How to achieve your half marathon goal in a couple of months

Exeter Golf and Country Club’s Fitness Manager, Nick Rose, has never described himself as a ‘runner’ as such, but this year decided to set himself a challenge to achieve a 1 hour 35 minute half marathon. Having previously ran Exeter’s Great West in a support role with other runners, his PB beforehand was over two hours, but really the large part of Nick’s running history had been the occasional 5k run.

To cut a long story short – he did it.

Here’s how

Nick teamed up with Assistant Fitness Manager – and long term running enthusiast – Vince. Having ran A LOT of marathons, ultras, 5ks, 10ks and everything in between – at VERY fast times – Vince knows a thing or two about running, running training, race training, running distance programmes etc – and he is very passionate about it. Enlisting Vince’s help in finding the right plan, setting the right goals and tapping into Nick’s competitive streak, was key to hitting the ground running (so to speak!) and in January he got started with a four and a half month programme leading to the Great West Run in May.

What makes a good running training plan

Vince got started by analysing Nick’s natural pace on the treadmill and measuring his breathing technique.

Vince noticed that Nick was taking shorter strides and over working, causing his aerobic system to struggle to settle into a natural rhythm. By adding speed and lengthening his stride with a bounce and kick made it more comfortable for his natural leg length and therefore took less strides, which stabilized his breathing.

Vince says, “Think of a duck on the water paddling with great effort rather than a swan gliding over the surface with little effort!”

The next step was incorporate the following elements to Nick’s training.

Test out a quicker pace
Run more often
Work on form
Count strides
Develop anaerobic threshold
Do speed work
Practice fartleks
Incorporate hill training

Vince continues, “Many runners just hit the road or treadmill and run at a comfortable pace, which they believe is their comfortable pace, in many cases they are running slower than their natural stride pace and costing themselves critical speed and reduced times. I am in no way an elite runner but my personal best for a half marathon was 1.24 and my mental barrier was 1.30 – so I could relate to many runners who thought they were at their max.”

Vince then got Nick to increase his distance runs, incorporating rest days, strength training and various running formats.

Key point

Vince explains that it’s important to get time in the legs as it is essential for the mind – if you have never exceeded your target distance in your training, you will mentally shut down.”

Stepping up the distances

Nick increased his distance gradually each week with his endurance sessions (slower than his race pace) – 5k, 8k, 10k, 12k, 15k, 18k, 22k – making sure he was comfortable at a distance before moving on to the next.

Nick’s 5k pace increased as well from around 23/24 minutes until December 2023 to 19 minutes 25 seconds in May – blowing his sub 20 target out of the window. 

Nick’s first half marathon training run time was 1hr and 51mins – so he needed to shave off a sizeable 16 minutes…this is where the 12 week programme stepped in.

10/12 Week Half Marathon Plan and Tips

1 Cover more distance, increase this gradually and only move up to the next level when it becomes comfortable

2  Form and footwear – get measured for your correct strike pattern – eg toe, heel, or natural shoe. Do you pronate? These are all factors in being comfortable and having the ability to increase distance.  How old is your current shoe?  Nick upgraded and found an immediate sense of confidence offering greater bounce, shock absorption, and speed.

3 Stride length, your natural pace – get this analysed and then extend.

4 Intervals – the killer – this is all about increasing your aerobic capacity – and it hurts.  The Matrix treadmills in the gym have this built in (Sprint8) with 22 minutes of warm up, 8 speed intervals of 30 seconds sprint intervals and recovery periods. The sprint is your maximum speed and much faster than your race pace – this increases the oxygen levels in your blood system. OBLA stands for Onset of Blood Lactate Accumulation – it can sometimes be referred to as Maximal Aerobic Speed (MAS) nowadays.

OBLA training is running at the fastest speed possible while still recruiting energy from the aerobic rather than the anaerobic system. If a client is training for OBLA, they will be running at the fastest speed they can at which their lactic acid production is just lower than their body’s rate of lactic acid removal. It’s a very small margin, as once they go beyond this level, the high lactic acid levels will make it impossible for their muscles to continue exercising.

It’s a fine line – and one Vince can help within the gym.

5 Hill and endurance training – another killer – but worth it for the boost in performance you’ll get – a dedicated weekly session to include hills and repeat hill sets will make those race pace days feel like a walk in the park.

Weekly training should include

Distance (Easy) – slower than your race pace

Moderate distance at race pace

Speed Intervals at faster than race pace

Hills or Fartlek’s Fartlek training with random variations in speed and intensity, alternating between bursts of sprinting and slower ‘recovery’ jogging.

Rest Day

Strength and conditioning – gym work – to target supporting muscles that will keep your running for longer, at faster speeds, and more safely, avoiding injury. Fitness classes can help here too – GRIT, Circuits, Strength and Power Yoga are ideal for runners looking for workouts to support their run training.

Stretching / yoga for healthy, flexible muscles – without it, the muscles shorten and become tight. Then, when you call on the muscles for activity, they are unable to extend all the way – therefore prone to injury, without lower performance output.

Try PNF Stretching with Vince – find out more here. 

The results

Over the weeks, Nick’s confidence and motivation rocketed, his weight decreased and his pace increased.

On the day of the Exeter Great West Run, his dedication to the training paid off dividends and he ran the race of his life, bursting over the finish line with a half marathon time of 1 hour 30 minutes ‘official time’ and a personal Strava time of 1.29.52.

Fancy giving it a go?

Whether you’re considering your first half marathon, or you’ve hit a mental and physical block stopping you from achieving your target time, or you just want to test the waters with a 10k, these basic training components will help. 

Vince is always in the gym for a chat, if you want more help in person – or ask Nick more about how he got there himself.

Find out more about Fitness Membership at Exeter Golf and Country Club