Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
Hot Weather Complainer
Mark - That really sucks and seems to continue your recent luck with races.
piwi - That's a really good price, I struggles to get Asics GT-2000 under $170, even an older model.
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
That's four of the last six now that have been Covid-impacted. At least it was only a short postponement that won't clash with anything else. Credit to Running Events for having planned back-up dates in place that were pretty close to their original dates.
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"
Intl. correspondent
Piwi - to be honest I’m not yet 100%, but thankfully I can run.
There’s still some tension in the lower back and I’m having all sorts of niggles lately, which are very likely stemming from that.
Watson - Agreed, falling on concrete is not fun. I had 2 falls a few years ago before I started strength training. I fell froward on my elbows and it hurt like hell.
As Darkwave said, there’s no time for nothing, except maybe place your hands instinctively in front of you.
Steve - I’m glad to hear the good news. You had to run 70:12, right ? LOL
Also, “warm down” sounds weird despite it making more sense than “cool down”.
Darkwave - it might just be that your heart rate sensor is not so accurate? Do you wear the heart rate belt or is it the wrist based one?
Keen - Ugh, these bugs are so annoying and you’ve had your fair share of them before races.
That plan you surfaced at the beginning of the year of completely isolating yourself from your family now sounds more and more sound.
Mark - sorry to hear the race got rescheduled though I guess it’s great news that NZ once again stamped COVID out.
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
Mother of Cats
I always go with the chest strap, and it was working properly (as best I can tell).
Marky_Mark - sorry about the postponement.
I think that instead of calling it "warm-down" or "cool-down" we should just be totally honest and call it a "slow-down."
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.
Interesting, I use the wrist based heart rate sensor on my watch and it's a little bonkers from time to time, but seems to work overall.
At times after a workout it will take a while for the heart rate to come down even though I'm perfectly fine already (I hum the national anthem to test that theory. The Brazilian national anthem has really long sentences ).
Sometimes it will spike at the beginning of the workout, but then come back down after 3 or 4 minutes and work well for the rest of the run.
I'd recommend you run watchless, podless and chest strap-less. That way you won't have anything to ponder about
RIP Milkman
Mark - sorry about your race, what bad timing.
Speaking of warm downs, cool downs, slow downs, etc. - has there ever been any proof that they do anything? Warm ups make sense to me. I've never understood the value of a cool down. I know some people speculate that somehow it can prevent injury or soreness, but the physiology doesn't make sense to me.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
I keep cool downs to the bare minimum, pretty much the time to run home from the place I do my workouts.
Once I finish workouts I'm usually super tired and running while that tired is an invitation for injury.
Cobra Commander Keen
Mark - Too bad about the race being pushed, but at least it wasn't cancelled. I've updated the chart for you.
Flavio - "Warm down" does sound weird. Is the tension in your back pretty constant, or is it gradually getting better?I warned DW again that if I get to sign up for a good target marathon this fall that I'm absolutely moving in with my parents at the first sign of a sniffle the month before that race. A few years ago they converted their garage into a nice little two-bedroom apartment and their nearest neighbor is about a mile away, so I could isolate myself quite well out there. Plus I'd have all the country roads I can dream of to train on out there.
We got another couple inches (at least) of very fine, fluffy snow last night, so running outside could be a bit of an adventure. Only about 3 more days before we're forecasted to have a high temp above freezing!
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
Mark - sorry about your race, what bad timing. Speaking of warm downs, cool downs, slow downs, etc. - has there ever been any proof that they do anything? Warm ups make sense to me. I've never understood the value of a cool down. I know some people speculate that somehow it can prevent injury or soreness, but the physiology doesn't make sense to me.
I think there is a distinction between:
a) taking some basic actions to bring your body back to baseline and
b) taking an opportunity to get some extra volume in.
Focusing on point a), I don't have studies to link off hand, but I can tell you that when I've had to stop immediately after the hard part of a workout (an example would be lightning rolling in) I've really felt it the next day. (it is especially obvious when I miss my 10 minute post-workout easy swim).
And....when working with horses, there is a LOT of thought given to how they are managed immediately after a hard effort. Think about it - when you watch a horse race, do they all hit the brakes as soon as they cross the finish? No. Instead, they gradually slow from a gallop to a canter to a trot. Then at some point they stop the horse, the jockey hops off and the saddle gets pulled, and someone grabs the horse and starts walking it. That's not accidental - it's good horsemanship. (I do the same thing in my workouts - I never stop immediately after the workout is done, but just shift to a jog and try to jog for at least 2-3 minutes before coming to a complete stop).
