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

Rune - all the best for the race!!

Mick- enjoy the race and festivities (not sure which is more fun haha)

Piwi - nice week and hopefully you are over those injuries now.

James - nice week.

Reasonable week for me post-race with 66km.  Calves were pretty tight for a few days after the HM but are more or less normal again now.  I did the final race of the Albany Lakes 10km series this morning for nostalgia value (and a medal).  Didn't want to go at full race pace in case I wasn't fully recovered from last weekend, and also because the target for me is the Waterfront HM in 2 weeks time, so just ran it basically as a HMP tempo effort and felt reasonably good.  Mark Boyce, the winner, shaved 15 seconds off his PB and ran 32:59 which is awesome on what is quite a hilly 10km course.

M: weights

T: 12km easy

W: 12.4km easy

T: 16.2km w/ 3x 12 min efforts

F: weights

S: 12.2km easy

S: 3.6km warm up, 10km HMP tempo (36:45)

Total: 66.3km

Mark yes i remember when i started running,  it was a race that attracted proper club type runners. I think it has a long history. I checked past results once and seem to remember 1.05 type times would win it. Pretty sure John Walker ran it in about that.

We woke up at the usual time at 6am. It's Sunday morning, it rained most of the night but now the rain stopped.
There's a light, but cool-ish wind which gives me some hope. The weather sites state it's 22C/72F so really no PR weather.
I chew a carbo bar and some left over purple juice from yesterday.
My nutritionist told me to have a portion of purple food every day to improve the immune system.
She also prescribed turmeric for that same reason. And that pepper intensifies the turmeric effects.
Also my last exame showed some acidity on my body so she prescribed some drops of lemon before lunch.
I'm half way between "She knows her stuff, she's got a masters degree in gastroenterology" and "she's picking up random stuff to test my palate limits".
I follow her advice though mostly because she's expensive. And my weight is going down.
As I'm coming back from the toilet for the 3rd time my girlfriend asks me if I'm sick. I answer no. She then proceeds to ask if
I'm nervous about the race. I again answer no. She then ignores my answer and proceeds to scold me for being nervous for such a ridiculous race.
She's right, you know.

We hail a Cabify (Uber little brother). These are very convenient and cheap with most of my rides under $usd 3.
It seems 90% of people who had 2 cars sold one of them once these app drivers showed up.
And many others sold the one car they had.
There's almost no traffic like most Sunday mornings.

As we arrived at the race arena, the place is a bit swampy. They've placed a lot of crushed stones on the ground, so it's mostly safe,
but better watch your step.

Runners with numbers with a white back are going to race the 5K. I'm zooming in on many people and it seems most are going for the 10K and 15K.
I start thinking what if just hobby joggers show up. Maybe I can hit the podium.
But off course that's not to be, it almost never happens in any race here that at least 5 guys sub 17 will show up.
Even for a race that does not awards age group prizes like the 5K.

Anyway, it seemed I needed another toilet visit. For some reason the men's line is big with like 12 guys in it while the ladies line is empty.
It almost always is the opposite.
I realize some of the guys in line are not southerners like me. I can tell that from the accent, but mostly from the fact that they are not
impatient. Us southerners are more service minded and clock bound, or as the northerners like to describe us, it's like we got
a sword up our asses LOL.
I quickly realize that out of the 5 toilet booths, 2 are free. The morons at the front of the queue are on the phone or just dumb.
So I make my way to the front and warn them about it. They promptly ignore me. The guys behind them are uneasy about cutting the line.
So there we are dumbly in line for 3 booths when there are 5.
After a few minutes I give up waiting and hope for the best, hopefully I don't end up like that Spanish dude with the brown running down his legs haha.

Off we go and I'm feeling great. The first km is 3:38, I need a 3:36 for a PR. I think it's okay, I can sprint in the end and I'll get it.
The second km is also 3:39. I'm feeling very good and passing a lot of people who for some reason lined up ahead of me.
We hit the turn around point I miss the first water cup but grab the second, just enough to wet the mouth and throw it away.
I was in the zone at this point, so I hope I didn't hit anybody with that cup of water.
They serve the water in little covered cups with a sort of aluminum cover that you can easily poke with the thumb and consume the water.
It's very practical.

Some guy I had passed is side by side with me now so I hit the boosters a bit to get rid of him.

And this was that moment where I went from "Awesome, a PR is in the bag" to "jeez, I might fail the Gaga challenge".
I simply felt cooked and could not sustain the effort anymore. Off course 22C is not the best weather but I think it probably
has a lot to do with the very fast first 2km as well.

It's clear now I didn't have a PR in me today (especially at 84k when the PR was around 81kg).

I started fading badly with km 3 in 3:44 and km 4 in 3:55, just 5 seconds off the Gaga challenge pace,
and that dude I had passed back at km 2 now had passed me and had almost a 100m lead.

According to my watch I crossed 5K around 18:46 and the finish line in 19:03. It was well within the 1% margin of error for GPS though.

I think I was 7th or 8th overall.

The training is already brining results though I'm still a long way from a PR.

My weight is going down though and with a lucky weather break I think another PR might be in the cards.
My last PR is a 10K time trial in 28/04/2016, almost 2 years back.
I'm yearning!

Flavio: great race report cara I envy you for your speed. And the weight loss. Although I eat like a pig so its not a surprise I don't lose any. Enjoy the day - you've earned it.

Rune: 1:41 at the 12.5miles mark. Good job Rune!

My week was comprised of 4 runs only. But those were nice, eventhough mostly slow:

I have tried to cycle during my rest days for aerobic benefits but I am just too lazy. This week I listened to Scott Jureks Eat&Run. Will tune into the Running with the Kenians next...lets see.

2:25:14 for 18.1miles... he's approximately on 3h31 pace... Let's see if he can speed at the end

Flavio - great RR. I am a frequent pre-race visitor to the bathroom as well. The great thing about being a guy is that at most races here they will have portable urinals, so queueing is a non-issue.  Anyway now that you're getting some consistency back in your training, that PR is not far off.  22C is way too hot for my liking, less impact in a 5k than it would have in a longer race, but still tough work.

Rune - great job on the marathon.  Looks like your pace was super-consistent for the most part but it got tough from about the 36km mark.  Also what was with the course length?  Almost a km long?  You'd expect to lose 200m or 300m but that's just crazy!