Ask the Coach: Half marathon race in training schedule

Your training plans say to run a half marathon in the training schedule; what if I can’t find an event that weekend?

Katarina

Running coach answer on ‘half marathon race in training schedule‘
Mike Gratton:

The half marathon is a good test to see where you are with your fitness as you go into the last weeks and the taper period to your marathon. The actual date of the half, or weeks out from your marathon, is not too critical – a week on either side is not critical.

Too far out, and it doesn’t give you a real feel of how your fitness levels are, and too close to your marathon, you run the risk of not fully recovering from the effort. 

I think the half marathon, or something a little shorter like a 10-miler, should be done to get a true reflection. However, if the half you target is close to your marathon, then running it as a steady run with the second half building to a marathon pace is a good compromise. Recently, an athlete I was training for the Berlin Marathon was also going with a group to the Copenhagen Half Marathon one week before Berlin. She ran Copenhagen controlled, then went on to run a PB marathon at Berlin with 3hrs 29mins.

As an aside, I like to set athletes a short race to do the weekend before a marathon. For London in 2023, many athletes ran the National Road Relays, distances up to 5 miles. Still, if you don’t have that opportunity, a park run of 5km can be a good leg muscle activator during your taper period. These should leave no residue or soreness to carry into your marathon. In 1981 I ran the Thanet 10-mile race, winning in 49mins, one week before finishing 3rd in the National Marathon, where I PB’d with 2hrs 16mins. The week before winning the London Marathon,  I did a 5-mile leg of the South of England relays at Wimbledon – my pace was about 29 minutes for a 10km equivalent – the eight-day gap to London was enough for it not to affect me.

Ready to train for a half marathon race? Try our half marathon beginners training plan

Have a running training question? Ask Mike for free, and we’ll share the answer online for everyone to benefit! Send your question over to us today.