Hello Las Vegas Half Marathoners!
Rested? Refreshed? Excited and nervous for what’s ahead? Perfect.
This week will begin our most Half Marathon-specific 3 week block of the season. You’ve spent the last seven weeks preparing all the tissues of your body and all the corners of your mind for these miles. Now you’re ready.
You’ve put in time at 12 different paces, from Aerobic to 5k pace (and faster!) You’ve run workouts that felt like flight, and others where gravity came rolling back in. Both will serve you. You’ve run so many miles in so many conditions, and all of them have worked together to contribute to the athlete you are today.
You’re strong. You’re smart. You’re ready.
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 10% step forward in mileage! This jump should be based on your previous season high. Keep in mind that will likely mean a 30% jump from last week. 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: 21:00 in-and-out tempo + 4 x :15 easy strides
We’re back to laying brick. This week, we’re returning to Tempo pace, a cornerstone in any marathon program. To refresh: Tempo, aka Anaerobic Threshold, Threshold, or Lactic Threshold, is the pace right before your body becomes overwhelmed by muscular byproduct. Any slower, you’re running primarily on clean-burning oxygen (aerobically) and can keep up with clearing out trickles of muscular byproduct. Any faster, it’s relying heavily on dirty-burning (anaerobic) chemical reactions within the muscles, which will produce byproducts that force you to slow.
The exact pace at which your body “switches” from an aerobic to an anaerobic “zone” is very unique to you, and you’d only be able to get a precise number with a finger prick test that measures blood lactate accumulation. The number your watch gives you is an estimate, and the number you’ll find in The noname Program manual is also an estimate. A third way to estimate the number is to run a 60-minute race—the pace you can hold for a 1 hour max effort is another good estimation. Your precise number will likely be a triangulation between those three numbers.
OR…you can vibe it. Tempo pace should feel strong and controlled. It’s faster than Marathon Pace, but not a reach. It’s an in-between pace. It may feel awkward at first, then easy, then suddenly way too hard about 15 minutes in. The more practice you get at this pace, the more apparent it will be when you “click in” to it. It’s not as difficult, as glamorous, or as fun to post on social media as the really fast reps, but it is perhaps the most efficient work you can do to become a more fluid long distance runner. It’s the quiet work that makes us strong.
Method:
Run 5-20 minutes of easy warmup running.
Do 5-10 optional minutes of dynamic warmups + strides.
This is a continuous 21 minute run. No stopping! Use the chart in The noname Program manual (or any of the above techniques) to identify your Tempo Pace. Start with 3 minutes :10-:15 slower than Tempo Pace. Then, transition smoothly to 3 minutes :10-:15 faster than Tempo pace. Alternate paces for the length of the 21:00 workout.
If your Tempo pace is 10:00, you might run 3:00 @ 10:15 pace, then 3:00 @ 9:50, 3:00 @ 10:10, 3:00 @ 9:45, 3:00 @ 10:10, 3:00 @ 9:50. Like a wave. Got it?
This Tempo variation helps “tease” down your Threshold by introducing your body to brief periods of slight overwhelm and relief. Moving back and forth between these adjacent paces will also train your feel of pace and cultivate a closer relationship with effort
Finish with 4 very easy :15 strides with complete recovery. These are just short periods of slightly faster running, which will force a larger range of motion and create a sort of internal massage. Take as much rest between them as you like.
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 —
Experienced runners running at least four days a week may opt for a second speed workout. This workout will always complement the primary Tuesday speed workout. This week, because your primary Tuesday workout is at Tempo/Threshold pace, you have a different stimulus:
Within a run that reaches your mileage goal for the day, incorporate 4-6 miles at Marathon Pace. After at least a half mile warmup, accelerate into Marathon Pace and hold it, then cool down at least half a mile. Simple!
Why are you running Marathon Pace in a Half Marathon program? Because “pace” is almost always a stand in for “zone.” Your Marathon Pace is right around your Aerobic Threshold (not your Anaerobic Threshold), which is the pace at which your body starts to collect a little trickle of measurable byproduct. Training at this pace will help your body clear lactate more efficiently at all paces.
Long Run — 9-15 miles @ Aerobic Pace
Let’s gooooooo!!!!!
You’re ready. I’m not worried about that. But this day requires that you nail the logistics—fitness is not enough. As much as possible, use this as a dress rehearsal for the marathon:
Hydrate and fuel well all week. Do something fun and relaxing the night before. Pack your bag and lay out your clothes before you go to bed. Get a good night’s sleep. Wake up with plenty of extra time. Test out your pre-race breakfast. Be diligent with your gels.
This will be an adventure. You’re nervous. That’s good. Feel what you’re feeling. It’s evidence that you care, and it’s excellent practice for feeling and handling nerves on race day.
From now until the Half Marathon, everything you do is an experiment: the music you wake up to, the clothes on your back, what you eat and drink, and the things you tell yourself. Take full advantage of this opportunity: mimic every element you can in terms of food, water, music, mantras, feelings, timing, etc, etc, etc. and take notes on what works and what isn’t. Then, recognize that there will be elements you can’t control, both this week and in the race—that’s when you’ll practice gracefully letting them roll off your back. You’re prepared.
9-15 miles is a big range, what should you do?
You should run 1-2 miles longer than your previous longest run this season.
We suggest everyone running more than 1:30 today take gels! Your body carries enough glycogen to fuel about 1:30 of sustained effort, so after that you need to fuel as you go. We’ll go into more detail next week. For now, plan on taking at least 60 grams (240 calories) of carbs per hour—we suggest taking a gel every 30 minutes for all runs longer than 1:30.