6 hours isn't much for a half. most plans want you to double that. for mine (i've done 3) i did up to 13 or 14 hours. and i think one can get by with fewer hours with years of training under their belt. but a newbie definately is pushing it. you will finish but it will be ugly. and i think it depends on where the half is within your schedule -- is it the end of the year, middle, etc? if the end, you will probably fare better given the extra time to get in shape, experience, etc. sorry to rain on your parade. good luck.

last summer i did a 70.3 which was my first tri. i pretty much ran every day, biked twice a week (never even biked past 45 miles), and swam once a week, probably about 7 hours of training a week, it was not what i had planned on doing, raceday i was totally nervous, thinking that i would do horrible but i ended up finished in under 5:30 (which was my goal). in my uneducated opinion if time is your issue just make sure to build up to a few long bricks before race day and you should be fine.

Picking out the positives...

The half is in August. It's my last scheduled race of the season.

You can only train as much as you have time for, so there's no use stressing about that part of the situation. Focus on a few key workouts, as well as a nutrition plan and proper pacing for race day.

I would at least get some longer runs and rides in before the half, and maybe even a race specific brick. Make sure you can run at least 10 miles in a single session. Attempt to get a few Saturday mornings to yourself when you can ride 45-60 miles in a single workout.

Also, try to do a brick about 6 weeks before the half where you mimic the half. Do a (roughly) 56 mile bike at your HIM pace while practicing your nutrition plan for the race, and then follow it with a 1 hour run. Hopefully this workout will give you the confidence that you can finish the race.

Here's a little more history:

I did a lot of biking last year (a few supported century rides, and lots of 40 - 60 mile solo rides). I'm not particularly fast (18-20 mph avg on the flats), but pretty solid. I have only done about 100 miles on the tri bike (purchased a month ago) so far.

I started learning how to swim in August last year. I've been swimming pretty regularly three days a week since then. I'm finally comfortable with 2000+ meters in the pool. I typically follow the swim workout with a bike ride and/or a run of an hour or so each. (The bike/run portion has been in spinning classes and on the treadmill because of the early hours and cold weather.)

One of my favorite workouts I've been doing is running to the gym (6 miles), swimming 1500 in the pool, and then running back home (another 6 miles).

I hate the treadmill. I'm tired of spin classes.

Now that it's warming up outside, I plan to spend most my time biking and running. Sounds like the TriFuel gurus agree with that focus.

You can do it! And I'll be waiting for your RR to see if I could move my HIM plans up a year... ;-)

The comments are interesting and I think I know the answer to the question I will pose, but..... I am in need of advice on the same thing. I am considering doing a HIM in September and typically can only train about an average of 6-8 hours a week. I ran a half marathon in March in 1:57 but had never run more than 10 miles before that. I ride a fair amount but usually either spin or do group rides a few times a week of around 30-40 miles. I started training with power but have not seen the benefit that I would like to see so I am considering just picking a race distance and doing a program that is tailored to around 8 hours a week. I just got in the water recently and did a workout that someone posted on trifuel that I have found great. It is the 300 warmup, 4x50 at race pace w 10 sec rest, 4x100, 4x200, 500 w pull buoy and felt pretty good in the water. I had a very bad swim at Xterra Nevada last year, pretty much panicked but finished. Since I am pretty slow(my last 5k was around 7:19 pace but this kills me) compared to anyone higher than mid-pack, I have recently thought I could maybe be better in the longer distances, like halves but clearly not full IM's. I think I am in the same boat as the original poster in that I will probably be able to finish but will suffer, especially in the swim and run. Any advice or is it just best to pick a program and do it?

You can do it.... I've never done a half so I don't really have the experience to back it up, but I think that if you can do the distances separately in your training, you can do them in a race. Make sure to get in some 3-4 hour rides. Once I had a good base, I went a 2:40 Oly on about 12 hours of training total for the 8 weeks before the race. I've also gone sub 2:25 averaging about 7 hour per week. Once you have a good base, especially on the bike, you can do a lot on that with very little training. I think that as long as you pace yourself appropriately, it should be no problem (that said, I've never done it...).

Thank you. I will bump up the length of rides as I know if I am better on the bike that I won't be as fried for the run.

my $.02....wean yourself off the music, you'll enjoy your running more

I run with earbuds/Ipod almost exclusively, but when it comes to running events or triathlon events I just do without them.

So I would just do without if I were you. It's not a biggie.