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

    Good luck in your race Flavio!

    PR's

    1m  5:38 (2018)

    5k    19:59 (2019)

    HM  1:33:56 (2018)

    FM  3:23:07 (2018)

    flavio80


    Intl. correspondent

      FUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK YEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Finally, after 1122 days in waiting (3 years 27 days) I have managed a new personal best.

      It was perfect weather with a dry 14C/57F and I managed to have pacers for the entire race.

      10:34 for 3000m (previous 10:40, which I equalled about 40 days ago)

       

      3000m state championship B heat race report - 10:34.1 official time 3rd age group

      This was a weird week, I was down with the flu last Saturday but somehow I managed to get
      better quickly, returning to running on Wednesday.
      I did a nice workout 10x300 on Thursday at roughly race pace which was a very nice leg
      shake out.
      I was having taper madness the past couple of days with my body behaving weirdly.
      On Tuesday morning I was going to stretch my arms above my head and pulled a muscle on my
      back, which thankfully was good again after a couple of days.
      Then on Wed around noon I was walking to the nearby mall and nearly twisted my left foot
      on something, but despite the initial pain that too passed after a day.
      Yesterday I was feeling all kinds of niggles and aches, in the afternoon I was feeling
      week and worried I had gotten yet another flu. I really didn't sleep that well waking
      up quite a few times during the night.

      So they called us in to warm up for the male 3000m race. After some 8-10 minutes of light
      warm up, the organizer told us there would be 2 heats, he started calling names for the A
      heat and I quickly realized I'd not be in that heat LOL those guys were warming up faster
      than my race pace. The A heat is on and those dudes are flying. First lap there's a single
      file of runners, by the second lap there's already a second pack.
      I've overheard that there were 4 sub 9 guys and the last place ran 9:40!

      Anyway, time for the B heat and I'm looking around trying to figure out if anybody might
      be around my pace. I need 1:24 per lap 3:30 per km. That's exactly that a coach is telling
      one if his students so I immediately decide that guy in black singlet is going to be my
      pacer. Off we go and that was a smart decision cause that guy has coaches on 2 ends of the
      track yelling at him to speed up or calm down. I'm running just behind him minding my own
      business and trying to make as little effort as possible. Heart rate seems to be under
      control in the beginning and the first K was a 3:30. I noticed I can still do math and
      since I had memorized all the 8 intermediate times, plus I could still watch the 200m
      split adding 42 seconds to the last one. I was going right on time but soon after my
      pacer seemed to be struggling a bit so I passed him.
      Up ahead there was another potential pacer, a young guy in a red singlet. It didn't take
      long for me to catch up to him and I decided to stay behind him as he was running a good
      pace. The laps were ticking and I was right on pace.
      I think I lost a bit of steam on the last but 2 and penultimate laps.
      With 300 to go I saw him falter a bit and moved slightly to the side thinking about
      passing but I figured it'd be a waste of energy as he was still running fast.
      With 100 to go I finally thought fuck this and tried to make a move, turned on the burners
      and moved wide on his side to pass, but he still had a next gear and also sped up.
      I kept on that for a short time and then it was like when there's a power blackout haha,
      I suddenly didn't have the energy to keep the pace, so I let up just a bit.
      Funny thing as soon as I let up he let up too, but then I didn't have anything left but
      to keep rolling till the finish line.
      I managed to find him and thank him for his pacing services afterwards LOL
      Anyway, I somehow grabbed 3rd place in the usually ridiculously deep 35/39 age group,
      but maybe because a lot of the runners on both heats were pretty young, many sub 20.

      I know I still have a bit left to carve out in the 3K time and if I manage to shed just a
      bit of weight a 10:20 might just be possible.
      What's more is that today was a 3:31/km pace, I need a 3:36/km to run a sub 18 5K and
      beat my current 5K PB, so I'm probably very close to a PR there as well.

      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

      Mikkey


      Mmmm Bop

        Flávio - Big congrats on the PR and entertaining RR! Your training is going great and Sub18 is looking very promising. 👍

        5k - 17:53 (4/19)   10k - 37:53 (11/18)   Half - 1:23:18 (4/19)   Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)

        Marky_Mark_17


          Flavio - huge congrats on the PR!  After all the injury ups and downs it is great that you finally managed to smash it.  This might be the best thing on the thread so far this year.  Great RR too.

           

          Also I'm amazed that you get so many entrants for a 3000m, that's awesome.  There really aren't many events around here like that.  The Night of 5's 5000m would be the closest thing (it's pretty cool though, last year there were guys running mid-15's in the B race I was in!)

           

          Watson - thanks, it's been a good block of training since Waterfront for sure.  Always need things to fall into place on the day though so we'll see.  I'm excited about the race for sure (and hoping it's not foggy in Christchurch next Saturday like it was yesterday as it seemed to mess up a lot of flights!).

