Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2020
Flavio - 1 to 2% slopes won't matter much if at all. The pace will be different up hill versus down hill, but just account for that. Just avoid windy spots, plus traffic issues.
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
Steve - can you update Mt. Maunganui Half Marathon to 28 November please? Also, add National Road Race Champs (10km) for me on 7 November.
JMac - I caught your MP dig on Strava haha... I'm just respecting the marathon!
Darkwave - um, because 'kilometerage' sounds dumb? No other reason. Fingers crossed your doctor can help you get to the bottom of things - all the best.
Flavio- you are in all these cool places that I only know from playing Assassins Creed haha. Nice week too. Those low grades will make you feel either slightly unfit or very fit depending whether you are going up or downhill at the time.
Me - It looks like Rotorua Marathon will make a decision shortly after the government's next lockdown announcement which is tentatively this Sunday. They have said that they can only go ahead if Rotorua is at Level 1, just due to the numbers involved.
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 it's going to be touch and go whether the country exits level 2 this year.
Darkwave I hope your energy levels return. Good that you got such a thorough check.
Flavio so you are basically a homeless person
What about a track 5000m TT ?
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 "
Hot Weather Complainer
darkwave - Sorry to hear about your health issues, hope you get to the bottom of it and it's nothing serious.
flavio - Hope you manage to find a home soon! I think those low grades will make an impact but that may just be because they seem to impact me.
Mark - Nice week, building some great momentum. I have everything crossed that you manage to use all this training in Rotorua. I see no reason at the moment why any part of the country outside Auckland should be at level 2 but things can change quickly (and logical decisions are increasingly rare). My race in 2 weeks is small but it wouldn't surprise me if they decide it's not worth the hassle if we're still at level 2.
Also, a Nathan Jones sighting requires more information to narrow it down to the right one.
James and piwi - nice weeks too. Hope you get your energy levels up soon James.
me - I had another solid week. The load early in the week was reduced a bit after going to the well last Saturday in Dunedin. I had an adventure race on Saturday which turned out to be much harder than expected. I agreed to do this when I thought I was just doing a 10km in 2 weeks. It involved some mountain biking along the river and through forests with the toughest part through some deep mud and sand. Unfortunately we also took a wrong turn and ended up trying to carry our bikes through thigh deep freezing water before thinking we might be on the wrong track. I pulled up pretty tired on Sunday so consulted with my running coach and reduced the long run and removed all intensity. Unfortunately it was a warm day (well much warmer than it has been) and was 23(C) when I ran. I started to feel it a bit in the last 5km as the dehydration and tiredness combined with the warm headwind.
I've included the Adventure race below but removed it from the total kilometrage. I probably ran 5-8km in the race but overall I'd equate it to a 2 hour easy run (beforehand I was expecting it to be the equivalent of a 30 minute easy run...).
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
Steve - I just googled it, and apparently kilometreage is, in fact, a word. Anyways nice week and fingers crossed your race should be OK, I've done the Sri Chinmoy races in Auckland in the past and they would be lucky to get 50 people let alone 100.
It was Auckland-based triathlete Nathan Jones. He took down one of my Strava CR's recently actually (legit).
Piwi - I think we will get there tbh. Just a question of how long.
Me - OK, I might've gone a bit overboard on the contingency planning, but I now have a Plan D, as well.
Plan A - Christchurch Marathon, May 31 - cancelled due to Covid
Plan B - Rotorua Marathon, Sept 26 - requires Rotorua to be at Covid Level 1, I give it maybe a 60-65% chance.
Plan C - Wairarapa Country Marathon, Oct 11 - small race, probably 80-85% chance
Plan D - Whanganui 3 Bridges Marathon, Dec 12
3 Bridges carries a risk of warmer temperatures, and it's 4 laps... BUT bizarrely it's an AIMS certified course (and is only slightly bigger than Wairarapa Country Marathon). I'd love to know how we ended up with so many certified marathon courses in random small centres that get run by like 50 people each year.
Whanganui carries a big risk of being warm. And carries the certainty of having to spend time in Whanganui
Mark - how would you get to Wairarapa or Whanganui? Also, could you not race Auckland if on? By memory it is in November?
1 November for Auckland.
Skipping Wairarapa poses the risk that Auckland then gets canned.
Hi all,
I am reading but cannot find the time to write anything over the weekend. I think this forum is currently the only reason I am following some sort of training plan (maintaining really). Lot's of great stuff is going on.
My week wasn't much. I did 2 short (5 miles) runs, one 10 on Saturday and 16 miles on Sunday. Nothing particularly interesting, a part for managing the 16 miles.
Flavio, I see you are enjoying Italy and your running schedule is going weel notwithstanding the homeless situation
Mark, it's great to have a plan B, C, D etc. I hope your original plan goes ahead, from what I see in strava and here over the weekend, you are on a very good training cycle!
