Summer Recap

Apparently the summer heat makes me to lazy to post anything up here all summer long. This has to be the hottest summer I can recall in the 9 years I've lived in NYC. A combo of the brutal heat/humidity plus work being especially insane the last couple months means my mileage has suffered a bit. Also, the fact that I am not running a fall marathon probably doesn't help me with my motivation too much. I've had my biggest lag in my long runs. Once the weather turns and I get settled in Chicago (oh yeah, i'm moving halfway across the country in 3 days....another thing that can reduce your mileage temporarily), i plan on getting back into a good schedule.

Anyways, heat aside, the summer was not without it's merits.
Top 3 running moments of the summer.

1. Me and my roommate Danny went on a gargantuan of a trail run to the peak of Mt. Marcy, which is the highest point in New York State. The drummer of Danny's band, his family has owned a cabin in the Adirondacks for many years, so we went up to spend the weekend and with the primary goal of destroying that mountain...in a running sense. The roundtrip run from the cabin, to the peak of the mountain, and back was 18 miles. I am not well versed in trail running at all and rarely have the chance to do it, give that I live in brooklyn and don't own a car, but to put it into perspective, if we were doing an 18 mile run on the roads of brooklyn, it would likely take us between 2-2.5 hours. To do the same distance up a mountain that the trails rarely actually resembled a trail, well, it took us 5 hours and 20 minutes. Another way to put it into perspective, this mountain is a popular destination for hikers, but they often take 2 days to hike to the top and back. It was easily the toughest run I have ever done, and also one of the most satisfying. We left going with only a water bottle and a total of 6 power gel packs between us. We just filled to water bottle at fresh streams (which we later learned was pretty dumb of us to do, but we came away unscathed). Our biggest mistake though was not bringing enough to eat. We freaked out many hikers when they saw two shirtless dudes with no packs running past them. The view from the top is unbelievable. One of the most beautiful landscapes I have had the pleasure of witnessing. Naturally, after this monster run, we spent the rest of the day drinking beer and swimming in the ice cold river.

2. Top summer moment #2. I ran my first actual, organized 5K race since the old cross country days of high school this summer. It was one of the Al Goldstein Summer speed series sponsored by the Prospect Park Track Club, of which I am a member. After not having run a real 5k race in about 14 years, I really had no clue what to expect. Since most everything I do now is longer distances, I don't have as good of a sense of pace for the shorter, speedier races. I ended up running the 5k in 17:14 though! Out of curiosity, a few weeks after the race I was back in Illinois at my parents house, and I uncovered my old high school cross country results and was schocked to discover that in my whole high school running career, I only ran one race at a faster pace then I did the 5k this summer! I could have sworn high school matt frey would mop the floor with 31 year old matt frey.

3. Top summer moment #3, one day about a week ago, me and danny were having a hard time figuring out what to do for a run. For fun we decided to just run down to the track in red hook, and run one mile as fast as we can, then just very slowly jog home. Well, much like the aforementioned 5k, I have done plenty of mile intervals on the track for speed work in the last couple years, but I hadn't actually run a single isolated 1600 meters for time since my high school track days. Back when I was 17, I peaked with a p.r. of 4:35. i don't have any aspirations of doing the necessary speedwork to get back down there, and would rather focus my time these days to improving my marathon and half marathon times, but I really wanted to see if I still could break 5 minutes. I ended up doing it this day in 4:59! I couldn't believe I still had a sub 5 mile in me. it gave me an awesome level of personal satisfaction.

That's the summer update. In 3 days I move to chicago which will be amazing and I will have to discover a whole new set of places to run and loops to set for myself. It will be sad to say goodbye to any form of hill training though, as chicago is as flat as flat can be, but we'll see how that affects me in boston next year!

