Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2019
Nice week Mark and I got up at 4.30am so we are both crazy or very efficient
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 "
JamesD
Another good week, with another 14-mile long run and my best set so far of 5x1200. My floating niggle has moved to my left knee, which was stiff and mildly swollen at times. I haven’t felt it while running, though. Morning temperatures are a bit lower now, which makes the runs easier. On the other hand, I like to listen to music during my long runs but haven’t been able to find my iPod for a few weeks and am too stubborn to buy a new one. The long runs do take a little more mental effort without music, but I suppose that’ll help come race day.
Sun - off
Mon - 14 miles slow & easy
Tues - 6.2 easy
Weds - 32 minutes swimming
Thurs - 6.5 including 5x1200 @ 4:31 with 200m walk/200m jog intervals (~3:15)
Fri - 6.2 easy & very slow
Sat - 6.2 easy & not as slow
Total - 39.1 miles
12-week average - 32 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
RIP Milkman
Mark - very nice week, is 100K going to be the norm now? Also the course is not flat: will be running on the rolling hills of CP, which should cost me even more time. That’s why I think a PR is the right goal and not sandbagging: lack of taper and rolling hills will definitely hurt and offset any gains I may have made.
Keen - You’re following my schedule, so it’s easy to remember: yes, 6E + 10M + 1E is up next. I’m going to run that on Tuesday, should give my legs 3 easy days to get ready for the 10K.
Piwi - that’s a great 5K effort! You always seem to be able to find a way to get it done no matter how your training is going. Maybe it’s all the animal therapy you’ve been experiencing lately. Also regarding weather: i never take specific forecasts this far out with certainty. I do take patterns though. When you see a huge drop in temps and humidity in the US, it generally holds that a cold front has come through. The exact timing of it doesn’t really matter, nor does the start temp being 48 or 52. I just know that it will be post cold front and conditions should be better than they have been lately.
James - very nice 1200s! I find them so much harder than 1K. I think you continue to grow and hopefully there are more PRs coming as you’ve had a great year.
Me - very happy with my week. My Q day on Tuesday went very well, and I seemed to recover very quickly from it. My easy pace has naturally picked up, which proves I was over engineering it too much lately. Also, this is not a good milestone, but I threw up on my long run today for the first time on a run since high school!! It wasn’t because of intensity or anything like that: rather, I got SO hungry that I kept getting more nauseous and finally couldn’t hold it anymore. I don’t know if anyone else experiences that, but I definitely get nauseous if I skip breakfast or am delayed in eating, often saying something like “I’m so hungry I could vomit!” Well today it happened. I had an energy bar before I went out on the run, but I think I need to bring some gels with me just in case this happens again. It was only water that came up from my few water stops, so it wasn’t a big deal, and luckily I was near a bush in CP so I could hide from the fellow runners.
3 weeks in a row right around 70 miles is a big accomplishment for me, as in all of my previous cycles I’ve only peaked at 70. Some very minor aches and pains but nothing I’m worried about. I’m ready to bump up the mileage to 75-77 over the next 3 weeks and really get at it!
Weekly SummaryMonday, Sep 23, 2019 thru Sunday, Sep 29, 2019
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
As every year since they were created....the Twolves should be....ok.
What the Knicks would give to be able to say that.
JMac - really nice week and good that you've sustained the mileage. Can't believe you threw up - there's been the odd evening run where my stomach has got a bit hungry but I've never actually thrown up. Rollers will slow things up a bit but maybe less than you think if you can sustain a good rhythm through them.
My mileage is probably going to bounce around a bit but should be in the 90-100km range over the next few weeks. NZ Road Relays is next weekend, it's not a goal race but I need to put in a solid effort for the team so I might just dial back the mileage slightly this week, probably more like 90km. The following week will be back up again.
James - nice week, I used to run with music but totally ditched it 3 years or so ago. I kinda miss it on long runs sometimes but otherwise not really.
Me - major FOMO this morning it was Devonport Half Marathon which is the first race of the Auckland Half Marathon Series, which I am not running for the first time since it started 3 years ago. Even worse, looking at the results, it was totally winnable!! The guy who won it, Matt Peach, is from my club, he's really improved a lot over the last couple of years but I would still have a good 2 minutes or so on him over HM distance. I could've won it last year if I hadn't had food poisoning in race week so I'm probably gonna have to have a crack at it next year I think.
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 - besides your goofy NZ park runs, have you ever won a race? I feel like Johnny Mcgee or Dan FlaSheep always beats you. You may need to get out with Piwi more often in the country and chase down some domesticated animals for true training.
James nice week. At our age there always seem to be some niggles.
Jmac nice mileage. Bummer about the vomiting. I struggle with afternoon runs sometimes. It feels like terribly low energy and sometimes my vision goes weird. I guess its fueling.
My training the last few weeks although low at 30 mpw has had alot of hidden quality with sand dunes and offroad/farm running with decent hills. Still was nice to stretch the legs out yesterday although I had a tail wind so 3.50/km was fairly comfy and I only put in 5k effort on the last km at 3.35.
Mark you are now in the envious position of been able to win alot of races so get used to it . The Tauranga Marathon was last weekend. Winner was 2.35 and 2nd was 2.48 so you would be up there in that one too.
My week
JMac - I won the Corporate Challenge 5k (an actual race!) in 2017 and the Omaha HM in 2018. Quite a few 2nds and 3rds in there too (generally HMs where one or two really fast guys showed up).
