Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
Breakfast beer may not be great but I'm willing to make a one off exception Steve 😉
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
Wouldn't Irish coffee be more appropriate?
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
Cheers every I'm having a Beer now!
Piwi sub 20 for a warm up, and a sub 20 as pacer right after the warm up ... I think I need to start have 2 beers a day too!
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
I'm up for a zoom meeting Steve. After 4pm NZ time I will have beer but before it might be coffee.
My week below. Took a recovery week apart from. Yesterday's 2 x 5kms.
JamesD
Don’t have much to contribute to the beer/whiskey conversation - the only drinking I do is a bottle or two of hard cider after good races, so nothing since a mile TT a year ago.
This was my longest week (even including high school, I think), but that’s mainly because I've been running three of every four days this year and when the off day is on a Wednesday, that gives me six runs a week rather than the usual five. Surprised at how worn down my legs felt after going 14 on Sunday, though the run itself didn’t feel hard. That was my longest in over a year but not much more than my recent long runs. Also cut my Tuesday run a little short because of feeling queasy and having some groin trouble. Thursday’s progression and the rest of the week were better.
On the long run, I checked my sweat rate for the first time. In 2 hours, I lost 2.7% of my bodyweight, which doesn’t seem like much. Conditions were near ideal - temperature around 68/20 with only 50% humidity, and the trail alternated between cool shade and pleasantly warm sun. Maybe I‘ll sweat more once it warms up.
Sun - 14 miles in park @ 8:35
Mon - 9-11 easy on treadmill
Tues - 8.8 in park slow @8:49, felt bad
Weds - off
Thurs - 10-11 progression on treadmill, better
Fri - 9-11 easy on treadmill
Sat - 9.1 slogging through park in downpour @ 9:07
Total - 60-64 miles worth of time/effort, 9 hours 57 minutes
YTD average - probably high 40s/low 50s mpw
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
Quite a big fan of kombucha these days. I am aware that makes me sound like a complete hipster.
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"
James - 2.7% is still quite a bit. I would be closer to 2% on a long one in summer, maybe a little less. It depends a lot on the humidity too. Solid mileage!
Piwi - good week and well done on the back to back tempos (literally back to back!).
Me - lots of short fast stuff this week, body still recovering a bit from the last couple of weeks. This week was more about trying to just get a bit of top end speed in the legs with Wednesday's workout including 2 min hard repeats, plus a track session today as well. Weather forecast still looking good for next Saturday, it's warmed up slightly and given the late-ish start I'd say it's probably going to be around 10C / 50F if the current forecast holds. - so still good running temps. Course runs pretty much NE and forecast is for light winds, so that's good too. Fingers crossed it stays that way and no more unexpected lockdowns over the next 6 days.
James great week 60 miles is excellent.
Mark you are back to top form. Looking forward to your next race.
In honor of Flavio this week
Piwi - Nice one with the back to back sub 20s. Doubly not Gaga!
I’m going to have to taste that beer now when I find it.
I’ve had bottled Moretti and it was so so but Moretti craft beer was very good.
I meant I rarely get that warm/relaxing feeling but get the bad effects of dehydration. To be fair, the last couple of times I was feeling bad after having a glass of wine I also had ham and it seems ham and salami are no longer good for me
If that's the case it's actually good news cause I do enjoy having a glass of wine especially to go with a T-bone steak.
James - Woah your mileage progressed a lot lately. IIRC you were averaging 25/30 miles a week when you joined here.
Mark - Kombucha blergh!
Me - My week below.
I was on a roll until Wednesday morning. 4 series of chin ups (5/2/2/1) and 3 series of pushups (15/10/10) and then 3 series of split squats (15/15/15).
It turns out it was too soon to be doing this level of workouts for my brittle old body, the previous upper back injury flared up again. And my legs were toast. But I was mostly concerned with the upper back injury as it's something new.
The problem is it gets super tight on the upper back right in the middle and it feels like it’s crushing the lungs. Not very fun.
Today I finally felt like I was back to myself but didn’t push and just ran a bit under one hour.
Anyway that’s the body telling me I need more recovery weeks.
In other news, we got stopped by the police yesterday. Our crime: sitting down to eat a salad at the Cathedral steps.
The officer assured me we had done nothing wrong they were “just checking”. But I've heard of that M.O. in the past and later a fine arrives in the mail. I'm certainly not paying it though if it does arrive, nobody paid the fines last year, they just waited until they were contested in court and thrown out.
I have a hunch they were checking if there were anybody there that are not citizens of Bologna.
Per the current COVID restrictions it’s illegal to leave your own city.
Said restrictions are going to be lifted next Monday the 26th though and we can’t wait for it.
We’ll finally be able to travel since our last trip in early October. There’s so much to see and so little time.
It will be very funny when people ask us what we did when we lived in Italy (We visited all the supermarkets in town!).
Today I was rolling around in my long run when I spotted 2 police patrol cars parked about 100 meters ahead. I crossed the road
only 3 runs for me this week had some things going on, I still got in my target of 25 miles
Mother of Cats
Cheers every I'm having a Beer now! Piwi sub 20 for a warm up, and a sub 20 as pacer right after the warm up ... I think I need to start have 2 beers a day too!
I was thinking the same thing. Nice job Piwi!
Flavio - is the knot near/slightly under your shoulderblade? If so, I had that last year and it sucked. Just like you describe, it hurt if I breathed too hard. It took work with a tennis ball and time to get it to come round.
Good news on being able to travel soon!
