Forums >Racing>Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2019
You got this Marco... go after it!
PR's
1m 5:38 (2018)
5k 19:59 (2019)
HM 1:33:56 (2018)
FM 3:23:07 (2018)
JamesD
Ben/cc4 - Welcome. This group is very supportive. I’ve been posting since 2016 and haven’t ever broken 1:30 (but still have hope), and they haven’t kicked me out yet.
Marco - Good luck! Chips with only two timing mats isn’t all that old style. Real old style is handing out popsicle sticks at the finish that say 17th place or whatever and then having runners turn the sticks in to the organizers, who use them to figure out age group winners, etc. I’m pretty sure I got a popsicle stick as recently as 2010.
Watson - Hope it went well.
Me - Another good week. My Monday long run was my first in the RFFEs and was about 13 sec/mile faster than any long run I’ve timed. Most of it was probably the very bouncy shoes, but I think it’s also a sign that I’m getting a bit stronger and adjusting to the higher-for-me mileage. Did my first hill workout in 18 months on Thursday - slow, but I expected that. Didn’t feel too tired afterwards, and my hamstring was only a little sore, so it was a success. My foot niggle is still hurting but doesn’t seem to be getting worse, so maybe the medicine is helping. Did 183+ miles in April, my best month this century.
Sun - off
Mon - 12.5 miles @7:53/mile
Tues - 6.2 easy
Weds - 31 minutes swimming
Thurs - 5.9 including 10 40-second hills @~mile effort
Fri - 6.2 easy & slow
Sat - 8.2 easy
Total - 39 miles
12-week average - 35 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
Mmmm Bop
Best of luck tomorrow Marco and I’ll look out for you at around mile 12. I think 7:50 pace is good, but just take it easier and allow for slow down between 16-18 and then see what you’ve got after that. 👍
5k - 17:53 (4/19) 10k - 37:53 (11/18) Half - 1:23:18 (4/19) Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)
Marco good luck !
James nice week and good to get a hill run in. They are so good for strength.
Ben welcome. What sort of times did you run at college ? At 34 you are in your prime and with some consistent training you should be able to get back to former glory and beyond.
Watson how was the 8k x country and the spikes ?
Flavio interesting about the vo2max. I would love to string my 1000m vo2max interval times together 5 times for a decent 5k time.
My week.Weekly SummaryMonday, Apr 29, 2019 thru Sunday, May 05, 2019
A pretty good week. The 5 x 1000s went much better than I thought and were around 3.35/km.
I was away friday night and saturday in a kayak fishing competition and drank too much beer with my mates and 7 hours on the water yesterday so was lacking energy in todays " long run " of a huge 15kms
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 "
Marco - good luck!
Piwi - posting weeklies again?! Ah thank goodness the forum has returned to usual service. Nice workout too, that 5x1000 is a favourite of mine although I haven't done it for a while.
Me - second consecutive 100+ km week. I seem to be ok with the higher mileage albeit I've basically swapped a workout for a long run. Kind of like a mini-build I guess. Lighter week this week, then I'll push some harder workouts in the following couple of weeks.
M: weights
T: 13.3km easy
W: 12.6km with hill sprints
T: 28.2km long run
F: 10km recovery
S: 13.4km w/ 12 x 200s (34s avg)
S: 27.1km long run
Total: 105km
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"
Long course, checked across pacers and friends we have 26.7 on average ....
managed 3h27. My Garmin says 3h23 for26.2
I’ll write something more later now shower and lunch
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:
???
Wind is not my friend.
Ocra - Nice job this morning! Solid run.
Piwi - That's what I'm hoping. The latest 5K I ran (18:00) was my attempt to break 18 for the first time in a while but I did it coming off a fever on a humid day so was pretty happy with the effort even though the time was a failure. In college, I was more of a mid-distance guy. 2:00 (800m), 4:02 (1500m), never officially broke 17 in 5K but confident I did within an 8K or two. (low 28's). Never was a good off-season trainer so I'm pumped to see what I can do with some good training.
I'm looking to build my next HM plan off of Daniels with hopefully a base of around 50mpw so if anyone has any advice. I'm all ears! My son's track meet got cancelled for today (9 years old and already faster than I was at his age) so I guess it's going to be a beautiful, rainy 6ish miles.
"Current" PRs
5K - 18:00 (4/19) | HM - 1:19:28 (4/22)
Next Race: A 5K of some sort (Goal: Sub 17:30)
Nice Job Marco! I look forward to reading your RR.
Massive PR that was long overdue and result of hard and consistent work. Congrats and enjoy the Pasta Lunch to restore your carb levels 😀
HM: 1:47 (9/20) I FM: 3:53:11 (9/23)
2024 Goals: run a FM & HM + stay healthy!
Marco - That must’ve been ideal weather as I was freeezing this morning! I saw the 3:15 and 3:30 pacers but didn’t see you. Congrats on the massive PR and it seems that there might have been a couple of wrong turns which made the course longer. And also they’ll be adjusting times to reflect the true distance so you’ll probably be looking at 3:25.
https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/belfast-marathon-measurer-insists-todays-16230334
Intl. correspondent
Piwi - damn fast 1000s, you must be in 18 low 5k shape.
