Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2020
RIP Milkman
James - my first baseball memories are the 96 world series, so I guess it's good your son has no memory of that
Mark - Good luck recovering quickly. Some people have success with it. I've always struggled to race within 6 weeks of a marathon. The taper down and then the recovey will make you lose fitness.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
My week was light. Almost recovered from the half, will get RR done soon.
I have a 5km race this Tuesday. Forecast is looking good. Aim is 19:15.
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
Piwi - another good week. You've been really consistent.
James - nice week.
Minor correction to my weekly:
Intl. correspondent
Zeb - no burps. I guess try a different brand?
Piwi - have you tried coffee with no sugar? It’s great so long as the coffee is good.
Darkwave - my 1500s also don’t reach max heart rate. My theory is that they’re too short and anaerobic (theory says they’re 1/3 anaerobic).
me - a nice recovery week. A slight cold in the middle of the week forced me to take Thursday off as a precaution. 2 weeks to go until the target 5K race.
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
Watson i was going to pull your leg on Strava about your 3km long run yesterday but I thought I better not.
Flavio yes I've tried coffee with no sugar when people make it wrong for me
My reaction is ughh you forgot the sugar
Flavio, Mark, and Watson congratulations on your 30km weeks
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 "
Piwi more respect please I've completely outclassed a 2:40 marathoner by running extra 180m
Piwi - it was my lightest week in two and a half years! But so it should be, post marathon.
Flavio - I can't drink coffee with sugar. I like it bitter to remind me it's coffee. I'm sure in Italy they beat you up if you put sugar in your coffee.
JMac - I'll probably lose a little but I'm not that worried. I had 3-4 week lower mileage stretches at times last year and if anything it helped me recover and adjust from the harder training periods. The guy who came 3rd in the marathon ran 80 miles last week which I thought was asking for trouble - admittedly he coasted the first half before picking it up at the end but still. Mostly I just need to find some speed over the next couple of weeks.
I think one thing I've learned from the higher volume stretch of training is that I'm more suited to slightly lower volume and higher intensity. Last year's results came off the back of 6-8 week periods of 3 workouts per week, mostly around 85-90km with the odd week around 100km. I felt super strong then whereas after the higher mileage marathon training blocks of 100-120km with normally only 2 workouts, I'd generally just feel tired and glad to have got it done. I'll be going back to more workouts, less mileage I think.
Watson - good luck for the 5km. Actually a pretty good time of year for 5km races if the weather is OK.
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: Runway5 / National 5k Champs, 16:22, National Masters AG Champ!
Up next: Still working on that...
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Hot Weather Complainer
Great to see some light weeks for those who need it - no injuries please.
Coffee with sugar, noooo!
piwi - nice week, you're really applying Mark's mantra nicely.
Good week for me, quite a big one by my standards with reasonably tough workouts on Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesday felt a bit tough at first but I think I was just mentally flat and by the end was feeling strong. On Saturday I didn't suffer as much as I have in recent weekend workouts and hit a nice consistent pace. For both workouts my heart rate was steady and significantly lower than it was for the whole race I did in September.
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
Mother of Cats
Nice, Piwi - I like that 3x2K workout.James D - hope your son is doing wellMarky_Mark - enjoy the recovery (I never did)Watson - good luck in the 5K!Flavio - good recovery week. And your point about the 1500 makes sense to me - that's what it's always felt like. Just too short for the HR to get up there. While a marathon gives the heart plenty of time to rise.
Steve - good week for you - I'm of the school that one does not need to suffer to have an effective workout.
+++
Me:
24 miles and 3 hours of pool-runningM: 70 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.T: 8 miles, including a hill workout of 90 seconds up a 5% incline, with 3:00 jog back down. Followed with leg strengthwork and streaming yoga. PRP injections in the afternoon.W: Off.Th: Off.F: Upper body weights/core, 20 minutes pool-running, and streaming yoga.Sa: 4 miles easy (8:57), followed by streaming yoga and 50 minutes pool-running.Su: 12 miles progressive, split as first 8 averaging 8:40, next 2 averaging 7:38, next 2 averaging 6:56. Followed with streaming yoga, leg strengthwork, and 40 minutes pool-running.
Got PRP injected this week in my ankle, so took a few days off then started building back.
There are many many different protocols for post-PRP recovery, and while a lot of doctors fall in the "no activity for 2-3 weeks" mine is more encouraging of resuming normal activity fairly quickly. I followed the same protocol I did last time I got PRP 7 years ago - 2 days completely off and trying to move minimally (i.e. no housecleaning, running errands, etc). Then a day of gentle non-impact activity, followed by a careful reintroduction of running.
Since everyone seems to want to know how it feels - it was pretty sore for the first 12 hours (I used crutches) and then tender but improving. Also fairly swollen for a while. But the soreness went away pretty quickly. It will take about 2.5 weeks for the PRP to actually start healing stuff (it's definitely not an instant fix).
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.
Steve thats great news on the heart rate.
Flavio to be fair I don't drink top coffee. We have Moccona in the jar at home. Is that one step up from instant ?
I did have one 30km week a few weeks back. I thought here we go im doing my usual give up and go back to hobby jogging.
Luckily I got back on track. I still need a result to show improvement. The Christchurch 5k will be a good indicator.
Darkwave - I'm not sure about enjoying recovery, but I am getting really excited to run (and run fast!) again, which is a real positive. I know I still need to be patient and give it a few days more but marathon training sapped my enthusiasm. Hope the PRP does the trick for you.
Steve - positive signs mate. I do think it'll help if you go into Queenstown with the mindset of having fun and not putting too much pressure on yourself. It is a beautiful course but it is not the fastest flat course around. I agree with Darkwave too re a good workout not necessarily involving suffering.
mark, darkwave I agree that a good workout doesn't require suffering, I was just noting that it's nice to not suffer on a weekend long run/workout for a change. The ones involving suffering do not make me love running!
darkwave - Good to hear you're making some progress, I think we all learn a lot from your health issues.
mark - I agree, if I can somehow go into Queenstown without much pressure (self-inflicted) I think I'll do much better. The slower course might help with that. I should be in PB shape but if the course negates that I might feel relaxed about it. Having said that, the course isn't THAT slow. I think my least favourite part is the sharp downhill at about 3km when it leaves the road and joins the trails. Glad that isn't late in the race on smashed quads.
It's definitely better than it used to be now they've chopped that nasty hill by the river out. Still a lot of trail, though, and that slows things up. And yes that early downhill is an absolute punisher.
Mark - Actually quite a few people drink coffee with sugar. Or worse, with dietetic sweetener.
Piwi - so long as you enjoy your coffee all is good. I’m an ex-coffeeholic so I very rarely take a small sip of my wife’s espresso, just to remind myself what it tastes.
You’ll probably run low 18 or sub 18.