Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2019
Steve - that is great news both on the running comeback front and the job front. I saw you logging a few more runs on Strava but didn't want to jinx it. Agree with JMac - ease back into it and just get the steady build-up happening. Summer will slow you down anyway soon enough!! What's the job offer?
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"
Hot Weather Complainer
Yep, definitely won't be rushing into anything - I have no races locked in so there's nothing to try and be ready for. I just want to make sure I have a long sustained period of building up.
The job is a Tech Lead role - not sure I want to say where in public although I'm sure anyone here could track me down easy enough! It's at a local govt agency focused on the environment...so anyone in NZ could guess the company name I'm sure.
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
A lot of the time it helps to have a race to work towards but I think your best bet is to just get a base there and then think about a race, it's not worth putting the pressure on yourself at this stage.
Good stuff on the new job!!
JamesD
Steve - Congratulations on both fronts! There is hope for successful recovery - after missing almost four months last year, I was able to very gradually increase my mileage to more than I had been doing before. I waited until I was over 40 mpw to start any fast running other than strides, and it took me several weeks after that to get back any sort of speed, so it takes a while, but just be consistent and gradual.
I continue to have mildly troubling leg issues, but at least it’s a different issue each week. This week it was the left leg's inner quad, the small muscle near the knee, that was sore. I didn’t feel it much while running, and I suppose it’ll clear up in a week or so. My LR and my tempo were both fairly long for me, so that may have contributed, and I started using two new pairs of shoes. They’re just new pairs of the same two models I’ve been using - Reebok Floatride Forever Energy for the tempo and starting next week for long runs and Nike Lunar Tempos for easy runs. I’m still getting a few more miles out of the previous pairs (on medium-long runs and workout warmups/cooldowns), but I can tell the new pairs have much more bounce. My tempo was a little slower than I had hoped for, but I wasn’t too tired afterwards, and the splits were 6:48-6:56-6:56-6:56, so I wasn’t fading at the end. Legs may just have been feeling the LR from 3 days earlier.
Sun - off
Mon - 14 miles easy
Tues - 6.2 easy
Weds - 32 minutes swimming
Thurs - 6.7 including 4.1 @ 6:54/mile
Fri - 6.2 easy
Sat - 6.2 easy
Total - 39.3 miles
12-week average - 30 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
..It's at a local govt agency focused on the environment...so anyone in NZ could guess the company name I'm sure.
Yeah, that is extremely obvious.
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
James - nice week and at least the various issues are working their way around.
Me - back to training this week. With 9 weeks until Kerikeri HM, the plan is to have a short, but relatively intense block of training like I did for Christchurch HM earlier this year, with probably 6 runs/week.
M: 8.2km recovery
T: 15km w/ intervals
W: 18.1km steady
T: 10km w/ hill repeats
F: weights
S: 10km incl. 5km tempo
S: 25km long run
Total: 86.4km
Mark - nice week.
My week was good. Started off really tried from the week before (first good week after three really low weeks). Had Tuesday off and felt better. Thursday was my best tempo this year, and of course my GPS had to loose signal. Saturday was my last Saturday club run of the year (as we don't have the club rooms October-March), and I'm on holiday next Friday to Wednesday in Sydney. The club run had the steepest run I've had this year too.
A lot of the time it helps to have a race to work towards but I think your best bet is to just get a base there and then think about a race, it's not worth putting the pressure on yourself at this stage. Good stuff on the new job!!
At the moment my goal is ChCh 2020 which is 9 months away...I would add a closer goal but I just don't have the confidence yet. I'm just happy to be running at all right now.
Bad day at the office for me today at the Belfast city Marathon. It rained for the first 6/7 miles and then stopped so I was soaked and got really cold! It was apparently very good conditions for some, but for me was not ok... around mile 7/8 I realised I could not get the 90 minutes, so I went for my B goal (keep running, stay healthy... but that is not a good goal to have in a race... The motivation to get is to slow down and keep at it to get to the end... which I did. The result is a few miles between 7:30 and 8... slower than the marathon...
I got ~1:33:30 in the end. Now I need to plan again. And I will do some homework to set more interesting goals (maybe a fast split.. now that I am on strava
anyway...
how do you copy your week here from strava??? I know I saw it somewhere posted but cannot find it now.
I did 35 miles (not bad considering it was a taper week) with a couple of intervals on Tuesday
hope you had a good weekend!
