Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2018
JamesD
Jaime - That's really, really impressive. Just finishing must've taken a lot of willpower.
I stopped subscribing to RW last year because it seemed to have become more about shopping & social media than about running, but the RW website did something I liked a couple of days ago. It had pictures of the top finishers in Boston with descriptions of the gear they wore and links to buy it. That seems useful. I'm sure Brooks is selling a bunch of Desi's jackets.
My week was sort of mixed, but I guess productive. 39 miles is the most I've done in a week since high school, and I've been over 35 in five of the last six weeks, so that's good. Had knee discomfort for most of the week, but mainly before and after runs and on off days. During the runs, it usually was worst during the second mile and better afterwards. I imagine that standing on concrete for 90 minutes at a party the previous Saturday didn't help, but I have trouble pinpointing exact causes, especially since the knee hurts in different spots on different days. Today I wore Nike Pegasus instead of the Brooks Ghosts I've been using 3x/week (Saucony Kinvaras the other 2x, to vary the stresses), and the knee felt better, so I'll try them on my long run next week.
Sun - off
Mon - 9.3 miles
Tues - 6.6 slow to moderate
Weds- off, still not swimming bc of lingering sinus trouble/head cold
Thurs - 9.3 easy
Fri - 6.7 slow
Sat - 7.1 including 5.7 moderate & some strides
Total - 39 miles
YTD average - 30 mpw
Post-1987 PRs: Half 1:30:14 (2019); 10K 39:35 (2019); 5K 19:12 (2017); Mile 5:37.3 (2020)
'24 Goals: consistency, age-graded PRs, half < 1:32
Piwi - we’ve definitely got a lot of hills! I’m not sure about flat options though, other than Tamaki Drive and one or two other spots almost all of Auckland is undulating to some degree.
James - nice week and definitely satisfying to build the mileage for sure!
Me - well now the work begins again. 77km this week and the theme was pretty much ‘hills’. Despite this, I was really itching to run this week, helps that the weather has been perfect lately but it’s cool to just be out and enjoying running with the next race a long way off.
M: weights
T: 13.3km incl 4x 2 min hard / 3 min easy
W: 13km easy
Th: 13.8km with hill reps
F: weights
S: 14.1km with some more hills
S: 22.7km hilly long run
Total: 76.8km
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"
James i love Pegasus. Great daily training shoe.
Mark the fact you are itching to get out is awesome. Hills are goodness.
Mick you are right and my calf must not have been that bad or I have super human healing powers
My week. Its cutting off mondays again so Ive manually added it.
Weekly SummaryMonday, Apr 16, 2018 thru Sunday, Apr 22, 2018
I never thought i would hit 50 miles this week after my calf strain but i found I could run on it no problem. I will have to be careful with fast stuff this week though. Its still a little sore but im massaging and stretching it.
Today i was going to see how it felt and run another 19km like yesterday but in the back of my mind I wanted to hit 80kms/50 miles for the week so I bumped it up to 23kms to get there. The run felt good although i forgot to have a little something to eat beforehand but a couple of quick gulps of water en route got me there.
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 "
James & Mark: great weeks with lots of good workouts.
Piwi: great long runs on an injured calf. A bit crazy I have to say
Me: I had a slow and easy week with 56km on 5 runs. I still feel my calf but it doesnt get worse. The foam rolling helped and I will try to stretch it too. I am on a one week vacation in Sicily. just got back from a 7k beach run - its starting to get really warm. but the locals still run in winter gear they must think I am absolutely nuts in my shirt and shorts!
HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)
2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!
Intl. correspondent
jmac - fantastic workouts, you’re definitely in sub 18 shape, a least 17:45 if you judge your pace right on race day.
Piwi - nice recovery
James - I seem to remember when you joined here and could run only 20-25 miles a week. You have come far!
me - awesome week at 80km 50 miles.
Yesterday I ran 24km for the long run with the last 6km in 4:14/km pace (1h30 half pace).
I'm signed up for a half may 6th (no need to put it on the board). I have a very short window to try to improve as I'll try to run sub 1:30 for the half for the first time in almost 3 years.
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
Mick 56kms is still good. Your calf sounds a bit like mine, no worse if running.
Flavio I saw your long run but didnt check splits, very nice finish. Its good to do that in a long run as it really tests you as you fatigue and almost takes away the monotony of those last miles.
I found a stream for London last night but not in English. From what i could see, Keitany went out too fast for the conditions. I was worried for her at halfway as she was sweating alot. Im glad she finished ( about 5th I think ). She was hobby jogging in that last mile and looked totally spent.
Kipchoge so poised from start to finish. In comparison Mo looked ungainly, however.....Mo finished 3rd in 2.06 on a hot day wearing sunglasses and arm warmers ! He messed up at least one drinks station. If he can smoothe out some of these rookie things he will be very dangerous.
Hi, guys, thank you for your messages.
I see a lot of activity, and exemplar work from each of you, for example, Mr. Piwi gets injured and decided to jump his mileage.
