Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2020
Problem Child
JMac I'll trade you my tolerance for weather for your speed. I'd imagine you with some "dad strength" would put the HURT on a marathon course. Something about not having any extra time to "mess" around with training makes the work you put in seem harder. You put a lot of math into your goals. Just be stupid courageous like me and let other people pick your goals then go out and kind of beat them by a small margin. It is WAAAAAY more fun.
Mile training no advice. I ran the ONLY mile I've ever raced on marathon training. I raced it as 4 separate 1/4 mile segments as advised by the online friends I had who were more familiar with racing the mile than me. I impressed myself and beat my personal goal by 40+ seconds. I was very proud of that moment because a 6 minute mile was REALLY fast at some point in my educational life.
Cold Weather I think at some point it's so cold it's actually dryer than anything which could make it worse. My wife told me it needs to be close to 30F to get some good snow or else it's too dry. Being from California I wondered what snow was so I had to google it.
SteveChCh Drop The Anchor Brewery sounds like the spot to hang out at post race. Cassils and Sons Milk Stout might not go well with a hot day.
Took everyone's advice. Picked a JD workout and just did it. It was actually easier to run 8x400m too FAST at the start and I was sort of regretting it for a few because holding on to pace started to get tough at points. I'll say it felt "different" running a 5:20/mi pace and a few 80 second 400m runs. I can see why the recovery is important because I probably would have wrecked myself had I run it this hard with a 90 second recovery. Guess I need to BUY the book, highlight everything important to me in it, and let the other runners use the library copy. The funniest part was my RB was saying how he was getting faster last year with speed work and catching up to the rest of us, then we all got faster and he has to keep speeding up. He hammered out some 95 second 400s on a 95 second recovery.
Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.
VDOT 53.37
5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22
Re cold training and racing... for me personally the perfect temperature for racing and training in NZ is 40-55F / 5-13C. It tends to be quite damp here, so below around 5C can feel quite a lot colder due to the humidity.
I find the biggest challenge when it gets colder is not so much feeling cold, but just struggling to get the legs turning over at a reasonable speed. At the moment while I'm up in the mountains it's generally been below zero C / 32F - I don't actually feel cold once I've started moving but getting cadence up is hard.
Watson - according to Smashrun, with wind chill, Christchurch 2019 was around -3C. Definitely with wet gear, it felt very cold.
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: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr, 1:15:48
Up next: Runway5, 4 May
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Hot Weather Complainer
That's some quality research although you may have gotten your Christchurch's mixed up with one of those options.
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
I probably used the wrong Google. I already admit to using Freedumb units knowing I’m supposed to use Kilos so I’m not the smartest of individuals. I do get lucky sometimes. I’d rather be lucky than good.
JamesD
Weather Complaining - Is there a lower bound of temperatures where people start failing? I haven't run a race below 32F/0C, although I've sure done plenty of workouts in them. I'm not sure where my lower bound is where I start thinking I may need to adjust. My guess is something like below 20F.
For me, the lower unaffected bound is something like 45F/8C. If it's below that, especially if it's damp or windy, I'm affected in races, as my lungs tighten up and I don't feel as strong. I'll run easy miles when it's colder, but I bundle up and keep it slow. Ideal racing temperature for me is probably 50-59F/10-15C for a half and warmer for shorter distances. 68/20 seems ideal for a 5K, as it takes me a while in cooler weather to get fully warmed up to go fast. Now that I think about it, the ideal half for me would be one where it's relatively warm at the start (59/15?) and gradually cools down to 50/10 over the first 30 minutes.
I assume that my cold-weather trouble is mainly the result of insufficient body fat, but the discussion of age reminds me that at 16, when I was skinnier than I am now, I once ran 5 miles in 15/-10 temperature wearing a cotton sweatshirt and shorts with cotton socks over my hands in lieu of gloves. I remember being cold but not frozen, so age may be a factor as well.
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
RIP Milkman
James - right when I started reading your post, I said in my head "it's because he's about 3% body fat." But your point about age is right, we all get colder as we get older. I remember this summer I went for a run in one of those horrible 80 degree days with dew points at 75, and there was a woman being pushed in a wheelchair who had on a full sweater, knit cap, and then a fleece thrown over that.
