Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2019 (Read 641 times)

Mark - nice week.

The Robertson twins are pretty good.  They seem to be just ever so slightly slow to win big races, but if they could improve every so slightly.

My week was pretty good.  Had to miss Tuesday.  Wednesday was a failed Mona workout - I could not speed up as the intervals got shorter, I ran the 90s intervals a bit quick.  Saturday was just the one run, I had to stop and fix my watch (still set-up for intervals from Wednesday!).

Heat Wave 5-mile Race Report

This race follows a bike path south on the east bank of the river that divides the states of Georgia & Alabama.  It has a noticeable net downhill, but there are several moderate uphill stretches too. Despite the name, the temperature this year was only around 80/26, and the land sloping up from the riverbank meant that we were in the shade for the first half of the race.  Humidity was over 90%, but I didn’t feel like it affected me as much as it would’ve in a longer race. It attracts around 300-400 participants, more than most local races, and there usually are several people around my pace.

I walked the block from our apartment to the running store where the race finishes and took a shuttle bus to the hilly start area.  As soon as I started my warmup jog, my hamstring began to hurt, perhaps because I started on a downhill. I jogged less and did shorter and gentler strides than usual and then walked until the start, and the pain gradually faded.  Since I knew I was going to start slowly, I lined up in about the fourth row, behind a runner in my age group who’s a bit slower than I am, as I knew he wouldn’t either go out too fast or slow suddenly. (Kids often sprint or weave unpredictably at the start of races here.)  A few steps after the start, he stepped left and then fell over a boy who had fallen in front of him, doing a sort of back somersault. It looked like he was in danger of being trampled, but the people behind us were slower and must have gone around him. I found him at the finish line (he had gotten a ride in with the RD), and he had a wrenched knee but nothing worse.

When he fell, I was bumped a time or two, but I was going slowly enough that I kept my balance.  I eased into a steady pace and began very gradually passing people. It felt like I was running a constant effort and they were slowly coming back to me, rather than me catching up to them.  I was probably 20th after half a mile and 6th after four miles, and I don’t think I ran with anyone for more than 30 seconds. My pace was pretty even, and I felt in control until right at the end, when I briefly felt like throwing up.  Never thought I was pushing very hard, but I didn’t really think I could go much faster either. For the last mile I was about 30 seconds behind a 2:56 marathoner who has been slower this year and must have been having a bad race, but I didn’t gain on him.

Final time was 32:27, which was about two minutes faster than in 2015 and 2016 when the course was more difficult and I was only running about half my current mpw.  6th place overall, and first master. As long as my hamstring is ok, and it seems fine for now, I’ll consider this a reasonably successful race. Lessons learned include that the absence of long tempos didn’t seem to hurt for a race this short (probably because I had done five VO2 max-or-faster workouts in the last couple of months), that an unintentional three-week taper after three months of high-for-me mileage didn’t seem to hurt my fitness too much, and that a little speedwork five days beforehand seemed to work ok.  Assuming I recover ok, I’ll have 10 days of moderate running before a four-day beach vacation, and then it’ll be time to start thinking about my November half.

My week:

Sun - off

Mon - 3 miles, including 4x200 averaging about 39 seconds

Tues - 5.2 easy

Weds - off

Thurs - 3, including 0.5 @ 6:06 pace

Fri - off

Sat - 5.5, including 5-mile Heat Wave race in 32:26.6

Total - 16.7 miles

12-week average - 33 mpw             

James - nice week.

Flavio - nice week.

Watches - I think the biggest reason to have watches is not to push you, but actually to hold you back. Sometimes I can’t tell how fast my easy pace is and my watch can help tell me to slow down if the pace is too quick. It’s also GREAT for running in new locations, as you don’t have to do much planning. Just have an idea of which direction to go and you can get a good out and back. I’d seriously considering getting one if you don’t have one, there are very basic ones that are relatively inexpensive. The upper end watches are crazy, there are so many features that I have no idea what you would use them for.

James - good to see you racing and nice race report!

Flavio - it’s amazing how much interval training you have. What’s the longest run you’ve done in the past 2 months?

MJ - not injured, just not running too well! Heat and humidity has gotten to me here, and also the big ramp up in mileage and intensity.

Mark - I hit 13 straight days running, was thinking about you because we’re pretty similar in that we don’t run 7 days a week. What’s the longest streak you’ve had?

Me - As stated, had a bad workout Friday morning, had to bail almost immediately. 13 days in a row of running, plus run up in intensity/miles, plus heat/humidity all got to me. I took Saturday off and felt a million times better on Sunday during my long run. It’s amazing how sometimes just one day off can make a huge difference in how you feel.

Anyway, not so sure about my 16:59 goal in 2 weeks, not sure how I would have made that much progress in 4 weeks, but what the hell, I’m gonna keep it, gotta stick to BOTT and I can’t listen to Flavio tell me I’m sandbagging. I think I can get about 30 seconds from training, going to need another 30 from weather!

This week I may go up a bit in mileage, been in the 60-62 mile range for a few weeks in a row now so I may be ready to step up here. I’ll most likely hold in the upper 60s for the rest of the summer.

Weekly Summary
Monday, Jul 01, 2019 thru Sunday, Jul 07, 2019

Jmac: that isnt a bad week at all. I was mistaken. Good stuff and good luck with your race!

You know you're back to running when the stress dreams about being unable to run fast and getting slower and slower in a race return. Haven't had one of those in a few years.

Mine was running a college xc race as my 20 y.o. self (I'm 35) and I get isolated from the lead pack and start slowing until I am literally clawing at the ground and trees to stop from rolling backwards. I used to have it all the time. Woke up so stressed out.