12 Week Sub 1:30 Half Marathon
Author
Dusty Spiller
Length
12 Weeks
Typical Week
6 Run, 1 Day Off
Longest Workout
15.53 miles
Plan Specs
running half marathon intermediate advanced time goal
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Summary
If you've been struggling to break that elusive 1:30 half marathon mark, this is the plan for you! Before starting this plan, you should be capable of a 40 min 10k (or faster) and are currently training. I have pieced together a lot of sessions that are based on distance and others that are based on time. A lot of runners (and other training plans) obsess and are very specific on distance/week volume that they are covering. I've made sure this plan is more than enough to help you reach your goals, so trust the plan! Just remember- the body knows stress, not miles. This plan averages 5 hours/week and 38.6 miles/week or 62 km/week- more than enough to get you to where you want to be.
This training plan is set up as:
Mon/Wed- easy run days
Tues/Thurs- speed/quality run days **
Fri- rest day
Sat- depends on the week- sometimes easy, sometimes harder!
Sun- just like most schedule, this is your long run day.
This schedule has a lot of track workouts, so it would be ideal if you had access to a 400m track.
Stats
Sample Day 1
Sample Day 2
Get ready for plenty of 400m intervals in this training plan! I've always gotten great half marathon race fitness out of doing 400m intervals. Today you're doing a set of 10 x 400 and we will eventually build up to 15 x 400 over the next few months.
**You'll want to do these 400m repeats at best effort but still holding good form. You might be able to grit your teeth, run ugly and go a few seconds faster, but that's not the goal. Focus on holding good form and try to be smooth, let's not get injured. You should be running these all under or very close to 1:30/400m.
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15 min w/u + a few 10-15 second strides to get ready
Main:
10 x 400m @ best effort with 200m walk/jog between each. Pace your first 400m smart, don't go too fast and fade for the remaining intervals. It may take you a few to dial in the pace/effort, but the last 5 should all be very close in time.
10-15 min easy cooldown
Sample Day 3
Easy 30 min
Sample Day 4
First tempo run! Shoot for anywhere from about a 10k race effort to just faster than your half marathon race effort for tempo pace. I find my tempo pace works best for me at just slightly faster than my half marathon pace, but of course it all depends on how I feel that day!
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20 min warm up (building effort throughout warm up)
20 min tempo
10 min cooldown
Sample Day 6
Easy 30 minutes
Sample Day 7
Ok, let's see how 10k at race pace (RP) goes today. Make sure to start your warm up easy and build so that you're ready once the 10k starts. Treat it just like you would a race! The first half should feel manageable. If you fail, don't worry, it's still early in the program.
1 km w/u
10 km (6 miles) @ half race pace. Sub 6:52/mile OR sub 4:16/km
1 km cooldown
Sample Day 8
Easy 30 min and the start of week 2