Forums >Racing>The Waltons aka Advanced Half Marathon Training Thread - 2022 edition
Waltons ThreadLord
Wow: did this previously so-busy-it-was-hard-to-keep-up thread actually go more than 24 hours without a posting? I trust everyone's alright and it was just a lack of something to talk about.
I had a nice day for running. Mid-50's with sun and some breeze, but not humid. 6+ miles at easy effort.
5k 23:48.45 (3/22); 4M 31:26 (2/22); 5M 38:55 (11/23); 10k 49:24 (10/22); 10M 1:29:33 (2/24); Half 1:48:32 (10/22); Marathon 4:29:58 (11/23)Upcoming races: Clinton Country Run 15k, 4/27; Spring Distance Classic 5k, 4/28
Yeah Fred, it's just a good time to get out and train. Nothing special going on, except a mile race next Tuesday that I'm tapering for and trying not to dwell on. We had a nice Thunderstorm for the last 6 hours so naturally my long run was a touch spicy as I was getting cold running at an easy pace.
1600 - 5:23 (2018), 5k - 19:33 (2018), 10k - 41:20 (2021), half - 1:38:57 (2018), Marathon - 3:37:17 (2018)
Haha good call Fred. I think the lack of races lately has quietened things up a bit. That and no-one from the marathon thread trolling over here.
I was going to do some weather complaining earlier this week. We had an unusually humid stretch for most of the week. Back to nice autumn temps this morning 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: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr, 1:15:48
Up next: Runway5, 4 May
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
Intl. correspondent
Piwi - these punks don't know to appreciate your videos, smh 🤦♂️
Fred - I also run to support my eating habit. Regrettably I've developed a hiatus hernia over the past few years, and that takes away the pleasure of eating sometimes. I've been more disciplined lately with avoiding fried stuff so had fewer crisis.
Just before my marathon last October I was at 77kg 170lb, I'm now 84kg 185lb 6 months later, so I went up a UFC weight class 😎
Fred is up next on Sunday the 24th with the RBC Race for the Kids 4M. Go Fred!
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
JamesD
Slow progress, I guess, moving up to a 3-mile tempo. That was my first fastish run that long in 6+ months, though it was harder than tempo effort and slower than what should be tempo pace. Hamstring seemed to handle it decently, though, and I’m enjoying the warmer temperatures. Next week will be an extreme taper (four days without running unless I can find a hotel treadmill one morning) before my 5K. My goal, which I will achieve unless there's a miracle or a drastic course mismeasurement, is a PW.
Sun - 6.7 miles in park including strides, first 6.2 @ 8:35
Mon - 27 minutes swimming
Tues - 13.2 miles in park @ 8:29
Weds - 5.2 very slow TM (60 minutes) + 0:40 walk breaks/6 mins
Thurs - 6.7 easy in park including strides, first 6.2 @ 8:33
Fri - 26 minutes swimming
Sat - 7.8 in park including 3 @ 7:00
Total - 39.6 miles
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
Fred - good luck with the 4 miler.
James - that IS a drastic taper.
Me - well, that was a pretty mega week in the bag, my biggest week mileage-wise since 2020. We had a rough, humid patch from Tues through to Fri which was almost as tough as the stretch back in February and combined with the wind made it pretty tough going (character-building, I guess). Hit some tough workouts Tuesday (3 x 5 min / 1 x 10 min hard) and Saturday (7 x 1km) and a decent tempo effort on Thursday. Sunday's long one was my longest run since the last marathon I ran in October 2020. Came through all of that pretty well and now just need to survive two weeks until the race!
Mark nice week it's been a mixture of cool and muggy mornings for sure.
Fred good luck.
James why can't you run outside ? Nice week.
My week
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 "
Time constraints. The area around the hotel doesn't seem great for running, and driving to a park & back would mean I'd either have to get up earlier or delay DW's & my departure for the meeting events. Plus it's likely to be (what I consider) uncomfortably cold, and since I just want to get in a few easy miles two days before the race, a treadmill run seems easier. The other days we'll either be driving or at all-day meeting events.
The trip should be fun, and I don't really care about the race since I'm not in racing shape (DW wants us to run it so we can do it together & because she likes that Buffett owns Brooks, whose shoes she wears). I'm considering this more of a very down week with a slightly-faster-than-tempo run at the end, which is ok.
Mark - 3 workouts + a long run? Good lord, I reckon if you sprinted against a wall the wall would suffer the worst of it 😂
Piwi - Nice week on the rebound
James - A down week is good for recovery. As for the 5k race, my recommendation is to find a superman costume 🦸♂️ and pace your wife 😁
me - Another nice week, highlight was the 8km 5mile @ hmp on Thursday.