Brew - I'm attempting my first JD I/R session in over 3 months. It's going to go very poorly and I'm going to hate my life.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
JMac Na you'll be fine. It's all mental. I tell my friends "it's amazing what you can do when you get out of your own way." The difference between stupid and dumb is dumb knows better. Stupid just goes in and does it and figures out the bad things that COULD have happened after it's done, or too late. I'm sure trying to do 20x200 I without a workout setup, and going 30 seconds per mile too fast would have been stupid AND I'd get to learn why. At least I'd get the workout figured out.
I'm starting to see why people think I'm a hot weather complainer. Your ideal racing temps are way higher than mine. For a half, I don't want it to be above 10C at any point of the race.
BY THE BEARD OF ZEUS! 6-7C seems like it would be better half marathon race weather.
Mother of Cats
I don't think there's an on/off range of "good weather/bad weather" It's a continuum, with an ideal point and then things getting less ideal as you move away from that point. And the air temp that is ideal depends on the distance also. For me - the longer it is, the colder I want it. I would prefer not to race a road mile in 34F (and wouldn't mind 70F for that distance); for a marathon, I wouldn't complain about 34F but would likely DNS in 70F.
For a full or half marathon, I think low 40sF is perfect. Anything from 32F up to low 50s is no complaints weather. Above or below those thresholds, I start to reconsider what I might run that day.
[and of course, wind and humidity and sunshine also come into play. A low humidity 70 degree overcast day can work for a 5K; humidity and sunshine makes for a different story.]
Everyone's gotta running blog; I'm the only one with a POOL-RUNNING blog.
And...if you want a running Instagram where all the pictures are of cats, I've got you covered.
Yep, all makes sense. For a 10km I'd be happy under 20C, a half-marathon I'm with Brew.
And I've now successfully turned this into a weather complaining/discussion thread only one month into my reign of terror. JMac says he's retiring due to pending fatherhood but I think the reason may be closer to home (home being this thread of course).
The weather complaining really is top notch in this thread. Of course 10C is nice for a half, but that's ideal. I haven't run a single marathon below 12C, and that obviously takes a much higher toll. I've run one marathon at 70F (stupid Boston), two at 60F, and two at 55F.
I think you Kiwis are so lucky. The problem with the US is that there is so little time of when the temperature is perfect. We spend months on end at 35F, and then it's up to 70F within a 2.5 month span (no joke). On top of that, during that exponential temperature change, the volatility of the temperatures is very high, so it's pretty damn hard to get a day around 45F to race in.
We're definitely lucky when it comes to weather, winter in particular, but I think it's probably the reason we have less of a range where we can perform well.
I should note - within the US, I think it's really the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Northeast, plus some other areas that have such large fluctuations. The west coast of the US, in general seems more stable (perhaps not stable at ideal running temperature, but stable). And the Gulf Coast and Southeast, though really too hot to run well most of the year, don't have quite as much fluctuation in temperature as other parts.
[i.e. Tampa and Atlanta really don't get significantly hotter than DC, though they both have longer summers. But come winter, DC is much colder than either of those cities.]
The weather complaining really is top notch in this thread. Of course 10C is nice for a half, but that's ideal. I haven't run a single marathon below 12C, and that obviously takes a much higher toll. I've run one marathon at 70F (stupid Boston), two at 60F, and two at 55F. I think you Kiwis are so lucky. The problem with the US is that there is so little time of when the temperature is perfect. We spend months on end at 35F, and then it's up to 70F within a 2.5 month span (no joke). On top of that, during that exponential temperature change, the volatility of the temperatures is very high, so it's pretty damn hard to get a day around 45F to race in.
Where I live (NorCal USA) the racing weather generally ranges from good to very good to ideal, year-round. The 10 miler I ran last week started in temps of 48 and finished at about 52. Overcast/foggy at the start, sunny as we came back to the start/finish. Gorgeous day to race. I can race HM and M pretty well down to about 32F (my first sub-3 m was a 28F day at Boston) up to maybe 60 or so. I kinda wilt in the heat, especially if it's sunny.