Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
JamesD
Congratulations, Flavio - great time, especially in a TT. I think you did very well at sticking to your pace. I wonder whether the wind might have contributed to some of the slight variation in splits. If you were running a roughly 800-meter loop, some of your kilometers would have had two segments into the wind and most would've had only one.
Enjoyed your RR too, but I had another reading comprehension fail along the lines of thinking DW was doing screaming yoga. When you said you felt great after 10K but wanted to start hurting at 16K, I read that you wanted to start hurling (which around here is slang for vomiting). 16K seemed a little early for that.
Post-1987 PRs: Half 1:30:14 (2019); 10K 39:35 (2019); 5K 19:12 (2017); Mile 5:37.3 (2020)
'24 Goals: consistency, age-graded PRs, half < 1:32
James - is the groin issue at least improving any? I was hoping there would be some progress.
It's hard to tell if it's improving or getting worse. It's been hurting occasionally even during treadmill runs, but only for 5-10 seconds at a time and not as intensely as a couple of weeks ago, never enough for me to stop. I've also felt it occasionally when not running. On the other hand, my last two times in the park were much better - it only hurt a few times briefly a week ago, and I didn't feel it today on a faster-than-usual 8-mile run, except for briefly while stretching afterwards. I guess on balance it's improving, but in fits and starts. Since I'm not looking at any halfs until October, I'm ok with slow improvement as long as I'm getting in the miles anyway.
Mother of Cats
Honestly, that reads like progress to me. I've been told that if the discomfort stays more or less the same, but you are increasing load, then that can be considered improvement. Seems like that's where you are here.
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.
Hot Weather Complainer
Thanks for all the shoe wisdom. There's no way I can run in the VFs I have - the material is creasing and my foot is hanging off the edge. I'm not sure if I exchange them and try and guess at my Nike size - perhaps I need to go see Oska. So I may end up with New Balance and just returning the VFs. Maybe they're not for me because if I go up a size or 2 they will be too long. I did walk around in them for 5 mins max and when I took them off and put my Asics on for the recovery run, it felt so weird - like I'd just been on a pogo stick.
Flavio - YOU ARE A LEGEND. What a great performance. Even with the TT factor I had a feeling you would have a breakthrough performance. Your build up has been superb. I hope I can get a big improvement with some racing shoes. My next half is in 3 weeks but will just be a training run so it will be a while before I can find out the difference.
Piwi - Maybe I should have watched those before I ordered...I don't think my feet are wide. I ordered some 2Es once by mistake and they didn't feel ridiculous but they felt big. Nice cutback week, that will pay off.
Mick and darkwave - Nice weeks. I don't want to jinx anything, but everyone in this thread is going really well. Just need James' groin to come right.
Mark - Nice week. It feels like you crank out what are very big weeks by my standards with a very high percentage of quality.
me - Another good week holding around 75km, this time with a long hilly run on Saturday. Early on I felt really confident that I'd mastered hills - I even ran through a group of cyclists and had a chat while they struggled up a hill. Later on I hit a hill with a harder grade and discovered I haven't got them as sussed as I thought but overall I didn't have to dig too deep. So nice to just have high cloud so I could see all the views with the downside being I could also see the upcoming climbs but having done them 3 weeks earlier helped. It's probably good that I couldn't see them on my first run up there. Garmin says 808 metres of elevation gain.
There's such a great atmosphere in the hills with many running and mountain bike trails. I stuck to Summit Road which gets very little traffic because it remains cut off in the middle because of landslides caused by the earthquake, so everyone up there is doing some form of exercise. Below is a photo showing some of why it got cut off...
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 1:27:34
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
Mmmm Bop
Just popping in to say congrats Flavio on your half time trial; that takes some serious mental toughness to pull off! Very impressive.
+1. Very impressive run! When you have a breakthrough race then fill your boots with the others distances now that you’re on a roll. Do the same route in 3 weeks time x2 and you’ll go sub3 without even breaking into a sweat.
5k - 17:53 (4/19) 10k - 37:53 (11/18) Half - 1:23:18 (4/19) Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)
Ooof - I would not want to be the driver of that tanker truck.
Flavio needs to go run a 5k too. He's ready to crush 18 mins.
Darkwave super impressive week as usual from you. Great paces on your workouts.
Steve that looks like a great run. Do they fully refund you for those Nike?
I still hate that they may lose their pop after less than 200 kms. The Saucony Endorphin Pro seems to get the next best reviews for plated shoes.
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 "
darkwave - I think he got out alive but the truck was stuck there for many weeks.
piwi - Yep, the Nike website has full refunds for 60 days when you buy through there. I'd hoped to get lucky buying sight unseen but I'll probably go to Frontrunner Colombo and chat to our local elite. Incidentally, he did the City to Surf yesterday at his goal half-marathon pace which he's doing in 3 weeks. It must have been tempting for him to lift it because he came second averaging 3:04/km over 14km.
Flavio - huge congratulations. That is an awesome effort for a TT. I'm really impressed you didn't hit the pain cave earlier, normally I will have a dark patch at some point before around 14k, but it sounds like you were just in the zone. The pacing could easily have just been GPS weirdness, I've had that in races where I felt I was running a steady pace and would have a slow km then compensated by a fast one straight after that.