My week:M: Functional trainingT: 4x500 + 3x1000 + 5x200W: 11ezT: 6x (1k@4:45 + 1k@3:45)F: Functional trainingS: 18k @ 4:14, 3 more Ks and I'd have a sub 1h30 half. I'm very happy about this one, as 12k at the same pace seemed impossible a month ago.S: 10ez
PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021
Up next: some 800m race (or time trials) / Also place in the top 20% in a trail race
Tool to generate Strava weekly
Marco - Ouch, a marathon that runs long is the worst nightmare. Congratz on the shiny new PR!
Marco that's awesome congrats on the PB. Mikey will know best how long most marathons run due to not running the shortest route but yours was obviously long. I seem to remember 42.7kms in my 2 but we didn't have strava then so never would look at the 42.2km time.
Mark another 100km week nice job this will just move you to another level again.
Ben wow those are fast times. You will have loads of potential to go faster. Nothing better than having a kid to cheer along. Good times ahead.
Flavio thanks. I did the 18.29 last year off similar 1000s times. Hopefully can drop some secs. Need more training though. Nice one on the 18kms at 4.15/km pace. I did 7kms at 4.15/km yesterday and it felt hard. I was pretty knackered from my boys weekend though
Marco - congratulations. Having the full being long must really hurt!
Mark - very nice week.
Cc4 - as others have stated, you could do some very good times.
James, Piwi, Flavio - good weeks.
My race went ok. About 8km depending on who's GPS you believe. Died in the second half. Deceptive how hard the course was - lots of turns, soft grass, long grass and turns. Did just over 37 minutes.
PRs: 5km 18:43 (Dec 2015), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:26:16 (Sep 2016), full 3:09:28 (Jun 2015)
40+ PRs: 5km 19:31 (Oct 2020), 10km 39:59 (Sep 2020), half 1:29:39 (Jun 2018), full 3:13:55 (Sep 2022)
2023 PRs (hope to beat in 2024): 5km 20:34, 10km 41:37, half 1:32:32, full 3:21:05
2024 PRs: 5km 20:25
Looks like the RWOL app is down.
My week was ok. I was in Sydney Monday to Friday and was very busy, so not much training
M 5.5km easy
T 12.6km
W 5.5km easy
T 0
F 0
S 8km race, plus 3.1km warm/cool
S 20.3km
Total 55km.
A little late RR: Shaw Batton Relay 35+
This was my first cross country since school. Plus my first race for the club I've just joined (Trentham Harriers).
This was a roughly 2km course. Before I got there, I was thinking just over 8 minutes, when I got there, looking at the course I decided it should be more like 8:30.
The course is partially on an horse eventing course, and some is just regular farm land. The course starts downhills for about 200 meters. Then there's a bit of an uphill slog which includes one horse jump, plus one water hurdle. After the water it's then up hill again, with a short steep hill of 30-60 seconds, followed by a step down hill, and then a long downhill straight (with horse jump) to the finish.
The horse jumps are quite short, so don't think of Olympic height horse jumps here.
After a few warms up I talked to my team. It was decided that I'd run the 4th leg.
The Under 20, Open Men, 35+ and 50+ all start at the same time, so it can get a little hard to figure out which place you're in.
First leg, Josh is up, who is our quickest runner (10k PR 33/34 minutes). Josh runs around in a pretty impressive 7:15 (or so).
Then it's Michael, who also runs very well in 7:27.
Next up is Paul who should have the slowest time for our team. Paul runs about 8:30.
After tagging Paul, I'm off. I start my watch maybe a second late due to having to tag Paul.
I run the downhill reasonably quick, around 3:45 pace. I'm quickly overtaken by a orange Hutt Vally Harriers guy (he might have been Under 20). I then hit the turn and it's now up hill, it's reasonably steep plus being off road the ground is pretty rough (it had been reasonably dry the week before so it was reasonably firm). I over take a couple of people, plus I'm overtaken by a couple just before the water.
Somewhere before the water I had my 1km split at 4:35 which was a bit slower than I was hoping.
Through the water. What surprised me is how heavy my feet felt when getting out of the water. Plus I had moderately long shorts which took on quite a bit of water. Then more up hill. I then hit the steep hill, which is really steep. By memory I overtake 1-2, and am overtaken by another on the climb - although my memory is not great here.
Slog up the hill, it's a really hard wee hill. Near the top I think I'm done, but there's still just 10 more meters of gentle up hill, which does not feel to gentle.
It's then down hill, and it's steep - I'm normally really good downhill as I just let gravity pull, but I had to hold stop myself quite a bit as it was really steep.
Onto the final straight, I managed to speed up a little. I'm coming to the final horse jump and am not sure whether I jump over, or put a foot on top. Right, I'll jump over. Last second - no I'll put my left foot on top and step over. Well, I almost butchered this, because of my last second decision I jumped too early, the tip of my left shoe just got to the jump, and I had a minor stumble as I went over, but no crash. Now about 100m to go which I have a slight kick.
I'm through in 8:58, which is slightly disappointing. I haven't raced this short a distance for a long time and probably raced it more like a 5km. I needed to put myself in more pain on the uphill section, I think I probably left 30 seconds out there.
I will get my second RR for the club cross country out soon.