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

Piwi - that would have been tough doing an LR in those conditions.  It was super windy here yesterday morning when I was out running but dropped off massively overnight.  It was actually pretty nice for running this morning albeit quite humid again.  Seems singlet weather is not quite over yet.

Piwi: great week. And obviously speed "runs" in the family as does surfing waves I guess at least the surfing is not a real surprise in view of where you live.

Mark: I never really paid attention to altitude but those hills and the pace is just crazy. Re Avengers: its on the list!!!

Keen: good luck and looking forward to your report!!!!

Rune: great fartlek workout!

Me: calf/tibia doesnt stop hurting when I move. I am an overpronator so could well be splints or a developing stress fracture. Will see a doctor and start cycling instead of running. Might do a track session but man I do envy Piwi for his healing powers.

D

Flavio thats great stuff with your girlfriends running and weight loss. I must admit to some fatigue and niggles too. 80kms comes at a cost it seems.

When I woke sunday morning to lightning, torrential rain, and gale force winds, my long run didnt seem like a good idea untill i looked on Strava and saw your 26kms ! That motivated me.

Mick sorry about your leg. I had bad shin splits for 2 months when I started. It was just that my leg muscles were not yet developed for running. Stupid local shoe shop put me in support shoes and im a supinator which did not help !

Hopefully thats all it is for you. Its a hard sell telling a 20 year old that running is better than surfing 

Watson nice comeback week. Hope all the house stuff is coming along nicely.

I see Keen has a nice new half PR on strava. Congratulations.

Hi all,

I'm still hanging in here - been doing some easy runs of 60-90 mins and have gotten through 3 weeks post-race without injury for the first time in years.

I had a trip to Melbourne for a stag party in the middle and somehow didn't miss a run despite not treating my body like a temple.  On Saturday I did 90 mins @ easy pace which turned out to be 4:49 mins/km, slightly faster than I wanted but it was cold and wet and felt so so easy.  Funny to think how the last few km of the race felt at a slower pace than that but when trying to climb a wall everything changes.

Any thoughts on how/when I bring some speed work back?

Great to see everyone doing so well.

Piwi/Flavio - Once again, very happy to see both of you putting up some serious work out there. I feel like 2018 is going much better than 2017 for you guys (knock on wood), hope to keep seeing it.

Mark - 2x800 at mile pace is a workout I've never heard of before. Is it just to stay sharp, or is that actually a fitness gaining workout?

Watson - Hope to see the mileage keep increasing, good work.

MJ - Sorry to hear. You should try the hop test: if you hop on one leg and it hurts, you may be developing a stress fracture. If not, probably just some niggles.

Steve - Totally forgot you guys call it a stag party, it's a bachelor party here in the states (and I have on coming up myself, not sure about getting any good running in).

Me - Another good week for me. My 5x1200 was much harder than 5x1K last week. The last 1200 I felt like I couldn't get any oxygen in even though my legs felt okay, but I'm pretty sure that means I ran them perfectly. Tempo run the next day went really well too. I did get a little sick after my long run Sunday though, which happens like once every ten long runs where I come down with chills and a baby fever. I get over it by the next morning. One last week now of 1200s and tempo runs before moving into Phase IV of my plan which is a bit easier and will allow me to sharpen up for my true goal race in late May. Not sure I'll get the PR in 2 weeks though given I'm trying to run it in the hardest section of my training, but I hope to get close!

Overall, thinking back to where I was a few months ago not running at all, I couldn't be happier with my progress in both mileage and pace.

Weekly Summary
Monday, Apr 23, 2018 thru Sunday, Apr 29, 2018

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Mark, Piwi - Nice weeks! I couldn't beat you on distance this week but maybe I beat you on elevation gain?

Watson - 20 miles is still a lot better than nothing. Hope you can work your way back to a good level for your races!

Flavio - Nice week for you as well! And very cool that your girlfriend can see improvement in her running. And sorry, no bird pictures this week but I did meet some deer on my run on Monday.

Steve - The fact that you're still running with that partying going on is good. I agree with Piwi's advice on speed work, a short tempo run is a good place to start. 20 minutes is often recommended, which would be very close to 5 kms.

Mick - Not sure what your injury is but it would be wise to figure out what it is and what's causing it.

JMac - Solid week for you. Yes, 5x1200s are hard, but then again, intervals are supposed to be just that. I think you paced it properly if you start questioning yourself on the last rep, or maybe even the one before.