           

          Me - last week of training done and now it's taper week.  This week was basically the same as last week - AKA "my coach is trying to kill me" week - except the runs and workouts were all just a bit shorter.  For some reason my coach has loaded the last couple weeks with sprint repeats, I guess it paid off though as Saturday's 800m workout was a ripper.  Kind of glad race week has rolled around as it's been a couple of tough weeks training off the back of some big volume weeks.

           

          M: weights

          T: 11.5 km with flat sprints and hill sprints

          W: 21km long run

          T: 12.4km tempo with sprints to finish

          F: weights

          S: 13km track workout incl. 6 x 800m / 300m jog

          S: 11km incl. tempo w/ pick-ups

          Total: 69km

          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"

          watsonc123


            Flavio - big congratulations.

            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

            JamesD


            JamesD

              Flavio - Congratulations on the PR!  Always nice to have pacers, witting or unwitting.

               

              Mark - When you take 300M jog rests on your 800s, do you cut across the infield to start each 800 at the same place on the track, or do you just start each 800 at a different place?  I would worry that after a few reps I would forget where I started and have to try to figure out from my watch, which might be difficult in the middle of a hard effort.  I avoid this on my VO2max 1200s  by walking 200M and then jogging 200M.  400M walking would be too long, 300M walking would confuse me with different starting/finishing points, and 400M jogging wouldn't be enough time to recover.  

               

              Me - Sore hamstring is better though not 100%, and I was able to do a short tempo at a decent pace on Thursday.  It hurt while I was stretching after my runs Friday & Saturday, so I’ll probably hold off on hill runs for a while.  Temperatures during my runs averaged around 86/30 with high humidity. Storms a few weeks ago blew down several trees in the park where I run, so now half of my 1.5-mile loop is shaded and half is sunny.  Feels like it’s 10 degrees cooler in the shade. I’m actually not too tired during the runs, but I can tell I’m more tired later in the day.

               

              Sun - off

              Mon - 12.5 miles slow & easy

              Tues - 6.2 easy

              Weds - 36 minutes swimming

              Thurs - 7.6 including 2.5 @ 6:36

              Fri - 6.2 easy

              Sat - 8.1 easy

               

              Total - 40.6 miles

              12-week average - 36 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

              watsonc123


                James - good week.

                 

                My week is done.  Ended up being a last minute ring in for the Masters Cross Country Relay, our mixed team.  Raced on tired legs, but raced better than I though I would.  First <= 5km race where I didn't have the lactic acid or asthma limiter - my legs were due to yesterday's MLR plus yard work.

                 

                <tfoot> </tfoot>
                Day Miles Pace Description Link
                Mon 5.0 8:34 Evening Run strava
                Tue 5.0 8:01 Evening Run strava
                Wed 7.8 7:27 Afternoon Run - Tempo 3.0-10.5km strava
                Thu 5.0 8:01 Evening Run strava
                Sat 12.6 7:48 Afternoon Run - MLR strava
                Sun 0.8 9:05 Morning Run strava
                Sun 0.2 9:27 Lunch Run strava
                Sun 0.2 8:25 Lunch Run strava
                Sun 0.3 8:23 Lunch Run strava
                Sun 2.5 6:59 Masters X Country Relay - Trentham Harriers Mixed Team, 4th Leg strava
                  39.4 7:52  

                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

                JMac11


                RIP Milkman

                  Flavio - big congrats!!! I knew all of this training would pay off. Now stop being scared of the big boy distances and go get some PRs there 

                   

                  Mikkey - As a 2:44 marathoner, I don’t plan on listening to you anymore since you’re a 2:50 marathoner. You can’t understand the experiences I’ve been through. Just an FYI.

                   

                  Mark - best of luck in your race. Let the taper do its magic, sounds like you might need it after this bout of training.

                   

                  Keen - I may be way off base here, but did you post about the Takumi Sen’s a while back? I’m in Japan, and decided to go into a generic Adidas store just to see if they had them since you can’t find them anywhere except Japan. I walked in and told my wife “this looks like a generic Adidas store,” but right on the wall were the new Takumi Sen 5s! I immediately ran up like a kid on Christmas morning and asked for my size. They had them and I bought a pair. So happy, feel like my trip to Japan was worth it just to get a pair of these!

                   

                  Me - staying on the vacation hiatus. I will say though my legs feel destroyed from walking around Tokyo. I have no idea how I can run as much as I do and feel absolutely drained from walking around. You would think the muscle groups would be exactly the same, but I am sore in odd places. I’ll count this as cross training 

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

                   

                   

                  Mikkey


                  Mmmm Bop

                     

                    Mikkey - As a 2:44 marathoner, I don’t plan on listening to you anymore since you’re a 2:50 marathoner. You can’t understand the experiences I’ve been through. Just an FYI.

                     

                     

                     

                    I’m going to change my avatar sig line from elite jogger to just plain jogger.

                    5k - 17:53 (4/19)   10k - 37:53 (11/18)   Half - 1:23:18 (4/19)   Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)

                    flavio80


                    Intl. correspondent

                      Mark - another great week, it looks like you will have a brilliant race.