James - some good progress there! Like you, my weekly mileage depends on where my rest days fall. I think a two-four week rolling average is better measure of workload than a single week.
Marky_Mark - I also like Kombucha. Re:beer - I have two confessions. A) I don't drink beer. Now it's because I can't tolerate gluten. But even when I was younger, I despised the taste of beer and wine. Confession B) is that I actually haven't consumed any alcohol since the start of the pandemic. My alcohol consumption is almost exclusively frilly mixed drinks (the umbrella and marachino cherry are key) at bars or parties with friends. No socializing has meant no drinking.
Fingers crossed for good weather and no lockdowns for you!
CFarr - good that you hit your target. I hope things ease up for you.
***
My week:
78 miles running, 1500 yards swimming, and 70 minutes pool-running
M: 9 miles very easy (9:10) with drills and 6 hill sprints and upper body weights/coreT: 13 miles, including 2x(1200, 400) in 4:36, 89, 4:33, 87. ~2:40 recovery after 1200s, 1:40 recovery after 400s. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.W: 8 miles very easy (9:05), drills and 2 strides, streaming yoga, and 4 miles very easy on treadmill (9:20) plus drills and 4 strides.Th: 3.5 miles very easy on treadmill (9:46), 50 minutes pool-running, and upperbody weights/core.F: 12 miles, including a 4 mile tempo in 26:49 (6:48/6:41/6:41/6:39). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.Sa: 11 miles very easy (9:05) plus drills and 6 hill sprints, followed by streaming yoga.Su: 16 miles progressive, split as first 5 miles averaging 9:01, next 4 miles averaging 7:44, next 7 miles averaging 6:56, and plus a 1.5 mile cooldown. Followed with leg strengthwork, 500 yards recovery swimming, and 20 minutes pool-running.
This week's mileage was a bit inflated for reasons similar to those noted by James - my post-long run recovery days fell on Sunday of last week and Monday of next week.
Felt a bit off at the beginning of the week - Tuesday's workout was supposed to be 3-4 x (1200, 400) but I bailed after two sets. I noted that I was feeling a bit drained, so I checked, and my folate levels had dropped again. So I upped the folate supplements again (all this is fine with my doctor). I had also noted that I was needing to use my albuterol inhaler a lot more as the pollen increased around here, so I swapped my long term asthma med back to one that had worked well for me last spring (Advair).
One or both of those changes must have helped, because by the weekend I was feeling much more peppy, more rested in the mornings, and didn't need to use my inhaler at all. This morning's long run felt good. I was working, but in control.
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.
Piwi Great recovery week you been really consistent with your mileage.
James 60 miles another solid week from you, congrats on the weekly mileage high.
Mark good week looking forward to the race results hope nothing insane happened with Covid. not a fan of kombucha.
Flavio you are going all out take it easy listen to you body get some recovery in.
DW another great week hope your asthma stays in control, pollen can be brutal I know it is down here in SC
Flavio - CALL THE COPS! HE'S STEALING STRAVA SEGMENTS AGAIN! Hahaha.
Corey- nice job getting it done.
DWave - hope you can stay on top of those allergies. Fortunately for me they're not something I've had to deal with but my father in law definitely struggles during springtime. Nice effort getting 3 longer runs with quality in there too, I've always thought they were a great value way to spend training time (I have nothing in particular to back that up other than gut feel though!).
Kombucha - surprised how polarising this was! I expected it to be bleh but I actually find it really refreshing to drink.
Mark I had to Google Kombucha but I see you need 8 bottles to get the same effects as one beer 🍺
Flavio sorry to hear that the strength training is hurting you. I will use this as an excuse not to do it
Processed meat is supposedly not good for you anyway. We do use our BBQ alot though most nights as its under cover on the deck so I still probably eat too much meat.
I generally get a ticket once every 2 years on average for minor traffic offenses
Corey nice job 25 miles on 3 runs is great in a busy week.
Darkwave glad to hear you got on top of that and feel better again.
I've got 3 weeks till my 1st half Marathon in 6 years. I feel like I've peaked for this cycle so trying to ease myself over the next 3 weeks.
I am planning a 10k time trial next Sunday in my new Next % and this should give me a half marathon goal pace.
Hot Weather Complainer
piwi - You are a machine! I think your first half in 6 years is going to yield a great result, especially with the performance enhancing shoes.
Mark - Always bringing the controversy! I think I'd benefit from eliminating alcohol completely...I'm not there yet. As Leo McGarry says "ain't nothing but a family thing". It's at a level where it doesn't negatively impact anything except my Saturday night sleep. What's your Wanaka plan? I'm very excited to see how you go, knowing it's a bucket list race and seeing the numbers you've been putting up.
darkwave - Huge week. This thread/forum is full of awe inspiring feats and inspiration and you are at the forefront of that. You are smashing it.
Corey - Nice week. Hope the externals impacting you aren't too major.
flavio - Nice week and well done on escaping the stasi. What a crazy world. Good work on adjusting, hope the niggles disappear.
James - That is a massive week!
me - Slightly lighter week in terms of my 2 workouts but still at a mileage level that is close to my biggest. The coming week is bigger so will be interesting to see how I go especially with a tough Saturday workout. I promised my partner we'd go to the farmers market on Saturday morning so I ran about 11am - thought it would be safe in late April but it got quite warm (not by JMac standards, but by long hard workout for me standards) so I did have to work a bit. I felt nauseated afterwards again, even with 2 Endura doses but I recovered reasonably quickly. I'll be running early next Saturday and with a few aches, I'm glad my monthly massage is afterwards.
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