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

Scott nice job on the workout. These type of workouts will help alot for a 5k. Work stress sucks and it must be horrible to be in a job that you hate.

Flavio thanks its 7am in the morning on a Saturday here. My race is later at 6pm. Not totally sure what I should eat today. Any ideas ?

I was thinking a pasta salad at lunch and then maybe a light snack in the afternoon 😋

 

Zeb what did you think strength training was, and what was it?

 

Good luck with the interview!! I really hope that goes well and awesome that you're enjoying the running.

Those are H (or I) workouts are crazy hard. Good job getting it done, hopefully next time you can dial in the pace a little more evenly.

Huh? What's this about strength training?  I'm confused by your comment. If you're referring to my comment about lifting with my son, yes we did that: a simple 3x5 routing of Squat/Overhead Press/Pullups (On Mondays we do Deadlift/Bench/Row) with a lot of extra sets to get the pullups in and reduced weight from last week on the squat because of 54 miles cycling and 12 miles running already that day. It was a excellent day and I'm sore =)

 

In other news, I have a coach (I withdrew from strengthrunning last week, it wasn't what I thought it was). It's a local runner who wants to try coaching and thus he's currently free. We had a quick chat about my plethora of goals, races, and injuries and he thinks we can make some good progress. The biggest change he wants me to make are basically around consistency: longer easy runs and more regular long runs.

Zeb This is what I was talking about. I was curious what strength running was. Also what you thought it was. As for the interview, I'm expecting/hoping it to go well for a few reasons. One of them being "if you get enough interviews you'll eventually get a job."

Piwi good luck tomorrow.

ah. I had no idea who he was, or "strength running" was actually a direct reference. It's amazing how isolated I can be without the book of faces or the typical social medias used these days. I've never had a coach I've paid money for, so I can't really say how useful one can be. I'm sure it would take a lot of thinking away from my running other than "check the email and do the workout" and I can do that using books and spreadsheets. I can also over think things.

EDIT: My personal experience for strength training has been doing TRX workouts on the same day I do a hard workout. The topic came up in 2019 or 2018 and I followed the belief of putting the stress of hard workouts and exercise on the same day so the body has an actual rest/recovery day. Doing a hard run workout Tue/Th and working out M/W/F just never gave the body a day to recover. I saw benefits from it, believe it helped me be successful, and I've done my best to keep this logic moving forward. It's just sometimes hard to keep myself motivated to do a TRX workout when it is 8pm and the couch is calling my name after kids go to bed. I need old me who thought "okay, kids are in bed. Time to exercise."

Good luck Piwi.

I had my 5k Park Run today.  Was a little slower than I hoped in 21:37.  It is a slow course, so probably 21 flat on a quick course.

Great work Watson.

smash it Piwi!!

Best of luck to Piwi. If you put up another 81.36% Age Grade, you'll be the fastest guy on this board in terms of half marathon PRs! No pressure 

Didn’t think you believed in age grade calculated PR’s?

Thanks guys I just got home.

Time was 1.23.30

We Run the Night half marathon.

This is my first half marathon since 2015 where Mark and I ran the Taupo Half on a freezing snowy day.

I've got back into good shape after a year of been more consistent with my training and more motivated.

After my 10k time trial 2 weeks ago my goal of running 1.24 changed to could I break 1.23.

This race starts at 6pm and is 4 laps of Marine Parade which is homes on one side and beach on the other. Its premier NZ real estate and a beautiful place.

The course is dead flat with 7 180 degree turns.

My Sunday running buddies Jacques and Phill were both running. Jacques was backing up from the Rotorua Marathon last week and doing the 10k and Phill the half.

I do a 2km jog warmup and mingle and chat at the start area. My 24 yr old son makes an appearance and wishes me luck.

I see Ben one of my strava mates and he is going for a similar pace to me 3.55/km so we plan to pace each other.

Another guy behind us in an orange shirt says he is also going for a 1.23.

Off we go and its frantic with 5k, 10k, and half all starting together.

The atmosphere is great with people wearing lights and lots of music playing.

We settle into our work and start clicking out 3.55/kms.

My stomach didn't feel amazing and was knotting up throughout the race. I wasn't sure how to fuel today but I had some Chinese rice and stir fry around 1pm.

6pm is not a time my body is used to running let alone racing and it was kinda telling me 

Anyway we negotiate the first 180 degree turn and head back to the start. Now into a light headwind so we take turns at taking the wind.

Still clicking off solid splits on target.

Onto the second lap we are back in about 6th place. There's a leader well out ahead and 2nd is a beast triathlete guy in my age group who seems to run low 1.20s with ease.

The guy in the orange shirt who was targeting 1.23 is way up there too and we wonder if he's gone out too fast.

We get to the turnaround and head back to the start and I see my mate Phill on the other side of the road. He's not far behind and looks smooth. He ran a 38 min flat 10k tt the day after my 10k tt. We have a friendly rivalry going. He always runs in his beloved Kayanos and I can't help but wonder what he could achieve in proper racing shoes.

Ben and I share the load back into the breeze to the start before heading out on our 3rd lap.

I was starting to feel like I was struggling but hung onto him.

I had a gel but decided not to take it. I wasn't hungry and my stomach was still uncomfortable.

After the turnaround at the end of Marine Parade I saw Phill again in about exactly the same spot as the last lap.

Man he looked smoothe and I was struggling.

I couldn't stay with Ben back up wind and let him go.

I found i could hold about 3.58/km and started to feel comfortable and more confident as I went into the last lap.

I caught the guy in the orange shirt down this leg as he was slowing after his hot early pace. As I passed him he tried to cling on so I put in a surge to demoralize him  which worked.

Around the 180 degree turn for the last time.

This time Phill had dropped back and looked a bit ragged.

I felt ok but hurting as you do in the final kms of a half but was able to still keep just under 4 min/kms on this home stretch. A nice surprise as I finished as my wife and daughter were there to greet me.

Pretty light headed I had to collapse and recompose my self.

I ended up with 1.23.30 and Ben ran 1.23.05

Phill ran 1.24.50 for a big PB.

I was 2nd in 50 to 59 age group and collected a medal at prizegiving with 2nd written on it.

I am pretty happy with that although its not as good a performance as my 10k tt 2 weeks ago.

In hindsight I need to be more consistent in my longruns and keep my mileage up above 50 mpw.

Here's my strava splits

Heading into the last lap game face on