How Can a Triathlete Run a Sub-90 Half Marathon?

Get Fast Podcast, with Gerard and Jordan Donnelly

If you're already close, around 1:40, Gerard's answer may surprise you: do less hard running. Swap an intense run for a recovery run, keep your main speed session hard, and extend your endurance. If you're further away, the goal can still be possible, but it takes longer.

How close do you need to be?

Going from 1:40 to 1:30 is much more achievable than going from two hours. From 2:30, Gerard would talk about small steps first. Genetics also set a limit.

A marathon runner once came to him with a 3:25 best and wanted to break three hours. Gerard said it wouldn't be a quick fix. It took two or three years.

His first question for a two-hour runner is about their longest training run. If training stopped well short of their race time, that's "the first alarm bell". He builds the long run in steps over about six months and watches how they cope with everything else.

What should you change if you're close?

The athlete pushing for 1:30 is generally running every run the same. Gerard's fix:

• Take one intense run out and make it a recovery run
• Keep the intensity in the speed session, and try to improve it
• Extend your endurance run
• Build strength by running hills

Many athletes resist backing off when they're this close. His reply is that you came to him because you haven't been able to get there. You have to follow the program 100 percent, and not "a version of it".

What types of run sessions help?

Gerard's rule is variety: some intensity, some endurance, some recovery. Repeat the same sessions and you stay the same runner.

• Speed session. Run fresh, not off the bike, and build it through the block towards your A race. Hill repeats and fartlek are among his favourites.
• Hilly endurance run. Low intensity. The hills build strength and stamina. Go past your race time, because he measures this by time more than distance.
• Fast finish run. Done intermittently, on a course more like your race. Run progressively faster, reach race pace, then go faster towards the end.
• Race pace session. Teaches you what your pace feels like.
• Easy runs off the bike. Short and relaxed. They get your body used to running off the bike.

How these fit together depends on your race distance, your goal and your injury history. You've also got swimming and riding to look after.

Why not do more speed work?

Fast running can injure you, and it creates fatigue that affects your swim and ride. Gerard says getting to the start line matters more than being able to run a fast time injured.

He says about one percent of the athletes he coaches can handle a second speed session. His job with the rest is often to hold them back.

Hill repeats help. You get a similar cardio response to flat intervals, with less stress on your hamstrings and calves. You still need some fast running, because endurance training alone won't improve you.

How should you pace the race?

Work out your pace from your race and training data, then run to it. Gerard's tip is to find a 500m marker in your warm-up, such as a lamppost. Check your watch there, again at 1km, then at each kilometre.

His example: your race pace is 5:00 per kilometre, and at 500m you're on 4:05 pace. Back right off. It feels easy because you're fresh. "But I felt so good" is an answer he doesn't accept. He wants your second half faster than your first.

How do you improve your VO2 max?

Gerard names genetics, altitude and training. He dismisses doping as cheating.

• Genetics are out of your control.
• Altitude can help. If you live at sea level, he prefers sleeping high and training low.
• Training is where most athletes have room, because they aren't yet near their ceiling.

Stacking VO2 sessions isn't the way there. They are efforts of around three minutes, hard enough that people "almost want to sell their running shoes". In his view, a balanced program of VO2, endurance, tempo, intervals and recovery gets you closer. Improve everything, and VO2 "will come along for the journey".

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