Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2018
English Villian
Hi guys,
sorry, I've fallen off this thread a bit (despite my good intentions!).Life is just really busy, lots happening at work, two teenage daughters in the house... Maybe I should stop there
I REALLY DO need to get back to running though as I have a mountain to run up for my club later in the year.
running metalhead
First week of JD plan!!!Here I go with my first week of Jack Daniels 2Q. I have reduced my goal mileage a bit, from 100 / 110 km to 85 km. I prefer to err on the side of caution and the 2 quality workouts this week have proven to be as hard as expected, specially Q2 on Wednesday with temperatures below freezing point. My intention is to add cross-training like yoga or kettlebells to improve running economy and range of motion and with 85 km I have room for that.
I am also enjoying the easy days a lot knowing that I don't have to bother about anything but just easy runs until the Q days, no specific long runs, no single tempo runs and no single interval sessions. I also find that this better reflects the situation in a race where you have to be able to burst into a short sprint to pass the slower runners or have some extra energy to keep your pace for an eventual climb. Though I'm rather good in the latter after 3 years doing trails.
Summing up: I'm pretty happy!!
Weekly SummaryMonday, Feb 05, 2018 thru Sunday, Feb 11, 2018
- Egmond ( 14 januari ) : 1:41:40 (21K)- Vondelparkloop ( 20 januari ) : 0:58.1 (10K but did 13.44!!!)- Twiskemolenloop ( 4 maart ) : 1:35:19 (3th M45!)
- Ekiden Zwolle (10K) ( 25 maart )- Rotterdam Marathon ( 8 april )- Leiden Marathon Halve ( 27 mei )- Marathon Amersfoort ( 10 juni)
Enric - good week. Sunday looks like a tempo to me.
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
Watson - nice week. Yeah, I was pretty relieved it wasn't a goal race - would have been very frustrating. These were the toughest conditions I've raced in since the infamous Taupo Half in 2016 that Piwi and I did. The humidity was really sapping.
Enric - nice week
Rune - nice RR! As Watson said that is incredibly evenly paced. I don't think I've ever got close to that!
KK - no worries, life happens! Drop in whenever you can.
Me - a good week at 75km including the race.
M: 12km easy-ish
T: 10.4km track incl 5 x 1km / 400 jog
W: 16.5km easy
T: 8.1km incl. 5km TT
F: weights
S: 7km incl. a few sprints
S: 21.2km race
Total: 75.3km
Just did some weights this morning to allow the body some recovery after the race. Was wondering if the ITB might flare up again, fortunately it seems like just some very minor tightness and no soreness which is pretty pleasing considering the race effort and significant lift in mileage last week vs. prior weeks.
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"
Intl. correspondent
Mark and Rune - congratulations on great results at the races.
Mark - when you're fighting for the top spots time is not as relevant. I'm sure Kipchoge didn't care about his "slow" time in the Olympics
Me - My week was 60km with a 20K long run. I actually had to do a pit stop around 9km. My heart rate was increasing quickly due to the heat and nothing I was doing to bring it down was working. I figured it had to be dehydration so stopped at a drugstore to buy a gatorade. I was indeed right as that gatorade was perfect for the moment. I probably should've bought perhaps another bottle of water sometime later as it was a horrendous warm day.
All in all a little over 5 hours of running + 2 hours of functional training. I'm doing some progress with the right leg pistol squat. My left leg however is there only to complete the pair LOL.
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
Mark - Good result. Well done, sir.
Enric and Flavio - Good weeks!
My week was good. My HR is coming down slowly. I've never tracked it intensively before so doing while coming off that keto attempt is interesting and I'm trying not to read too much into it. I took a peek at my HR during my long run today and it was up around 170bpm 7-8km in going at about 5:30/km. Later in the run, around 12km, I was picking up the pace, checked again and I was at 159bpm at 5:05/km. It seems once I got into a rhythm later in the run, it was coming easier. Anyway, my long run was 2.5km shorter than intended. I was going to complete a 1.5km loop twice at the end of the run, but a little bit into it I needed the bathroom so I peeled for home. After that I didn't feel like going out to put in another 2kms. I am happy with the week all-in-all. A similar week on tap for next week, hopefully >40mi, and a slight increase in the tempo speed run. I'm going to continue monitoring HR. Until I get a good max HR test and a better resting HR, it's more just passive observation. I am still going to train according to zones based on VDOT from HM result in October (or slightly slower).
