Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2018
Mick - Thanks. I have constant mileage and pace envy on this forum with Mark running what seems to be runs at 6x/mile pace all the time and people in the 3:20 forum are logging 50% miles more than me or more for the most part, so no reason to feel bad.
Mark - Great race report!
Flavio - Nice mileage! I'm hoping to be there myself in a couple of weeks.
Steve - Good to her you're feeling ok. No shame in DNFing either if that had happened, or stopping for a couple minutes like you did. A buddy of mine passed out a couple of hundred meters before the finish line in a 10k once and had to spend a couple of days in a hospital. Dehydration, slightly warmer temps than expected and pushing really hard at the end made for a less than ideal finish to that race.
I had a week pretty much like I planned it, except I skipped Friday's short run because it was pouring outside. Instead I took the bike out for a good spin this afternoon and got to enjoy everything that comes with that. My goal for this week was 30 miles running (ramping up slowly), ended up at 29.2, next week I'm aiming for 40. Also got a fair amount of hills worked into my runs as well.
Weekly SummaryMonday, Apr 02, 2018 thru Sunday, Apr 08, 2018
<tfoot> </tfoot>
5k: 20:32 (1/17) | HM: 1:34:37 (2/18) | FM: 3:31:37 (3/18)
Getting back into it
RIP Milkman
All this racing maybe I should sign up for something !
Don't tease us.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
As a preview I found a video that captures Piwi’s training regimen.
https://youtu.be/_KePWnzGX-I
Mark: Cognratulations on the PR and the series win. Your race reports are awesome as well
JMac: I guess I said it before. You are coming from an injury and you are already posting very good times... You ran exact same pace you have forecast,so kudos for your fitness assessment.
Steve: many things might have affected your performance, from the plane to the sleep, from the temperature change to your own pressure.
Mick, Flavio, Piwi, good mileage
James: I hope you feel better now.
Me: Taper2 is posted below, and now race week. Plan to go for 40Km this week (and 42.2 the next one)... worried about jetlag when I travel to the Boston
Weekly Summary Monday, Apr 02, 2018 thru Sunday, Apr 08, 2018
And Rune, thanks for tracking Mark... I couldn't make it work... it could have been me or my beers
Jaime - Best of luck
Mark - You're going to have to run another marathon. At some point, you won't be able to PR at these shorter distances anymore and that 2:57 is going to stick out like a sore thumb. Maybe not this year, but it will happen.
Hot Weather Complainer
Thanks Jamie (and everyone). Good luck in Boston.
I've had a closer look at the South Island Half-Marathon on August 5 and I think that's what I'll target for sub 1:30 in 2018 now. Falls at a good time with enough time now to recover and build a base before ramping up the speed again. As long as I stay injury free, I'm starting from a better place - 12 weeks ago I was coming off an injury which meant I did little or no running for 4-6 weeks before starting the 12 week build up.
Another thing I've been thinking about is how the stress of every day life can impact racing. Normally I find running clears the head and helps with tough decisions. In the last month I've been agonising about a new job offer, potentially a dream job but leaving one I also like as well as making a 50-50 decision on buying a house. Personally, I'm sceptical that these things had any impact on the race but I'd be interested in the thoughts of others.
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
Steve - Don't underestimate the effect stress can have on your performance. I know it' a focus for the Kenyans to have as little as possible to worry about outside of running and they have several stories of runners seeing marked drops in performance after they try to start a business and thereby get lots of other things to think about. There are lots of good stories about that in the book "Two Hours: The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon" by Ed Caesar.
And my fellow Norwegian Sondre Norstad Moen became the fist European non-African-born athlete to run a sub 2:06 marathon last year after starting to block out as many distractions as possible, and only concentrate about running. There are obviously other factors at play as well but I think outside distractions can have a big impact.
That's interesting rune, I might get a hold of that book.
My PR did come at a time when I'd had 3-4 months of little life related stress and was pretty focused on the race. I also didn't have to fly anywhere the day before and lived a 10 minute walk from the start/finish in Cathedral Square which definitely helped.
For the next race it will be a 75 minute drive to the start, but a 10am start means this can be at a leisurely pace without leaving at crazy o'clock.
Rune - nice week and you're smart building the mileage back up gradually. I overcooked it coming back from my marathon late last year and paid the price (even though I thought I was being conservative).
Piwi - DO IT!!!! There's a flat half marathon right on your doorstep at the end of August...
Jaime- I wouldn't worry too much about the jetlag. There's not much you can do about it other than drink lots of water and try and get yourself adjusted to the timezone quickly. Boston will be awesome and hope it goes well for you.
JMac - you're probably right, my FM time does stand out. Right now I'm looking at my 5k and particularly my 10k PB's as being up for a takedown. The HM one... that'll be tough to beat. But, I set my old HM PB back in October 2016, didn't even get close to it for 18 months, then wiped 2 minutes off it in 3 weeks, so you never know. I'm also looking forward to trying some different HM races out too - not just in NZ but maybe head over to Australia at some point too where Melbourne and Sydney have genuinely big race events.
Steve - that's cool that you have a race locked in and I thought that might be a good one to target. Gives you a good period of time to train towards it and build on your current base, without being too far away (time and distance-wise!).
Re races/stress - I have a really mixed bag of personal experiences on this front! I've had bad races under low stress conditions, and good races under high stress conditions. Most of my best races have been under low stress conditions in terms of external factors, but they've often been goal races so I've just stressed about the race itself!
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"
A few pictures from Sunday... finish line, hilarious prizegiving photo with a fountain coming out the top of my head (I was excited...), and one with Rangitoto in the background (this was the sort of backdrop we had for most of the course... pretty beautiful even though I have run around there hundreds of times).
Mark - I've done the Melbourne half 3 times and it's awesome. The bridge with 1km to go in the half is TOUGH but probably fine for you after Coatesville (you can see it and the last 1-2km in that Kerryn McCann 2006 video I posted). Hard to beat running on to the MCG at the end and looking up to see yourself on the big screen.
Rune thanks for another video relating to me
Mark cool photos. You look very Kiwi in the jandals !
Yeah that half is a flat one apart from round the mount. They still have the stairs up and around the slip which is a 30sec throwaway. Real bummer but apparently will cost millions to fix.
Steve I think stress is a major. Especially if you are not sleeping 8 hours because of it. I generally dont suffer from much stress but recently had some which upset my sleeping pattern badly. I felt very low energy during the day.
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 "
Although the night before a race i think its normal to have a bad sleep but shouldnt have too much effect on the race. its the cumulative effect of several bad nights that really drag you down.
Mick I just added you to my Strava sorry for the delay.
Although the night before a race i think its normal to have a bad sleep but shouldnt have too much effect on the race. its the cumulative effect of several bad nights that really drag you down. Mick I just added you to my Strava sorry for the delay.
Yep, that's another one I've picked up from Jack Daniels. Make sure you are well rested in general and the night before a race doesn't mean that much. Except if you are flying all day the day before the race, that didn't work out too well for me last year.
Jaime - When are you flying in for Boston?
Mark - Great pictures!
Steve - I think it's great having set my fall goal already (Amsterdam October 21). August 5 for you is perfect (I followed a near identical schedule 2 years ago after my first marathon) as you mentioned, time for a few weeks recovery and enough time for a good program after that. I got the whole spring/summer and fall laid out already, with the exception of any smaller races I will do in between of course.