Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2020 (Read 618 times)

Coffee with sugar is an abomination, or at least such a different drink it shouldn't be called coffee! Does anyone here use an AeroPress? It makes a great cup. Super smooth and strong. I normally cut it 50/50 with hot water to get a more normal coffee but without that it's still tasty and quite a bit like what I got a couple years ago when I was over in Morocco.

Darkwave sorry I missed your post. All the best for your recovery.

Zebano nice on the volunteering. I like watching the steeplechase, it looks brutal and they still run crazy fast with all the obstacles.

I was a 2 heaped spoonfuls of sugar in my coffee guy for a long time so one spoon of honey is a victory of sorts 😉

Flavio I will start with 3.35 kms and see how long I can hold on. That race is in 3 weeks.

Piwi - Honey is a strange one, but whatever keeps you happy I guess.

 

You and Flavio appear to both be targeting sub-18 5ks .. and yet I've not seen any little bets or threats of sandbags being sent to the home of the person who misses the target.

Given Mark missed his goal that I thought was sandbagged, he should send me an egg to put on my face 

Wairarapa Half RR

Sorry for this being a bit late.

1:30:18 gun time

19th of 69

https://www.strava.com/activities/4178396828

This was my second half marathon of 2020. The first was two weeks prior and was mainly off road (Rotorua half). So this was my only chance of 2020 of going sub 90.

My aim was 1:28:17, which would be my third best half marathon.

Training this year has been mediocre. A hamstring injury in January meant I wasn't training well until June. And even then my volume has been pretty low with good weeks being 45 miles / 70 km.

A week before my off road half, I ran 39:59 on a road 10km.

So 1:28:17 was optimistic but possible. My main concern was my lack of training volume, and the weather.

My wife was also running the half, and my kids were running the 5km.

We got up early, had breakfast and left. It's around 50km drive, but a lot of it is over the Remutaka ranges so the trip takes around 70 minutes. We made good progress and got there in about 65 minutes, around an hour before race start (which starts 8:45am).

We got our bibs and race packs and waited around.

There were a lot (relative to race size) of club runners there, some quite quick.

I ran the full marathon in 2017 here, the full is mainly two loops, and the half mainly one loop, with a few variations.

One variation is the start for the half. The club rooms (race pick up) is very close to the start and finish, except the half starts about 850 metres away. So this was the warm up, running down the dirt-gravel trail onto the road and to the start line.

The majority of the course is through country roads.

By 8:45am the wind had started to pick up, but wasn't too bad. It could strengthen though...

My plan involved running 4:10 average pace. My watch normally under reports distance, so I don't need to worry about adjusting for that as I often end up short (with others being long).

My plan also involved running the first 8km slower by one minute total, and then speeding up.

There's a few who will do 1:10 to 1:15, and quite a few who will do 1:2x.

We start. "Don't start too quick, don't start too quick".

I do the first km in 4:23 which is pretty much what I want.

I then go 4:13, 4:04, 4:10, 4:06, 4:09, 4:11. So first 7km, averaged 4:11.

I felt ok during that time. I was running with a guy from Wellington Harriers, and I felt ok. I remember around the 4-5km mark going past a couple of people confidently.

The first 7km is fairly flat, and probably had a slight tail wind, although I didn't really notice it.

October is also warming up, so I noticed it was a little warmer than ideal, but ok.

At the 8km mark we hit the first of the two hills. There's also a drink station, to my surprise once of the better masters woman (38 minute 10km runner) has stopped at the drink station, so I guess either injured or not feeling well.

This up hill km was in 4:19km which was good, note it's not a big hill and the latter part of the km is downhill.

I then go 4:00, 4:00, 4:09 and 4:02 with these km's being slightly downhill.

I'm feeling a little tired, but not too bad.

I then hit the second hill which I found reasonably hard, but ok. Then it's little downhill, with that km being 4:25. I'm ok with that given the hill.

The next km was downhill (net 20m) which I ran in 3:59.

So 7.0km to 14.0km I've averaged 4:08.

So 1:28:17 is definitely on.

Even if I fade, I've got sub 90...

Now the last 7.1km was the hardest of the race as:
- The northerly had picked up, and it was more or less straight into the wind.
- It's very slightly up hill. Not much, only 22 metres, but enough to slow you down. I have a similar km near my house which I noticeably am quicker downhill than uphill.

By this stage the guy I was running with had slightly drifted ahead, but that's ok.

My 15km was 4:20 which was a bit of a concern.

Then 4:31. Then 4:42 - I had thoughts of fading into 5x minutes per km at that point. Suddenly I had gone from thinking 1:28 to 1:31x.

18th km was 4:31, so this was a relief.

The wind was definitely a struggle running into. I'd given up on sub 90 at this point. Just trying for sub 91 now.

Around this point, the two people I passed around 5km passed me. It's been a long time since I had that happen.

19th km 4:41, 20th km 4:42. Around this stage we hit the town. Whilst running back up the road, I realized that if I dropped on to the footpath, then the trees from peoples  sections meant the wind was ever so slightly dampened.

Pretty soon I get to end of the road, literally. As I go under the bridge and head up the dirt-gravel path to the finish. This is a little up hill, but not too much.

I hear my watch beep for 21km just before the finish, but I don't check it. I finish in 1:30:18, which was quite disappointing.

I see a few people around including Mark who I go see. I'm really pleased for him when he says 2:41x for the full.

My learnings are:
- My volume is too low right now. The first half of the year being injured, plus racing lots meant I haven't had enough volume to stop a fade in a half.
- Stick to to plan stupid. I went too fast early on. I generally run best on starting slower, I should have just let the guy I was with drift off.
- The last 7km was genuinely hard. Looking on Strava, almost everybody faded.
- Even so, the fade was bad, the third of each race had pacing of 4:11, 4:08 and 4:30. I think 10s of the fade could be accounted to conditions, the other 10s due to my lack of endurance.
- I'll probably race the half here again. I'll need to do some training long and/or med long runs where I simulate the last 7km of the course.  Where I live, I can easily sort out a course  which has the last 7km ever so slightly uphill into the northerly.

Watson - nice RR.  That last 7km upwind was really tough going.  Good idea hugging the fenceline at the end there, I wish I'd thought of that.

Me - legs sort of almost recovered, hamstrings just still a bit tight.

Also, took up a new job.  I'm moving to a major competitor (EY) so I've been exiled to work from home until my time at PwC is finished.  Fun times!

Mark - congrats on the new job.  Once you start will there be any working from home?  I am only in 2 days most week which gives me no excuse re training volume!

One thing I forgot on my RR is shoes.  A half is the max I would race in the Asics Meta Racers.  They are really fast, but you must land mid or front foot on them.  When I tire I go to the heel, and these shoes are bad for heel striking.

That happened last year in NZ, as 18 is our legal purchasing age.