Personal Bests: 5k 19:43 (04/2017), 10k 43.24 (10/2016), Half 1:33:18 (10/2017), Full 3:32:47 (05/2017)2018 Targets: 5k: sub19, 10k: sub41, Half: sub90
Hi, all,
First of all, the racers.
Mark: Congrats for the overall placing. You also paced very well keeping in mind that you had to adapt to hard conditions... That's not always evident.
Rune: Good job, man! It looks like you started a bit faster than the planned 4:30, but that turned out to be the ideal pacing for the whole distance. Nice RR. Good recovery for the legs and for the hands
James: good job increasing the weekly volume
Piwi: Stung twice by different insects? was it just bad luck or you guys were bugging the bugs?
Watson: Coming along nicely
Enric: Yeah, 2Q has those 2 days very hard... I think it's wise to dial down to adapt to the exigences
Flavio: Nice week getting to 60K.
Blair: Good week! I imagine the HR will still take one or two weeks to stabilize.
Me: Here is my week. Not too much to say except that I had an extraordinary soccer game. Very close to what I intended except that I wanted more hills in the long run... Ideally I should have run 10K more in a short run or to add to one of the others but time constraints, snowfall and a sick daughter didn't allow for that.
The tempo left me tired and the long run always do the same thing... I still need to soldier 2 more weeks before I do a short taper for the tuneup half.
This upcoming week has a birthday, a 34Km long run, and hopefully a longer tempo.
Rune 1:34, nice work!
Watson: nice week mate
Mark 1:25, Way to go!!! Yeah, taking wrong turns sucks. I ran13,44km on a 10K a few weeks ago, LOL.
BlairJB : Good week mate, HR will come down soon enough. 159 at 5:05 seems a bit high indeed.
Jaime: Nice tempo, no wonder you were tired mate.
Cobra Commander Keen
James - Interesting. Hopefully I can find that article.
Blair - Nice tempo workout. Isn't it nice to see HR come down in response to training?
Mark - Nice race, especially give the less-than-ideal conditions.
Rune - Excellent job on the HM, and that's some pretty awesome pacing!
Watson - Nice week.
KK - Wouldn't two teenage daughters be a reason to get out of the house and run?? I kid, but maybe because I have 3x daughters myself.
Enric - Sounds like you have everything ready to go for the upcoming cycle. Good luck!
Jaime - Excellent week as well.
I finished up the first week of my 12 week Daniels' plan. I think I've said it before, but it is nice to have very definite direction to the overall plan. My LR was a little faster than called for (8/mi, 4:58/km), but not too bad. It was cold enough that my watch was buried under shirt+jacket+glove cuff, so I decided I'd go off a perceived "a bit harder than easy" effort level. Next time I do a cold LR by pace I'll make sure to wear my chest strap for HR, that way I can strap the watch on the outside of my clothes once I get dressed, like I did for my workout today.
Pro tip: make sure your scheduled workouts are in the workout calendar correctly. I was supposed to do 7x 3 min, 2 min recovery today, but when I checked the workout on my watch recoveries were just 1 minute. No worries, just use the interval builder on the watch instead of the calendar workout, right? Except that I accidentally set it for 8x intervals instead of 7. I didn't even notice until looking at the workout a couple hours later. At least I had the recover periods correct, lol.
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
That's an impressive week Keen.
I had an awesome tempo yesterday, I was able to keep the 4:05 pace for 9K without increasing the HR too much (it rose in the last 10 seconds but it was me showing the HR to a running peer that happened to be around)...
The avg HR on the tempo portion was 151,
Jaime - great job on the tempo!
Jamie et al - on HR, how do you guys determine your how your HR is with respect to training zones? I think I've asked a similar question before and got a little feedback... but for those who might not have been around, do you look at it with respect to Max HR or do you guys calculate according to Heart Rate Reserve?
I realize my HR will come down with time/training but seeing some of your numbers is daunting. As per Pfitzinger, my Easy/Long Run training zone is 65%-78% of HRR (which for me is 149 to 165). I see some of your numbers and, as much as I know everyone's HR/max HR/resting HR is different and my running fitness level just isn't there yet, I still seem sooo high. Just curious. Any input is appreciated.
