Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2019 (Read 641 times)

    If you want to feel slow take a look at races in the 1980s. 1981 Rotorua Marathon 334 sub 3 hours/2500 finishers.

    55+ PBs 5k 18:36 June 3rd TT

    " If you don't use it you lose it,  but if you use it, it wears out.

    Somewhere in between is about right "      

     

    JamesD


    JamesD

      It's not sub-1:30 times, but I've been keeping track for the last few years of all the halfs in Georgia and of how many runners go under 1:35 in each one (and of all the 50+ runners who do so).  Looks like our times are slower - in the 23 races with 500 or more participants since the start of 2018, the highest percentage is 7% (66/897) below 1:35.  Most of them are between 1% and 4%, though most are in Atlanta, which is hilly.  Marathons have higher percentages of people below the equivalent time (3:18), I assume because there are many fewer casual marathoners.

      Post-1987 PRs:  Half 1:30:14 (2019); 10K 39:35 (2019); 5K 19:12 (2017); Mile 5:37.3 (2020)

      '24 Goals: consistency, age-graded PRs, half < 1:32

      JamesD


      JamesD

        Well, I disregarded Flavio’s advice & am paying the price.  Did 4x1200 with 3:15 rest Monday, as I’m switching my fast day to the start of the week as I get ready for a 5-mile race in early July.  Averaged just under 6 minutes/mile pace, about 1 sec/mile faster than my best a couple of years ago & 8 sec/mile faster than two weeks ago, and all the 1200s were within 1 second of each other, so I was pleased.  Pushed some, but not to the point of exhaustion and less than I have other times.

         

        However, I cooled down for 1.2 miles on the track, and those extra non-Flavio-approved 352 yards must have been my undoing, as my legs have felt tired ever since, and I cut short my long run Thursday.  Had my recurring midweek hamstring soreness, but not as bad as in the previous few weeks, and it may be partly DOMS.  I’m a bit surprised that I’m more affected than I was after running 5x1200 at the same effort (but slower) three times at the start of the year when I had less of a base.  It may be the result of running a tempo the Thursday before the Monday workout, as I don’t seem to handle well running fast more than once a week. Next week is a tempo (i.e., non-workout) week, which may help me recover.

         

        Sun - off

        Mon - 6 miles, including 4x1200 @4:27 w/3:15 walk/jog rest

        Tues - 6.3 slow & easy

        Weds - 42 minutes swimming, slow & tired

        Thurs - 9.3 easy

        Fri - 6.2 easy

        Sat - 7.8 easy, legs still tired

         

        Total - 35.6 miles

        12-week average - 38 mpw

        Post-1987 PRs:  Half 1:30:14 (2019); 10K 39:35 (2019); 5K 19:12 (2017); Mile 5:37.3 (2020)

        '24 Goals: consistency, age-graded PRs, half < 1:32

        Marky_Mark_17


          James - doh!  At least it sounds like it's only fatigue rather than injury.  Nice week.

           

          Me - had a bit of a cold Tues/Wed but it was pretty minor thankfully, and with the legs finally recovered from the Christchurch race, I hit a decent workout Thursday.  Sunday's long run was a tough one with some effort blocks and the weather was rubbish with wind and rain, legs were pretty tired by the end of that.  Also made the absolute rookie error of ending up with nipple chafe due to my shirt getting wet.  Might've just been because it was a new shirt but that hasn't happened in a while!

           

          M: weights

          T: 12.1km easy

          W: 12km w/ (easy) hill repeats

          T: 13km w/ 3x2km build

          F: weights

          S: 14.4km easy->moderate

          S: 29.1km long run

          Total: 80.7km

          3,000m: 9:07.7 (Nov-21) | 5,000m: 15:39 (Dec-19) | 10,000m: 32:34 (Mar-20)  

          10km: 33:15 (Sep-19) | HM: 1:09:41 (May-21)* | FM: 2:41:41 (Oct-20)

          * Net downhill course

          Last race: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

          Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

          "CONSISTENCY IS KING"