Also, how come there are so many comments to my old posts on here that are written in chinese? Say what?

speed workout + long run = i'm tired.

once again, i am getting a lot lazier updating this then i actually am with running. it's likely because i haven't sigined up for a fall marathon, so i find myself in a rare moment where i am just running for the sake of running and there is no particular goal in mind. the only goal is to enjoy myself, and it's kind of nice. although, sometimes that leads me to do things such as doing a good speedworkout friday followed my a monster longrun today, when really i should have allowed another day in between the two. whoops.

on friday me and my roommate danny ran at a nice easy pace for about 50 minutes and then found ourselves at the track in red hook. we did 5 x 800 meter intervals with a 400 meter recovery jog in after each one. the goal was to do the 5 800 reps at a 5k race pace, but we kinda went a little bit faster then what either of us could do a 5 k at. actually, i have no idea what my 5k pace is because i haven't done one since high school. since i picked up running again a couple years ago, i seem to only do marathons and half marathons. i believe the shortest race i've done was Prospect Park Track Club's Turkey Trot back in November which was 5 miles. I think I shy away from the 5k's because I think the half marathon is the distance I feel the best at. It also may be because I am much more of a late afternoon/early evening runner, so if I am waking up really early on the weekends, I kind of want it to be for a much longer distance then a 5k. I do think I will try and participate in one of the PPTC's Speed Series to finally do one. But, I digress. Anyways, so, we ended up completing the 800 intervals in times ranging from 2:33-2:43. Then we ran the 1.5 miles back home from the track to end up with about 11 miles for the day.

I took yesterday off to drink some beer and watch some soccer.

And of course today Danny and I had the bright idea to run down to Coney Island and then around the coastline in Bay Ridge under the Verazanno and we followed the path up the water until we hit Owl's Head Park around 68th street. Then we just ran up the grim 3rd Avenue from 68th street until we hit President Street for a total distance of 20.75 miles. This was the longest run by about 8 miles that I have done since the Boston Marathon. All of my longruns since the marathon have seemed to fall into the 11-13 mile range, so it was good to get some distance in. We took it at a nice relaxed pace and ended up averaging a 7:33 minute/mile pace for the run. The distance definitely took it's toll on my body though. I was completely out of gas by the time we got home. But, I held up pretty good. Lot's of water and gatorade were consumed on the run which was very necessary.

Anyhow, here's today's route.

Brooklyn Half Marathon recap

Well, yesterday was the Brooklyn Half. I hadn't quite decided before the race whether I was going to take it kind of easy and treat it as a nice longrun with my roommate Danny, or if I was going to just go for it and attempt a p.r.

The morning started out very groggy, as for some reason me and Elle thought it would be a good idea to split a bottle of Prosecco and have a few beers with dinner. Well, needless to say, that had me waking up feeling a little less then stellar. At the start of the race though I decided I would go out at a decent pace, see how I felt, and assess it from there. The first few miles my whole body felt really draggy. My initial goal (assuming I was going for the p.r. still), was to try and break 80 minutes, which would be an average pace of 6:06/mile. The first few miles I was averaging about 6:15's and even those seemed like a struggle. I fought off my demons that were telling me to just slow down and join Danny (who in his "taking it easy" still ran an 84:30 race), and I sucked it up and kept going for it. Around mile 5 finally my body felt the way it should, and the rest of the race seemed to breeze on by. I felt nice and calm and steady and ended up running a negative split to finish in 1:18:43 which is an average of 6:00/mile pace. A new p.r. by over 2 minutes!

So, what I learned is, prosecco before a race = bad idea. But at the end of the day I was completely psyched about my run.

A couple of observations about the setup of the course. It kind of disappoints me that for the Brooklyn half marathon, there is so many amazing areas of brooklyn to explore and the NYRR choose to spend over half of the race in Prospect Park. Don't get me wrong. I love the park and run it all the time and I feel it should certainly be part of the course, but I would have much rather the course only included one loop of the park which would open up 3.5 miles that could be run elsewhere. Also, the park is kind of a mess when the front runners are on their second loop and are passing runners still on their first loop and the divisions between the two are vague, causing it to be an obstacle course at times for the front runners. Another reason to only have there be one loop of the park. Ocean Parkway I find to be a little boring after a couple miles when I run it on my own, but for some reason yesterday it was really enjoyable and went by very quickly. And, finally, I do love the finish on the boardwalk. It is a great feeling to run up the ramp and see the water and run along the beach to the finish.

