Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2019
3 months til Masters
Corey- I need in on some races like that!
Monday - 11 mile moderate pace cause i was feeling good (That did not last long this week)
Tuesday- 2 mile warm up 3 x 2k @ 10k pace with 3 min recovery (did not turn out well, 7:26, 7:25, 7:50) Long cool down to make it 11 miles and change
Wednesday- Track club 10 miler
Thursday- 2 mile warm bu 4x1 mile 6:16 6:01 6:12 6:29 (goal was 6:05)...cool down for 11 and change miles
Friday- 8 very slow miles (7:40 ish) felt very hard, 4 miles at 6:55 later at night to get my dog out for a run
Saturday- 14 miles in on a very windy day
Sunday- 12 mile progression from 7:25 down to 6:08
Total 80.5 miles (4 min faster on week than last week)
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
I was on a work trip last week to Puerto Rico, so didn't get in much running (and too much eating and drinking). Only ran on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday - 8 miles with one mile hard just to see where I am (6:32) which was slower than I would like.
Sunday - 10 miles with strides.
Hopefully I can get in a 20 day or so streak and start making some progress.
Cobra Commander Keen
Steve - Welcome, back, bud. Great news all around indeed, I'm excited for you. A goal race 9 months out sounds like a solid plan. It's something to definitely work toward, but it's far enough out that you have plenty of time to build back before starting serious training for it.
James - Good on the consistency, and I suppose if you're going to have leg issues ones that travel around are probably preferable to a definite issue in one place. Hopefully those all clear up, though.
Mark - Nice week.
Marco - Bummer the race didn't turn out the way you wanted. Hopefully it helps with nailing down race kit in such weather for future races. Welcome to Strava!
Flavio - Running in costume sounds like it could be a fun experience, maybe I'll try that someday, and pacing someone to a PR sounds awesome. Hopefully I'll be doing that in about a month.
JMac - Too bad about the Saturday workout, but it's way early in the cycle. My take on pace in recovery sections during workouts: After finishing a work segment I'll usually drop down to ~ 2 min/mi slower than M pace until I feel like I no longer have a need to breathe hard, then I usually gradually speed back up until I'm a bit slower than easy pace. For something like the 2T, 8E, 2T I'll end up spending most of that "recovery" at a bit shy of easy effort/pace. It's basically what just seems to "naturally" happen for me to recover from the work portions - if I do the recovery too hard then I won't be able to do the actual work hard enough. Keep in mind this insight is worth approximately what you've paid for it.
CFarr - A free trail race with a buddy and beer at the end, plus concert that night? Sounds like an awesome day!
DPS - Dang, nice week!
I had a pretty good, though tiring, week. Thanks to DD2's soccer game being in the afternoon on Saturday I was able to make the local running club group run and ended up meeting four people I had only "known" through Strava. I recognized one guy at a water stop and ran a couple faster-than-usual miles with him while we chatted (and I tried swallowing a cloud of gnats) until he got to his turnaround point, but only recognized the others by name once they introduced themselves (get a profile picture that actually shows who you are, people!). During my short run Sunday I was thinking "there's no way I'll be able to pull of the workout tomorrow" due to some fatigue, but ended up surprising myself. I think I'm getting to the point at which I should be able to get a really solid PR this fall, or at the very least have an excellent platform from which to PR next spring.
Weekly SummaryMonday, Sep 16, 2019 thru Sunday, Sep 22, 2019
5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22
Upcoming Races:
OKC Memorial 5k - April 27
Bun Run 5k - May 4
RIP Milkman
DPS/Mark - I love that 7:40/7:30 for you guys is "very slow". I think my cool downs qualify as very slow: 9:00+!
Keen - I think I'm a little in my own head right now regarding E pace, because what you described used to happen to me: I would just naturally speed up during those long E sections, but now I'm forcing it. I'm doing the 8E + 3x2T workout tomorrow and I'm not going to force the E pace: just going to let it happen.
Regarding yourself, you should definitely be in PR shape. I've always thought you had more potential than your race times show. You should easily be sub 1:25 this fall, so I may have to put that down as a goal for you
Piwi - where you at?
