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

    Hi everybody!

    sorry for the absence, the last 3 weeks were terrible with travels... Italy, Germany and I am currently in north Carolina... I managed just above 50 miles per week in the last 2 weeks. This week was going ok, with long runs in the gym at 4 am in the morning... but yesterday I came down with some sore throat and I think I caught a virus or a flu...today I couldn't walk out of bed...

    So I'll be sensible and take a couple of days off... this puts me a bit behind schedule in terms of miles, but I have managed 225 in February (with 3 weeks on 5 days running ...) and 260 in January.

    I will try to ramp it up a bit both in speed and length in March and April, and hopefully I'll be alright for the marathon at the beginning of May.

     

    Next week I'll be in Manchester for a couple of days... but I should be able to run...

     

    on the bright side, running in the gym gave me the possibility to monitor closely speed and heart beat rate, and I think I am right on spot with 158-162 beats per minute when running the final 3 miles of a 10 miles run at 7:30 per mile. I haven't decided yet whether I should aim for it of keep it down to 8 min per mile and be a bit more sure to finish running this time.

     

    hopefully I'll e more active in the next weeks

     

    Marco

    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:  

    ???

      After logging 175 miles in January,  I finished off February with 136 miles with about a week taken off for recovery.

       

      So 309 miles/ 497 km YTD  not a lot of difference between 2018 where I was at 290 miles 467 km.

       

      Jmac strike me off of Race for the Gold HM March 16th not in a position to run it.....unless my wife makes another ruling 

      PR's

      1m  5:38 (2018)

      5k    19:59 (2019)

      HM  1:33:56 (2018)

      FM  3:23:07 (2018)

      flavio80


      Intl. correspondent

         

         Jmac strike me off of Race for the Gold HM March 16th not in a position to run it.....unless my wife makes another ruling 

         

        A wise man!

        PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021

        Up next: no idea

        Tool to generate Strava weekly

        JMac11


        RIP Milkman

          Flavio - I've really been enjoying your training on Strava, hope you start seeing the returns!

           

          Corey - Removed. I like this monthly mileage reporting. Mine was 209 for February with a calf strain cutting that by a bit.

           

          Mark - I forgot you have your crazy racing series. Hope the weather starts cooling down for you soon

           

          Steve - I had a long chat over in sub 3 about half marathons before marathons. I tend to agree with you: I do not see much of a benefit of racing a half all out only 4 weeks before a peak race, but they convinced me it's worth doing. In my mind, it's not smart for a few reasons:

           

          1) Injury risk

          2) It's not a great "workout" like a 10K might be

          3) You need to mini-taper into it more than a 10K

          4) You need more recovery than a 10K

          5) It's not going to give you significantly better insight into your fitness than a 10K would unless you're woefully under trained aerobically

           

          I'm still going to run that race at my best. I'm not exactly tapering into it since I plan on running 21-22 just 7 days before and a 16 mile quality day just 4 days before, but for my fall marathon, I don't plan on running any all out race within 5 weeks of the peak race, which is now officially CIM in December.

          5K: 16:37 (11/20)  |  10K: 34:49 (10/19)  |  HM: 1:14:57 (5/22)  |  FM: 2:36:31 (12/19) 

           

           

          JamesD


          JamesD

            Watson/Mark - Thanks for the tempo advice.  I do have injury issues, so tempo and intervals in the same week seems a little risky except when I don't do a long run.  I may also be running the tempos a little too hard, so maybe I can redefine tempo as MP rather than 1-hourP.

             

            116 miles for me in February as I tapered.

             

            Heading to Albany this afternoon for tomorrow's race.  Haven't really noticed any benefit from the taper, but that may be because of allergies - which aren't usually a problem but seem to have affected me a lot over the last few months.  Rain is predicted for this afternoon, which might help, so I'm not sure whether or how much the allergies will affect my race.  Since I run by feel & without a watch, I'll just run the pace that feels best and not worry about hitting specific splits.

            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

              Good luck in the Race James!

              PR's

              1m  5:38 (2018)

              5k    19:59 (2019)

              HM  1:33:56 (2018)

              FM  3:23:07 (2018)

              Marky_Mark_17


                Good luck James!