Long run by feeling and watching mostly the heart rate today. Got a nice pace going even with the strong head wind on the way back and 3km of climb at the end.
It's funny how the wind does not seem to affect me much, at least at easy pace.
2 weeks to go!
RBC Run for Kids 4-Miler 4/24/22
Or as I call it, Chasing (the) Youth
My best time for a 4-miler in Central Park was set back in 2018, when I ran one in 32:37 and which was also my 4-miile PR until I finally set a faster time on an easier course earlier this year. Given today's course and the way I'd been running lately, beating my PR of 31:26 would be tough but worth shooting for. After a few transit SNAFU's, my 15-year-old son and I got to the corrals about 10 minutes before race start. Conditions were near-ideal with temps in the low 50's and low humidity; only the pollen count was a bit high. We were in corral F (the last was L) and while the race started at 8:00, we didn't start until 8:05, running north on East Drive with about 4,500 other runners.
As soon as we crossed the start, my son started working his way through the traffic (I have less than positive feelings for people holding up traffic by texting on their phones during the race, jamming up people around them), and running the tangents just as I'd taught him. The first mile includes the long hill climb up Cat Hill, so I was hoping he didn't go out to fast, but as I was able to easily keep him in sight, I realized his pacing was good. I ran the mile in 7:59, which was pretty good for the hill climb.
About halfway through mile 2, I put on a burst of speed on a winding downhill section and closed the gap on my son as he doesn't run the downhills as aggressively as I do. I finished mile 2 in 7:48 and was about 0.05 miles behind the kid. Two left turns and we were heading back south on West Drive. Next up were the Three Sisters, a set of rolling hills that I figured were my only chance to catch my son (assuming he faded on the hills and I did not). About 2½ miles in I crested the first of the three hills and saw him ahead of me and his lead was still about 0.05 miles. The crest of the second hill didn't afford much view, but I spied him at the crest of the third hill and his lead had grown to 0.07 miles. I had run the third mile in 8:21, which wasn't fast, but I wasn't fading either.
With 1 mile to go and no more hills to climb, I figured I wasn't going to catch my son, so I focused on getting a course record and maybe even going sub-32. With the last turn towards the finish line, it was touch and go as to whether I'd break 32 minutes. With my mouth wide open (according to my wife), I finished the 4th mile in 7:51 and crossed the line in 31:59, getting my sub-32 and setting a new course record. I soon learned, from my wife, that my son didn't just beat me in the race today, but his 31:07 easily beat my curren 4-mile PR of 31:26. So now we'll see if I can hold him off at 5 miles...
James, slow and steady wins the race right? Enjoy your trip and have fun at the 5k.
Mark, wow that's a really big week. Do you ever welcome the taper after going that hard?
Piwi, nice steady progress.
Flavio, nice to see you're getting some speedwork back. Will you race the HM?
Fred, congrats on the 4 miler.
My reset week went pretty well and I'm feeling back to normal. I'm going to add a bit of structure and run for time the next couple months. My schedule will be changing dramatically early July and I'm not sure yet how it will impact my running only that I won't have maximum flexibility with my time like I do now. I want to take advantage of the next 2 months and really run as much as I can. This is open to tweaking as needed but my plan is:
M: 2 hrs
T: 60 min
W: 90 min
Th: 60 min
F: 2 hrs
S: 90 min
No mileage or pace goals just run what feels easy that day and if I need walk breaks I'll take them. Maybe some light speedwork on the 60 min days if I feel up for it. Really test the theory that lots and lots of easy miles will make me faster.
5k 24:53 (2020) |10k 52:24 (2021) |HM 1:57:14 (2019) |FM 4:24 (2007) |50k 5:57 (2022)
Mother of Cats
My week (shoutouts in next post):
63 miles running, 3 hours pool-running, and ~1500 yards swimming.
M: 90 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.T: 12 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 1200, 2x800, 400, 2x200 in 6:53, 4:56, 3:14, 3:11, 91, 44, and 45. Recoveries were 4:50 after the 1600, and between 2:4x and 3:0x after the 1200 and 800s. Full recovery after the 400s and 200s. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.W: 8 miles very easy (9:57), upper body weights/core and then 4 miles easy (9:30) plus drills and strides.Th: 90 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.F: 12 miles, including 2x2 miles in 14:07 (7:08/6:59) and 13:43 (6:54/6:49) with long recovery in between (swapped shoes), also a "300m" in 73 seconds and a "200m" in 46 seconds. . Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 meters recovery swimming.Sa: 8 miles easy (9:59), streaming yoga, and 4.5 miles easy (9:41) plus drills/strides.Su: 14 miles progressive, split as the first 5 miles averaging 9:44, next 4 averaging 8:22, and next 5 averaging 7:44 (and then a half-mile cooldown). Followed with leg strength work and 500 meters recovery swimming.
