5 weeks to half marathon

[kerosene]

Hi, this forum is full of diligent hard working individuals with sensible goals and discipline. Unfortunately I often am not like that.
That being said I am getting back to training.

Yesterday I realized that
A here (Finland) the half marathon national event is in 5 weeks (20th if April) and
B based on last year’s results the m40 group is not very fast. My las summer’s HM PB 1:28:23 ** 2.05.6/500m would have placed me second, and in fact 2:09 pace would have been enough.
This makes me greedy to go in with bold goals*. But my base is not as good as last summer. With only 5 weeks to go what would be the best plan of action?

My thinking is 4-5 workouts a week. How does something like this sound:

1. relaxed 10k clearly sub race pace, just to collect meters really
2. Race pace 10k, add 1.5k every week. (Not sure I can do it, at least will take serious effort)
(3. Rest/recovery 5k)
4. Relaxed pace 10k or 2x 5k
5. Sub race pace 15k (ramping up, 1k/ week or something)
(6. Rest/recovery)
7. Optional, based on feel, potentially faster 5k or 1k intervals, more of a VOmax type of a thing.

Last week easy, 2nd last week maybe more intervals. This is a lot more than I have been doing but my gut says that my body can take it.


Any tips or comments? Thanks for any thoughts.


*I don’t care if I am the last and the 10th, as long as my effort is ok and not a total joke compared to the event’s general level

[MPx]

Good on you to have a go.

5 weeks = 4 weeks training which IMO won't make a huge difference to your cardio fitness. Having said that you can certainly sharpen up and more importantly learn the right pace to attack it at - gaining mental confidence in not blowing/finishing. I hate distance pieces and don't train for them - but in the spirit of pretending I know what I'm talking about (I don't!) here's my take:

Your No2 is the most important session of your week and the one to concentrate effort on.
Make sure your Nos 1&4 10ks are at a slow enough pace that you can recover from.
5 looks like a waste of effort to me ?? I'd drop it
7 more important for sharpening - your second hard session of the week.

So 1/2/4/7. So 1 rest 2 rest 4 rest 7, 1 rest 2...
If you want to do more then do your 3 before 2 and 7 instead of rest.

[Dangerscouse]

Good on you to have a go.

5 weeks = 4 weeks training which IMO won't make a huge difference to your cardio fitness. Having said that you can certainly sharpen up and more importantly learn the right pace to attack it at - gaining mental confidence in not blowing/finishing. I hate distance pieces and don't train for them - but in the spirit of pretending I know what I'm talking about (I don't!) here's my take:

Your No2 is the most important session of your week and the one to concentrate effort on.
Make sure your Nos 1&4 10ks are at a slow enough pace that you can recover from.
5 looks like a waste of effort to me ?? I'd drop it
7 more important for sharpening - your second hard session of the week.

So 1/2/4/7. So 1 rest 2 rest 4 rest 7, 1 rest 2...
If you want to do more then do your 3 before 2 and 7 instead of rest.

for someone who doesn't know what they're talking about this is great advice.

My only other comment is it might be useful for you to row a 10k, or a bit further with some of it at faster than race pace. Maybe this could be 5k at race pace, 2.5k at race pace +1/2 and then 2.5k at whatever feels better (race pace or a bit slower).

Gaining confidence is important and I always find that rowing to at least 16k is very useful too.

[JaapvanE]

A practical one: Consider to take the rest day after the race pace 10K. This way,you are more certain te recover well from it.

[kerosene]

Thanks for the input.

#5, the other long that I called "sub race pace" is unclearly expressed. Just to clarify, meant slower than race pace.
Ie. There would be one hard longer piece, and one easier longer piece. 2 easy ones and one optional interval.

Your comments are likely valid either way you understood it. Basically that you cannot gain much aerobic improvement in such timeline so the very long and boring has limited bang for the effort.

[kerosene]

Good on you to have a go.

5 weeks = 4 weeks training which …

for someone who doesn't know what they're talking about this is great advice.

My only other comment is it might be useful for you to row a 10k, or a bit further with some of it at faster than race pace. Maybe this could be 5k at race pace, 2.5k at race pace +1/2 and then 2.5k at whatever feels better (race pace or a bit slower).

Gaining confidence is important and I always find that rowing to at least 16k is very useful too.

Yeah the race pace 10k is supposed to ramp up week by week to get to above 15k.
And agree with the confidence part.

My idea with two long days was that one is faster (ie race pace) and the other is longer but easier. But as you state that leaves me with no faster than race hard days. Some faster work would be good - at least for the head.

Today I will do 5k skierg and 5k row, easy. And will start my “plan” tomorrow.
We have a family team in the c2 erg challenge so that is a factor too - as many meters in a month as possible. Our 7 and 9 year olds are both at 2k+/day now. .