Hello NYC Half Marathoners!
You’ve got two weeks of training under your belt. Well done. In that time, you’ve already run two very different speed workouts and you’re climbing miles quickly in your long runs. As you continue this trek, you’ll notice how the speed run and easy miles all work together to incrementally build you into a well-rounded athlete. You’re not training to survive the half marathon. You’re training to race it.
This week, you’ll continue the progressive build of the last two weeks—your speed workout will be a little more precise and the long run will be a little longer. It will all look familiar, though—like the next logical step. Then next week, you’ll take your first recovery week. More on that next Sunday, but look forward to some coach-assigned slacking.
Last week, we asked you to move your attention to the feel of the miles—to remove your attention from your watch and instead sink into the sensations and coordination of your body through space and over land. This week, we’re going to ask you to do something totally different.
This week, we’d like you to commit to a rhythm: how often, how far, and how fast. Some of you have already done this; if so, great. But, we know that many of you are just settling into your own personal training cadence. Now that you understand the shape of the week and how it feels in your body, this is the perfect time to claim and commit to the numbers that will come to feel like home:
How often? How many days a week are you running? Get out the calendar, look at your schedule, and be realistic! Consistency is better than peaks and valleys. Your season will go best if you make this practice steady and non-negotiable.
Your number of runs per week 1) should be consistent week-to-week with a potential one day swing: 3-4 days, 4-5 or 5-6, 2) shouldn’t be a big jump: if you’ve previously run 2, run 3. If you’ve previously run 4, run 4-5. 3) should be at least three runs: one speed, one easy/aerobic, and one long.
Pick a number of runs. Commit to days and times. Get in the rhythm.
How far? First, look to the mileage charts on page 7-9 of the Coach + Coffey Half Marathon Plan. In each of these charts, we want you to pay attention to two weeks:
This week of training. This week shouldn't be intimidating. You’re getting in shape, so it may feel hard, but seeing the miles in front if you shouldn't be scary (yet 😈.) We’ll be building every week, so this “ground floor” should feel manageable.
Your “peak” mileage in week 10. If you’ve run a half marathon before, look back at your “peak week”—your highest mileage week—from last season. How far did you run? How did that feel? If you’re ready to move forward, add 10% to that week’s milage, and pick a plan that peaks there.
If you felt good last season and would like to spend another season building consistency, pick a plan that peaks exactly where you peaked before! If you struggled with energy, injury, or illness, then either stay at that mileage and increase your focus on recovery, or pick a plan that takes a 10% step back in peak mileage.
If you haven’t run a half marathon before, this is an experiment! A brave and daring adventure! Go into each week patting yourself on the back for your gumption and allow room for flexibility. You’ve never done this before! Every new distance is a step into is the amazing unknown! Go boldly and also carefully! We suggest committing to a plan that feels conservative. Next time, you’ll come into training with much more data, and a closer relationship with your athletic body.
We say this many times every season: there is no perfect mileage! We have Half Marathoners peaking everywhere between 20 and 100 miles a week. You only need to think about your perfect mileage—a combination of where you’re coming from and what you’re excited by. Your perfect mileage may match one of our plans exactly, or you may be between two plans. Whatever it is, figure it out, put it in the calendar, and get a little rush of butterflies when you imagine yourself on top of that mileage mountain in week 10!
How fast? First, take a look at the Pace Chart on page 6 in the Coach + Coffey Half Marathon Plan. This will give you a 1 minute pace-range for your easy/aerobic runs and a pace for your Tempo runs. I know those can seem overwhelming at first glance, but take a little time and notice how the numbers connect. Do your best to choose one or two lines as “home” paces.
MOST of your miles—between 70-90% of your weekly mileage— should be in your aerobic pace window. This will probably seem surprisingly slow. Most new runners assume that to run Half Marathon Pace on race day they should spend as much time as possible running exactly that pace, thus overdeveloping specific skills while neglecting the fundamental aerobic system. Most new runners make the mistake of running everything too fast, tiring themselves out around midway in the season, and either taking a week off with injury or illness or underperforming on race day. Skip this please!!