Boston Marathon Update

A week overdue. I ended up finishing the marathon in 3 hours and 2 seconds. It is a good time, but overall I am pretty disappointed in my performance. I know I was capable of running a much faster race. I honestly believe I could have beaten my time from the NY marathon, but I sealed my own fate by running like an idiot. I ran the first 17 miles wayyyyyyy too fast. At the half point I was at a pace so fast, that I actually set myself a new pr for my half marathon of 1 hour 20 minutes and 54 seconds...which is 17 seconds faster then I did the NYC half 5 weeks ago. Anyways, that'd be great if Boston was only say...a half marathon...but I pushed my body too fast too much in the beginning and by the time I reached mile 18 my body started to break down. I got some very gnarly cramps in my legs that I have never experienced before and at various points I actually felt like my legs were going to buckle and give out. So, Over the last 8 miles of the race I ended up having to walk about a mile and a half. If you look at my splits, they are really nice and steady at every 5k for the first 30k....then the last 10k I averaged about 2 minutes/mile slower then the previous 30k. that's what walking will do to you. So, yeah, it was a great time, but I know I could have done much better and I am pretty pissed that I had to walk so much because rarely do I get to a state that that is the case. It was a good lesson learned though....control yourself in the beginning! And I am salty that I came so close to breaking 3 hours but didn't (just to rub more salt in my wound, when i crossed the finish line and stopped my own clock, it was at 2:59:59 and I thought i had just made it, but the official clock disagreed with my casio wristwatch)

I took 4 days of complete rest afterwards. My quads were killing me which I imagine is from the downhills. After 4 days of no running I started easing myself back into it with some very short 4 mile runs at a very very slow pace.

11.7 miles

so yesterday was the last run of mine that will exceed 10 miles before next monday. I did 11.7 at around what i felt was my marathon pace. It ended up being about a 6:26 pace. Today I will take off, and then throw in a few short and easy runs for the rest of this week.

so lazy

i fell into the same trap right before the ny marathon. the closer it gets, the less i update this thing. the boston marathon is only a week away. with the exception of a lingering cold that i haven't completely fought off yet, i think i am in good shape. my runs lately have been a little tough though because my breathing has felt very heavy due to the remaining congestion in my chest. but, i've been cutting down the runs because of the taper, and just going a little slower then usual.

Friday in Chicago, or more appropriately the burbs, i went out for an easy 5.5 miles. Saturday was a moderate 6.5 at about a 6:42 pace. Yesterday I had planned on doing about 10-12, but decided to scale it back to get a bit of rest in, so I just ran a very leisurely 3.5.

3 day update

Yikes. I'm getting lazy.

So on Sunday I went on my final Long run before I begin my taper, which I am in the midst of right now. I went out for 15 miles at a 6:49 pace. I felt a little draggy, but I was still getting over my cold and the weather was pretty warm which I believe accounted for my general heaviness that I felt.

Monday I took a rest day.

Tuesday I went out for 7 at a good pace. I ended up averaging about 6:15/mile. Felt a lot better then Sunday.

Today was an easy 5 at a 7:00 pace. The weather was pretty brutal today, but should be better the rest of this week.

Tomorrow I fly to Chicago for a couple days to look at schools, so inevitably tomorrow will probably turn into a day off.

easy-medium 6.5

I'm still fighting off this cold that I suddenly came down with a couple days ago. So that made today's run a little tough. After the first couple miles though I got into a pretty good groove. I ended up getting in 6.5 at about a 6:37/mile pace. Tomorrow is my last long long run of this marathon training regiment before I start tapering down my mileage.

speed workout

After an easy 2 mile warm up I headed down to the track.