Zebano, darkwave, I didn't see a doctor. When I had the symptoms they considered it alergy or heartburn... I was never actually tested. I stayed a home for a couple of weeks and everything seemed solve, at least in my breathing. It took me another couple of weeks to get back to training properly. The strange thing is that I can run slow to marathon pace for a long time (yesterday I ran 16 miles) but I cannot speed up. Also a have a feeling of tiredness that I have never experienced before. and the legs just don't recover well. it's like having always an excess of lactic acid. yesterday, while running 16 mile, it felt like I hit the wall at 10 and 13 miles. I simply could not run. I got stiff all over. But it wasn't that bad. I slowed down and managed to get through the last 3 miles. Part of me thinks that is all in my mind, or is simply age-weight (I am not in great shape either).
Anyway, I may call a doctor, but I don't think they'll do anything. I think I may just get an antibody test at some point and maybe start discussing with a private.
I will keep checking in and keep you posted
PRs since re-started in 2013:
5km: 19:43 (Belfast park run Sep-16) | 10km: 40:16 (Belfast Lagan side 10K Sep-18)
HM: 1:30:09 (Belfast city Half Marathon, September-18) | FM: 3:25:05 (official chip time Belfast city Marathon, May-19, marathon was 0.3/4 longer, original time 3:27:20 for 26.5/6...)
Upcoming races:
???
Watson - I'd probably fly into Wellington or Palmerston North and drive from there. I don't want to do Auckland if I can possibly avoid it as National Road Champs are the weekend after. Wairarapa would give me 4 weeks to recover at least.
I have never been to Whanganui. The only link I have to the place is umpiring at the National Senior hockey tournament in Wellington like 10 years ago, one of the Whanganui players looked exactly like Phil Burrows (who was one of the top NZ players at the time) so all the umpires referred to him as Phil Burrows.
I may not have to go to Whanganui but if I do, I sure hope I end up with a more memorable story about the place.
Intl. correspondent
Piwi - LOL, the politically correct way of saying it is “minimalist” haha.
A track 5000 is not possible because the tracks are far and closed off.
Steve/Marco - It’s my understanding that the Italian law protects the cheaters when it comes to renting rules, as such, owners are very very wary of who they rent their properties to.
That said, we’ve managed to find a very good apartment (via networking) that we’ll move into the first of October. We’ll be in an Airbnb for the month of September.
Mark - I’m fully expecting you to move out of Auckland in the next couple of weeks to ensure you can run one of those races heh.
me - Today I had a "fuck yeah" moment which will probably give you guys a good chuckle.
After so many years doing calisthenics I've finally managed to do 10 pullups at once (chinups really). Complete movement, all the down to hang and all the way up to have the clavicle level with the bar.
For the time trial this Sunday, I'm heavily considering the following segment:
https://www.strava.com/segments/3155517
It's exactly 1K long and I can make a small tweak to it so that the elevation difference drops from 7m to 5m. 5 laps around it. As you can see, there's already a guy that has taken over all segments in town, he must have them framed at home
I'm sure we can joke about that, there's nobody in this group that is obsessive about Strava segments, right?
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
Piwi - Great tempo, you're killing everything.
James - sorry about the race cancellation and same question as DarkWave, I know the Iowa state schools have cancelled any requirements for SAT/ACT scores next year. I'm not sure exactly what that means for admission standards or scholarships or how more prestigious universities are adapting but those tests do seem like they'd be easy enough to administer remotely.
Mark - Third times the charm right? I like that cancellation policy. It's a good Covid-era adaption.
DarkWave - sorry to hear about the fitness loss. Can I ask why you bought a test instead of just seeing the doctor immediately? I've never heard of folate but I hope your doctor gets you sorted out promptly.
Flavio - that doesn't sounds horrible for racing a 5k. A looped 1km actually sounds amazing if there are no traffic crossings. 10 consecutive pull ups is amazing. Amusing story (to me) about my kids. I was watching Nick Symonds do a fitness test with Ryan Hall on Youtube and my twins came over and went 20 pull ups, that's nothing. Naturally I stopped the video, we went out back to the monkey bars and I did 7 pull ups (the most I've ever done!!). Landon gets up there next and maybe finishes 1 if we're being generous. Jacob takes his turn, rips off 5, proceeds to hang by 1 arm like a mountain climber, shake out the other arm, then does 4 more and continues in this manner with the hangs getting longer and longer until he has done 21! I can't believe they're related much less twins.
Marco - Sometimes maintaining is enough. Sometimes it's appropriate to take 1-2 weeks off and just let the body and mind relax. I sadly don't have any advice for you that isn't total bull so I'm going to avoid speculating and wish you the best. Building fitness is hard even when healthy.
Mark - I now need a serious New Zealand geography lesson but if I didn't know where you were talking about I would have assumed they were places in Hawaii, the language just seems similar.
I had a solid week. I focused on getting 9 instead of 8 hours of sleep and a lot of my fatigue melted away and the legs turned over better.
Mon - 5.5 mi easy by HR w/ 8x10sec hill sprints
Tue - 9 mi w/ a 5 mile progression from 8:08/mile down to 7:05. I really wanted to get to 6:40 but it wasn't happening
Wed - double totaling 8 miles easy by HR, skipped strides because it was 95F after the second run (i.e. hot weather makes a wuss of me).
