Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2019
Cobra Commander Keen
JMac - Nice week, and glad you like the shoes. I'm looking forward to seeing how you do in the HM. Just a quick note about the heel-toe drop: I think it's typically "easier" or less likely to cause injury when going from low drop to high drop, rather than the other way around. Higher drop takes some load off the calfs and Achilles, while lower drop increases those.
James - You need a spoiler alert for the first line in the RR! Nicely done, though, despite the small "A" goal miss. 1st in your age group is a nice feather in your hat, too! Barring unforeseen issues, I figure you'll go sub-90 in Nov. Oh, I think the breathing trick for side stitches has to do with reducing how your lungs place pressure on the liver, IIRC. I haven't needed it in a while, but that trick has worked for me before.
Mark - Good week. Kiddos seem to bounce back quickly, huh? It seems like bugs always hit DW and myself harder than they do the kids.
MJ - Glad you're getting better, and that spring is showing up.
CFarr & Steve - Nice weeks, guys.
I had my best week since November, both in terms of quality and quantity. Unfortunately most of it was on the treadmill due to icy roads. My legs don't feel like I ran as many miles as I did - certainly because I've been doing a second, short run during the day rather than a single long one. I did feel the LR on Saturday, though. My previous long since November was the prior week's 14.5, and my glutes were protesting some the last 8k or so.
Monday, Feb 25, 2019 thru Sunday, Mar 03, 2019
5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22
Upcoming Races:
Keen - It's very reassuring to see normal service has resumed and you are nailing some big mileage again! I did end up picking up DD's gastro bug unfortunately, pretty miserable yesterday but managed a very slow easy run today. You're right about how fast the kids bounce back, she was back to normal just a day later! I'd rather have not gotten it at all, but on the bright side, this was already a semi-taper week, and it's not race week.
Corey - nice week
Steve - yeah good plan listening to the body, you've been putting the work so the odd quiet week is a good chance to recharge the batteries.
Flavio - I've seen a few people on Strava doing those high-rep, 1 min-hard, 1-min easy workouts - what's the logic behind it?
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"
Intl. correspondent
Mark - in my case I failed a fartlek with 1k segments a few weeks ago and it's possible they have me in a build up to overcome that workout, which is scheduled for this week. Either that or just a fartlek variation.
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
I'm back from a two week hiatus in posting. I was on vacation for a week and a half and then had a half week of recovering from being on vacation. I managed to log a 39 mile week last week with a 16 mile long run. Hoping to get back to normal this week.
RIP Milkman
Recovering from vacation gets a quote on the front page.
Keen - Life is back to normal for you! good to see you back out on Strava too. Do you have those yaktrax I keep hearing about for roads?
James - as someone with constant stitches/cramps, I can tell you that your strategy of breathing out on alternate legs usually is my first trick. If that doesn't work, I move to plan b which is deep massages. If that doesn't work, I go to plan c, which is breathing in and out through my "belly" rather than my chest. If that fails, well then I just deal with it like I did at NYC and hate every minute of running.
Steve - As I mentioned on Strava, great consistency lately. You've really put that calf issue aside and should be proud of your work.
Me - Speaking of consistency, I did the ole standard deviation calculation of my running over the past 12 weeks to see how bad it's been. I think I'm going to keep that as a column in my spreadsheet so it just keeps hammering home the point that I'm too inconsistent. Right now, I'm averaging 46 mpw with 21 mpw of volatility, or 43% volatility. That just ain't gonna cut it. It's really shown me that this summer, I need to focus on consistency and not quality. I'm too worked up about getting back to doing speed work, and not about keeping reasonable mileage. Look at this crap trend of the past 12 weeks:
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
Mark - If you're going to get a bug getting one in a down week is about the best timing you can ask for!
JMac - It's good to be back to more mileage! Funny you mention the traction stuff. I have a pair of Kahtoola spikes that I re-found just today. Sometimes things get lost when you only need them a time or two per year... They're great for easy runs, but I haven't tried them out during a hard effort yet. Since I have a treadmill I don't think it's quite worth the risk of a slip during an interval just so I can run outside. Consistency is something that I'm working on getting back to myself. Your 12 week trend makes mine look incredible, by the way!
Mark - If you're going to get a bug getting one in a down week is about the best timing you can ask for! JMac - It's good to be back to more mileage! Funny you mention the traction stuff. I have a pair of Kahtoola spikes that I re-found just today. Sometimes things get lost when you only need them a time or two per year... They're great for easy runs, but I haven't tried them out during a hard effort yet. Since I have a treadmill I don't think it's quite worth the risk of a slip during an interval just so I can run outside. Consistency is something that I'm working on getting back to myself. Your 12 week trend makes mine look incredible, by the way!
