Forums >Racing>Sub 2:00 Half Marathon thread
miele- New shoe deals are worth jumping on! I am still kicking myself for passing on a pair of Brooks Ghosts for $66 just because it was December and I didn't want to spend the money. Hope you love the shoes.
Jan- Right now I'm working with kids from the bilingual classes K-4 (5th grade is still English-only for one more year). I was able to piece together some district money plus a grant to pay for the first half of my endorsement. So I really only had to pay for the second half out of pocket. I like it but it's weird to feel more disconnected from the kids. I still see them, but I'm not their "main" person now, you know?
Jen- Always a good run if you're grinning in the rain!
Bluerun- Glad you've figured that out about yourself!
me- 4.5 easy with the dogs last night. Tonight is going to be a MLR of 8 with 10x100. I'm actually going to run it at the track because the half marathon training group is meeting there, plus I need to pick up my daughter from there right when it ends. So although I'll be doing a different workout than the rest, at least there will be company, right?
Joggaholic
Wing- Way to go! What a great race! But now I'm thinking your new stinking fast HM PR is soft since you were able to hold that pace for the entire race. And in that humidity, too! Where was this race? Sorry if you mentioned the location but I don't remember. sub- 1:40 for sure!
Thanks! Rogue 30K was held in central TX, can't complain too much about the humidity given the nice 60F temp, considering that everywhere else (well, much of US anyway) is frozen around this time of the year.
Wow, for a while there you could post once a week and actually keep up with everything. Not anymore.
Good job on everyone and their training. I think I might have missed a couple congratulations on some races in there too, so good job guys!
Hector posted his HR question on the regular forum and I replied a couple times on that. I'm no HR expert, but I do pay attention to it. It is pretty amazing when you use some of the calculators that predict your avg HR for different length races and they are usually pretty accurate.
I'm still sticking with the Hanson Marathon Plan and it's not too bad so far. Last night was 4 X 1200m intervals with 400m recoveries and I ended up having to run it on a hotel treadmill because it was blowing 40+ mph outside. It was warm in the exercise room, but the treadmill was decent and I hit my intervals although the last one was tough. Did my warmup/cooldown/recoveries at 10:00 pace and did the fast parts at 7:41 pace. That is one nice thing about doing intervals on the treadmill, you don't have to struggle with maintaining a pace that you aren't really accustomed to running at, just set it at the target pace and keep after it.
Back to work!
Age: 50 Weight: 224 Height: 6'3" (Goal weight 195)
Current PR's: Mara 3:14:36* (2017); HM 1:36:13 (2017); 10K 43:59 (2014); 5K 21:12 (2016)
Well, thanks to this thread, I got the bug to run another half about 6 weeks ago. I haven't run one since February '10, nor any race for that matter since October '11. I lost my race day partner (son went off to college) and had no motivation to both train and 'race' by myself. Although I stayed somewhat active with my running, it did become spotty and unfocused for a period. In '12 it got moved to the backseat as I returned to organized basketball competition, running only to maintain fitness between games.
Long story short, I suffered a pretty severe sports hernia playing basketball. I am now 55 and coming to grips with the limitations that entails. After nearly 6 weeks of rest with no sports activity, I began to slowly jog every other day and began to focus on core strengthening. My progression through the rehab brought back my love of running. I signed up for a 5k, on a last minute whim in mid-December, and although I didn't do great I did do better than I thought I would.
Now I'm working through my own modified plan for the A1A half in Ft. Lauderdale on February 17th. My only previous half, three years ago, was 2:03:38. I'm training to break 2:00 and will run with the requisite pace group during the race. I'm at the point now where I'm beginning to doubt my readiness (happens to me every time) but will trust my plan and work my plan the rest of the way.
Anyway, as a lurker of this thread, thanks to those of you who actively post in it. It's a help to both those seen, and like me, unseen.
