Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition (Read 448 times)

flavio80


Intl. correspondent

    Mark - On the one hand you will be a bit slower due to the warm weather in absolute terms that might be worth 10-20 seconds (I’m seeing 18-22 for Saturday in Auckland which is horrible 3k weather), but on the other hand it's a RACE YAY, and you need to race and also you might be due for some race break through at the moment, especially considering that it will be a strong field as far as I understand.

     

    DW - fingers crossed the results prove fruitful in finding a solution. Is stretching your back still helping? Also, you don't need me to tell you this but you've got a strong mind 💪

    PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021

    Up next: no idea

    Tool to generate Strava weekly

    zebano


      James Sounds like a great time for your son. Hopefully the sickness passes quickly. I still vividly remember '91 and '87 but lost interest in baseball after that late 90s strike. An old timer I used to run with tried to dig out a Milwaukee Braves hat that he owned as a kid but had to settle for finding a picture.

       

      Steve  Heck of a race, hopefully it was worth the wait! Those are incredibly even splits, especially with the wind. Mostly I'm impressed that you can math well enough while racing to figure out what you need to run for the rest of the race.

       

      Mark  Solid week.

       

      Watson  That's a really good race given the conditions (being up at 2am ugg.).

       

      Darkwave  Super frustrating. Hopefully you can see the neurologist soon.

       

      I had a solid week volume and workout wise but my old hamstring/calf issues are niggling. I just scheduled a dry needling appointment to hopefully let me survive until race day.

       

      65 miles

       

      5xKM on Tuesday (4:05, 04, 00, 3:58, 3:56)

      2x5KM on Saturday (22:22, 22:05)

      15 miles long run on Sunday.

      1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)

      CommanderKeen


      Cobra Commander Keen

        James - Looks like you're definitely extending things while recovering from the illness. I wish you a speedy convalescence.
        Completely agree regarding the "world" series.


        Steve - Absolutely killer pacing in your race! Well done! Thanks for the RR, I enjoyed that.


        Watson - Bummer, so close to it! Nothing you can do about the conditions. YoY improvement for the same race is always a bright spot. Nice RR, too.


        Mark - Great week there!


        Flavio - Hurray for pain-free runs! Feeling better since yesterday?


        DWave - I'm glad you're getting out of the "wobbliness" quicker now, and hoping for positivity (in any of the multitude of ways that can be defined) coming out of your testing coming up.


        Zebano - Nice volume and good workouts. How frequently have you done any dry needling? That's something I've considered in the past but have never done it.


        Finished out a "smaller" mileage week, though with the inclusion of my longest-ever training run. Just one little stop a bit after 8 miles, which does good things for my confidence. I was definitely feeling it in my legs the last 5k or so.
        Looking forward to setting a new 10k PR this coming weekend!

         

        Weekly for period: From: 11/01/2021 To 11/07/2021

        Date Name mi km Duration Avg/mi Avg/km Elevation Gain
        in ft
        11/01 Zero wildlife, some odd patchy fog 12.05 19.40 01:38:10 08:09 05:04 591
        11/02 1 raccoon 7.05 11.35 01:03:05 08:57 05:33 367
        11/03 Last half progressing effort (but it doesn't look it), a buck chasing a doe, and an unexpected surprise from Garmin 12.10 19.47 01:36:19 07:58 04:57 390
        11/04 2 deer (2 strides) 10.11 16.26 01:28:05 08:43 05:25 502
        11/05 3 deer (3 strides) 12.10 19.47 01:39:21 08:13 05:06 351
        11/06 Peak long run! 2 deer (2 strides) & 1 shooting star 23.06 37.10 03:10:37 08:16 05:08 1145
        11/07 Why are people still watering their yards? 5.25 8.45 00:46:35 08:52 05:31 194

        Total distance: 81.73mi

        5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22

         

        Upcoming Races:

         

         

        zebano


          Kyle -- 23  miles. Wow. Were you not tempted to just complete a casual 3:25 marathon? Have fun with the 10k, will you be tapering at all?

           

          Dry needling ... is something I've done a lot of over the past 5 years. Both it and ultrasound give me ~2 weeks of relief which is both useful at times and aggravating. The big thing for me is to leave at least a good nights sleep inbetween the needling session and your next run.

           

          This year has gone remarkably well with my hamstring/calf issues not showing up for the most part but it flared up here right at peak training time so I'll take the short term fix in order to get through the race. I'm not sure if it's the fact that I haven't been doing my Nordic curls for the past two weeks, that heel drops have fallen out of my routine or just overall training load being too high that caused this. A couple of PTs have opined that my hamstring is fine and the source of the problem is my lower back but none of the exercises they've provided have ever helped whereas things like ART, ultrasound, dry needling and to a lesser extent massage all seem to help. I've had a thought there's something wrong with my running form but one PT brought in a specialist to evaluate my form and she said I'm fine at easy paces and right leg (problem leg) dominant at faster paces but didn't think it was a serious enough imbalance to take any action. Taking weeks off also doesn't help as the problem returns when mileage gets rebuilt or I start doing workouts.

