5K to go, your HR will be right where it needs to be for a hard three miles to the finish. The #1 key is being patient. If you do it right, guaranteed you’ll have enough left for the final 5K to make up for any “holding back” you did in the first 10mi. That method is almost guaranteed to work well.
Likewise, you can do the same method, just using pace. Take your latest 10K time, punch it into the McMillan calculator and get your estimated 1/2 result & pace. Let’s say your estimated pace is 7:00/mi. Run the first two miles at 7:30/mi. Miles 4-10 are run at your goal pace of 7:00/mi, with the final 5K being 6:40-6:20mi. The final 5K will cancel out the first two, and then some. And by going out easy, you will have the energy to make it happen at the end.
Both of those methods (HR or Pace) correlate extremely well. If your HR monitor stops working, you can switch to a pace strategy mid-race, etc. If you run it off HR, you’ll see that it happens to match up with your goal pacing. And the McMillan calculator, based off my 10K times, has been within seconds of my 1/2M results 4-5 times.
…Perhaps the most reliable method for a fast time, is to stay at the upper end of Zone 2 for the first two miles. For mile 3, go to the upper end of Zone 3 and time that mile. …
No Friggin’ way! If you want to go out slow- then go out perhaps 10s/mi slower than your intended pace, not Zone 2 (which might be 1min/mi slower).
combine your HR, RPE and Pace all into one mesh in your head. Go out just a little below your intended RPE (and you’ll probably already be running too fast) and check your pace and HR. Let your HR approach just under or at (depending on your training) LTHR after 2-3 miles and hold it there through mile 9. Inch it up through LT in mile 10 and then inch it up above LT for the last 2-3 miles, hitting near your MaxHR for the last 1/2 mi. If the pain ain’t pyrotechnic for the last 2 miles, you ain’t racing; you’re just out for a jog.
…Perhaps the most reliable method for a fast time, is to stay at the upper end of Zone 2 for the first two miles. For mile 3, go to the upper end of Zone 3 and time that mile. …
No Friggin’ way! If you want to go out slow- then go out perhaps 10s/mi slower than your intended pace, not Zone 2 (which might be 1min/mi slower).
Usually it ends up being about 25sec/Mile slower than my goal pace.
Right this is sort of like what my races look like (only running races – in tris i rarely get into Z5 no matter how hard i try)
Part of my confusion is Matt Fitzgerald defines VO2max as the fastest pace you can sustain for 6-8 minutes (so about a mile). he calls threshold the fastest you can maintain for 60 minutes and to me threshold = aerobic max = Z4. But I have been assuming VO2max = anerobic = zone 5 but again i am up there for 45 minutes no problem. Of course i could have some of my numbers wrong but they would need to be way off and i don’t think that’s possible…
Right this is sort of like what my races look like (only running races – in tris i rarely get into Z5 no matter how hard i try)
Part of my confusion is Matt Fitzgerald defines VO2max as the fastest pace you can sustain for 6-8 minutes (so about a mile). he calls threshold the fastest you can maintain for 60 minutes and to me threshold = aerobic max = Z4. But I have been assuming VO2max = anerobic = zone 5 but again i am up there for 45 minutes no problem. Of course i could have some of my numbers wrong but they would need to be way off and i don’t think that’s possible…
Are you saying that you can keep the same pace for 45 minutes that you can keep for 6-8 minutes?
No i’m saying my Zone 5 range is from a 40 min pace to an 8 min pace (and obviously all the way to a 100 yard pace) – i guess this is the danger of thinking too much about zones
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