Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
So the big story for me is the Triathlon. I swam in 62F water but the wetsuit made it totally tolerable. I sight poorly and added some distance to the swim because of that but I got out of there in a reasonable time.
On the bike I quickly had difficulties with the chain coming loose. Once I fixed that I found out the chain was reliably skipping when in my 3 fastest gears so I gave myself 5 seconds to be angry then told myself I just had to do what I could with the rig I had. I passed a ton of people pushing the (few) uphills and got passed only on the downhills. Somewhere in the middle the chain dropped off again (ugg) but I was ready, fixed it and just kept rolling. Near the end I slowed a little and just spun a ton as I've learned it helps with the transition to running.
After slapping on my shoes and jersey I got rolling on the run and found a decently hard pace and started holding on as it was evident I'd been working hard already. Mile 1 clicked off in 6:40 and I increased the effort so mile 2 with it's turnaround clicked off in 6:40!! Mile 3 asked me if I was really a runner and I answered it correctly passing another 5 people while pushing a 6:35. After that were a couple of 90 degree turns that were a pain but I finished in 21:07 officially (watch had the course long). If you trust Strava's estimations I ran this at 4:08 / KM exactly the same pace as I time trialed a 5k back in December. I'll call being able to do that in a Tri a success. Now I've got one more week of training before a down week and standalone 5k on the 11th where I hope to obliterate the 20 minute barrier that's plagued recently.
25th / 208 Overall
Age Group Results: Men 40-44 (15 participants)
8th place swim (11:17)
8th Place T1 (2:57 - taking off a wetsuit sucks)
6th place bike (38:55)
8th place T2 (1:32)
1st place run (21:07) -- 9th overall in the run
https://truetimeracing.com/event/tri-clear-lake-2021/
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
RP Wow that flight route sounds terrible. Congrats on the PR!! Given the big downhill start I bet you paced that pretty darn well.. It doesn't sound like a PR course so you probably have another PR in you if you can find more ideal conditions.
Watson I love that you're doing so many trail/XC courses.I hope you enjoyed this race (did I miss a RR?).
James That year to date is awesome!! Way to take a smart down week.
Piwi That's a short week for you nowadays isn't it
Mark I'm sorry my eyes glaze over when I see that list of run titles! Looks like a typical Mark week however.
Steve You're running big mileage.
CFarr You continue to build. Well done.
Zebano nice week and nice placing in the Tri, sucks about the chain though, one of these days I want to do a Tri myself, not sure what I am waiting for, but one day I'll knock that off my list. I'm guessing you'll break 20 in your upcoming 5k pretty easily.
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
Problem Child
Zeb it might not have been the absolute best PR course possible, but it’s a solid assessment of my current abilities. It points towards a 3:07ish marathon (prediction of marathon performance from a 5k is a horrible idea) and grants me my own permission to keep training. Maybe a little harder. I think the direct flight would have been fine IF I took off and landed at the scheduled times. If I hadn’t loaded up on caffeine I probably could have slept.
anyone have suggestions for stuff to do in Chicago for 3 hours? Gotta be back here by probably 1:30pm local time to get through TSA and make my 3:30pm flight home.
Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.
VDOT 53.37
5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22
Mother of Cats
Zeb it might not have been the absolute best PR course possible, but it’s a solid assessment of my current abilities. It points towards a 3:07ish marathon (prediction of marathon performance from a 5k is a horrible idea) and grants me my own permission to keep training. Maybe a little harder. I think the direct flight would have been fine IF I took off and landed at the scheduled times. If I hadn’t loaded up on caffeine I probably could have slept. anyone have suggestions for stuff to do in Chicago for 3 hours? Gotta be back here by probably 1:30pm local time to get through TSA and make my 3:30pm flight home.
Are you at O'Hare or Midway? If you are at O'Hare, don't bother trying to get into Chicago. You'll get into the city and have about 20 minutes before turning around back to the airport.
Everyone's gotta running blog; I'm the only one with a POOL-RUNNING blog.
And...if you want a running Instagram where all the pictures are of cats, I've got you covered.
Hi all - checking in with my week and my race.
