Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2018
Bummer about your calf Piwi! Might have something to do with your HM workout just 3 days ago, which is not too far off race effort? In any case, heal up and take it easy for a few days and hopefully you'll be back soon.
I'll cheer for OKC until they meet the Warriors, but yesterday I totally screwed up. Most websites these days are good at listing TV times in your local timezone, but si.com apparently is not. I saw that the game was going to be on at 6:15 pm, but that was East Coast Time, so when I was ready to watch the game was over.
Boston looked absolutely brutal and I can't remember any race before when that many of the pros just pulled out. If you go through the list of top pros almost none of them finished.
5k: 20:32 (1/17) | HM: 1:34:37 (2/18) | FM: 3:31:37 (3/18)
Getting back into it
Jaime you are unbreakable. Amazing under those conditions. Congrats and looking forward to the report!!!
Keen: great week and prep for your race. A good taper and we will see/read about the second best half time this year. Thats a really high mileage though - are you planning on running a full marathon later in the year?
Piwi: Bloody hell. I hope its not too serious. Too hard an effort for the muscles....
Rune: good consistent week - hope your ancles/joints are recovering well. And great mileage - to the dog of course. S/he looked a bit tired on Monday was a good workout obviously. The SF Warriors have some brutal competition this year. Will be interesting this year. And Rune whats up with your fellow Norwegian guy from the Biathlon Committee who obviously accepted hot Russian girls as bribe....honestly you Norwegians have no moral standards
HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)
2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!
Jaime - awesome job. The conditions looked very hard and a lot of very good runners had pretty tough days out there (including Andres from the sub 3 forum). That is an outstanding time in those conditions and to be honest on a faster course and on a better day I would say you would be getting very close to sub-3.
Piwi - yeah Taupo was the first thought that came to mind for me too!! Sounds like Boston was slightly warmer than that day, but a lot windier - which was is far worse especially combined with cold and rain. Hope that calf is nothing serious and comes right quickly.
Steve - yeah I found out the hard way after the marathon that you need time to recover! (I actually did take it easy too... just not easy enough!).
Keen - yeah I think sub-1:25 for sure. I ran a 38 min 10k when I was getting into running properly. Did 1:27 in the half marathon 4 weeks later, but your mileage and training is WAY ahead of where mine was at that stage. Subject to conditions, the course and getting out the right side of bed, of course!
JMac- I suspect as you're starting to build back into things fully, you'll have runs that surprise you, some in a good way and some in a bad way. Definitely that was what I had after coming back from 8 weeks off a couple of years ago.
Rune - consistency is king. If you have got little niggles or are feeling a bit lethargic, just hang around your current level or even take it a little easier. Your marathon was not that long ago and it can be really easy to overdo it in that period 4-6 weeks post race where you think you are fully recovered but maybe aren't quite just yet. I definitely overcooked it after the marathon last year and paid the price with ITB issues that took a good 8 weeks to be fully rid of and made running just totally miserable for a while.
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"
Thanks for the reminder and advice Piwi, JMac and Mark. I decided to schedule 40 this week and then I can increase towards the end of the week if I feel better.
Just went through some numbers at Boston btw, and out of 32 starting runners with bib number of 20 or below (which sums of most of the elite field), only 12 finished
Mick, our dog is a great companion on short, easy runs, but she never lasts more than 4-5 miles. And when it gets warm outside she really struggles, and she always ends up spread out on our floor after the runs to cool off/recover. I think I have some photos of that on my Strava as well. And since I have no moral standards myself I'm not so surprised by the biathlon guy
Cobra Commander Keen
Jaime - Great job gutting it out in those conditions!!
Piwi - Bummer about the calf. Here's hoping for a quick recovery.
Mick - I am planning on running a marathon in the fall, and tentatively have one in my sights. I might also jump into a 50k next in early June as a fun/stupid thing.
You guys are way more optimistic about my abilities than I have been! Those numbers look pretty intimidating, but with the way this cycle has gone I may as well go for it (weather, etc. permitting, of course).
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
Rune the Warriors are an awesome team. I do love seeing them get beaten though I have trouble liking Draymond Green hes always arguing with the refs plus he kicked Adams in the nuts twice haha.
Thanks guys Mick/Rune yes saturdays fast long run was not race effort but still a severe workout and doing a tempo today after an 80km week was probably a bit much. Ive got a distinct sore spot in the calf which hurts if I push on it. Walking is pretty fine though.
