Communal Bath

by Ian Williams, 13th November 2012

Unlike other ridiculous made-up internet portmanteaux, Crowdsourcing is one of those that I've really come to embrace. To me it’s a miraculous combination of crowd surfing, and outsourcing – in other words, you can enjoy a nice lie down and let everyone else do the work (though you do end up getting poked in the ribs an awful lot).

Pretty much all of the reason why Fetcheveryone works well is because of the contributions that you each make as individuals. The race listings are a perfect example. Sure I do my bit in correcting a few, and no doubt there are more than a few that need the once over – but there are twice as many races listed here than anywhere else I've seen.

When Katie and I were given two places to run the Bath Half Marathon in March, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to crowdsource my training plan. I've no idea whether this will work or not, but for anyone else training for a half marathon, it may well act as some friendly company along the way. And if only a few of you respond, you could have a lot of fun as I dance like a meat puppet for your enjoyment.

There are 16 weeks until the race, which I’d like to break into four equal phases – and as each one begins, I’ll report on where I'm at, and look for guidance on what I should be doing. I'm not looking for one single half marathon plan to follow, this is on-the-ground team work, planning each phase as it comes, learning how to shape a plan as we go, and no doubt plenty of argument about different ideologies.

I should give you a bit of background – this will be my 15th half marathon. I ran my 14th last month at the Great Eastern Run and I was pretty close to my best ever time of 1:45:57. Needless to say, I'd like to beat that. I'm willing to run up to 120 miles a month, or about four hours of training a week, although that may be hard when it's school holidays. My 'default' pace is usually around 9mins/mile, and in the last four weeks, my longest run has been six miles. My speedwork at the moment consists of an occasional run where I ramp up the pace to about 8mins/mile, but my eyeballs-out 5k time a couple of weeks ago was 22:14.

It's maybe worth looking at my Training Toolbox article to see the way my mind works - and I guess what I'm looking for initially are your suggestions on how I combine those tools over the first chunk of four weeks. We're up for racing at the Wolverton 5 on November 24th, and I've also entered the Bedford Half on December 9th, which is coincidentally when the first chunk comes to an end. How long should my long runs be? How often should I do speed work, and what kind, and how sick should it make me feel? Will anyone mention cross-training, and if so can I ignore them? I'll take all of your comments, and try to go with the consensus, reserving the right to ignore the nutters – and we'll see whether I can crowd source my way to the finish line, or get trampled in a internet mosh pit. Now I'm off for a run any old how, whilst I still can.

Do you reckon they'd carry me? A big crowd of runners, at Bath Half 2011. Picture courtesy of Running High Events Ltd.

My social experiment will happen in four phases - what should we call them and what should the goal be in each?

12th November - 9th December
10th December - 6th January
7th January - 3rd February
4th February - 3rd March
Thank you Bath Half Marathon for our race entries!

Comments


  • Ooh I'd start by having a cup of tea and putting your feet up :-)
  • Seriously I'm entered for my 1st HM in 5 years at the end of January with another in March so I'll be following with interest
  • I have actually started with a cup of tea :-)
  • I think you should both stay in and 'cross train'. ;-)

    (Of course this may have something to do with the fact that if you beat your PB you may well beat mine too...)
  • Are you going to report in here (well in the articles section) or somewhere else I have the Wokingham Half on 10th Feb my second half and would follow your progress with interest. You are way ahead of me in terms of mileage/experience/pace though so I'll adapt things accordingly :-)
  • An article here every four weeks plus I'll try to blog a bit each week.
  • Sounds good. I'm no training expert but I guess the first phase would have you getting up to the training mileage you were around when you got your PB And then the later phases working on getting those miles to a comparable speed. As said though I'm a relative novice at this!
  • Lol. I love that the P&D plans always start with a rest day!
    First section - base building. If you aren't doing your 120 a month (c. 30 a week) now and you're not yet up to 12 miles for your long run then build up the distance (total weekly and individual long run) first.

    If you are close to or at that total already then introduce your speed work. 1 x per week first 2-3 miles within a 6 miler at close to your 10K pace (maybe give yourself +15s per mile breathing space). This doesn't have to be and shouldn't be eyeballs out. It can also be more fun than just 3 fast miles. Fartleks (which your glossary will tell you all about) chasing a mate etc. all work well.

    3 warnings: :-O 1. Don't increase too fast: either total miles per week longest single run OR pace. And don't do 2 at same time e.g. a really long week with lots of speedy stuff. Nope.
    2. Rest and recover. I know you know all this and the principle but specifically if something feels tight tired (if you measure your HR then if HR is higher with that first cup o tea in the morning then heed the warning). Take an extra day off do something else like a swim or a brisk walk or a cycle.
    3. Niggles - if you get 'em (and many don't but I know I do!) be prepared to do ... all the other stuff! Cross train strengthening stretching foam rollering (and/or wifey massage/physio-ing you lucky dog you).

