Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
Cobra Commander Keen
This week has been pretty crazy at work, so while I have a breather I'm dropping off my weekly and I'll circle back around for more comments once I've been able to catch up here.
5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22
Upcoming Races:
OKC Memorial 5k - April 27
RIP Milkman
Steve - when it rains, it pours. I think taking a couple of days off does make sense to mentally recover. Figure out your future racing plans later, no need to now given what's going on with your mom.
Vaccine - I agree a lot of it is a travel issue for you guys, but if you're going to keep going into these lockdowns every time some idiot crosses the border with COVID, isn't it more than that? You're going into this "purgatory" as the article described where this is going to continue into at least 2022. Can't imagine trying to plan a wedding around something like this. Steve's case is a perfect example too of others getting impacted. I also can't imagine your tourist industry is doing very well right now with only one country allowed in (although I imagine they are the majority, or at least the plurality, of your tourists).
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
4 pages or so since Friday. You all have been busy!
DWave - Great effort at Grandma's! Even more so with the temps a good amount above ideal. The RR is in my reading queue. As is the one for that first "watchless" 10 miler.
JMac - Any improvements to the leg issue(s)?
Piwi - Excellent week.
Mark - Nicely done in the race.
Steve - Good week, especially given the stress and lack of sleep lately. I'd imagine the temptation to tell those criticizers coming out of the woodwork to bugger off is rather strong. Sounds like you're taking care of things properly, though, which is all you can do.
Flavio - Good week. It has been interesting to see all of your runs in different locales lately.
Wellington and related health issues - Seems ridiculous to me.
Intl. correspondent
Steve - Damn, that’s bad luck. That said, you have accumulated a ton of fitness, so I suppose you can now cash it in another race.
Jmac - Next time follow the Awesome 5K plan by Flavio and forget that old sadistic JD
Mark - What’s even more ironic is that you guys can go literally anywhere without any restrictions.
You could come tomorrow to Europe and have no need for a PCR test or quarantine. When you go back to NZ though…
Corey - here's a summary of my training plan. Do note though it was built by my coach at the time theoretically for my needs.
For the non workout days, I usually had one day of fartlek going 1K@MP 1k Easy, 6 to 10km. The other days were easy run.
I also had 2 days off per week.
And the coach prescribed strength training. He said 1/3 of the effort is anaerobic and you must be physically strong to be able to push the pace. Over those weeks I did dead lifts, gobblet squats, pushups etc, 2x 50 min per week.
Week 1
Run 1 mile all out to set baseline and paces.
Sample paces so you have an idea of relations between them:
1500 pace : 5:00. A mile is roughly 5:22
800 pace: 2:30
400 pace: 1:20
200 pace: 0:34 to 0:36
100: 0:16 to 0:18
Paces: Unless otherwise stated:
500/600/800/1000/1200 - mile pace
400 - 800 pace
200 - either 400 pace or all out
100 - controlled sprint.
Week 2
3x (100 + 200 + 300 + 400)
3x (1000 + 400)
3x (1000 ON 1000 OFF)
Week 3
2x (200 400 600 800)
2x (600 + 5x200) + 800
4x (1000 ON 1000 OFF)
Week 4
1500 + 1000 + 500
4x1000@5k 5x200
3x (1k Easy, 1k moderate, 1k fast)
Week 5
3x400 + 800 + 3x400 + 800
1000 + 800 + 600 + 400 + 200
5x400 + 5x200
Week 6
4x (600 + 200)
2x (1000@mile pace) + 2x (500@mile pace)
10x300
Week 7
3x (800@mile + rest + 200 sprint + rest)
1200@mile + 600@mile + 4x300
3x (400 300 200 100)
Week 8
1500@5k + 3x500@mile
2x (800 600 400 200)
5x400 5x200 2 min rests
Week 9
1000@mile + 5x100 + 1000@mile + 5x100 + 1000@mile
600 3x300 600 3x300
600@current 1500 pace + 300@target 1500 pace
3x (800@mile + 200 sprints)
Race week
Tuesday: 5x400@mile
Thursday: 1500m race
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
Mother of Cats
Thanks - I do want to be clear - it wasn't all that hot, and I don't think my bad race was necessarily heat related. The Klimat report of "68 degrees" on my Strava was very off - it was nowhere near that hot. Weather underground said mid-60s at the start and finish, and I saw a display in Duluth that said 18 C, so it was closer to low 60s, with a mostly overcast sky and a nice breeze. Coming from the weather I've been training in the last two weeks, this weather should have only slowed me by a few minutes max.
Just want to be clear, since I want to preserve the weather excuse for when it's actually appropriate.
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.
Jmac/Mark/Steve I was looking at it from my own selfish life
It looks like 46% of the US is vaccinated.