Chris
Chris T: Glad you got your mojo back re: running!! Sometimes life interrupts and injuries keeps us sidelined which really impacts our mental state. I too played basketball through my 'younger' years and occasionally 'shoot around' when I am at a health club with a court. Still have a basketball in my car trunk just in case, haha! Many injuries associated with BB compared to running which I have always done too but now with more of a competitive spirit, and to stay healthy and 'active.' I prefer trail running and try to run at least a 10 miler and/or HM each month. I travel frequently for my work which is challenging for keeping up with training runs. It's frustrating when I have to miss a training run now and then and it shows in my finish race times. So my discipline keeps me from slacking off. Not bad for a 52 yr 'girl.'
Zelanie: Wow!! You've come a long way!! Very proud of you, getting fit and your goal of a sub 2:00 HM, you can do it!! more importantly, multi-tasking on your run day with a group, yay!!
npaden: Those are the only reasons why I run on the TM, intervals and crappy weather outside. Just set the pace and time it, and do it again, over and over, not too boring until 12 miles, , past injuries start to surface then. Your 1:55 HM finish in 2012 is awesome! You should have no problem listing off your marathon goal of sub 4:00!! Will be exciting to follow your progress. Same goal here for my May marathon.
Wing: WAY TO GO on your race event!!
Zelanie – Oh, taper! I have an idea, but haven’t figured it out yet. Will need to do some research regarding it. you had a nice workout. Great job!
Miele – I know how does it feel to have two pairs of new running shoes. I just got two pairs of saucony triumph a couple of weeks ago!
Jan26.2 – you have planned a good numbers of races this year. Almost one race a month!
Doctorjen – sorry to hear about your garmin going off during run. I used other running apps on the phone, but nothing come close to garmin!
Npaden – thanks for all your help that you are providing me on another post. Nice interval workout. I love interval workout on TM as well.
Me – I am not sure I previously mentioned or not, but I am not going to able run long weekend runs for next two weekends. So for these two weeks I won’t hit my total desired weekly mileage. Ran 10.5 yesterday and 6.2 today on TM.
Wow. Nathan, you were definitely right; don't check in for a week and you miss a lot. I did read everything, but I'll simply respond to everyone as a group and congratulate you all on the races and the continued good training.
Part of the reason I was away was that I caught a cold/congestion/crud thing last week. I missed three workouts but got back on the wagon on Tuesday with an easy run of 5 miles. It was windy and wet out this morning, but I still managed to get in an 8 mile "tempo" run with 6 miles at or below half-marathon pace. I think I'm just about back to 100% now and look forward to the last few weeks of my training schedule. Race day is only 24 days away!
Had a great Marathon Pace Tempo run last night.
2 mile warm up then 6 at MP then a 1 mile cool down. I had my audio cues set for every 1/2 mile so I had a hard time getting my pace right on the Tempo part. MP is supposed to be 8:45, but I ended up going a little fast than that unintentionally for miles 5 - 7 and then intentionally pushed it in a little on mile 8. Felt great. Ended up averaging a 9:00 pace including warm up and cool down and an avg HR of 154 which is just under 80% of my max HR. Last year before my half marathon in April I had a 9.3 mile RACE that I ended up with an avg pace of 9:24 and an avg HR of 176 which is just a bit over 90% of my max HR. I think I'm actually starting to get in shape!
I finished January with 190.8 miles which smoked my previous monthly mileage PR of 151.6 miles that I set back in October 2012. I've kept my streak going as well, I'm up to 29 days straight averaging 6.6 miles per day. Nothing like getting middle aged to make a person decide that they have to get in shape and run a marathon!
Hey guys, thought I'd join in the fun. I was a competitive runner up through college and then did nothing for about the next 6 years and recently started getting back into form over the past few months. I'm registered for a half on 5/18 and really have no idea where I'm going to be by then, but figured sub 2:00 was a good place to start. Based on recent times for 10k, I should be at about 1:58 right now according to Mcmillan, but my times have always been way off on there.