Highlight your line(/s) in the pace charts and run your Aerobic and Long runs in the Aerobic range unless otherwise noted. Speed run paces will be at or faster than Marathon pace, and will always be indicated in this weekly post.
How many speed workouts? Most people only need one speed run a week. Why? Most of us are more developed anaerobically (speed! power! muscles!) than we are aerobically (heart and lungs! fluency of movement! ease in effort!) Our modern tendency to confine exercise to an hour-long class in which we work very hard (anaerobically) means that most of us would benefit more from one more easy (aerobic) run per week. I know it’s satisfying to walk home totally spent after speed day, but you’ll find a different kind of satisfaction in the rhythm of stacking up those easy miles. Your heart and lungs will get stronger, your form will gain ease and grace, your blood will suffuse with oxygen, and you’ll watch the seasons change around those easy little aerobic miles.
Who should do a 2nd speed workout? If you’re running at least 5 days a week, if you have a few years of running under your belt, and you’re entirely healthy with no little lingering injury bits, go for it!! Our 2nd weekly workout will always complement the 1st workout by focusing on a different bodily system.
You may do a 2nd speed workout every week or every other week, but you should aim for some version of consistency!
A secret 2nd speed run option: If you’re in NYC, run hills with Tony. Tony’s put together a series of workouts that combine form work and speed in a way that limits totally bodily stress. He’s at his namesake hill in Dumbo @ 7pm on Thursdays more reliably than the moon. I suggest getting a few miles/minutes in before and after to warmup and build out both your aerobic system.
LFG
Coach + Coffey
This week you will run 3-6 times, with 1-2 Speed Run(s) + 1 Long Run
These runs may be done on any days, with two caveats: 1) The Speed Run must be run earlier in the week than the Long Run, and 2) follow the hard-easy-hard principle, which means never run back-to-back hard days. Instead, separate hard (speed or long) runs with at least one easy run or rest day.
This week you’ll take a step forward in mileage! Look to the charts on page 7-9 of the Coach + Coffey Half Marathon Plan for help deciding exactly how much to run. Typically, a good rule of thumb is to increase mileage by 10% per week, but when you’re just getting started that number may need to be a closer to 20%.
Speed Run: 20:00 Tempo + 8 x :30 strides with 1:00 recovery
First, let’s talk about what “Tempo” is and why it’s important: Tempo, Anaerobic Threshold, and Lactic Threshold are different names for similar paces—the pace at which your body SUDDENLY produces more muscular byproduct than it can clean up on the run.
Any slower, you’re primarily using clean-burning oxygen for fuel. Any faster, you’re relying more on muscular power, which produces lactate and hydrogen ions. We measure the lactate, but it’s actually the hydrogen ions that you feel as the heavy, burning, acidic flood during and after a hard effort.
Now, here’s where Tempo Pace comes in: RIGHT between the oxygen-fueled paces (aerobic) and sugar-fueled paces (anaerobic), there’s a “threshold.” Measured in a lab, you’d see the lactate skyrocket right at that speed—not before. In training, running right at that “skyrocket” pace will help teach your body to get better at the clean-up process, and to produce less gunk in the first place. Got it?
Your Tempo pace can only be absolutely determined with fingerpicks in a lab (we wrote about that process here), but it can be closely estimated by its relationship to your Half Marathon Pace. Head to page 6 of the Coach + Coffey Half Marathon plan to find yours.
Method:
1. Run 5-20 minutes of easy warmup running.
2. Do 5-10 optional minutes of dynamic warmups + strides.
3. This workout has 2 parts—Tempo Run + Long Strides.
First, find your Tempo Pace on page 6 of the Coach + Coffey Half Marathon plan. The primary part of this workout is very simple: run 20 minutes averaging Tempo pace. Start about :15 slower, finish about :15 faster, stick as close to that pace as possible for the whole run.
A warning: Tempo runs do funny things to your head. In these 20 minutes you’re going to think three days’ worth of thoughts. The start will feel too slow. Your energy will wax and wane. You’ll doubt yourself. You’ll have lots of good excuses. Somewhere in the middle you’ll feel like you CAN’T run another step and then 30 seconds later you’ll wonder if you should go faster.