PRs since re-started in 2013:
5km: 19:43 (Belfast park run Sep-16) | 10km: 40:16 (Belfast Lagan side 10K Sep-18)
HM: 1:30:09 (Belfast city Half Marathon, September-18) | FM: 3:25:05 (official chip time Belfast city Marathon, May-19, marathon was 0.3/4 longer, original time 3:27:20 for 26.5/6...)
Upcoming races:
???
Marco - bad luck about the race. In the wonderful thing called hindsight, could you have worn different clothing which might have helped. For copying over from Strava:
http://rwol-weekly.appspot.com
Totally, there's no rush.
I'm about 90% sure that I'll come down and do the Christchurch Marathon next year. I really enjoyed the course for the half, despite the weather, and if I'm going to try and nail a good marathon time then it's probably the best option in the country.
Marco - bummer on the race. Conditions like that can impact people quite differently. Christchurch half marathon this year was a wet and cold day. It didn't bother me too much but Luke McCallum (who is much quicker than me!) and other struggled.
Watson - nice week and nice tempo run.
Intl. correspondent
Jmac/Keen - you guys and your crazy JD workouts
Mark - it's so cool that you got to meet Pfitz in person, even if only to be handed a medal.
It's nice to hear you're going for a second marathon, a sub 2h30 would be nice, no pressure haha
Steve - it's nice to see you back!
If you or any other IT folk here ever want to know more about working from home full time and still make first world pay hit me on PM.
James - look at you averaging 40 miles a week now, it's great to see your progress.
Marco - sorry to hear about the half but being rained in by Belfast rain sounds horrendous. You live to fight another day. In our age PRs are life events LOL they're so hard to come by.
Me - a recovery week with 5 short runs. Yesterday I paced my brother to a 5k PR and did it in style, in a superman costume LOL, damn it's so fun to run in costume, make jokes with random strangers, the Uber driver taking us to the metro station was beyond himself haha, he was telling us where he lived and I promptly askes him to describe how his house looks from above so I can spot it , so many silly jokes available.
The reception at every water station was superb and there was a group of young kids who were ecstatic and screaming like crazy when I passed and waved at them. After the finish line I found a group of other folks in costume and hi fived all of them.
That was a cool experience.
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
RIP Milkman
Marco - sorry for the bad weather, good learning experience though of how to dress for those races.
James - Migrating pain is always a good sign for me: when it happens, I know it’s not serious
Mark/Watson - good week.
Flavio - I have never run in costume, but some of the most fun races I’ve had are where I’m pacing someone. Two reasons: 1) you aren’t in the deepest corner of the pain cave and 2) the runners in the middle/back of the pack are a lot more fun! We’re way too serious near the front.
Me - First week with quality this week. My workout Tuesday went well, but Saturday was a disaster. It did turn out to a good long run with the average pace over 16 miles, but it was a failure from what it was supposed to be. Made me think of Keen and what a good job he did nailing that workout. I think I may have pushed the long portion too fast, as I tried to keep it up rather than my usual easy pace slog. It’s something I’m struggling with this cycle: what is easy pace, recovery pace, and pace during recovery sections of workouts. I think it’s obvious for true recovery runs: as slow as you need. I’m thinking these paces during workouts need to be faster than my normal pace, but I may have gone too far. Will tinker with it again on Tuesday when I try again.
Weekly SummaryMonday, Sep 16, 2019 thru Sunday, Sep 22, 2019
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
Steve thats good news Keep it up Congrats on the new Job!
James nice week Good job on that tempo.
Mark nice week
Watson Nice week nice job on that tempo and that hill looks tough
Marco sorry about the poor conditions for your race
Flavio sounds like you enjoyed dressing up for the race!
Jmac nice week
Another good week for me slow and steady. I put in almost 30 thanks to 4 runs this week and a bit longer than usual on Thursday morning.
I may try and get in about the same amount this week. I have a HM trail race Saturday with no time goal, not going to run hard just going to run with a friend at an easy pace. Registration was free and there is free beer at the end! There is also a free concert for all participants at a local brewery that night so there is that too.
Have a good week ya'll!
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
I think it’s obvious for true recovery runs: as slow as you need.
Mine was 4:42/km this morning (7:30/mile). My legs were protesting my first real training week, and longest run, since late July! It sounds like we were both very much back to the training grind this week. Anyway nice week and congrats on the promotion.
Flavio - sounds like fun!! I was thinking something around the 2:40 mark rather than sub-2:30 though (although I've got 8 months to figure that out).
Corey- nice week building back into it. A free race with free beer?!?!?! Not sure how anyone could say no to that (unless the trail requires you to dodge snakes or something crazy like that).