Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition
Mick nice job on the 5k effort. Gives you a good starting point.
Marco its really tough when you are not sleeping well.
You get caught in a cycle of bad sleep because of stress because of bad sleep. I guess you need to identify the stress and eliminate it. Easier said than done in today's world 🌎
My week done. Quite high mileage due to 2 x 20 km runs to help a guy who is running 20 x 21.1km runs this month.
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 "
JamesD
More treadmill time, and more gradual progress. My last three runs all were without walk breaks, and the right glute was occasionally sore but no worse than a week or two ago when I was taking breaks every mile or two. My left Achilles did get sore late in runs, as did my (right side) hernia occasionally, so I won’t push too much. The treadmill shuts off after 99 minutes, which I consider 11 miles, and I probably don’t need to go longer than that for a while. The treadmill says I’m going a lot slower than my effort level feels like, but even if my 9:00/mile estimate is off, I still ran for ~30 minutes more this week and last week than I did in my 51ish-mile longest weeks last summer, so I’m getting a decent aerobic benefit regardless.
Sun - off
Mon - 10 miles treadmill in 2.5-mile jogs w/0:45 walk breaks
Tues - 10 TM in 2.5-mile jogs, 0:45 breaks
Weds - 10 TM no breaks
Thurs - off
Fri - 11 TM no breaks
Sat - 11 TM no breaks
Total - about 52 miles worth of effort
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
Zebano I ended up watching the whole podcast on sleep. It was about 2 hours but very interesting. Apparently 1 in 2 Americans don't get enough sleep. I know I don't sleep well when I have a work stress situation or any stress for that matter. I watch alot of sports but haven't got addicted to baseball or NFL yet. If they had Kiwis playing at top level I probably would like I do with Steven Adam's and the NBA. The fights in baseball seem alot more legit than the light pushing in the NBA. Although back in the 80s and 90s the NBA fights were more authentic
Zebano I ended up watching the whole podcast on sleep. It was about 2 hours but very interesting. Apparently 1 in 2 Americans don't get enough sleep. I know I don't sleep well when I have a work stress situation or any stress for that matter.
I watch alot of sports but haven't got addicted to baseball or NFL yet. If they had Kiwis playing at top level I probably would like I do with Steven Adam's and the NBA.
The fights in baseball seem alot more legit than the light pushing in the NBA. Although back in the 80s and 90s the NBA fights were more authentic
I was clearly short on sleep this morning because it took me about 10 tries to properly parse that. "what type of mode is sleep mode?" "was he sleeping while watching?". LOL I totally buy the numbers as I know a ton of people who are proud of how little sleep they can function under (and they're proud that they consistently put in 60 hours weeks at work... which IMO is about 15 too many to have any life; just to be clear, we're all salaried so this isn't about overtime).
Mick I've heard stories like that down to the college level in football. Heck A fellow CS major who started for my FCS (formerly Div II) university quit mid-junior year because he said there was no way to properly study and also play football. This was a 12,000 persona directional state school, not any place prestigious. Kudos on the 5k TT!! and enjoy the skiing. I opted for snowshoeing with my boys today instead of XC ski with friends.
Marco One thing I've had to learn is that stress is stress. It doesn't matter if it's exercise induced, work induced, family issues or anything else. Your body doesn't know the difference.
Piwi You have been consistent with the good weeks for a long time now and those are some fast 400s. How do you avoid the itch to run fast more than once a week? p.s. I'm pretending the NBA doesn't exist because the Wolves are an embarrassment.
James that sounds like some solid progress even if you're not 100% but mostly I'm impressed you can run that long on the treadmill.
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
Piwi - you are smashing out some very solid weeks!
James- great effort. Good to hear things are progressing.
Me- another decent week as the rebuild continues. Wednesday's workout was tough but it I enjoyed it. It was quite reassuring to be suffering in a 'this is hard and I've gotta really dig it in' way. Sunday's long run came out a little quick but it was nice to think that I probably won't do many runs longer than that!
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"
Mark thats a legit long run. Nice job.
Zebano I have to be careful at my age with speedwork. I have no problem running slow and saving myself for faster days.
