Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2020
3 months til Masters
On the whole other sports, I was a basketball and tennis player in high school which were my main sports. I ran cross country but only to stay in shape for basketball season. It wasn't until college that I started running year round. As a result all my best racing times (for non track races) came in the 2 years after I left college, when I could finally take the mileage. I had a really bad car accident (other person's fault) that had out of running for 6 months my junior year and didn't really get back into top form until I was out of college.
2023 Goals
Marathon Sub 2:37 (CIM) 2:41:18
10k Sub 35:00 (Victory 10k 34:19)
5k Sub 16:00 (Hot Dash 5k in March (16:48), Brian Kraft in May (16:20), Twilight 5000 in July and August (16:20/16:25 Both heat index 102-103F)
Sub 1:16 Half Marathon City of Lakes Half Marathon 1:15:47)
Sub 56:30 in 10 mile (Twin Cities 10 mile, Canceled due to weather, 56:35 as a workout)
2024 Goals
Sub 2:37 Marathon
Sub 1:15 Half
Sub 34 10k
Sub 16 5k
Just realized for the first time that you played field hockey and not ice hockey. LOL. This is what happens when you live in the biggest hockey state in the USA.
Haha I’d be too small to play ice hockey! Ice hockey is about as popular in NZ as field hockey is in the US. I actually used to work with a guy who represented NZ in ice hockey.
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"
I was so surprised that NZ had a ice hockey league. I was like huh...fans everywhere i guess. Field hockey make so much more sense.
Darkwave,
that's a rather extensive list with interesting observations. I'll throw myself out there as a former tennis player who has struggled with injury both in tennis and running but sample size = 1. My sons are all swimmers and maybe it's because they're kids they seem to take to running 15-20 minutes with me no problem but they haven't really raced at all. If anything they actually pace too slow initially (oddly enough based on their swimming I'd say 2 of them are strength/slow twitch dominant while only 1 took after me being fast twitch and better at the short stuff).
I'm glad to see some responsible runners who went to bed early and got their New Years day run in! I was not responsible.
I just wanted pose a quick question: I had come down with some mild chest congestion and a sinus infection so I took the last 3 days off and today I feel great. This is also supposed to be a recovery week in my schedule. Should I:
1. continue with my recovery week as planned, letting the 3 days go and doing 80% of my normal runs/workouts for the rest of the week.
2. Treat the 3 days as my recovery period and jump back toward normal training given that I had 3 days totally off.
Yes, I'm leaning towards 2, it's probably stupid.
I'll have to chat more about strength training at some point as I've found major benefits from it, but it has not injury-proofed me. Regardless, it's been awhile since I've been in a gym so I should reintroduce Olympic style lifting (low reps, high weight) sooner rather than latter.
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
Darkwave, that's a rather extensive list with interesting observations. I'll throw myself out there as a former tennis player who has struggled with injury both in tennis and running but sample size = 1. My sons are all swimmers and maybe it's because they're kids they seem to take to running 15-20 minutes with me no problem but they haven't really raced at all. If anything they actually pace too slow initially (oddly enough based on their swimming I'd say 2 of them are strength/slow twitch dominant while only 1 took after me being fast twitch and better at the short stuff). I'm glad to see some responsible runners who went to bed early and got their New Years day run in! I was not responsible. I just wanted pose a quick question: I had come down with some mild chest congestion and a sinus infection so I took the last 3 days off and today I feel great. This is also supposed to be a recovery week in my schedule. Should I: 1. continue with my recovery week as planned, letting the 3 days go and doing 80% of my normal runs/workouts for the rest of the week. 2. Treat the 3 days as my recovery period and jump back toward normal training given that I had 3 days totally off. Yes, I'm leaning towards 2, it's probably stupid. I'll have to chat more about strength training at some point as I've found major benefits from it, but it has not injury-proofed me. Regardless, it's been awhile since I've been in a gym so I should reintroduce Olympic style lifting (low reps, high weight) sooner rather than latter.
I should mention that I have a sample size of about 2-3 athletes per previous sport (i.e. 2-3 gymnasts, 2-3 tennis players) etc, so my survey is totally anecdotal and also most likely subject to confirmation bias. But fun to ruminate on.