                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: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

                Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

                "CONSISTENCY IS KING"

                JMac11


                RIP Milkman

                  Good luck James.

                   

                  Me - my week is done, highest week this cycle. It’s been a terrible cycle injury wise, but I had a good week with a good MP session today. I’m definitely seeing a big difference between my long tempo pace and my shorter tempo pace. I’ve become that pure endurance type. I’m only going to complete long runs and LT work from here to Boston, i.e. no more MP work as I have that locked down. I tested out the VF’s today during my MP run and I get the hype. Running on flat ground it wasn’t like I thought “wow these are trampolines!” But it’s the small things you notice: your legs aren’t as tired at the end of a run, you have more spring when running uphill, my legs are so much more fresh 6 hours later, etc. I’m excited to race in them in 2 weeks in my half. I was so worried about the heel-to-toe being 10mm when I’ve only run in 4-6mm over the last 5 years, but I didn’t even notice it. If you’ve been thinking about getting these shoes but aren’t sure, this is a recommendation to get it done. Yeah, they’re a ridiculous price. But if you just race half marathons in them, you can easily get 10 good races out of them. I wouldn’t recommend running in them for 5K/10K though. 

                   

                  I feel good about my sub 1:19 goal for my half in 2 weeks assuming we get good weather. My tempo today says that sub 1:19 is easy, but all of my LT work doesn’t line up, so I’m worried half pace will get to me by mile 10 and cause some lactate issues. 

                   

                   

                  Weekly Summary
                  Monday, Feb 25, 2019 thru Sunday, Mar 03, 2019

                  <tfoot> </tfoot>
                  Day Miles Pace Description Egain Link
                  Mon 7.7 7:55 Afternoon Run 141 strava
                  Tue 16.2 7:25 TLT 727 strava
                  Wed 6.1 8:22 Evening Run 242 strava
                  Thu 8.0 7:53 Evening Run 385 strava
                  Fri 10.0 7:43 Evening Run 384 strava
                  Sat 16.0 6:34 12 @ 6:12 795 strava
                    64.0 7:28   2674

                  5K: 16:37 (11/20)  |  10K: 34:49 (10/19)  |  HM: 1:14:57 (5/22)  |  FM: 2:36:31 (12/19) 

                   

                   

                  JamesD


                  JamesD

                    Albany (GA) Snickers half race report

                     

                    I suppose I should be frustrated about missing my A goal by 15 seconds, but I really can’t convince myself to be upset.  Just about everything went right -- or nothing that could’ve gone wrong did -- and there was nothing obvious (e.g., weather, cramps, poor pacing) that, had it been different, would’ve put me under 1:30.  

                     

                    This race is unusual in my experience in that there are almost as many people running the full (489 this year) as the half (636).  The course is flat (260 feet total ascent in the half), and about 20% of the marathoners qualify for Boston. Unfortunately, the marathoners split off after a block, which meant I wouldn’t be able to run with all the people trying to BQ at around my pace.

                     

                    DW drove me 90 minutes to Albany Friday afternoon, as I had to pick up my number at the expo that evening.  We were lucky with the weather - temperature at the 7am start was 63/17, but rain ended earlier that morning.  I thought the 90% humidity might be a problem, but I never noticed it affecting me, and I kept a pretty constant pace.  The rain seemed to have washed away some of the pollen that has been such a problem recently, and I only had one minor threat of lung tightness, near enough to the finish that it didn’t affect me.  We were in the open for the first four miles, but it was cloudy and the sun had barely risen and we were heading west anyway, and large oak trees shaded the residential streets most of the rest of the way.

                     

                    After the start, I ran with a young woman who was going just a little faster than I otherwise would’ve, but our strides were perfectly synched (DW tells me I have a short stride for my height), and it was easy to be pulled along.  After a while, she sped up to catch two guys running about 50 yards ahead. That was the last time I had anyone to run with, but she stayed within sight for several miles, and it helped my focus to try not to lose contact when she disappeared around the frequent turns.  (She eventually stopped with shoe trouble and never caught back up to me.)  Two other things helped me keep my focus. After every mile marker, for 100 steps I would tap my hips as I swung my arms to make sure I was driving my arms back. Also, following a tip I saw on the RW website yesterday, every time I started to feel like a side stitch might be coming, I exhaled on alternate left foot strikes for 100 steps.  The article gave an anatomical reason why this should work; I don’t know if it really helped, but I never did get a side stitch. It also helped that there was a lot of enthusiastic crowd support, both at the frequent aid stations and at random spots along the route.