39 miles running, 500 yards swimming, and 2 hours pool-running
M: 1 hour pool-running and streaming yoga.T: 9 miles very easy (9:01) and upper body weights/coreW: 10 miles, including a track workout of 3x800, 4x200 in 3:04, 3:04, 3:03, 42, 43, 43, 42. 2:30 and 2:27 recovery between the 800s; full recovery otherwise. Followed with 500 yards recovery swimming.Th: 1 hour pool-running and DIY yoga.Fr: 6 miles very easy (9:03) followed by light upper body weights/core.Sa: Off. Just travel and DIY yogaSu: 3.5 miles warm-up, then a 10 mile race in 66:57. Followed with a .5 mile cooldown. Race report here.
I ran 66:57 for 10 miles, which was slower than I was expecting. I ran a half-marathon at 6:42 pace at the beginning of this training cycle (in early April) and then finished with a 10 miler at 6:42 pace - that's not encouraging. OTOH, the half-marathon was in cold weather on a fast course. In contrast, this course had some uneven surfaces and sharp turns that I had to slow up for - I'm struggling to handle uneven or broken pavement. Either way, I got a good hard effort in and that's worth something.
O hare according to my Strava. I was wondering why it looked so different. This airport is meh compared to Midway. I figured someone here would tell me to run a half, or map out the terminals. you run better in cold conditions so maybe don’t put too much stock in the overall time and move forward. 6:42\mi is still a really impressive pace. If I could do that for a marathon tempo run I’d probably be so excited I’d go out and race a marathon by feel.....and some GPS assistance.
If you're in O'Hare, you can probably kill 3 hours walking all the terminals...But yeah, there's really nothing in there - it's out in suburbia (I used to fly out there regularly because we had an office in Schaumburg).
Regarding the temps - this race was actually perfect temps. I could have done without the rain, but I don't think it was that big an issue.
Darkwave still a good hit out in that 10 miler. JT was slower than expected so maybe it wasn't a fast day all round.
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 "
Darkwave maybe it just wasn’t your day?
I guess sitting in this airport for five hours and getting home at dinner time is better than going to another airport, and getting home around midnight. I’ll have to remember this airport when traveling home from Boston. After going to the east coast once I can see why you have so much planned out to travel for a race on the west coast. Even if it IS easier to travel east to west than west to east.
Sorry missed a couple of shout outs.
Corey excellent on starting some speed and looking forward to following your mile training.
Steve another great week for you. My daughter says there was an earthquake last night.
Flavio how is the move going ?
Watson good to see your weekly kms growing after your injury.
Hot Weather Complainer
darkwave - I wouldn't be too worried about that you've been doing huge mileage and the course sounds like it was worth 5-10 secs per mile. I think you're in great shape for a marathon.
RP - On my last US adventure, I got a bus from Milwaukee to Chicago leaving at the same time as 2 friends of mine landed at O'Hare. I was in downtown Chicago before they were.
piwi - Thanks! I didn't feel the earthquake but the "Kia Kaha" brigade on Facebook went into victim mode as they love to do. "Oh no, how will we cope with a small earthquake after all this rain". Heh, that sounds harsh but it seems like a lot of people are desperate to be victims - there are farmers just outside the city who have lost everything in the floods who actually are real victims.
Woops, that turned into quite a rant.
5km: 18:34 11/23 │ 10km: 39:10 8/23 │ HM: 1:26:48 9/23 │ M: 3:34:49 6/23
2024 Races:
Motorway Half Marathon February 25, 2024 1:29:55
Christchurch Half-Marathon April 21, 2024
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
That was actually my impression. I'm not actually too upset about the time (though it is funny to note, as compared to the half marathon 7 weeks ago). I was happy with the effort I put in. I'm more annoyed with how my ankle instability interfered during this race, and annoyed with myself that I arguably haven't focused as much on it as I should have.
BTW, belated, but congrats to Brewing, Watson, and Zebano on their races.
Zebano - you remind me of just how complicated Triathlons are. I would also be feeling confident of sub-20 after that one.
Brewing - I think that sounds like a well executed race. I keep thinking that it had to be hard to get up and race in a time zone 3 hours ahead of yours after all that ridiculous travel. I'd be exhausted.
Watson - did your race really go through bush? That is insane.
There is a path through the bush.
PRs: 5km 18:43 (Dec 2015), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:26:16 (Sep 2016), full 3:09:28 (Jun 2015)
40+ PRs: 5km 19:31 (Oct 2020), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:29:39 (Jun 2018), full 3:13:55 (Sep 2022)
2023 PRs (hope to beat in 2024): 5km 20:34, 10km 41:37, half 1:32:32, full 3:21:05
2024 PRs: 5km 20:25