                      Something funny I wanted to tell you. We have a Whatsapp group for the running group (off course we have). When anybody wants to refer to the running coach, they don't say "coach" or his name, they use the devil's emoticon:

                      Devil's emoticon

                       

                      PS: I just learned that it's supposed to be a japanese ogre emoticon, anyway, who cares, it's the devil for us.

                       

                      James - good to see you over 40 miles again

                      Jmac - now how many moose mugs you have again?  LOLOLOLOL (please don't ask how many I have ).

                      Enjoy Japan, please let us know at the end of the trip what was the weirdest thing you bought from a vending machine.

                       

                      me - Thanks guys for all the well wishes here and on Strava. This was a great week to refresh the legs. Going forward I'm thinking of sticking to my current diet of 3ks and perhaps even going down for the 1500m PR. I'm built for the 1500m, I just love it. I might run 21.1k in sub 1h30 before the end of the year to keep qualifying for this thread 

                      My week:

                      Mon/Tue - Off due to a cold

                      W: 12ez

                      T: 10x300 at roughly race pace for a shake out

                      F: Functional training with amazing squat walking around a wooden box

                      S: 3000m race in 10:34.1 to finally break the chains and get a new PR since 28/04/2016 (trolling on purpose with the date format)

                      S: 6ez

                      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

                        Flavio nice race and race report that's an awesome time!

                        Mark James Watson nice weeks.

                        Jmac I know what you mean I walk around shopping with my wife and I can barely get through without my legs and feet killing me but running is normally not an issue.

                        Not much done by me this week I have decided just to take it easy until my PT appointment on June 4th so another week of rest and we will see what they say.

                        Seems my plans for the year are slowly unraveling I hope I can get back on track within the next month or so.

                         

                        Weekly Summary
                        Monday, May 20, 2019 thru Sunday, May 26, 2019

                        <tfoot> </tfoot>
                        Day Miles Pace Description Link
                        Mon 4.4 8:53 Evening Run strava
                        Thu 4.4 8:35 Evening Run strava
                          8.8 8:47  

                        PR's

                        1m  5:38 (2018)

                        5k    19:59 (2019)

                        HM  1:33:56 (2018)

                        FM  3:23:07 (2018)

                        Marky_Mark_17


                          James, Watson, Flavio- nice weeks.

                           

                          James - I tend to just work off a point on the track (front straight, first corner, back straight, second corner) and hope for the best.  If I get stuck I just use the GPS on my watch but it tends to measure long on the track so it's not that reliable.

                           

                          Flavio - it's not trolling if you're right

                           

                          JMac - mmmmm new hard to find shoes

                           

                          Weird Omens - I was digging through my drawer to get a t-shirt to wear the other night.  It turned out I grabbed my Foo Fighters 'Concert for Christchurch' shirt from a one-off show in Auckland in 2011 that was organised at short notice as a fundraiser for the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.  Getting tickets for the show was an absolute fluke since the Auckland Town Hall only has like 2,000 capacity and I haven't worn the shirt since 2011 since I figured it was a bit of a collector's item (I actually forgot I even had it).  No I'm not wearing it for the race on Sunday though.  Maybe on the flight down there though.

                          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"

                          cc4life07


                          Wind is not my friend.

                            Flavio - Awesome race and congrats on the PR!  Sub 18 in the 5K sounds like a solid plan for whenever you get another one of those!

                             

                            Mark - Good luck at the HM.  Enjoy the taper and I enjoy seeing the training that you all do for these races.  Learn quite a bit from everyone on the boards, especially those a full 10 minutes faster!

                             

                            Just been lurking a little bit over the past couple days as I've been enjoying my more relaxed week of a bunch of 2-4 milers and finishing up some work I needed to get done.  Trying to get in a couple miles this evening if the lightning lets up.  Was beautiful (and hot) all day when my son raced.  (6:28 1500m PR! for a 9 year old) but now that I can run, it's ugly out.  Working on a new training plan for the next 20 weeks and the body is finally starting to recover.

                            "Current" PRs

                            5K - 18:00 (4/19)   |   HM - 1:19:28 (4/22)

                            Next Race: A 5K of some sort (Goal: Sub 17:30)

                            Marky_Mark_17


                              Weather is looking... interesting... for Sunday.  It's still a way out, but at this stage it looks like it's going to be 6-7C at race start (low-mid 40's), which is good, but might also be a moderate SW wind around, which is bad.  There's a couple of fronts blowing through this week, the second one should be mostly done by Saturday night but there's a risk that a bit of wind and a few showers are still hanging around by race start.

                               

                              A SW would be a bit of a nuisance as the course runs west, then east, then back west, so we'd cop the wind at the tail end of the race.

                               

                              I'm planning the same gear strategy as for Dunedin last year - singlet and shorts, and a pair of cheap gloves that I can discard if my hands get too warm.  Funnily, the Takapuna club singlets are a bit uncomfortable in summer, but perfect in winter.

                              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"

                              watsonc123


                                Yeah, the forecast is not great with the wind.

                                 

                                Have we sorted a meeting post the race with Steve?

                                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