Half Marathon Plan or Continue as I am?

Base your starting mileage off of what you think you can handle for your peak week (or two). If you think you can tack on another twenty or so miles and still be holding up fine, you could start where you're at. But depending on your experience, you may get more benefits from cutting your mileage initially and introducing more race specificity/lactate threshold/speed training.

I'm sure Hal has something worth while.

what about an intermediate program?

In the meantime I would sure keep your base up, September is a great time for running!

Although yes sometimes starting a program that looks easy at first (lower mileage) is good because you can complete every one of your workouts vs being too ambitious and having to back off or even get injured.

I would work backwards for the plan and take into consideration of the boredom/burn out of long training cycle.

To up the training level a little, depending on your overall plan and training ability, you may want to customize an existing program especially Hal's cause his plan starts very conservatively to allow folks who don't consistently train to build up, which is not your case.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Base your starting mileage off of what you think you can handle for your peak week (or two). If you think you can tack on another twenty or so miles and still be holding up fine, you could start where you're at.

Mike, sorry but I don't quite follow you here. Could you elaborate please?

ounce wrote:I'm sure Hal has something worth while.

Yes, he does and his Novice plan definitely appeals to me. I was thinking about modifying it just slightly, maybe at the beginning an increassing the length of the longest run by a couple of miles.

Julie wrote:what about an intermediate program?

In the meantime I would sure keep your base up, September is a great time for running!

Although yes sometimes starting a program that looks easy at first (lower mileage) is good because you can complete every one of your workouts vs being too ambitious and having to back off or even get injured.

I would like to avoid speed work right now because that is how I blew out my shins last time I trained for a half. I'll entertain an intermediate program for my next half, but maybe I could borrow the long run distances from an intermediate plan. I will take at look at some of those.

Jerry wrote:I would work backwards for the plan and take into consideration of the boredom/burn out of long training cycle.

To up the training level a little, depending on your overall plan and training ability, you may want to customize an existing program especially Hal's cause his plan starts very conservatively to allow folks who don't consistently train to build up, which is not your case.

Good suggestion! Thanks! Maybe I'll work backwards and blend a program into my current mileage. If I "plateau" awhile with my "long" runs being 8-10 miles, that will let me get pretty comfortable at that distance which is probably a good thing. I'll be sure to build in some decent step-back weeks too... coming off an injury I want to be smart. If I DNS again I will be heart-broken.

I would think you could find an intermediate program without speedwork. I just meant don't start a program that is way too easy, there is not a big point in that, unless it's strictly to avoid injury risk.

Are you injury free right now? What is your weekly mileage like? Are you training for anything now or just running and then will start training in Oct for this relay?

Essentially what Jerry said. I think it's... Hudson? who recommends you start your plan by designing your peak week (or two, if you're doing 2 peak weeks) and working backwards from there. Since you'll likely be ramping up mileage during your cycle, you need to figure out how many miles you think you can handle for your peak and subtract accordingly to get to your first week. That mileage number may be higher, lower, or the same as your current weekly mileage.

Example (purely hypothetical):
Say you wanted to peak at 65 miles. A very conservative build would be an average of 2mi/week, or 18-22 miles total, depending on your taper length (9-10 build weeks + 2-3 taper weeks). In that case, your first week would be 43-47 miles. Then design your plan accordingly.

I think Mike means that if you build consistently up until starting the training cycle and still feel like you can add 20 miles/week to whatever that number is, then go that route. If you're not comfortable with that, back off a bit at the start of the cycle and work from there.

If I was you, what I might think about is using an intermediate program, but just substitute an easy run for speed days. However, so you don't get stale by running slow all the time, I'd throw in a fartlek here and there and some strides or hill sprints at least once a week.

Julie wrote:I would think you could find an intermediate program without speedwork. I just meant don't start a program that is way too easy, there is not a big point in that, unless it's strictly to avoid injury risk.

