Bring in more race-pace and lactate threshold training to run your fastest half yet.
BY SAM MURPHY
As an experienced runner, you’ve already notched a few halves and are comfortable with the distance – but perhaps you haven’t done the 21.1km distance justice, focusing your efforts more at either end of the speed/distance spectrum. ‘Optimal half-marathon preparation involves a middle ground between 10K and marathon training,’ says veteran coach Jack Daniels.
Know your threshold
Lactate-threshold (LT) pace is the effort you can sustain for about an hour, and is probably 8-15 seconds per kilometre faster than your goal half-marathon pace. It’s a pace Pete Pfitzinger, coach and author of Faster Road Racing, recommends you work with in your bid for a faster half.
‘A relatively new approach to tempo runs involves interspersing harder efforts with training at, or slightly slower than, LT pace,’ he says. The rationale is that the faster segments lead to increased lactate production while the slower pace improves the body’s ability to use that lactate as fuel.
Try this: 10 mins easy; 4 mins at LT pace; 4 mins at 10 secs faster than LT pace. Then 4×4 mins at LT pace; 2 mins at 10 secs faster than LT pace. Finish with 10 mins easy. Increase the number of intervals or add a minute to the faster segments to progress.
Groove your race pace
Regular runs at goal pace help you get a feel for it – note how you’re breathing and rate your perceived effort so you can better monitor your pace on race day. ‘Schedule a race-pace run every week,’ says Anderson. ‘Start with 5 to 7 kilometres and add 1.6 kilometres every week or two up to a maximum of twelve.’
Be a team player
One of the best ways to reach your potential is to train with others of similar ability, says sports psychologist professor Andy Lane. A study published in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology found athletes put in more effort when they had teammates, compared with training solo.
Know the drill
‘Drills enhance dynamic flexibility, stride power, stride stiffness and efficiency,’ says coach Brad Hudson, co-author of Run Faster. ‘Do drills and strides after the jogging portion of your warm-up in any workout involving running at 10K pace or faster.’ Try these drills to get yourself ready for speedwork.
Add speed
Most of your quality sessions will hover around threshold pace, but some faster efforts can also pay dividends by improving your V02 max. Pfitzinger recommends short reps at 3-5K pace. Try a fortnightly set of reps lasting two to six mins, with a recovery jog 50-75 per cent of the length of each effort.
Master the distance
While less experienced runners don’t need to reach race distance in training, you’ll need to go the distance a few times if you are aiming to run a fast half marathon. ‘Advanced runners will want to run significantly more than 21.1 kilometres on their peak long run,’ says coach Jason Fitzgerald. However, there’s no need to exceed 25 kilometres.
Get primed
Don’t restrict your warm-up to a steady jog. Research shows adding a few minutes of faster running better primes the body. Former Olympic marathoner Mara Yamauchi suggests explosive knee drives off a step to activate the glutes.
Shed a load
Research from the University of Georgia, US, showed that a five per cent increase in a runner’s usual weight slowed them by almost three minutes over a half marathon. So don’t carry excess baggage, in the form of drinks bottles, heavy running shoes or kit.
Hold it steady
Run the race as evenly as possible. ‘Speeding up from your optimal pace increases glycogen usage more than slowing down decreases it,’ warns Matt Fitzgerald, author of The New Rules of Marathon and Half Marathon Nutrition. And in the face of hills or headwinds, maintain a constant effort, not pace.
Get the juices flowing
Drink or eat your way to a PB by consuming natural performance-enhancers. Add a beetroot juice (try Beet-It Sport, a 70ml shot with the same concentration of nitric oxide as 400ml of juice) to your race-morning routine – research shows it lowers oxygen cost at a given pace by three per cent and peaks two and a half hours after consumption. And follow it up with an espresso or two. Studies show a dose of caffeine equal to up to 6mg per kg of body weight lowers RPE (rate of perceived exertion) during endurance exercise by an average of 5.6 per cent. It takes 60-70 minutes for caffeine to peak in the bloodstream.
Race-pace specific training sessions
Do one to three kilometres easy before each workout and one kilometre easy to finish. Take an easy (or rest) day either side of these sessions:
Week 1: 6 x 1-kilometre winders: start at half-marathon pace (HMP), then run each kilometre a few secs quicker; 60-sec jog recovery between each.
Week 2: 6 x 1 kilometre at 10 secs slower than 10K pace, with 90-sec jog recoveries
Week 3: 3 x 3 kilometres at LT pace, with 2-min jog recoveries
Week 4: Parkrun or 5K
Week 5: 3 kilometres easy; 4 x 3 kilometres at HMP, with 3-min jog recoveries; 1 kilometre easy
Week 6: 3 kilometres easy; 10 kilometres at HMP
Week 7: 10K race
Week 8: 12 kilometre progression run: start 20 secs slower than marathon pace and speed up by 7 secs per kilometre.
Week 9: 3 kilometres easy; 3 x 5 kilometres at HMP, with 3-min easy jog recoveries
Week 10: 3 kilometres easy; 12 kilometres at HMP; 1 kilometre easy
Week 11: 10 kilometre progression run: start 10 secs slower than marathon pace and speed up by 7 secs per kilometre.
Week 12: Race week
