Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
Hot Weather Complainer
Yeah that is true - neither Dunedin nor Queenstown will happen at Level 2. I guess I'm assuming by November common sense might have arrived but there's no reason to think that. And of course, Level 4 is only one case away. I'll keep my options open but continue to target Wellington. I'll reassess in 2.5 weeks when they make the final call. It's very frustrating, I feel like I'm hitting some form and that a PR is a real chance if I got to race in the next few weeks.
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
My week done and dusted. Some good workouts in there including back to back efforts on Tues and Wed, and I really had to try and slow myself down on this morning's long run. Not much I can do about this lockdown except for sit and hope, which sucks when it feels like you're in really good shape. Definitely sharing your frustration on that front, Steve.
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 - Nice week. It definitely feels like everything is on hold right now, although obviously more so for you and all Aucklanders. It also feels like there's a few people on this thread race ready with the potential of not getting a race this year. If Wellington is cancelled I've decided to enter Dunedin and just suck it up in Queenstown. And if Dunedin is cancelled, then Queenstown is probably cancelled too which may only leave Wairarapa which doesn't fill me with joy after the race reports from both you and watson last year. I have a recollection that neither of you enjoyed it very much.
Anyway, very good week for me with 2 solid workouts that I felt like I did reasonably comfortably. Especially pleasing on the Saturday workout after recent struggles on long run workouts, which I decided to do at Hagley Park to restrict the headwind to 1.5km at a time.
My target HMP for Saturday was 4:15/km, and 10km pace was 4:00-4:05. I was generally too fast on HMP (4:06-4:11) and bang on for the 10km pace (3:59, 4:02, 4:02).
Good work guys very solid weeks. I've had 2 x 50km weeks in a row. Mostly because of my back injury which healed up on Friday. It started to present itself as sharp pain on the rhs of my lower back which pointed to sacroililac pain. Sure enough targeted stretching started to relieve it.
I must admit to been in a phase of low motivation for racing so my mileage is likely to stay low for now.
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 "
Steve and Mark - nice weeks. Races will happen soon(ish). So keep the training going.
Re Wairarapa, if Wellington is cancelled, the marathon might be ok(ish). It's also doubling as the Wellington marathon champs so hopefully there'll be a few more runners. Although the half might be a better option, as inevitably the marathon's tiny field means running a substantial period by yourself.
The other option is just wait to Level 1. There'll come a point where the entire population of 12+ years old will have had a fair and reasonable chance to have had both vaccine shots, or there's been no cases for x days, that we'll go back to Level 1. Not as quickly as you would like, but it will happen.
Piwi - glad your back is better. 50km will be fairly good maintance training.
My week was good. First good week since the my "ultra" mid July (originally was a 43km with 2000m elevation, but bad weather downgraded it to 21km with 1100m elevation). Right hamstring is completely fine now.
I have a race next Saturday, our clubs Mangaroa Road Race. It's a handicap start, so theoretically everyone would finish at the same time. It's around 13.5km to 14km with maybe 100-150m elevation.
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
Also, another woman road world record has been broken, at 14:29
https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/womens-road-5k-world-record-falls-in-germany/
Watson good to see you logging a bigger week.
Looks like the womans 10k road record fell also at that event.
I think the 10km was a womens only race record. Versus a race with both men and women in it.
Not sure how the font dropped down a part of a line?
Zebano the article on the shoe testing was interesting, I wanted to read the whole thing but just couldn't. I started getting some grey in HS, I have more grey than original black now. nothing like watching a pile of grey land on the floor when getting a hair cut.
Mark Steve Watson nice week hope the lockdown is over soon so you guys can race
I'm done for the week.
Piwi I fell below hobby jogger status this week
Gonna skip my run today as we are in the final stages of getting packed up to move. Our house is going on the market next week Photos being taken in the next few days so have some things that need to be addressed first.
lLkely going to be very low volume for the next 2-3 weeks until we actually get moved.
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
Intl. correspondent
Corey - we also moved this week. It took a couple of hours 😁
Mark - hang in there!
Me - a nice week, a 3k time trial in 10:41, very close to a PR, and I think I've conquered the 20 miler today. There was a half marathon race in town and it was nice to follow the stream of runners. A 2h37 run, thats very close to the actual race duration, if it works for me.
