[Peter Lee]

Hi all!

What a great turnout at our kickoff meeting last night! I’ve also heard from several folks who weren’t able to join but are planning to for the training. As I mentioned last night we’ll continue to post a weekly update with the specific workouts and meeting locations and Wednesday run leaders will also continue their normal posting. The below info contains the overall structure of the plan, definitions of various paces and guidelines on how much and how often to run.

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, ‘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.

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.

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 in five 2-week blocks (A & B) with 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.

Week 1 (Block A)
Monday: Easy miles w/ MNR
Wednesday: Shorter Intervals over rolling terrain
Thursday: Easy miles w/ ThNR
Saturday: Longer run with Intervals separate from SMR but set up so people can join regular SMR group for brunch

Week 2 (Block B)
Monday: Tempo run w/ MNR
Wednesday: Shorter Intervals at the track
Thursday: Easy miles w/ ThNR
Saturday: Longer run at easy pace with the last 5.25 miles as part of SMR

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
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Lots of information here. Feel free to reach out with any specific questions and I’ll answer as quickly as possible during the work week. Look forward to seeing lots of you at Brett’s workout tomorrow!!

Happy Running!!

Pete

[Peter Lee]

Here’s the link to the actual plan. TRD BK Training

Obviously we’ll be doing these runs in a non-group setting for the foreseeable future but feel free to continue to get the workouts in. I will continue to post workouts but since there is no organized meeting feel free to do them whenever. IE, your 4-5 mile tempo run on Monday does not need to start at 7:30pm or be the MNR route (although I do suggest some sort of rolling hills if possible) nor does Weds night’s speed workout need to be at Riverbank Track.

Reminder: If you’re not feeling well, stay home and out of public!

Hopefully things quickly get under control and we can get back to some sense of normal but until then, feel free to post good TRD and running things on your Instagram Stories and don’t forget to join our Strava group to give and get some kudos if you haven’t already!

Please reach out with any questions you have on the plan or specific workouts. Stay well and hope to see everyone soon!

Pete

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