Some training tweaks

We’ve now entered week 3 of the 12 week Gold Coast half marathon training program and all is well. I seem to have adjusted reasonably well back into the training routine and am looking forward to a largely uninterrupted couple of months cranking out the miles in the lead-up to the 3 July event.

That said, I’ve been thinking a lot about New York over the past few weeks and decided I need to try a couple of tweaks to the Higdon advanced training schedule I’ve been following almost religiously for the last few races.

First, I’ve decided to cut back the three recommended time trials (in weeks 3, 6 and 9) to two - a 5K in week 3 and a 10K in week 9. I just think I could benefit more from an additional long run rather than what would otherwise be a shorter time trial.

Second, and most significantly, I’ve cranked up the long runs themselves.

Higdon has the first four long runs at 90 minutes, the next two at 105 minutes, and the final two at 120 minutes. The three time trials are interspersed among these to give the 11 major weekly training runs. Half of Higdon’s long runs also increase the speed for the last quarter or so to something approaching half marathon pace.

Under my changes, each of the long runs increases by 5 minutes weekly - from the starting point of 100 minutes in week 1. By week 11, the ninth and final long run will be 140 minutes. I’ve kept the speed increase for Higdon’s workouts, and for the others I’ve also incorporated 10-18 minutes at the end where the speed increases gradually until the finish. The intention is that this overall increase in mileage will increase my ability to stay strong over the last 5K and avoid, or minimise as far as possible, the ‘dying’ sensation I experienced during that period of the New York race.

Already the increased mileage is evident when compared to New York. For the first two weeks of that program, the distances covered were 32.26K (with one missed session) and 41.45K. In the current Gold Coast program, my first two weeks were 40.46K and 43.78K. So far, each of the new, longer, long runs in those weeks has felt reasonably comfortable and I get a sense I’m going to benefit - both physically and mentally - from spending such a significantly longer period in motion.

In aggregate, the long runs throughout the program will go from 810 minutes to 1,080 minutes - quite a solid increase of 4.5 hours overall.

Finally, I thought I might also share a little summary table I’ve been compiling (and which I’ve just figured out how to post) about progress so far. It’s based on my thinking about the particular importance of two factors in this business - body weight and a solid running base.

Among other things, it highlights for me the what-might-have-been for the Gold Coast last year had I not suffered that debilitating hamstring tear in the final week. By the time the Gold Coast comes around this year, and in the absence of injury, I’d expect the running base numbers to be right up there, and the race weight number to start with an ‘8’. Let’s see what happens!