          SteveChCh


          Hot Weather Complainer

            Not a great week for me with several attempts to run through the hamstring/piriformis pain ending up cut short.  Went to the physio on Friday who said it is relatively minor but to forget about a race in 7 weeks if I want it to heal properly.  So here I am again, in what I think should be PB form, unable to keep it going.  So hopefully I can transfer my entry to someone for Ashburton - in the meantime I'm allowed to run for 10 mins max and if no pain, can go to 15 mins next week...so I'll be doing a lot of bike and walking, along with strengthening exercises.  Frustrating but I'm feeling okay about it - I know what I need to do and it means instead of Ashburton I may have to look at the Sri Chinmoy in September, although I may not have time to hit full fitness, depending on how long this takes to heal properly.  I'm hoping it's faster than the 8 weeks the physio estimated!  I'm trying not to get too down about it - I have friends dealing with far far worse health issues than a bit of a pain in the butt.

            5km: 18:34 11/23 │ 10km: 39:10 8/23 │ HM: 1:26:48 9/23 │ M: 3:34:49 6/23

             

            2024 Races:

            Motorway Half Marathon February 25, 2024 1:29:55

            Christchurch Half-Marathon April 21, 2024

            Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024

            Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024

              Steve that sucks but at least you are getting good advice to heal up. I haven't investigated mine and am just guessing its piriformis pain. I get quite a sharp biting pain when I'm driving or sitting in the kayak. I can run without much pain but I'm down to 6kms 3 or 4 times per week.

               

              Mark nipple chafe is better than having a visit from Richard Chafer 

               

              James a tempo is a workout though right ?

              55+ PBs 5k 18:36 June 3rd TT

              " If you don't use it you lose it,  but if you use it, it wears out.

              Somewhere in between is about right "      

               

              flavio80


              Intl. correspondent

                James - I know you’re kidding, but 1.2 mile cool down should be fine. It could be DOMS. Maybe try taking 2 days off?

                 

                Mark - LOL nipple chafe, I know it’s not fun for you though. It’s cool that you are running these long long runs so often.

                 

                Steve - if you do strength work, you might have to temporarily work around the piriformis, since it’s tight, if you do some exercise that makes it work, you might aggravate the situation. Of course a PT or trainer might have proper advice.

                 

                me - yo guys 100 pages!

                 

                My week started on Tuesday as on Monday I did a workout for the last week:

                T: 1200 (4:06) + 4x500 (1:43,1:46,1:42,1:44) + 6x300 (63,59,56,57,58,58)

                This workout was a great confidence booster, especially considering I did it just after another workout on the previous day. Those 300 were close to 3:00/km pace (5:48/mi) and they felt really fast. This was the day where I stole a Strava segment crown, only to have a lady come run half an hour later and steal it from me LOL

                W: 9ez along with stealing back that Strava segment crown. Typical jerk behaviour 

                T: 3.5k warm up + 1500m time trial in 5:17

                This was not done in the best of conditions, mostly on my fault. We were traveling, and there was no track available. I had to do it in a local small park, in the shape of a triangle. Unfortunately a corner of it had some elevation, so I couldn’t go around it. Other places in town were either not flat or full of stray dogs. Those seemed to be easy going dogs, but I couldn’t predict how they’d behave once I passed nearby at 1500m pace.

                Anyway, the previous day was Lover’s day here in Brazil (12th of june). We don’t use St Valentine’s day). My youngest brother and his girlfriend were in town so we met for dinner and I had to have a caipirinha. After having gone 6 months dry, that caipirinha hit me hard the next day, no matter how much water I was taking.

                On the bright side, 5:17 is now a low hanging fruit and I’m pretty sure I can beat that time in 3 months time.

                By the way, the place we visited is gorgeous (Buzios), it used to be a local fisherman village until Brigitte Bardot came to visit and it started attracting international attention. It’s a ridiculously beautiful and idyllic place. Hit me up on @flaviotravelblog on insta for some pictures.

                F: Functional training

                S: 10 moderate (45 min)

                S: 6  - 2x (1k ez + 1k@MP + 1k@5k pace)

                 

                4 weeks of strength training focused on pure strength start tomorrow, low reps high loads.