Piwi - nice week and you win the award for best pictures.
Also here's another one from the "this NZ loose unit sh!t is gonna crack JMac up" file... there was only 12 seconds between 1st and 2nd at the Devonport Half Marathon today. It turns out that the guy who ran second (Sasha Daniels) was with the lead group and they took a wrong turn (so did the lead bike!!!) slightly after the halfway mark which enabled Matt Peach who was 4th at the time to move into first and he ended up winning.
1st place had 21km on Strava and 2nd had 21.3km (!!!!).
Now, I am a great believer that runners should know the course, but when the lead bike sends you the wrong way and it costs you the race, um yeah that's not great. Sasha is a competitive guy (and a former Auckland Marathon winner) and would have been right to be furious about it.
Just to make it doubly awkward, Matt is on my team for NZ Road Relays next weekend. If he starts bragging about the win, I'm not quite sure what I'm gonna say. Although given it looks like him and Sasha are both running the whole Half Marathon Series maybe I'll just leave them to figure it out on the road.
James Mark Jmac Piwi nice weeks
Good news came for me this week: my time was good enough to get into Boston, so I am Boston bound.
I just barley made the cut off, by 14 seconds.
Slight drop in mileage from last weeks almost 30, still on the road to recovery plan to stay in the 25-30 range at least another month.
I would like to start getting back in to the mid to upper 30's by mid November. Hopefully by then I will be "back to Normal" and can continue to build up from there and start putting in some quality work.
I am still trying to keep the intensity at a low level with no speed work.
When should I start back up with Interval and T pace work?
Had a nice HM trail race Saturday (came up a little short on the Garmin 12.9) It was challenging course with a good amount of hills my quads are a bit sore this morning. I tried to keep myself in check, and started off at a relatively easy pace/ low intensity I did pick it up in terms of intensity after about 2 miles but I think I did well not going "all out",
still ended up finishing 23rd overall and 2nd in my AG
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
Corey - Congratulations on Boston, very good news. As for your question, fwiw when I've been coming back from injury or even a base period with no fast running, I've found it helpful to start doing easy strides once or twice a week for a couple of weeks before I try any tempos or intervals.
Corey - congrats! I’m still not sure if I’m running it, but I’m signed up. Regarding your question, I agree with James, start with some strides twice a week. After a couple of weeks of that, I would add in one 20 minute tempo run per week. You should stay away from I runs for a while, they are the most taxing runs you can do.
Mark - It really is amazing how incompetent your race directors are. As I said before, I don’t understand how you guys put up with this, I would be LIVID at them post-race. Non-certified courses, wrong turn points, bad lead bikes. Bad.
I finished a fairly demotivated week, with only 4 miles ran during the week (I had a travel to Manchester for 3 days and a lot of work to do) and 6+10 over the weekend. I am thinking about an additional 3K test later, but I am not sure about it.
I have 8 international trips in the next few months (until end of December), so I am not sure how I can manage to keep motivated. I have tried by signing up to a 10K on the 30th of November... let's see.
Have you seen Bekele!!! 2 seconds from the incredible word record ran last year by Kipchoge ... incredible. I guess those new shoes do help them!!!
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:
???
Man, this thread sure moves fast. Been super busy at work so hard to keep up. Anyway, on the shoe topic, I’ve been running in the NB Beacon (6mm) and I like them a lot. On trails I’m using Altra Lone Peak (0mm). I used Hoka (4mm) before that. I’ve used the NB HanzoS (4mm) and 1400 (10mm) for races. So drops 0-10mm. Hasn’t been an issue.
Finally had a semi-decent week.
Monday - 4 easy TM
Tuesday - 3.7 easy TM with last bit walking at grade
Wednesday - 5.8 easy roads with some strides
Thursday - 5.5 easy TM
Friday - 4.9 easy TM
Saturday - 11 trails with some strides
Sunday - 12.1 roads with 3x12 minutes hard (about 6:35 pace which is a little slower than wanted)
47 miles total
Corey that's great news congrats.
Marco yes I just read about Bekele. Amazing I thought he was way past his best. I tried so hard to find a livestream but gave up.
3 months til Masters
I am looking forward to a Bekele /Kipchoge showdown at the Olympics marathon.
Corey-Awesome on the BQ. I hope to run 2021
Mark good week-How did those intervals feel the next day?
James- Nice 1200's.
Jmac-puking in central park is a New yorker's right of passage, right?
Piwi- I still love the bovine pace pack
Cfarr- nice trail race
Monday: Easy 6 after the progression Sunday
Tuesday: 2 mile WU, 5x2k@ HM Pace w/ 3 min jog recovery, 2 min CD....got out to fast o the first few
Wednesday: 7 miles with the track club...my favorite route (a gravel path on an island) is open for the first time this year so i got to run it which was great
Thursday: Quick 6 miles before the packer game (which we lost...womp womp)
Friday: Treadmill...2 mile warm up, 2x15min @ 5:53 pace, 2 mile cool down for 1 hours total...9.1 miles
Saturday: 8 miles on the island
Sunday: 11 mile with the last 3 miles a bit quicker
Total 58 and change miles
Starting my taper this week. Next Sunday is my 10 mile race, last race of the year...then vacation for a week in Florida...then marathon training for 2020.
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