Just another week focused on consistent training and getting some mileage in. Sunday's long run ended up being a bit slower than my previous long runs, but I think a lot of that was my choice of route, which featured a lot of root heaves, trail congestion, some sharp turns, rolling hills, and wooden bridges. All of which are challenges to my mechanics, which is why I did this route. The good news is that I never felt at risk of falling (well, except for one sharp drop) and that was a big improvement.
I'm racing the Broad Street 10 Miler this coming Sunday, so Friday was shoe testing time. I decided to test out the Metaspeed Edge on the first 2 mile repeat, and hated it. That shoe has a sweet spot, and it is 5K pace and faster. At tempo effort I'm landing on my mid-foot and rolling forward, and the Metaspeed Edge doesn't like that at all.
So I jogged back to my car and swapped to the RC Elite 2 for the second 2 mile repeat, done at the same perceived effort and heart rate, but significantly faster. That being said, I think the RC Elite 2 is really best for marathons, and is a bit soft for anything faster than that pace. So I will almost certainly be running Broad Street in my Takumi Sen 8s, which seem to hit a middle ground between the two shoes.I put the Metaspeed Edge back on to play with some faster stuff - that shoe really feels great at fast speeds. So I'm going to use it my next track workout to see how it handles that.
/shoe talk.
Everyone's gotta running blog; I'm the only one with a POOL-RUNNING blog.
And...if you want a running Instagram where all the pictures are of cats, I've got you covered.
James - it will be interesting to see how the extreme taper works for you.
Marky_mark - congrats on a solid training week Looking good!
Piwi - good week for you too.
Flavio - I think I've mentioned this before, but I've always maxed out at about 4 miles (6.5 km) at HMP. That's a big workout. If it felt controlled, then that's an indication your fitness is improving, and your actual HMP may be faster. Just my humble opinion, of course.
Fred - congrats on the new 4 mile PR!
Caitlin - I didn't get a chance to comment before, but I like the experiment that you are doing. One thought - I don't see any really easy days in there - 60 minutes is as short as it gets. Also, why is the longest run of the week on Friday followed by your second longest runs on Saturday and Sunday? (feel free to ignore my questions if they don't make sense in terms of what you are planning to accomplish)
Hot Weather Complainer
Mark - Monster week! I would say that seems a bit heavy this close to a race but your record speaks for itself.
piwi - Good to see you're building back up at last.
Flavio - Nice week and long run. What are you targeting for the half?
Fred - Enjoyed your race report, and congratulations on the great performance. Looks like your son is starting to go to the next level.
Caitlin - That sort of base building will definitely pay off in the long run. Go slow to go fast.
darkwave - Nice week. Great signs that you didn't have any issues on what sounds like quite a technical run.
me - Good solid week, returning to a more standard half training week. Of course now I've gotten the mileage back up, I'll be heading straight into a taper for Southern Lakes after a moderate workout on Wednesday. My workouts went pretty well, albeit with a heart rate higher than usual. I had to work pretty hard, probably harder than is ideal, but I didn't empty the well. I still don't know what to expect in a race. Obviously I was originally targeting a PR but if I ignore my less than ideal last month and just go for it, I risk having a miserable day. I'm trying to think positive though and compare Saturday to how I felt 2 weeks ago - a massive improvement, so hopefully in another 2 weeks I'm ready to roll.
On a personal note, I'm very happy to report that Mum's house has sold (at way way above what I thought it was worth) and I've finished almost everything I need to do before settlement on May 13. One last trip to storage and key handover and it's done. The stress since this all started almost a year ago has been high so it's a massive relief, and hopefully translates to my running too.
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 1:27:34
Selwyn Marathon June 2, 2024
Dunedin Half Marathon September 15, 2024
DW, very nice you could manage all the technical aspects of the route, I imagine your speed will come back in no time. It boggles my mind you can feel such strong differences between different shoes but I'm impressed by all the detailed knowledge.
I'm making this up as I go so I welcome feedback. M and F are my longest runs because I have more time for running on those days. The 'speed' workouts will be limited to 60 min days to keep myself in check. And while the 90 min days don't appear easy those are the days I'll really focus on adding walk breaks to keep the effort easy. I am a danger to myself on rested legs. I need to feel just a little bit broken down to keep myself from going all out and over doing it, it's a very limited sweet spot that I'm still trying to work out. Which is also why I'll tinker with this as I go.
Steve, so glad that you're back. Sounds like an extra maddening taper to start right when you're ready to go. If you go for it and have a spectacular blow up how much would that set you back for your Jun HM? Congrats on the quick and easy house sale.