Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2019
Congratulations!! This was a good week for many here
I am in my 3rd of the 18 weeks marathon training. It is all about increasing miles. I was a bit worried and I am tired, but for now the body is not giving in and I feel strong enough.
My week is finished with a long run early this morning. As I already noted mid week I had a very good 4 mile tempo in a 10 mile run. This morning I went out for a long 16 miles. It was tough and I was feeling tired from the very beginning, but the real challenge arrived in the last 2 miles. It felt very similar to the last 6 miles in a marathon. I was happy to manage finishing it strong, paying attention to the running form.
Total 68.1
This is the longest I have ever run in a 3 weeks period with 60, 51 and 68 miles and a total of 244 miles in the last 30 days. I will keep this going for the next few weeks, then I will revise the training to a shorter / faster training in the second "mesocycle" of my training. Currently I am trying to keep 1 rest day every approximately 2 weeks. I may go back to 1 rest day every week as well.
Now I am off for a walk with the family (hopefully I'll manage to keep up )
happy Sunday!
Marco
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:
???
Intl. correspondent
Marco - that’s a nice week, you seem to be handling it well so far
Keen - I like PiwiLimey, but what if he’s actually a Scouse? We'll need him to show his birth certificate!
me - 57.1km
M: Functional training
T: Intervals 5x (
200@0:42 w 0:30 rest +
400@1:26 w 0:45 rest +
600@2:12 w 1:00 rest
)
Rest was a standing in place rest.
W: 9 ez
T: Fartlek 5x (1@5:00 + 1@4:00)
F: Functional training
S: Long run 16km @ 4:42
S: 8 ez
Tuesday workout was a bit difficult due to the warm weather and the fact that the track was closed, forcing us to run around it on a 550m loop, dodging walkers, potholes and slower runners.
Overall a nice week and I actually had better legs today than last Sunday.
I wanted to throw a bit more salt on the discussion regarding Mark's paces.
The running group has a Whatsapp group (as does every possible group around these parts) and yesterday everybody was posting their long runs (pictures of garmin watches, etc). Well, guess what, 100% of the guys as fast as Mark also run fast paces (from our point of view) throughout the week, just like him.
PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021
Up next: some 800m race (or time trials) / Also place in the top 20% in a trail race
Tool to generate Strava weekly
That Jmac line about when you are healthy you feel invincible etc should go on the frontpage. Its too cheese to not be tagged
Flavio: sorry not posting here as regularly as I used to but running has really taken a backseat and nowadays 4 times per week with 40-50km is the best I can get out of my squeezed time at work and at home. At least I am still posting on Strava, not like our long lost friend Rune Iverson So DC has nothing to do with District of Colombia but rather the last name abbreviation as I am a bit paranoid to not post too much online. I dont even have a Facebook account. Whats that whatsapp group you are talking about. Is that sub90 or in Rodizio-Country only?
All others: I admire your tenacity folks. Real commitment and grit. Great stuff - I hope I can ramp it up soon too !!!
HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)
2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!
Watson - nice week
Marco - great effort. It is quite satisfying when you start hitting record mileage like that! Don't be afraid to have an extra rest day every now and then just to give your chance a body to recover from the extra effort.
Flavio - nice week. Also I guess I am not totally crazy after all?
MJ - good to see you are still lurking!
Rune - are you lurking? And if so, how is the injury progressing?
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"
JamesD
For a week with three days off, this wasn’t bad. In trying to decide whether to run a half in six weeks, I’m comparing my tempo and interval times with my times from just before my last race in late 2017. I’m doing more miles now but did almost no fast running last year, so I’m slower but expect I’ll improve after more workouts. I'm just not sure how many it'll take before I get back to my 2017 level. Last week’s tempo was 66 seconds slower than in 2017; this week I was only 26 seconds slower with just a slightly harder effort. So that’s progress.
