Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
Hot Weather Complainer
I updated my post because it ended after my warm up but my partner said the new one died too, not sure what happened there. I hung in there and felt comfortable all the way, obviously got a bit tired towards the end. The 5th gel led to some nausea and I may have detected the beginning of some cramp in the last 100 metres but I feel reasonably good afterwards.
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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
Keen - that is a huge cycle. Weather looked really tough for your time trial.
Steve - congrats on running the marathon.
Weather is rough here this weekend. Northerly and very wet, tough conditions for a marathon, if it was on.
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
Steve - well done on the marathon effort. I'm sure you probably had far better weather in CHC!
My week done and dusted. Legs were a bit tired for my long run this morning so I'll probably take an extra rest day next week. This was my second biggest week all year so not surprising really.
This morning's long run was interesting. I crossed a roundabout to head to the path up Upper Harbour Bridge and towards home, and a ute (translation: truck) who was around 20-30m away from me by the time I finished crossing (i.e. I had heaps of time to cross safely) sat on his horn and went nuts at me. He proceeded to drive alongside abusing me for a bit (despite me suggesting he chill out because it was a Sunday morning) and even took some pictures. It was all a bit weird for 7:30am on a Sunday morning. Maybe he had a rough night.
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"
Mark that sounds like the guy who followed my son a few weeks ago. Obviously still on a meth high from last night !
Nice week.
Steve awesome job making the most of a bad situation.
I got a " RUN FORREST " shout out yesterday 😠
My week
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 "
JamesD
Congratulations, Steve! Now enjoy the rest you had planned on.
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
Thanks all, much appreciated.
Mark - Monster week, nice one. That guy sounds like a complete lunatic. What's he going to use the photos for? Show the cops the photo of a guy who safely crossed the road?
piwi - Nice week. That's a great hilly run.
me - as everyone knows it wasn't the week I expected. It still hasn't really sunk in that the race I've been planning for years and training for for 8 months since Queenstown didn't happen. On my Thursday and Friday runs I was remembering pretty much every training run for the last few months when I'd imagine the last few km of the marathon, from the Museum to the stadium.
Anyway, I did my "marathon" training run instead yesterday. I originally thought I'd go 10km north up the bicycle paths into town, then 11.1km south so I'd pass by my house once to get a drink, and my partner was going to meet me at certain places. She was pretty unwell overnight Friday and Saturday morning so I changed the plan to 5km north and back, 6km south and back, 5km north and back and finally 5.1km south and back. This meant I could pass home at 10km, 22km, 32km on the way. It was also good to break up the run into chunks so it wasn't quite so daunting. I wasn't scared of the distance at the pace I planned but I knew it would be a challenge running for over 3.5 hours solo. I planned on 5:05 - 5:10 per km, preferably 5:10.
Unlike Wellington which has been battered by heavy rain and gale winds all weekend, the weather was perfect. Cool but not cold, and not a lot of wind. I prepared 2 600ml bottles with Endura electrolyte drink mix, and a bottle of water at the front door. I set up my live tracking and set off (my watch flashed up saying "Live Track Started" so I imagined people following and supporting, and my partner knowing when I was approaching home....turns out it died straight after that - my phone has been randomly dropping off the internet sometimes when I go from wifi to 4G or 5G and vice versa so maybe that was the problem).
The first leg of 10km felt good of course and the splits were around what I wanted. I had said I didn't want to see a single km pop up with a 4 at the front but unfortunately that plan ended in the second km but was a good reminder to ease up. I wanted the whole run to feel comfortable as much as possible because I don't want a big recovery since I missed out on a race - I really want a race! So keeping it comfortable was really important.
I got to the first pass of the house and saw my partner had set up a drink station and a finish line at the end of the short driveway. It meant I didn't need to go up to the front door and basically stop to get a drink which was great. The finish line had "tape" which was toilet paper with "FINISH LINE" written on it, followed by "WELLINGTON SUCKS". Love it. She also told me the tracking wasn't working. I considered getting my phone out of the flip belt but decided to leave it. Spent 2km drinking the first Endura dose, then took my first gel at the one hour mark.
The second leg of 12km was uneventful with a consistent pace - quicker than 5:10, but still slow enough to keep it comfortable. The outward part of this leg was mentally a bit tough as a I told myself to just get to halfway and it will feel like it's getting closer. I took my second gel at 90 mins, went past the next drinks station at 22km and had my second drink.
