Half Marathon Training Spring 2024

[xsquared]

The other thread got full, so I'm starting a new one to keep us motivated.

How is everyone doing?

Went out earlier today for a 8 mile run, when it was a little drizzly, but then got completely soaked as Storm Babette did their stuff! I'm still glad to have got out though.

Since completing GNR 2023, I've been training for a 10 mile race next month with Hal Higdon, as well as running 2 of the XC fixtures for my club.

I found out earlier this week that I got a place at a HM race in January 2024 through the new ballot system, so I will start training for that soon.

Well done @brooksghost! Fantastic work!

@gm2023 hope you are feeling better.

I have the dreaded Covid, so not running this weekend. Have been out for a stomp somewhere quiet where I knew I wasn't likely to bump into many people in lieu of parkrun just to work off some energy.

It was my birthday this week and one of my gifts was a massage gun. Oh my goodness, hours of fun to come I think, now that I have worked out how to switch it on!

Getting there now! I tried running yesterday but I stopped to cross a road and couldn’t get going again. In the end I gave up and walked. But I was happy to cover just over 5km (mostly walking, if I’m honest) despite feeling less than stellar. I’ll try again in the morning in the hope I can keep up with my beginners’ running group next week. Even though I completed Couch to 5K in preparation I find they run faster than I do (I am very slow, I think) so I am fretting about falling behind if I don’t practise. How is Covid affecting you? Happy belated birthday too!

Did an 8 mile run this morning - am
doing a 10 mile race in a couple of weeks time and then the half marathon 3 weeks after that.

Not sure what time I’d like to do the half marathon in. Last time I did one it took about 2:45 and I walked quite a bit and didn’t enjoy it. Would like to do 2:30 and maybe a bit faster….

Afternoon
Is it too late to join? I'm running a half at beginning of March.
Completed my first last September so looking to do a quicker time.
Currently up to 10miles on my long run but a bit derailed this week as have been sick.

Welcome @FlorencenotRatchet! Sorry to hear you've not been well but it sounds like you're in great shape for March.

And you're racking up the long runs @MirandaWest. I'd imagine you'd shave a fair bit off your last time between the training and having the HM experience under your belt.

Sorry you're poorly too @OhOneOhTwoOhThree and @gm2023

That is simply amazing @brooksghost - that's a massive chunk off of time at your pace. It's really encouraging me to revisit the HR plans for my autumn half(s) - entered the whole family for GNR and Royal Parks!

I've been toddling along with my C25K and been enjoying it. This month should be a lot less travelling for work so it'll be easier to fit in. I'm still working on Flow too. I took my dog to parkrun yesterday - he was so lazy on the hills but went like the clappers when we saw the finish funnel

Well done @brooksghost , that's a huge chunk to shave off your time! Sub 20 is unimaginable for me but after my half I'm going to aim for speeding up my 5k and 10k times - hoping the long slow runs will be helping.

This weekend I did my first 10 mile run and really enjoyed it. Lovely weather, went out with only half a plan in mind to see how I felt, first mile was tough but i plodded on and ended up feeling great. As mentioned in previous posts, I've been having stomach issues so I did take an Imodium beforehand which did the job. Now to work out a couple of longer routes!

I know we're supposed to fuel/ hydrate on long runs - does anyone else find this really difficult? I've never drunk anything on a run, tried a jelly baby at about mile 9 and it nearly choked me.

@brooksghost wow, that's amazing, well done! And it's definitely going to motivate me to make more of an effort to stay in Zone 2 when I'm supposed to be on easy runs 😆

Made it back to running club, where I am now up to running 2.5 miles at 12 min/mile pace with only a handful of 30 second walking breaks. I am a good minute a mile faster running with others than I am by myself (13 min/mile feels about right for me at the moment). Really have a lot of work to do over the next few months to get to running a half-marathon in October but happy with progress so far. I am half-way through my beginners’ course now! 0 to half-marathon in a year is a little bit ridiculous but I think I’ll get there, although I suspect it’ll be by a combination of running and walking. I’ve popped 3h15m as my predicted finish time (thank you all for your advice about this!) but I am still hoping to do it alongside the 3 hour pacer. Following a 2h45m pacer would be amazing but I’m not sure I’ll get to that level this year. There’s always future races…!

@gm2023 sounds like great progress! And like you have a solid plan to work on. Group runs are great for staying motivated.

On the plan today was an easy run of 7k - I made a concerted effort to try to stay in Zone 2 so it took me a total of ... 1 hour and 23 minutes! I'm not sure I really have time to do Zone 2 for my easy and long runs like I'm supposed to. I'm due to run 14.5k this weekend - I'll need to set aside nearly 3 hours at that rate.

I think the fact that I run at 1100m altitude for my lunchtime runs must have an effect on heart rate, but not really sure whether I should change anything because of that.

I ordered some Skins recovery leggings off Sportsshoes, so maybe they will magically make me faster ...

First run out following my sickness.
7.5k done this week.
Find it harder to run in the dark, pavements are so bad petrified of falling flat on my face.
Hope everyone else's training is going well.

@Ponks I find fuelling hard too! I have to have a proper stop, and have a drink and a snack, rather than trying to do it on the hoof. My usual routine is to park at the start of my long run, run 30 mins in one direction, run back to the car and have a snack/drink, then run in the opposite direction and back again.

I do find my long runs are a lot better if I eat something during them, so worth losing those few minutes. Have never found any gels which don’t make me want to poo myself, but am getting on well with the chews by a company called Precision which are a bit gentler.

@Trickedbyadoughnut how are you setting your HR zones? The reason I ask is because I followed an 80/20 HR-based plan last year from a book. Matt Fitzgerald I think. And the way he suggested to calculate your zones was different to how my Garmin does. They were higher so my zone 2 was more manageable, I ended up walking to keep in zone 2 once when I hadn't realised my watch had reset.

