Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
Had a bet with a clubmate that we'd race this and the loser would chug 32oz Green Apple Gatorade and then do 50 burpees. Naturally I woke up on Wednesday just feeling off, with a high RHR. Ran 10 min miles during my evening jog (specifically switched to evening to emulate race conditions). Thursday was better but still a little off. Ran a 40 minute shakeout + strides but quit after 3 strides because it was stupidly hot. I was both worried and excited to race. For refence my PR is 19:33, his was 19:24 until 2 weeks ago when he ran 19:17. Training has been going well so I tried to keep myself positive and I did a decent job ignoring the weather.
I worked today and could tell I wasn't perfect but I was 8/10 and better than yesterday. Left work at 4pm so I could nab a 30 minute nap, ate some grapes and lemonade then played with the dog until it was time to go. Did a 2 mile shakeout and felt like I was in the middle of a training cycle. Oh well. Did 2 min comfortably hard + 3 strides and while recently long warmups like this have been 6:3-45 /mi pace this was a solid 7:05. Stupid 7PM weather (90F, 70 Dew Point). Changed shoes, chatted and made my way to the start while trying to keep lil-z loose.
I found my primary opponent for the day and we lined up in roughly the second row and somehow the dew point had dropped 20 degrees! The race started... and to my shock he took it out hard so I just shrugged and hung on his shoulder (he's very much a start slow, finish fast, awesome positive splits type guy). First KM in 3:49, ok this is spicy for me. He carried on so I made a gamble that this was a touch too hot for him and backed off right where mile 1 was marked (watch was in KM). Second KM in 4:02 and things got hard. I told myself I was going to push and ran a 3:57 3rd KM but I found that line right between hard and vomiting and just rode it. I put in a couple surges and without looking back my clubmate just covered them. KM 4 was brutal at 4:04 and the race was short (3.06-3.10 on strava) and my final surge came up short and the race had the cruelty to end with 2 very small hills which effectively ended my kick prematurely as any more would have left me vomiting while running.
Clubmate: 19:33, me: 19:37. Not ideal pacing but far from terrible; I raced and left it out there. I chugged Gatorade and did my burpees in 4 sets. He was kind and joined me for the last 15 which actually made it worse as I would have taken a break in there lol. My calves and shoulders were not ready for that! I nabbed a 3rd place in the M 40-44 age group which is always nice.
13 y.o. Lil-Z ran 26:40 about 2 minutes faster than his sprint - Triathlon time from much better conditions (63F) . Best of all he didn't walk and was happy after!
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
Problem Child
I should also mention that I am of course available to all on this thread to come out and go through your closet. I'll even be happy to tell you if you have a problem. You will need to cover airfare, housing, and food. Priority given to those locations within a half mile/800m of a Chipotle.
Taco Bell is like a knock off Chipotle right? I feel like 1/2 mile is kind of unfair seeing as how West of Tennessee we have counties the size of most States on the West coast (Rhode Island doesn’t count as a state) because we have been socially distancing since the Louisiana Purchase. Closest one is 2.7 miles anyways so a 5k seems ‘more than reasonable.’
I could also request a virtual visit due to those being popular in 2020.
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
Zebano - nice race. Sorry you lost your bet.
I did 34:2x in the cross country, I was late stopping the watch. It was about 300 metres longer than 2019, so although I was slower, my pace was a little quicker than two years ago. Conditions were very good, quite warm for winter.
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
I clearly missed a few pages of shoe talk.
My current shoe line up consists of the following
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
Zeb great job by you and Lil Z.
You ran that in true 5k paincave mode.
Watson nice job in the X country.
I keep my shoes in the garage in an old dresser unit although there's about 4 pairs by the front door.
I never learnt my lesson after a pair were stolen out there a few years ago. I've got 4 security cameras now due to the fact I fit them as part of my job. At least I can watch them been taken
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 "
My week
Good quality this week with 6x800s Monday and hillsprints Wednesday and 3 x 2kms on Friday.
The 3 x 2kms was really good and I held an even 3.45/km for each rep with no slowing which is normally the case especially in the 2nd km of each rep.
Zebano - burpees are the worst!
Piwi - good week, haha I just beat you this week.
Watson - good job on the XC.
Me - another solid week of training with a couple of really good workouts Wed and Sat, feeling like I'm hitting a good training groove at the moment and the body is playing its part. I'm doing a 10k race which is mostly on trails this Sunday, not really a proper race effort but just a chance to practice before the half in 8 weeks, so this week might be a little lighter.
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: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF
Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Mother of Cats
Zebano- good race and great race report. For the record, I hate both burpees and Gatorade. If I had to choose one or the other, I'd pick the burpees.