My vote is for #1. It's a recovery week, and if you've been sick, that's just additional stress you now need to recover from. I'd argue that it's even more important now that you keep the second half of the week easy than it would be if you hadn't gotten sick.
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.
Also, while I'm here, I'll dump off my race report for my last race of 2019. Short summary for those who don't want to read my blog (and no offense if you don't) - ran 24:55 for third female overall and a new 4 Miler PR. I was pleasantly shocked. This is not a fast race at all, due to a slow course and the fact it's run after sunset. I really didn't know what to expect, but I wasn't expecting THAT.
[I should note, for those of you who don't know me - I race watchless, and so never know what pace or time I'm running until I hit the finish line. One of the advantages of that is that sometimes I really surprise myself by running much faster than I anticipated.]
I still can't draw any conclusion from this race and my absolute fitness. But I guess I'm in better shape than I thought.
Darkwave - nice race. 4 miles is such an odd distance though - I can imagine pacing it would've been tricky but it looks like you nailed it.
Zebano - 3 days off is quite a bit of recovery for the legs. I'd start with an easy day back, see how the legs are going, then hit the workouts if you're feeling good.
Dark wave - wow! Nice race! Whatever you’re doing is working! Also interesting views on other sports. Without statistical support, and with the same personal biases, I completely agree with you. I feel like people self select for specific sports, and then eventually EVERYONE can be a runner. People don’t necessarily want to be awesome at running, they just want to DO it. And if they want to maximize their potential they need to figure out where they are and build up their deficiencies. It’s truly a sport for everyone - if you want it.
Also, thanks for your perspective on the Daniels paces. Makes sense, and I’m definitely a fan of the shorter, faster workouts. I feel like I could do 200s all day everyday without a complaint.
zebano- I also wasn’t responsible on NYE 🤷♀️. But I planned my running week to take a day off on Wednesday so I’m okay with it. Also, with regards to your health - I’d opt for taking the whole week easy and giving your body a chance to recover. I always think I need to give myself at least 48 hours after “feeling” good to really believe I am good. Just like East days are supposed to be easy, keep the easy weeks easy! You’re lucky the illness came during a scheduled easy week - take that as a sign!
Flavio- you may have been right. I felt like garbage on my run today. I’m guessing it’s a combo response to the faster track workout,, lifting weights later in the day, and then staying up late and drinking for NYE.
800m: 2:20.3 (2015) | 1 Mile: 5:13 (2016) | 5K: 18:32 (2010) | 10km: 39:55 (2012) | HM: 1:28 (2013)
I didn't listen to most of you. I got out there felt good during my warm up and so opted to do a 5 mile tempo in some seriously muddy conditions (it was a blast ... and a bit scary on the downhills). I also got into the gym for a lite session just to kickstart my return to lifting.
Darkwave that is a really impressive race. I love that you race without a watch which is actually how I set my HM PR, however I wasn't running after dark! Running by feel is something I'm trying to do more of this year but I mostly do so during tempo runs and easy runs rather than races.
Oh man, the Daniels fans are going to blast me for my debauchery today. Today was tempo mile repeats with 1 minute recovery. As I mentioned before, I don't have a recent legit race to inform training paces (I'm going to race a 3K on 1/26), so I estimated that 7:00 to 7:05 would be a good pace.
First mile - 6:30.
Second mile - 6:43
Third mile - 6:47
I took 2 minutes after the first one because I thought, okay, I went too fast, let me recover and start again slower to see if I can hit the correct pace. After the second one I took 4 minutes because I was considering not even doing a third repeat since I was so off pace. I think if I had started at 6:50 that taking one minute rest would have been manageable. One minute was not manageable with a 6:30. This is exactly my problem - I have no discipline when it comes to the track and I just let my legs go. But I know this completely defeats the intended purpose of this work-out.
Hopefully I won't f#$% it up so badly next time. You guys need to yell at me.
Hello, my name is Rune and I'm trying to run...
I spent the entire last year recovering from proximal hamstring tendinopathy. At the very end of the year I did two "runs", first days of the Couch to 5k program to ease my way back into running.
I have a background in several sports in HS, swimming, some track, gymnastics, boxing.