Tempo runs are hard because they’re unbroken. You’re lost at sea. You’re thrashing. There are no steps to recenter your brain and body. You’ve got to figure out how to do that on the run. The pace is not that fast but it’s an unrelenting grind. Because of this, Tempo runs are an excellent chance to meet your raceday mind.
My advice: use it. Today is golden. Test out the mental tricks, the mantras, the songs, and the visuals that will help you on race day. Whatever works during the Tempo will work during the Half Marathon. Don’t let this golden opportunity pass.
When you finish, take your time—3-5 minutes—grab a drink, and get to your strides:
These :30 strides should be at 5k pace or faster, with a form focus. That means we want your knees up high, your eyes fixed on the distance, your arms moving powerfully, and your launch phase to PUSH the ground away with the same POP POP POP you applied to the hills last week. By using powerful form after a tempo run, you’ll build a bridge between your fastest form and your fatigued form, and your body will learn to move athletically even while tired. Take 1:00 standing or walking rest between strides.
4. 5-20 minutes easy cooldown running + dynamic cooldown, just like at the start.
Aerobic Runs — 1-4 runs @ 3-9 miles
Find your aerobic pace on page 19 in The noname Program manual. This wide pace range is determined by your prospective Marathon pace, and is the pace at which your system is fueled almost exclusively by aerobic metabolism. That means at this pace your energy comes from an oxygen-based system; any faster and it start to rely on chemical reactions within your muscles, which produce byproducts that are measured by lactate. The majority of your training miles should be run in this aerobic, oxygen-powered pace window. This will develop your body's reliance on oxygen-based metabolism, build out the capillary “infrastructure” for delivering oxygen-rich blood, and coax your body away from the production of leg-burning muscular byproduct.
Put a different way, at this pace your body can both recover from your hard runs and develop your endurance at the same time. Some people refer to these days as recovery runs or easy runs. We like to use the technical term: aerobic—adj, relating to, involving, or requiring free oxygen, to keep at the front of our minds that even though these miles are easy, they are just as purposeful and essential as any speed day.
Optional Tempo — 3-7 mile run incorporating 10 x :15 surges
Experienced runners running at least five days a week may opt for a second speed workout to complement the week's primary workout. This will typically be a Tempo/Threshold-based workout. However, this week requires a different physiological stimulus!
Choose a run length that is typical for you. If a “regular run” is 5 miles, do that. If it’s 3, do that. Begin at Aerobic pace.
After you’re good and warm—at least 1 mile in—simply accelerate smoothly, hold it for 15 seconds, and then decelerate. That’s it! Shifting gears mid-run will require a larger range of muscular and neurological engagement, thus “waking up” your form. The effect will build a more athletic, graceful form over time. You’ll notice when you decelerate back to aerobic pace, your stride will feel a little more athletic and responsive.
You know that hunched, shuffly, grumpy look some runners have? We’re going for NOT that. We’re athletes, we’re dancers, we’re gymnasts and we’re artists; we’re not just here to survive the marathon. We’re here to FLY.
Don’t overthink pace. Your surges can be anywhere between 5k pace and Marathon pace, and it’s best if they’re varied. Notice how the different paces land differently in your body. How do they change your foot contact, your breathing, your posture, your knee lift, and your arm swing? No need to take notes. Just keep your animal ears up, and you’ll develop kinesthetic awareness just by paying attention.
Take at last 1:00 of easy running between surges and try to do them in all different environments: some uphill, some downhill, and some flat. And, if the idea of this stresses you out, just skip it. These are always a good add and never mandatory. Just feel it out.
Cool down 5-20 minutes, depending on your mileage goal for the day.
Long Run — 6-12 miles @ Aerobic Pace
Time for the next step! Just like last week, this will be another 1-2 mile increase. A manageable step. The next logical step. Your body is ready for it. Imagine Half Marathon mountain, way off in the distance. We’re getting there.
Next week will be your first recovery week. You’ll take a step back in long run distance, and that will give your body a chance to catch up on any unrecovered cellular damage. Keep that in the back of your mind.
Today, keep it simple. The pace is Aerobic and the effort should be low. The hardest part will be getting out the door. Prep the ‘fit, prep the playlist, and get it done, you fighter.