Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2020
Mother of Cats
It seems to be hitting the "latin" countries very hard, I wonder if that's because Italy, France and Spain are ahead in the spread or it has to do with how close we are with the family/elders and everything. The city closed the local parks so I won't be able to do my rings workout for a few days. It's a pity cause I can't do many pull exercises indoor.
It seems to be hitting the "latin" countries very hard, I wonder if that's because Italy, France and Spain are ahead in the spread or it has to do with how close we are with the family/elders and everything.
The city closed the local parks so I won't be able to do my rings workout for a few days. It's a pity cause I can't do many pull exercises indoor.
I've heard this suggested. Depending on the culture, "stay at home" can have very different implications in terms of how many people you interact with.
This is all very interesting to live through, but for me honestly has a sense of deja vu, because of my previous experiences living in DC during 9/11, the anthrax attacks, and the sniper attacks, plus all the government shut downs.
(the DC sniper attacks were similar, but different in that one could congregate in large groups inside, but doing anything outside, even walking to your car or waiting for a bus, was considered extremely risky.)
This really feels like a combination of the anthrax attacks (with the paranoia about what you touch), the sniper attacks (with the lockdown), and a government shutdown (with the cancelling of races, events, etc). It will be crazy, but eventually will end.
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.
Mark losing a baby at 27 weeks.. ugg that's awful. Condolences to your brother.
Flavio - I hope Italy naturalizes you promptly!
Mark good luck with the race, that's super exciting that they haven't cancelled.
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
My last week was a success:
Weekly Run stats
12/26/52 week averages: 31 - 37 - 33
Weekly Bike stats
no long ride as I just can't force myself into that on a trainer.
Weekly Swim stats
Quality Sessions:
6x :40 FAST, 1:50 FLOAT-- This felt really good when I ran it. I felt strong like I was giving great effort but I was a bit dissapointed in retrospect that the fast portions only averaged 5:51. Oh well, the effort was there.
Ladder of RRRRRRRR - 200-300-400-400-300-200-200-300-400R. This was stellar. Everything was sub :40/200m and I could have gone faster. Longish rests really make for fun & fast workouts in my book.
Long Run 20+KM normally a 20km route, but some shenanigans were happening as a fundraiser so I had to run a extra couple miles while waiting for that. Easily my fastest long run in ages and had some beautiful snowfall on the trails as well.
Awesome news that Southern Lakes is still on! I presume the domestic flights are still on? The flight could be rather empty!
The last three weeks of the Wellington Waterfront 5k series have been cancelled.
I still think it is late 2020 before normal at best. It might be that the restrictions do reduce before then. Sorry if I am coming across a little pessimistic here.
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
Cobra Commander Keen
Busy weekend. Apologies for missing everything I am with this post.
Flavio - Things doing ok in your new world? Hopefully you (and the rest of us) don't discover if we really are only 9 meals between mankind and anarchy.
Zebano - A "speed surplus" like that isn't uncommon. Typically bringing up longer distance performance is done with plenty of easy (truly easy - go by your lowest race VODT) volume, plus perhaps some T work as well. Setting VDOT/training by race results is best.
Mark - Good quote. The next in that trilogy is "may you come to the attention of those in authority". Yikes. I can't imagine how tough that must be on your brother and SIL.
CFarr - Congrats on the job and the craziness there working itself out.
JMac - A HM distance time trial sounds... tough. Couldn't you figure out a legit course in CP? Laps around the reservoir could be good for something flat and allow for plenty of hydration opportunities. Probably not the most exciting, though.
Did a fun little gravel/dirt road 50k Friday. It was part of a larger gravel bike race the next day, for which there were lots of no-shows - primarily internationals and from the coasts, from what I was told. Most of the "local" cancellations were reportedly due to conditions (rainy, windy, and cold).
OKC has been postponed until the day after my favorite HM, so if I do that one it'll just be easy effort (marathon-distance recovery run, anyone?). Kind of a bummer, but OKC was probably my best shot at a BQ for next year.
