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

kimba


    Oh, hey Lauren!  Tempo Tuesday  much?  I’m trying hard to do what’s necessary to run a responsible HM.  How are you?

    800m:  2:20.3 (2015) | 1 Mile:  5:13 (2016) | 5K: 18:32 (2010) | 10km: 39:55 (2012) HM: 1:28 (2013) 

     


    From the Internet.

      Oh, hey Lauren!  Tempo Tuesday  much?  I’m trying hard to do what’s necessary to run a responsible HM.  How are you?

       

      Good! TIRED! Holidays were super busy this year omg. I'm so ready for everyone to be back at work/school full time again and out of my house during the day, haha.

       

      Went to Tempo Tuesday a couple times last fall and def need to make it a more regular thing this year! When I went, there was a pretty solid group right around 6:50-7:00 and another group a little bit faster. Probably won't worry too much about it until February and just try to sneak in a little bit of tempo pace here and there before then so I'm not totally blindsided when I go back!

      SteveChCh


      Hot Weather Complainer

        I'm back on board after my summer holiday in Australia, and great to come back to see so many new faces in the thread.  Defy the odds and hang around for the year, we love it when new members become regulars.

         

        My holiday was eventful, to say the least.  The cricket in Melbourne didn't go the way we wanted but a fantastic week all the same.  Last day in Melbourne was 44 degrees (C) and included a 14km easy run (although early enough so that it was still under 35 degrees).  I didn't miss a run although reduced the volume a little and dropped the speed work.  Some of the "easy" runs were easy pace but not effort, especially the first run in Perth.  There were extreme fire conditions and we called in a fire within Melbourne which we saw from the freeway soon after it started.  It was a bit tricky to call it in given we were moving away from the location but it turned out they didn't know about it, and within 10 minutes, the emergency app was showing 8 engines in attendance.  Flying out last night over East Gippsland in Victoria, it looked like a series of nuclear explosions with huge mushroom shaped clouds.  Unbelievable how many have been started by arsonists.  Left Perth after I stuck my nose into a family altercation...it was my partners family so technically not my business, but she was being attacked for no reason and she's my family, so you don't get to do that without me getting involved.  Good times!  Love a family wedding...

         

        I did 20km today on not much sleep and generally tired but it felt very easy which is a great sign.  I'll try and catch up on the thread and update the first post with upcoming races, but feel free to remind me of any races you have planned, and your goal (if you've set one).

        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

        Marky_Mark_17


          Steve - nothing like a bit of family holiday drama huh?  Sounds like you did the right thing.

           

          Me - solid week to start the New Year.  Volume down a little to allow a bit of recovery as my legs were feeling a bit trashed during Xmas week.  I got out before sunrise on New Years Day for some intervals though.

           

          M: weights

          T: 14.5km easy

          W: 17km with intervals

          T: 14km incl. hills

          F: 6km easy

          S: 24.1km with steady efforts

          S: 10.1km easy

          Total: 85.7km

          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: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

          Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

          "CONSISTENCY IS KING"

          darkwave


          Mother of Cats

            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.

             

            So...I'm not gonna yell at you (even though you asked).  But...this sounds like a solicitation for advice, so...

             

            The next time this happens, you need to keep the recovery at 1 minute.  Even if that means that the next rep is really painful and that you drop out of the workout early.  As long as you know that you have that "out" of extending the rest break, it's going to be too tempting to run the interval too fast.

             

            [I see this one play out all the time.  People get in this cycle of just running the intervals faster and faster, and stretching out the recovery more and more.  Which turns the workout into more of an anaerobic speed workout, when you need an aerobic workout to race 5K and up effectively.  It's a self-correcting problem, but only if you strictly enforce the duration of the recovery.]

            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.

            JamesD


            JamesD

              Lauren (and other newcomers) - Welcome!  