    Right think that's my potted how to get a guaranteed PB in 16 weeks time. Oh my qualifications 2.5 mins off my PB last Saturday. I thank you! Best of luck and most of all enjoy! :-)G
  • Hmm... comments submit strips out paragraphs and other formatting... :-(
  • Thanks HappyG :-) Rules to train by are grand but what I'm really after in this experiment are some specifics - so given what you know (or can interrogate out of me - feel free to ask stuff that you can't see on my profile) what *exactly* should I be doing If you prefer I'll take some goals to aim for by the end of the first phase or you can be as specific as you like - but I'm hoping it'll produce a range of interesting and useful suggestions :-)
  • Important question before creating any plan.....What do you want to get out of the race
    • snogard 9:25pm, 13th November 2012
  • I'm almost exactly the same as fetch and will also be doing Wokingham (Herman). My added complication is that I 'have' to cycle to and from work 5 days a week. i can generally trade one of these for a run and i run at the club on a Wednesday night. If Mrs Star is in a good mood I can get one decent length run ( up to 1.5hrs) in at the weekend most weekends.
    how do I count my cycling towards my 30 miles a week Will exercising 6 days a week affect me Advice gratefully received
    • CStar 9:27pm, 13th November 2012
  • snogard - the dream time would be 1:39:XX but a PB would be great.
  • Ah you are looking for personalised coaching (for free! ;-) ) Gotcha. People like Paul the Builder have kindly done that for me and some others but usually in response to a specific question about a type of training run or a pace rather than a complete plan. And of course Gobi does online personalised coaching I believe (though maybe not for free!) I'll go have a look at your training history and give it a go! :-)G
  • Again not quite :-) I'm trying (quite badly) to see whether it would be possible for a group of people to come to a consensus about appropriate training for a particular (nut)case.
  • OK the specific versions of the general things I said a few comments up are:
    You're not doing 10-12 mile long runs yet. And you're not doing 30 mpw yet. So... take your 3 x 5-6 mile runs at 9 min/mile and replace with 2 x 3-4 miles at 9:30 per mile 1 x long run building from 7 to 11 miles over the 4 weeks at 9:30 per mile. Here's the killer: 1 x mid week run of 5-8 miles at 9:30 but building up 2 3 then 4 miles at or a bit ahead of your HM pace of 7:30 min / mile.

    You do not seem to suffer from injuries hence you do not need to add in lots of cross train but be sensible. Leave a rest day after the long run and the midweek toughie. Do teh 3-4 mile runs as v. gentle recoveries. Add in as much swim and bike as you like. But neither hard before your mid week toughie. This a key session and you want to be fresh for it.

    Is that specific enough for weeks 1-4 Have fun! :-)G
  • Oh and a goal by end of 4 weeks is to be able to do the 4 miles out of 8 at 7:30 in the midweek toughie. Note: you actually won't feel stronger/faster at end of a 4 week phase. You need to rest cut back for a week and you will feel the benefits in the subsequent 4 week phase. Y'see! :-)G
  • I'm no expert but have done 4 half marathons over the last 2 years with the first one being 1:49 and the 3rd one (on the same course) being 1:39 with a year of difference in the training. Main difference being more structured training and consistency training plan for the 1:39 time saw me going up to 17 miles for two of the weeks in the LSR with a weekly mileage starting at 35 miles and peaking at 54 miles. Good Luck!!
  • Quick calculation: you are willing to run about 1000 minutes per month and want to cover 120 miles. You want to run 13 miles in 100 minutes. I would suggest that these figures are too close; you need to allow more time or cover less distance in training. The long slow runs would be taken too fast. I would suggest allowing a little more training time (I'm taking the 120 miles as something to build to in the third phase). First phase target: PB or within 30 seconds of one at Bedford. Concrete suggestion: someone I know is getting great results from doing a fit camp at 06:15 in a supermarket car park. No Me neither actually.
    • Dvorak 2:45am, 15th November 2012
  • Great idea. Your parkrun time is a bit up on me and GER was done at a bit over 8mm - 8:05mm being your PB pace. You have 3 weekends before Bedford Half with Wolverton 5 getting in the way. Bedford Half is a hard course to get right and too soon to target for a PB so lets start with Wolverton though your PB is pretty good at this distance so no short term PB targets. As a general note most of your recent training has the largest pace band between 8:30 and 9mm. I think you need to aim for it to be between 8 and 8:30. You also need to extend some of them a bit as recent ones appear to be between 3 and 6 miles. This weekend (monday if your doing parkrun) 8 miles steady run. Wed or Thur 3-4 mile recovery. Saturday Wolverton 5 at 7:50mm-8mm with 1-2 miles easy warmup before. Can I focus on work now!!!
  • Dvorak - can you explain what you mean when you say those figures are too close What calcs are you doing Thanks :-)
  • It's a good observation and calculation by Dv. Usual issue - that commitment to available training time miles that can be done are done too fast. So actually you will only be able to do a smaller volume at the 'right' pace (slow enough). Good spot Dv. :-)G
  • But what the fetchster is asking for here is consensus... do we have consensus that Dv is right (I suspect so) and how long should the longest run be in this period 8 miles bearing in mind we are in block 1 of 4....
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