An interesting observation post-50k: I've been wanting to stuff my face with too much in general, and enjoyed more chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and orange sherbet than I should have. After Friday's race that urge is completely gone. My usual post-race mean is a burger and a shake (Stillwater desperately lacks a good burger place). The burger place I ate at didn't have shakes, and by the time I left that restaurant I didn't even feel like making the left-hand turn across traffic to stop by the shake place on my way out of town.
I had also started to feel a bit down about my running after Dallas and Ft. Worth (to heck with going south for marathons any longer!), but that has changed as well. I'm really wanting to get out there and pound out lots of miles, do doubles, etc. Odd what a hilly, occasionally muddy slog can do for you.
Last note: I HIGHLY recommend cryotherapy treatments. I was pretty stiff and sore after sitting down for the drive back to town, but after the treatment my legs felt practically normal - like what I'd expect after a usual 18-20 mile easy LR. No big DOMS issues, either. My legs are feeling pretty good. Not that I'm planning on jumping straight into workouts, though.
5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22
Upcoming Races:
June 28 - Twilight 5000?
July 4 - Firecracker 5k
Problem Child
I must be one of the very few people not concerned, more bothered, by COVID-19. Society doesn't care about others enough to listen to the advice about staying home. We have to shut everything down, put people into a panic about groceries, and I'm over here thinking "wow this is fucking annoying because governments are shutting down everything simply because people won't stop spreading COVID-19." Even listening to people bitch about NOT being sent home "to work" is annoying. I have a strong feeling those people who want to "work from home" actually want to go out in public and have a two or three week vacation without using time off. Especially when someone says "I don't know WTF I'd do with all my time" if they were to work from home....yeah. I can't imagine why we have to show up.
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
Darkwave - whew, that’s quite a list of events.
Zebano - that’s a very balanced week. Nice one!
Keen - people are orderly so far. We shall see.
There’s been a sense of national pride over here, I hope that carries over to keep orderly. To be honest, if people break rank I suppose the Mafia will put them back in line. (Sorry Marco, I couldn’t resist the joke).
Only you can do a 50k fun run and survive to tell the tale.
Me - I was running outside today, ya know, blowing off some steam and getting my daily dose of endorphins, when a lady in a car passed with her window down and yelled at me to go back home.
Fuck her! The government decree by the prime minister with the help of the scientists say I can be out running on the streets.
I'm giving people a wide berth. I'm covered by the government decree. I'm following the law.
I know in Lombardy the police and the army are telling some people to go home, but they have 70% of the cases, it's reasonable.
I sure hope I don't have to buy a dreadmill on Amazon. Delivery times are getting longer.
Sorry about the rant, I surely know my needs of running are tiny in comparison of the tragedy the country is going through.
Mmmm Bop
Totally agree as we live in a different and very selfish society compared to the 1st/2nd WW when everyone pulled together when things were A LOT worse. We are being asked to be responsible and stay at home if you have the coronavirus symptoms....which is better than going to war with a high risk of death. I went to my local supermarket a couple of days ago and guess what...a shortage of loo rolls. Unbelievable.
5k - 17:53 (4/19) 10k - 37:53 (11/18) Half - 1:23:18 (4/19) Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)
It's interesting times for sure. San Francisco has now ordered a shelter-in-place starting at midnight. The only reason to go outside should be medical reasons, to get food, or for work for essential businesses.
When it comes to running I have discovered a couple of things:
I think my Adidas Boston shoes are causing issues with my hamstring at my injury spot. I took a 3 mile run in a pair the other day and was unusually sore at the injury spot afterwards. Looking back at my runs before I got injured, I ran my last half marathon and my last workout 3 days later in those shoes as well.
Although I'm mostly symptom free it also looks like my Crohn's is messing with my iron uptake. I get to take blood tests every 3 months and my values have been low over the last year. I have been taking 325 mg iron sulfate (which contains 65 mg of iron) twice a day for a while and my values are still low. So iron, red blood cells, and hemoglobin values are low. No wonder I feel like I'm in bad shape.
5k: 20:32 (1/17) | HM: 1:34:37 (2/18) | FM: 3:31:37 (3/18)
Getting back into it
I like the video I saw of a black woman trying to get toilet paper from a latin woman and they started a fight. Two girls were beating the one black girl and when they stop GRANDMA is holding the car when the black girl says she just needs ONE pack. grandma says "no. none for you."
