Mastering the Half Marathon: A 10-Week Training Plan with Heart Rate Guidance

Let’s run a fast half marathon. The 21.1km distance is the most common distance event on the South African running calendar. It is a distance that is challenging while also being relatively easy to recover from, thus allowing us to race it on a regular basis. A good half marathon requires a well-constructed training progression and good pacing, both of which are significantly aided by a heart monitor. There are almost as many makes and models of heart monitors as there are half marathon events on the calendar. The functionality of these goes far beyond simply measuring the number of times our heart beats in a minute but it is exactly that function that we are going to utilise in order to properly train for a good half marathon effort in ten weeks’ time.

First up, we are going to assume that we are in good shape starting this schedule. We don’t need to be in peak condition, in fact, that wouldn’t be ideal, but we do want to be fit and capable of running within 70% of our previous best for the distance.

During the ten week schedule we are going to control our training efforts using heart rate zones based around our ‘anaerobic threshold’, which we will simplify to AnT. Not to be confused with AT, which is the aerobic threshold. Confusingly similar except for the ‘AN’ at the beginning of the word but significantly different in inensity.

In our first week we are going to conduct a test TT from which we will calculate our AnT heart rate. For this we want to be fit and fresh so that it is a maximum effort for the 8km distance. Our average heart rate for the time trial will be used as our AnT or threshold heart rate. Use round numbers for this. The body is not that specific. Zone calculations are much easier off round numbers so, for example, if you end up with an average of 172bpm for your TT, round that down to 170bpm for your threshold heart rate. From that we can calculate the other significant heart rate threshold, our AT. This is simply 20bpm lower than AnT.

All the sessions to follow will have references to heart rate as it relates to either anaerobic or aerobic thresholds. Pay attention to whether it is AnT or AT to determine effort level.

Remember that there will always be a lag in heart rate as the heart rate catches up with the effort. This is most significant in the shorter, fartlek intervals and hill repetitions. Here we need to start the intervals using perceived effort as a guide. We should know what the required effort ‘feels’ like in order to get ourselves to our required heart rate level by the end of the interval. We should generally always allow for at least a minute for our heart rate to get to the level of the first few intervals and this should then happen sooner and sooner with each interval that passes. Our heart rate graph for the fartlek intervals should gently rise throughout the session. A similar, gradual rise in the heart rate graph should be visible in the tempo runs but this should not be as steep if we have gotten our pacing right.

We are going to work in two four week blocks with a recovery week in the fifth week, where we allow the body to catch up with recovery and recuperation. Then, in the tenth week, we will taper things off into the race. Race pacing should be aimed at our AnT-5bpm to AnT-10bpm for the first half. If everything has gone well, we should then be able to increase the effort level up to just below AnT for the next 6-8km allowing for a final push to the finish where we hit AnT and above for a glorious flourish to the finish line.

PHASE ONE

Rest and Stretch.	45 minutes easy With 5 X :30 strides/pick-ups with :30 recovery between 35:00-40:00.	8km TT with 10:00 easy w/u and c/d. Record pace and average HR from only the 8km TT.	45 minute recovery session @ 30-40bpm less than AnT	Rest and stretch	1:30 endurance run @ 10-20bpm less than AT	45 minute recovery session @ 30-40bpm less than AnT
Rest and Stretch	Fartlek: 5-10:00 w/u & c/d. Main set: 10X2:00@AnT-5bpm / 2:00@AT	Midweek long run – One hour in a zone 5bpm either side of AT	Hills: 5-10:00 w/u & c/d. Hill reps: 10X200m up to AT with jog back recovery	Rest and Stretch	1:30 endurance run @ 10-20bpm less than AT but with 1X5:00 @ AT+15bpm in the last half an hour	45 minute recovery session @ 30-40bpm less than AnT
Rest and Stretch.	Fartlek: 5-10:00 w/u & c/d. Main set: 8X3:00@AnT-5bpm / 2:00@AT	Midweek long run – One hour in a zone 5bpm either side of AT	Hilly Fartlek: Accelerating on every hill up AnT-5bpm and relaxing and recovering on the downhills	Rest and Stretch	1:45 endurance run @ 10-20bpm less than AT	45 minute recovery session @ 30-40bpm less than AnT
Rest and Stretch	Fartlek: 5-10:00 w/u & c/d. Main set: 6X4:00@AnT-5bpm / 2:00@AT	Midweek long run – One hour in a zone 5bpm either side of AT	Hills: 5-10:00 w/u & c/d. Hill reps: 8X300m building. 100m easy; 100m up to AnT-10bpm; 100m up to AnT	Rest and Stretch	1:45 endurance run @ 10-20bpm less than AT but with 1X10:00 @ AT+15bpm in the last half an hour	45 minute recovery session @ 30-40bpm less than AnT

RECOVERY WEEK

Rest and Stretch