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
JMac - It does sound a bit like you're overthinking the whole recover/easy pace thing. Just let it happen, and good luck with the workout tomorrow. Thanks for the vote of confidence, I'd be absolutely thrilled with sub 1:25!! I don't think I've been able to put together a really solid race since my first HM, which was a solid 3.5 years ago now. I came fairly close with my marathon last fall, but let poor goal planning sink that ship. My goal race should change all that - BOTT!
I agree I was reading through the weekly updates and think you are looking good for a significant PR.
Jmac I still browse daily but have no racing enthusiasm as goes with me. Managing to maintain at 30 mpw but no structure. I just kinda go run when and where I decide on the day. I've done some effort runs but you wont notice them as they are up hills etc at 8.30 pace.
55+ PBs 5k 18:36 June 3rd TT
" If you don't use it you lose it, but if you use it, it wears out.
Somewhere in between is about right "
DPS - another nice week, building nicely there.
JMac - yeah, I'd try not to overthink the easy pace thing. The temps still look pretty rough in NY which always makes it tougher. I remember, I think it was last year, you were suffering through some of those warmer workouts, and then once the temps dropped everything kind of fell into place for you.
Keen - I meant to ask on Strava, what on earth is a blowie chicken? Anyway another good week and I definitely agree with JMac that you've got a lot more potential than your race times demonstrate. All those runs last week (barring Sunday) were pretty long, your strength and endurance are going to be right up there, all you have to do is find a bit of speed and I think you'll be set for a big PR.
Me - ahh, it's the back to training fun. Mentally I'm excited to be back at it, with enough time to build for Kerikeri HM at the end of November, but not so much that it feels like my next race is ages away. The legs, however, are definitely telling me that they preferred the lower mileage and more races deal that went from late August to mid September. The same thing happened after Christchurch HM; they'll get there, it might just take another week or two before they readjust to the higher mileage.
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"
Mark - Thanks. I'm starting to like doing just an easy 2-ish miles on Sunday to help loosen the legs up a bit. It feels better than not running at all, but doesn't seem to add any fatigue. You guys are putting some pressure on me to pull off a good race!The blowie chicken thing is an inside joke regarding a podcast I was listening to on that run. Long story short, a listener sent the hosts a box full of squeaky rubber chicken dog toys kinda like this:
Only people who had listened to that episode in the ~12 hours since it was released would have gotten it, so it was quite esoteric. .
Keen - Re recovery runs, I'm just getting to understand the benefit of these now too. My legs felt pretty smashed after Sunday's long run, and an easy 5 mile recovery run yesterday definitely felt like a slog - I was still not convinced it was a better option than just taking the day off running and hitting the gym. This morning, the legs were much improved and if anything, actually felt better than if I'd taken Monday off running altogether.
The blowie chicken thing makes a lot more sense now. I do appreciate the value of a good esoteric inside joke even though I didn't get that one!
Huge fan of recovery runs! I think once you realize the difference between recovery and easy, you will make big gains.
I do think I'm overthinking easy/recover pace, but hey, at least this is worth thinking about (unlike some other things, like you know, which color blue to wear for race day )
JMac - there's an NZ stockist for Maurten gels and drink mix now... I recall you were a Maurten fan? Any thoughts?
I like the SIS gels but they are bulky, and the Maurten gels seem to have a much better energy to weight profile as well as additional sodium. Have you tried the Maurten drink mix as well?
(also, any blue is acceptable for race day, the more the better haha)
HUGE fan of Maurten. But if everything is working for you, I’d say don’t fix what ain’t broke, especially for a half. As we’ve discussed, they’re more of a mental boost for you given you run under 90 minutes in a half. Maybe you can experiment if you do start training for a full, as that’s where Maurten really shines because it doesn’t require water and doesn’t contain simple sugars, which causes issues when you start taking 3+ during a full.
Piwi - forgot to respond to you earlier. As long as your are lurking, I am happy. Not many people use that phrase on men in their 50’s
Heh, yeah I was asking with a full in mind. I figure I can test them out on some long runs over summer, or even in my current training block. I remember when I ran that full in 2017, my stomach definitely got to the point where I didn't really feel comfortable chucking anything more in there.
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
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
Probably but I think my body just didn’t take well the change from rainy and wet to not rainy and cold
probably i can deal with all rain or all cold but I could not deal very well with the cold once the rain stopped for a few miles... then I just lost motivation
not sure how I would have used different kit in this occasion to be honest... I’ll try to experiment...
thanks for the link!!! I’ll try it
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:
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