Half-marathon training: Hanson’s week 2

The week 1 post is here.

Week 2 is five EASY RUNs with Monday and Wednesday off. This is the same basic schedule through Week 4. Week 5 adds a tempo run on Thursdays. Week 6 starts the “run 6 days out of seven” putting a easy run on Monday and sped work on Tuesday.

By that time, it will be September…and still too damn hot to be running.

How does heat after your running and pace? Some people down here claim not at all, and I see many of them jogging in the late afternoon when it is 95 degrees.

My brother the runner says other wise, and says it affects your pace quite a bit.

Here’s an interesting old article on it from Runner’s World:

Simply put, the dew point is the temperature at which water condenses. The closer the dew point is to the air temperature, the more saturated the air is and the less perspiration can evaporate and help the body cool itself, resulting in extra stress on the heart and lungs as the body attempts unsuccessfully to cool itself. Accordingly, the dew point provides a strong indicator of how you’ll feel running and a useful tool in predicting how much performance will be impacted.

DEW POINT (°F) RUNNER’S PERCEPTION HOW TO HANDLE
50â€54 Very comfortable PR conditions
55â€59 Comfortable Hard efforts likely not affected
60â€64 Uncomfortable for some people Expect race times to be slower than in optimal conditions
65â€69 Uncomfortable for most people Easy training runs might feel OK but difficult to race well or do hard efforts
70â€74 Very humid and uncomfortable Expect pace to suffer greatly
75 or greater Extremely oppressive Skip it or dramatically alter goal

There is a lot of information on the effects of heat and humidity at the site Over40Runner.com, and this chart on pace, which is lines up with the pace that the Hanson’s methodology suggests for easy runs…a happy coincidence:

Temperature Adjustment Adjustment for Humidity > 60%
55°F-60°F +5 sec/mi +10 sec/mi
60°F-65°F +15 sec/mi +25 sec/mi
65°F-70°F +30 sec/mi +45 sec/mi
70°F-75°F +40 sec/mi +1:05 min/mi
75°F-80°F +1:10 min/mi +1:45 min/mi
80°F-85°F +2:00 min/mi +3:00 min/mi
85°F+ Not Recommended

 

Week 2 schedule:

  • Monday:off day
  • Tuesday: easy 2 mi – EASY RUN 4 mi in 38:17, 9:30 pace, with negative splits in the heat. Got a late start so ran in the shade around the “lake” in our subdivision, which is quite a bit cooler. The MapMyRun GPS/iPhone5 always tracks paces faster here than on the gully/bayou…not sure why.
  • Wednesday: off day
  • Thursday: easy 3 mi – EASY RUN 5 mi in 49:37, 9:55 pace, again with negative splits. Again, I think there GPS tracking is a bit sketchy in certain parts of the gully/bayou run. Going to have to determine a way to test this out.
  • Friday: easy 3 mi – EASY RUN 4 mi in 39:08, 9:40 pace.
  • Saturday: easy 3 mi – EASY RUN 3.25 mi in 32:34 9:58 pace.
  • Sunday: easy 4 mi – EASY RUN 6.25 mi in a time different that what MapMyRun recorded (which was 51:41, 8:16 pace). The program paused and when resumed picked up the distance but not the time. This run was in line with the 9:40-10:00 pace that the program suggests for easy runs.

Total recommended: 15 mi (2+3+3+3+4 easy)

Actual: 22.5 mi (4+5+4+3.25+6.25 easy)

This week’s critter view is of a Egret, lots of them on the gully but they are usually not up on the path.

Next week’s schedule (week 3) is a total of 21 miles (5 easy runs, two off days).

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