           

          I totally don't understand watering your yard, but I also don't garden so I'm just a curmudgeon when it comes to cultivating beauty around my house.

          1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)

          JMac11


          RIP Milkman

            Zebano - what type of doctor are you seeing for dry needling? I've done it in the past with a physiatrist, but not sure who else does it.

            5K: 16:37 (11/20)  |  10K: 34:49 (10/19)  |  HM: 1:14:57 (5/22)  |  FM: 2:36:31 (12/19) 

             

             

            zebano


              Zebano - what type of doctor are you seeing for dry needling? I've done it in the past with a physiatrist, but not sure who else does it.

               

              I found a chiropractor who does it. I have a $40 copay which is reimbursable by my FHA but it is way cheaper than seeing a proper Physio.

               

              edit: his certification page links to this: https://www.neurologicdryneedling.com/ not sure how legit that is but his work is just as good IME as a PTs.

              1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)

              JMac11


              RIP Milkman

                You inspired me to make an appointment today. Luckily I've blown through my out of pocket max so free visit for me!

                5K: 16:37 (11/20)  |  10K: 34:49 (10/19)  |  HM: 1:14:57 (5/22)  |  FM: 2:36:31 (12/19) 

                 

                 

                darkwave


                Mother of Cats

                   

                  DW - fingers crossed the results prove fruitful in finding a solution. Is stretching your back still helping?

                   

                  Stretching in general seems to help - calves, hamstrings, and quads the most, though lower back also.

                   

                  The longer the stretch, the more helpful.  Which makes a weird sort of sense to me.  I know that before running you are NOT supposed to do static stretching, because it temporarily weakens the muscles and makes them lose some of the tension.  But for me, it feels like the muscles are TOO tense and firing too much (and out of sync) and holding stretches for long periods of times seems to reduce that.

                   

                  BTW, you had suggested trying a good massage or PT work-up.  I actually did get a deep tissue massage two weeks ago to see if that would make a difference.  (It didn't)

                   

                  Zebano- I'm also a fan of dry needling, though I haven't done it in a while.  It's such a great feeling when they hit a muscle knot the right way.

                   

                  CK - only 80+ miles this week.  Slacker....

                  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.

                  zebano


                     

                    Stretching in general seems to help - calves, hamstrings, and quads the most, though lower back also.

                     

                    The longer the stretch, the more helpful.  Which makes a weird sort of sense to me.  I know that before running you are NOT supposed to do static stretching, because it temporarily weakens the muscles and makes them lose some of the tension.  But for me, it feels like the muscles are TOO tense and firing too much (and out of sync) and holding stretches for long periods of times seems to reduce that.

                     

                    BTW, you had suggested trying a good massage or PT work-up.  I actually did get a deep tissue massage two weeks ago to see if that would make a difference.  (It didn't)

                     

                    Zebano- I'm also a fan of dry needling, though I haven't done it in a while.  It's such a great feeling when they hit a muscle knot the right way.

                     

                    CK - only 80+ miles this week.  Slacker....

                    In one of his books: Anatomy for Runners or Running Rewired author Jay Dicharry makes some claims that we should only be static stretching when an area is too tight and is causing injuries, but that in most cases we get a better energy return if we don't stretch. The interesting part is that he claims 15-20 second stretches are particularly useless but minutes long holds are how we train actual permanent improvements in flexibility and thus if we have problems we should be doing really long stretches for 90 seconds - 3 minutes (I think he used a hip mobility stretch like a hurdlers drill as an example).

                     

                    ** I haven't read either book in over 3 years so the details are probably wrong.

                     

                    Dry Needling: I agree when it's in the posterior chain I've had the bottoms of my feet and tibialis anterior dry needled and both hurt like the dickens (which I just googled and apparently is a euphemism  for devil).

                     

                    Good luck JMac, I hope it helps

                    1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)

                    SteveChCh


                    Hot Weather Complainer

                      Mark - I know we obsess about the weather but it really does make a difference in races.  Hopefully that humidity doesn't eventuate.  It makes running the perfect race that much harder.

                       

                      darkwave - Very tough thing to be going through.  I would find it a bit scary and frustrating.  Great job still getting some training in.  I really hope you get your answer soon.

                       

                      zebano - Nice week.  I've also found dry needling helpful in the past.  When they hit the spot it is a very weird feeling.

                       

                      CK - Nice "light" week and epic training run.  You're in great shape.

                       

                      JMac - Good luck - I really hope you get to race CIM after such a strong training block.