Although Boston was tough it gave the American lady a better chance of victory and also Yuki Kawauchi who is such an awesome runner to watch.
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 "
Intl. correspondent
Jmac - I agree with your plan. Use this extra cushion to run more mileage.
Keen - Unfortunately I don’t have good endurance, to be safe within 1:30 I’d need a 18:30 at least. But I’ll see, maybe I get lucky and the day is sub 15C (59F).
Another big week for you, I hope to be there in a few months.
Jaime - Great job, I was re-watching the race just now and the conditions were horrible, wind cold and rain.
Piwi - Roll that for a few days, hopefully it will go away. I agree Kawauchi is such an inspiration, he only knew he was winning at the finish line (When he passed Kirui, Kirui was running a pedestrian 6:30 mile) and slowing down.
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
Flavio I watched the full replay today. You kinda have to with a marathon as its like a movie. Kawauchi went out fast 15 min flat 1st 5kms, the commentators thought he was crazy, no way he would be there at the end. Amazing conditions. Kiruis baggy jacket didnt help while Kawauchi was way more aerodynamic in singlet and arm warmers. I think there is alot of improvements to be made in clothing for windy cold marathons.
Great stories with unfancied runners coming in 2nd and 3rd in the womens race.
RIP Milkman
Piwi, great point on the jackets. Some of them looked like people were running in trash bags, I couldn't believe it. It did make me think they can make a lot of money though if they get it right: I would worry about running a marathon in a rain jacket because of the same ballooning problems. This race also reminded me that I need to get the right gear to run in those conditions. I only have stuff for running training long runs, but nothing even remotely ready for racing. Decided to buy a skin tight compression shirt the other day when I saw the forecast, but going to add to my collection.
I also decided I'm going to start "logging" every mile on Strava after Flavio pointed out the crazy miles this guy is putting up in Sub 90. I figure we need more real representation in there! It's amazing how bad GPS is though in tall buildings, which is why I avoided it for this entire time (https://www.strava.com/activities/1512980744). It's off by TEN percent when I'm running through the streets (thinks it's 0.9 miles to Central Park from my apartment when it's actually exactly 1.00 miles). But whatever, I feel like it's easier to track everything that way with the first and last mile being way off then continuing to log so much through spreadsheets. My average pace is going to be slower than what I'm actually running, but that's okay.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
Jackets in Botswana: I think most of the baggy jackets were meant to be used as throw-aways (elites had two bibs this year, I presume for this reason). The conditions just ended up being bad enough that very few actually removed anything.
I think the worst part for them was probably the wind. These are tiny people weighing under 60kg, the women around 45kg, that's less than a bag of cement! A fan blowing into their direction is enough to make them halt.
Kawauchi also won Zurich a couple of years ago when it was freezing temps and it actually snowed that day. That race was so crazy that an amateur won the women's race as all the elites dropped out.
This is the reason that even though perhaps one day I'll run a time that qualifies for Boston (I need a 3h10) I have no intention of ever running there.
Marathons are already a huge sacrifice for me on the flat, their course is very tough and the weather is always crazy extreme.
Keen - I love that the Botswana meme is still alive after so many years.
I'm definitely running Boston next year, but the weather is so unbelievably variable. You can easily get a day where it's low 50's and perfect, or days like it has been the past 3 years. I truly appreciate now the difference between spring and fall marathons here in the Northeastern US. It's not that the average weather is that different between let's say the Boston Marathon and the NYC Marathon, it's just that the volatility around those average is SO much higher for Boston.
A big thank you guys, for the messages.
Yesterday was a hard day, I was thinking about DNF almost since the beginning, but thought about you guys and also friends and family that were tracking... And decided to keep soldiering.
I think the best that I felt was between 10K and 25K, I tried to enjoy and absorb, at that point I wasn't cold nor had any pain.
I guess I did the hills OKish, but in the final downhill plus flat, my left knee was hurting and my upper thighs were extremely tight... I bled a considerable amount of time there.
After crossing the line, walking for ages, waiting for my checked bag, I was shivering and asked support to get on wheel chair to a warm place. They took me to the medical tent.
Gladly it took only 10-15 minutes to regain my normal temperature and put dry clothes on.
Mark, comparing to time differentials, I'd say it could have been near 3:05 in good conditions.