I did 4 x 1600 meter intervals with a 400 meter recovery jog after each one.
split 1 - 5:40
split 2 - 5:42
split 3 - 5:40
split 4 - 5:37

Finished up with an easy 2 miles as a cool down to get 10 in total for the day.

My times were a bit slower then when I did this same workout a couple weeks ago, but obviously, my pace was pretty consistent. I felt kind of horrible for most of this workout. For once though, it wasn't heavy legs, it was more my breathing was off and my chest felt really heavy and congested. I've been sneezing and have had a runny nose all day though, which makes me think either I am getting a cold, or I am having a hardcore allergy attack today. Regardless of which one it is, I think that's what made today's workout seem like a bit of a slog. I think I may make tomorrow a rest day.

2 day update....couple of longruns

I ended up taking monday off after sunday's behemoth.

Yesterday I went out for 7 at a good 6:20 pace. Felt great the whole run.

Today I went out for an easy 7.25. I am not sure what I ran it at, as my stopwatch stopped timing about 35 minutes into the run, unbeknownst to me, but I think it was around a 7:00 pace. Legs felt a little heavy today, so maybe it was a good day to scale it back some.

22 mile longrun day

So today was the longest of my long runs in the lead up to the Boston Marathon. I ended up getting just a wee more then 22 miles in for the day. Aside from a small cramp that lasted for about a mile around mile 18, I felt amazing this whole run, which actually took me by surprise because I woke up and the weather was kind of gnarly and cold which was making it tough to get the motivation to step out the door. I made a couple quick 1-2 minute stops along the way. Around mile 7 I altered my route a bit to pass by home to ditch my pants because I decided it was warm enough to run in just shorts. Then around mile 14 I stopped by my special ladyfriend's restaurant real quick to say hi and give her a quick stinky sweaty kiss. I did stop my stopwatch during those two quick stops. They also made for nice quick little breaks in the run. All said and done, I finished in 2 hours 37 minutes and 52 seconds for a 7:08/mile pace. Not a bad day after all! Tomorrow I'm taking the day off of running, but I'm going to wake up before the sun rises to head up to CT for a shoot. It should be a fun shoot though. The other photo assistant apparently is running in Boston as well, so i anticipate plenty of nerdy running talk throughout the day.

Here's the route from today.

couple of easy days

I've been working it pretty hard this week with the half marathon and my speed workout, so yesterday I went out for a nice and easy 7 miles at a 7:00 pace. Today I was thinking about taking the day off because I have a 22 mile run on the books for tomorrow, but i kind of wanted to do a little bit, so I ended up doing a very slow and easy 3 miles. Tomorrow will be my longest long run for my training cycle for Boston which is just about 3 weeks away.

Speed Workout

I suckered Danny into coming along with me today.

Did a two mile easy warmup. Then went to the track to do 800meter intervals with a 400 meter recovery jog in between each one.

My splits ended up being
1 - 2:39
2 - 2:40
3 - 2:40
4 - 2:36
5 - 2:37
6 - 2:31

finished with an easy 2 miles as a cool down. My stomach was a little full from lunch. Me and the special lady friend went to get sandwiches at Saltie in williamsburg which was awesome. But, as the name implies, the food was kind of salty, so I had to carry that with me for the workout today. But overall, I felt really strong. I think tomorrow I have a nice slow and easy longrun in store for me.

Good hard Long run day

So, on monday, the day after the half marathon, i decided to go out for a nice easy and slow 4 mile jog as a recovery run. In hindsight I should have taken monday off because i felt worse after the run then i did before. So, I took yesterday off then as a result. Today I went out for about an 8.4 mile run. I did the brooklyn and manhattan bridges, going through the promenade on the front leg and the back leg of the run. I meant to go at a nice moderate-fast pace, and i ended up going a bit faster then I had planned on. i did it in 51:25 for a 6:08/mile pace. I felt pretty good for the most part. I was breathing pretty heavy the first couple miles, but then I eased into a rhythm and was fine for the final 6.