               

              All - I'll repeat/rephrase Brewing's question - How many workouts does it take you to get your speed back after a couple of months away from faster running, assumng you've been doing a reasonable volume of easy runs and maybe occasional strides?  For me, it seems to be about 8, though that's when I haven't done any strides. 

               

              Me - I’m still fighting some sort of illness that seems to cycle from my throat to my sinuses to my lungs and back every few days.  Have been feeling a tiny bit better each day and getting closer to normal running distances and paces, though I still don’t feel great.  Resting heart rate is about 3-5 bpm over normal, down from 10 bpm over normal two weeks ago.  

               

              Sun - off

              Mon - 7.3 miles easy, 8:21/mile

              Tues - 6.2 tired, 8:30/mile

              Weds - 6.2 easy to moderate, 8:06/mile, too fast but felt easy

              Thurs - off

              Fri - 9.3 easy, 8:19/mile

              Sat - 6.2 easy, 8:23/mile

               

              Total - 35.2 miles

              12-week average - 29 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

              watsonc123


                Welcome to the newbies.

                 

                The fires in Australia are terrible.

                 

                My week was really light.  Holiday travel:

                M 0

                T 0

                W 6.4km

                T 10.4km incl. 4km tempo

                F 0

                S 0

                S 13.5km incl. 4km tempo

                 

                Total 30.3km

                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

                flavio80


                Intl. correspondent

                  Brewing - some people advocate doing speed early and then transition to race pace where as others advocate for slower stuff early and faster stuff later.

                  Some other people advocate working on your weaknesses early and your strengths later.

                  You probably would want the speed workouts to culminate on that 5K race.

                  Take a look at your training history and see how long it usually took for you to recover your speed, I’d reckon around 6-8 weeks of fast stuff is about what’s needed to get the legs rolling.

                  So if you’re doing 2 quality runs per week one would be this v02max culminating at the 5k race and the other would alternate long runs and HMP tempos.

                  After the 5k race it’s probably very close to taper so you could do some cruise intervals to help tune in race pace.

                   

                  Lauren - hi, welcome aboard! You’re running a lot of miles, the times will come.

                   

                  Steve - hey that sounds like fun vacations haha. My family also fights a lot but thankfully it’s the shouting kind of fight, no fists are flying.

                  It looks like you’re cooking just like myself so you know the feeling heh Smile

                   

                  Mark - didn’t you run some flatter half marathons this past year? I swear your races always climbed over Mount Everest and back in the years back.

                   

                  Kimba - What Mother of cats said.

                   

                  James - Ugh, I’ve just come out the other way of these nasty colds, I hope you get better soon. I get super pissed off because I lose a week of training and I can’t really afford that at the moment.

                   

                  Watson - hi

                   

                  me - praying to the running gods nothing happens between now and the race. It's gonna be a very tough race to try to get a PR as is.

                  I've been a nasty irresponsible brat with my body and I've been eating some sort of dessert nearly every day. End of year is always a difficult time with so many temptations around. I need to fall back in line now for the last 30 days before the race so I can shed at least one kg before the race.

                   

                  My week:

                  M: Strength

                  T: 4x800 w400jog + 4x200 w200jog

                  W: 10 ez

                  T: 10 ez

                  F: Strength

                  S: 10 ez

                  S: 3x 10 min at HMP w 5 min jobs. This was tough but manageable. The temps now are around 71/72F, race day temps will be in the low 50s so I'm still confident I should be able to run this pace on race day.

                  PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021

                  Up next: no idea

                  Tool to generate Strava weekly

                  kcam


                    I hear ya on the end-of-year desserts and eating/drinking too much.  I'm up a couple pounds but I think I'll be back on the right weight trajectory beginning this week.

                    I had a terrible start to the new year with a bout of lower back spasms.  Had just come back from my run on Monday (a fairly easy 4miler) and was puttering around in the yard.  Reached down to pickup the garden hose and BAM my lower back goes 'out'.  Very painful muscle spasms.  Couldn't hardly even walk for two days but the spasms slowly subsided and this morning I went out for my first run since.  Very good, but only 4 miles easy.  So my week as 7.7 miles!  Not really conducive to a good HM.