Happy that Flavio has put some goals ahead. That race is now
Good job Mark, James and Mick
Waiting for the weeklies from JMac, Rune and Keen, but from what I can see, it's going well.
Keep at it while I profit from a deserved/forced rest (my left knee is still sensitive)
I put a RR in Strava... If you ever feel like needing something to sleep, here is your type of lecture.
https://www.strava.com/athletes/10854504/posts/1867046
Jaime: thanks I really liked your detailed RR. I didnt see it as negative as your intro made me believe. Well done under extremely tough conditions. And you did significantly better than the average which is a pool of mostly fit and ambitious runners. Congratulations on ticking the box!
Mick - I can remember going to LA for work in January a couple of years ago. I went running down on Manhattan beach in a t-shirt and shorts. All the locals were wearing jackets, scarves and hats and looked at me like I was crazy... but it was like 15C / 60F !
Flavio - saw your LR on Strava, nice job. Excited to see how you go in this half now that you have been getting some good consistent training down.
Piwi - nice week and glad that calf doesn't sound like anything serious. Mo sounded pretty annoyed with the fact that some of the marshals were more interested in taking pictures of him than giving him his drink! But wearing arm warmers was a pretty noob mistake. A local guy from the Shore, Steven Lett ran a 2:36. He did a 2:27 when he won the Auckland Marathon in 2014 but still very quick on a tough day for running.
Jaime - great RR and again, I wouldn't underestimate your result in those conditions. A lot of runners did a lot worse! I had still been toying with the idea of doing Boston next April but after seeing what a lottery the weather has been I've gone right off the idea.
Jaime really enjoyed your report. The marathon is tough enough and then you have those horrendous conditions thrown in.
Mark seems like Boston and NYC marathons are not really PB material although Jmac owned New York last year. I warmed up for my PB half in 2014 with Stephen Lett.
Im hoping to do a VO2 workout this week to ready me for the new Parkrun event here. Ive forgotten the " beautiful " 5k pace feeling
RIP Milkman
James - Really nice progress and good build up in mileage YTD.
Mark - hopefully you can stay motivated with mileage. Honestly, if you're looking to make a big push for your next PR, this is a great base building phase. Unfortunately, that requires even MORE mileage than you are currently running and not sure how you feel about that.
Piwi - Totally fake calf injury!! I will say that NYC is definitely a challenge to run just because of both the hills and the logistics. I've been lucky with weather. Although not perfect, it has been 60F both years. I have a feeling I will not get good weather for both NYC and Boston for my upcoming 2 fulls. But, in a weird way, I think I'm going to get perfect Boston weather just because so many people are giving up on it that it's almost like another FU to them after they decide not to run it.
Jaime - I really enjoyed the RR, very detailed and some good insight.
MJ - Enjoy the vacation!
Me - After my 2 good workouts Wed/Thur, I decided to go for the real tester in the form of a 15K tempo run on Saturday. It was very challenging and honestly I almost gave up halfway through it as I was having a lot of stomach issues. I almost started to throw up after this hill in the 5th mile, which would have been pretty bad given how many people were around me. Also, it's never a good look when you pass people and then throw up: they're all thinking "look at this idiot running so fast, maybe you should slow down!" Anyway, I was able to get it done, but I did have some issues trying to pace myself properly as I got a bit too fast in the middle miles which made things more difficult. It was also a good mentally tough workout. Sometimes Jack Daniels does too much work split up into intervals, which can make you mentally unprepared for a true race effort, but he certainly beat me up with this one. Either way though, happy to get it done and going to take things easy for the next couple of days before moving on to 5x1200 later this week.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
Cobra Commander Keen
JMac - I saw those workouts - nice. Best of luck chasing down that PR.
Piwi - Nice week! Hopefully that calf doesn't cause problems much longer.
Flavio - Go for it!!
Jaime - I'm going over that RR as soon as I can.
London - Missed it all, having to catch up on the happenings as I can.
My week below. I really think my time on the treadmill in the garage without any airflow is really helping. I've noticed on my last 3x workouts that my HR hasn't gotten quite as high as it normally would be and that it drops faster and farther than before during the recovery periods. I'll probably do another 1-2 of those this week just to help maintain whatever acclimatization is there.
Monday, Apr 16, 2018 thru Sunday, Apr 22, 2018
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
Keen - How do you possibly do R pace on a treadmill? I've been thinking about doing some workouts on them, but I can't see how I can do that pace on a treadmill without tripping over myself.
JMac - All my workouts this week were on the roads. The "ish" for the R segments was because I had to rely on GPS distance.I've only done R-paced stuff on the treadmill once, and that was toward the beginning of the cycle. It was tricky, but I used the quick speed change setting (type the speed in using number pad) to move between easy and fast paces. Looking back, I probably should have pushed the workout to a day without storms so I could have done it on the track.
Did you decide on a pace? I think I saw some of the folks on the 3:20 thread were pushing you more towards 1:27 than 1:25.