Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2020 (Read 618 times)

Good job on that TT jmac especially with your patchy training over the last 2 months. Was that a paved trail ? I thought I saw asphalt on Strava.

I have booked in a 10k and will do a Parkrun later in July.

 

Thanks Piwi. And don't worry, your very fast 10Ks are faster than me!

Yes, it was a paved trail. They actually converted an old railroad track into a paved trail, which is actually a brilliant idea, because you're guaranteed 1) very flat terrain, since railroads can't climb/descend very steep grades and 2) gentle turns, since railroads can't turn sharply. That's why this trail is great for time trials. It's in a very hilly area, but the completely flat terrain plus no road crossings make it perfect.

Mark - that is some horrible pacing! At most, it should vary by 1.5, maybe 2.0 seconds. In my racing, I'm within 0.5 seconds on any lap. This guy sounds like somebody who uses his watch to pace rather than learning how to feel it. 4 seconds is horrible, that guy needs a good talking to about how to run!

Jmac my fastest 10k was barely under 37 mins and that was in 2012 

Age grading makes that a 34:45 or so, so that's what I mean, don't sell yourself short!

JMac - I know why track 10k's are unpopular, it's because they're 25 laps and the mental suffering is almost as tough as the physical!  Weirdly I'd never run one before November last year and now I've run three.  I enjoyed your RR, again I think it's so great that you have measured courses like that and it sounds like a really great running spot regardless.  I honestly think you've got low 34's or probably sub-34 in you with the right training cycle behind you.

(on that note, Athletics NZ are running a virtual 10k competition and it's throwing up some of the same comedic "GPS-assisted" results as the virtual 5k did...)

Mark everyone down here is taking Wildes result as legit but it seems too good to be true. Nice workout you did today. What are the different coloured lines on the Strava track ?

Parkrun opens july 4th here.

I have no idea.  Somehow I got a rainbow on my Strava track from today.  It looks cool but no idea what I did to get it.

Yeah I was really pleased with the workout.  5 x 12 min @ MP, with 3 minute recoveries.  I averaged bang on 3:45/km (which is marathon goal pace) so it was a good confidence builder, especially as there was a slight headwind on the way out.  And I wasn't wearing Vaporflies haha.

Wilde's result might be legit but there are still some dodgy ones.  I'm second on the Athletics NZ virtual 10k leaderboard, Matt Parsonage is first with a time in the low-32's (for 10.00km exactly) on the same suburban loop he ran the 5km.  If you look at his Strava activity you can see how the GPS is overshooting quite badly on the corners, on the straight's he is at like 3:16/km and then the corners (which should be slower if anything) the pace shoots up every time to under 3:00/km!  It's just a bit of fun and no big deal but it does remind me why JMac is so particular about course measurement.

Zebano that's sounds tough. Hopefully your energy returns for the ultra, good luck.

Mark I finished 2nd to Parsonage in a half once. There was only a couple hundred people and he ran 1.15 and I ran 1.21. I'm not sure of his current fitness. Hes a strong runner.

My legs feeling much better now that DOMS has cleared.

 

Steve - YESSSS again to having a coach, I’ll be happy to follow this up as I believe you’re bound for a break through.

I knew this would make you happy

I've got my first 3 weeks planned out with him now and I'm quite excited about it.  I started off with some short stuff (15x400 metres @ around 3:50/km pace) but we looked at some races and my best races are the ones when I built up to a strong finish.  Typing that out sounds very obvious - my 2 best half times were in races where I finished over the top and I wondered if I could have pushed harder.  Recent races where I've missed my target by 1-2 minutes, I have gone harder earlier and then crashed to varying degrees and not enjoyed it one bit.

So after this week which has that short session and a few km of race pace in my long run to ease back into it, I'll be doing a fair amount of progression workouts starting slower than goal race pace and building up to a fast finish.  Some of them look a bit daunting but I'm excited to get into them.  This is a short block, with 6 weeks to go until the next race.

Jmac - I attribute my better health due to finding out about a nasal spray that jets water deep into the nose. In the past I used a small spray that was not strong enough. This new one really cleans up everything. And it solved my problem.

Can you imagine how many problems we have in life that can be solved by some really simple solution if only we knew about it.

Watson good luck. It's been very wet here too.

Flavio I attribute my better health to social distancing and hand washing etc so not picking up bugs that I normally would