At least Canada and every other country is okay with closing their boarders to outsiders right now. I thought it was racist to build walls and keep people out in America because some statue in Jersey says something about bringing in sick people.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
Rune: Feel better man. Lack of iron must suck. I still remember how I felt after donating blood and running. I'd imagine you feel that way all the time.
When the media/newspapers make a big deal out of not panic buying and then publish pics of panic buying, it actually becomes an even bigger problem. I tried to buy 1 packet of paracetamol today because my wife isn’t feeling well. I went to 4 different stores and they were all sold out.
Imagine if snowflake kids today had to self isolate without internet/phone or PlayStation...wow, I pity the parents!
They are at this stage. Domestic services will get scaled back further, I'd expect, but not to anywhere near the extent of Air NZ's international services which have been cut by 85%. The busiest routes on the domestic network, like AKL-WLG, AKL-CHC, and AKL-ZQN will still get reasonable service but probably AKL-ZQN will get cut more than the others since it's more reliant on (non-existent) tourist traffic.
All - Thanks for all the well wishes re my brother and SIL. Fortunately my SIL's parents are staying with them so they at least have some family close by. Time is the only thing that really heals that sort of thing, but it helps to have family and friends around.
Lots of discussion here (which is great) so I'm not quite keeping up with everything, but...
Mikkey / Brew - I'm in the same camp as you guys. This would not be nearly as big an issue if people would just stop losing their f%$king minds. The media is partly to blame, of course, because every other bloody story is about something to do with coronavirus and there is some sensationalist nonsense out there. In contrast back in WWI and WWII we had quality state-controlled propaganda from the likes of Uncle Sam urging us all to rally together. I'm not saying I agree with the Chinese government's fairly ruthless and authoritarian approach to getting things under control but... if people can't be trusted to do what is in the collective best interest then I can see why they dealt with it like that.
Flavio - people are nuts. Running by yourself is perfectly safe.
Zebano - nice week.
Keen - awesome to hear you've got the excitement back, and especially at a time where the racing future is a little uncertain. Sometimes inspiration comes from places you don't quite expect!
Rune - doh! And double doh! At least you figured the shoes might be an issue.
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"
Mark - Right about that. I let myself get a tad bit behind on nutrition during the 50k, which I think led to some darker (in the moment) running related thoughts. Quite the change afterwards, though.
Is is uncouth of me to have noticed that because of current events I could fly round-trip to Seattle, rent a car for a couple days, and stay in a hotel for a couple nights in order to run a marathon (squeaking one in before the Botswana deadline) for ~$500?
ETA: Just heard that local schools closed for two weeks after spring break (this week). Bright side: I don't have to get up so early to run and won't have to worry about school traffic at all! Possibly having the track all to myself in the mornings, as well.
Hot Weather Complainer
Mark - It's amusing how often the media are putting out stories saying DON'T PANIC. Then every minute or 2 there's another alert. On Saturday an alert popped up on my phone "NZ cricket player has sore throat".
That's when I said FFS and turned off alerts.
Well in what used to be a race week, I smashed a 70 minute with 5km tempo last night and felt fantastic (5km in 20:46 after 8km easy). I'm going to keep targeting Christchurch on May 31 but I know it is unlikely. So here's an interesting topic. If I reach what I consider race fitness at close to PR level, then all races are off and assuming I don't want to do a time trial, what next? Back to base building or try to stay at the fitness peak and, if so, how?
I decided to give blood today since it isn't race week. I'm not running again until tomorrow night and that will be easy, so I'll see if there's any impact. My own contribution to research.
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 DNF
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
Continuing my recent run of quotable quotes, this reminds me of a zinger from Winston Churchill, which was also very popular with former NZ Minister of Finance (and later Chair of NZ Post) Sir Michael Cullen...
"Never let a crisis go to waste"
The reality is those things are cheap because companies are doing everything they can to stimulate the market right now so I wouldn't feel guilty about it at all.