I was right! NYRR messed up!

My suspicion about my official time in sunday's half as it was posted on the NYRR website was correct! They have fixed the results now though. My official time was exactly what I had clocked myself at. 81:11 for a 6:12/mile pace. I'm glad it got fixed because i was kind of confused/surly about the discrepancy.

NYC Half Marathon

I woke up long before the sun rose today to go help pace my buddy/roommie Danny in the NYC Half Marathon. Once the sun finally came out, the weather was perfect. The goal was to get Danny finished in 1 hour and 23 minutes so he would automatically qualify for this years NYC Marathon without having to deal with any of the lottery b.s. We ended up officially finishing in 1 hour 21 minutes and 33 seconds, which is an average of 6:14/mile pace. Somehow though, my own timing of the race on my own watch was 20 seconds faster then our posted official times, which i think is weird because the whole race my clock was 20 seconds behind the race clock, which would be about right if we started halfway in the first corral..so something doesnt add up. But whatever. I felt amazing the whole race. Ended up getting a p.r. too, which granted i only have one other half under my belt, but whatevs. Most importantly though, Danny finished well under his goal time.
We went home and cleaned up and then met up with our buddy jon for some 10:30 in the morning beers and cheeseburgers. The whole morning was pretty awesome.

whoops

once again, i get lazy.

thursday i took the day off after wednesdays speed work.

friday i went out for 6 miles at a 6:30 pace.

today i did a very very slow 3 miles. i did it as a prep for tmrws half marathon. me and my roommate danny are doing the NYC Half Marathon. We will get up before the sun does to be all the way up at central park by 6:30 tomorrow. That could be interesting seeing as how i'm used to going to bed around 1 every night. I'm treating tomorrow as just part of the training for boston, but danny wants to run the race in 83:00 so he can automatically qualify for the NY marathon. So, really, I could care less how i do, i just want to be able to run it nice and strong in any way that helps him get to his goal. it should be pretty fun....and nice to have my longrun done before 9 in the morning!

warm weather + the sun not setting til after 7 = fast runs

I love this weather and daylight savings. It puts me in an infinitely better headspace then running in the winter does.

Little backlog. I took monday off to recover from sunday's 20 mile run.

Yesterday I went out for 8.25 at a 6:21 pace.

Today I did a 2 mile warmup, went down to the track in Red Hook, did 4 x 1 mile repeats at a good fast pace with a 400 meter jog for recovery between intervals. Finished up with a 2 mile cool down.

My splits were
mile 1 - 5:28
mile 2 - 5:33
mile 3 - 5:29
mile 4 - 5:23

Both yesterday and today I felt amazing. Really strong and satisfying runs.

Sunday afternoon 20 Miles

Weather be damned. I had a 20 mile longrun on the schedule for my marathon training today. For most of the run it varied between misty and a light rain. Actually, I love running in such conditions, it just sucks when you have to take your glasses off every half mile to rub the rain off so you can see. The first 7 miles or so of the run felt a little rough. Then mile 7-18 felt amazing. The last couple miles felt great too, just my legs were starting to feel a little rickety. Thinking back to the 2 different 20 mile training runs I did in preparation for the NY marathon, last weeks and today's were significantly easier to accomplish by comparison. In the end I ended up doing just shy of 20 today. about 19.7 to be exact. I did everything in 2 hours and 18 minutes and 40 seconds for about a 7:02/mile pace.

2 day update...couple of easy longruns

I got out of work a little early on Thursday and had enough time to do an easy 4.25 miles before i had to leave for class. Last night I went out in the rain for a 7.2 mile loop. The rain actually felt amazing. Did the whole thing at a 6:44 pace. I took today off because the weather was way too garbagey. I have a 20 miler on the schedule for tomorrow. Hopefully the weather lets up.