                     

                    All in all, the race was pretty uneventful, just steady moderately-to-increasingly hard running on mostly flat roads with just enough occasional inclines to vary the stress on my legs.  My pace for the first 5 miles was 6:51/mile; for the second 5 miles it was 6:52; and for the last 5K it was 6:56. The on-course clocks were a pleasant surprise, as previous years’ results had shown just one split, and since I race without a watch it helped to get early confirmation that my pace was good.  For much of mile 8 I slowly caught and then passed one runner, and the same thing happened in mile 12.  The end of the race wasn’t conducive to a finishing kick. We ran through a dark “breezeway” (tunnel through a building) with slippery footing, then took a quick downhill right onto a narrow winding path with alternating wet stone and wet concrete surfaces, and then had only about 50 straight yards on asphalt for a last push.  I finished in 1:30:14 (apparently gun time, but there were only a few seconds’ difference), 1st M55-59 (won a jacket), 18/636 OA, 78% AG.  DW and I hung around to cheer for a friend who finished his first half, and I saw several other people I knew at the finish. I was also pleased to see that the women’s full winner qualified for our 2020 Olympic marathon trials, which will be held in Atlanta. If the weather is ok, we’ll be there watching.

                     

                    Even though I didn’t quite get under 1:30, I was very pleased with the race.  Because of various problems, my two most recent halfs, 1:32+ in 2016 and just under 1:32 in 2017, hadn’t fully shown my fitness even though both were PRs, and I was glad to get a PR that does.  It also gives me something to shoot for in my November half.

                     

                    My week:

                     

                    Sun - off

                    Mon - 4.7 miles easy

                    Tues - 4.7 easy

                    Weds - off

                    Thurs - 3 including 0.5 @ 6:19 pace

                    Fri - off

                    Sat - Albany (GA) Snickers Half in 1:30:14, around 14.3 total

                     

                    Total - 26.7 miles

                    12-week average - 30 mpw (including a week off while sick & 2 taper weeks)



                    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

                    Marky_Mark_17


                      James - congrats!  A PR day is always a good day even if you didn't quite get the sub-1:30 you wanted.

                       

                      JMac - nice week, honestly don't over think the half, just get out there and run!  Especially considering you've got those flash shoes and all.

                       

                      Marco - good to see you are still around.

                       

                      Me - gotta say I'm glad wifey gets home tomorrow (she almost got stuck in Denver this afternoon!).  Been good practice running at a bunch of different times and in warmer conditions but I'm looking forward to getting back into some sort of a routine rather than juggling workouts and sneaking miles wherever I can in case I can't get a babysitter!  To make it worse, DD got some sort of stomach bug on Friday, thankfully it was gone today, but who knows whether I'll pick it up.  Oh well, she seemed to get over it pretty fast.  Anyway on the bright side, I punched out a couple of awesome track sessions this week and still kept the volume up too, not too long to wait to see if that translates into race results.

                       

                      M: weights

                      T: 17.1km w/ 5x 8 min moderate / 3:30 easy

                      W: 11km easy

                      T: 13.1km track session incl. 400's and 800's

                      F: 24km long run

                      S: 7.4km easy

                      S: 10km track incl. 6x1km hard / 400m jog recovery

                      Total: 82.7km

                      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: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

                      Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

                      "CONSISTENCY IS KING"

                        Great RR James, congrats on the time too. That is so incredibly close. You will get there in November I am sure!

                         

                        My week consisted of a first short run on shaky legs after more than two weeks of being miserably sick. Since this is now behind me, I will ramp it up now over the course of the next two weeks. First signs of spring here and lovely weather.

                        HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)

                         

                        2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!

                          Congrats and nice race report James!