                    SteveChCh


                    Hot Weather Complainer

                      Just catching up on the thread and wanting to extend a big welcome to new members:

                       

                      grapes (Scott) from Portland, Oregon.

                      kcam (Ken) from Cupertino in the Bay Area

                      zebano (Shawn) from Iowa

                      Lauren from Greater Boston

                      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

                      dpschumacher


                      5 months til Masters

                        Get healthy and feel better James

                        Watson the fires look just awful.  I can't imagine.

                        Flavio those look like a couple of good workouts this week.

                         

                        My week was really rough.  The second trimester has come on hard for my wife.  She has been hardly able too keep food or fluids down so I have been doing all my running very late at night or over my lunch break.  I split my long run up on sunday while my son napped and then late after both him and my wife were asleep.  I've gotten about 4-6 hours a sleep a night between taking care of my wife and son and running.

                         

                        I'm on full redline city.  We went to the emergency room to get her an IV.  She is feeling much better now and has some meds to help with the nausea.  My week below.  Going to bed to finally get a good night sleep.

                         

                         

                        <colgroup><col width="60" /><col width="82" /><col width="108" /><col width="461" /></colgroup>
                        M 4.02 0:29:12 (w/ 6x 100m strides during one of the runs) treadmill
                          9 1:02:44 Treadmill
                        Tu 10 1:05:36 8 x 0.5mi @ 5:52/mi w/ 0.25mi recovery (2mi w/u & 2mi c/d) the rest at @7 min/mile
                        W 11.23 1:21:11 Running the river loop. NEW YEAR!!!!!
                        Th 5 0:34:51 treadmill over lunch
                          9.04 1:03:45 Rolling hills on treadmill
                        F 4.05 0:28:11 Treadmill
                          8.58 1:00:00 1 hours easy
                        Sa 15.41 1:44:21 Broke up into a 8.27 miles outside and 7.14 on treadmill because Jess was very sick
                        Su 12 1:24:36 Easy

                        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

                         

                         

                        zebano


                          Kimba - It doesn't always work but this is a great reason to run on the track. If you know that 7/mile is basically 1:45 / 400 or 52.5/200  (my quick math assumes that a mile = 1600) you can self correct much more easily than you can with a GPS watch on the road. Lets say you go out too hard and the first lap is done in 95, just hit the lap button, and try and get the next one on pace. As others have said, don't cheat on your recovery as it changes the workout too much.

                           

                          Lauren -- I feel like too much of artc moved to slack and I've no desire to follow so I'm trying this out since I've had my main log here for years anyways. Your progress over the years has been stellar and is an inspiration.

                           

                          JamesD - Getting speed back always feels super slow to me but is about 6-8 weeks in most cases.

                           

                          My week started off terribly as I posted before, I was sick, I followed that up with an amazingly fun (but not fast) 5mi trail tempo / 10 total on Thur but I got up Fri and my foot hurt. I ran an easy 8 anyways... and it made it worse. I cross trained on the elliptical & pool on Saturday and took Sunday off. I think I'm going to continue with low impact x-training this whole week =(

                           

                          On the plus side I lifted both Thur and Saturday. Nothing terribly heavy but I like to ease back into it so that I don't get those 4 day DOMs from squatting that just totally screws with my week.

                           

                          The real issue for me lately has been my sleep patterns and drinking ... it's horrible enough I'm committing to a going dry for the rest of January. OTOH as a book reader the Witcher has been enjoyable enough that I don't regret binge watching so much as the lack of sleep and how poorly that makes me feel. For full clarification this isn't a super awesome, must watch show like GoT, it's more like souped up Buffy with a side of politics / war but it's very enjoyable if you've enjoyed various supernatural CW shows like Buffy, or ... Supernatural (there is substantial gore and a little bit of nudity).

