Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2020
Hot Weather Complainer
watson - that sucks, good luck with the new opportunities.
Mark - nice race.
piwi - thanks...my cold is starting to come on strong today. I'm going to do my shake out shortly but at this point I'm 50-50 about whether I'll be racing tomorrow. I'm currently feeling quite hot and fever-ish and the body is aching a bit but I don't feel too bad. But to race at 100% I need to feel better than this. If the best I can hope for is a 1:35-40 with some suffering, followed by getting sicker, I won't go. It's a big call because I've been waiting for this for over a year and I know how many others on here would love the chance to race.
Special thanks to the d**kheads who came to work when they were sick in the last week.
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
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
Damn Steve that sucks. I had a similar situation a few years ago. I went to the event anyway as my son was in the 10k. I decided to race last minute and ended up having a PR race.
Hopefully this can happen for you.
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 "
Yep 16:14 at Parkrun, it was pretty windy out there and due to some of the fences from the remediation work still being there, they had to make a last minute course change (this meant 3 u-turns which is not ideal for a 5k). Legs were feeling the 20k MP workout from Wed a bit, so I never really hit top gear - had a good rhythm going but never quite hit the 5k wall of death. I was hoping to beat the course record (16:04) which a club mate set but with the wind and the u-turns it wasn't the day for it today.
Steve - DOH!!! Fingers crossed for you. So annoying when people come into work when they're sick - WTF is sick leave for?!?!
Watson - bummer, it's tough times in a lot of sectors at the moment. Hopefully those other opportunities come through for you.
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"
Intl. correspondent
Watson - sent you a link via LinkedIn, you might find interesting.
Steve - ugh, damn hopefully you can improve quickly. Wrap yourself in bed, sleep through it.
Mark - nice park run. I hope they come back here too.
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
JamesD
This was a blah sort of week - I got in my miles, didn’t feel good but not all that bad either. My “easy” miles were neither hard nor particularly easy, just slow and steady. Most days weren’t quite as hot as they’ve been, but still warm & humid. My new pair of Reebok Forever Floatride Energys, which I’ll use for runs of 10+ miles and hills, felt fine. I got to 300 miles in my last pair of Nike Lunar Tempos (discontinued in 2015) that I’ve been using for recovery runs and will start using my last pair of Lunar Tempo 2s (discontinued in 2016 or 2017) next week. Looking forward to my 5K in three weeks, and to some shorter & faster running between now & then.
Sun - off
Mon - 12.1 easy
Tues - 7.7 slow, too tired for strides
Weds - 10.7 easy
Thurs - 24 minutes swimming
Fri - 12.1 easy
Sat - 8 easy including strides
Total - about 50.6 miles
12/26/52-week averages - 46/44/38 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
James nice week. What will you replace the shoes with ?
Steve sorry it didn't happen for you. Next time !
My week done. Felt a bit fatigued. I should probably take a recovery week.
James - nice work, no doubt you're looking forward to racing!
Piwi - another consistent week, not a bad idea to throw a down week in next week, still a bit of time before the race at the end of the month.
Me - 1 more week in the bag. I'm really looking forward to racing at the end of the month as it feels like this training block has gone on forever, which I guess is what happens is when you're targeting a marathon and then have to swap it for another one 4 months later! But still, a really good long MP workout mid-week, and nice to throw a bit of speed in there with Parkrun on Saturday. I had two days off running this week and will probably do the same next week before cranking it up for a couple weeks before Mt. Maunganui Half.
Basically the same thing. For runs of 10+ miles (2-3 times/week, depending on whether I do any faster running), I've just replaced one pair of Reebok Forever Floatride Energy v1 with another pair - and I have two more pairs in the closet, so I should be set for the next year. For recovery runs (2 times/week), I've just finished my last pair of Nike Lunar Tempo v1 and will start my last pair of Lunar Tempo v2 next week. Don't like the v2 quite as much, but the v1s were discontinued around 2015 and I haven't seen a pair online even in the ugliest colors in a couple of years.
One unusual thing I do is use relatively light & only moderately cushioned shoes like the Lunar Tempos (often former racing shoes) for recovery runs because the light weight leaves my legs less tired.
James, Piwi and Mark - nice weeks.
Piwi - maybe ONE down week might be a good idea.
