Sub 80 min Half Marathon Support

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Dave Kelly Mar 2015 5:50pm, 26 Mar 2015 45 posts	0 Dave Kelly Great running Chris and Duck
Huntsman Mar 2015 6:34pm, 26 Mar 2015 1,574 posts	0 Huntsman Great running Dave.
paul0 Mar 2015 3:33pm, 28 Mar 2015 85 posts	0 paul0 I'm running at White Horse tomorrow. After two months of what can only be described as mediocre training following my success at Wokingham, it's going to be an interesting experience in how much time can you lose in two months :/ I fear it may be quite a lot.
The Duckinator Mar 2015 8:27pm, 29 Mar 2015 1,205 posts	0 The Duckinator Hope today went well paul Excellent improvement Dave, what would you attribute to such a breakthrough? Ran 32:59 at the Road Relays today, 5.8M on the anchor leg, effectively solo the whole way. Tough, tough run with the field so spread out, PO10 has predictably crashed so I can't see what other 33:00 runners have done in other races. 73M for this week, with 9.2M @ 6:30/m on Tuesday as well in a long tempo.
Dave Kelly Mar 2015 12:20pm, 30 Mar 2015 48 posts	0 Dave Kelly Fantastic running MPH well done on an epic performance. Duck - I think it comes down to mileage and upping the pace of my long runs. Last year I was running all my long runs at around 7:17 pace. This year all my long runs have been run at 6:45 pace up to 24 miles. Mostly on hilly training runs. I have also made a conscious effort to keep my mileage at at least 40 miles per week all year and increase to 55mpw during marathon training. Still not particularly high mileage, but it appears to be working
MPH Mar 2015 12:45pm, 30 Mar 2015 781 posts	0 MPH Dave, so did you set the half time off VLM training? I hope to be at VLM next year and use last years sub 3 for my GFA qualification. I've also averaged around 55mpw, for my half focus (no long run past 16 miles this year), peaking around 65 which seemed very manageable. As I head into winter, I hope to be nudging 70-80mpw, and take that into London. Never been that high before, but much more consistent past few years, so feels doable.
paul0 Mar 2015 11:29am, 31 Mar 2015 86 posts	0 paul0 That's interesting Dave. I can definitely see the benefit of keeping the mileage up all year. Otherwise when a training block comes round again it takes a long time just to get to a condition where you can start to properly build a base. I have to say, I find the pace you ran your long-runs sounds a bit fast to me. But it's clearly working for you! White Horse was an 'interesting' experience at the weekend. It was by far the windiest race I've ever run. This was further evidence by the fact that a small group of us were very nearly taken out by a MASSIVE trampoline that got blown right in front of us at mile 4. So time was pretty much irrelevant but I finished with a 1:26. Can't really be happy with the time, even given the conditions, but on the plus side felt I finished relatively strong, and felt I had a bit of pace in the few sheltered areas.
Dave Kelly Mar 2015 5:19pm, 31 Mar 2015 49 posts	0 Dave Kelly Yes MPH the half was off the back of VLM training. Paul - I have been following Pfitzinger Advanced Marathoning, and in the last 12 months my pace for distances up to half have definitely improved. I'm sort of working on the premise that if I want to run a faster marathon then I need to train a little faster. I've also been trying to utilise more body fat by running my long runs faster as fasting runs without any gels. This theoretically will teach my body to burn fat at higher speeds and hopefully extend the point at which my body starts to run out of fuel. I guess it's a balance of ensuring that I feel recovered for the key workouts of the week and that they are all of the correct quality. My plan has me running a 20, a 22 and a 24 - all of which are done now. I have got to each of my long runs and finished at MP around 6:10 to 6:15 with the first 5 miles around 7:00 to 7:15 pace. More importantly I've finished really strong knowing that I could happily run the same or faster up to the marathon distance. Unfortunately I had to take 5 days off over the last week due to a heavy cold, but I'm hoping this wont impact my fitness or marathon prep too much
paul0 Apr 2015 1:38pm, 1 Apr 2015 87 posts	0 paul0 Interesting stuff Dave. I agree with almost all of it, except I've still found that for me, runs at a comfortable pace are sufficient to make a big difference (my sub-80 came off the back of focusing on running 5 x 10 miles a week all at a comfortable pace. That said, I completely agree with the rest of it, for marathons I've also found training on little food and few gels to be beneficial (and often more comfortable), as are a few long runs of up to 24 and some faster finishes (or finishing a long-run with a fartlek five miles). I'm sure 5 days won't make much difference Dave.
James74 Apr 2015 2:23pm, 1 Apr 2015 1,269 posts	0 James74 Some great training going on and great points. This years campaign for VLM for me, has seen my long runs quicker than last year,hoping it makes a difference.