Forums >Racing>Goal of sub 1:40 half.
Beware, batbear...
2014 Goal -- Run 5X per week, pain-free (relatively) by end of summer.
Yeah, most of the "tough" hills I'm running are 8 - 12% grade. Some of those are uphill, a couple are downhill. I don't like running steep downhill grades so I try to choose routes where I'm mostly taking those uphill rather than down. So how does the greater gradation affect speed?
Its really a question of effort than speed. You could try and maybe succeed to maintain the same speed as prior to hill, but the price in effort is exponential.
When hitting a hill in the race just try to feel the same effort you hit prior to the hill, can't really do much about the time loss. If you try to shorten that time loss you will pay the price in greater reduction of time on the non hill portions because you be gassed if you try to blast the hill.
now conversly "trying" to blast a Hill in training has great benefits, in both preparing for hills in a race and probably the best way to increase speed/power regardless of running on hills or not.
I am also with you on hating running down a steep hill more than running up it, as it kills my knees. there are some steep hills I will repeat and run up/walk down and repeat.
"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it Great!
Zeus
I was able to conquer the 1:40 beast this past weekend. I ran the Chicago R&R Half which ended up being a very flat course and absolutely perfect perfect day. They had 21 corals and when I first signed up, I had no idea what I could run so I was initially in the 2:00:00 group (#7). During packet pickup, they luckily offered the opportunity to change if need be and I was lucky enough to get in the (1:35-1:45) group (#2).
I've been battling a groin pull for a couple weeks and have not put in many miles as I've been trying to rest it. It was a crap shoot on how much pain I could pull through and if I could keep up a consistent pace with the lack of miles lately. In the end, all of my mile splits were between 7:05 and 7:38 and ended up with a 7:21 pace for the race.
The was some slight wind in miles 9-13 which pushed my times a little higher but overall a great experience for my first half.
Splits: 7:09, 7:09, 7:05, 7:05, 7:23, 7:12, 7:29, 7:16, 7:32, 7:35, 7:23, 7:34, 7:38, :47 = 1:36:17.
Good luck to the rest of you and I hope those that had tried and not succeed yet have a second or third run lined up. Let's all crush 1:40:00 !!!
2nd life PR's: 19:24 5k / 39:52 10k / 1:27:36 1/2 mar / 3:08:03 marathon
Suspect Zero
Awesome job! It's great to see someone crush it on their first outing.
What do you have for med/long term plans from here?
Holy cow! You need to work on your goalsetting!
We live awfully close to one another, sac238. Really close. Message me, maybe we can run together sometime (I'm not a 1:36 HM'er, though). Or just hit up Wojo's
Awesome job! It's great to see someone crush it on their first outing. What do you have for med/long term plans from here?
Short term: recovery from some nagging injuries.
Long term: ?? Quite unsure. I started running in February after about 10 years of laziness. 50 lbs later, I like what I've done and would like to keep it up. Maybe it is something each of us thinks about -- during the race I kept thinking this was going to be my first and last half. Why am I getting up at 4am on a Sunday for a race? Why not run 5/10k's? Etc? But now that a couple days have passed, I might not do another half this year but would like to keep up the mileage over the fall/winter so that I can have the option to do a half on down starting in the spring. With the groin injury over the past couple weeks, my speed work has significantly taken a hit and not sure how autumn 5/10k's will go down.
Something I have learned is whether it is a tempo workout, speed work or Sunday race, they all start out the same: one foot in front of another. At some point, the mileage and workout pay off and even though it might be a high intensity week or recovery from injury period, everything goes back having the passion to choose running over laziness.
Great job, Sac! That's a wonderful result for a first half, particularly on limited mileage, well done!
Hills are speedwork in disguise...
PBs since age 60: 5k- 24:36, 10k - 47:17. Half Marathon- 1:42:41.
10 miles (unofficial) 1:16:44.
