Weight loss / 5k-10k-Half Training Questions

I can only tell you what I did. As stated, I did almost all of my running within time windows (lunch, kids' gym session/rugby/football/whatever). As I approached the half-marathon I started doing "long runs", basically pushing 10 miles. Before the big day I had made sure that I could run the distance, and had successfully run 15-16 miles more than once. I was running for a charity, and believed myself to be reasonably quick for a +35 year old, so wanted to finish with a decent time.

My wife did the same. I am of the belief that you need to be prepared for the race, and for 10km and half marathon distances there's really no reason why you cannot run that distance ahead of race day. I have not yet done a marathon, but plan on actually running 25-27 miles before I actual race one (if I can ever find the time to get more than 2hrs of running in one go).

I never followed a plan. And even now, where I consider myself a relatively experienced runner, I still don't really like the prescription. I believe tempo (hard) runs, normal (easy) runs and some longer runs are all that is needed to finish a race in a decent time. I don't have experience of improving yet. I ran my first race Oct 16 and set a half marathon PB. I then ran two more halfs in 2017 each slower than my first (although my annual mileage in 2017 was half of 2016). This year I am planning on increasing my mileage to that of 2016 and hopefully by following the performance/training info. on my fenix 5 will beat my time in either July or October (the dates of the two halfs I plan on doing this year). (At the moment I believe my speed is back on track with 2016, I just really need to start getting longer runs in.)

So, not much advice, other than run for 45-60 mins, rest, repeat, and if you have the ability to run for 90-120 mins every 10 or so days do it. Rest in between, and make sure you have run 12-14 miles before October. Note that when you spike the distance, e.g. go from several one hour runs to a 90-120 minute run you will really ache next day or day after, so give yourself a day or two before hitting the road again. Also remember that a 2 hour run warrants some extra food, so enjoy a restaurant. :)

I've been looking at both TrainAsOne and Garmin's Training Plans. On Garmin Connect I selected running as the activity and noticed that all of the plans that I've looked at have at least 1 day per week where you "cross train". I've looked, but I can't seem to find a definition for "cross training" on Garmin Connect. What exactly should I being doing on those days?

Basically anything you feel like - swimming, cycling, underwater basket weaving. The idea is to activate different muscles.

As an aside, if you really want to lose weight, avoid eating extra just because you are exercising. By all means ensure you ingest some nutrition during the exercise, but avoid falling in to the trap of rewarding yourself with a big meal because you feel you've learnt it. Chances are you are just burning off the extra calories that you have been accumulating.

I guess what i'm looking for is something that will guide training, based on my run data. be it, HR or distance, or pace.....it doesn't matter what it's based on i guess...

I'm looking for something that does the following...

"I see that your last run was 1.38miles at a 9:57 pace with an average HR of 183bpm. Based on this information and knowing that your goal is half marathon training.....your next run activity goal should be 1.8 miles at a 10:01 pace with an average HR of 183bpm. or Based on your previous run, your next run activity should be an interval workout with running for 2min and walking for 1 min repeated x number of times for a total distance of 2 miles and an average running pace of x."

does something like that exist? i'm basically wanting the watch to coach me to a race, based on my running dynamics info from previous workouts.....

thanks guys.

Matt

This is worth looking at it (paid for), some cycling friends (and one friend used it for a marathon training) have reported good results.

http://www.vitfor.com/

i'm basically wanting the watch to coach me to a race, based on my running dynamics info from previous workouts.....

All the watch will do is collect the data. You either learn to interpret it or pay for a coach to do the job for you.