Steve - good week and that sounds like some great running in the hills there. I try and actively avoid hills because I get so many of them near home, I guess you have the opposite problem. Always satisfying passing cyclists too.
Piwi - good call on the cutback week, sounds like it did the job.
MJ - getting some good consistency going now!
Darkwave - very nice week, also nice to see that I'm not the only one that wears 4+ different pairs of shoes any given week (I managed 6 different pairs last 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: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr, 1:15:48
Up next: Runway5, 4 May
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
The Next % 2 are out soon at a price point lower $225 US than version 1 $250 US. Surely they will have to reduce the first version.
Steve - New Balance will often have a wide size (E) and really wide size (2E) version of their shoes. Maybe the Front Runner could get you one of those in the New Balance Fuel Cell Elite? They look to be an excellent shoe.
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
Intl. correspondent
Corey - Hey it’s great to hear from you. How’s training going on lately?
Mick - woah, your mileage is creeping up, that’s nice to see.
Piwi - Yeah, I thought so too that I’d be around 1h24, but of course you know me, I’d start at PR pace anyway.
Those few seconds under pace in the beginning end up tallying quite a lot in the end.
I ran in the Altra Escalante racers and they are fantastic, best shoe from Altra ever. Super lightweight and not a lot of sole.
The strength training is prescribed by our old coach from when we lived in Brazil.
He sends a short WhatsApp video on Mon/Wed/Fri outlining what movements/exercises to do, how many reps, want to watch out for.
He builds in routines which contain strength training plus mobility.
It’s all very simple body weight stuff plus some kettlebell exercises recently as we bought it. Previously my wife was doing exercises with bottles of water LOL.
But the greatest asset is that he will modulate the training around the running, and also so that it’s not all out every time.
There are days that are easier on the legs, or easier on the pull exercises, others are harder on push exercises and so on.
JT - thanks mate!
Darkwave - I’ve found recently that I’m not yet at a level to run 1 hour plus strength. I’ve downgraded the runs to 40 minutes on those days for now.
But indeed these help massively. The one thing I notice the most is the core engagement. With good core engagement (which happens cause the core is stronger and without thinking about it),
Running becomes lighter and simpler.
I too vary the shoes throughout the week.
Watson - thanks mate, I was really stunned by it, I figured at some point I’d crash and burn due to those quicker KMs early on but it never happened.
James - that makes sense, I noticed I was working harder against the wind and I was trying to avoid pushing too hard on those sections.
Here hopes that the groin issues go away soon, though you’ve got into a nice groove with the treadmill running lately.
Steve - this brings back what we talked about a while back that our performance is plateaus and break throughs instead of gradual increase.
I was on a sort of fitness plateau for a good portion of the year but that resulted in the weight loss and fitness gains and then suddenly BAM, new fitness unlocked.
Scary situation for that truck driver especially considering the contents of the truck load.
Mikkey - that’s the plan, I just need now to be careful with the tendons recovering right, but a 5k time trial should happen soon and I can’t wait for it. I might sneak a 10k time trial just for the sake of it, even with loss of fitness I might still PR.
A marathon though is unlikely, I’m notorious for lack of muscle endurance, gotta wait for a much bigger build for that one.
Also a marathon time trial seems like a horrible thing to do haha.
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
James Good week, but is the groin getting any better? --nevermind I see DW asked this
Mark - Nice week but I need a winter soldier review!!! lol
Flavio That is a heck of a PR... wow. Way to dig deep and get those extra seconds. What have you been doing for strength training the lower back? -- ahh once again I'm late to the thread, modulating it around the training is great! Kettlebells are well outside bodyweight stuff! Kudos on doing the extra work, it clearly paid off.
DW Thanks for sharing the shoes on each workout lol. You really like the Adios line huh?
Steve - Good work with the hills, is that photo one of yours?? 808 meters elevation gain puts you in serious badass territory. Passing cyclists is the best.
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
My week was mostly recovery from 4x4x48
Mon - 20 min recovery + 10 min mobility work + a short swim with my son
Tue - 20 min recovery
Wed - 30 min + 10 min of drills + mobility
Thur - 20km long run - pretty low effort until the end
Fri 40 min easy run + 10 min strength + short swim + hour racquetball
Sat - 9.5 miles biking with my kids (super easy) + Moderna shot #1 + 1 mile run ... just felt off, probably the shot
Sun really chill 10 miler (Avg HR 133) + 15 min strength + 7.5 miles riding w/ my kids.
Run : 36 miles / 5h 34m
Swim: 1.4 miles / 1h 6m
Bike: 16.7 miles / 1h 45m (aka so slow it's almost not worth mentioning here)
Strength : 25:00
Mobility / drills: 13:00
The plan for next week is to reintroduce plyometrics and workouts when my legs tell me they're ready.
Zebano - I have the Meta Racers. Light and fast, you must NOT be a heel striker. I would not race longer than a half in them.
Watson - how wide or tight is the forefoot in those? I'm a midfoot striker but I have wide feet and have gravitated to NB and Altra shoes because of it.
thanks