Sunday, March 13, 2011

Week Six in Half Marathon Training Plan

Week Six adds a little new mix to the training. We now start to concentrate on Speed, and holding it for longer stretches. The hard speed in the middle of the week is rewarded with a shorter distance long run on Saturday.

Week Six program:

Sunday, Friday - off
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday - 4 miles easy (under 70% HRM)
Wednesday - 7 miles Speed (90-100% HRM) This you will do by warming up one mile under 70% MHR, then alternate between .25 mile 90-100%, then .25 mile under 60% HRM [walk to get to this level, and then repeat to a total distance of 6.5 miles and then a half mile cool down.
Saturday - 6 miles (under 70% first 5 miles, 70-80% last mile.)

You have now built up to putting in a total speed distance of 2.5 miles of pure speed. In a future 5K race, you will note that you will be able to keep this speed for that distance.

These .25 mile efforts should end at the 90-100%, not begin there. So don't expect to start there in the first 30 seconds, concentrate on getting there at the end of that .25 mile. Consistency is more important than speed. So, for example, it is better to do 8 - .25 miles at a 2 minute pace for the .25 mile, than one at 2:15, another at 2:10, another one at 1:59, etc. What you want to accomplish is a set speed for a set distance at 90-100% of your MHR in the last 20 seconds of the .25 mile.

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