I just finished my first half marathon, starting from no running base at all.
When I registered for the half, I had to guesstimate my projected running pace.
I had no idea what to put in, so I registered in the 12 minute corral and hoped
that I would be able to hit that time.
I googled around to find the answer to my question- how quickly can I realistically and comfortably expect my running pace to improve during my training?
I couldn’t find anything about pace for beginner runners- most half marathon training references for beginners focus only on the goal of finishing. So I thought I would post here the exact run schedule that I actually followed and also a plot of my pace over time to show results for an average person (no running base) following a half marathon training schedule.
Below is the schedule of what I actually ran. I followed the Nike+ Running coach beginner half marathon program for a little while, but moved long runs to Saturdays and backed off a little more on the running than the Nike+ coach suggested because I started to get burnt out in the last month. For cross-training I did 30-45 minute workouts from the Nike+ Training coach app. Sundays, I frequently did 45 minutes of yoga. I also did additional short 15 min yoga sessions pretty regularly (3 or 4 times per week).
Run Schedule
| Week | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (14.1 miles) | 3 miles | 4 miles | X-train | Rest | 3.1 miles | Rest | 4 miles |
| 2 (16.3 miles) | 3.1 miles | 5 miles | X-train | Rest | 3.1 miles | Rest | 4 miles |
| 3 (19.5 miles) | 3.1 miles | 5 miles | X-train | Rest | 3.1 miles | 2 miles | 6.3 miles |
| 4 (22.3 miles) | Rest | 5 miles | 3.1 miles | X-train | 3.1 miles | 3.1 miles | 8 miles |
| 5 (23.9 miles) | Rest | 6.1 miles | 3.1 miles | X-train | 3.3 miles | 3.4 miles | 8 miles |
| 6 (27.2 miles) | Rest | 4 miles | 7.1 miles | X-train | 4 miles | 3.1 miles | 9 miles |
| 7 (25.1 miles) | Rest | 3.9 miles | 7.2 miles | X-train | 4 miles | X-train | 10 miles |
| 8 (27.95 miles) | Rest | 8.1 miles | 4.25 miles | X-train | 4.5 miles | X-train | 11.1 miles |
| 9 (32 miles) | Rest | 5 miles | 9.5 miles | X-train | 5.2 miles | X-train | 12.2 miles |
| 10 (30.7 miles) | Rest | 5.1 miles | X-train | 3.6 miles | 6 miles | 3 miles | 13 miles |
| 11 (11.9 miles) | Rest | 6.6 miles | X-train | 5.3 miles | Rest | Rest | Rest |
| 12 (27.56 miles) | 5 mile (race) | Rest | 5.35 miles | 4 miles | Rest | Rest | Half Marathon! |
Running pace improvement
Here’s a plot of my running pace. I started really slowly at 14’ pace (my excuse is that I also ran in the snow), but I was able to get down to a 10:30’ pace in the last week or so before the half. My official pace for the half marathon was 10:38’ for a 2:19:26 finish time.
