Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2020
My week was pretty good. Ended up feeling really tried on Tuesday and Wednesday, I think it was cumulative from last Saturday's race plus Mondays MLR. Felt a lot better on Friday.
Saturday's run was a hard, hilly club run (not we do stop around six times for everyone to catch-up). Sixth km was possibly the most elevation in a km I've ever done. Last 1.5km (ever slow slighly downhill) I managed at 4:00 per km pace which I was pretty happy with on tried legs.
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
RIP Milkman
5K TT Report
I ran a 16:42, a PR for me.
Questions?
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
5K TT Report I ran a 16:42, a PR for me. Questions?
How did you know the course was legit?
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"
Was it fully certified 5km by World Athletics Federation? If not, it does not count.
Big congratulations on the PR.
Was it downhill?
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 "
Are you using banned substances? It seems too fast so soon after your comeback
Can you verify your age by birth certificate? You seem to fast for your age
I ran by feel
Was it fully certified 5km by World Athletics Federation? If not, it does not count. Big congratulations on the PR.
Aren't those the same people who can't catch the dopers?
Psh only hobby joggers count downhill races as PRs
Intl. correspondent
Jmac - fair enough, I got you confused. You’re the one who reads 719 pages of the race certification book heh.
I think you need to post the full video for the internet sleuths to analyse
Mark - It sounds like taper madness is approaching. Good luck!
Steve - when was the last time you got a heart and lung check up? It might be time to do one just to rule out hardware issues.
It's super weird that your heart rate was that high, though my HRM sometimes starts very high but then becomes normal.
It does seem like you're crashing from the get go though, so I'd think either hardware issue or you started the race already very tired.
"Normal" would be to crash at around 10-14km given you've run so many 2x2km workouts recently at around that pace.
It could also be that your body is spent, past the peak.
Peaking at the right time near the race date is an art and super hard.
me - my week below. Everything going smoothly bar the stupid mistake of running up that hill today (just check the elevation gain column and you will spot it, I'm sure). It was supposed to be 75 minutes with 1 minute surges every 10 minutes.
I almost got the workout right except for the hill part where it was too steep going up it hurt my ankles and it was too uncomfortable going down I had to almost walk to avoid toppling ahead. Hopefully I don't pay too high for my deviation from the training plan, I was doing very well until today. 4 weeks to go until the Pisa Ten, which as the name suggests is a 10k race, October 11th. Of course I'll be trying to break my 10K PR of 38:12 which I ran on a time trial years ago, on that blessed fall of 2016.
On the same day as the Pisa Half Marathon where my wife will try to break her HM PR from February.
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 - my hill was much steeper than that, not that there were any surges for me. I don't think it will be matter, it just was a different workout than planned.
Steve - another thought is that you needed longer to warm up. Maybe you cannot do much more formal warm-up, but you need your first 1 to 2km of the race to be much slower than your aim pace. Maybe you need that first km to be 4:45km pace? It's only 30s slower than your aim, so it's only 1.5 s per km to "catch up".
Flavio and Watson both your hill climbs look to be steeper than our local Mount Maunganui climb so I can relate !
Flavio - what the hell?! That hill climb is around 200m of elevation in 2km! That is beyond brutal. Run up that a few times and you'll be stronger than the Hulk.
Watson - also what the hell?! That hill was even tougher than Flavio's. I see Brian Garmonsway runs around there a bit, no surprise how he got good if he is smashing out hills like that.
Hot Weather Complainer
Thanks for all the support and comments. JMac, flavio and watson - all good suggestions that I'll include in the post-mortem with the coach. flavio the answer to my last heart and lung check would be never...I'm willing to consider anything, but if there were underlying health issues, wouldn't they show up in training too? JMac's idea of race anxiety may hold some weight, and it's something I've written off before. I can't understand why even if I was nervous that I'd completely run out of gas much earlier than training runs where I've gone faster for longer? But there is obviously something.
I think the last 2 races being 8 mini laps could be a factor. It's not a fun way to race but perhaps I hate the laps because I felt so bad rather than the laps causing me to struggle in some way.
Next race is Queenstown in 2 months so I have plenty of time but I do know that going into that it will be hard not to be anxious. Maybe with each "failure" the anxiety grows. I do seem to be getting steadily worse, even though I have my longest and strongest training block behind me.
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