Keen - Nice race! The conditions sound tough, and a PR is always a good result. Looking forward to the RR. And congrats to your buddy!

I had a good week and got the planned amount of miles in, albeit in a different fashion than originally planned. I've continued to mix in a fair amount of hills and still don't look much at my pace when I run. On Saturday I decided it was time to mix in some drills for coordination and leg/ankle strength. After doing some searching on good drills I found this video and figured I should give some of those drills a try. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR2MyqYs1pA&t=401s

I was chuckling to myself when I watched the video at some of the college kids struggling with the coordination of some of the exercises, and thought this would be no problem once I got to the track. Boy was I wrong. I must have looked like a complete fool trying to figure out how to jumble my legs to do the drills right, and they wore me out too! I will try again this week and I'm hoping I can do better this time.

I also took a look at my training logs from last year and realized that in the months of May, June, and July, I really had only 3 weeks of decent running training, meaning 30 miles per week or more. 4 weeks I only did one short run per week and the rest I was hovering around 20. No wonder I ended up in bad shape! This year my plan is to do a lot better.

Weekly Summary
Monday, Apr 23, 2018 thru Sunday, Apr 29, 2018

The OKC Memorial races are the largest and most iconic in Oklahoma. The courses, which mostly overlap, are flat to rolling and not overly difficult, but the given the late April race date the weather is a big question mark. While a healthy south wind is normal conditions last year were ~40F, overcast and rainy/drizzly off and on, while this year the start temperature was in the upper 50's with plenty of sun.

Race organization has gone way up in the past couple years since bibs have been checked at corral entrances which eliminated big congestion issues caused by relatively slow runners pushing towards the front of corral A. Knowing that my goal time would have put me toward the pointy end of the race in recent years I found a place about 4 rows back from the front. While I had time goals in mind I decided I'd run mostly by personal feel and data from Stryd since the weather was warmer than what I had been training in.

The gun went off, I took two steps off the line and someone immediately stepped directly in front of me and on my right foot. I managed to avoid falling thanks to reflexively putting my hand out and balancing off him, but this was not how I wanted to start things off. The first mile of the OKC course is downhill to flat, but all the gradual downhill is given back by a short bridge mile 2, which is likely the steepest hill on the course. Going up the hill I hear something fall to the ground and the guy next to me suddenly drops back. Quickly thereafter he's running next to me holding out a car key fob asking if it's mine. I say "no" and he moves up to a couple guys ahead of me who are wearing race team shirts from the LRS, and one of them claims it. Who knows how or if he could have gotten that back if it hadn't been promptly returned.

The climb spreads things out some more and I find myself running in the company of 6-8 others who are keeping about the same pace I am. The wind is quartering into our backs which is certainly nice.

Miles 1-3: 6:28, 6:34, 6:31

Around mile 2.5 we're at the highest point on the course and this starts a mostly unnoticeable downhill trend, with a few rollers. We swing past the capitol building, complete with obligatory "You run better than the government" signs, before heading into some of OKC's oldest and more scenic neighborhoods.

A park at about mile 5.5 has one of my favorite spectators. Each year a man sets up a little scene for himself to watch the race. Last year he had a lounge chair, table and a room divider to emulate a living room, this year it's a big tropical landscape banner behind him with a collapsible soft chair and a stereo blasting Beach Boys songs.

Near the end of this park is the first relay exchange point. My FIL's team had recently lost their first runner, so I was tapped to run the first leg of their relay. Rather than going through the relay handoff, I kept going on the main route and would hand off the relay timing chip at the 10k mark, which is just after where the relay exchange zone meets up with the actual course.

Miles 4-6: 6:27, 6:36, 6:36

Mile 6 turns into a pretty steep 1/4 mile downhill and I toss the relay chip to my FIL and the next relay runner as I go by without having to miss a step. All of the runners I've been with since about mile 2 are still around, and we've been floating around within 25 yards or so of each other since then. They start talking amongst themselves about their goal times and paces. They're talking easily using full sentences, which I likely wouldn't have been able to do. Checking my watch for our average pace compared to what they say they're looking for shows that we're a good 10 sec/mile ahead of their stated goal paces, which I inwardly doubt will end well given the temperature compared to what we've been training in.