Hi all! I’ve read most of the thread, prob all of the bios. Still intimidated by how quickly the thread moves (because I know I’ll miss days at a time!) but am attracted by the real information and thoughtful conversations here. I hesitate to throw my hat into the ring for fear I may not contribute more than I get (even if I just lurk!), lol. In any case, I’m running , not injured, no goals currently. I started a running club in my town, we’re called The Ravenous Runners (www.ravenousrunnwrs.com). Just trying to give back to the sport that’s given me so much (and find some new drinking buddies 😬). Happy new year of running!
800m: 2:20.3 (2015) | 1 Mile: 5:13 (2016) | 5K: 18:32 (2010) | 10km: 39:55 (2012) | HM: 1:28 (2013)
Intl. correspondent
Mick - That time trial has my seal of approval. Now you have the paces for the 800’s based on a real race.
4:30/km should be around 3:50 per 800 roughly. A bit around that, no need to be so precise.
Mark - kudos por keeping up the strength training all this time and being an inspiration for myself picking up strength training as well.
Zeb - Meeting local people is kind of difficult right now as there are no races and I’m not a fan of group runs.
I’m sure I’ll run faster when we finally have races around 2025.
It’s funny cause this was the first time where I was light and bouncy (that is, didn’t have past training weighing on me) but didn’t perform
Basically because I had gone to the well a few days earlier and there was nothing left.
Marco - LOL, shame you’re not going to Mikeys. I remember passing in front of it and thinking I had to go there later, but we never made there.
I’m sure the weather didn’t help at the time as it was raining all the time and 7C.
This is one of the situations where not having a car sucks.
And yeah, I bet you could run a fast 800 based on genetics alone. I’m betting around 2min 30 seconds.
Piwi - Woah that’s a big week!
James - it looks like the treadmill has been good for you with less impact.
Kimba - hey, good to see you around. May your running group prosper. And may them also find some food
me - weird week. A time trial I didn't need on Thursday and a super tough long run under the snow today. Heavy legs.
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
Zebano: classic or skate? And: congrat for getting the kids out on a snow shoe hike! Good effort. How do you persuade them???
Kimba: great idea to combine running with beer! The link has a typo though.
Flav: did it snow in Italy? Incredible...nice long run. I will do 2 sessions per week plus the long jog and report back. Plus strength I felt like my core and lower back are very weak.
All: nice weeks & efforts! Where is Rune & Jmacca?
HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)
2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!
Hot Weather Complainer
marco - great to see you back. May for a half sounds like a plan and a way to stay motivated and justify the pizza.
Mick - also good to see you here - that's a solid starting point for the 5km.
piwi - HUGE week. You are primed for a big year.
James - Good progress again - you're showing great tenacity.
zebano - I also took a moment to understand that! One too many bourbons the previous night.
Mark - Nice week and killer long run.
Kimba - Exciting to see you here too! Don't be intimidated by the amount you can contribute, I think we'd all be happy just to read your updates - there's only so many hours in the day. Any running + drinking stories would be well received too.
flavio - Nice week and again, great work on the time trial. I wouldn't feel too negative about it, it will provide invaluable info for future races and tapering.
me - Continued to slowly increase my jog reps. In the last one I felt 0.25/10 pain (a level I normally wouldn't worry about) for the first rep, then zero pain until it returned to 0.25/10 for the last couple. Unfortunately it's pulled up much sorer today so I'll see if it settles back down. I've made the call to not do the Christchurch Marathon - 13 weeks to go and I'm several weeks away from resuming proper training, at best. So I'll aim to do the half as a tempo, and bite the bullet and enter the Wellington Marathon on June 27. This means I've also removed the South Island Half on August 1 because I want to recover properly post-marathon. Mark's experience is one I'll learn from and I need more recovery than he does. I might look at a goal race in September or October if I can find one - I'm still planning on Queenstown but with the trail course it won't be a goal race. This is all best case scenario!
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
Flavio - I enjoyed running in the snow in Canada but that was only short runs of 6-10km. It would be tough going for a longer one!
Kimba - great to see you back. Heh the banter does come thick and fast at times in this thread but feel free to hang around.
Steve - tough call but I think the right one. Marathons are tough enough without compromised preparation. Wellington two years ago had perfect weather on race day so it does happen. Depending how things pan out I might do the half down there. Although, after my August experience, I'm still at the stage of not entering anything until immediately before late entry fees kick in (and booking fully refundable Airbnb's!).