                 

                Fun fact: For Brazilians, the name of the apps does not make any sense, so everything is abbreviated, thus they’ve become Face, Insta, Snap and Whats.

                PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021

                Up next: no idea

                Tool to generate Strava weekly

                  Flavio: Lovers day? Thats much better than the one-sided valentines bull crap. That 5:17 is low hanging fruit for you; you are a runner, not a fighter Smile

                   

                  Mark: sorry I meant to post this earlier. So here it goes, fairly recent half marathon times for men only, in Switzerland:

                   Cat Total # below 90 # %
                  U20 21 0 0.00%
                  M20 122 12 9.84%
                  M30 178 17 9.55%
                  M40 196 16 8.16%
                  M50 151 4 2.65%
                  M60 27 0 0.00%
                  M70 36 0 0.00%
                  Total 731 49 6.70%

                   

                  Those categories are male 20-29 would be M20 etc. So I guess in general this is significantly slower than the average NZ races.

                   

                  Piwi et al: I would recommend the video on Youtube "The Betrayal of Kenya's Athletes" from Unreported World. It's about the systematic EPO use in Kenia, the motivations and methodologies. I feel cheated by the audiobook running with the Kenians, that obviously must have come across this as well, but choses to not touch on the subject. All fake, all full of bs.

                  HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)

                   

                  2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!

                  Marky_Mark_17


                    Steve - aaargh frustrating!  And yeah I hear you in terms of it being minor on the overall scale of health problems, but it's still frustrating!

                     

                    Flavio - Nice week, interested to see what weights you hit during strength training.  I am still doing low reps but have backed off on the weight with mileage having increased just to give the legs a bit of a break.

                     

                    MJ - yeah if that's males only it probably would be a bit lower than NZ, since the 7% for Waterfront was male and female.

                    3,000m: 9:07.7 (Nov-21) | 5,000m: 15:39 (Dec-19) | 10,000m: 32:34 (Mar-20)  

                    10km: 33:15 (Sep-19) | HM: 1:09:41 (May-21)* | FM: 2:41:41 (Oct-20)

                    * Net downhill course

                    Last race: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

                    Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

                    "CONSISTENCY IS KING"

                    watsonc123


                      James - good week.  I agree with JMac that it might just be DOMS.  Is that workout quite different to anything you've done recently?

                       

                      Mark and Flavio - good weeks.

                       

                      Steve - good luck with the injury.

                       

                      My week was pretty good.  Life got in the way Tuesday (youngest broke her elbow), managed to run the other 6 days.

                       

                      <tfoot> </tfoot>
                      Day Miles Pace Description Link
                      Mon 5.0 9:18 Evening Run strava
                      Wed 7.8 7:31 Evening Run - Tempo 3.0-10.5km and 2 * 200 Metres Quick strava
                      Thu 5.0 8:40 Evening Run strava
                      Fri 5.1 8:14 Afternoon Run strava
                      Sat 5.0 8:38 Afternoon Run strava
                      Sun 12.6 7:36 Morning Run - MLR with Tempo 14.3km-20.3km strava
                        40.5 8:07  

                      PRs: 5km 18:43 (Dec 2015), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:26:16 (Sep 2016), full 3:09:28 (Jun 2015)

                       

                      40+ PRs: 5km 19:31 (Oct 2020), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:29:39 (Jun 2018), full 3:13:55 (Sep 2022)

                       

                      2023 PRs (hope to beat in 2024): 5km 20:34, 10km 41:37, half 1:32:32, full 3:21:05

                       

                      2024 PRs: 5km 20:25

                      CoolJoggings


                        Hi all. My name is John, I'm 34, living in Sydney, and have been running for just under two years. I'd love the input of an experienced distance runner! In short, I ran a 95 minute half marathon yesterday (PB), and I'm training for a 50k trail run around Lake Taupo (New Zealand) in October. I enjoyed trying to do a fast half so much that I'm wondering whether I can try to get under 90 minutes AND prepare for the 50k simultaneously. Will striving to do both undermine my chances of achieving either?

