Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2018 (Read 704 times)

Mark nice race, congrats on the PB! nice race report. One of these days I will do a 10k race I want to break 20 in a 5k first I'll probably take a shot at that in Jan.

Marco great job in your race as well, sorry you came up just short o breaking 40.

Flavio nice week given the busy schedule. congrats on the new Job!

Keen Congrats on the 5k PR

I had a good mileage week but had a little bit of life that to priority over running so I felt a bit off all week.

Planning on a big week this week lots of easy miles...

Weekly Summary
Monday, Aug 27, 2018 thru Sunday, Sep 02, 2018

Corey, Matt - nice weeks.

Steve - nah, it was pretty non-verbal.  In half marathons, I've had races where I've talked strategy/pacing with other guys around me, but in that case you're generally both battling the clock and figuring out how you can work together.  In a teams event, I figured we had to work together without telling the other guy what we were up to, and given Adam is much more experienced than me, I figured that if I signalled well (e.g. taking first turn up front), he'd respond.

Mark, nice race report and nice pics. I need to work on my final 3K (as I need to work on my final 3 miles in the HM).

Piwi, same time, spooky ... but I need to find another 10 K and run a sub 40 now!

Nice week everybody, good miles and speedwork going on

Now it's time for me to focus back again on the HM training. I have 3 weeks to go, so probably this week and then 2 taper weeks. However, today I feel pretty tired (I ran 4.5 miles this morning and I was really slow).

I hope to recover by mid week and put ni some good interval training and some good threshold over the long run in the weekend. Is there anything I should do differently from now to the HM (considering the 10k? should I take this week easy? then I wuold have not much tim to train... for now I think I will do 40/45 miles with some interval this week. might do slightly less (shorter long run) next week but with some faster workout, and the final taper week.

have a good week everybody!

Marco

Piwi: so funny I rolled my ancle today too!!! We do the same shit even though we are thousands of miles apart Re job: I wish it was Heineken.

Well I'm back. Nothing to report on my end as my week was utter, complete trash at 20 miles. Sometimes running on vacation is nice, but when you have to do runs on the treadmill that look like they were leftover from the days of the cold war, it's impossible. Got my first 10 miler in yesterday and my legs are definitely feeling the fact that I basically didn't run last week. Trying to hit 70 this week to get back into shape.

Mark - Great race, and glad you're keeping up with the race report tradition after a PR! It's funny you said that about medals. The only medals I still have are my marathon medals, I don't keep my 10K or Half medals. I would definitely keep a medal from an event like what you just ran though. I can't believe you have another half in just 5 days, no rest for the weary.

Flavio - Forgot to mention: Jack is the common nickname for John in Ireland. Almost all people that go by Jack are actually named John, but that's changing somewhat in modern times as parents are just naming their children Jack. Also, what's the deal with the new job? Are you still going to be located in Brazil or will you be coming to the US?

Keen - Nice PR! We need the RR per forum rules.

MJ - woah woah woah I don't bash people for that! More just we are becoming a bit of a sausage fest in this forum and could use some female racers. Speaking of Heinken, on my flight to Copenhagen I took Norwegian and the only beer they had was Heineken. I decided after maybe 5 years that I should give it another try. I quickly remembered why I took that break: it is an awful beer, and I'm saying this as someone who drinks a lot of bad beer (Budweiser, Coors Light, Miller Light, etc.) It tastes like a skunk took a piss in a beer and then sprayed it for a final touch of awfulness.

Bro (edited after seeing you just posted) - That's great to hear! Central Park really is a treat, as with anything that you deal with on a daily basis you sometimes can take it for advantage. But after running in Copenhagen where their "ideal" running spot involved me stopping for traffic every 5 minutes, I realized it was a treat to live in NYC. As you mentioned, just very nice rolling hills, and the people watching can be nice. Disliking Times Square makes you a real New Yorker. Nobody I know that lives here steps foot anywhere within 5 blocks of Times Square. It's a complete hell hole that's clogged with roving groups of tourists and horrible restaurants that are complete tourist traps. I've lived in here for 13 years and I've walked around proper Times Square fewer than 5 times. East Village is basically just a college hangout spot at this point, it's great for some amazing restaurants, but not for hanging out around. Finally, I've lived in the Upper East Side for 7 years at this point. It's perfect for us: I'm right near the park, but also in a much more quiet part of Manhattan than anywhere south of midtown. Plus, as you mentioned, a lot of very good restaurants.

