Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 half marathon in 2017
JamesD
JMac - Great race, & thanks for the RR. Reading about others' experiences and insights has been a big help.
Weight - My wife is also a member of the "you're too skinny" chorus.
Me - My goal half is a week from today, so this was a taper week. Good thing, as I'm running out of shoes I can wear except my racing/intervals pair. My others have in the last several weeks either started making my knees (Pegasus) or Achilles (Kinvara) hurt a little or have crossed their mileage limits (Ghost & Lunar Tempo). Nothing in the stores feels right, but I'll take another look after the race. I'm also having neck soreness that I hope is related to my swimming (today was my last swim before the race) and off-and-on knee soreness. Neither should affect my race, but they might be a problem if I weren't tapering.
All that said, I'm pretty optimistic about the race. Compared to a year ago when I faded badly to 1:32, my hill & interval & tempo workouts have been 10 sec/mile or more faster, and I've run 50-60% more miles. so my endurance should be better. Also, I assume that last month's 15k tuneup race was better preparation than last year's 5K tuneup. Weather forecast looks ok except for 12 mph wind. The main thing will be whether I can find someone to run with, and a couple of friends who are around my speed or a little faster will be there. Unless i go out too fast or something goes wrong, I should have a pretty good chance of breaking 1:30. Also, I had mentioned a few weeks ago that the race was being cancelled after this year. The organizers have now decided to scrap the marathon but put on a half on a different course that'll be less interesting but probably faster. That's encouraging, and I hope it attracts a similar number of runners.
My week:
Sun - 4.2 miles easy, stopping every half-mile for exercises
Mon - Swim ~35 minutes
Tues - 6.2 moderate
Weds - 4.2 easy, stopping every half-mile for exercises
Thurs - off
Fri - 4.9, including 2.5 @ 6:38/mile
Sat - Swim 17 minutes, then 3.1 easy
Total - 22.6 miles
8-week average - 27 mpw
Post-1987 PRs: Half 1:30:14 (2019); 10K 39:35 (2019); 5K 19:12 (2017); Mile 5:37.3 (2020)
'24 Goals: consistency, age-graded PRs, half < 1:32
Flavio nice long run. Hope the work stuff is getting better.
James I too use Pegasus and need to upgrade. I havent been keeping a log on shoe mileage but I know they are dead and have been getting away with using them as Im doing alot of off road running. Problem is I cant find a good deal right now and dont want to pay loads.
Your fitness sounds good so good luck next week.
My week below had 3600m climbing or 11900 feet and I feel fine.
Weekly SummaryMonday, Nov 06, 2017 thru Sunday, Nov 12, 2017
55+ PBs 5k 18:36 June 3rd TT
" If you don't use it you lose it, but if you use it, it wears out.
Somewhere in between is about right "
Thank you all for teh feedback. My goal was sub-320. if I feel better 3:18. Was feeling great till mile 23 and was running a 7:33 consistent pace. thanks to runningjones from the forum, who was kid enough to run with me (He finished 3:18).
I hit the wall at mile 24 and was running a min slower per mile. Ended up finishing 3:21:59. Still a BQ by 3 min. Praying that this will get me in. Need to shoot for another marathon to get under 3:20 to give safe cushion. Glad I did not run with the 7:27 pace group.
Many thanks to e78 was coming out and cheering me at mile 14 and 23. It was so nice of her
Piwi - you are all over those hills at the moment!!!
Arvind - congrats on the BQ!
James - all the best for the race, looking forward to hearing how it goes. I've found having someone else to run with can be helpful (my PR half was with a guy who is just a bit quicker than me!).
Me- building back into it with a reasonable week. My osteo and coach gave me all the clear to do some shorter efforts, overall the marathon recovery is going OK aside from my feet which are still a little fatigued (I get stompy when I get tired), as long as I'm not wearing lightweight shoes it should be fine though.
M: 15.2km easy
T: weights, spin bike
W: 12.2km w 6x 2 min @ HMP / 2 min rest
Th: 10km easy
F: weight
S: 12.9km track workout w/ 200m efforts
S: 17.6km easy
Total: 67.9km
3,000m: 9:07.7 (Nov-21) | 5,000m: 15:39 (Dec-19) | 10,000m: 32:34 (Mar-20)
10km: 33:15 (Sep-19) | HM: 1:09:41 (May-21)* | FM: 2:41:41 (Oct-20)
* Net downhill course
Last race: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr, 1:15:48
Up next: Runway5, 4 May
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Intl. correspondent
Arvind - hey, congratz on the BQ!