I need to develop my strength again, and reading Flavio's post I will actually take my upcoming appointment with my leg doctor as an opportunity to get started on that. Right now I'm not only working my way back from the hamstring injury, but also a screwed up shoulder from a mechanical bull incident
I was just thinking that I know about two great endurance athletes who used to be ice hockey players, but now I see Mark is a land hockey guy. The other one is Jim Lubinski, who is a pro triathlete and is hosting a swimming podcast. To bad my shoulder is preventing me from swimming as well now
Anyway, after a crappy and demotivating last year I am hoping to work my way back again this year, and I plan to spend more time here for help and motivation (and hopefully I can give some of that too).
5k: 20:32 (1/17) | HM: 1:34:37 (2/18) | FM: 3:31:37 (3/18)
Getting back into it
Intl. correspondent
Kimba - it’s amazing how popular soccer is with women in the US. In Brazil it’s considered a men’s sport pretty much.
No wonder the USA women's team kicks ass at every Women’s World Cup.
It sounds like you were not checking your watch during those repeats. I usually do one check about 100m in during the first rep and another one mid way if the rep is longer than 1K.
Darkwave - you’re a brave one for racing watch-less. I’d struggle unless I knew somebody of similar fitness to stick near by.
Nice one on the 4 miler, I find fighting for positions much more fun than fighting for time.
Rune - Yeah, the reason I talk a lot about a full body strength workout is that if you start with doing just calf raises for instance, you start becoming unbalanced, meaning you might close the gap with the calves but then something else breaks soon after.
Zebano - earlier this year I stopped strength training for about a month and all my niggles were coming back LOL I quickly learned not to slack on that.
So the heat wave is giving us a 2 day break so we can breathe again. I'm happy for that.
The coach has adjusted my running schedule to have 2Q days per week instead of 3 due to that.
I'm now facing the last 4 weeks of training before taper begins. Here's to completing those successfully.
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
Problem Child
So if I have a goal of a 1:25 in the first weekend of April at what point should I start doing speed work? I haven't actually raced a half marathon in so long and I've just followed a Hansons/JD Marathon training plan I'm kind of lost as to where to start for the half and what kind of mileage would work. I'm expecting to do less than 60 miles a week for a half marathon and any input towards how long the training plan should be and where I should start would be great.
Oh and in March I'll be doing a 5K I want to PR and finally break 20 minutes in so if it's possible to do BOTH I'd REALLY be interested in THAT training plan.
Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.
VDOT 53.37
5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22
JamesD
Brew - If I haven't been doing any fast running for a few months, it usually takes me about eight faster sessions (tempos and 1200m intervals) to get my speed back - or at least I'm still improving noticeably for the first six or so. Since I only do one faster run a week, that means I start at least two months before a goal half. YMMV, of course.
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
From the Internet.
oh hey, poked my head in here tentatively and it's an interesting mix of people I recognize/know from some of the other threads here AND people I might know from places other than RA! The internet is so wild. Hey zebano! kimba I am p sure I know you in real life, or else you're EERILY similar to someone I know!
Lauren, 33F in the greater Boston area. Picked up running in 2012, spent a lot of time nursing minor injuries off and on for the first few years. I learned some valuable lessons about what I need to do to stay healthy in 2018. 2019 was a massive breakout year for me in terms of mileage and racing and all that, and I'm hoping to roll on through 2020 and keep making progress! Aiming for ~3000 miles but not wedded to that if it's not serving my goals, and working on inching my way toward sub-3 marathon over the next year or two (or three or more, whatever, I'm here for the long haul) and the associated shorter race times that would go along with that.
Training for the mile indoors right now (current PR 5:43 as of 12/28, should be able to drop into the high 5:30s without too much fuss in the next month or so); registered for Boston, which will be here before I know it. Planning-but-not-yet-committed to running the New Bedford half in March, where I will probably try to take a first stab at sub-90 and see how much work I still have to do when I blow up. Current PR is 1:34:33 from 2018 and I am for sure a lot more fit than I was at that time, just a matter of whether I can blend together the elements I'll need to race a half with the short/fast stuff I'm doing for the mile right now. I am woefully lacking in tempo work, and that always super sucks when I come back to it after some time away D: Should be an interesting challenge and a learning experience, if nothing else! Fall race plans will be up in the air until later in the spring/summer. I'll likely run a marathon, but I'm also not ruling out a dedicated half marathon cycle yet.