[rlemert]

(I will be cross-posting this over at RunningAhead.)<br><br>
There are going to be two half-marathons run locally at the end of the month - one on Mar 29 and one on Apr 5. I'm looking at running the later one since it's flat and I'm looking for a specific goal time. Unfortunately I feel like I've peaked early and/or overtrained, and I'm wondiering how people would suggest I train this month to best retain/recover my conditioning. I'm not feeling as fresh as I used to, and I was thinking that my HR is creeping up for a given pace (although that's not evident in the data below).<br><br>
I don't keep my log here so I don't have anything to make public. Here's a summary of my workouts, most recent week first. (Key: miles are listed M-T-W-Th-F-Sa-Su; 'H' indicates hill work - generally steady pace with varying inclines on treadmill; 'I' indicates intervals - generally 1 mile repeats; 'T' indicates some form of tempo or race pace run. Also listed for each week are a typical pace and HR for one of my representative regular runs that week. These are obtained while running on the Y's 16-lap-per-mile indoor track, so while I don't know how accurate it is at least conditions are consistent.)<br><br>
Mar 3 0 - 8 - 5 - x - x - x - x 11:02 142<br>
Feb 25 5H - 4.5 - 6T - 5 - 8 - 0 - 0 10:56 140 (all treadmill - on business travel)<br>
Feb 18 5 - 5 - 4 - 0 - 5 - 13.1 - 0 10:49 140<br>
Feb 11 0 - 6.5T - 4.5 - 8 - 4 - 14 - 0 10:39 137<br>
Feb 4 0 - 5T - 0 - 5 - 5.5 - 10.7 - 4(include 5k race) 10:38 143<br>
Jan 28 5T - 4.5 - 6I - 3.5 - 5 - 16 - 0 10:50 135<br>
Jan 21 5H - 4.5 - 6.5T - 3 - 5 - 14 - 0 10:47 135<br>
Jan 14 5T - 4.5 - 0 - 5.5T - 0 - 12 - 0 10:42 138<br>
Jan 7 5 - 4.5 - 6.2 - 3.5 - 5 - 14 10:34 139<br>
Dec 31 5 - 4.5 - 6.5 - 3.5 - 5 - 12 - 0 10:59 139<br><br>
My current plans leading up to the race are as follows:<br><br>
Mar 3 'hard' week w/ 6-8 today, 4-5 Fri, 16 Sat all at regular pace<br>
Mar 10 'easy' week, in part because I have another business trip all week<br>
Mar 17 'hard' week w/ another 16 miler on Sat<br>
Mar 24 'easy' week<br>
Mar 31 taper<br><br>
Any comments or suggestions?

 

[Coach Craig]

The heart rate does appear to be creeping up, so I would keep an eye on that.<br><br>
Just as a guess, you might just be getting stale instead of having peaked too soon or overtrained. Without seeing all the details of your training, it looks like you have done basically the same thing for the last 10 weeks or so. While your mix of training is probably a good one for half marathon preparation, mixing things up might give you a little boost. I see just one interval and two hills workouts in there. I might do one of each every week for the next 3 or 4 weeks. Although this will likely require cutting back on the tempo and/or long runs which are normally critical, it looks like maybe you can gain more now by working of freshening up instead.<br><br>
Again, just a guess...

 

[fox-runr]

I'd guess the same as CoachCraig, interesting that your HR was actually lowest when you had an I session and long run. Because your HR is just creeping and didn't jump, I'd guess your body's perceived effort is off, NOT overtraining. Like Craig suggested, I'd keep the I workouts and a little T right up to race day (of course, not as many in the last 2 weeks). You've run your long runs long enough with plenty over race distance. I shorten that and put some T pace in a <12 mile long run and add intervals on at least one other run a week.