                        Here's where I'm up to: I ran / limped a slow marathon in late 2017 (I was injured but didn't want to pull out because I had taken lots of donations), and have run fourteen half marathons including some trail stuff, but usually run casually at about 1:40. Yesterday was the  first time I tried for a fast time, and it was a lot of fun. I've been running 1000k/year, but recently happily averaging 30-35k/week, and have started putting in some intervals, 20min 5K runs, etc. Yesterday I learned what a tempo run is, etc by poking around on the net for training plans, but I'm essentially clueless. If you were at my level of fitness, would you try for the sub-90 before or after the October 50k? Has anyone got a training plan that builds towards both? Thanks!

                          Hi everybody! sorry for the absence... I read a few pages and I am still trying to run, although the last few weeks were just crazy at work. I started travelling on the 19th of May, went to New Orleans, then San Francisco for 1 day, then back to Belfast for a few days, then in North Carolina for 1 day, then London, then I went to Italy for a wedding... then my wife was away for the weekend (kids at home... no running...)... And of course, in all this travelling, I also had tons of deliverables at work on many projects... so running paid the price...

                           

                                 
                          10/06/2019 – 16/06/2019: 6.4 mi 52:00 8:08 / mi
                          03/06/2019 – 09/06/2019: 14.5 mi 2:01:53 8:25 / mi
                          27/05/2019 – 02/06/2019: 23.9 mi 3:14:46 8:09 / mi
                          20/05/2019 – 26/05/2019: 20.4 mi 2:50:15 8:20 / mi
                          13/05/2019 – 19/05/2019: 33.4 mi 4:38:18 8:21 / mi

                           

                          I was planning to race a half marathon this week (on Wednesday) but I am not going to waste time on it...

                           

                          My running team asked if I wanted to go for a track and field team meeting on Sunday (need to do 1 run, 1 jump and 1 throw ...  ) I thought it could be fun, but i am a bit worried about possible injuries due to low fitness... I'll see...

                          PRs since re-started in 2013:

                          5km: 19:43 (Belfast park run Sep-16) | 10km: 40:16 (Belfast Lagan side 10K Sep-18) 

                          HM: 1:30:09 (Belfast city Half Marathon, September-18) | FM: 3:25:05 (official chip time Belfast city Marathon, May-19, marathon was 0.3/4 longer, original time 3:27:20 for 26.5/6...)

                           

                          Upcoming races:  

                          ???

                          CommanderKeen


                          Cobra Commander Keen

                            James, Mark, Flavio - Nice weeks.


                            Steve - Hate to hear about having to cut the running so much while that heals, but at least you're clear to keep up other forms of exercise.


                            John - Hi! Since you've only been running two years, training for the one should certainly help with running the other, mostly just by building up aerobic endurance overall -  though the race distances/efforts are so far apart that the cross-over won't be as much as if you were running a 5k + HM, or even a HM + marathon. Your legs will likely be pretty wrecked after the 50k even if you don't try to run it all out, so if you're going to try for sub-90 do it before the ultra.
                            Given the HM/50k goal combo in general I'd say just work to build up your mileage as much as possible while staying healthy, and mostly do tempo runs and longer marathon-effort segments as your speed training. Try getting in as many ~30k+ LRs as you can. With only 30-35k/wk in volume, endurance will be your major limiter in both race distances.


                            Marco - Welcome back!


                            Sub-90 Halfers - I check the results for the most recent OKC Memorial Half, and a grand total of 77 people were sub 90 minutes (2x people were 1:29:59, 1x was 90 minutes on the dot) out of a whopping 8,341 finishers (0.9%!). Because of its nature (Memorial for a 1995 bombing/fundraiser for the associated museum, for those that aren't aware) it does attract massive numbers of casual runners & people who just want to be involved and walk most of the race, so the average race time obviously skews towards "very long".


                            Decent/acceptable week from me. One workout I had a hard time hitting the right effort on the harder portions and I didn't get a LR in. My girls wanted to make me breakfast Saturday (crepes!) so I planned on moving it to Sunday, but hail/lightning that morning would have had me on the treadmill - but the storm had knocked out the power so I couldn't do that, either. Not worried about it though since I'm still so far from any possible races.