7 mile longrun

Nice and easy 7 miles today. Originally I had meant to do a speed workout today, but since I ended up plowing through yesterdays run so quick, I just took yesterday as my speedwork. So today I did 7 miles in about 45:50 for a 6:38 pace. Tomorrow will inadvertently become a rest day as I have to work all day and go straight from work to class in the evening.

fast as hell 7.25 mile run

i ran from carroll gardens, to the promenade, over the BK bridge, and back over the manhattan bridge to my house today. a combo of the amazing weather and coming off a really good longrun on sunday caused me to tear through this one like crazy. i ended up doing 7.25 in 43:50 for a 6:03/mile pace. felt awesome!!

Monster Run Day! 21.24 miles

holy crap. today really beat me up. me and my roommate danny went from carroll gardens to central park, around the park, and back home for a grand total of 21.24. i didn't feel great, but i didn't feel bad for the most part. just kind of ok. i got a pretty brutal cramp around mile 17 near union square so we had to ease off quite a bit for about a mile. the cramp had vanished by the time we reached houston street and we picked up the pace a little bit. we ended up doing the whole thing in 2 hours 24 minutes and 29 seconds, which gives us a pace of 6:48/mile. a lot faster then i thought we were going, and honestly, a lot faster then we should have been going. i was aiming for about 7:15-7:30/mile. it makes me question mapmyrun, but whatevs. my legs are in pain now and i plan on doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the day, which makes this sunday awesome. here's our route for the day.

2 days update

so, yesterday i went out for 7 miles at a good hard pace. i ended up doing the whole thing at about a 6:30 pace. today was a very relaxed and easy 4. that gave me about 50 miles for the week. tomorrow me and my roommate danny are going to go out for a good 20 mile longrun. the plan is to run from carroll gardens to central park, around central park, and back home. and the weather should be good enough that i can wear shorts! this is going to rule.

kind of a speedworkout day

so, i set out today doing a nice 2 mile warmup to the track in red hook. i was planning on doing some mile intervals, however once i got there i discovered the track was non-functional due to the snow. i decided then i would go over to prospect park and do some hill repeats instead. made the run over there. on the way, i decided to take the distance along 9th street from 3rd ave to the park at what would be the same pace i meant to do my mile repeats at. then i jogged over to the base of the hill and did 4 times up it, jogging back to the bottom every time. it took me about 1:48-1:51 each time to do it, which i have no idea what that means because i don't know exactly how long of a distance it is from bottom to top. if i had to guess i would say it's about 500m. all i know is, i was huffing for air everytime i got to the top of the hill. then i did about a 2.5 mile jog home. my legs felt really really heavy today. maybe i should have taken today off and put this one off until tomorrow, but as it stands i did it. i think i may just rest tomorrow.

8.25 mile longrun.

so much for an easy day. i did 8.25 miles at what felt like a medium to hard pace. 54 minutes total for a 6:35/mile pace.

easy 4.25 miles

i was planning on taking the day off today after yesterdays 18 miler. but the weather was just way too inviting today. any chance to go run outside in shorts after running in the crap cold all winter must be taken advantage of. so i went for an easy 4.25, in my shorts, and it was awesome. now if only every day could be like this until boston.

Coney Island and back. 17.8 miles

Long run day. Just as it says, I went down to Coney Island and back. It ended up taking the whole thing at a pretty slow and relaxed pace. I ended up finishing in 2 hours and 12 minutes for about a 7:25/mile pace. I didn't feel too great, but not too bad either. Kinda so-so the whole way. Route is posted below.

matt vs. snow....matt wins

lot's of days to update.

on wednesday i went down to the track in red hook for a speed workout. i hadn't been down there in a while. 2 mile warm up, 6 x 800 meter intervals with a 400 meter recovery jog in between each interval, followed by a 2 mile cool down. my intervals went something like 2:47, 2:42, 2:40, 2:41, 2:42, 2:42. i don't know if i haven't been training for the boston marathon with the same intensity as i did for the ny marathon, or if i've been slacking on speed work, but it was a pretty tough workout. much harder then i anticipated.

i took thursday off due to the weather. yesterday though after work i decided i would not lot the snow beat me. i ended up going out for about 6.5 miles. damn it was a fun run.

today i just did a very easy 4.25 i prep for tomorrow. i think i have an 18 mile long run on the calendar for tomorrow. after today's run, i believe that gives me about 44 miles for this week.

quick post - 2 days

yesterday i went out for 5 at about a 6:40 pace.

today, i went out for 6.2 miles with danny. we took it really really easy. i didn't even time it. but it was a very nice feeling run.