Thur - an extremely muggy 12.4 miles, brutally slow. I planned to push the pace once I hit the single track at mile 9.5 but it turns out that all that meant was not slowing down much on the hills.
Fri - OFF
Sat - 10 miles w/ 10x[2 min steady, 1 min fast] -- First good workout in ages (also 68F and no humidity!!)
Sun - 5 miles easy by HR w/ 4 strides
50.4 miles.
Very happy with the week. I feel like I've re-implemented my schedule and I had one ok workout and one great workout. I had a friend with me for both of them and that made a huge difference in pushing through when things got touch. I'm debating with myself what was more important.
1. Running with a friend
2. not humid
3. cooler weather
4. more sleep 2 nights out
5. no beer the night before
I've been watching both my sleeping minHR on my watch but also a 6 hour average and I'm noticing that if I have a drink at night , the average is never better than 48, if I don't have a drink it's always below 45. Taking that along with anecdotally feeling better and I'm considering giving up alcohol for awhile.
In other news I've begun planning the rest of my year. It doesn't look like my two goal races are going to happen and two of the better run 5ks that I often race are too big and will be cancelled as well. Ergo, I'm going to use my club championship as a sort of proxy HM race. It's 20km / 12.4 miles in December and a history of 20 club members suggests that results are +/- 1 minute to flat HM course times. The club has also had some chatter about a 5000m race which I will certainly partake in. In past years a couple local D3 schools have gotten together for a HM to try and reach some qualification times and the women's time is usually a 90 minute half so I've got my fingers crossed it happens (I've got my work cut out for me getting ready for that).
I may have a 15km trail race at some point, but it was supposed to be in 2 weeks and derecho cleanup of the trail hasn't happened yet so it's currently off. I am "racing" a sprint triathlon next weekend. I did my first swim since crashing my bicycle in June this week and the shoulder did well so I'm going to take part though I'm not sure how much I'll exert myself. It will probably just be a longer tempo effort instead of going all out. In better news, my son started getting his butt out of bed before 11 AM and given the cooler weathers this week has been able to jog a 5k on his own (with our dog) twice. That allays all my fears about him having a miserable time so we're going to have a great weekend and spend Sunday in a boat!
Finally I've started planning something special for my fortieth birthday next year. I'm going to try to set a FKT on Isle Royale National park on the Minong ridge. My main concern is that particular trail has been closed since Covid started, so I have my fingers crossed. Otherwise there is a FKT on the Greenstone Ridge but I don't think I'd be fit enough to take it, we'll see. Regardless I'm leaning into this midlife crisis.
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
Mother of Cats
Flavio - congrats on the pull-ups goal. I've been working towards something similar. Question for you - how do you define "pull-ups" v. "chin-ups"? I've always defined pull-ups as my wrists facing each other (easier) while chin-ups are my wrists facing away from my body (harder). But I think I may have it backwards of everyone else.
And...I love the idea of you taking that segment. No one should have ALL segments in an area.
So...background is I have a long health history that includes bad bone density (wavers back and forth on the line between osteopenia and osteoporosis), low vitamin D, and low ferritin. I supplement fairly heavily with Vitamin D (5000 IU a day), so I check my vitamin D regularly to make sure it's not getting too high (as well as too low). I also check the ferritin whenever I get draggy, as often times that's the issue for me. Been doing this for years.
My doctors are totally fine with me checking this stuff regularly, especially the vitamin D. But....my insurance won't cover it (even with my past history, which is really annoying), and getting it pulled at the doctor's office and paying out of pocket ends up being more expensive than buying a test through Insidetracker HealthcheckUSA, etc. So I just get it tested on my own. If anything's really out of whack, then I mention to a doctor. But this is only the second time that I've ever seen anything really off.
I actually didn't intend to get the folate checked. It was just that the best price I could find on something that included vitamin D, Ferritin, and a CBC also included folate and some other stuff that I didn't care about either.
The timing also was that after last week, I decided it was about time to check that stuff again - scheduled the appointment.
Then had the awful Tuesday workout, plus some other stuff also got more pronounced (muscle twitches), and I decided it was time to contact my primary care doc and see if he thought it was worth looking into. He then scheduled his own set of bloodwork and a follow-up appointment - some time after that, I got these results, which I forwarded to him.
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.
Our health care system is messed up... anyway I'm glad you lucked into catching that.
Marco 16 miles is a very big run if you are out of shape. Those last few miles will really suck.
Mark I've been to Whanganui when it was Wanganui twice. It's not the most appealing place. The river is a horrible brown as well as the sea. I hope I've painted a nice picture for you
Zebano solid week keep up the good work.
Steve nice job in the adventure race.
Flavio great result with the pullups. I'm doing 100 pressups every couple of days but I break them up into 40 rest 1 minute then 20, 20, and 20. I'm probably not doing them perfectly which makes it easier