Just after this we enter one of the more entertaining neighborhoods and head up Gorilla Hill. The name comes from the neighborhood theme, rather than the toughness of the hill. The entire neighborhood turns out to cheer, with many people decked out in yellow or wearing banana outfits and handing out, you guessed it, bananas. There's a house at the top that is painted banana yellow, complete with a big inflatable gorilla, someone in a gorilla costume, and an inflatable banner over the road that makes certain you know what hill you're climbing.

A good downhill follows this along with a left turn that has us going across the wind and we reach the point at which the full marathon separates from the half. I continue straight, while everyone else I've been with turns to the right. I can only see a couple people ahead of me, but that gives me something concentrate on. One more block and we turn left and merge onto Classen Blvd, which is part of the full marathon course and head straight into the wind, which has picked up since the sun rose.

Classen is the wasteland of the OKC course. This almost imperceptibly uphill segment (~2.4mi for the half, almost an extra mile for the full) is the hardest part of the race simply due to the ever-present south wind, which blows directly to your face. There is also very little crowd support to feed off of thanks to it being a bit more of a commercial segment than residential.

During this segment I try keeping my effort about the same as before, but the wind makes this more difficult to judge. Stryd is giving me numbers just below what I want to average for the race but it doesn't take wind into account at all. My heart rate stayed pretty level through here but in retrospect I think I overdid it a little, perhaps crossing closer to 15k effort than I should have.

During this stretch I quite slowly pass a handful of people, including a guy I talked to before my 10k, and who I ran in to half an hour before the race started. He had told me that he planned on aiming for 1:20-18 but that his car had been hit a week or so ago and he was a little sore from that. He said he was hurting from the wreck, but thought he'd make it just fine by slowing down. In the distance I can also see the local-to-me fast guy, who finished Botswana right about the same time as DWave.

Miles 7-10: 6:40, 6:36, 6:46, 7:02

Finally moving off of Classen we head back into the neighborhoods which brings some relief from the wind thanks to changes in direction and tree cover, and a few more spectators cheering us on certainly help. Mile 11 seems to just last forever. From my knowledge of the course I'm certain I should have already been past it, and in trying to keep my effort up I don't think to check distance on my watch. Cue mile marker 12. I some how completely missed the marker for 11, and the knowledge that I'm not fading like I've been starting to think I am is a good boost.

Right about here I catch up to my local fast guy. We have a quick chat and he tells me he went out way too fast (same 1:20-18 as the other guy) so soon after Botswana.

Turning the last corner to the final stretch (now into the wind again, though I don't notice it) I can see two people in front of me. The first is way ahead with no hope to catch him, but I pass the other guy with about 1/8 mile to go and recognize that this is the same guy who I was chasing during my 15k in March who gained a 30-40 second lead on me after the turnaround. I completely miss the mile 13 marker (I've never seen this or the mile 26 marker in the 3x times I've finished these races). My stomach quickly starts to go south and the thought that I may have immediate need of a trashcan comes to the front of my mind.

I cross the second timing mat, stop my watch and walk forward toward the closest volunteer who is holding out a bottle of water and thankfully my stomach immediately calms down. 1:28:01 official time, and the time on my watch. I walk ahead slowly while waiting for local fast guy and pulled-away-from-me-at-the-Beacon-Run guy who both finish pretty close behind and have a good chat about the race as we slowly work our way past the army of volunteers handing out post-race goodies.

Overall I'm quite happy with my effort level and performance during the race, though I certainly don't feel that my finishing time reflects my fitness. I'll certainly take the 11 second PR considering my previous record was on a day with near-perfect conditions and that entire course had less elevation gain than was on the bridge in mile 2 of this race. Taking a look at Stryd afterwards my average "power" across this race and my previous 15k is essentially the same, which gives me a good idea of what I should be able to sustain across these distances in the future, which can help with pacing. Temperature at the start of the race was a good 15 degrees warmer than the usual in the past couple weeks for the same time of day, and at the finish was close to 65. I really think my time on the treadmill in my warm-to-hot garage really helped me out with regards to this. I'll be sure to do this again for any future spring races.

What's next? I definitely want to try improving on my 5k PR before the heat really sets in, and I'd like to try running a mile on the track as well, though the latter scares me more. And I'm still considering my bad idea trail 50k. And of course I need to find a fall marathon upon which to mount an assault on my BQ time for 2020.