The Brookhaven Run is billed as one of the flattest and fastest 5k courses in Oklahoma, which measures up given the (DWave approved) barely perceptible elevation changes and that both the men's and women's state records were set here.

The course itself is a lollipop in which the sole loop doesn't join back up with the shared portion of the "stick" until about mile 2.25 (~.7 mi outbound). This gives plenty of time for the back of the pack to clear the area before the leaders come through the area again, avoiding the course congestion that is the bane of most other 5ks would-be-fast courses in the OKC area. The course is also almost entirely in an old neighborhood, which in this part of the metro means the addition of large trees to block both sun and wind.

The temperature at the start was ~75* with about a 10 mph south wind (with the start, against the finish), so not really any different than the conditions of the last 5k I ran or from what I've been training in recently. I was a bit surprised to see a few XC/track teams at the start, given that their seasons had already begun. Without a strict time goal in mind (other than sub-19) I lined up behind these kids.

The race started predictably fast, but I tried to not get caught up in this. We were almost immediately running under a broad canopy of trees, so GPS pace was quite erratic (am I running 5 min/mi, or 6:30 /mi?). I quickly decided against referencing my watch too much, opting to try holding an effort that felt sustainable.

By the end of the first kilometer in 3:47 (kilometers, not miles were marked, and included clocks) I was already passing some of the XC runners who started ahead of me. Aided by a rough course map drawn on my left hand I was able to run pretty good tangents on the gently-winding road.

Kilometer 2 (3:50) passes without much movement in the loose pack I'm in, aside from passing then being passed by a guy I recognize from Strava, but whose name I don't recall. I'm not at all used to racing with so many people around, and the company is definitely appreciated.

Kilometer 3 (3:51) is on the road outside of the neighborhood, so we no longer have the protection of the trees. The second half of it is also directly into the wind, though it doesn't seem to make too much impact. Effort through here is harder than what I'm used to running but sustainable.

We move back in to the neighborhood and are soon covered by trees again. I start passing more people here, in no small part due to following the tangents rather than keeping to the curb on the left-hand side of the road. Most people seem to have an aversion to running down the middle of a road or by the right-hand curb, closed course or not. I hit the kilometer 4 mark (3:54) and get a little mad at myself since I don't feel at all that I have a reason to have slowed down at all.

I pick up the effort at this point to a level that I only hope is sustainable for the duration of the race. I pass Recognized-From-Strava Guy one last time as well as catch and pass the jerk who told me to "do my own work" (instead of drafting off him before passing) during a windy 25k a year or two ago. Past this everything is a blur.

I hit the final straightaway and see the finish line clock and know that sub-19 is going to happen. I cross the finish line right with someone else (no idea who) and we both nearly run headlong into a group of people standing too close to the line so they could take pictures. Final kilometer in 3:33, chip time 18:54.

My chip didn't register a time when I went to check in on the computer afterwards, so I had to talk to the guy who runs the timing company. When I got to the trailer they use for their equipment there were already a couple others with the same problem, and more showed up after I did. Fortunately my time was picked up by their "backup system". This seems to happen in about half of the races done by this company, so I'm about ready to swear off their races altogether.

Takeaways:
I'm certainly in 5k PR shape, though I'm far out of 5k practice. After this marathon cycle I should devote some time to racing 5ks/10ks.
Judging by my closing kilometer being at my (way soft) mile PR pace I definitely could have pushed a good deal harder through the entire race.
It's SO much easier to hold a given effort and to push the effort with someone nearby than it is solo.
Always wear a chest strap when racing! Looking back at the HR data for this it definitely seems that the optical sensor in my watch locked on to my cadence for probably at least the last mile, so that data is worthless.

I sustained a higher wattage (per Stryd) for this than any other 5k I've ran (I didn't look much at this during the race). This gives me a new "do not go below" number for 5ks going forward.

Keen - Great race report. I can't believe someone yelled at you to do your own work in another race. He knows he could have just slowed down and gone behind you at any point right? Also, the tangent thing FASCINATES me. I find myself often running by myself on the tangents. Take an S shaped course, where you're running up the S. There are people who will just stay in the right lane the entire time, because either a) they feel awkward running on the "wrong" side of the road or b) they think they're wasting energy by going back and forth, not realizing that going back and forth is actually less distance. This was most pronounced in my latest 10K. These people all run sub 40 in a 10K and haven't figured out how to run tangents in a race? Come on now.

Mark - I wasn't even around at that point for female runners. Glad you hated Times Square too!