Half-Marathon Distance Runs
If you are preparing to run a half-marathon distance for the first time, then your training will have you gradually working your way up to that distance. Your body – and in particular, the weaker parts of your system – need to be gradually strengthened to handle the increasing stress of running farther. Time on your feet, or in other words, the number of steps you take in a run, determine the amount of accumulating stress on your body. Those who run fast are stronger, and they spend less time on their feet and take far fewer steps to complete the distance – they actually experience far less accumulated stress on the body than a slow runner. So, just because you are running ‘slow’ compared to better runners, your body actually has to prepare to handle far more accumulated stress than an elite does. This should urge you to have great care to gradually build up distance. By gradually building distance in your long runs, and by being sensitive to your body’s signals and responding cautiously along the way, you will be surprised by how strong you will become.
Distance Runs
On these days you are going to run in your comfortable aerobic range of effort, and sustain it for the assigned longer distances. The assigned distances are gradually increasing from week to week, to eventually prepare your body for a full 13.1 mile effort. You may extend these runs longer if you like only if you are currently used to going such distances. If you are new to these distances, or not currently conditioned for them, then it is advisable to follow the assigned progression, which adds just one more mile each week.
The effort level should be ‘comfortable’ in the sense that you feel like you could run at this pace 2 hours or more. To test that you are running at the appropriate aerobic level, breath only through your nose for a few minutes – if you can get enough respiration that way, you know your body is working enough but not too much.
If you are on Track 1 you may run on flat ground mostly, though your body will appreciate some variety. If you are on Track 2 you may include a variety of terrain – flats, hilly terrain, and occasionally inserting sprints into the long run. These will challenge you to work harder for small segments then recover and resume your long distance pace.
As the long run progresses you may notice some fatigue in the body and you feel an urge to let your form deteriorate a little. Before this, you may become aware that your attention has grown weak or distracted before your form deteriorates. This is the crucial awareness – attention usually degrades before form does. This lets you know your attention is weaker than neural control.
However, it may be that you are keeping attention on form well, but the body is fatiguing and it is simply harder to make the body hold form as intended. This lets you know that neural control is weaker than attention. In either scenario, when you do these longer runs, when you get to this limit, this is where the most productive part of your neural training will occur. Work hard to extend your attention or your control over form a bit longer than you have before and this will provoke the growth you need.