I had a successful week! I could tell I was stressed on Wednesday and audibled my recovery day from Sunday to then and it seemed to work (source of stress was work, and lack of sleep).
Flavio it appears your tool sums all distance regardless of activity. Would you consider adding a HR column? Now that I have a proper chest strap instead of just wrist based HR I've been glancing at the strava's "Relative Effort" metric to keep an eye on that but it's be nice to see a nice 13x next to easy runs.
I managed to sprint, run at mile, 3k, 5k effort and ran a progression from easy down to threshold as well as a slightly faster than easy longrun on Saturday. I've both reread Run Faster and listened to the StrengthRunning Podcast with guest Tom "Tinman" Schwartz who both emphasized that unlike Lydiard, modern training says to always touch on every pace regardless of what you're emphasizing. My 90 min Mod run was supposed to be 30' up + a fartlek touching on mile-10k speed + 30 min down but I just overran the WU and decided to keep rolling since I didn't think I'd get a good workout in at that point.
Swimming: 45m
Cycling: 1h5m
Weights: 30 min (Tue, Sun)
Running: 60.2 mi / 8h 37m
10h 57m total
Final note: My consistency has been pretty solid since November and my averages are ticking up:
12 / 26 / 52 week
47/41/40
Mark Good week, especially those intervals
Flavio Good week, I wasn't sure what the density of runners is over there. I feel like once a week I have to stop and chat just because I run into someone I've not seen in months.
Kimba welcome back. This thread needs a speedster and your thoughts are always welcome. Also run + beer groups are the best.
Mick Classic. I've never tried skate but I'd love to.
Steve sorry about the marathon but it sounds like the right call. =(
Mother of Cats
Piwi - 2x20K is nice. 20x21k is....why?
James - 11 miles on a treadmill without music is pretty impressive. I like your runner math.
Marky-Mark - look at the big long run for the non-marathoner!
Kimba - good seeing you!
Flavio - under snow? As in snow was falling? Or were you tunnelling?
Steve - I agree with Marky-Mark - good scheduling call.
Zebano - lots of good stuff there. We used to have a poster here - Dad4JCZ (I think I got it right) who was big on the touch every pace thing. I personally agree with it also. In particular, as you age, it's important to keep some super short fast stuff in there regularly.
***
My week:
53 miles, 1000 yards swimming, and 2:30 hours of pool-runningM: 50 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.T: 7 miles easy outside (9:13) plus drills and strides, then upper body weights/core and 5 miles easy on the treadmill (9:02).W: 12 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 7x1K with 80-90 seconds jog in between. Splits were supposedly 3:55, 3:53, 3:49, 3:44, 3:44, 3:42, and 3:41 (I suspect my treadmill sensor was reading too fast for the last couple). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.Th: 50 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.F: 8 miles easy outside (9:07) plus drills and strides, then upper body weights/core and 4 miles easy on the treadmill (8:51)Sa: 17 miles, including a workout of 4/3/2/1 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile float in between. Paces were 6:56 for 4 miles, 6:51 for 3 miles, 6:42 for 2 miles, and 6:31 for the last mile. 1 mile float in between in 7:29, 7:40, and 7:35 (the 2 and 1 mile segments had a tailwind). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming. .Su: 50 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.
Lousy week outside of running, but a good running week. I started a new long acting asthma med on Monday, and had a surprisingly good workout on Saturday - perhaps the two are connected? Or maybe just coincidence?
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.
Darkwave I saw your 17 miler on strava and thought dam girl is on fire 🔥 nice job.
That guy I ran with struggles with motivation some set himself this goal. I think the thinking was run 3 days in a row then rest one day etc
Zebano great week very active from you. You must be as fit as hell.
Steve good call. I was thinking about your situation while I was running the other day and hoped you would cancel that marathon as base is so important even going back a year in my opinion.
That cricket in Christchurch was excellent. Let's hope we roll the aussies. Their latest star looks stereotypical long blonde hair Australian that will torment us
Kimba nice job organizing that group.
Flavio solid week buddy. Is Domino's pizza authentic Italian 🍕 food ......