My first race for 2025 is coming up, the San Francisco half marathon on Sunday, February 2nd. This will be my first road race since the Oakland half in 2022, and my first race back after the Javelina 100 DNF. I’m a little nervous going back to road racing, but training has showed I’m in good shape and I’m looking forward to a great race.
That said, this is not a goal race for me. The half marathon was put on the schedule as a goal post for a speed block. That speed block is in service of my A-goal for the first half of 2025: doing better than I did last year at Canyons 100k!
This post will recap my training that started in November, and go over my race mindset, gear and nutrition. For reference, all of the training was prescribed by my coach Mason Coppi, who I’ve been working with for about 18 months now. If you’re looking for a coach, reach out to him! I’m seeing great results.
Javelina Recovery to Christmas break
Let’s pick up where we left off, after my Javelina DNF. Near the end of that post I mentioned pain the left foot, and that bothered me for a good 2 weeks. It was very sore for a week, and had some lingering pain for a week after.
The first week after my 80-mile attempt at Javelina I took completely off exercise. The second week, I used a combination of elliptical, eBike and regular bike to get some base training in. I attempted one lap at a (friendly) backyard ultra, but my foot wasn’t healed enough to run on, so I had to call it after a single yard.
However, the Monday after things were better and I settled into run-training again. I managed a total of 1.5 week of good running including some faster miles during a long run. However, I had another break in the scheduling coming up. I had scheduled to have my wisdom teeth removed in November, and couldn’t run for a week after that procedure.
After that little break, I managed to get 3 good weeks of quality training. Doing about 70-75km per week, weekly Wednesday workout and a few long runs up to 12 miles.
I was making good training progression during this time. I was surprised by how well I was able to tolerate 70-75km/week so shortly after running at Javelina. I had one stand-out workout where I did 3x2 mile repeats along the Pacific Coast. It was on rolling terrain, and I was able to hit 7:45 min/mi for these repeats without feeling totally knackered.
Good block pre-Christmas break!
Christmas break
Every year for Christmas, my wife and I are joined by our best friend who travels from Belgium to visit us. During this time, there’s no running, but a boatload of hiking!
We did a total of about 200 miles (320 km) with 45k feet (13,500 meters) of vert. We did this spread out across Joshua Tree National Park, Southern California and the Bay Area.
I love this time of year. It’s not about training, it’s about spending time with a great friend, seeing gorgeous places and having good food and drinks! The base fitness training is an added bonus, but not the goal.
I prepped a post with some of the trails we did but it’s not fully ready. Let me know if you’d like to see it and I can put the finishing touches on it!
Post-Christmas break
Our friend left on Jan 5th, and my first run back was… Jan 5th! Exactly 4 weeks prior to the San Francisco half marathon.
First week back was mostly easy running, just 2 days where we added four 20 second hill strides. Great way to get the legs ready for more running. 5 out of 6 runs this week were on trail, only 1 flat/street run. Total for the week: 42 miles.
Second week we introduced speed-work back into the program. We kept the 2 days with strides, but 1 was now on flat ground and 1 was on hills (at the end of a trail run). First speed workout was 6x2min at about 10k pace, second speed was put in the middle of a 12 mile long run, doing 4 miles at half marathon pace. I only did 2 trail runs this week. Total for the week: 46 miles.
The third week looked very similar to the second week. 2 days of strides and 2 workouts. My Wednesday workout was a 2-4-6-4-2 ladder with 90 seconds rest, all executed sub 7:00/mile pace. Saturday was a long run, 4 miles warmup and then 3 times 2 miles at HM pace with 1 mile recovery. During that Saturday run, I maybe went a bit too hard, doing all 3 segments sub 7:30 pace, with 4 out of 6 intensity miles having headwind. Good workout, but maybe not perfect HM pacing execution. Again, only 2 trail runs this week. Total for the week: 49 miles.
Fourth week is race week. 6 days of running with a shortened workout (taper), 2 days of strides and then race day on Sunday. I did my workout on Wednesday, having 10 minutes at HM pace and 5 minutes at 1 hour pace (around 7:00).
One final thing to mention about this time is I added a day of eBike commuting. About 25 miles of biking, 12 each way. Very low effort, but a good way to add in some cross-training. I skipped the bike-commute during race week to give my body some extra time to recover.
Feelings and goals going into the race
I’m arguably in the best physical shape I’ve been. I’m putting in Strava PRs on longer distances during workouts and I’m generally feeling really good. I already broke my half marathon PR during the 3x2mile workout / long run. I’m not sure however how the increased fitness will translate to race day. I can do 1 or 2M repeats at sub-7:30, but will I be able to do this for 13 miles? Only time will tell.
Also, in the back of my mind, I need to stay aware that this half marathon is not the goal race. I will go hard, but I need to keep myself from going all-out, risk an injury and ruin my training for Canyons.
All of that said, I am going into this half with 3 goals:
- Don’t cause any injury
- Run sub 1:40, ~~ 7:35/mile pace.
- Run mile 11 to 12 faster than mile 0 to 1. Not going for a negative split, but I do want to take mile 1 “slow” .
While I have set goals for the race, I achieved my main goal already and that is to get faster for Canyons; and we’re set up for an amazing build up to Canyons.
Gear and nutrition I plan to use
There has been some online debate about the need for fueling for a half marathon. I still plan to fuel mine with carbs. My plan is to do the following:
- 15-20 minutes before the start: one carbs fuel (50 gram carbs)
- During the race: 2 tubes of clif bloks (~90 gram carbs). Either 1 blok per mile, or 3 every 3 miles, we’ll see how it goes.
- Carry 500ml of water with 20 gram gatorade.
Total of all of this will be about 75 grams of carbs per hour.
To carry all this, I’ll use a Hydrapak 500ml handheld and a naked belt. The naked belt will also hold my phone, and my race bib.
Shoe wise, I got myself a new pair of Saucony Endorphin Speed 4. I like the shoe a lot. It’s light and bouncy, but still feels stable. I tried a pair of the Saucony Endorphin pro 4 as well, but that shoe didn’t sit well for me.
Looking forward
I’ve got more exciting races coming up soon! 5 weeks after the SF Half Marathon I’ll be toeing the line for my first ultra of the year, the Marin Ultra Challenge 50k. It’s looking like this might be my only 50k in training for Canyons, as my second planned 50k (Montana De Oro trail run) is likely not happening. I’ll replace that race likely with the Knickerbocker 30k in Auburn; and then close of the training races with Woodside Crossover 35k.
And then we’re off to the first A-race of the year: Canyons 100k.