It is do-able! What helped me make a significant improvement in times on my runs was to incorporate intervals and tempo runs. I am no running expert, but I could share with you the types of runs I have incorporated to help increase my speed.
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When my son was littler, maybe 5 or 6, DH came in from a run one afternoon. Luke says to him, “Daddy, how many did you break today?”
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I would love to hear your training run experiences. My ultimate goal is to get faster at half marathons before moving up to full and think it would be great to hear your experiences on what worked for you.
I’ve read a lot of running books and usually o just end up thinking I’m not fast enough for some of these training programs. I need to get faster to use them to get faster. (When they say run 2 minutes per mile slower than race pace and that puts me past the Disney 16 minute per mile pace is a big nope for me).
Maybe I need Baymax to write a book on how to be okay with being not fast.
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I have also try to incorporate 2-3 strides at the end of my runs where I run my fastest for a short distance (0.2 mile) then slow down and repeat.
Here is the rough outline of what my Marathon/Dopey training should have been before I modified it to HR training this year. This method provided me with huge gains last year and got me to my first sub 2 hour half.
5 runs per week. I took Mondays and Wednesdays off for cross training.
Tuesdays - Interval running.
Thursdays - A Marathon tempo run
Fridays - Easy A running pace
Saturdays - Easy B running pace with strides at the end
Sundays - Long run at Long run pace
The runs gradually built up over 18-20 weeks. The Easy A never got above 1 hour. The Easy B never got above 1.5 hours. The Long run worked its way up to 2.5 hours over the plan.
Every other week was a down week. That means I would treat it like a recovery week from the gains of the previous week.
To calculate my pacing, I took one of my 5k runs as the distance to calculate my predicted times for several different distances. The Rigel formula is:
T₂=T₁x(D₂/D₁)1.06
where T1 is the 5k time, D1 is the 5k distance (3.11 miles), D2 is the distance I want to calculate the time for (let’s say 13.11 miles) and T2 will be your predicted time for the Half marathon based on your 5k run).
Once you get your predicted time, you can figure out what the average pace per mile will be. This is what you will use for the training speeds.
So if your tempo run is going to be at half marathon speeds, you will calculate your pace/mile using the Rigel formula and then dividing the result by 13.11 (the distance). You will then figure out your EA pace as your half marathon pace times 1.2. Your EB pace will be times 1.12. Your tempo pace is your half marathon pace. Your Long run pace will be times 1.09. Your Recovery Index pace (RI) will be your tempo pace times 1.28 (This is also your WU and CD pace). You should also have your 5k and 10k paces.
For the intervals, I used the following sets:
01-8x400m@5k-2m RI
This means run 400 meters (0.25 miles) at your 5k pace, then slow down for 2 minutes at your RI pace. Repeat this 8 times.
02-10x400m@5k-2m RI
03-12x400m@5k-2m RI
04-6x800m@5k-2m RI
05-4x1000m@5k-2m RI
06-3x1200m@5k-2m RI
07-Ladder@5k-3m RI (The ladder distances were 400m, 800m, 1200m, 1600m, 1200m, 800m and 400m)
08-3x1600m@5k-3m RI
09-10x0.5mi@HM-0.25mi RI
10-5x1.0mi@HM-0.25mi RI
11-3x1.5mi@HM-0.35mi RI
12-3x2.0mi@HM-0.5mi RI
I basically cycled through all these intervals and repeated them until I hit the end of my training plan.
That was my Dopey plan!
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Thank you so much for this @Shellott_hill!
Even though I try to stay away from math (I hope MouseMatt doesn’t see this), the equation for pacing is super helpful.
And your explanation of intervals seemed to make more sense to me than in other books/articles I’ve read about interval training.
Can’t wait to try this out. I also want to mention the feels like temperature for my run tomorrow will be 0 to -10F. I can’t wait- seriously I hope I don’t freeze🥺
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A good friend of mine did the Goofy in a mask the whole time. She had zero issues.
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For those that were part of the Dopey Challenge, here is a PDF of the ranked results…
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And just like that a week goes by . . . How is everyone feeling? How did everyone’s recovery go?
This is the first Sunday in 25 weeks that I have not run! I rode my bike on the trails yesterday, but other than that I haven’t done much in the way of physical activity. Next week’s plan is to do a bunch of yoga and start a cleansing/elimination diet. Then I’ll start to contemplate the next running plan.
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I’m going to start testing the waters again with running next week and then I’m doing a Whole 30 starting Feb 1 (my sugar intake has gotten a bit out of hand. 
)
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Awesome! How’s your hip been feeling?
I feel like I didn’t go all out at the half so I have been back to running 3-4 mile runs this week. I did not head out into the subzero weather to do a long run and I couldn’t bring myself to do one on the treadmill!
I am going to run the Sugarloaf 15K here in Maine in May so will start getting into a training plan for that soon.
I’m still flying high from how fun the race was and all of the Disney feels from last week 
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The day to day feels just fine…I can walk around and stand for long periods of time without issue - but I haven’t tried anything more strenuous.
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So fun!! It’s hard to contemplate doing a different marathon - how can it be as fun?!?
Good luck on starting back up!! Hope you can get some pain-free miles!
I am feeling SO GOOD!
I took all of last week to do NOTHING. I came home from work and jammied up. I rested, and relaxed, and didn’t think about running at all (well except for all the times I got teary thinking I FREAKIN DID IT!!!).
Today I did my first run since Marathon, a 5K at a however I felt pace and it was amazing.
It’s going to be weird to have to think for myself, fitness wise, for the first time in over 6 months. But I’m going to take the next month to do whatever I want and nothing I don’t and move my body in whatever ways feel good on that day - running, walking, yoga, something else, whatever it is.
And then I’m going to do a little research because I think just under a year from now I’ll be feeling pretty GOOFY!!!
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I hope it goes well!!!
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Yup!!! Same here
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Awesome!!!
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