i’m planning on doing my first half marathon this year, the syracuse half marathon! i’m also going to be posting my training updates here, mostly for myself to refer to
the race is on march 23, so that’s 10-11 weeks from now. that’s plenty of time for a good training block. my A goal is to finish in 1:45 (about 8:03 mile pace, 25min 5k pace), my B goal is to finish in 1:50, and C goal is to finish just somewhere close to two hours (this is all based on my current threshold pace for 5k which i think is around 7:45 – 8:15 mpm) and keep it conservative.
training wise i’m adapting the novice marathon program in hal higdons Marathon Guide book for a half marathon. a couple of interesting parts of his training program is the long run mile step back every 3rd week and gradual increase of the mid week mileage. the purpose of the step back is to support recovery after a couple of consecutive mile increases before building back higher
unlike his program for the novice training instead of doing saturday long run i’m doing a sunday one followed by a recovery run. he also packs all three non-long runs together consecutively but i like having space between those runs for cross training / strength training or just rest – so i adjusted that too.
overall i’m optimistic about this program because it’s not too far off from my current weekly mileage and i’m coming off of a short break from running due to the weather lately, so i should adapt well to this but who knows. since i am going to be targeting a specific pace i know i need to throw some speed work and threshold runs in there so the breaks between runs mid week should help
here’s my full schedule (thanks claude ai for formatting my original csv into a table)
note: run 1 is following a long run, so that will be an easy run. run 2 and 3 will either both be easy if i’m not feeling great, but ideally one or both of them are threshold runs. will play it mostly by ear
| Week | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Long Run | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 15 |
| 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 16 |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 17 |
| 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 15 |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 19 |
| 6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 21 |
| 7 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 18 |
| 8 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 12 | 24 |
| 9 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 22 |
| 10 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 20 |
for race pace and finish times i like to use this chart.
training log
i’m going to keep short updates here as i progress
1/15
- training going well, been hitting the workouts and also did a tuesday short 45min group running training sesh (polymetrics mostly) at gym
- today did a 3miler on treadmill, 10min warmp up and 10 cooldown with threshold pace in middle
- TIL that 1% incline is good for imitating wind resistance friction for treadmill + lower knee impact. makes sense
- form / mechanics notes: working on landing softer, more knee drive and less lower leg extension
- pace feels a bit quick – will work on increasing incline but reducing pace
- also may look into interleaving outdoor runs with treadmills at some point, weather permitting…
1/16
- OK, so today i think i’m officially starting to overtrain…. i did a 1hr yoga at 5:30, 45min circuit training and sprinting at 8 followed by a 3 mile threshold. um my right foot ankle felt wonky and weird to put pressure on. i think i also laced my shoes too tight on the right
- i ALSO tried a slightly different gait (shortening leg extension to land closer to my center of mass) at the same time, which honestly felt better
- i made an effort to run more lightly on the treadmill today (focusing on reducing impact sound mostly) and my stride felt much smoother
- anyway, im pretty much set with my mid week mileage (9 total so far) so im just gonna rest up for my long run over the weekend (6mi)
1/19
- completed my first long run of the halfy training!! ran outdoors for 6.2 miles. most of the route i picked was pretty snow packed and my legs were sinking with each stride. left calf muscles and achilles feel pretty sore – not sure if snow or new shoes (lone peak altras) or both
- i had to avoid sidewalks in a couple of .5 – 1 mile stretches and ran pretty close to threshold pace because i wanted to get off the road quickly
- feeling good though, the snow def. forced me to slow down for most of it. got to get in a bit of hill work at beginning at end too. overall great workout
1/20
- did a 3 miler today, started at easy pace and then did threshold for about a mile before dropping back to easy. good workout, but in future im going to try to hold the pace for the entire session, and reserve threshold workouts for specific days. it does seem like the treadmill picks up my HR reader so that’s good!
1/22
- currently in week 2 of my training block. did a 5km with 3 1k repeats at 90-95% max HR . felt really tough, esp. towards the end. i actually cut short the last repeat by about 200m for sake of time and also i was at my limit
- good workout, but i think maybe a shorter interval like 400m would be good followed by 30s to 1m rests in future
- wore olympus via 2 for first time today, bought a used pair for 80 bucks off ebay. really loving this new model. the via 1 has a very stiff / firm sole, and they seemed to have incorporated that feedback. on their site: “It’s that same high stack but with a softer midsole foam”. really like it now! might retire my via 1’s
1/24
- did my final midweek 3mi workout of week 2! really didn’t really feel like it because I didn’t sleep too well and its cold af. snow day and streets were a bit unplowed so I decided to scrap my original plan of going to the gym and instead go outside. wasn’t too bad, although starting earlier might be better because a lot of people around 7-8 were pulling out of their garages to go to work
- did a fartlek workout with about 100m hill repeats 3 times . the entire run was pretty hilly , about 300ft elevation gain so 100ft / mile . pretty tough workout
- felt slight ache on left knee (weirdly my right knee has not bothered me at all) that went away with a quad stretch. will keep an eye on
1/27
- long run on sunday ended up being 8 mi instead of 7 b.c of wrong turn. felt good. went out a bit too fast. should stick to 10-9min miles. ended up in a snowy patch which wasn’t great and had to walk for safety reasons
- need better gloves if im to do more outdoor running…
- feeling good, did a 3mi on treaadmill this morning easy run with a short 3-4min tempo.
1/31
- did a final three mile run today at the gym for the week. was not feeling very motivated and pretty fatigued, probably from not great sleep this week. watch tells me that my HRV is low. was supposed to do a workout but I just took it easy
- for the four mile run earlier this week, I did 4 800 hundred meter repeats. that was a pretty good workout, ran pretty close to my max heart rate
2/9
- completed my 4th week of halfy training!! did 5 miles yesterday on the road, did it around 5pm and that was a bad idea b.c there were lots of cars. i should try to avoid side street roads unless running very early. run felt terrible at first because i had a heavy lunch only couple of hours earlier
- next two weeks are going to be slightly higher in mileage. 8mile pace still feels a bit challenging, im getting a bit nervous about sustaining that for 13 miles… i feel like i need to extend my long runs a bit and work in actual speed sessions off treadmills to be ready. or bump up the incline? or maybe just alternate indoor and treadmill 2 miles at a time
2/12
- finished first workout of the week, 5 miles. 1 mile warm up, 4x1000m at 7:40ish pace with 1.5-2min walk in between, 400m at 7:00 pace and remaining cool down. felts strong, wearing my hoka skyflows (varsity navy, wide) – they feel the best so far running. my olympia via and via 2 from altra both aggravate either my right big toe or right knee
- next workout i want to shoot for a 3 mile tempo, would be nice to do it outside too but the roads are still icy.
2/17
- did my 9mi long indoors, 3 on track, 6 on treadmill. left foot tingly at end… shoelaces too tight probably. small blister on left pinky toe. overall felt good
- huge snow storm, may have to skip week day runs this week
- so … i just realized that my table above actually has an extra run early in the training that means the last long run lands on race weekend, which was NOT the plan. i really only have 4 weeks left, not 5. i want to make sure i build up to 12 and have a taper, so next run will be 10. then 12. then we will taper off for 2 with a 10 and then an 8
- for remaining weeks, i want to make sure at least one midweek run is at race pace (8min)
2/19
- had a 5 mile workout today with 3 mile pace workout , had to cut cool down short because m blisters were so bad. left pinky toe and both sides of my big toes were very irritated. i was wearing my hoka skyflows. they do cramp my toes bit, as much as i love the support. i have a pair of injinji toe socks coming so we’ll see if that helps