Long Run day - 15 miles

Me and Danny went out for about 15.1 miles today. It was the first time in a long time I went out running with anyone besides myself. The company made the run go by pretty quick which was awesome. We ran at a good but conversational pace for the whole run. We ended up finishing in 1 hour 48 minutes and 20 seconds for an average pace of 7:10/mile. It was certainly one of my best feeling longruns in a while. Although the company and the fact that the weather was really nice and kind of warm out helped a ton.

Yesterday I got home from the airport and initially I was going to take the day off, but my legs felt restless so I went out and blasted 4.25 miles at a 6:12 pace to help blow off some steam. I think that put last week at about 40 miles for the week.

multi day update.

on tuesday i went out for an easy 5 milerecovery run. nothing too strenuous.

wednesday i woke up early and went out for 7. it was my intention to push that run really hard, but most of the sidewalks were covered with nice layer of ice which made the run a hell of a lot slippier then i could have hoped for. i still ended up doing it in about 47 minutes though so i had a good pace going.

i flew out to chicago on wednsday for the weekend. i ended up taking yesterday off to spend some time with the family. today i went on a nice 7.6 miles in the burbs. my legs felt a little sloggish today, but that could have something to do that i had a cheeseburger and fries at about 9:30 last night and that was the last thing i consumed before the run this morning. funny observation though. for how little the sidewalks get used by pedestrians in glen ellyn illinois in comparison to how much they get used by pedestrians in brooklyn, people sure do a better job of clearing them of snow and ice out in the the burbs then they do in the city,

Long Run...14.72 miles

I ended up taking yesterday off cos the special lady friend had the day off of work. We celebrated valentines day in much style by making tacos and cupcakes and watching the first disc of season one of 24. Holy crap that show's intense. In a good way.

So today I set off on my long run. I went from smith and president up to the promenade, over the BK bridge, up to central park, around central park, and back down to 42nd street. i stopped there, stretched in bryant park, went and bought a chocolate milk, banana, and a coffee and then hauled my smelly self back home on the subway. Oddly enough, besides the marathon, this is the first time i have ever gone running in central park. man, it's a pretty tough and hilly terrain. and if you are anywhere below 72nd street in the park in reeks of horse piss because of all the handsome cab traffic. Anyhow, the first half of the manhattan half marathon which is a month away should be pretty brutal seeing as how it's all in the park. I ended up finishing the whole run in about 1 hour 42 min and 50 seconds for a 6:59 pace. I felt pretty good for the most part. Especially the first 9 miles I felt unstoppable. Today's route is posted below.

Also, I ended up going out to see on of my all time favorites, the Murder City Devils play at the nokia theater on saturday night. I used to see them all the time in college, but they have been on hiatus since 2001. Man, it was awesome seeing that band play again. I wish they never went away.

2 day update...I got hit by a car!!(i didn't get hurt)

So yeah, on friday i went out for an easy 7 miles, and about 6 miles in as i was crossing 8th avenue on carroll street, i started running through the crosswalk while i had the yellow light. the light must have changed to red as i was going because one of the cars started going and an suv hit me right in my left leg and caused me to roll over the hood of his car. he couldn't have been going more then 5 miles an hour though and i walked away unscathed...and extremely lucky. since i didn't seem hurt, i decided to go ahead and finish my run and i ran the last mile anyways. moral of the story...if the you have the yellow light...don't push it, just relax and wait until you get the green again.

