Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
James nice week. I've got left Achilles soreness too. It actually gave a couple of sharp twangs about a week ago but hasn't bothered me since.
Darkwave yes half race half tt. It confirms my tempo runs have been too fast. 4.05/km would be about right.
Mark I hope it wasn't the lack of alcohol that caused your good workout we don't want to stop that do we !
I have the Beacons. At first I almost hated them as my legs felt beat up after my runs. The midsole seemed too firm or something. I read reviews that confirmed this but that they get alot better with mileage on them.
Sure enough after 50kms or so they have become my favorite everything shoe.
Would I buy them again ? Probably yes for that $100 price tag on RW Australia.
My week
Took Thursday off to travel to Christchurch and help our daughter shift. Ran 14kms easy Friday and then the time trial Saturday. Probably would have been better to take Friday off or do less but overall an honest result of my current fitness.
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 "
Intl. correspondent
Mark - Not sure about health effects, but the water has a funny taste (at least to us who are not used to it).
Also, it causes blockages in the washing machine, so we need to use anti-limestone pills on the washing machine to prevent that.
Sorry, this might be called something else in English, I’m doing translation here.
Mick - Not sure about cars, but I can attest that every Italian person owns at least 367 dogs.
And they’re 24/7 on the phone. On a bicycle, in the car, running. And they don’t use hands free LOL
Piwi - awesome time and steady improvement! Now what do you have against car doors man, why do you have to be head butting the poor things!
me - We got out of the house to visit Imola yesterday (famous for being in the Formula one circuit a few years ago). It was a nice day out, it's a very pretty city and we got to visit the race track and the statue of Ayrton Senna. It was a nice change of scenery.
Our last out was back in the first of November before the second wave hit hard and the prohibition of leaving town arrived.
A nice week, the 2 hour long run was not such a challenge today, it seems I'm getting stronger.
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
Cobra Commander Keen
Piwi - Sub-39 like it's nothing. "Hey, why's that fast guy splitting off from the 5k?..."
James - Good week, and nice consistency.
Flavio - Good week, especially the LR.
Mark - All the RP-inspired run names. Nice workouts, but why the planned decrease there? Just taking a step back in intensity for the week?No personal experience with those shoes, though I'm interested in anyone else's answers.
This past week was pretty good, though high winds (~20mph/32kmh steady, plus plenty of gusts) did mess with my workout pacing Thursday. I honestly can't remember the last time I've started a run at 50F/10C and by the end wished I had worn more clothes and heavier gloves. Quite an enjoyable LR, despite a light rain the second half.I'm really looking forward to the big cold front coming in this week. After Monday afternoon we aren't forecasted to be above freezing for at least a week solid, and there are chances of snow later in the week as well.
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
Keen great mileage once again. I've got those Beacon shoes. I commented above on them.
Flavio you went from bedridden with back pain to a 2 hour run in a week ! Nice recovery 👍
Mother of Cats
Was that for when everyone was locked in the house for the pandemic, to give an excuse to get out of the house?
CK - are you being sarcastic or serious about looking forward to the cold front?
***
my week:
68 miles, 1500 yards swimming, and 50 minutes of pool-runningM: 9 miles very easy on treadmill (9:22); upper body weights/core, and then 1 mile on treadmill (8:57) (checking treadmill after lubricating and aligning the belt).T: 12 miles on treadmill including an alternation workout. Planned 32 minutes alternating between 4 minutes at 6:55 and 4 minutes at 6:35. Made it 26 minutes (including a 2 minute jogging break in the middle) and called it. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimmingW: 10 miles very easy on treadmill (9:04) and streaming yoga.Th: 50 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.F: 12 miles, incluing 6 Iwo Jima hill repeats (2:00 up, 90 second jog, 25 second stride, 75 second jog). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimmingSa: 10.5 miles very easy (9:05) drills, 2 hill strides, and 2 flat strides, followed with streaming yoga.Su: 14 miles progressive on treadmill, split as first 5 averaging 9:14, next 5 averaging 7:49, next 4 averaging 7:14, and then a ~.5 mile cooldown. Followed with streaming yoga, injury prevention stuff, and 500 yards recovery swimming.
My mileage was artificially inflated this week because I ran on Monday instead of going to the pool (which was closed due to a snowstorm). Snow/ice/black ice actually had me on the treadmill on Monday-Wednesday, and then I also did my long run on the treadmill on Sunday due to a forecast snowstorm that was supposed to roll in Sunday morning. As it turns out, it was too warm for today's snow to stick to pavement, so I could have run outside. Oh well.
On Tuesday, I took advantage of being on the treadmill to try an alternations workout (something that Nate Jenkins talks a lot about in his writings). The idea is to do a tempo workout varying between slightly faster and a bit slower than tempo pace - having to recover while still running fairly fast is very good for aerobic development and teaches the body to clear lactate.
I failed miserably at the workout. Which was actually a good thing, as it demonstrated that I have a real weakness here. I'm going to attempt that workout again this week, and just shorten the faster segments (from 4 minutes all the was down to 1).
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.
DWave - 100% being serious. I love cold weather, and I can always add an extra layer if I need to. When low temps are 80F/26.6C in the summer I can only take off so much before I start to embarrass myself. The forecast has actually changed a bit in the last day so that we're no longer expected to get much if any snow and lows aren't quite as low later in the week, but I'm still looking forward to it. Over/Under style workouts like the one you did Tuesday are great - it has been a long time since I've done one of those but I should fix that. I like doing longer (4+ minutes, at least) interval-style workouts on the treadmill as it makes it "easy" to really dial in to the proper efforts compared to doing those same workouts outdoors.
Slight update to comment: the over/under workout I've done before and liked was 5x 5 minutes at HM effort, 1 minute 5k effort.