The reasoning is that blood flow gets allocated to certain parts of the body at the expense of others when working hard, and it is much easier on the body if you gently ease things down immediately after hard work so that the blood can be redistributed.
An extreme variant of this explains why some people get dizzy or lose their balance immediately after a hard race. When your body is moving vigorously, that action helps move blood around your body. When you stop suddenly, you lose that assist, and you may temporarily get a little less blood flow to your brain than is optional. (more complete explanation here)
So in short, my take is that one does not need to go jog 3-5 miles after a workout to cooldown - that's just for extra miles. But one does need to do something.
I'm not sure of the physiology but I've been one in the past who will do long cooldowns just to ensure that I have multiple runs over 90 minutes each week. I will say that getting the HR anywhere close to zone 2 after a descent workout is really really difficult. I know of no literature that supports the use of a cooldown period but Canova is the only coach I can think of who allegedly doesn't assign one.
Let'sRun on Canova WU/CD
Another second-hand source on Canova
Warning: Rambling about my own training follows( tl;dr; I should hire a coach)
I'll add that I'm attempting to minimize my cooldowns but my "cooldown" is usually still a few minutes getting back home and frankly I just like to experiment with my training and see what works. The only thing I've learned so far is that a morning shake-out jog, possibly with strides or hill sprints at the end tells me really quickly how a noon-time workout will go, and that noontime workout requires far less warmup than if I do nothing in the morning. I'll also add that I think I'm guilty of under-recovering and then doing workouts anyways, because that's what my plan said to do. I haven't figured out how to fix that one yet and it's a good reason to hire a coach but I personally really like to expirement.
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
I've done plenty of workouts that finish at my doorstep then I go collapse on the couch but I try to have 1 or 2 kms cool down to allow my body to adjust back down in blood flow and for my leg muscles to go from hard out to relaxed in a less severe manner.
I'm not sure of the science but clearing the lactic acid out was the old school thought on this.
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 "
Piwi - good find on the Zante Pursuits! I've seen them at similar prices but I keep hoping they'll hit a clearance price but I only ever see it for size 15 LOL. My pursuits have 450 miles on them so I'm considering buying some 890v8s to replace them. or maybe some Beacons.
Zebano I'm not sure they make the Zante anymore. Would be interested on how you find the Beacons if you get them. I had a hate then love 💘 relationship with them.
Keen - I’ve had lower back problems since I was in my 20’s. It seems everybody on my father side has these.
It might be cause we’re all lacking in butt dimensions haha. I certainly don't help it by staying sit down for 14 hours every day.
Zeb - I like to try things out too. Today I tried a very long warm up (40 minutes) to simulate running on tired legs during my Tempo block.
The whole run was also 1h20, very close to my aim for the half marathon.
This should hopefully give me a bit of extra strength/muscle endurance, which is what I'm lacking the most right now.
I’ve also done some changes to the weekly structure recently. I used to have the runs evenly distributed through the week, but I noticed that it made the strength days too heavy.
Now I’ve capped the runs at 40 minutes on strength training days, so that I have roughly 1h10 summing all workouts on a given day.
me - I'm in need of new shoes too. Gonna check runningwarehouse.eu for what they have. I might try the Topos, they're also zero drop.
Keen - I’ve had lower back problems since I was in my 20’s. It seems everybody on my father side has these. It might be cause we’re all lacking in butt dimensions haha. I certainly don't help it by staying sit down for 14 hours every day. Zeb - I like to try things out too. Today I tried a very long warm up (40 minutes) to simulate running on tired legs during my Tempo block. The whole run was also 1h20, very close to my aim for the half marathon. This should hopefully give me a bit of extra strength/muscle endurance, which is what I'm lacking the most right now. I’ve also done some changes to the weekly structure recently. I used to have the runs evenly distributed through the week, but I noticed that it made the strength days too heavy. Now I’ve capped the runs at 40 minutes on strength training days, so that I have roughly 1h10 summing all workouts on a given day. me - I'm in need of new shoes too. Gonna check runningwarehouse.eu for what they have. I might try the Topos, they're also zero drop.
You crushed that tempo today regardless of a long warmup. Nearly perfectly even pacing! Your training is building really nicely. Smart to factor your strength training time into your overall workout time.