Mark - great week.
me - my week is done at 56km 35 miles all easy running except the long run at 30s per km slower than the pace needed for 1:30 half.
PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021
Up next: some 800m race (or time trials) / Also place in the top 20% in a trail race
Tool to generate Strava weekly
Congratulations, Arvind! Pushing through multiple miles after you've hit the wall takes a lot of mental/emotional strength, and managing to get the BQ anyway must have been a great feeling. It looks like 3:01 under the qualifying standards has been sufficient all five times the current system has been used, but I'm sure you'll be relieved if you can get a larger margin on your next try.
Hi, guys,
JMac: Thanks for the answers. Which of the 2Q plans you used this time? I'm sure I'll have more questions, I'll be shooting them soon.
Arvind: Congrats on the BQ... I think this year the cutoff was striking. In 2014 I had a squeaker BQ
Blair: I've been to NB only once. We did a road trip stopping in Edmundston, Fredericton, St John, Fundy Bay Park, then NS, PEI, and coming back we stopped at Caraquet and Campbellton. We missed Moncton and the beaches (need to go there in summer).
Flavio: Fast Long run! I only started reading about Redknee when you mentioned. And thanks for the comments. I need to draw more things, I also have a dog, a capibara and an Elvis.
Piwi: When does the goat challenge finishes?
Mark: It seems recovery week is going well. Isn't it?
Rune: Thanks!
Here is my week:
Weekly Summary Monday, Nov 06, 2017 thru Sunday, Nov 12, 2017
Arvind - Great race! If you only lost a couple minutes on the second half of the race I'd consider it a great success. It's not easy to run a marathon with an even split.
James - Turns out we have our goal races on the same weekend. I had an issue with my cuboid this spring/summer and attribute that to keeping my shoes too long. It was a very noticeable difference between the old shoes and the new pair I purchased of the same model (Hoka Clifton 3) and I've had no issues since. Granted, I logged more than 700 miles in the old shoes, which I think is way past what I should do . I keep track of the distance through Strava.
Piwi - That's a lot of climbing for one week! I looked through my logs from last spring when I felt like I did a fair amount of hill running and I barely got over 4000 ft in a week at most.
Mark - Just be careful even if you feel good. My legs were itching so bad to go fast again after my marathon, but I listened to the advice I got and kept it easy for 4 weeks. Several people told me stories that they felt like going fast again quickly after their race, did so, and then ended up getting injured. It sounds like you have it under control but I still wanted to chime in
Flavio - That's some good mileage and one hell of a long run.
I went through my first week of tapering this week, and basically cut my hard work in half compared to the week before, but total mileage went down from about 30 to 20. Did 2 x 1 mile intervals on Tuesday at what for me was an unprecedented pace, with 6:17 and 6:25 for the two intervals. Then did a 3-mile tempo at an average pace of 6:58, which felt a million times better than my failed tempo a week before. If I compare the two efforts, pace was 7 seconds per mile faster this week compared to the first 3 miles the week before, with HR 3 BPM lower, so I take that as a good sign. I was tempted to tack on an extra mile at that pace but decided to stick to my plan and keep it at 3. Today I did 9.5 miles, with 5 miles at planned HM pace + 15, on parts of the course to gauge the effort on some of the downhill and uphill sections. Next week I think I will do 3x800 on Tuesday at similar pace as the mile intervals this week, and 3x4 minutes at planned HM pace on Thursday, with the race on Sunday. I'm nervous but I'm starting to feel good and ready for the race.
5k: 20:32 (1/17) | HM: 1:34:37 (2/18) | FM: 3:31:37 (3/18)
Getting back into it
Run good to hear your form is peaking nicely. I had some cuboid problems once and my shoes were bad too. Im a supinator so stress the outside of my foot especially noticeable when the midsole is done on the outside of my shoes.Im enjoying the climbing running at the moment. Its not very structured which I like for a change. Its making my legs really strong.
Mark nice to see you recovering well from the marathon. I finally bought a pair of Adios $123 delivered from Wiggle.co.uk
Flavio solid week and nice long run.
Jaime we ran the exact same mileage but your pace was way faster.....ok so I had more hills
My hill climbing challenge doesnt finish till the end of November. I will try a couple more assaults on my fastest time as I feel Im building hill climbing fitness. Im not trying to win most times up as I will feel stupid after just joining this group, which is not a competetive running group.