The third leg felt great as the kilometres started counting down but no fatigue was arriving. The splits are still good, 5:01 - 5:08. The third and 4th gels went down at 2 hours and 2:30. At the 30km mark, I started feeling a little soreness in the left knee (not the knee that caused issues earlier this year). I go past the 3rd drinks station and grab the water and say to my partner (who is a real trooper, tracking wasn't working so she did some gardening in the "freezing cold" while not feeling great - she gets cold much easier than me) "this is where it gets interesting". I'd started feeling a bit of nausea after the 4th gel and I had about 150ml of the water and really struggled to drink any more so I ditched the bottle (in a bin in Prebbleton domain of course). The most gels I took on a long run workout was 4 without any issues so I'm not sure why I was feeling it now.
For me the 4th leg was all about getting to the turnaround again so I could finally say I'm heading for home. My knee was sore enough that I decided if it got worse I would call it a day. The slowest km popped up around here in 5:15 around a spot that has always had GPS issues. The next split was 4:58 with no obvious change in pace so I think I was still around the average. I took the 5th and final gel at 36km. I had considered not taking it because I felt like it could cause issues but went with it anyway. It was fine though, mostly. If/when I do a real marathon I may need to look at whether I have a banana or something instead of one of the gels. After the turnaround the knee calmed down.
The last 5km was all about ticking off each km. I was tired but not suffering. I was wondering if I'd feel a wall or sickness so I was careful to not lift the pace. I got to 1km to go and knew I was fine so I felt a bit of elation knowing I was going to do it. The last km was a bit quicker but felt good. I turned into my street and broke the tape/toilet paper and enjoyed the moment. Afterwards I felt no worse than any of my long run workouts and much better than after some of the speed workouts I've done for half marathon training.
My legs have pulled up way way better than after an all out half-marathon. The left knee is a bit sore, and was sore on my recovery run this morning but has improved throughout the day.
Awesome Steve 👌 if you have a photo of the finish you should put it on here although I know you are a little shy 🤭
You would have still learnt alot about the distance even though it wasn't a race.
Steve, Mark and Piwi - nice weeks.
My week was pretty good. I got a weekly elevation record at 1045 metres, which was mainly in one run.
Which was a very wet run as it's been really wet here. My jacket I bought earlier in the year is very good at keeping rain out, so I'm pretty confident that my ultra in three weeks will be ok from a keeping dry perspective.
Having enough endurance for the race is still a bit of a worry. Saturday's run is pretty much half the distance and half the elevation, and Saturday was quite hard.
Mother of Cats
My recovery week:10 miles running and 5 hours pool-running
M: 1 hour pool-runningT: 1 hour pool-running and streaming yoga.W: light upper body weights/core and 40 minutes pool-running.Th. 1 hour pool-runningFr: Upper and lower body weights and 40 minutes pool-runningSa: 3 miles easy (9:55), 40 minutes pool-running, and streaming yoga.Su: 7 miles (9:43) and weights/core
Marky_Mark - scary stuff with the truck. Not cool at all.Piwi - Congrats on the Run Forrest comment. Much preferable to a truck runby.Steve - great job on getting the marathon done! I think your experience yesterday will be very helpful when you get a chance to race one.
One thought that occurred to me - weren't you the same one who needed a LOT of recovery after a half? To the point where you couldn't recover if you raced a half during marathon training? Interesting that your recovery from the full marathon distance, even if not raced, would be so easy.
Watson - that sounds like quite an ultra. I simply don't understand why you Kiwis whine so much about weather, when your elevation gains are clear opportunities to complain.
James - how was university move-in? That seems _really_early.
Shoe musings. HIstorically I did all my easy runs in the Nike Free, but that shoe was discontinued a few years ago, forcing me to shift to stuff like the Nike Streak and Adidas Adios for my easy runs.
I picked up a pair of the Altra Escalante Racer recently - very low stack and zero drop - the exact opposite of the current shoe trends. Now that my marathon is done, I decided to try them out as my new easy run shoe. So far, I'm in love. They just feel so much more stable than the other shoes I've been running in.
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.
piwi - I did realise after I'd broken the finish line that it would have been good to get a photo of it...but alas, no photo.
watson - Nice week and great long run with the hills. The ultra will be tough given you've not had a clear run without injuries but if you go conservative you'll be good.
darkwave - Nice week. How are your legs after the race?
