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

Bros - I agree with the others, with your times on the shorter distances and your long run you should be able to reach 3:15 easily, especially if you can stay injury free.

Watson - Nice result on your race! You're coming back very nicely now.

Piwi - Nice result for you too! With the weather, the stairs, and coming off a cold earlier in the week I consider your time in that race to be very strong. On the other hand, where's that Gaga outfit? 

Mark - Good week and nice workouts!

Marco - Good to see you're getting nicely back in the swing of things.

Corey - Nice week. 10 miles at m-pace is a good workout. When it comes to building mileage, I like Jack Daniels' approach of only adding one extra stress factor at a time. So if you are increasing mileage, don't add in other workouts at the same time, and add the mileage with easy miles, not by increasing hard mileage.

JMac - Nice week and nice race for you too. Super strong finish to the race as well!

CK - Nice week and very interesting info on the stryd data. GPS certainly isn't that accurate on a track!

Lucky me, everybody is having a down week mileage wise (although I don't know how far you ran last week Bros - welcome btw!), so I'm at or near the top in this forum in number of miles this week. Ended up at 51.4 miles, a new weekly record for me, and towards the end of the week I finally felt somewhat fresh again. On my Sunday run, 8:10 (5:05) pace was well within my easy range, which I define as HR less than 145. I was also wondering this week how much effect it has for me to split up my weekend long run. This week I was planning on doing 14-15 miles on Saturday but I came home too late after taking my oldest son to a baseball showcase so I only did 5. Then on Sunday I did 10+ to get to my desired total. Personally I don't think it matters much at this stage, but once I get into the actual training program I obviously will make sure I get the long runs in.

Weekly Summary
Monday, May 28, 2018 thru Sunday, Jun 03, 2018

I'm also envious that you are running NYC.  Maybe if Chicago goes well, I'll consider throwing myself into the lottery.

Or just go out there and run a sub 1:21 half this year 

Bros - welcome back!

Rune - nice week and probably not a biggie splitting up your LR as you are not in your actual training program yet.

CFarr - solid week... I suspect Piwi and JMac will be of more us on the marathon front than me!

JMac - I really want to take down my 5k and 10k PRs, but there aren't a lot of suitable races around here.  Actually considering flying to Wellington or possibly driving to Cambridge.

Piwi - Stryd is the power/wattage based training system that Dan (Iamdisappoint) and Mick off the sub-3 forum use.  I don't really know anything about it but it's clearly been very effective for Dan.

Keen - 44 miles is pretty good if you're saying it was a slightly lazy week!! In terms of long runs, I go out of my way to find decent trail sections to include, they are a nice break from the streets and make the long runs more interesting/less boring.  There's a lot of random little spots dotted around home, a guy I know posted a run a few weeks ago which was ~21k and over 11k would've been on trails, not bad considering it is basically suburbia the whole way.

I can still feel that my hamstring isn't right once or twice a day, so I'm into my third week without serious running. My arms seem to have adjusted to swimming 3x/week, and I'm gradually increasing my distance, so that's something.  Will start some gentle pool running once I don't notice the hamstring for a day or two. Am also doing a few leg-strengthening exercises each evening.  I made an appointment for tomorrow with the fancy local sports hospital/clinic (those of you who are U.S. baseball & football fans may know the name of Dr. James Andrews, who does Tommy John surgery on lots of pitchers; this is where he got his start).  However, the person I spoke with said their doctors only look at one issue per visit, so I decided it'd be better to have him look at my left knee -- a long-term problem that seems like it will be more difficult to address.  He'll probably send me to a physical therapist, who I can also ask about the hamstring.  It has been interesting looking online for information about hamstring treatment - some sources say to do nothing but rest, others say to start gentle exercise immediately, some say stretch, others say don't stretch.

Since I'm not running anyway, last weekend wound up being a good time to go to Las Vegas.  Main purpose was to see my wife's sister, who was visiting from Chile for a jewelry industry convention.  We don't gamble, so I just showed our son a little about how the casino games and sports betting work.  He's not enough of a math/cards geek to be seriously into it, and I'm just enough of one to know that I would have to learn much more about a game to play well.  Enjoyed a helicopter flight over the city, a tour of Red Rock Canyon, and a magic show.  Didn't enjoy all the cigarette smoke in the hotel lobby/casino.  Whichever one of you mentioned that the casino entrance (from outside) signs are a lot bigger than the exit (from inside) signs must have been at our hotel.

Congrats to all the racers, and good luck to those starting training plans.

Also

Keen - good week.

Mark might be right, looking on the website, the course might not be certified.  I ran 21.32km according to Garmin.  On the courses that I have most faith in accurate distance, have been about 21.3km, except Sydney where Garmin got lost. In a good size field unless at the front, it is pretty much impossible to run the shortest route.

My PR was on 21.0km (small number of runners) but a few people had 21.3km, so I hope it was accurate.

Still fascinated by this course length discussion.

My hip has gotten sore again. I don't think I injured it during those hills 2 weeks ago, but I definitely did something with my leg, as all of these tirgger points are popping up in my hip. Plus, my hamstring is sore in a weird spot and my knee hurt in a run for the first time in ages. I imagine I just have some knots in my hips from the hills and just need to keep working on it. I've gone all year since my injury recovery without any niggles/trigger points, so this is quite annoying to have to deal with again!

