2023 Brooklyn Half Marathon Training

Hi all!
Once again we have a large contingent of Res Dog’s running the Brooklyn Half this May We’ve put together a training plan that takes advantage of the 4 weekly runs we have scheduled that can be geared towards someone running their first half marathon, just wanting to comfortably finish or someone looking to set a new personal best. The below write up outlines the plan we’ll follow for the next 9 weeks as we work towards race day. And while we call it ‘Brooklyn Half training’ you in no way need to be running that race to participate, anyone who wants to join in the training can!

First and foremost, whether you’re a first time half marathoner or running your 50th half marathon, looking to just finish or to set a PR, the most important two things I can tell you are that 1. Getting to the start line healthy is your #1 priority. It’s better to be a bit undertrained and healthy than over-trained and battling some sort of injury on race day and 2. This or any other training plan you follow should be used as a guide. If your body isn’t feeling great or something is more sore than normal it’s ok to cut back on a workout or even miss one here and there (again, see point #1!). There may also be days when you feel great and decide to add an extra easy mile or two, that’s also ok.
On to the good stuff (and I apologize for the long post!)…

Pace Definitions
We’ll be running at a wide variety of paces throughout the 10 weeks.
Easy/Normal Pace – this should be an effort that feels very controlled. This will actually make up most of the miles we run each week (around 70+%). A good idea to keep in mind on easy runs is that when you finish you should be able to think to yourself, ‘that was easy, it would have been fine if I had to keep going for a few more miles.’ Easy/Normal Paces are in the range of :45 to 2:00 slower than your current half marathon pace; the faster your half marathon pace the closer to the 2:00 end of the range you will be, but again, EASY effort, you want to make sure your legs recover so you’re prepared for the next workout.
Half Marathon Pace (HMP) – the pace you could hold if you were racing a half marathon at that point in time. Chances are this is slower than what your BK goal pace is by 5-15 seconds. If you start running BK goal HMP from week 1 you’ll be risking running too hard on these days.
Tempo Pace – this can vary a bit. General range is half marathon pace at the slow side to the pace you could hold if you were racing a ‘1-hour race.’
10k Pace – the pace you could hold if you were racing a 10K at that point in time. If you prefer to use time a decent range is the pace you’d hold for approximately a 40’ race effort.
5k Pace – the pace you could hold if you were racing a 5K at that point in time. If you prefer to use time a decent range is the pace you’d hold for approximately a 20’ race effort.
3k Pace – the pace you could hold if you were racing a 3K at that point in time. If you prefer to use time a decent range is the pace you’d hold for approximately a 10’ race effort.
Hard Effort Pace: ~90-95% effort for whatever the duration of the interval is

As the weeks go on you will probably find that these paces are starting to get faster on a lot of days. That’s a good thing assuming the effort is in the correct range.

General Outline
The plan is set up mainly have 2 harder workouts per week and all other runs meant to be easy paced. There will be official runs on our normal schedule of Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. More below on what to do on the other days of the week.
Things to keep in mind:

Warm up/Pre miles
1. On Mondays and Wednesdays that involve faster running everyone should be aiming to run at least 1 easy mile before starting intervals or tempo work. This will enable you to feel better during the first interval and reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the harder effort.
2. There are often groups that meet before MNR and ThNR for ‘pre-miles.’ Paces typically range from 7:45-8:45 with a distance of 3.5-4 miles. Happy to help coordinate anyone who is either looking to join or meet up with people running faster or slower than that, just send me an email.

Workouts on Non-TRD Days
Not meant to be all rest days. These days can be used for some combination of strength training, cross training, easy miles and rest days.

Running
These should all be ‘easy miles’ intensity. You should not add more than 1 day of running per week per month over what you are currently doing. For example, if you are running 3 days a week then you should not run more than 4 days until some point in April with cross training 1-2 days on top of that. Also, you should not increase your mileage by more than 10-15% in any given week. Please keep in mind that as training goes along you’ll reach a point where you are feeling good and may be tempted to add more miles than you should, resist that urge to help minimize the chance of overtraining/injury.

Cross Training
Cross training is meant to be general aerobic activity, 30’+ minutes of cycling, elliptical, rowing or swimming are all good options to get increased aerobic activity without added impact. Cross training is super helpful when you are not accustomed to running 5+ days a week so you can still get a high volume of work in while limiting increases to injury risk.

Here are the details for the upcoming 9 weeks for those who want to follow the full plan.

A few brief notes:
1. The ‘A’ runs are lower volume and less intense versions of the ‘B’ runs so depending on your fitness coming into training and how hard you’re looking to train for BK you can decide what’s best for you.

2. Each week’s host will post meeting locations as we will be dong the workouts in a few different spots in Central Park and may even get to the track a time or two.

