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

JMac - Yeah I get similar and last year around this time got a really sore ankle out of nowhere.  And any easy run suddenly feels hard and I doubt everything.

John Oliver...some of his stuff can be funny but generally not a fan.  But I would encourage everyone to watch lots of NZ youtube videos!

Mark - It has been nice and consistent for a while now - I had one lighter week when I was a bit sick and one planned to freshen up.  Hoping autumn kicks in up there - it certainly has here today, currently 6 degrees and bucketing down.

Looks like you're primed to perform next week, great workout.  I note one of your routines is no talking to people pre-race...might be the only time I see you but I'll keep it brief.  I'll be in a similar frame of mind, trying to chase away the ghosts of last year.

Sagging bacon? Thats why all the Brazilian dogs chase after you.

Great stuff on the V02 max. You could really go places if you were slim like Mark and Jmac. Do it. Showem!!!

Did I tell you that I made the crepioca and actually loved the taste and consistency? Just too lazy to make it every weekend. But Saturday....

Re no talking - banter on the start line is OK.  Actually I find it useful to wind the clock down to race start as well as figure out if there's anyone around I can work with.  It's more pre-start line (e.g. warm up) where I just try and avoid talking to anyone.  Also I am prepared to grant an exemption to members of this forum because you guys are awesome.

JMac, I do listen to some pretty heavy stuff generally on the way to the race but normally not around the race village itself.  The music normally stays in the car (the exception to this is the Auckland Marathon/ Half Marathon where there's generally a decent amount of time to kill between catching the bus to the start, and the race actually starting).

Steve- definitely starting to feel much more like autumn.  I actually wished I'd worn a hoodie when I was walking to the gym at ~6:30am this morning, for the first time this year.  Overnight lows are generally around 12-13C now and temps have been nice for running the last few mornings.  It's not gonna be that cold, but I don't think it'll be too warm either.

Looks like numbers are up quite a bit too Steve.  Won't be an issue for most of the race but I can remember hitting traffic between the 14-16km mark last year so might be a bit more work to find a line there.

Another week of base-building, all slow though not always easy.  Legs were tired at the end of most runs, though not so much today.  I’d like to stay around this level for a couple of weeks to see if I can get comfortable before I start any faster running.  This was almost certainly the last week with cold weather in the mornings (41/5 at the start of one run), but it’s not hot yet, at least not in the mornings.  Hope the rain that’s predicted for the next several days will wash away the pollen.

Sun - off

Mon - 12.5 miles easy or at least slow

Tues - 6.2 easy recovery

Weds - 21 minutes swimming

Thurs - 10.4 easy or at least slow

Fri - 6.2 easy recovery

Sat - 7.3 easy

Total - 42.6 miles (a new post-1979 high)

12-week average - 33 mpw

MJ - even if I slim down like them, I still gotta be as strong as they are.
I'm glad you enjoyed the Crepioca. It's also super easy to do and a regular part of my breakfast of late, as I'm
cutting down on bread. My wife goes with 2 spoons of tapioca + one egg so it's not as salty and then
she pours honey and small slices of fruit on top of it, like a pancake.

Jmac - I read that as "I refuse to cut back my eating BAGELS" and it made a lot of sense.

Mark - it looks like you're also doing the 1 min hard/1 minute easy workouts.
Also that Thursday workout must give you a lot of confidence, including the fact that
each rep was 1s faster per Km.

James - another big week for you, I'm happy to see your progress.

Marco - Those 400 are very impressive! If you manage to get through this week, considering your past big weeks
except the ones lost to sickness, it seems to me you are priming yourself to have 7:30 as your marathon pace.
What's your feeling at the moment?

me - a small week as I was recovering from the cold.
M: 35 min of functional training, had to cut short
T: Off
W: 6km ez
T: ergometry test - no other running
F: 6km ez
S: 3km race POA night run
S: It should be 8km ez, I'll try to get to it before the end of the day

POA night run 3K race report
Bear in mind through this report that my previous 3k PR is 10:40.

