Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
Something I forgot to mention at the end of my RR: I was just hanging around afterwards chatting a bit and the man who was calling the race (a local running community legend and director of my favorite LRS) asked over the speaker system for me to come to the finish line (there weren't any runners coming across during this bit). He asked about my training, CIM, etc. the he offered me a free OK Runner (favorite LRS) running shirt for "loyalty and being a great local ambassador for the sport", which I'm psyched about for multiple reasons - the least of which is actually the free shirt.
YOU BROKE RULE 1 AND YOU BECAME A LOCAL HERO?!?!
I'm so confused.
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: Xterra Waitawa, 21 May, didn't die
Up next: Xterra Hunua, 11 June, also aiming to not die
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Keen nice on been recognized for all those miles. I ran for a bit with 100 mpw guy today. He had his thigh support on but still cranking out 18 miles per day.
What I can't really understand with NBA is the " rebuilding " thing where they completely gut a reasonable team and replace with young players, knowingly go into a season with many losses coming. It really hurts the fans and culture of a team. OKC is doing that now. I know it frees up a whole lot of first round picks etc for them next year, but it's hard for the fans.
55+ PBs 5k 19.19
" If you don't use it you lose it, but if you use it, it wears out.
Somewhere in between is about right "
Keen heck of a race, those darn high schoolers are always clogging things up aren't they
Piwi - Adams, JoVal and the other big centers seem to give Kat fits if he's not lighting it up from outside. OKC has a promising young guy named Shai Gilgous-Alexander who gets to the hoop at an absurd rate and is going to be really good but full rebuild projects are really annoying. I think the real problem is that all the money in the NBA is from their TV contract and advertising not from selling seats so having a terrible team really doesn't hurt a local owner.
Mark Being able to bounce between trail and road races is a great way to keep things fresh, but we have to remember that motivation is transitory. I think I was whining about being ready for the season to end a few weeks ago and now I'm all revved up and ready to race and even entertaining the idea of a marathon next year. Piwi seems to go through 6 month funks where he just runs 50km/week before ramping up the training and crushing all his races. Set a good example for that daughter and enjoy the ride. We all know Flavio will be back if it's physically possible.
Yeah the sleet sucked but it also helped because every time it's been windy since, I've told myself "at least it's not like last Friday". Yuki Kawauchi didn't win Boston by avoiding the bad weather.
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
Keen nice on been recognized for all those miles. I ran for a bit with 100 mpw guy today. He had his thigh support on but still cranking out 18 miles per day. What I can't really understand with NBA is the " rebuilding " thing where they completely gut a reasonable team and replace with young players, knowingly go into a season with many losses coming. It really hurts the fans and culture of a team. OKC is doing that now. I know it frees up a whole lot of first round picks etc for them next year, but it's hard for the fans.
Sometimes there are good reasons for it though, mostly down to the salary cap. In the NHL, I support the Detroit Red Wings. Their former manager Ken Holland cut a bunch of horrible deals several years back that ended up with us massively overpaying for crap players. No-one really noticed it until the actual good players like Lidstrom, Datsyuk and Zetterberg retired or left. Then we were screwed, its taken 2 or 3 seasons to move players on or work through those deals and we're only just coming out the end of that now. Building up from draft picks is generally cheaper than hitting the free agent market because in any given season there's a limited number of free agents and competition for the good ones tends to be high i.e. they're expensive.
It's funny how 'it's not as horrible as the other day' can be quite helpful! And yeah, that guy is a legend. His win in Boston is honestly one of the coolest things ever.
Zeb/Mark yeah I'm just starting to learn all the trade stuff.
Mark imagine if the All Blacks sucked bad for a couple of years, it's unthinkable
OKC will be in a strong position next year but there's something to be said for people been loyal to one city/team and a strong culture with consistency.
Cobra Commander Keen
Zebano - Those blasted kids can certainly clog things up. The "slow" ones, at least. Keeping in mind that someone in their teens won both 5k and 10k outright - even beating a local 2:30 marathoner. And at least one of them who was dressed as a banana beat me through the first 5k!