Jaime - Thanks! Nice work on the tempo run. Those are probably my favorite type of workout.
Blair - I do all of my easy runs and non-workout LRs based on HRR. 196 max, 40 resting. I prefer this to straight HRMax as it takes my personal fitness into account, thanks to including resting HR. My zones are setup so that 50-60% is Z1, 60-70% Z2 (this is where I do all my easy and long runs, so between 134-149bpm), 70-80% Z3, 80-90% Z4, 90%+ Z5.
65-78% of HRR as an "easy" zone seems high to me, but is more in line as a percentage of HRMax for an easy zone. 78% of my HRMax comes to 153, so not far off of the top of my HRR easy zone. My last marathon had an average HR that was about 78-79% HRR, for example.
I'd recommend staying under 70% HRR and see how you feel after a while. Not just averaging less than that for a run, but try not to exceed it at all. This should help you better develop aerobic endurance without wearing you out so much, as it looks to me like you're likely near marathon effort for those runs.
I made a HRR calculator in Excel a while back that also shows general guidelines for HR at different race efforts. This last part was based on some combination of the recommendations of Pfitz, Daniels, and maybe McMillan. It's been so long since I made it that I don't recall exactly where those came from. Anyway, let me know if you want it.
Blair:
Short answer: I prefer HRR and I use HR during a run as information not as strict goal.
Long answer:
I almost always run with HRM and I know the patterns and more or less can correlate to perceived effort.
I know that my resting HR is around 32 when in shape (although using the activity monitor I have seen numbers as low as 26, but I refrain from using them).
I suspect my max still corresponds to 218-age (that's 2bpm less than the "Karvonen" formula). Between June and December I reached 171 in different occasions, either the end of a tempo or the last interval, or in a 10K race. For practical purposes I use 173 172 since I haven't followed any protocol.
So, given that I deviate too much on the RHR but just align with population on MaxHR, it makes sense to use HRR, not just %max (and it also reduces the impact of the maxHR uncertainty)
I am aware that there are many things that affect the HR: sleep, drink (caffeine comes first), food, heat, sickness, stress, breathing patterns, etc...
Furthermore, I know that the HRM is not perfect, sometimes I can get cadence lock, sometimes it just stops recording
Hence, while running I just take a glance at it and may/may not react to the values I see.
But I do use HR information to analyze after... That is, I check the HR drift in long runs and tempos (the flatter HR the better). I'm also interested in trends across several weeks, I compare similar runs and see the progress (if any), or I compare vs previous training cycles
Keen and Jaime - thank you for the responses!
Keen - I got the 65-78% for "easy" from Pete Pfitzinger's Long Run training zones based on HRR(that's his Long Run time zone while "General Aerobic" is 61-75% with Marathon Pace at 73-84%). It makes sense that his time zones overlap, I guess. I have a hard time equating "Marathon effort" with any of these runs. The recent easy runs are much slower that my actual Marathon PR which I felt I wasn't prepared enough for in terms of mileage (in hindsight). Do you mean 70% for ALL runs? Or just for easy days? I did try to stick to the 70% this evening (155bpm) and it was soooo slow (~6min/km). I can do that for 3-4 runs per week but I think I'd quickly lose interest in running without the challenge of tempo runs or speed work.
Jamie - I have been doing the same in not checking HR during runs (or trying not to as I find I am constantly checking too many things during runs) but analyzing afterwards.
I do want to take Keen's advice on the 70%, if only for 3-4 runs per week and monitor during my run. I'm going to need to bust out the tempo work and speed work 1-2 times per week though... to keep it interesting and to try to meet goals
Blair - I use HR zones based off LTHR using Joe Friel's formula (in my case LTHR is ~180bpm, max ~192 bpm and resting ~42bpm).
Z1: 0-146bpm
Z2: 147-159bpm
Z3: 160-168bpm
Z4: 169-179bpm
Z5: 180bpm+
Z1 and Z2 are fine for easy runs and aerobic training. Tempo and harder efforts Z3-Z4. In general I find this has worked pretty well to the usual 80% of mileage easy / 20% efforts, although at times I've had to push to get my HR into the target zone for harder workouts.
Keen - really nice week.