Question:
The general advice I've seen on
websites is that one is ready for
a distance race when his training
"long" run is somewhat
shorter than the race distance,
say ten miles for a half-marathon.
Based on this advice I'm ready to
attempt the half-marathon. But,
this seems to be counter- intuitive.
Baseball hitters
practice swinging with weighted
bats so that when they step up to
the plate the regulation bat seems
lighter. Is it really sound to attempt
a race that is some 30% longer than
one's longest training run? Logically,
I would think it makes sense to
train at longer distances than the
race. Then, when it comes to the
real thing you've routinely and
regularly done that distance and
feel comfortable with it.
ere I come, but should I go for
13 miles a couple of weeks
Answer:
There are a few "rules of thumb"
for long runs. Long runs should
not be more than 1/3 of your weekly
mileage. Long runs shouldn't be
done more than once per week. The
last long run before a race shouldn't
be closer than 2 weeks away. For
races less than marathon length,
begining runners should run 2 or
3 runs of 66% to 100% of the race
distance during the 8 weeks before
the event.
Over-distance
training (a training run that is
longer than your goal event distance)
is OK for events shorter than the
half-marathon. But for beginners,
anything longer than half-marathon
distance requires too much recovery
time to make it a productive training
run. You are also increasing your
chances of getting injured by running
too long of a distance.
You don't
have a whole lot of time to train
for this event. So I'd suggest just
getting in a "time on your
feet" run, no closer than 2
weeks before the event. That means
that you wouldn't run at your half
marathon pace, just run for the
length of time that you think it
will take you to complete a half-marathon.
Your 22:51
5K suggests that you could run a
half-marathon in about 1:46, which
is about an 8:06/mi pace. Of course,
this implies that you've been doing
training that is appropriate for
the half-marathon, such as long
runs, tempo runs, weekly mileage.
But since you haven't been doing
that and your goal is simply to
run the distance without stopping
or walking, then you should probably
plan on a 2 hour finish time and
just have fun.
For your
next race after the half, you might
consider following a more structured
plan. A good place to start is with
Bob Glover's book "The New
Competitive Runners Handbook."
