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

Watson - that's a decent amount of elevation gain to aim for relative to the mileage.  That will definitely make you strong!

Steve/Flavio - yeah it's a bit unusual, it applies to all 3 races in the series, as they are all the same size (1, 2 or 3 laps of a 5km course).  As there are series awards for each distance, most people running the series just pick one at the start and stick with it - like I did with the 10km last year.  This time I had the luxury of being able to wing it and make my mind up partway through lap 1!  It works OK as normally there are not many super-fast runners, if you had a ton of elite runners show up they could mess with each other big time.

Steve - good to hear you had a big breakthrough week - those are very satisfying.  On that long run that was around MP... I had a quick look at Strava and the HR definitely looks like easy pace relative to your workouts.  That should be a big confidence builder and a sign that all your training is starting to bed in.  Also a reminder of the difference conditions make... we've had a pretty humid mid-autumn patch up here (including on Sunday) which I have not been loving.

Flavio - nice recovery week and now onto the 5km!  I would like to say the HM PB will prepare you well but I'm not sure anything really prepares anyone for 5km pain.  You are in great shape to hopefully hit another PB.

Darkwave - yeah I'm generally not a fan of running more than 2 laps, in this case the race was on a loop I do VERY regularly though so it was actually pretty manageable.  Interesting that your HR was higher on the TM than outside for a similar pace, do you have the TM on mild incline?  All the best for your HM coming up.

Zebano - good week although that missed turn would've been frustrating.  I made a course error at a HM 3 years ago and still haven't forgiven myself for it (even though it didn't cost me anything as I was well off PB pace, and didn't affect placings).

Darkwave yes I do 2 mins recovery jog at 5.30ish per km between reps. Works out about 400m.

This workout leaves me pretty tired for the rest of the day and I had DOMS in my calves for a couple of days. I guess I could do a 6th repeat but I think I would risk injury.

Steve great stuff. I too notice your much lower heart rate lately. I'm not sure how accurate your heart rate monitor is but it looks much better on your easy runs now.

The cheater shoes will work well round Hagley maybe not so much on my Parkrun on gravel ?

Zebano great job. I wasn't sure to comment on strava as you didn't label it as a race. It must be hard to set an effort in a trail race unless you have alot of experience and know the course well.

My nephew in England posted a 19.25 5k on strava today. The only runs I'm seeing from him are once a week 5ks around 20 mins so he's either doing other training not on strava or very gifted.

Mark - my July race is 43km off road with over 2000m elevation, so hill training is a must right now.

Piwi - Yeah, you might need that 6th rep, or go for 1200s, or shorten the recoveries.

So that you’re able to run these at 5k pace range. It sounds like you’re running them at 3k pace.

Or just struggling to put it all together on race day.

Darkwave - good luck on your half. Any chance of a podium there?

Steve - is 4:45 your current MP pace for training?

Cause that wouldn’t  e straining for you at your current level.

I totally get you on approaching the marathon with caution.

Mark - Yeah, I’m one of the few bizarre people who prefer the 5k pain than muscular pain.

Depending on the day you’re truly just suffering for 7 to 9 minutes.

Corey - there you go -  http://strava-weekly.herokuapp.com/ .

There's also a link on my signature to a thread here with that for future reference.

By the way, the tool might take a few seconds to load (it's on a free tier account on Heroku) and apparently it does not like certain browser extensions (those that block Javascript).

Flavio - My target is sub 3:20 which allowing for 42.5km is about 4:42/km.  It sounded like it should be easy even when I wasn't feeling so fit but I need to respect the distance.  I know comfortable over 20km is rather a different thing to comfortable over 42km.

 

Someone once told me that the marathon only really begins around the 35km mark.  I think that's pretty on the money.

I've heard similar although it varies from 32-35.  So months of training, hundreds of kms all will be decided by how tough you can be for 7-10km.  I guess when I speak of fear, that's the 30 or so minutes I'm talking about!  30 or so minutes unless disaster occurs.

Yes everyone is on pace till about 35kms....then they get unexpected cramps 

 

Yup.  And they wonder why.  And consider every possible reason, except the most obvious and likely - that they were running faster than they could sustain that day for the marathon distance.

 

Yup.  And they wonder why.  And consider every possible reason, except the most obvious and likely - that they were running faster than they could sustain that day for the marathon distance.

lol. DarkWave takes no prisoners. Brutal.

edit: Mark, considering the weather in the US right now, it's pretty easy to explain treadmill HR being higher just due to heat & humidity. I have some triathlete friends who have absurdly powerful fans set up in their "pain cave" just to help disperse the heat a little.