3 weeks to go. I feel very under prepared due to injuries and not being able to train consistently over 60 miles. Come race day I'll have to accept what I have and enjoy the race (spoiler: it will be hard)
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
Cfarr - moving is hard work. Good luck.
Flavio - nice week. I take it you have a furnished apartment given your move took two hours!
Mother of Cats
I keep saying it, but I'm sorry about what you Kiwis are dealing with right now.
Marky_Mark - interesting on the back-to-back workouts. Was there a specific rationale for that? Chasing some sort of stimulus?
Steve - definitely some good workouts for you. I find the Saturday HMP/10K workout intriguing.
Piwi- glad that the back is clearing up.
Watson good that the hamstring is fine. I always worry about those things, but you took the right action at the right time, it seems.
Cfarr - good luck with the move. Moving absolutely sucks.
Flavio - very nice 3K time trial. As for the marathon, it really is better to be a bit underprepared rather than over. (a cliche, but true).
CK - belated, but great race report and great race.
***
62 miles running, 2:30 hours pool-running, and 1000 yards swimming.
M: 75 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.
T: 10 miles easy (9:14) plus drills and 4 hill sprints, followed by upper body weights/core.
W: 16 miles, including a marathon pace workout of 5 miles, 3 miles, 2 miles at marathon effort - splits were 36:16 (7:15 pace), 21:37 (7:12 pace), and 14:27 (7:13 pace). Easy miles between each in about 8:30 plus a lot of water breaks. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Th: 75 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.
F: 6.5 miles very easy to gym (9:29), upper body weights/core, and then 3.5 miles very easy home (8:57) plus drills and four strides.
Sa: 14 miles, with a track workout of 4800m, 3200m, 1600m at tempo effort. Splits were 20:14 (6:47 pace); 13:22 (6:43 pace); and 6:27. Recoveries of 2 laps in 5:41 after the 4800, and 1 lap in 2:49 plus a bathroom/shoe-tieing break. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Su: 12 miles easy/moderate (8:27). Streaming yoga in afternoon.
One bad workout on Wednesday (got dehydrated and had to modify my planned 2x5 miles at marathon effort. It was temp 75/DP 70 (24/21) with bright sunshine, and I just wasn't serious enough about hydration early enough. The first 5 miles went well, but HR exploded for the second.
Saturday's tempo was in slightly better weather (temp/DP of 70 F/ 21C and cloudy), and I had a much better workout. Long solo tempo workouts on the track are mentally grueling also, so I felt really good about it. I essentially did my tempo workout at my former marathon pace, but at least I'm progressing in the right direction. I don't think I could have done that tempo workout a few weeks ago.
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.
Steve - That was a good training week, I'll admit that sometimes I use lap courses to mitigate wind impact on a workout as well! The wind still ends up being a net negative overall, but it's certainly easier than trying to battle headwind for 5km stretches.
I enjoyed the first lap of Wairarapa, nice countryside running albeit pretty small field. The second lap was miserable though especially uphill and upwind for the final 7km. Really though there's not much we can do at the moment other than have a bunch of contingency plans. It seems like once the vaccination numbers get high enough the government will have no choice but to lift restrictions, so I think the worst case scenario now is no races for the rest of the year, it's just a question of whether some restrictions are lifted sooner. It feels like the mood of the public is starting to shift now as well with the Auckland mayor coming out publicly saying some restrictions should be lifted as well, which was unusual.
Watson - good to see you able to log a decent training week without injury niggles.
Piwi - glad to hear the back is better. Not so good about the motivation though!
Corey - good luck on the move.
Flavio - decent week, and you are right, at this point you just have to accept that you can't change the past few disrupted weeks training. Keeping in a positive frame of mind will help and to be honest overall you have put in a lot of decent work, perhaps not as much as you'd hoped, but overall still very good and certainly more than I can remember you consistently logging in the past.
DWave - those long solo track tempo's are really mentally tough, I find anything beyond even 2k repeats on the track starts to get challenging. On the back-to-back workouts... I'm trusting coach on that one. I'm guessing the logic was trying to force the pace a bit on slightly tired legs. It looks like she has something similar planned for this week.
Mark great to hear you are going down to level 3.
Made me laugh that 2 gang members caught at the border with $100 000 and a boot load of KFC.
Motivation is ok for me but imagine if you had other hobbies, running then becomes difficult to focus 100 % on.