                            Ditched a planned workout this morning. My left quads and hamstrings felt tight and were somewhat restricting the range of motion needed for the tempo run (no pain at all), so I just backed off and turned it into an easy run (muscle tightness didn't interfere with easy effort/pace).

                             

                            Random tidbit: I created a Strava course for my planned LR just so I could get some direction prompts to make sure I didn't forget any turns since I was planning running roads I hadn't gone over before. Looking at the elevation chart it was interesting to see where they were obviously estimating the elevation profile based on GPS/radar data (long stretches that are obviously too flat or perfectly at a particular grade), and where it was based on readings from the barometric altimeter in my watch (because I know no-one else has run or ride on these roads with an altimeter-equipped tracker before).

                             

                            Monday, Jun 10, 2019 thru Sunday, Jun 16, 2019

                            <tfoot> </tfoot>
                            Day Miles Pace Description HR Link
                            Mon 12.1 7:55 Seeing where my fitness stands. 4x opening strides, 3x all-out hill sprints, then one long, uphill interval. 141 (72%) strava
                            Tue 10.6 8:22 4 rabbits, 2 hawks, and 1 owl 131 (67%) strava
                            Wed 10.6 7:55 2 rabbits, 2 herons, and too much of my road washing away 140 (71%) strava
                            Thu 13.2 7:19 5x (5 min CV, 2 min reco, 4 min 5k effort, 2 min reco) 153 (78%) strava
                            Fri 8.3 8:16 Most of the miles - Innsbruck 132 (67%) strava
                            Fri 2.1 8:23 (and now you know...) The rest of the miles - Innsbruck 131 (67%) strava
                              56.9 7:54

                            5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22

                             

                            Upcoming Races:

                             

                             

                              Cooljoggings welcome. 1.35 is a great time off 35 km/week. Just by building weekly mileage to over 50 kms and more you will break 1.30 and could probably go alot lower in the future with more miles under your belt.

                               

                              Marco that sounds like fun. I used to be good at discus at school always top 2 from year 7 to year 11. I was tiny so go figure 

                              55+ PBs 5k 18:36 June 3rd TT

                              " If you don't use it you lose it,  but if you use it, it wears out.

                              Somewhere in between is about right "      

                               

                              Marky_Mark_17


                                Marco - good to hear from you, I was just wondering the other day what you were up to.

                                 

                                John - welcome! We don't have a lot of 50k runners on here so Keen is probably the most knowledgeable on that front.  But I'd echo his advice around going for the sub-90 first.  A marathon is tough enough let alone a 50k and you'll need some time to recover after that.  Like Piwi says, just building up the mileage should get you to sub-90 since you are only running off 30-35km/week at the moment.

                                 

                                Watson - nice week.  Hope you daughter is OK, a broken elbow sounds painful.

                                 

                                Keen - nice week.  I really noticed the difference in altitude readings when I switched from a Garmin FR235 (no altimeter) to the Fenix 5S (built-in altimeter).

                                 

                                GAGA CHALLENGE - OK not quite, but this weekend my coach wanted me to do a 5km TT on Saturday, and as it happens the Hobsonville Point Parkrun is on Saturday morning.  I've been meaning to do this since it started a month ago.  Anyway since its the 2-2 June they're running a Tutu parkrun (get it?) and a certain Miss 2 is crazy about tutu's and is coming down to watch so I'm kind of obligated to participate (she said I could borrow one of hers).

                                 

                                Chances of a CR are pretty slim since Greg Darbyshire showed up the first week and ran 16:03 (I think), the course has a few small undulations so it's not dead flat, but it should be fun all the same.

                                3,000m: 9:07.7 (Nov-21) | 5,000m: 15:39 (Dec-19) | 10,000m: 32:34 (Mar-20)  

                                10km: 33:15 (Sep-19) | HM: 1:09:41 (May-21)* | FM: 2:41:41 (Oct-20)

                                * Net downhill course

                                Last race: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

                                Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

                                "CONSISTENCY IS KING"