10km to 1/2 marathon

Since Feb, I was training for a 10k, which I did last sunday.  I finished at 54 minutes, which beat my last year's time of 56 minutes. However I think I lost a lot of my drive because last year I was dying at the finish line, but this year, i just couldnt motivate myself to go faster than a slowish comfortable pace. At the end, I felt like I could run for another 5km without any problem, so needless to say I am somewhat disappointed at myself for not going all out.

Anyways, I decided to do a 1/2 marathon in July to... "redeem" myself. My question is, how hard should I be training ? There's still 3 months to go. I was looking around running schedules, but I didnt find anything that went from 10km to half marathon.

How many Km's should I be focusing on doing each week? What is better at improving my time and endurance -- hills or sprints? 

THis will be my first 1/2 marathon, so main goal is to do it around 2x my 10k time. It would be nice to do it in 1:40 minutes :) 

thanks!

First off, congrats on a stellar 10K and a PR!!  Awesome!  So, let me get this right, you didn't leave it all on the course AND you set a PR?  That is some kind of fitness improvement.  Well done!!

What I would do, and what I usually do, is go and find a half marathon plan on the internet (for free) and jump in where it makes sense for me.  Most plans are 18 weeks.  Since you are already 10K "fit", you could jump in at week 6 (cause you have 12 weeks till your race) and go from there.  If this is less than what you have been training, then enjoy the down time.

Another option is to go to Runner's World and use the Smart Coach to build yourself a 12 week plan. Either way, you'll be good to go.

The plans will have the Km's you need to get you ready.  The best way to build endurance is time on your feet.  Your long slow run on the weekends should get you past the half mary distance in training.  That is your endurance.  Hill workouts during the week (short and sweet) will build strength in your legs.  Sprints are not necessary for HM training.  You will want to do tempo runs, intervals, and fartleks and such.  Your plan should tell you what to do!

Annnnnd.....  If you do a half mary in 1:40, you will be a running goddess, at least in my book 

That's great.2 yrs ago I did (walked) a half marathon with out really training. At the time I  was walking 5 miles a day and one day a week I would walk 8 miles then worked up to 11.It took me close to 3 hrs and I thought I could do it in 2hrs 45 minutes.I would add in hill training as those will kill you if you are not ready for them.

Good luck.

First off, you are a rock star with your time for your 10k, it's a hard race.  I did one last year and loved it. 

As for training, find a training plan.  I pluged your 10k time into the training calculater on runners world and it says a 1/2 marathon time of 2:03:00.  For a first half marathon 2:03:00 is not bad at all.  With the smart coach training plan you can put in a 12 week training plan, or any number of weeks between 2 and 16.  I use it myself for my full marathon training, which the first for me this season is on May 9.

Good luck on your training.

Well done bluegirl !

I help coach a XC team and a club team and we always say... Slow long running makes slow long runners!

Try changing your training schedule. Include some speed workouts, intervals, fartleks, tempo runs.  Keep your long runs for only one day of the week.

I did a 15 K in Feb and for it I woudl run no more than 5 to 6 during the week (including my speed workouts) and on the weekend I woudl do 9+ miles. The longer runs are to train your body to go for long periods of time. The shorter distance during the week I would try to go at a faster pace than my weekend runs.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement! :D

So I am guessing then my tempo runs should be my 10k pace, and my long slow runs are much slower?  Whereas the interval runs are faster than my 10k pace, and fartleks are basically even faster kinds of interval training?

(sorry I run randomly on the streets, and dont have any crazy gps watch/heart monitor, so everything is just guess work)

i checked out parts of the course, and yikes, its lots of hills. After a hill session, my knees are sore for a day or two, is there a way i can alleviate this?

(I should mention, I've been also weight training too for a year, so my legs are quite strong)

Thanks again!! 

This is a good tool which will tell you what your training paces should be:

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunnin gcalculator.htm

You can translate the speeds into something on the RPE scale of 1-10 (or 5-20, depending on who you talk too :-), 1 being easiest, and 10 being hardest.

The best way to help your knees is to make sure you have good shoes and keep doing those leg extensions!!