Realistic HM Expectations?
I have an old (5 years!) HM PB of 100mins, which I’d like to chip some time off in a race I have coming up this weekend.
Due to various recent life curveballs, I have not done much specific training, but I have been running a reasonable amount; I average 50-55km/week at the moment, usually spread over 5 days.
Yesterday I set myself a ‘benchmark’ workout to try and see where I’m at, and I need some help working out what my benchmark is, in relation to my upcoming half.
The workout was as per Garmin screenshots above:
~10mins w/u - 2x30mins threshold, with 5mins jog recovery in between - ~10mins c/d.
Some context for the stats: I am 46M, and Garmin reckons my max HR is around 168bpm. Resting HR last night was 38bpm, which is at the low end of normal for me. I’m usually around 40bpm. HRV was good.
The run felt hard, but ok. I ran slightly faster than I intended, and was mostly able to maintain that pace, but I don’t think I could have done another 30min rep.
My question for the Reddit hive mind is this - with this workout in mind, and after this week’s taper, can I expect a sub-97min HM time?
Given yesterday’s run, I am pretty sure 95mins is off the table.
Thanks in advance for your wisdom 🙏