Hello Las Vegas 1/2 Marathoners!
Let’s go! The 12 weeks ahead are going to be a ride, so buckle up. Your body and mind are going change, as will the link between the two. Your distinction between mental, physical, and emotional experience will soften. Time and space will gain texture, and feel more malleable. All that sounds grandiose, but it’s true. If you invest the footsteps, you and your relationship with the world will change.
Before we begin, check out the 12-week Coach + Coffey Half Marathon Training Plan. There, you can look ahead to all the workouts we’ll run this season, as well as pace and mileage charts to help you figure out how fast and how far to run every day.
Spend a little time with the plan. Look at how your miles will grow over the next three months. Notice the variety in the speed workouts and the long runs. These specific runs in this incrementally forward-moving pattern are designed to help you race (not survive) 13.1 miles. You were born into an extraordinary machine—lucky, lucky you—now let’s see what it can do.
Every Sunday, you’ll receive an email breaking down the week ahead. It will always follow the Coach + Coffey plan, but with added insight and instruction and cheers and commiseration. Sometimes a skim will do, and sometimes you’ll be hungry for guidance and community. Whatever you need, we’ll be here.
Let’s get started—
This week you will run 3-6 times, with 1-2 Speed Run(s) and 1 Long Run
These runs may be done on any days, with two caveats: 1) The Speed Run should 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.
Speed Run: 3-6 miles. Start at Aerobic Pace + end at Tempo Pace
Method:
1. Run 5-20 minutes of easy warmup running.
2. Do 5-10 optional minutes of dynamic warmups + strides.
3. Consider it a soft launch.
First, decide how long you’ll run: look to pages 7-9 in the Coach + Coffey plan for help, and figure out what mileage model makes sense for you. The amount you choose to run today should feel unintimidating. It should be a distance that feels “normal.” If you were headed out the door on a casual little jaunt, how long would you run? Run that.
Next, figure out your “aerobic” and “tempo” paces using the charts on page 6 of the manual. These charts use your Half Marathon time to determine your training paces. If you haven’t run a half marathon (exciting!) or you’re not quite sure what your current fitness is, guess! Get a range of numbers in your head, and plan on feeling it out. This workout is built for the process of feeling out your pace.
Finally, go run! Start at the slow end of your “Aerobic Pace” range, and over the course of the run sloooowly speed up until you reach “Tempo Pace” for just the final 3-5 minutes.
Your goal here is to make your progression from Aerobic to Tempo pace as smooth as possible. However, because this is your first workout of the season, your actual pace might be completely erratic. That’s ok! You’ll be paying attention and making adjustments and THAT is the point. Your development as a distance runner will come from putting in the miles, attempting paces, and pay attention. That’s it. If you do that, you will improve extraordinarily, because you’ll learn to listen. Your body is always talking to you, sending you messages you might not know how to hear yet. This workout will help turn your senses on.
Finish with 3-10 minutes of easy jogging, and a sweet snack within 20 minutes of finishing
Aerobic Runs — 1-4 runs @ 3-9 miles
One of your primary decisions this week is how many runs to do and how far they should be. Our advice: be conservative. This isn’t the time to reach. Pick an amount that seems doable, and then run those well. Look to pages 7-9 in the Coach + Coffey plan for examples of how the mileage will climb over the course of the season, and examples of how to lay out a week.
If you’re having trouble deciding, look backwards. What did you do last season? If that felt good, either do that again or consider bumping up either the number of runs or their distance—not both.
If you spent last season nursing injuries, experiment with doing less this season. You can either replace a running session with a bike, swim, row, dance, etc workout, or you can devote that time to recovery. Trust your gut here, not your ego.
Long Run — 4-10 miles @ Aerobic Pace
What will make this fun? In future weeks, we’ll get really deliberate about pace. But, for today, what will make this run something to look forward to? Are you running with a crew? A buddy? Are you exploring neighborhoods? Did you make a special playlist? Are you running to a friend’s house, who will make you lunch and celebrate your miles and let you pet their dog?
Sometimes athletes will get annoyed when I veer away from “serious” training talk. But, my friends, this is what PRs are made of. I have run a 15:08 5k and when I could not fathom the day’s run, I would run to my (faster) friend Sally’s apartment to lie on her floor and complain while she made me tea. This bond was at least as strong a part of my training as the stuff in the lab. Figuring out what feels good and how to weave it into your running is training.
In the future, this weekly breakdown will include an optional secondary workout based around threshold pace and strides. This week, hold your horses!