The past month has been pretty inconsistent (hard to stay motivated in Wyoming winters), but overall I've been pretty happy with my progress. Workouts have been solid and my long run is up to 90 minutes. Most training plans kick in at the end of Feb, so I'm just trying to build as good of a base as I can before then; I don't know if I'll be doing one plan in particular, but probably a hodepodge of the elements that I like.
The improvement curve has been kind of fun so far, but at the same time depressing to see how far behind my college times I am. Nonetheless, I'm very curious to see where I'll be at next summer!
#artbydmcbride
All you need is to shed that winter weight, the kenyan!
Runners run
Somehow I'm still losing it. 30+ pounds down since last summer now! I'll be curious to see what happens when I finally get my act together and actually start doing something that resembles training.
I figure most people go the opposite way after getting married, so I'm already ahead of the curve
I need to find a time to get back down to SoCal so we can run (and hunt mice) together!
Yes!
NP- Nice runs! It's always so rewarding to look back and see how far you've come! Thanks for sharing with us.
Chris- Welcome, and good luck in your half!
Hector- I'm sure a couple of weeks under mileage won't hurt anything.
PCA- Glad you're feeling back to 100%!
thekenyan- Welcome!
me- Had two great runs recently. On Wed. I had my MLR of 8 miles, and I decided to add the 10x100 that Pfitz calls for this week into that run. I hadn't tried those before so I ran them at the track where the "official" HM training club was working out. The coaches thought I was nuts for running 100s for HM training but also gave me some good pointers on form. Apparently I hunch over more than I thought. In any case, that run ended up being 8 miles at a 9:04 pace (so faster than my sub-2 goal pace, obviously).
Took a RD yesterday, then today was my LR of 11 miles- first time at that distance. Again the legs felt great pretty much from the start. I didn't feel like I was running harder than usual, but ended up with a 9:27 overall pace and the last 4 below my goal HMP.
I know I should back off and run these easier. On the other hand, I think I might need a new "A" goal!
Did we win?
I ran my first half-marathon today. I surpassed my two-hour goal, finishing in 1:56:40. I missed my negative-split goal... I took off fast, caught myself and slowed down, but not to 9:09. I felt so good and believed that my taper had made me stronger (it probably did, but not as much as I had hoped). I was under 9:00 for the first seven miles and went over for all but one of the rest. Is it possible that the race was uphill all the way? It was an out-and-back, so I wouldn't have thought so but it sure felt that way. I was fully expecting that I'd speed up because I felt so good and miles 5, 6 & 7 were all uphill so I expected three nice downhill miles where I could open up; I never got them. I'm starting to suspect that uphills feel steeper than they really are... You can see my workout here. I've had bouts of difficulty breathing during long runs in the past (slowing down fixes them) and it started today around mile 7. I was able to force myself to breathe faster and keep my pace, but I worried about hyper-ventilating (it never happened) and having to drop my pace a lot. My heart-rate increased constantly throughout the race. I can take satisfaction in the fact that I gave this race my all. I've never felt so beat-up by anything in my life; it took an hour to be able to breathe comfortably again and for random muscles to stop cramping. My son took a video of the last seven seconds of my run; Leaning forward and plodding; I felt as bad as I looked!
2014 races"
Heart & Sole Half-Marathon, Goldsboro, NC, Feb.8, 2:22
Umstead Trail Marathon, Raleigh, NC, Mar. 1, 5:48
Johnston Health Champions 5K, Smithfield, NC, 26:53
Rattler Trail Half-Marathon, Sanford, NC, 2:52 (wow)
2013 races:
Heart & Sole Half-Marathon, Goldsboro, NC, Feb. 2, 1:56:40 (PR)
New River Marathon, Todd, NC, May 4, 4:59:32 (PR)
Triple Lakes Trail Race (40 mile), Greensboro, NC, Oct. 5, DNF after 31 miles in 7:48