Brooklyn Half Marathoners,
We know you’re feeling the pull of the start line. Stay cool. Stay the course. This week will represent your highest mileage week of the season. It will contain a fast speed workout, and it will end with your longest long run. It’s a big week.
It’s also just another small step forward. If you’ve been keeping up with the majority of your runs in this cycle, you’re ready. All those small steps have added up to some serious distance. You’re ready for this week, and in 3 weeks you’ll be ready to run the NYC Half.
Our advice for this week: get it done, do a good job, but don’t try for home runs. Just do a solid job. Add to your growing body of work. Endurance training is about accumulated efforts applied in a sophisticated pattern informed by your body’s biology. It’s not about getting scared and running brutal workouts “for confidence.”
Look back in your watch. Scroll back through your plan. Think back to all the miles invested and the hard decisions made. Each one made an almost-imperceptible impact on your strength, grit, and your partnership with your body. Together, they have changed you. You know they have. Get your confidence from that.
Now, let’s put the finishing touches on that genius animal machine.
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 your last 10% 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.
Speed Run: 8-12x400 @ 10k→5k pace with 1:00 rest
Method:
Run 5-20 minutes of easy warmup running.
Do 5-10 optional minutes of dynamic warmups + strides.
Run 8-12x400 @ 10k->5k pace with 1:00 static recovery. Let’s break this down:
Ideally, you’ll do your first few reps at 10k pace, your last few reps at 5k pace, and the reps between them progressing smoothly between the two. If you don’t know your 10k or 5k time, guess! How fast could you run for an all-out 6 or 3 miles? Getting it exactly right is truly not important. Even pro runners will just feel out efforts when they’re not sure what kind of shape they’re in. The important thing is that you start a little slower, end a little faster, and run hard.
I’m going to say that again: You can work hard today. Oftentimes half marathoners will do so many aerobic miles that they’ll feel stuck in those slower paces. Easy miles are very important—they’re the ones that develop your respiratory and circulatory systems, and they should make up most of your weekly miles—but these muscular speed days will translate that base strength to fast times. That being said, running this fast when your body has found a home in the slower paces can feel hard, weird, and out-of-control. That’s ok! Do them anyway! Leap! Your body will learn to run fast by running fast!
That doesn’t mean go all-out from the start—there are still 8-12 reps, and the rest is just 1:00. Start at 10k pace, get a rhythm for a couple reps, and then start working down. Then, after 4, start experimenting. If you go too fast, you can just slow down for the next one. By really chasing speed today, you’ll unlock a new ease in your marathon pace.
If you’re not sure how many reps to run, we suggest you opt for 8. You’ve had lots of great work at Tempo paces, so this is a good chance to really refine speed.
On rest: It’s just 1:00. Stick to that. If you really overreach on a rep, extend it to as much as 1:30, but then get right back on the 1:00 rests. During your rest, stop, walk, or jog—whatever helps you feel prepped for the next interval.
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 6 in Coach + Coffey Half Marathon Program. 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 — 6-9 mile progression run, starting at Aerobic Pace and finishing at Goal Half Marathon Pace.
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.
You did a shorter version of this workout five weeks ago. Time for a step up! To find your paces, head to the pace charts on page 6 of the Coach + Coffey Half Marathon Training Plan. Note your Aerobic Pace Window and your Half Marathon Pace.
Start with at least 5 minutes at a very easy Aerobic Pace. Then, over the course of a “normal run” distance—anywhere from 6-9 miles—eeeeassssseeee on the gas. Make each half mile slightly faster than the last, until you hit Half Marathon Pace for just the last .5-1 mile.
You may be tempted to run faster today to “prove fitness.” Don’t! Time in each “microzone” between Marathon and Half Marathon Pace will help your body learn fluency in and through these paces, and strengthen your body’s abilities at the cellular, tissue, and mechanical level. Your goal today: be cool, even if it doesn’t feel as easy as you’d like.
Cool down 5-20 minutes, depending on your mileage goal for the day.
Long Run — 10-16 miles @ Aerobic Pace with 12x 1:00 surges in 2nd half
It’s time for your longest long run!!
You know what you’re doing out there. Use this run as a dress rehearsal for Half Marathon morning: hydrate, have an early night, get up with plenty of time, have a good breakfast, plan a nice route and an excellent post-run brunch. Iron out all the race-day minutia: wear your race-day clothes, your race day shoes (unless you’re wearing super-shoes, in which case, stick to trainers today), and get your hydration and nutrition nailed down.
10-16 miles is a big range, what should you do?
You should run 1-2 miles longer than your longest run so far this season.
We suggest everyone take gels today! Your body typically carries enough glycogen to fuel about 1:30 of sustained effort, so after that you need to fuel as you go. Plan on taking 60-90 grams of carbs, 500-1000mg of salt (electrolytes), and 16-30oz of water per hour—we suggest you take a gel + water every 30 minutes to accomplish these amounts.
On surges: this week you’ll run 12 surges, each 1:00 long. Each one should be a smooth acceleration out of Aerobic pace, followed by a smooth deceleration back into Aerobic pace. These will help “freshen up” your form and keep your moving athletically and efficiently. The exact placement, pace, and the time between each is up to you. Don’t overthink it.