At the start of a down week, aligning with a planned non-running day, followed by an easy run day. It actually came on about two hours after I finished my track workout. If that isn't dumb luck, I'm not sure what is.
My marathon was 13 weeks ago here are my last 12 weeks following my marathon.
I am trying to be as consistent as I can, hopefully just being consistent will help make improvements over time.
7.3
17.6
40.1
49.2
40.7
41.6
40.6
10
43.5
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
Cfar, i’m Trying consistency as well, unfortunately I got a serious cold with some serious coughing going on so I haven’t been running since Friday last week... I’ll try again tomorrow but I’m a bit scarred of running without having fully recovered
Hopefully I’ll be back on track (literally) soon
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:
???
Corey - allowing for a couple of recovery weeks that is really consistent!
I've averaged 79.5km/week since the start of the year, with 14% volatility. Not too bad considering that included a race week in there. Most likely it'll bounce around a bit in the next 6 weeks with a couple of races incoming.
14%! That's some consistency.
I'm getting pretty excited about my half next weekend. I hate to say it, but I haven't tried racing a half in almost 2 years, which is disappointing given the title of this thread. All of the halfs I've entered I've run as MP workouts.
This one will still not be perfectly tapered for though, as I plan on running 70 this week with a 22 mile long run and then another big workout next week. After that, I will probably mini taper into it, with mileage looking something like this:
17 (quality day)
6
8
0
4
Race
Hopefully that mini-taper will give me something in my legs, as I'll only be running 18 miles in 4 days prior.
I have no idea what half marathon pace even feels like at this point. All I know is I want to try to break 1:18:30, because that is exactly 5:59 per mile pace. For some reason, this pace is a sign of my progression. It took me so many cracks at a 5K to break that pace. I was able to break it for the 10K last year. Hitting it for a half would be great progress, with the obvious question of whether I could ever do it for a full still lingering out there.
JMac - I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how you go. You've had a bit of variation in the mileage but that should impact you less for a half than it would for a full. One thing I'm a big fan of is keeping a short, sharp workout or two in there in the few days prior to the race, even if it's just a few strides. For me it just helps keep the intensity and the focus (and the cadence!) up. A standard pre-race week for me would normally include a couple easy runs, and a couple of workouts - a mid-week one, and a very short one the day before the race (something like 8x45 sec sprints/1min recovery with maybe a mix of hills and flat is fairly standard). I know guys who run bigger mileage than me often say tapering often makes them feel sluggish, I think it's often because they drop the volume but also the workouts.
Mark - I think ideally, I wouldn't be doing 17 miles on Tuesday, but only 4 of those will be at LT pace, so it's not a mega hard Daniels workout. Something like 6E + 2T + 6E + 2T + 1E. The 2T at the end will be very difficult, but it doesn't destroy your legs like something in the order of 4x2. I'll then keep up with strides on Thursday. Normally, if I were peaking for a half, I would do what you said, which is something more like 3x1T, and I would limit my long run to 90 minutes the weekend before. I figure this will probably cost me about a minute compared to peak form.
It's funny you mentioned cadence up. I've gotten better about strides this cycle, and it's amazing how much better I feel after just a few sets of strides after easy runs than I did when I first started. I've alluded to his, but I've lost all top end speed, so it feels good to do strides and feel comfortable at that pace, i.e. fluid. I had to shut it down last cycle because I had a hamstring niggle and didn't want to sacrifice a marathon for strides.
Hot Weather Complainer
Good luck JMac, looking at your build up and history I think 1:19 is very possible.
I'm in the middle of my down week, although it only really starts now that I've done my Monday and Wednesday runs. Very tempting not to take it easy, but dead legs after 20 mins of HMP during today's runs was a reminder. HMP feels pretty comfortable at the moment, although I'm only holding it for a max of 30 mins so far.
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
Bombed another LT workout last night. It's unbelievable: I ran 12 miles at 6:12 continuously on Saturday, but last night I had to in the second rep of 3x2 miles at 5:55. I can't put my finger on what's going on, but it just seems LT work is not in the cards this cycle. Luckily, LT is the third most important component of successful marathon training (after mpw and long runs), but it's not a great sign for the half.
Steve - if HMP feels "comfortable" during training, it's probably not your true HMP, although I'll let Mark chime in more since he's the expert. I always find HMP to be relatively difficult in training unless I'm well rested.