How to reduce your half marathon time.

Last October, I ran a half marathon in about 1:58.

This year, I hope to hit under 1:45.

That's going from about a 9min per mile pace to an 8min per mile.

Here's my plan.

Step 1: use Hal Higdon Internediate 2 as a base training plan. http://www.halhigdon.com/training/64471/Half-Marathon-Walk-Training-Program-Intermediate-2

Step 2: figure out what my goal paces are using the McMillan Running Calculator. https://www.mcmillanrunning.com/

So, I plug in my race distance (half marathon) and goal time (1:45). It will spit out goal paces at various distances. For example, my calculator shows my goal pace at 5k distance to be 7:27 per mile. So, when I do interval training on the Hal Higdon Plan, I'll be doing 400m repeats at that 5k pace.

In tempo run days, I'll work up to 10k pace which is 7:44 per mile for me.

Now, I do a lot of my speed training on a treadmill. So, I use this chart to find my speed https://www.google.com/search?q=treadmill+pace+chart&safe=active&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS742US742&hl=en-US&prmd=sinv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjexqjI2I3UAhUB3YMKHV0fCVwQ_AUICigC&biw=667&bih=299#imgrc=o4bsSwwCOj948M:


Step 3: Lose weight. If we take 20 min per mile decrease per 10 pounds (https://www.google.com/amp/www.runnersworld.com/for-beginners-only/how-does-weight-loss-affect-my-running-speed%3famp) then each pound will save me 2 seconds. Last year, I was about 213 pounds for the half marathon. Right now, I'm 208.5. I plan to lose a pound a week during the training which will put me at 196.5 at race time which is 16.5 pounds less than last year which should get me 33 seconds per mile faster than last year.

Step 4: squats and deadlifts. These strength exercises have been good friends during the last year. I'll have finished a recent strength block as the running training begins. During the 12 weeks, I'll focus on maintaining strength with a once a week session for squats and once for deads.

Step 5: Fuel. I plan on running this race Keto again. I, however, will train more with UCAN superstarch to adapt my tummy to it better than last year.

Step 6: execute. Follow my plan as close as possible. It will work.