This challenge however has totally motivated me and its nice to try something different to the standard structured running week.
Rune - yeah fair point re recovery. I'm basically trusting my osteo and my coach on this - but my osteo is extremely knowledgeable and treats some top athletes (including an Ironman Kona AG winner), and my coach seemed to think my Sunday LR looked pretty good (it felt pretty good too). Legs definitely a little tired when I ran this morning but that's the first time I've run 3 days straight since the marathon so not really surprising.
As for your race... a little nerves can go a long way! Kind of a sign of the body preparing itself. And seems like the pace/HR is really starting to improve too which is always a good sign.
I just tripped and fell on a sidewalk I've passed hundreds of times before. I somehow got my left foot stuck on a loose stone and couldn't catch myself in time with the other foot, hitting the ground hard on my left elbow. It does not seem to have caused any "structural damage" with a light bruise on my left knee and a harsher one on my left elbow. All in all pretty lucky.
As I was arriving at the apartment complex a neighbor commented - "They caught you huh?", to which I replied - "You should've seen the other guy" haha.
Hey flavio - going back to that 200m workout...you can find it here - 8x200. Let me know if that link does not work. I'm also not sure how accurate my Garmin is for 200m at a time. I'm starting and stopping from the same exact place each time and getting varying distances, so take that into consideration.This was a high quality week for me.Monday: 5 miles (7:50 pace)
Tuesday: 2 mile warm up, 5x1000 @ 5:47 pace (with 2 minute rests ), 1 mile cool down
Wednesday: 6 miles at Half Marathon pace (6:45 pace)
Thursday: 10 miles (7:59 pace)
Friday: 2 mile warm up, 10x200 Steep Hill Repeats (6:25 pace?), 1 mile cool down
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: 10.5 miles at (7:48 pace)
Total: 43.1 miles
RIP Milkman
James - Good luck in your race, seems like you have a good shot if you pace yourself well.
Piwi - I’ve been super impressed with all your hill running!
Mark - I think you pretty much do everything unorthodox and it works really well, so don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.
Flavio - Hope it’s just a bruise! You’re really continuing to put up impressive training.
Jaime - I used the 56-70 mile plan. Didn’t follow it exactly on a lot of fronts (always ran 150 minute long runs, didn’t follow the mileage build-up exactly, ran 15 instead of 18 weeks, got injured one week so had to move things around, etc.) As long as you have a good idea of how to build your own plans using his workouts, it’s great.
Bro - Those back to back workouts look brutal! I did some like that in my half training but I got scolded pretty badly on these boards
Me - 0 miles! First 0 in a week since the first week of July. I’m definitely itching to get back out there but I’m on vacation a lot, plus I know my body (and especially my foot) could use the rest. Still not exactly sure how I’m setting up my April racing season besides being signed up for a half in March. Otherwise, it’s going to be all base building for the rest of the year.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
JMac - Nice zero week!
Flavio - It sucks to trip, I did the same thing a few weeks ago but somehow came away from it with barely a scratch. I was sure it would be pretty ugly as I fell down.
Bro - That looks like a hard week! From your pace on the 5x1000 it looks like some sort of VO2Max workout, and I have a question for the group regarding those. Jack Daniels always refers to the effort on those to be at 98-100% of max HR, but I can never get it that high. Well, maybe I could, but that would mean to go faster than what's intended, build up massive amounts of lactic acid, and not being able to finish the workout properly. Looking back at some of my VO2Max workouts my HR typically tops out around 180-181, and with a max HR of 192 I'm not even touching 95%.
For those of you who pay attention to your HR during/after these workouts, where do you typically end up?
Rune - it's essentially impossible to hit your max HR except in a lab treadmill stress test. Once your legs get even a little tired, they become a constraint on your effort as well. The closest approximation I've seen is basically run a 5km time trial, totally max yourself out at the end, and add 2-3 bpm. From a workout perspective, I'd basically just make sure you're running to maximum effort across the 1km rep as I think that's the intention. Although, I'm kinda intrigued now as I haven't done any VO2Max type workouts in ages.
Bro - nice job on the back to back workouts. I tend to throw a few of those in too albeit normally longer tempo blocks. With HM and shorter races coming up I think I'll start to throw some more shorter efforts in.
JMac - enjoy the donuts!! Haha. You sure earned them! Hope that foot is feeling OK.