My week was ok. I'd recovered enough from my sore throat / cold, that I started running. I took things very easy early in the week, but still was quite sore - one week off made a big difference in my recovery. This coming week should be good.
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
Watson good to see you have recovered from the cold. I guess you haven't used the new Asics yet?
I will probably do a light week next week leading into a Parkrun.
Mark looked like Taupo was a little long this year. I'm seeing 21.3 on most Strava feeds. Funny thing on their website they have explained course measurement and why everyone was reading short ( must be from previous years ) They must have over compensated or maybe I'm putting too much faith in our gps watches
I had it short both times I ran it. Like 20.9ish I think. Not really any excuse to get the length of that course wrong - it doesn’t have a lot of tight corners and worst case you just move the turnaround point! But these are the same race organisers that don’t provide cups now either and require runners to carry their own...
Mother of Cats
James - I think I'm a similar shoe philosophy - I stock up on shoes when I like them, and thus end up running in shoes I bought 4+ years ago sometimes.
Piwi - decent mileage; enjoy the recovery week
Watson - good to see you on your way up.
Re: Taupo - I'm assuming that's a half-marathon, so 21.1 K? In that case, I'd definitely expect to see a lot of 21.3K and similar readings due to Garmin error.
My week was continued rebuilding. I'm adding in some faster and harder running, but trying not to run any harder/faster than I can while using both legs equally.
53 miles, 1500 yards of swimming, 15 "miles" of pool-running.M: 5.5 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core.T: 10 miles, including 6 gentle Iwo Jima hill repeats (about 2:20 up, 90 second easy jog, 30 second gentle stride, and 80 second jog to bottom of hill). Followed with leg strengthwork and streaming yoga.W: 4.5 miles easy (9:46), streaming yoga, and 7.5 miles aerobic (9:06) plus drills and four gentle hill stridesTh: upper body weights/core and 5.5 "miles" of pool-running in the morning; streaming yoga in afternoon.F: 10 miles easy (9:12) followed by drills, strides, and streaming yoga.Sa: 12 miles, including 4x.5 miles fairly hard with 0.25 mile jog - splits were 3:21, 3;26, 3;20, 3:17, with 2:30-2:40 recovery between each. Followed with full recovery, and then 6x30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy. 1500 yards swimming after.Su: 8.5 easy (9:38), followed by drills, then streaming yoga and 4 "miles" of pool-running.
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.
Agree with Darkwave in that 21.3km on GPS may just be GPS error plus not running the perfect lines. Out of the half's that I've run where I trust the accuracy, they've ranged from 21.05 km to 21.33 km on my watch. My watch tends to run a little bit shorter than most other peoples watches - my most recent race was 7.99km on my watch, but everyone else was 8.0x on Strava.
Not the week I had planned - I started feeling a bit off on Tuesday and felt like I was fighting off a cold all week. I still did my short race pace session on Thursday and felt good - holding the pace was easy. On Saturday I felt the worst I had all week and my 30 minute pre-race jog felt like a real grind. I couldn't have gone faster or further. I agonized over it for the rest of the day and spoke to my running coach - it would have been easier if I was much sicker but I felt fine to do everything else in life except racing at 100%. It came down to the questions "can you run your best and will it still be a good experience?" The answer to both was no - I could have finished in 1:35-40 but it would have been a grind and I probably would have ended up sicker.
I made the call at about 5pm on Saturday then drowned my sorrows with a few bourbons. I actually woke up on Sunday feeling a bit better and even went for a run in the afternoon but there's no way I would have had a good race. I was probably only off by about 10% but I think cutting my losses and focusing on another race in 6 weeks is the right call. On September 13 there is a Sri Chinmoy race in Hagley Park which includes a 10km, half-marathon and marathon. It is basically using the same lap in Hagley Park that I used for my time trial which doesn't fill me with joy but at least it's an organised race. If I get back to 100% by the end of the week I'll have 5 weeks to fine tune my fitness which is pretty good at the moment.
RIP Milkman
Cant resist a measurement discussion.
I havent run a single course that is certified where my GPS showed up short. Not a single one. Maybe you guys run some goofy courses with a ton of L turns and turnaround pints where that could happen, but otherwise, it means the course isn't accurate (unless its just one or two people's watches). Even on relatively straight courses for a person (me) who is really about the SPR, it's hard to measure short. The only time I get right on the money is during these time trials, when I'm by myself and can fully ignore weaving around anybody.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)