Sub 1:30 half marathon in 2017 (Read 323 times)

Hey everyone! I'll have full comments here soon on other posts, but I have my full race report over in the sub 3 forum. Thank you the tracking. I will definitely say that I am on the moon though Flavio. To go from thinking I have a stress fracture to running 4 minutes faster than I had expected is quite the turnaround.

Piwi - Did I get your friend in my final time? I also missed a sub-Piwi in the half this spring by a few seconds, but looks like I got you back by those few seconds in the marathon 

Jmac awesome race report. Your last 2 miles were on a par with Shalane's 

Rune - Thank you for tracking me! It was certainly great to finish a marathon speeding up than the death shuffle I went through last time.

Mark - My wife complains all the time that I'm too skinny. It sort of comes with the territory though. I do think though that the most healthy approach is probably training for 5ks and 10ks and doing weight lifting. The only problem is, weight is such an easy way to get faster so it's always tempting to keep going to that well.

Bro - Highly recommend 2Q. You must have the second edition of the book, because my plan didn't have that. I thought his 2Q plan had a perfect taper. I did my last 1K repeat workout 3.5 weeks before the race. My final tune up workout was 3x1 mile at threshold pace with full 2 minute rest, which was a perfect way to stay fresh. I never understood interval workouts in a taper, and his 2Q plan doesn't have that. Regarding your question on top-end speed, he does have a good amount of I workouts, maybe once every 3 weeks, which I thought was more than needed for a marathon. He'll do a lot of workouts like 9E + 5x1K around 5K pace + 2E. Yes, they're not true speed workouts like 400m repeats, but trust me, you're going to really feel those 1K repeats when you've already done 9 miles before starting them. No matter what marathon plan you choose, you're going to lose some top end speed because marathons and 5Ks are not really the same type of training. However, you should really view the marathon as your way of building up a huge aerobic engine, which often is not done by people running miles and 5Ks. You can that get back to your speed workouts later with that aerobic base underlying it all, which should propel you to big PRs. One thing I was very diligent about though was strides just to keep my turnover up. That, plus the 1K repeats, kept me feeling like I still had some speed.

Jaime I love your strava maps after those soccer games. Another of my strava mates took his gps surfing the other day and that made for interesting viewing.

Jmac before the marathon you were this nervous guy 2nd guessing himself and now you are the confident marathon runner whose advice we all listen too . You owned that race.

More hills for me my week currently at 1406m/4612 ft and its only wednesday. Ive done 7 ascents since nov 1st but that only puts me in about 3rd place. One guy is at 15. There is a long and a short way to the top and I go the long way then carry on for a couple more kms to get some more mileage. Im still leading fastest to the summit.

Run its 200m or 650 feet over 1 mile or the longer route is just under 2 miles. I run up and then do some more which doubles the elevation.

Jaime - I think my full running history is on the first page (but if not, it’s definitely on the first page of the sub 3 forum). In general, I ran a bit in high school, stopped in college, but have been running for the past 3 years consistently. First marathon in 2015 was that 3:12. I think compared to the serious sub 3 guys, I’m on the lower end of mileage like Mark. Past two years have done around 1200-1300 miles per year (2K KM). For that 3:12, I had only done about 35 mpw for the cycle because I lost 2 full weeks due to pneumonia and was at that 1200 mile mark. This cycle, I was above 50 mpw, and will probably be about 2K miles this year. More mileage for a marathon will generally equal better times, but you’re battling two critical points: injury and mental fatigue. You have to figure out what works for you, and I would highly advocate increasing slowly. For me, a 10 mpw increase in a cycle is about the most I would ever do.

In terms of nutrition, I dont’ have much to offer. I’m very lucky genetically that I can eat almost anything I want and be within 5 lbs of where I normally am. My hunger and metabolism are pretty well coordinated: I was incredibly hungry during my marathon cycle, but have found it’s come down significantly as my mileage dropped for the taper and post-race. I can give a lot of nutrition advice pre-race and during the race if you’re interested though.

Finally, in terms of what I think is your most important question - cumulative fatigue. I found that some of my workouts were more difficult than the race. I remember my last 21 mile long run, which was coming on a peak week of 65 mpw which I had never done before, was almost impossible. I was doing about 1 minute per mile slower than my marathon pace, but I was pretty much done after only 10 miles. It took incredible mental will to work my way through those final 11 miles. I remember at one point in the run I almost broke down because I was in so much pain and just wanted it to end, but there was one thing that kept me working through it: I kept saying to myself “if you can’t get through a 21 mile run at a minute slower per mile, how in the world do you think you’re going to run a sub 3 marathon?” It was that sort of motivation throughout my training that kept me going, and is the beauty of cumulative fatigue. There were workouts where I wanted to vomit at the end or felt like just giving up, but that motivation of “if you can’t do this now how can you race” kept me going.

That last part about cumulative fatigue may sound a bit silly or dramatic to non-runners, but to me, the mental part of racing is probably as difficult if not more difficult than the physical part. Our bodies can do a lot of things if you can mentally get through it. That doesn’t mean that you should go out and blast every workout to your absolute extreme. But it does mean that you need to train your body to deal with mental and physical pain. Tune-up races go a long way towards that.

Feel free to send out any other questions you may have! I’m sure others in this forum can help out a lot too. I’ve only run 2 marathons so my advice is only as good as that limited experience.

Blair - good luck with the injuries, this is a good time to heal up. Seeing yourself run on video is like hearing your own voice for the first time: it’s almost hard to believe!

bro - what was the average/range of duration of the 200s?

Jaime - are you aware of Redknee struggles?

Awesome elephant!

You should be more surprised that jmac ran a 3h12 in his first marathon. He’s lightweight and clearly talented per his 1h21 half. I’d say he restored order in the universe now.

Blair - LOL I totally agree with you, I too find myself incredibly clumsy when I’m running. Great job starting some work to improve your running gait, I’m working on that since last year, initially on my own and since August this year with professional help. It does help.

Quite frankly, this latest decision to do functional training is paying big dividends already after only 3 weeks.

Piwi - Ah, while Jaime is drawing elephants you are turning into a goat

me - Who's got two thumbs and just ran the best long run (well MLR) in 16 months? This guy