Flavio - I found this floating around the interwebz yesterday. Don't try going to the clearly visible url; it's behind a login page.
5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22
Upcoming Races:
Mother of Cats
Ah memories. On the bus up to the start of Boston 2018, quite a few people were whining about how they always ran on their treadmills on "days like this." And I kept thinking - sucks to be you...
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.
RIP Milkman
Learning how to run in 40 degree rain has taken me years of perfecting. It's still not great, but probably the hardest weather to learn what works for you. Still much harder in a marathon though as you didn't know whether you needed a jacket or not. I probably would have gone without one and regretted it, but today I definitely would bring one, especially given it was a headwind.
There is really only two types of weather you can't run in: thunderstorms, and ice. Everything else should be run outdoors.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
Next Race: NYC Half (3/19)
Intl. correspondent
Zeb - haha, not sure why I’m an inspiration but thank you!
Jmac - Well I meant one should doing something when they have muscle cramps, but very nice discussion in between you and DW.
Keen - thanks for the race report. Isn’t it so nice to be able to race again!!
Do you go by the official KM/mile markers? I see a lot of people in this board do that and I’m always puzzled cause I can’t trust them at all.
Mark - Not sure what rule 1 is, but shame on Keen for breaking it 😂
Yeah, so a big reason why I keep running is that I don’t have many other hobbies that don’t involve a screen. It’s mostly running and calisthenics and I can only do them for a very short time. And also cause I'm so competitive LOL it's hilarious to think I take this so serious, I can't really explain it to non runners that I take running seriously but I'm never even close the front of a race, not even the local charity race. I guess it's cool to have hobbies like this, it keeps the mind occupied.
I guess the motivation comes and goes from time to time and we're just surfing the waves along the way.
Keen - Woah, I guess I better get some Euros ready for when it’s launched.
PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021
Up next: Base building till August
Oct 1st - World Half Marathon Champs in Riga - Latvia - sub 1:21:59 PR
Dec 3rd - Valencia Marathon - sub 2:59
April 2024 - Porto Eco Trail - Finish the damn thing.
Tool to generate Strava weekly
Problem Child
I LOVE to reference this moment in your life every time I tell myself it's too cold/sunny/rainy/cloudy for a run during training. wait....didn't that race sell a jacket for runners to purchase? Is it not water proof, and not really designed for running?
JMac I don't think running in 40 is hard, with proper layers (I LOOOOOAAAAATHE cold hands) and it's mostly the "standing around in 40F" I have a problem with before races. Most races at this point in my life are solo at smaller local races without a bag drop service so I'll either need to learn to stash clothes really well in public places, or learn to embrace cold.
For Ice I use these. They're worth it. It sucks having a bunch of gear to support running when all you REALLY want to do is make excuses not to run because of the weather. If only there was a way to fix hot weather.
Mark Wait until after all this training Keen comes back home and he finds out there were 10s of people he didn't know live tracking him at CIM.
Piwi NHL teams do the same thing. They "chase youth" and unload their experience. "It's a rebuilding year" and it just takes three years to get a team who can work together, at which point the team is now up for a contract renewal, and hasn't really done anything impressive to justify a big contract extension for everyone. So they trade away some developed players for some more experienced players, and try to get THOSE two groups to play nice. SO GLAD I'm not in charge of winning sportsball events.
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 55.2
5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22
On particularly horrible days, I often think to myself, "well, you never know, might be like this on race day". And several times, it has actually been that bad on race day (Taupo HM 2016, Devonport HM 2016, Christchurch HM 2019).
JMac - I agree. And we don't get a lot of ice or thunderstorms in NZ.
Flavio - Rule 1 is "never try anything new on race day". And wearing untested shoes is probably the most egregious way to breach Rule 1. I hear you on wanting to do something that doesn't involve screens. If I wasn't running I would probably be playing video games a lot like I used to.
RP - good description of "rebuilding". You forgot that one time in like a hundred where they magically turn into a good team (the Tampa Bay Lightning under Steve Yzerman, for example), otherwise fair.