I had hoped to get in my usual Saturday recovery run after taking my son to Atlanta for a baseball team fan event, but there were more interesting things to do than we had expected, so we got home too late. (The most unexpected one was when he got to play a video game with a minor league pitcher for about 20 minutes and talk with him.) I still managed over 30 miles, which I’ll take.
Sun - off
Mon - 12.4 miles easy
Tues - 6.2 recovery
Weds - 6.2 easy
Thurs - off, bodyweight exercises at Y
Fri - 4.1 tempo @ 6:43, 7.1 total
Sat - off
Total - 31.9 miles
12-week average - 34 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
Hot Weather Complainer
Piwi, Steve - doh you guys!! Still not as bad as the time I actually ran past Watson and didn't realise it though.
Fair point.
I survived the weekend with the hot run around the Mount, and generally being unhealthy but got my runs in, including a very pleasant run to Karapiro Dam this morning. Long day with a drive into rural Waikato to visit people and horses then to Auckland airport and now back in Christchurch enjoying a drink and the new house. I've got a big release at the end of this week but after that I feel like life will be back to normal so I can step up the training for the Waterfront. This weekend was just about getting the runs in and I didn't expect any quality.
Great weeks for all, and although I didn't see Piwi, great to see his part of the country for the first time since I was a kid. Has there been an answer to whether he's a scouse? If so, I may have issues...
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
Agreed that it should go on the front page. Not because it's cheese but because it's right on the money.
Marco way to stick with that long run
Flavio nice job on your intervals.
we all seem to be starting the year off well.
Steve congrats on the house.
for me I had another decent week hitting right at 40 miles.
I am going to jump on the niggle train as well... I have been having some lower abdomen pain feels like they are just really sore like after a hard core workout (which I have not done). I noticed it about 3 weeks ago have after a rep workout, it seems to get better but then after another fast rep work it is sore again. not sure if it is normal just from increasing intensity/pace but it is annoying, especially at night as it is difficult to rollover in bed. I think I will just omit any rep work this week and see if that helps.
Weekly SummaryMonday, Jan 14, 2019 thru Sunday, Jan 20, 2019
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
Cobra Commander Keen
Mark - Good week.
Marco - Great job keeping the mileage up.
Flavio - While I concede that fast people do tend to cruise around at fast paces (relatively speaking) all the time, I see this as pretty rampant on Strava and at the running club group LRs (which I sadly haven't made this year). It's not uncommon for there to be a ton of 2+ hour HM'ers running faster than I do day to day or on LRs.
Just shy of 46 miles for me last week, with a pretty decent session of hill repeats. I'm tossing around the idea of putting in a few short doubles (just 2-3 miles) during the week while I work to increase the length of my daily runs and adding in a second workout.
I'm forming something of a plan. Very rough, still. This is subject to change based on how I progress this spring, but right now I'm thinking of using my two marathons mostly as really long, supported training runs. Maybe I'll find someone to help pace. Then there's a HM the first weekend in June that is PR worthy. I think I'll train towards that, but perhaps lay off registering until I see whether or not the race should live up to its name (The Scorcher). I say wait on signing up until last minute since I hate racing in hot, humid weather. Previously this race has been 80F/26.6C and above, or like last year it could be 40* and perfect. Too bad I had a family obligation that day. I'm looking at a couple different marathons for the fall, but I don't know that there's one within driving distance that I could use to get a better buffer for my BQ before that registration opens. Perhaps there will be more races posted as time goes by.
5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22
Upcoming Races:
OKC Memorial 5k - April 27
Bun Run 5k - May 4
Jmacs team The Nick's are down by 20 points in the first quarter against my OKC
Keen seeing some nice runs from you on Strava.
Cfarr hope that abdominal thing is ok. You should get it checked out.
Steve I had to Google scouser. I was born near Manchester but we last lived in Wiltshire near Swindon. I think I've been here longer than you, Mark and Watson ! 43 years a Kiwi.
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 "
Hey all, a lot to catch up on here. Just got back in town yesterday and so everything at home and at work is naturally a cluster f.