Hi everyone. I've been recreationally running for about three years now, and I decided it's time to run a marathon. Specifically, I'd like to qualify to run the 2010 nyc marathon and so I'd like to get a 1:23 half before then (not really interested in doing the 9 races + volunteer thing). Given my current condition, I was wondering if/when it'd be possible to do it. I've recently recovered from a serious bout of ITBS (after being sidelined for 5 months) and am only running 8:00 minute miles for about 5 miles. However, before I got injured, I was able to do 7-7:30 minute miles for 9 miles. These are miles ran on training runs and only approximate times since I've never raced or timed myself before. I'd have to build back up to pre-injury condition and then knock off around a minute from my peak pace. The two races I'm looking at are the Manhattan half in late Jan and the Brooklyn half in late may. Would it be possible, given my current condition, for me to run a 1:23 half and if so, would I be able to get proper training by late Jan?
I'm not a racing expert, but here are my .02 about this.
First, anything is possible. That being said, it is not going to happen overnight and you will need to rededicate part of your life to running. You are looking at doing two things at once: speed work to drop your times down well over a minute/mile and endurance for the 13+ miles (and of course getting up there for 26+)
To put things in to perspective, you need to be running a sub-18 5k (5:40 ish miles) by spring For a 1:21:00 pace, you need to be at 6:11/mile. If your not able to go well under this pace for a 5k, you will be hard-pressed to try do it for a HM.
I know you are coming off an injury, but you will also need to get your mileage and daily workouts up there. At least 5-6 days a week training and bare minimum 45+ miles/week. I'm sure your fear is training too hard and re-aggravating the ITBS so a careful balance is needed.
There are dozens and dozens of other marathons out there that do not have time requirements for entry. Your first marathon being the NY is a lofty goal for someone who has not run one before. Hopefully one of the future HM's you have planned will give you an idea on where you stand and if your goals are obtainable.
Best of luck!
Ran a 45:22 10k this morning. Running calculators show I'm within striking distance of breaking 1:40 in Akron this year.
Speedwork
Hills
Mileage
It's going to be tight.
First hardware ever! Took second in my AG.
Prince of Fatness
Nice work. I first broke 1:40 with a 1:39:51 in April 2008. Two months or so before that I ran a 45:20 10K, so yeah it's going to be close for you. Keep at it and good luck.
Not at it at all.
Ran a 45:22 10k this morning. Running calculators show I'm within striking distance of breaking 1:40 in Akron this year. Speedwork Hills Mileage It's going to be tight. First hardware ever! Took second in my AG.
Good Job Matt,
It was nice to meet you today and race together, well at least I saw the back of his legs for the first 3 miles then finished a little under 2 minutes behind.
I had planned going out at 7:30 pace and hold on to get 46:30 - 47:00 but was never feeling it.... maybe it was the thought of my 16 mile LR tommorow in the back of my head. Time puts me at 1:45 Half, which is reasonable as hope to get that to 1:42:30, but with 5 - 6 weeks out and in midst of marathon training (no time for taper/recover) 1:40 probably not in the cards.... Have 10 miler race next weekend and was hoping to keep 7:45 pace??
Paced well and finished strong, so will take the 2:20 taken off my old PR and the new time of 47:14.
Mile 3 -- Some odd traffic this mile. Up until 2.5 mi this was a 5k/10k mix crowd and
we split at 2.5 mi and finally see who are the 10kers. At this point of 10k I do not think
I passed nor was passed by anyone rest of race, although the distance of runners behind
me grew as at this point runners probably 50 - 70 yds back and by the end group of 4 runners
about .1/3 mi back. After looping .7 miles we remerge with 5k route and they are at 2.5 mi
while 10kers are 3.2 , so hitting the back of pack 5kers and need to weave through some
straggelers, another .25 mile and 5kers break to finish while 10k break off.
I'm not sure I can do much of a race report. I can show my splits thanks to my Garmin, but after about 2 miles into it "This is gonna hurt" was followed by "This hurts" which was followed by "Ok, just hold on" and then "Walking sounds good" gave way to "You're starting to slow" which melded back into "Just hold on" and then finally "Thank goodness that's over"
But yea, it was good to meet Rob. I remember that part, too.
Not looking for anything too specific, but what did your training look like between the two races?