Conditions such as seen for Boston 2018 were a serious reason I followed in JMac's footsteps with regards to jacket selection. 40* is quite nice. 40* with wind and some sort of precipitation is an entirely different story.
It's actually that middle territory of "the temp is fine, but the other conditions sucks" that I don't like, as it's far easier to dress appropriately for 0F, windy, and snowing.
Rule #1. Shame on me for being thread dictator and overlooking this myself! Oh, wait... Isn't "rules for thee, not for me" a major upside of being a dictator of any sort? I revise my earlier statement. Applaud me for flaunting the rules!
JMac - As someone from a section of the country known as "tornado alley" I humbly submit that particular weather phenomenon be added to the list of "justifiable to run on the treadmill" conditions.
Flavio - It's SO nice to run races again! I did go by official markers, but I also used Stryd for pace/distance (not that I ever looked at that during the race, only elapsed time for each lap and power every now and then). I just did the math on the exact distance Stryd recorded for this race (their website is a bit wonky in that it'll show sub-1k distances in meters, then switches to miles) - 10,005 meters total distance recorded.
RP - I like kahtoola (sp?) nanospikes. Similar concept to yaktrax, just a different execution. I also loathe cold hands. But then sweaty hands inside gloves that don't breathe suck as well...
JMac I don't think running in 40 is hard, with proper layers (I LOOOOOAAAAATHE cold hands) and it's mostly the "standing around in 40F" I have a problem with before races.
40 and sunny is wonderful. 40 and windy is not great. 40 and rain and wind is pretty much the worst conditions you can run in. It's so hard to keep warm, but not too warm such that you sweat and then become freezing cold.
I'll take 30 and wind with snow over 40 with wind and rain any day of the week. You can wear a nice warm jacket when it's snowing. You wear that at 40, you are going to sweat and then become absolutely frozen. Same with the gloves.
Keen - ha yes I include all version of tstorm cells. Like a hurricane, that counts too .
Maybe the weather rule is "unless the conditions will result in serious risk of injury or death, you should be running outside."
Hot Weather Complainer
Weather - Agreed that 40F (4C) and calm is perfect. I'm happy all the way down to about 23F (-5C) in those conditions. 30-40F with strong wind and sideways rain/sleet can be reasonably common where I live and even more so where watson lives and I don't mind training in it, similar to Mark in that it could be like this on race day. 2017 in Christchurch is probably the worst I've run in, which was similar to 2019 except much colder. Great anecdote from darkwave - I'd only expect to hear something like that from someone very inexperienced.
Ice can be an issue here too, I'll usually just wait until later in the morning when the sun has been up for a while on those days.
Mark and Keen - Very enjoyable race reports and great results. Keen is a true local legend, not just the Strava version with MCs picking his brain.
5km: 18:53 12/22 │ 10km: 40:49 2/22 │ HM: 1:27:32* 5/22 │ M: 3:35:02 10/22
*Net Downhill. Flat course PR: 1:29:25 6/16
Selwyn Marathon June 4, 2023
Hagley Park Run July 1 and August 12, 2023 (threshold Check ins)
Canterbury Road Running Champs 10km August 26, 2023
Run Prix Half Marathon (Melbourne) September 24, 2023
Keen - ha yes I include all version of tstorm cells. Like a hurricane, that counts too . Maybe the weather rule is "unless the conditions will result in serious risk of injury or death, you should be running outside."
I'd add super high winds to the list. I'm talking about brisk enough to bring tree branches down, not just "I can't run as fast" winds. And also flash flood warnings. For myself, I'm also adding pre-dawn running, because crime is going up enough that I'm uncomfortable running many of my normal running routes in the dark now.
Basically - run in it if it's unpleasant; skip it if it's dangerous.
Basically I follow JMac's rule for easy runs and most workouts. I will admit that in very hot and humid conditions I've also been shifting to the treadmill for some workouts - however, it's really just as hot and humid in our fitness room as it is outside, so I'm not really escaping the elements as much as making it so that I can stay hydrated during a tempo run without having to stop running (since I can place a water bottle on a shelf right next to me)..