Week 5 Nailing a Sub 2 Hour Half Marathon
Week 5 (duration 130-160mins)
Welcome to the leg strength and endurance phase of the training plan. The last 4 weeks has built your base fitness. Now we focus on building your running strength and endurance, both essential to enable you to hit your half marathon goal time. Over the next 4 weeks we will use a variety of workouts to build leg strength, whilst progressively increasing ‘time on your feet’. The Easy run paces has been changed to reflect your increase in fitness. These Easy runs should still be completed at a perceived rate of exertion 1-3, you should be able to maintain a conversation whilst running.
The Hill workouts, you will need to find a hill that is safe to run, with a consistent 6-8% gradient (1:12), where you can run for 60-75 seconds at the specified effort. Use the Rate of Perceived Exertion to manage the effort. For each repetition you should run as hard as you can for the time specified. At the end of each repetition, you should feel like you do not want go any further. If this kind of repetition is new to you, look at the running glossary for more information. As a rule of thumb, start a pace you know you can complete the first repetition and then progressively speed up with each repetition until you hit the target effort.
Be sure that you warm up prior to the hill intervals and cool down afterwards. This is good practice for the later workouts in the plan. A good warm up prepares your body for the harder effort and will reduce the risk of injuries related to the increased intensity. It is also good practice after a higher intensity training session to cool down. This helps flush out the lactate in the system and aides recovery. The purpose of the cool down is to help the body adapt and ideally avoid any delayed onset muscle soreness. If you are new to these higher intensity workouts, some muscle soreness is to be expected.
If you have any questions, please ask coach@rhodesrunner.com
Phase: Build strength and fitness
Monday – Rest / Day off
Tuesday – Easy Run 30-45mins, pace 5:59-6:33
Wednesday - Recovery or Cross Train, 30mins, pace 5:59-6:33
Thursday – Hills, gradient 6-8%, 6-8 repetitions, 60-75seconds at 5k effort, jog back recovery. Run 15-25mins to warm up, before reps and 15-25mins to cool down
Friday / Saturday - Recovery or Cross Train, 30mins, pace 5:59-6:33
Sunday – Long Steady Run, 45-60mins, pace 6:01-6:46, the last 10-15 minutes at goal half marathon pace 5:21-5:40
Useful Links
Recovery, every runner’s secret training weapon