Piwi - good workouts, especially the 2K repeats (I hate those). Regarding the shoe thefts - do you know whether it's people or animals? Around here, some of the local wildlife (raccoons and foxes) will steal shoes left outside and take them back to their dens. Why? I have no idea.
Marky_Mark - some of those run titles require explanation. Disco carwash? $685m?
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.
JamesD
Good races, Zebano and Watson. Not sure I would dare make bets that involve chugging anything after hard races, let alone burpees after that.
I had more leg troubles this week. At different times, both glutes/upper hamstrings and both quads were hurting, and one day my hernia was more sore than it had been in the last few weeks. Nothing was bad enough to make me abandon the runs, but all were worse than the normal aches & pains. At the start of today’s long run my right quad hurt along the inside and felt like the leg wasn’t tracking properly, so much so that I stopped after 30 seconds, walked for a while, and started over. Despite all that, after 15 minutes of shuffling at 9:05 pace, I settled into my normal pace and even was faster than I expected for a while, and the heat/humidity didn’t bother me much. Also on the good side, I lengthened my tempoish run to 4 miles, and I’m not too worried that I faded, as the heat may have contributed. Think I’ll cut back on my recovery & regular runs the next two days.
Sun - 9.4 miles in park @ 8:47, TDP 144
Mon - off
Tues - 7.7 miles in park including 4 @ 6:59, faded, TDP ~150
Weds - 9.4 slow recovery (1:39) on treadmill including 1 in new Hyperion Tempos, glutes sore after
Thurs - 9.4 in park @ 8:44, TDP 148, glutes sore, maybe b/c of Hyperion Tempos on Weds
Fri - off
Sat - 14 in park @ 8:38, TDP 150, stopped at first b/c of quad trouble but ok later
Total - 49.9 miles
YTD average - 48.5 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
It will be people stealing. It is very rare in NZ for animals to steal clothes or shoes.
I remembered 2019 Dorne Cup slightly wrong as I was a little quicker than I remembered. So yesterday I was 1 s/km quicker than 2019, so pretty much the same.
James hope you feel better soon.
Mark dammit you beat me I saw your beastly longrun today. Unfortunately my mates and I only did 18kms but a nice hilly rural route. I felt fresh as a daisy after.
DW it was a few years ago but definitely people as we don't have foxes or raccoons. I spent the next few weeks glancing at people's footwear at the local skateparks as they were a unique yellow and black colorway that I imported.
Disclaimer: skateboarders are good people
RIP Milkman
Mark - I feel like you usually race more in the winter in NZ, no?
James - I think the TDP where I start feeling an impact on paces is 130, with major impacts on workouts/races at 140+. You probably are 10 degrees higher though.
Piwi - it's pretty ironic for you to have stuff stolen from your home given your job. I hope your clients don't know this!
Zebano - even slightly short, looks like you ran near PR pace, so that's very encouraging!
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
Maybe a sentence or two, or a screen shot since he doesn’t run with his phone. I assumed the disco car wash was a fundraiser. I still look forward to his titles.
zeb way to power through the burpees. Nice bet too. Enough to make you not want that flavor Gatorade for a long time.
piwi I had to do a double take of your run. It looked a LOT like a run in town. ‘Wait…HE IS HERE??!!!?!?!’ Also, thieves suck. Some of the lowest life forms on the planet/island.
me: still chasing vert. Today was kind of a fun run. I’d seen the hut in photos on Strava and never really knew where it was. Found out last weekend it’s about a mile up. Decided to go for it today and on the way up passed some hikers a mile in. Big guy. Obviously struggling. Was hoping to see him on the way down but he might have done the full 7.75 mile loop or called it around mile 2. Either way, I’m glad I knocked off todays run from the bucket list. I think it was a good mental challenge for pacing since I remember being DESTROYED on the climbs at the end.
Hot Weather Complainer
Mark and piwi - nice weeks.
watson and zebano, great races!
My week was my first down week in the taper. I had a good Wednesday workout. Saturday wasn't great, felt flat from start to finish. There were some quicker kms and I had to work quite hard to get my legs to turn over. I was pretty tired at the end, more than previous longer runs.
The last few weeks with the external stress of Mum being in hospital is potentially taking a toll. Without going into too much detail, it's not going well. My partner yesterday said that she'd never seen me this worn out, and she wasn't just talking physically. She even suggested I don't do this race. At the moment, I'm not considering that option. But I am talking to my coach about making the next 2 weeks even lighter than usual. I've thought about what I'd do if the worst happens. I think I would run the race, but only if I thought I would survive it. Anyway, at this stage I've done the work and plan to get there.
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
RP that looked like a run a goat 🐐 would be suited for today.
Steve that sounds extremely tough. Whatever you decide to do we will understand.
Jmac those shoes were taken about 8 years ago but I am terribly casual with security, often leaving the house open and stashing my vehicle keys under the wheel arch if im running or surfing from my van.