Though I knew I could beat my time of 11:09 from back in January, I was unsure how much faster I could go.
Eventually I settled with going out the first 2km in 7 minutes and try not to fade too much.
In the afternoon I shaved my peach fuzz beard, you know, to gain those massive milliseconds!
Uncharacteristically, I was not very hungry as the evening approached.
Usually speaking I'm blue of hunger around 5pm, but I ate a banana and a small fruit bar
in between lunch and the race and didn't feel much hunger at all.
My wife repeatedly says I should be more relaxed and not to take the race so serious.
My sister is in town to visit an ailing aunt so off course I also signed her up for the race
and she was super happy as she broke 8min/km, which is a big thing for her. She's struggling
massively to lose weight (it runs in the family it seems) and is fighting an uphill battle
with high blood pressure and the recently diagnosed diabetes.
My wife was also running the 5k, though she didn't run as well as she struggled with all
the water puddles.
So back on the race. The weather forecast initially predicted a high of 23C during the race
which would be disastrous. In a strike of luck, we've had a sequence of rain and drizzle
so the temperature was very pleasant during the race. The side effect off course is that
there were quite a few water puddles along the way, but luckily I managed to navigate
around them successfully.
We took an Uber to a mall nearby the race and made it on foot from there.
After a little bit of time to figure out where the bag drop off place was (being Brazil off course there was no signage),
we were hiding from the rain under a big tent they put for the runners for a while.
In the end I didn't have time to pay a visit to my running group, but my running coach
managed to take a picture (See my Strava activity) of me as I was sprinting to the finish line, and the picture turned
out great.
I tried to position myself at the front at the start. They had distributed black bracelets
for the faster people with the premise that they'd keep the faster people up in front, but
off course that was never observed LOL
Anyway, I was there up in front, second row, when a dude was taping my shoulder to try to pass ahead.
I immediately recognized him as one of the local elites and let him pass while saying I'm guessing your pace
will be faster than mine.
They separated the start of the 5/10K from the 3K, which was a great decision. That avoided most of the 3K traffic
for the people running 5 and 10K.
Off we go and as usual I'm not as well positioned and with 300m in I wondered how the hell are all this people so
much ahead of me when I was in 3rd row at the start. All for nothing as I passed most of them before the 1st Km,
but I need to improve my starting game if I want to start getting into the podium as the podium is given to the few first crossing the line
regardless of net time.
The first 2km go according to plan and like a metronome I run them both around 3:30 for 7 minutes and feeling good.
Then it started. Fabulous oxygen deprivation, turning blue and breathless.
At a certain point I was thinking of giving up and jogging to the finish line, then I looked down at the watch
and there was only 700m left. I thought to myself WTF man, just HTFU, harden the **** UUUUUUUUPPPPPP!
I had decided that I would not look back during the race and so I didn't look back.
I just looked forward and concentrated on the guy ahead in the vain hope that I'd pass him.
And so I got the legs one in front of another, unable to sprint, unwilling to slow down, breathing fire out.
I looked up the big clock under the finish line and it said 10:39 and a soon after I crossed it and stopped my watch.
I took a moment to recover my breath, then another moment to say a couple of encouraging words to a fellow runner
who arrived before me and was all squatted on the ground and puking.
I then checked my clock and it said 10:39. Did I break my PR by ONE SECOND? Did I?
What if I stopped the watch too soon? Garmin has me at 10:39.5, Strava has me at 10:39.
I tried to check the results website but until midnight there was nothing. So I went to sleep in hopes
the results would be there this morning. They were.
However I'm not on the results. I've filled in the complaint form and now I'm waiting in hopes I'm included
in the official results. Until the official result I can't really celebrate as they are supposed to be the source of truth.
All I can say is that I ran VERY close to my PR while weighing 4 extra Kg.
A little bit more strength, a little bit more weight loss, a little bit more fast intervals and I might just make it!

Hi Flavio

The guy was puking??? Haha this is exactly why I think the half marathon pain is much less pronounced as compared to a 5k or even a 3k.

Well done though and love the picture. But why the heck were you wearing a hat at night in a 3k??? Ha!

Ps: all great weeks particularly Marco ( keep it up in Charlotte) and Cfarr (some really good mileage). And Piwi who is back on Strava at least.

Great work Flavio - I bet you stopped the watch just after the finish line so I think you have a PB coming your way.

Mark - completely agree.  Don't know how many times my gf has told me to relax and just enjoy a race.  She is right though, especially this time because I can easily see myself wasting energy on anxiety this week after what happened last year.

Marco - That's a monster week, well done.