Half Marathon Training: Speed vs. Distance?

[gnomad]

So I was going about my business when my local running club's weekly email popped into my mailbox and announced that it was starting to take registrations for its 2011 half and full marathon training programs. I am curious about the half distance (it no longer feels so far!) but I am also still a slow runner and would like to work on getting my speed up.

I was wondering if you folks have experience with half-marathon programs and what I could expect out of one. Specifically, would training for a half be beneficial for increasing speed or would I just be working on plodding along for 13.1 miles without much focus on how long it was taking me to get there?

Comments

[lightgetsin]

*chants* I will not run a half marathon with gnomad, I will not, I will not.

[gnomad]

But, ok, see. The part that got me was that for $80 (or $60 + club membership) you get a personalized training program and a coach to whom you can whine about slowness and they will make a training plan with that in consideration. *flails* No more 1 hour workouts that people expect are 10Ks! Plus, I am heartened to see that I totally fit the baseline criteria: running 9-12 miles a week and able to run 3 miles without stopping. Their "slow" pace is a little fast for me (long, conversational runs at 12 min/mi), but it doesn't start until December so it's possible I'll be doing or close to doing 12 min/mi without having to push much by then anyway.

*forwards you the email*

[afrikate]

So, um, maybe you could forward this to me as well? Because I am literally waking up in the night thinking, what comes next, as I am worried that after the 10K I will totally descend into slothiness (it's a word now) and end up unable to run ever again. A half seems like a good possibility for training...

[lightgetsin]

I really think you will be doing 12 min/Mi runs comfortably by Dec. If you want, we can just do that straight through tomorrow for a couple miles. I wonder how that will feel on the pavements, too.

[treewishes]

You are an evil evil enabler and i am not doing this. NOT.

[ell]

I used Ryan Hall's 1/2 marathon plan for my first 1/2 and there was a really good combination of long slow runs and speedwork in it. I ran that 1/2 faster than i've run anything since after spending a lot of the winter on the treadmill with that plan.

Also - if you can do an olympic tri, there's really nothing to worry about with the 1/2 :-)

I say go for it!

[thalia]

You just keep telling yourself that....

[gnomad]

Wot? It's not that far anymore! And, hey, according to ell, it's easier than an Oly tri.

[gnomad]

That's good to know! Thanks! I do see myself getting slowly faster, but it's just so. damn. slow. I'm starting to think that this would be good for me from a pure training perspective, even if I don't do the half at the end. I would have an excellent running endurance base to apply to triathlons, I'd be working on speeding up (my big winter goal), and I'd have a better sense of my capabilities at various levels of running exhaustion (I still have the hardest time knowing when I'm going to bonk or push on through). Hm...