You're right, I generally need 2 very light weeks post race for a half. My legs don't feel beaten up at all, so perhaps I am better at recovering from higher volume with lower intensity. I'll still have a light-ish week this week but nowhere near as light as after a half-marathon.
Cobra Commander Keen
Steve - Epic run, man! Especially solo.
Brew - 2/2 on getting people on to the track in Auburn. Should I ever toe the line in Squaw I hope you know I'm giving you a call.
Watson - Tha'ts a heck of a 20km run with all that vert in there. Nice.
DWave - Welcome to the dark (Altra) side!
Super-happy to be heading in to a recovery week! After blowing up (didn't I say "show up or blow up"??) in my 8k TT I had a bit of a disastrous LR. Lot of lightning kept me from running super-early, and a lack of power kept me off the treadmill. DW ended up taking a run in the late morning and was rained on the entire time, and I took mine right afterwards. I figured it would be nice and cloudy with some drizzle, but it stopped raining minutes before I hit the road and the sun came out. No water and way too much sunshine/heat/humidity weren't a good combination, and I started to flag some the last 4 miles or so.
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
Bun Run 5k - May 4
Steve - well done again on the marathon effort. Running 42.2k easy for the fun of it is a helluva thing to do! With one exception I've generally been pretty happy to finish when I hit 35-36km. I guess my experience would be to take it pretty easy the next couple of weeks. Even though you ran it easy, it's still a helluva long way, and I paid the price (twice!) for getting back into it a bit quickly. The legs will feel good before the body is fully recovered!
Watson - nice elevation gain (again).
Piwi - I would take "Run Forrest" over the creepy guy I had to deal with!! Good week again though, you are super consistent at the moment. Got a race in mind? Honestly Cambridge half (which is also National HM Champs) in mid-Sept would be worth a crack for you. Looks like a fast-ish course and should be a solid field.
Darkwave - I tend to not complain about hills much because to some extent I can avoid them by picking different routes! Hope you are recovering OK after the marathon.
Keen - hope the recovery week goes well, sounds like you've earned it!
James - sorry I missed your post earlier with all the action on the thread! Good luck getting your son moved, big milestone!
Steve nice work on your Marathon distance easy pace it really sucks your official marathon got canceled at the last minute.
Great report out love the toilet paper finish line and the "Wellington sucks" note. The experience will provide great benefit when you make another attempt.
James Sorry you are still having some issues with your legs it doesn't seem to be hindering you from putting in the miles though.
Mark Nice week again I hate idiots who are driving. I had to stop in the middle of the road today because a girl was on the phone and wasn't paying attention that I was in the Crosswalk she just rolled on through head down staring at her phone.
Piwi nice week Nice work on that Hill run I've gotten that "Run Forest Run" shout out before too usually from some High school kids trying to be funny.
Watson nice week nice job on the record Elevation too. I got to start getting in some more elevation myself too
Keen another high mileage week nice effort on the time trail
DW nice job on the recovery week..still a lot of activites between running body weight WO pool running and yoga don't know how you do it.
I tried Altras once, had to take them back to the running store I couldn't do it.
On that note my new shoes did not deliver on Friday as expected, since I had a few issues with my feet and toes early on in the week I decided to take it easy the balance of the week and cut the mileage down from last week, only putting in 26 miles for the week.
hopefully the new shoes will allow me to get back to my target mileage range without my feet/toe killing me.
On a positive note I am down about 5 lbs and feeling a lot better.
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
CK- thanks for the welcome!
Cfarr - what about the Altras didn't work for you - the heel-toe drop? (that's the most likely culprit).
And sorry about the missed shoe delivery.
Move-in went fine, thanks for asking. Son & his roommate hit it off well. Not a big surprise since they had met online and agreed to room together and been in touch a lot over the last few weeks, but still important. DW and the roommate's mom also bonded. Neither of the moms had seen the campus before, so I showed them around while the boys did an orientation thing, then they met us for lunch before DW & I drove home.
He started so early because Clemson encourages first-year students to take a summer session so they're settled in and know their way around before dealing with 25,000 students during fall semester. We thought that was a good idea, and five weeks after high school graduation was enough of a break. Home does seem quiet, though.