After coming down with bronchitis and missing the last several group runs, I wondered if I could tackle Helvetia. But I did, and I made it! It took me 2:49, but I am just tickled that I did it. I was pretty pooped on Sunday, but I am almost back to normal today. I relied on my HRM to dictate when to walk and when to run, and I'm glad I had it with me.

It did take every ounce of energy I had to complete that race, and I've decided rather than go for the full marathon this year, I'd like to get good and solid with the half, and maybe shave a few minutes off my time this year. I'm planning on doing the Sauvie Island half on the 4th of July, and perhaps the Champoeg in September.

What I am wondering now is, since I'm not going for the full marathon, and do plan on running a couple more 1/2's this year, what should my training be? Stick with the group runs, or? At this point, it's not about running faster, but reducing the amount of walking time, and increasing the amount of running time.

Any suggestions?

Betsy,

I am so proud of you and it was great seeing you at the end of the race; too bad we were both freezing cold. As far as the Sauvie Island Half, you will totally breeze through that flat course. I think your pace on Helvetia was pretty darn good too, particularly with all those hills. Boy, I forgot how hilly it was.

Stay in touch, I would love to hear your reports on the half's you do this year.

Kathi

P.S. I still think you can do the marathon in October; you've definitely got the right attitude.

Illnesses such as bronchitis MAY be an indicator of overtraining without the proper amount of rest. Using your HRM to train in your aerobic range may keep you from getting sick due to overtraining.


The stronger your cardiovascular base, the faster you will be able to move from walking to a run/walk and eventually all running. I would stongly encourage you to continue with the PDXFit program, but make sure that you are working in your current aerobic range and getting plenty of rest.


Please make sure that you have the correct heart rate values for your aerobic range. By training in your aerobic range, your cardiovascular base will get stronger and your aerobic range will move higher.

If you haven't had a VO2 test lately, you might want to get one done. Contact JR Malpass (JR@PortlandFit.com) for a test. It takes less than one (1) hour and costs $125. Your VO2 test will tell you what heart rate range to workout in for the maximum cardiovascular improvement!

I just finished six (6) months of aerobic training from October 06 to April 07. I was able to move my aerobic threshold up 30 bpm and my anaerobic threshold up 18 bpm, just by completing my runs in my aerobic range. My pace in October 06 was 14 to 15 minutes/mile using a run/walk and in April 07, I was up to 11 minute/mile on my last long run.

As always, please feel free to email (Eric@StressThenRest.com) me with your heart rate monitoring questions.

Eric

For what it's worth, I'm primarily a walker. I have done two marathons and a half-dozen half marathons because I enjoy them so much more. Everything I have read regarding training for halfs says to train the same distance as if you were doing the full. Good Luck!

Honeybee--

First of all, I think it makes a lot of sense to focus on half-marathon distance. I think the biggest negative about half-marathons is that their name sort of denigrates them since they sound less meaningful than full marathons. I really wish that half-marathon was an Olympic distance because I think they would become more popular. But the nice thing about them is that you don't have to have an extended taper, and they don't take nearly as long to recover from.

I don't think that I would approach training for half- and full-marathons in the same manner. The primary challenges of full marathon are managing your energy balance and having the endurance to keep up a steady pace for 4-6 hours or more. The primary challenge of a half-marathon, in contrast, is pace management since most healthy adults could probably walk 13 miles, given enough time. Consequently, marathon training is designed to build up endurance and to train your ability to tap into fat stores -- that's why many marathon programs have several runs (or walks) of 15 miles or more. Half-marathon training program may have a couple 15+ milers, but these are solely included to build up endurance.

So I really don't think it makes sense for you to do the full 21 miler or the 30K if you are training for half-marathons. I always tell the people I coach to compare the potential benefits and risks of training decisions -- doing 30K and 21 milers could improve your endurance somewhat, but the downside is that you will have longer recovery times from these and put yourself at higher risk of injury. I would recommend instead that you shorten those benchmarks down to 15-16 miles. By doing this you would reduce your recovery time by a couple days, and get another short training day in.

In response to your other areas of concern...
- As Eric Lewis suggests, your case of brochitis *could* be related to your training level. Active training means your body needs more rest, especially as we age, so you should be sleeping *more* than before you started training. Also if you are training at too high of a level (I hesitate to use the term "overtraining" here since it means so many different things), you may be increasing your level of the stress-related hormone cortisol, which depresses immune system function.
- It's totally normal to be wiped out the day of a race and to feel after-effects the next day. This indicates that you pushed yourself hard, which is a reasonable strategy. That gives you an idea of what your condition is today and sets a benchmark compared to future half-marathons you do. An alternative approach would have been to take an easier pace which would have left you less exhausted, but then you wouldn't have as good of an indicator of your half-marathon potential.
- With the exception of the 30K and 21-mile benchmarks, I recommend sticking with the USA FIT schedule. Since you're training for half-marathon, you can probably afford to push your pace harder on the Saturday runs than we generally recommend for people training for full marathons. A good way to do this is to manage your run/walk ratio and to gradually increase the fraction of running.
- Make sure to do research on use of an HRM with the run/walk method. I'm not sure whether your use of the HRM to tell you when to walk is the best way to go, since it's possible that you might need to play with the pace that you are running at as well as playing with your run/walk ratio. There are lots of people at PFit who know a lot about run/walk so make sure to hit them up for help with this.
- If you can, try to do the speedwork that we include in the USA FIT progam. The benefits of speedwork will be even more apparent at half-marathon distance than at full-marathon distance.

Nice job at Helvetia, and make sure to post with details the next time you do a half-marathon race.

--AC Eric Cigan