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

I had a couple of events in the last week that had me standing for long periods of time, so my knee has been hurting some & I've taken a down week.  Still five runs, but no long or fast ones, just 6.6 easy-to-moderate miles each time.  Had a couple of other uncommon niggles - tight left Achilles and tight right hamstring on different days - but both seem ok now.  Hope the knee is better next week.

Sun - off

Mon - 6.6 miles easy

Tues - 6.6 easy

Weds - 24 mins swimming

Thurs - 6.6 easy

Fri - 6.6 easy

Sat 6.6 easy to moderate

Total - 33 miles

YTD Average - 31 mpw

JMac/Piwi - For what it's worth, this article https://runnersconnect.net/coach-corner/how-long-before-you-benefit-from-a-workout/

says that it takes 9-11 days to (fully?) benefit from a medium VO2 max workout and 12-15 days to benefit from a hard one.  That's not the same as asking how much time you need between this workout and your race to be fully recovered/tapered, but it seems relevant.  Don't know anything about the author, but I thought the chart was interesting.

Marco - keep it easy for a few more weeks.

James, Piwi and Mark - good weeks.

My biggest week of the year!  A slightly longer run today made it a slightly bigger week than the previous.  This week will be rinse and repeat, except maybe a Sat/Sun swap due to commitments on the Sunday.  And then a one week taper to my half.

Jmac - I read an article some time ago that talked extensively about the elasticity of a runner. Something about you sometimes feel bouncy and sometimes flat.

Come race day you don’t want to be too bouncy, but you don’t want to feel flat either.

Something to think about

I also live by the 10 day rule but agree some fastish stuff on the last few days to keep the legs sharp is fine. I’d go with less volume though, maybe 3x1200.

I find 6x1200 elite level training, that when you need to extract that last 0.0001% of performance, but if ain’t broken then don’t fix it.

Piwi - I see what you did there, inserted a sub 20 5K into a long run!

James -  still above yearly mileage so all good.

Watson - welcome back to the 50 mile a week club

me - following the down week after the half, I'm back to 68km and 6h04.

James - Thanks for the link. The most interesting thing in there is probably the long run taking 4-6 weeks to see any benefit. My last marathon, I actually did my last long run 4 weeks in advance and was worried it may be too early, but this shows that's about right.

Mark - Good job on the week and especially the long run.

Watson - Good week, hopefully you've gotten enough mileage so far this year to take a crack at a good time in the half.

Piwi - Another good week

Me - Thanks for all the advice everyone (Flavio etc.) I think I'm going to tone it down a bit and not do the 5x1200 and instead go for something shorter like 5x1K. Got my final two big workouts in. 6x1200 was hard, but not as bad as I expected it to be. Was able to keep right around 4:12 for the 1200s, which should set me up well for my race. This week will be a final MLR on Monday, the shorter workout, and my final 3x1T tune up. My goal in my 3.5 mile race is to break 20 minutes, which would be a new 5K PR for me.

Weekly Summary
Monday, May 14, 2018 thru Sunday, May 20, 2018

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Piwi - haha well done awesome stuff!! Weather here was mint yesterday so hopefully it was the same for you but with that haul I'd say you'd be happy regardless.

Watson - nice week and hope the body is feeling in good shape

JMac- nice week, 3.5 miles seems like such an odd distance for a race!! That 6x1200 would've been tough but hopefully worthwhile as well!

Steve - nice week, 2 hours would be tough going without food or water.  I had some toast before my 2 hr run on Sunday and a couple of gels (probably only needed one but the hill climb at the tail end is a stinker and I didn't want to run out of gas).  I normally plan a water stop on my longer runs either where I know there will be a water fountain, or I just stop and buy some.

Steve nice week. You could extend that tempo to 6kms and slow it down to HMP at 4.15/km. Tempo pace is likely to be 15k race pace for runners without a big base and HMP for higher mileage runners. Im guilty of running tempos too fast when Im coming back from a layoff.

Mark I seem ok on the 20k runs now without water but they are only 1.40 ish runs. That extra 20 mins I would want some fuel. A big meal the night before is always good to help get you through the run.

JMAC so are you going to go hard for 3.1 miles then cruise it in ? Theres a 10k here in a couple of weeks. I was wondering about trying to set a new 50+ 5k pr as the first 5k are pan flat and the last 3k suck. I might feel a douche though going out fast then jogging in the last 5k 

welcome Corey never too late to join the thread. The increasing mileage should help alot in increasing your fitness and bringing down that time.

Mark - This is my corporate challenge race that I did last year as well. It's run around the world (https://www.jpmorganchasecc.com/series/corporate-challenge). I never actually knew why they chose 3.5 miles but I found out last year. The bottom "loop" of central park is about 1.75 miles. When they first started the race in NYC only, the race did 2 loops for 3.5 miles. They've stuck with that distance around the world.

Piwi - Nah, I'm going to say that I have to break a 5:44 per mile pace for the entire race in order to PR. If they had an official 5K marker, I may try your strategy, but they don't and I don't want to count a PR based off when my watch says 5K was as we all know that will underestimate the true distance.

Corey - Welcome, always good to see new faces. Could we get some more info on your running background?

Steve - I find that I can do 2 hour long runs without water up to about 20C or so, after that I need to stop at least once if it's sunny out.