@chutneypig I own that book already so I'll take a look! I'm also going to dig out my Garmin HR chest strap to see if that works, as I was just using my watch (although it gets a decent review of HR accuracy on DC Rainmaker's review). I have POTS which I always wonder if that somehow throws the HR calculations off.

But I am very slow and 5kg overweight, so it could just be that!

@Trickedbyadoughnut I just had a look back at the first thread and my zone 2 runs from that plan were 139- 151 bpm. It's set to the default for my Garmin now and zone 2 is 115-133. I used the last 10 minutes of a parkrun to determine my max HR, some of the other methods seemed very complicated.

I'm 5 or 6 runs into the HM training. I'm slightly surprised it took me right back to 30 min runs, but maybe I needed to do that. Telling myself to trust the process.

Heart rate zones are a mystery to me, I just can't see how to run in Zone 2 - it would be walking, and quite slowly, never running. I wouldn't mind walk breaks, but I would be walking the whole time.

@CatherineMaitland it does feel strange at first. The only plan I've followed on that is the one I mentioned, so the zone is a little higher in terms of HR but it was my most comfortable half by far, I felt very strong until about the last mile. A distinct improvement on most! My pace didn't improve massively but I'm very encouraged by @brooksghost experience on that side. So I'm definitely going down that route for my autumn half(s).

I guess your general pace does impact - I'm on the slower side. I remember hearing some friends at work discussing how difficult it was to keep 8 minute miles as their easy run - I wish

If I had one 8 minute mile I’d be over the moon! I am
quicker than I used to be but 8 minute miles are not something that’s about to happen

@chutneypig I think, unless you have a heart rate monitor, it's so easy to say runs are easy...and then you see the data on Strava and it's all zone 4!
My neighbour is training for a marathon; all their runs have been zone 4...I've no idea how that'll go when they start having to ramp up the miles. The fatigue after must be immense and the recovery must take ages.

Looks like I'm back into HM training. I've just signed up to one at the end of April. It's a trail course that I've done before

a few years back.

I've been 10k training and completed my plan with a pb at the weekend. DH has been 5k training, but his plan has extended milage so it's been quite compatible and he helped me with the pacing as there wasn't a suitable event to sign up to and it's hard to push something like that solo. It's a hell of a lot easier tagging behind 6ft of man, people actually move out of his way!

I went for 10k to keep a base over the winter and it suits winter weather routes. It's also a boost to my stamina for faster parkruns. It's left me in a good position to pick up longer milage as spring approaches.

I'm just in a bit of a rut this week as I rested for a couple of days and have now ended up with poorly child house arrest, plus today we're on that annoying cusp of the weather not knowing if it's raining or snowing which is somewhat grim.

Next XC tomorrow. Feel a bit nervous as it's been over two months since the last, and the next two def ramp up the hills. The first three were hot on the heels of each other so got in a swing with it. I did a short easy run Monday, three days off, which I enjoyed immensely, so much so that it was an effort to get out for a shakeout this evening. Legs felt awful!
I think a few of us are on the daily yoga thread, how are you finding it? I have noticed I def have fewer niggles such as sore glutes or hamstring issues that a lot of my XC team are complaining of. I am putting this down to the regular stretching which I never ever do properly post run.

Zone 4 can't be sustainable for a marathon, the accumulated effort has got to be counterproductive.

Congrats on the PB @BogRollBOGOF - what a great way to kick off the HM prep.

Good luck today @Jumbojem. I've not done Adriene every day but some yoga most days. I feel far more balanced running and my posture generally is better. It's my cardiovascular side letting me down, so I hope I'll reap the benefits from the yoga and strength work when that improves.

I didn't feel great yesterday so I decided to do my easy run very slowly and really try to stay in zone 2. (talked to myself as a conversation test, luckily I didn't go past anyone). I think I did it for about half the run, but after it my watch said: Room to Grow instead of Good Job. Hmph.

My body doesn't like zone 2 and just seems to by-pass it.

Gentle movement like yoga or mooching around doesn't even register as exercise (I have a resting HR in the high 40s). Brisk walking is hard to push into zone 1. Running seems to by-pass to zones 3-4, yet i can still chat comfortably. My marathon training runs were mainly zone 3 which involved a min/km off my regular pace and jeffing so the walk breaks brought it down every couple of minutes.

I've had a good parkrun today. I was fresh after an easy week, went with the flow, found it was a fast one, stuck with it. 2% was zones 1,2,3, 20% in zone 4 and 74% in zone 5. I was working but still comfortable until 4km in when I had more in the tank and decided to push it and got into steam train breathing mode. Heart rate reached 181bpm.

The only way I get in zone 2 is in cool down mode if I keep jogging a bit to keep it up.

Hi all, I did just under 10 miles today and treated it as a slow long run. Looked at my stats and I was mostly in Zone 4 too. I'm now sure how I could slow it down anymore. I'd probably be just fast walking if I did!

I'm planning on entering Southampton Half in early April and have a couple of 10ks in the diary before now and then to tide me over.

I love coming on here and seeing all your updates. It really helps keep me motivated!

Whoop, 11 mile long run today, and I just missed the rain. Mentally it's getting tough with these long runs, I was nervous beforehand (woke up in the night worrying about whether I could run for 2 hours) but fine when I got going.

The last couple of miles were hard as my energy went out of my legs - but then I'd had nothing to eat as I ran before breakfast- I really need to work out how to get a bit of fuel in me during the run.

What a brilliant feeling of achievement though to have got an 11 miler under my belt - 5 weeks before the half marathon.

Hope everyone else has been having a good weekend.