My race didn't go as planned to say the least. The wind was absolutely ridiculous, worst I've ever raced in. It was pretty cold in the 20s (°F) as well that morning (Keen can attest to these conditions). Very slippery and icy surfaces throughout also.There were stretches that I was giving 5k effort/heart rate just to muster up +8 min/mile pace into a frigid wind that just cut through me like an ice spear thrown by the Night King (shout out if you get the reference). By 3/4 of the way through the race I couldn't feel any extremities or see straight (literally). Ended up running 1:39x or something (didn't even look to confirm) over the 25k distance. I did win the race which I guess is some consolation, but not really.
Piwi - I did catch that Thunder game, loss to the Lakers. I was about center court, maybe 10 rows deep on the side the benches are on. So I was probably on camera, but I don't stand out enough to notice ha.
I don't mean to be that guy that just posts about himself, so I promise to catch up fully over the next day or two.
Steve - nice job keeping the running up on your travels.
Corey - nice week, keep an eye on that niggle. Sounds like a bit of an unusual one so might pay to get it checked out if it doesn't come right quickly.
James - nice week and sounds like it might've been worth missing a run for that event!
Keen - solid week and I'm enjoying seeing your run descriptions back on Strava. Sounds like a bit of a lottery weather-wise for that half you mention so leaving it late for entry might be a good strategy if you're potentially lining it up for a PR.
DJW - sounds like a pretty brutal day. I can only imagine the rest of the field probably looked like white walkers too.
Me - OK so Athletics NZ finally announced the winter events for this year. Christchurch Marathon (June 2) will double as the NZ Marathon Champs. I'm doing the half there anyway. Dunedin (Sep 8) will be NZ Half Marathon Champs again. Kind of unusual for that to be 2 years straight, but it does mean I'm very tempted to target that race again instead of doing the Mt. Maunganui Half in late August.
The niggly one is NZ Road Race Champs (10km) which is supposed to be in Auckland on Sept 15 (albeit that's still TBC). Two slightly annoying problems with this. Firstly, if it's at Bruce Pulman Park, I'm not a huge fan of the course there. This might be because I had a slightly disappointing race there last year, but it's pretty exposed to wind from all directions. Secondly, it's only a week after NZ Half Marathon Champs (last year it was actually a week before which was pretty much perfect) which is pretty tight for recovery. To be fair, on balance it is a quick course apart from one S bend and the risk of wind, and so maybe sub-34 would be a possibility there.
So, at this stage I think after Christchurch on June 2, I'll do Auckland Road Race Champs (10km) in late August, which will be a good tune-up for the Dunedin Half, and then hope I can recover in time for NZ Road Race Champs. Looking back on my training log from last year, I punched out a couple of pretty good runs the weekend after the Dunedin Half so it might all work out.
Road Relays (5 Oct) are down in Feilding too. Don't know the course there but one of our club mates, Steven Lett, moved down that way recently so he'll be stoked.
Cfarr go and get that pain checked out! Sounds somehow strange if you feel pain without any plausible cause!!!
Mark is slowing down on his easy runs that are now close to my threshold pace. And Keen also, pretty slow on that treadmill. Both are probably playing chess at the same time - Mark on his cell, Keen on the playstation.
Who is the guy who plays Counterstrike while on the mill?
Early candidate for post of the year
DJ - I had completely forgotten about that race until I saw the first entry on Strava. Conditions out there must have been brutal, especially for those doing the 50k. Props for gutting that one out. Looking at the Strava flybys I was finally able to see exactly what the course for the 25k and 50k are - the RD never did get back to me when I asked and I didn't see a full map online.
Mark - Thanks, it's good to be getting those runs in again. The weather in OK from about mid-March to mid-June or so could be really hot or really cold. After that it's just really hot. And good job on exploiting my endgame error!
MJ - I am insulted! I'm an XBOX guy through and through!
Chess - Mark won another, and now has two wins to my one, along with a draw. I'm still in the endgame with that Turkish master, and think I have a slight edge in position and piece activity.