Week 1
Wednesday 3/22 – Intervals
Host: Brett
A: 2x Cat Hill Hard, jog recovery; 1’ jog, 2x 800m @ HMP on 1’ jog, 2x Cat Hill Hard, jog recovery
B: recovery 3x Cat Hill Hard, jog recovery; 1’ jog, 4x 800m @ HM on 1’ jog, 3x Cat Hill Hard, jog recovery

Saturday 3/25 – Distance
A: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 3 miles before and fast finish last 1-2 miles
B: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 7 miles before and fast finish last 1-2 miles

Week 2
Monday 3/27 – Tempo
A: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: fast finish last 1-2 miles
B: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: first mile w/ group speed up ~ 10” per mile; last mile @ HMP

Wednesday 3/29 – Intervals
Host: David
A: 4x ~1200m Tempo-10K on 1’ jog or 1’ standing recovery (SR), 4x 45” strides, jog recovery
B: 6x ~1200m @ 10K on 1’ jog, 6x 45” strides, jog recovery

Saturday 4/1 – Distance
A: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 3 miles before
B: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 7 miles before

Week 3
Monday 4/3 – Tempo
A: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: fast finish last 1-2 miles
B: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: first mile w/ group speed up ~ 10” per mile; last mile @ HMP

Wednesday 4/5 – Intervals
Host: Julia
A: 3x 1 mile @ HMP on 400m jog or 2’ SR, 3x 400m @ 5K pace (effort if racing for 20’) on 400m jog or 2’ SR
B: 4x 1 mile @ HMPon 400m jog, 4x 400m @ 5k pace on 400m jog

Saturday 4/8 – Distance
A: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 4 miles before
B: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 4-7 miles before; last 1-2 miles of SMR @ HMP

Week 4
Monday 4/10 – Tempo
A: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: fast finish last 1-2 miles
B: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: first mile w/ group, middle 3 miles tempo (HMGP), finish easy

Wednesday 4/12 – Intervals
Host: Tomas
A: 4x 1200m @ Tempo-10K on 1’ jog or 1’ standing recovery, 4x 45” hills @ hard effort, jog recovery
B: 6x 1200m @ 10K pace on 1’ jog, 6x 45” hills @ hard effort, jog recovery

Saturday 4/15 – Distance
A: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 4 miles before
B: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 6 miles before

Week 5
Monday 4/17 – Tempo
A: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: fast finish last 1-2 miles
B: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: fast finish last 1-2 miles

Wednesday 4/19 – Intervals
Host: Lauren
A: 8x 400m @ 5k pace (effort if racing for 20 minutes) on 200m jog or 1’ SR
B: 12x 400m @ 5k pace (hard effort) on 200m jog or 1’ SR

Saturday 4/22 – Distance
A: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 5 miles before
B: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 5-9 miles before; last 3 miles of SMR progression down to HMP

Week 6
Monday 4/24 – Tempo
A: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: fast finish last 1-2 miles
B: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: first mile w/ group, last 4 miles tempo (HMP)

Wednesday 4/26 – Intervals
Host: Shin
A: 2x 2 miles @ HMP on 3’ jog
B: 3x 2 miles @ HMP pace on 3’ jog

Saturday 4/29 – Distance
A: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 7 miles before
B: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 10 miles before

Week 7
Monday 5/1 – Normal
A: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group
B: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group

Wednesday 5/3 – Intervals
Host: Brett
A: 5x 1K @ HMP on 1’ jog or 1’ SR
B: 7x 1K @ HMP on 1’ jog

Saturday 5/6 – Distance
A: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 3 miles before w/ 1-2x 1 mile pace surges during SMR
B: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 7 miles before w/ 2-3x 1 mile pace surges during SMR

Week 8
Monday 5/8 – Tempo
A: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: fast finish last 1-2 miles
B: Monday Night Run – Normal pace group: first mile w/ group, last 4 miles tempo (HMP)

Wednesday 5/10 – Intervals
Host: David
A: 2x 1 mile @ HMP, 2x 800m @ ~10” faster than HMGP, 1 mile @ HMP all on 1’ jog or 1’ SR
B: 2x 1 mile @ HMP, 4x 800m @ ~10k pace, 2x 1 mile @ HMP all on 1’ jog
Short race: Speak with speed leader for alternate workout

Saturday 5/13 – Distance
A: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 3 miles before
B: Saturday morning run (5 miles) with 7 miles before

Week 9
Monday 5/15 – EASY
Normal, easy Monday Night Run

Wednesday 5/17 – Intervals
Host: Tomas
A: 4x 800m @ HMP on 200m jog or 1’ SR; 1 mile @ HMP
B: 6x 800m @ HMP on 200m jog; 1 mile @ ~10” faster than HMP

Saturday 5/20 – Race Day