Vancouver Lake Half Marathon Training and Race Recap
I completed the Vancouver Lake ½ Marathon last week. I finished in 1:28, 7th place for my 45-49 age group (top 6 receive commemorative pint glasses). This is a small race (about 525) on a flat course adjacent to Vancouver Lake and the Columbia River in Southwest Washington. Race time weather conditions were perfect. Temperatures were in upper 40s/low 50s, with no wind or rain and a slight fog. In past years, racers have experienced freezing rain and wind. Although I didn’t train specifically for this race, I’m still happy with the time. 6:45/mile pace isn’t bad considering I haven’t done much speed or tempo work.
My specific mile splits are captured below. Right now my sights are set on the Vancouver USA Marathon in mid June, so I view this race as just a 13 mile tempo that I ran 17 weeks prior to the Newport Marathon. Following are my splits for the race:
Below I outline my training for this event. I think it’s a good template for half marathon training at the beginning of a race season. I mostly relied on my running base (typically 25-35 miles/week during the offseason, plus cross-fit conditioning workouts twice a week). Although this may seem like low mileage, at my age, I don’t want to breakdown during my marathon training. Read my post on building an offseason mileage base for more information.
I also recently completed the Runners World 36 day challenge (running every day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s). I completed medium to long runs (8-12 miles) at a relatively easy pace and I finished 4 track/interval sessions. The rest of training was balanced around my busy work/travel schedule and consisted of workouts in hotel gyms. As discussed in my marathon training tips for busy professionals, the goal of these gym workouts was to maintain my level of fitness. My 6 week half marathon training plan included:
1. At least one long run per week – 3 (total) x 8 milers, 2 x 10 milers, 2 x 11/12 mile runs at 7:30/mi pace.
2. Weeks prior to the race, 11 mile run at 7:15-7:30/mile pace in the vicinity of the course
3. Approximately half the long runs included hills.
4. Interval/track workouts. I completed 1 (each) of the following workouts, starting 5+ weeks prior the half marathon. These were not super strenuous, but each was run at 5k pace. I honestly haven’t felt too motivated to run a hard/long track workout. All of these started with 1.5mile warm-up, stretching & 8 x 100m strides
Week 1 – 4 x 200m with 60 seconds of rest between each
Week 2 – 2 x 200m, 1 x 400m, 2 x 200m with 60 seconds of rest
Week 3 – 4 x 200m, 2 x 400m, 2 x 200m with 60 seconds of rest
Week 4 – 2 x 200m, 3 x 400m, 2 x 200m with 60 seconds of rest
5. Other workouts included either 4 miles on hotel treadmills with assorted plyometric exercises or 2-3 mile warm-up runs followed by 30 minute cross-fit/Universal Combat Conditioning (completed as group at Universal Jiu-Jitsu in Camas, WA).