Are you injury free right now? What is your weekly mileage like? Are you training for anything now or just running and then will start training in Oct for this relay?

I am injury free right now, but I am just coming out of the injury. By that I mean the area still sometimes feels weak or that it has been worked but it's been a few months since I've felt the pain of the injury itself.

As for right now, I am running every second day (because of shift work and this seems to work well with giving my shins nough recoevry time) and am not training for anything in particular, just running for the sheer delight of being able to again and I am also trying to get my mileage up again. My longest run during this comeback has been 8 miles so far and I am running around 20 miles a week, sometime a few miles less. I am kind embarrassed to share my low-mileage with everyone, but I'll get there. Just give me time.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Essentially what Jerry said. I think it's... Hudson? who recommends you start your plan by designing your peak week (or two, if you're doing 2 peak weeks) and working backwards from there. Since you'll likely be ramping up mileage during your cycle, you need to figure out how many miles you think you can handle for your peak and subtract accordingly to get to your first week. That mileage number may be higher, lower, or the same as your current weekly mileage.

Example (purely hypothetical):
Say you wanted to peak at 65 miles. A very conservative build would be an average of 2mi/week, or 18-22 miles total, depending on your taper length (9-10 build weeks + 2-3 taper weeks). In that case, your first week would be 43-47 miles. Then design your plan accordingly.

Thank you for the example. It all makes perfect sense. The only thing that's up in the air is how much I think my body can handle; never been there before so I have no idea. What would be a reasonable half marathon peak weekly mileage for a novice/intermediate runner or is that too hard to specify?

mul21 wrote:I think Mike means that if you build consistently up until starting the training cycle and still feel like you can add 20 miles/week to whatever that number is, then go that route. If you're not comfortable with that, back off a bit at the start of the cycle and work from there.

If I was you, what I might think about is using an intermediate program, but just substitute an easy run for speed days. However, so you don't get stale by running slow all the time, I'd throw in a fartlek here and there and some strides or hill sprints at least once a week.

Sounds good! I have already been doing some fartleks and my shins in particular have responded well to this kind of running. I will look at some intermediate programs and see what I can come up with. I'll probably modify them a little.

When I came back from a stress fracture my whole attitude about running changed to one of "grateful to be able to be doing it at all!" For a long time I only ran every other day, so I understand where you are coming from. 20 miles a week on 3-4 days a week is great!

mul21 wrote:I think Mike means that if you build consistently up until starting the training cycle and still feel like you can add 20 miles/week to whatever that number is, then go that route. If you're not comfortable with that, back off a bit at the start of the cycle and work from there.

If I was you, what I might think about is using an intermediate program, but just substitute an easy run for speed days. However, so you don't get stale by running slow all the time, I'd throw in a fartlek here and there and some strides or hill sprints at least once a week.

I agree with Jim, I think that a modified intermediate plan will work great for you. Especially if you have/are building a good base up prior to your training cycle start.

Peg Coover wrote:When I came back from a stress fracture my whole attitude about running changed to one of "grateful to be able to be doing it at all!" For a long time I only ran every other day, so I understand where you are coming from. 20 miles a week on 3-4 days a week is great!

Thanks Peg! I'm feeling pretty darn good these days.

Nick Morris wrote:

mul21 wrote:I think Mike means that if you build consistently up until starting the training cycle and still feel like you can add 20 miles/week to whatever that number is, then go that route. If you're not comfortable with that, back off a bit at the start of the cycle and work from there.

If I was you, what I might think about is using an intermediate program, but just substitute an easy run for speed days. However, so you don't get stale by running slow all the time, I'd throw in a fartlek here and there and some strides or hill sprints at least once a week.

I agree with Jim, I think that a modified intermediate plan will work great for you. Especially if you have/are building a good base up prior to your training cycle start.

Thanks Nick! From everyone's feedback I think that is what I will do. I found one last night that I liked how the mileage was laid out, and I'll just tweak it a little.