The Waltons aka Advanced Half Marathon Training Thread - 2022 edition (Read 443 times)

Hello again, everyone! And "hello" for any first-timers.

Kyle here. The Once and Future Mileage King, who also embraces the title of Protein Diet Ambassador (1 gram per pound of body weight!).
37 years old from flyover country (Oklahoma) USA. Married (12 years in March) with 3 daughters (ages 4, 7, 10 - functionally 11 right now). I'm an adult-onset runner, starting in July 2015. I jumped in to running headfirst after doing a 5k with my wife's family and discovering I loved it and wondered just how fast I could end up getting at the distance.

I'm not signed up for any races as of yet, though I'm considering a 20k trail race at the end of January just for kicks. After that I'll probably target a 10k/HM cycle for spring, potentially rolling that into a marathon - perhaps Fargo or Grandma's.
I do want to (finally!) win that blasted hilly/hot HM in Texas I go to every year. Remind me when it comes time: Don't go out harder than marathon effort!
For time goals, I want a sub 18 5k and all the longer-distance race results that line up with it!

A fall marathon (CIM again?) is certainly on my to-do list. I DESPERATELY need to get a solid marathon under my belt after the last three I've "run".

Mileage/training time history:
2015: 558 miles, 85:52:07 h:m:s (starting from July)
2016: 1,912 miles, 252:01:07 h:m:s
2017: 2,242 miles, 298:12:13 h:m:s
2018: 2,931 miles, 388:49:29 h:m:s
2019: 3,172 miles, 429:32:07 h:m:s
2020: 3,353 miles, 463:06:50 h:m:s
2021: 3,842.53 mi, 527:19:31 h:m:s

Eventually I'll run out of room in this "yearly increasing mileage" thing, I suppose.

Thank you Flavio for starting the thread (and surprisingly not calling it "Advanced Strength Training 2022").

I'm Steve, 45 years old and live in Christchurch, New Zealand.  I'm pretty settled here now after 5 years.  Previously I lived in Melbourne, Australia for 10 years and shorter stints in Wellington, Dunedin and London.  My immediate goal is my first full marathon in April, but there is plenty of cross posting around here, and I expect to target a half PR at some point in 2022.  For now, my only planned half is Queenstown on November 19.  I'll probably focus completely on the marathon and then depending on the recovery make a call on which half to target in August or September.  Flavio being the boss will make the call on whether races outside half-marathons appear on the table.

I started running in 2001-02 and soon settled into the half as my preferred distance.  The marathon was always something to be done in the future "after I get sub 1:30 in the half", "when I'm more settled in my career", "when I'm not distracted by playing cricket or soccer".

That time never seemed to come with injuries or moves or big life changes, like relationships ending, moving cities/countries or the loss or illness of family members.  From 2014 I started working with a coach and since then my training has improved, increasing mileage and decreasing injuries albeit with the occasional issue.  I first went sub 1:30 for the half in 2004 before finally doing it again in 2016 with a new PR.  I've had 5-6 races very close to 1:30 since then before finally going sub 1:30 again in November 2021, missing a PR by 8 seconds.

Despite, or maybe because of, all the cancelled races in 2020-21, my mileage has hit the highest level ever.  After a solid 2020 I took the plunge and planned for my first marathon in April 2021.  Unfortunately I got a small knee niggle around Christmas 2020 and wasn't able to return to normal training for a few weeks.  By then the race date was looming too quickly so I chose a new race in June 2021 in Wellington.  My training went really well and I enjoyed the higher volume and lower intensity.  My goal was sub 3:20 which is possibly conservative given my half times, but I don't think it's sandbagging when I've never done the distance.

For the first half of 2021 the pandemic issues were pretty quiet in New Zealand but 4 days out from the Wellington marathon a Covid positive person from Australia went through Wellington.  There wasn't a single confirmed case but unfortunately the hysteria led to increased restrictions in Wellington which led to the postponement of the race.  That was a bit of a blow coming pretty much out of the blue.  On the positive side, I was dealing with some tricky family stuff at the time and the weather on race day was horrific - horrific in Wellington is torrential rain and hurricane strength winds so it's possible it was a blessing and prevented a tough first marathon experience.  I decided to run the distance that weekend anyway, in Christchurch where the weather was perfect and only at easy pace.  It was pretty comfortable and good to at least have that behind me.  The rest of 2021 had 4 more race cancellations, but I was only training for the half after that, knowing the risk of cancellations.  It's slightly easier to maintain half training and keep extending until you finally get a race.

