This Saturday I’ll participate in a charity run where you find people sponsoring you and they will donate based on how many laps (400m) you manage to run in 2 hours.
My longest run so far was a 10 km run with a pace of 5:30 (very exhausted afterwards) and once with a pace of 6:15 (felt like I could have gone another 30 mins, however my HR steadily climbed from around 160 to 180 at the end).
My two questions to you experienced runners:
- What would a good strategy for running the longest distance possible in 2 hours?
- Is my HR an issue? It didn’t seem to really stabilize and was around 180 for the last 10 mins. Will it plateau if I run more than the 60 mins or will I run out of energy before?
PS: I know running that long without proper training might be stupid but I’m determined to make my sponsors pay.
Hey everyone, Thank you for your tips! I just finished the run with exactly 20 km in the 2 hours we had. That’s a 6:00 pace and it honestly pretty nice all the way through. Even had enough fuel in the tank to go a bit faster for the last 3 km then before. Super proud I made it and managed to raise about € 4000.
My next goal is a proper half marathon.
@sirnak congratulations! My legs feel bad today after a 20k run yesterday, I hope you are doing well.
Legs are fine but two of my toe nails look like they won’t make it to the end of the week :D
@sirnak yes, this is the problem for me too after each long run. Don’t know what to do to avoid the toe problem 🤔
Shoes that are too large can be a problem, as you’ll try to “grab” the shoes with your toes without even noticing.
It was the opposite for me. I had to switch to running in one size larger than my regular shoes.
:D congrats!
Having just finished my first half-marathon, my advice is to start very slow, slower than your 10k times, and try to keep that pace. If I had to do it over, I would try to stick to 75% of my max heart rate. I made the classic error of letting myself get carried away with the crowd and ended up walking much of the second half, and ultimately my time was what it would have been if I had kept that limit on my heart rate, and I felt much more exhausted than I would have been.
Is it just based on how far you go? If so, your best option is probably a combination of running/walking. Take plenty of walk breaks to let your HR come down, but you’ll keep making progress. You’re probably not going to run a Half-Marathon distance in 2 hours with this strategy though.
Yes. Max distance in 2 hours is the goal. Do you recommend running until I’m tired and then including walking breaks or taking walking breaks from the very beginning?
Don’t wait until you are tired or it will be too late to really help. Decide ahead of time to run for a set period, 5 or 10 minutes, then walk for a minute. Keep the running pace pretty easy and you will be able to go a long way. Don’t worry too much about your heart rate, at least for the first half hour, as long as the pace feels good. Your heart rate may drift up for the whole race, but, after the first half hour, shouldn’t increase quickly.
Thanks for the advice!
I’ve never run a half marathon that quickly, even after months and months of training. Equal parts impressive and disheartening.
With good tendon strength: Start off with something like a 6:15-6:30 for the first half and if you feel fresh after it bump it up to 6:00-6:15 otherwise just continue.
Otherwise be careful and start with a 7:00 first hour before starting the speed.
Either way, that’s a lot of laps.