We have delivered around 1 million doses so roughly 500 thousand have had both doses. The plan is 8 million by the end of November which is our 4 million population.
Let me know if im reading these wrong.
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 "
Thanks - I do want to be clear - it wasn't all that hot, and I don't think my bad race was necessarily heat related. The Klimat report of "68 degrees" on my Strava was very off - it was nowhere near that hot. Weather underground said mid-60s at the start and finish, and I saw a display in Duluth that said 18 C, so it was closer to low 60s, with a mostly overcast sky and a nice breeze. Coming from the weather I've been training in the last two weeks, this weather should have only slowed me by a few minutes max. Just want to be clear, since I want to preserve the weather excuse for when it's actually appropriate.
I didn't think you were making an excuse at all. I've seen several sources saying the race started in the low 60's, which is considerably warmer than I personally would like for even a HM.
Flavio,
Thanks for the feedback I'll take a look at the details.
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
I don't like all this hemming and hawing about weather complaining in this thread when the Kiwis complain about the slightest thing. Where is your pride, Americans????
Here's some complaining: my 5K looks terrible, again. Literally the same KP forecast of 145, except an exchange of 5 degrees in temp for 5 degrees in dew point (75 temp, 70 DP). I still have a cough from my cold, which is not great for 5Ks and the lack of oxygen, but I'll still shoot to break the time I ran a few weeks ago in the same conditions (17:44). Let's say 17:29 because that sounds better than 17:30.
My left leg is still bothering me in a weird way. Trying a lot of rolling in different places now, like my abductors as well. Very bizarre. Either way, I do have a trip planned in mid July where I won't run for 6 straight days, so that'll help.
I will also get back to strength training too, this was a good wake up call.
Yeah we're kinda used to that now. At least in Auckland we've spent probably 8 weeks over the last 12 months with some form of restrictions in place. As you say the problem is we're gonna have to keep doing that until vaccinations get more widespread. But it's horrible for anyone trying to plan events because there's a ~10-20% probability that it all turns to custard (or apparently higher if it's a goal race for some members of this thread).
Tourism is interesting. Around half the tourism spend used to be domestic pre-Covid, and with people unable to travel elsewhere they've tended to travel around NZ instead, so that's held up some of the sector. Which is fine except a good chunk of the sector is geared (and priced) towards international tourists, so those are the ones that are generally struggling (or have already tanked).
Keen - another very nice week.
JMac - all the best for the 5k. That weather sounds fairly dire.
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"
JamesD
Good luck in your hot 5K, JMac. You might be interested in this Podium Runner blurb about a linked article suggesting that caffeine and beet juice don't help in the heat. The article only looked at studies on exercise at 30C/86F and above, so it may not be relevant for most of our races, but I assume that not helping in extreme heat means that they also have less benefit in moderate heat than at neutral temperatures.
Coffee/caffeine doesn’t work in the heat
That’s the conclusion of a recent meta-analysis of how hot-weather exercise effects supplement effectiveness on performance and core-body temperature. Same for nitrates, ie, beet juice. The researchers concluded: “Supplements such as caffeine and nitrates do not enhance endurance performance in the heat, with caffeine also increasing core temperature responses.” On the other hand, branch chain amino acids offered a small, consistent effect, and taurine the largest effect of any supplement measured, though from just one study. More at Medicine & Science inSports & Exercise.
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
Problem Child
Maybe those countries should realize the solution is throwing money at the problem and they need to create a lottery/raffle to give away $1M to a bunch of people so they don't get the sub 1:30 training thread lock down.
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
Weather complaining:
8k TT coming up tomorrow. Kiwi Point 150 (79 temp, 71 DP). 17-20mph cross wind for the majority of the loop. I'm thinking of going with the "show up and blow up" approach.
Hot Weather Complainer
Good luck JMac and Keen. JMac it always amuses me when you complain about the complaining since you may be the king of complaining . The weather does look pretty rough for you guys.
The weather for Wellington this weekend looks absolute worst case scenario. So this thread has escaped some serious complaining from me!
My partner suggested I run the distance in training tomorrow to "reward" myself for all the training. My coach has, against his better judgement, agreed that I can do it. This will NOT be a virtual race - it will be easy paced and relaxed. I think I'm going to do it. Why not. I'm tapered and fit and this will train my body some more.
So how do I do this? It's not a race but obviously I need nutrition. But if I just stick to electrolytes and water I'll be training my body to use fat? But I'm not really doing it for training, so do I take gels to make my life easier?
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
James - interesting research. Given caffeine can also be a diuretic I guess it's not a big surprise it's less helpful on hot days.
Keen - go hard or go home! Haha it'll be character building.
Steve - the reality is that for a run of that duration, you will end up glycogen depleted. I would take gels because it's not worth putting your body through the stress of trying to run on empty for that long even if it is easy paced.