What pace is a 1:30 half marathon?

6:52 per mile or 4:16 per kilometre. Most runners target 6:48 to build in a small buffer.

What 10K time do I need for a sub-90 half?

About 40:00 for comfort, up to 42:30 if the endurance base is strong. The half sits closer to your 10K than most runners expect.

How much mileage for a sub-90 half?

40 to 55 miles a week at peak. More helps less here than it does in the marathon; consistent threshold work matters more than the last ten miles of volume.

Should I do more intervals or more tempo?

Tempo, almost always. The half is the most threshold-dependent distance you will race. Keep intervals in the plan to maintain the ceiling, but the weekly threshold session is what moves the time.

Train for

Breaking 90 minutes in the half marathon

Ninety minutes for the half is a serious club runner benchmark. It is 6:52 per mile, or 4:16 per kilometre, which is the same pace as a three hour marathon held for half as long.

The pace

Split	Time	Per mile	Per km
5K	21:19	6:52	4:16
10K	42:37	6:52	4:16
10 miles	1:08:39	6:52	4:16
Half	1:29:50	6:52	4:16

The supporting times

5K around 19:15. Plenty of speed. Sub-90 is an endurance and threshold problem.
10K around 40:00. The standard marker. A 40 minute 10K runner with half-specific training breaks 90.
10K around 42:30. On the line. Needs a full block of threshold volume.

Threshold volume is the lever

The half marathon is run at roughly 92 to 94 percent of your threshold pace. That makes it the most threshold-dependent race on the calendar, and it means the training that moves it is not intervals. It is accumulated time at or near threshold.

Practically: 20 to 40 minutes of threshold running a week, every week, for the length of the block. As 2 x 20 minutes, as 4 x 10 minutes, as a continuous 30, or as a progression run that ends there. Around 6:20 to 6:30 per mile for a sub-90 runner. It is the least glamorous session in running and it is the one that moves this race.

VO2max intervals still have a place, roughly every third week, to keep the top end from stagnating. But a block that is all 400s and 800s and no sustained threshold work produces a runner who can run 19:00 for 5K and 1:33 for the half.

Mileage

40 to 55 miles a week at peak, across five or six runs. The long run does not need to exceed 14 to 16 miles; unlike the marathon, the half does not reward long-run heroics. What it rewards is a lot of steady aerobic running underneath a consistent weekly threshold session.

One useful marker three weeks out: 10 miles at 7:00 per mile, done as a controlled effort rather than a race. If that feels sustainable, 13.1 at 6:52 is there.

Frequently asked

What pace is a 1:30 half marathon?: 6:52 per mile or 4:16 per kilometre. Most runners target 6:48 to build in a small buffer.
What 10K time do I need for a sub-90 half?: About 40:00 for comfort, up to 42:30 if the endurance base is strong. The half sits closer to your 10K than most runners expect.
How much mileage for a sub-90 half?: 40 to 55 miles a week at peak. More helps less here than it does in the marathon; consistent threshold work matters more than the last ten miles of volume.
Should I do more intervals or more tempo?: Tempo, almost always. The half is the most threshold-dependent distance you will race. Keep intervals in the plan to maintain the ceiling, but the weekly threshold session is what moves the time.

Your block, written

Put a date on it and Shed builds the weeks.

Shed takes your goal, your race date, and the days you can actually run, then writes every session between here and the start line. It reads each run off your Apple Watch the same day and moves what needs moving. No spreadsheet, no guessing at paces.

Get your plan on iPhone