THanks - will keep that one in mind. Honestly, I am so aerobically underdeveloped right now that I think that would be an overreach.
But it's good to know my weak points
THanks - will keep that one in mind. Honestly, I am so aerobically underdeveloped right now that I think that would be an overreach. But it's good to know my weak points
Great work DWave, those alternations are my absolute favorite workouts and what I default to if I'm bored of straight tempo runs. I really feel like not jogging a true easy pace but staying relaxed at a faster pace helps me so much more than any other workout I've done. You did some crazy fast work and the line between a good workout with alternations and blowing up is just so fine that getting in 26 minutes of work is superb.
Keen I've done 4min @ Threshold, 1 min at 5k as per Pfitzinger and I've never felt as in shape as when I crushed 4 sets of that plus 4 min T for 24 minutes of work but I ended up injured and didn't get to race.
Flavio - 2 hours @ sub 5 pace, strong stuff.
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
I just finished my week in time for a Superb Owl... or at least the watching of commercials and the eating of Chicken Wings and Hot Pretzels.
I didn't list all my ancillary work here, but this has been a great week because I did running drills twice, plyometrics twice and basic bodyweight strength twice. Most of these were only 7-10 minutes but I feel like I'm creating the habit that I do work after I run.
Running: 60.7 miles / 9h 8min
Swimming: 1.6 miles / 1h 12min
Cycling: 1h 6min
strength/drills/plyo: 6 times 1h 45min (mostly due to counting shoveling as my strength work on Friday post-blizzard)
Very happy with my running. Some very slow due to the snow, but I kept the easy runs easy and hit the workouts harder. The doubles are probably not optimal but I like they way they break up my day.
DWave - I had a staple workout last year that was 1,600m (1 mile) at MP, 400m at 5K pace, normally 4 or 5 repeats. The logic was exactly that it teaches you to recover while running at MP. It looks like the hard efforts in mine were much shorter than yours, at 1 minute for the hard efforts the ratio would be similar.
Piwi - good week. I checked my size in NB shoes and seems to be either a 13 (regular width), or a 12 / 2E width would do the job. I'll keep an eye for when the Beacons become available cheaply in the right size. Hard to beat if you can get them that cheaply.
Flavio - nice work. You get acclimatised to those two hour long runs for sure but they are a bit of a shock to start with.
Keen - I share your love of cold temps! The slightly easier week was planned, just trying to avoid the overtraining that I hit last year.
Zebano - that snow running is tough but it'll make you strong, it's basically like running cross country.
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"
NB Beacon is a shoe that some people really like to train in, and some really don't like.
Piwi - nice time trial.
Had my last physio on Monday for my shoulder. I will be doing my rehab/strength work two times a week. End of February I cut back to once.
I will start looking like a runner with training in March!
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
(reposting b/c when I tried before I got gibberish) Mick- We have a small dog, mostly Maltese and part poodle. He's great for our apartment, because he doesn't shed & rarely barks. He's not interested in other animals or most people, but he's very happy around us - don't know if that's the breed or just his personality. Not a runner, though.
(reposting b/c when I tried before I got gibberish)
Mick- We have a small dog, mostly Maltese and part poodle. He's great for our apartment, because he doesn't shed & rarely barks. He's not interested in other animals or most people, but he's very happy around us - don't know if that's the breed or just his personality. Not a runner, though.
Hi JD can you please repost we all want to see the picture of the doodle!!! But it doesnt show. Piwi has a great website to upload and link up....
HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)
2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!
Zebano & Rune: bloody stupid idea of mine on Gamestop, just because I don't understand the dynamics of margin calls. But it was worth the fun I will debit this to the mental Education Expense account.
Flavio: now that you are one of them - what dog will you get first then? Are they just as good as the French in picking up after their dogs? haha I think I know the answer to that.
Piwi: you are an inspiration. I didnt know you only started at age 42, saw that in your strava. You must have had a fantastic progression. I am the type of person, I would probably constantly ask myself what could I have done in this sport, if I had started in my teens? I have no talents, so this isnt something that occurs to me, thank god.
Kiwis: can you import from Australia without paying for customs? Just shipping? How about South East Asia, wouldn't it be cheaper from there?
My week was a 3 run only week, but was good fun - still on the Flavio 5k regiment and hitting the paces better than initially. I think this is week 3 of 6 Not enough easy runs, but I will add those in from this week on.
Mick good job on the running. We can import shoes ok although we are supposed to pay gst tax now to keep an even playing field for local retailers. I haven't noticed been charged that yet. Some of our local retailers seem to be having better deals since covid. I used to buy from Wiggle UK but its quite expensive now.
Yes I started at 42 and was fully addicted and ran my best times at 45 and 46 then sorta lost that crazy motivation needed to push hard each week. 52 now so probably on a slippery slope.
Darkwave and Zebano excellent 60 mile weeks again from you guys.
Zebano very nice on the strength training etc. I'm doing nothing additional right now and also need to cut out beer and ice cream 🍦
Mark New Balance for me are the same as Nike. The Beacons have a generous toe box and are only 7oz probably lighter than your Next %.
One thing about the new carbon race shoes is that they are not as light as traditional race shoes. All that midsole comes at a price.
Watson good to hear a return is imminent!
Hot Weather Complainer
Some great mileage and racing/time trialling.
piwi - Sorry I couldn't catch up this time - things got a bit crazy last week with trying to organise everything for work and Mum by the weekend so we could avoid cancelling our much needed weekend away. Look forward to the next visit!
Another solid week for me as I build back up. Easy runs are feeling easy again, although early in the week it was pretty warm which always makes things tough for me. A nice cool end to the week was a boost as everything started feeling very comfortable again. I think my coach will be slowly adding some workouts this week and increasing mileage.
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