                       

                       

                      My brain working as it does started getting wound up about missing my goal by 8 seconds so I uploaded my PB race to Strava (I was only on Garmin then) and compared it to this race.  It was cold that day but perfectly calm and I think that helped.  I think that is more worthy of being my PB because my overall pace was 3 seconds per km faster (I ran an extra 200 metres whereas this one was bang on) and finished much faster.  In fact, with 2km to go I was probably further back than I was for this race but really flew home, and could have kept going.  Then again, this time I emptied the tank completely and was wobbly on my feet at the end so there's an argument that this race was a better effort.  This is my PB race (with a very fast finish, albeit not running the last 2km into a strong wind):

                       

                      Christchurch Half Marathon 2016

                      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

                      Marky_Mark_17


                        DW- it's really cool to see how scientific and patient you are in terms of getting on top of this issue.  Just systematically working through the process of figuring it all out.  Hope you get to the bottom of it soon.  I think there's something for us all to learn in there, many of us would have struggled to react as calmly as you are.

                         

                        JMac - hope you're getting on top of that injury, the timing really sucks.

                         

                        Keen - 82 miles = "smaller week".  You funny.  Also you thread mileage king by some distance.  What's the 10k coming up?

                         

                        Flavio / DW / Steve - yeah the conditions look pretty bad.  For 3k I'm less worried about the heat and more about wind and humidity (and probably a wet track too).  To be honest I really don't care.  At this point I'm just looking forward to going for a blast.  It's gonna have to be pretty bad to be any worse than my last 3k around this time last year, where my body was still post-marathon-broken and I was on some antibiotics that really messed me up for a bit.  Anyways, potentially may be able to treat this as a warm-up for an actual 3000m race in the next few weeks (see below).

                         

                        Steve - comparing races is really tough although given how close the times are I can see why you did.  The wind and false flats on Sunday probably cost a little, as well as the warmer temperatures even if you didn't really notice them too much.  The CHC event is dead flat with long straights and on a good day is pretty much the perfect "flat and fast" course.

                         

                        Races - some good news with a relaxation of some restrictions here from Wednesday.  This paves the way for the club season to go ahead in Auckland albeit they have had to split it up across several stadiums to keep the numbers down.  Means that I should be able to get a couple of 3000m efforts in and possibly a 1500 as well depending what the schedule looks like, it should be released later this week.

                        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"

                        flavio80


                        Intl. correspondent

                          Zeb - dry needling sounds efficient but scary (I'm a wimp for needles 😁)

                          Mark - such great news, can you imagine a string of races now to wipe out the sour taste of so many cancelations.

                          Please run the 1500, it might be your best event yet.

                          Me - I was browsing letsrun today and learned that Molly Seidel stated that she runs apart from the main pack because they were elbowing her in Sapporo.

                          It just got thinking how many other things go on in these events that we never notice.

                          PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021

                          Up next: no idea

                          Tool to generate Strava weekly

                          Marky_Mark_17


                            Flavio - it's not uncommon to get a bump in a track event as the field sits pretty close, it's happened to me and I'm sure it's never been intentional.  But I'm sure there's probably the odd intentional bump that happens at the top level too!

                             

                            I'm patiently waiting for Athletics Auckland to release the rescheduled events calendar.  There should be a couple of opportunities for both the 1500m and the 3000m with any luck, ideally prior to Xmas as Jan/Feb/Mar has the rescheduled 10km series.  I will probably have to tap you for some 1500m advice closer to the time as you are the thread expert on this!

                            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"

                            CommanderKeen


                            Cobra Commander Keen

                              Zebano - The thought of casually finishing a marathon actually never even entered my mind. Not that I don't think I couldn't have done it, though. I'm pretty doubtful my coach would have been happy with me if I had.
                              I heard a while back that Nordic curls were a large part what the guy who owns the triple jump WR used to set that record (after he was told he had no competence at the discipline).
                              Could there be some sort of bone/muscle alignment issue that causes the hamstring issues?
                              I'm with you on not watering the yard.


                              DWave - Apparently coach didn't think I'm strong enough to do 100+ with a 23 miler in there. I am shamed, and will try better next cycle. 


                              Mark - My (probably aggressive) goal for the tune-up is 37: xx. Two 5k laps around a local college, on what should be a pretty quick course. I'm a bit worried about it being cancelled, though. 2 months ago these same people cancelled a race on pretty short notice and I ended up running a different one the same day. If that happens here I'll either run the same course as a solo TT, or cherry pick an even better course from around the area.
                              Cheers for some of your restrictions going away!

                               

                               

                              Dry needling - I've never tried it, but have given it some serious thought. I mostly haven't tried it yet as I just haven't had the opportunity.

                              5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22

                               

                              Upcoming Races:

                               

                               

                              Running Problem


                              Problem Child

                                 CK - only 80+ miles this week.  Slacker....

                                 

                                front page material right here. Mostly because everyone knows it's true.

                                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