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

JMac - The forecast is pretty much unchanged from earlier - nicely cool, low wind, partly cloudy. Going for 1:25 seems a bit intimidating to me right now because it's so much faster than my PR. But then again, that was a LOT of miles ago and the way I'm running sure says that it should be doable so I'm certainly going for it!

That was a LONG time ago, as you pointed out. My PR in the half earlier this year was 1:20:39, from May 2017. I cut it down to 1:16:20 this March. So I think 3 minutes is completely reasonable. Plus, aren't you running in the VF? That should give you a minute right there 

Thanks for the welcome, guys!

JMac, - I read your race report after everyone else commented on it.  Sounded tough!  I did the last leg of the Cape Cod Marathon Relay this past weekend - 6.7 miles on the shore in Falmouth, MA.  It was miserable!  I can't imagine combating that weather for 13.1 miles.

Piwikiwi - Thanks for the support despite my old age ;-)  I hope you're right - since I started running a bit late in life, I'm hoping that I have more to give

Flavio - I gather you're into weight lifting?  Nice!  I am a PT and tend to spend a portion of each year getting excited about lifting heavy things!  It usually fades after a few weeks, though - my attention span is short!  And when I start running more, I lift a lot less.  Maybe I should try to keep it up, but I'm lucky if I get 1-2 lifting sessions once I start running a lot.  As for running -- right now I'm at about 25 miles - but I've only been back at it since early October; I should be up to 30 miles this week, and will hopefully top out at 40-45.  I've only run a few weeks of 50 miles or more in my life.  One thing I am really bad at is running at an appropriate pace - I think I tend to push the pace even when my fitness isn't there.  That leads to difficulty building miles.  I'm trying to slow down my easy runs so I can increase overall miles as well as have more energy for my quality work-outs.

Mickjogger - my most recent injury was gastroc/soleus strain, maybe posterior tibialis involvement.  Let me know if you'd like some armchair PT help!  Maybe I can offer a few nuggets that you haven't yet explored.......

To all -- thanks for the warm welcome to the group!  While I've had some success with running, I think that I've continued to make some mistakes that have limited my potential success.  I'm hoping that age, experience, and talking to other experienced runners will help me to overcome past mistakes so that the best may be yet to come!

I finally feel in shape again. Also I have been running with my dog a lot and she drags me the first 6 miles of any run. This is why my first 2 miles have gone fron730 or 740 to 700 or 658. She is tied to my waist and makes my running much quicker.

DPS - big week and super fast runs too.

I keep noticing you run faster than Luke Humphrey, but then I remind myself everyone is different (Also he’s running big miles).

 

JMac - Yeah, I'm planning on running in the VF- run #2 in those. Weather still looks good, too!

DPS - Good that you're feeling in shape again.

I'm about tired of the weather here in OK, though. Freezing rain overnight the past few days has put me on the treadmill. There's no more precipitation in the forecast for the next week, so I really hope the roads thaw/dry out so I can get out there without risking the ice.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the encouragement.  I can't imagine holding 6:15 pace for 13 miles!  I think I am heavily fast twitch - either that or I just don't train properly.  My short race PRs are much better than my long run PRs.  I would love to be around 1:25 for the next half.  I don't have the exact race picked out yet, but there are plenty o options around here in April/May.  So, for now I will just build mileage, try a few 10ks, maybe a 10 miler, and try to build my strength.  Right now I don't have a realistic estimate of my abilities as I haven't trained for/raced anything longer than 5K in several years.  So, being rusty at the longer distances, plus being older, makes me a little hesitant to set lofty goals.  After a few races I'll have a better sense of where I am physically and mentally and can then think about lofty goals.  And I'm hoping this group helps!

As for your question on the Garmin - I didn't even know there were Garmins that gave suggestions on recovery time!  What information is it using to make those suggestions?   How did you feel with your super easy 5 this morning?  For me personally, I would want at least 2 days between hard efforts, so might push the tempo another day.  Curious to hear what everyone else has to say!

Paul when your watch tells you something you ignore it. You know your body better

Paul -

Your Garmin splits things into aerobic (lower HR, slower pace) stuff and anaerobic (fast, higher HR stuff) and kinda keeps track of how much training you do in each area. I'm guessing you haven't done a lot of really fast reps like that in a while, so it thinks all that really fast running was very hard on you because it was a pretty big anaerobic load compared to how much you usually do. To bring in Watson's comment as well, I think the pace and HR is what helps determine which bucket (aerobic/anaerobic) the parts of the workout fall into, while the duration goes toward how big it thinks that effect is (and thus how long the recovery should be).

Until yesterday I hadn't done any reps for several months and I did 4x 400m after some threshold and interval work. Afterwards it gave me something like 54 hours recovery and showed the anaerobic impact from my workout was higher than the aerobic. That was probably true because I don't do any anaerobic work so any stimulus there looks huge, while it takes a lot more aerobic work to move the needle on that side.

Despite the recovery suggestion you'll likely be fine for a temp run tomorrow - the energy systems worked for that are quite different than for hard 200s.

All this is dependent upon you having your max HR and HR zones set properly, too.

Apparently I need to turn the "this is an ad!!" banner back on for any runs I do on Zwift. I keep getting people commenting on those runs as if I were actually in NYC, London, etc.