The Sub 2 Hour Half Marathon Manifesto

Obviously, the older a person is, the more evident the potential roadblocks. I know people who have the heart and lungs and legs but, alas, no longer enough cartilage in the knees. When I say a person has the innate ability required to perform a task, I mean his genes and receptors and processors that conspire to suggest and allow and trigger the engine and drive train to put out the horsepower are all there and ready to work. Obviously, you can't drive the car very far or fast if it's got a flat tire or a broken driveshaft.

Only you can determine whether your "infrastructure" is ready for a campaign to demolish your running PRs. The other unknown is the state of your heart and circulatory system. I am routinely advised of yet another personal friend who, though long in apparent top health, discovers a heart ailment. Also often, it's the sort of malady that doesn't manifest itself unless under a heavy load. If you want to run ultra fast, your heart is going to be under an ultra heavy load.

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I can't warrant that running at such a load is good for you. I frankly haven't noticed that those who've been top runners live longer than those who've been moderately active. In fact, as a layman I'd hazard a guess that you'd probably be healthier if you didn't push the envelope the way I do, and the way I'll describe below. If you think you'd like to see what you're capable of anyway, you might consider a stress EKG before getting heavy into the high-heart-rate stuff.

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I have been where you are and I know what it feels like to work your ass off, knowing you have the capability to break a goal time and still miss it. I know what it feels like for others to make negative comments about your efforts never having walked in your shoes, done the training or understand what failure truly feels like.

1. Run for a reason

Winners keep going until the job is done. Losers sit back and make judgement calls about athletes that continue to try despite missing goals. What I wanted to create in this manifesto is not only just form a week half marathon training plan but walk you through why you are doing the workouts in the first place and most importantly provide encouragement.

There are far too many training plans on the market that provide very little interaction and there is more to running than just throwing a training plan at an athlete. There is power in having someone tell you that what you do matters and also can get down with you on a personal level.

I have made my commitment with you in this manifesto. In the six to eight weeks prior to race day, mix some race-pace running into your weekly schedule in the form of tempo runs a continuous 4- to 8-mile run at your goal half-marathon pace , interval workouts at race pace, or long runs that finish at goal pace the last 2 to 4 miles when your legs are tired.

The last thing you want is to have an upset stomach after you take off from the starting line. Over the course of Thirteen miles is a long way! How do you avoid this? Plan your training in three-week cycles: Build the length of your weekly long run by 1 to 3 miles for two weeks in a row before scaling it back 3 to 6 miles in the third week. For beginners, aim to build your long run up to 10 to 12 miles two weeks prior to race day, while 13 to 16 will be plenty for most experience runners.

Learn as much as you can about your chosen race course in the weeks leading up to your goal event, and try to simulate those elements in some of your key workouts. Is the course hilly or flat? Are there lots of turns? Does it get narrow in spots?

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