                          PR's

                          1m  5:38 (2018)

                          5k    19:59 (2019)

                          HM  1:33:56 (2018)

                          FM  3:23:07 (2018)

                          flavio80


                          Intl. correspondent

                            James - thanks for the awesome race report. That's a brilliant result and you should be very proud. Also congratz on the age group prize.

                            I also clocked 1:30:14 just before finally going under 90 minutes. I was pissed at the time but it was a great result that took me to much better results later on.

                             

                            Jmac - that was a great workout and it looks like you're coming back into a great shape.

                             

                            me - A difficult week but I mostly was able to complete it. I visited a throat doctor and diagnosed with reflux and rinitis. I'll follow treatment and hopefully I won't have as many bouts of nasty colds going forward Smile

                            M: Functional training

                            T: 2x3000 splits 11:56 11:54

                            W: 10 ez

                            T: 30x (1 min @ 5:00 pace + 1 min @ 3:40 ) - almost nailed it

                            F: Functional training

                            S: 15 @ 4:29

                            S: 7 ez

                            PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021

                            Up next: no idea

                            Tool to generate Strava weekly

                              Jmac nice week and nice workout too.

                              Mark nice week as well.

                              MJ hope you get to feeling better

                              Flavio nice week hope the treatment works and you get to feeling better.

                              James again nice race!

                               

                               

                              I had another decent week with right at 43.5 miles.

                              I got in  good track workout on Wednesday and got in a few miles of tempo work on my long run Saturday my calves are a bit sore today,

                              but I nothing more than that...  hope to start increasing the miles once the times changes again.

                               

                              Weekly Summary
                              Monday, Feb 25, 2019 thru Sunday, Mar 03, 2019

                              <tfoot> </tfoot>
                              Day Miles Pace Description Link
                              Mon 4.0 9:29 Evening Run strava
                              Wed 4.0 7:37 .25WU (400/400/800/400/400) 1CD strava
                              Thu 5.2 9:16 Evening Run strava
                              Sat 16.0 8:13 6E+1T+1E+1T+2E+1.5T+1.5E+1T+1E strava
                              Sun 14.2 9:26 Morning Run strava
                                43.4 8:50  

                              PR's

                              1m  5:38 (2018)

                              5k    19:59 (2019)

                              HM  1:33:56 (2018)

                              FM  3:23:07 (2018)

                              SteveChCh


                              Hot Weather Complainer

                                James - I wouldn't spend any time feeling anything other than happy and proud of that performance.  PR's are rare enough that they should be celebrated.  Your overall report gives the impression this will not be your last PR.

                                 

                                JMac - I can understand the logic - you can always adjust mid-race too if you don't feel quite right.  Having said that, if you do go sub 1:19 that will be a great confidence boost for Boston.

                                 

                                A good week for me, my best week in a long time, although with 6-7km left on my long run on Saturday my quads got very fatigued and it became a battle for survival - fitness felt fine but I had to shorten my stride and was very mindful of any pain further down but I managed to keep it going.  I had planned 4-5km tempo at the end but decided that wasn't a good idea and isn't required.  My body is definitely telling me I'm due for a lighter week which luckily I have planned this week.  I was very sore yesterday but feel better today after some rolling and using the stick on the calves.  I do have intervals scheduled tonight and then easy for the rest of the week but I may push them back to Wednesday depending on how I feel when I warm up.

                                 

                                Monday:                 70 mins incl. 3x(2,2,4)  15.86km @ 4:32mins/km.  Intervals 3:45-3:56 pace

                                Tuesday:                Weights

                                Wednesday:           70 mins incl. 3x10 mins HMP.  15.82km @ 4:32mins/km.  HMP varied from 4:04-4:13 depending on wind direction

                                Thursday:               70 mins recovery. 13.51km @ 5:13mins/km

                                Friday:                    Weights

                                Saturday:                22km easy pace. 22.09km @ 4:50mins/km

                                Sunday:                  Weights

                                 

                                This week I'll just have one speed session, I think I'll replace Thursday with stationary bike, as much as I don't want to, and the long run will be 14-15km including some HMP kms.  I actually found after I was sick 4 weeks ago and reduced my volume right down for the week, once I felt better my legs felt fantastic.  Hopefully this week will have the same result before my final push towards the next race.

                                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