                           

                          If anyone has suggestions for a podcast to listen to during today's elliptical session I'm all ears. I've been listening to strength running, rogue running and TED Talks Daily (my favorite one lately is: https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_walker_sleep_is_your_superpower?language=en this bit on the importance of sleep).

                          1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)

                          dpschumacher


                          5 months til Masters

                            Citius mag podcast and runners of New York city

                            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

                             

                             


                            From the Internet.

                              zebano - understandable, it's just one more thing to keep up with!

                               

                              Few weeks in a row of race Saturday - long run Sunday - speed Monday wore me down juuuust a bit too much and am managing a hip thing now :C Womp womp.

                               

                              48 miles last week:

                               

                              M - club workout, 400/400/200 x3 followed by one 400/200. 89/88/42, 85/85/40, 86/83/40, 84/39. Slow on the first set but the effort was in line with the slower pace (88-89 felt pretty comfortable, not hard). ~6.3 miles total.

                               

                              Tu - woke up at like 3 AM with shooting pain in left hip. Subsided and I went back to sleep, was OK to run 7 easy miles later. ID'd some spots to focus on rolling in both legs, hip pain was identical in location but less severe than a similar thing that cropped up for me in June (SI joint area but muscular in nature, not a joint problem). That time, the pain came on suddenly and had me limping when it started up, so I was already in better shape this time around. Dug out PT instructions from the previous incident and got to work after the run.

                               

                              W - 5.3 easy miles, hip about the same as Tuesday. Light complaints but nothing really concerning.

                               

                              Th - hip continued to improve; 8 easy miles AM and only felt it a tiny bit at the very end, 3.5 easy PM and didn't bother me at all.

                               

                              F - club workout; figured coaches would be able to pull me out if I looked like I was limping, and it's way easier to bail on a 200m track versus a road workout where I might still have to hobble a few miles home if it popped up late in the run. Started off conservatively and then picked it up a bit at the end when it was clear that the hip was good. 3:05, 3:04, 3:03, 3:03, 3:00 for the 800s, 42-43 for the first 3 200s and then 41, 39. Felt great and cooldown was fine too. 7 miles total.

                               

                              Sa - 4 miles AM totally fine, 4.5 hilly miles PM with friends including 4x10s hill sprint (prob should have skipped those). All good during the run, but woke up the next day a little achy/off again.

                               

                              Su - should have been 13-15 mi long run, but feeling the hip again made me nervous so I opted to do the smart thing and just jogged a little bit to check in, then did some stretching and strength stuff. It wasn't PAINFUL while running, but it was noticeable, if that makes sense, so dropping mileage feels like the smart choice right now. If I try to power through and make it worse, I'm going to be EVEN MORE CRANKY for a much longer time, so I'm trying my very best not to do anything dumb even though just sitting around makes me very antsy, lol.

                               

                              Plan today is to jog a short loop around my neighborhood a few times and see how that goes, stick to flatter routes the next few days if I don't have any trouble just to be on the safe side. If I still feel the hip, I'll probably hit the pool for some pool running later in the afternoon or tomorrow, and make either PT or massage appointments or both.

                              grapes


                                I was lucky enough to do two of last week's runs on the beach, which was great, but it did seem to really irritate some of my troublesome right foot/ankle issues. They're feeling ok after a rest day yesterday, though. I was happy I got all my scheduled runs done during my two-week vacation off from work -- I'm not sure I've ever accomplished that before. Maybe it helps that I'm getting older and more wary of the consequences of eating and drinking too much.

                                 

                                So, my week was the usual boring mostly-slow 30 miles.

                                 

                                Dan - wow, ugh, that sounds just impossible. Way to go getting it done.

                                 

                                Zebano - I listen mostly to comedic podcasts, which might not be your thing. Judge John Hodgman and The Greatest Generation mostly lately.