So in 2022 I go again, targeting the Christchurch marathon on April 10 as my first.  I'm coming off my 2 biggest mileage years ever.  The peak of marathon training will also be at the peak of summer so it will be tougher than last year, training in Autumn, but hopefully it builds my race day resilience.  A nice cool day for race day would be ideal too.

Mileage Totals

2021  3859km (2398 miles)  Estimating the mileage on the last few days of the year

2020  3442.36km (2139 miles)

2019  2331.46km (1449 miles)

2018  2308.67km (1435 miles)

2017  2291.61km (1424 miles)

2016  2796.60km (1738 miles)

 

If there's advanced marathon training going on in the marathon thread, there's definitely advanced half training going on here.  Not me of course but we do have plenty of sub 1:20 runners, and piwi who achieves crazy age graded percentages.

But is there advanded training going on? Doubtful. I think Cal was right on the money here.

I guess both threads need a name change then

Ok, ok... You probably didn't notice, but the previous/original thread title (before flavio fixed it) was -

Advanded Half Marathon Training Thread - 2022 edition

I probably should be more specific when I mentioned there was something wrong with the first word. There was no intention to offend anybody

Hello all,

Lance here, M56 from Northwest Arkansas (USA).  I returned to running about 6 months ago after a 5 year layoff. I have been lurking here because this group appeals to me more than the other choices.  The HM is my favorite distance to race and you are all serious about your running and you pass out good advice.

I was very happy to see the rebranding of the group to welcome a broader range of runners.  Realistically I will never again break 1:30. The best I can hope for is about 1:35 based on reaching my previous potential and adjusting for age, and even that is too optimistic for 2022.  My weight will continue to hold me back for a while.

My next race is the Best Damn Race, New Orleans, March 20. My goal will depend heavily on my weight  .  If I can lose enough weight then 1:45 could be possible but 1:50 might be more realistic.

I have a blog link in my signature where you can read my RRs and backstory.

I remember PiwiKiwi from RWOL years ago. He was fast then but, damn, I think he is even faster now.  It seems that all you Kiwis are fast.  I understand there is some question about accurate distance measurements, but my own personal opinion is it is due to gravity. All of us normal people here at the top of the world have to fight against gravity holding us down. All you people at the bottom of the world have gravity helping you.

Wow, I spend a few hours offline and the banter has already started.  Anyway great to see a couple of new faces here already, welcome arunnerd and ccoakley.  Don't worry about the 1:30 thing (which is now gone anyways!), there is a fairly wide range of runners on here and the main thing is to come on here and talk about running HMs or shorter distances.

Also hail to our new overlord and his intriguing concept of advanded half marathon training.

I'm Mark, 40, from Auckland, New Zealand.  I have a wife and a 4-year old daughter, who is just about to start her first kids 2k run series.  I started running in mid-2015 after rehabbing a very serious knee injury I copped playing field hockey... and then things kinda escalated, I mean they really got out of hand fast, and somehow I was winning races, series and even the National Masters HM title in 2019.

After two marathons I have officially retired from marathons because I hate them, and the focus is on 5k to HM distance for me which I think is my natural sweet spot.  Last year the highlight for me was the Southern Lakes HM, which I'm running again this year.  But unfortunately most of the National Championship season got cancelled due to lockdowns, so I'm hoping for better luck this year and with the benefit of a very consistent year of training behind me.

I've unimaginatively copied my goals from last year because... the first three are just generally valid and I didn't manage the fourth one since National 10k Road Champs got cancelled.

Mileage history:

2015: not much (didn't track it)

2016: 2,686km / 1,669 miles

2017: 3,612km / 2,244 miles

2018: 3,613km / 2,245 miles (not an accident)

2019: 4,146km / 2,576 miles

2020: 4,436km / 2,756 miles

2021: 4,371km / 2,716 miles

Goals for 2022:

1. Have fun

2. Don't get injured

3. Run at least one new race

4. Beat my 10k road PB