Also working on building out my marathon training plan, not sure how aggressive I want to get in mileage. Going to just go with the flow I think and see how my legs feel.

My 10K next week is a total crapshoot. I'm going to the US Open (golf) the day before, which will mean probably 10+ miles of walking, beer, bad nutrition, etc. That isn't exactly a recipe for a good race time the next day. I'm definitely in shape to PR, but I'm not going to count on it given what I'll be doing the day before and that we're getting into the hot and humid days of the year. I'll be happy with anything sub 40 haha. Also, check out this course profile, I've never seen a 10K with this many turns! The longest straight section must be less than 0.5 miles. Running the tangents is a must. https://liveresults.nyrr.org/e/NYRR-QUEENS-2018?_ga=2.40199978.904358913.1528297684-398161197.1500506609#/map

Just checking on the Wellington Marathon - the 10km, half and full have IAAF certification.

JMac - how much volume is always a tricky question.  Some people seem to be fine all the way up to 100 MPW, but others fall apart at 60 MPW.

RR:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1621752576

Half marathon at the Christchurch Marathon.

Net 1:29:37
149th place out of 1574

This was my only my second race this year.  My only other race was a bit of a shocker,  being a well short half marathon (really 20km) on a hot day in March on a very slow course.  I ran 1:33 that day (so 1:38 half equivalent) which was a bit of a shock.

For this race, I wanted 1:29:59, but had no idea whether I could manage it.

Training had been a very short cycle of about 4 reasonable weeks (40-50 miles) plus a one week taper.  My tempo runs during this period had been around 4:30/km or 7:14/mile which did not state sub 90.  During my taper week, my tempo pace was better at about
4:12/km or 6:45/mile.

I ran the full at Christchurch in 2015, but the 2018 course was different.

Conditions were good, there'd been quite a bit of rain in the days leading up.  But the morning was good temperature (6-8 Celcius or 43-47 Farenheit), with almost no wind, and overcast.  The course is flat.

I drove there and parked about 1.2km / 0.75 miles away and walked.

At around 20 minutes to the start, took my race caffiene pills, took off my extra clothing and dropped off my bags.

I then did a very small warmup.  Only about 2-3 minutes, which is the shortest warmup I've done for a while.

Like 2015, in 2018 the 10km, half and full all start at the same time (8:00am).  In 2015 it was quite chaotic as I spent the first 1km overtaking walkers who must have placed themselves behind the elite mat.  This year it was much better, with the walkers having
to be at the back, and the starting area being much bigger.

I found the 1:30 pacer near the start and waited.  I must have looked nervous as he told me to relax for the first 10km.

Everyone then moves forward to the start line.  We have a moments silence for the late Dick Quax (Olympic silver medalist and 1984 Christchurch half winner).  Then the wheelchairs go, and one minute later the runners.

The first km was very busy with many runners, with the obligatory lot who started way too fast and were already slowing by the 1km mark.  I stuck in the 1:30 group, which seemed quite large.  At the 1km mark, one of the runners was complaining that we were too quick at 4:10, but the 1:30 pacer had 4:16, I told them I had 4:15, so we were all good.

The second km was 4:08, so I was worried we might be slightly quick.  In hindsight I suspect it was just GPS inaccuracy.

At around 4km we get to North Hagley park, which has a narrower running area as we're off the road.  We're still passing those who started too quick.  At around 5.5km, I notice that the caffeine is starting to be felt.

I am still worried about drifting from the sub 1:30 group (the track is narrow and there's still a lot of people slowing), so I make sure I don't get seperated by being caught behind the slowing runners.

A little later (just after 7km) through North Hagley we go through the Hagley hundy which timing mats 100 metres apart, where there are prizes for the quickest 3 men and 3 woman in every 15 minute slot.  One guy sprints past us.  Annoyingly, the race results show the hundy split but have no distance and pace for the pre and post hundy sections.

We then come back into the city centre.  At around 9.5km we turn left to go east, whereas the 10km runners head for finish.

Since the start, the official markers and Garmin drift apart.  So according to Garmin, we're marginally ahead of pace, but the official markers are exactly at pace.

We then get around to the river area, which is harder to run on.  In 2011, the city had a large earthquake, and this whole area around the river used to have houses, but not any more.  There's clearly been minimal repair on these roads too as there's pot holes and puddles everywhere.  The group is still large, so inevitably, my feet get wet.

I'm still holding pace.  I think I can go sub 90.

At around 16km, we split off from the marathoners and head back to the city centre.

We go through 17km, and for the first time in the race I take from the drinks station, just a little water to drink and pour over my head.

With about 2km to go, I'm confident of no bad fade, so I drift off the pacer.  I'm also a little worried about the markers being slightly out, and us being just over 1:30 pace too.

Pace is pretty good, I've quickened up a little.  Heading for home, and a woman on loud speaker is stating 600 metres to go.  I look at my watch and try to work out my time unsuccessfully .  I'm quickening up a little now.  This year the finish is around a small bend, so you only see the finish line with about 100 metres to go (although I knew where it was).  I run as hard as I can, stop my watch and see 1:29:40 on my watch (official 1:29:39).

I then see the sub 90 pacer come through at net 1:29:59 (great pacing), and I thank him.

I then bump into an RWOL poster who must have been near me the whole time.  And I go grab my gear and head off, quite pleased.