Yesterday I did the same as friday, minus getting hit by a car. An easy 7 at just a bit faster then a 7:00 pace. I ended up putting in 50 miles for the week. Today I am taking the day off and tomorrow is longrun day.

2 day update

So...the giant snowstorm yesterday caused me to retreat indoors. I had to fight the urge to go run outside quite a bit. Instead I ended up paying 15 bucks for a daypass to a local gym over on court street so i could go use a treadmill....which is absurd that i had to go pay money to go run in my least desirable method. Anyways, I translated my surliness into a pretty awesome run. I ended up putting in 10 miles on the treadmill...6 miles at a 7:00 pace, 2 at a 6:30 pace, 1 at a 6:15 pace, and 1 at a 6:00 pace....although not in that order. I felt great the whole time, and not as bored as I assumed I would.

Initially I thought today would be a rest day too, as I had to work all day and then I had class tonight, but I ended up getting out of work early enough that I had time to get home and go out for a quick 4.25 mile run at about a 7:00 pace before I had to leave for class.

In the meantime, I started reading Born to Run the other day by Christopher McDougall. I'm about halfway done and so far it's a really fun book. Although it does make me feel like my 10 mile longruns are slacking in comparison to what these people put in.

6 miles

Man I love being able to run in shorts. Today was bizarrely warm enough to do just that. The sheer fact that I could wear shorts and be comfortable on my run alone was a giant mental boost. I did my loop from my house around prospect park and back to get 5.9 miles done in 38:25 for a 6:30 pace. I felt great the whole time, which is good considering that yesterday was a pretty good sized run.

I ended up at the Them Crooked Vultures show last night. It had been a really long time since I went to a show that was that large in scale. It ended up being a ton of fun and afterwards I went out to Prime Meats in Brooklyn for a late night bourbon drink and a couple of oysters. One of the beauties of being freelance and having a random tuesday off of work means you can stay out late on monday and do just that.

long run day...16.1 miles

First off, to round out last week, i did about 4.5 easy miles friday morning and then about 4.25 saturday after work to give me about 50 miles for the week last week.

I ended up taking yesterday off because I was working all day and by the time i got home i didn't really want to go on a 16 mile run in the dark, and i wanted to watch the super bowl.

So, today I did just about 16 miles. I went over to the promenade, over the brooklyn bridge, up the west side highway to 23rd st, made my way through the west village and east village to the east river park at 6th st., down to the manhattan bridge, back to the promenade and then home for 16.1. I ran it all in 1 hour 52 minutes and 15 seconds for a 6:58 pace. For the most part I felt pretty good. Still cursing winter marathon training, but i'll survive.

I'm about to head off an go tutor for a bit, then I ended up getting a free ticket to see Them Crooked Vultures at Roseland tonight. I actually haven't heard any of their music, but it should be pretty awesome to see dave grohl behind a kit.

Here's the routing for the day.

Speed Workout Day....Giddyup

Today i felt better then I have in a long time. I did an easy 2 mile warmup. Then I did a 15 minute blast at just a shade quicker then a 6:00/mile pace, jogged an easy 3 minutes as recovery, then another 15 minute blast at the same 6:00 pace, followed by about a 2.25 mile cooldown. Total mileage for the day came in around 9.5 miles.

3 day update

Whoops. Getting lazy again.

Monday - I meant to take the day off, but i started getting ancy legs halfway through the day and ended up tearing through 4.25 miles at about a 6:15 pace. Probably not the smartest move on my part.

Tuesday - I did 7 miles at just about a 7:00 pace. The ol' legs felt a little haggard, which i attribute to monday's run and not giving myself the proper rest from my sunday longrun

Wednesday/today - i did about 6 miles at a 6:40 pace which I felt pretty good for the whole run. I finished the workout with 8 x 15 second sprints uphill.

Sunday longrun- 13.43 mile

Last friday i woke up early and did an easy 5 in a windchill that was 1 degree. Totally awesome. That was sarcasm. That gave me about 42 miles total for last week. Me and the special lady friend went up to Massachusetts then on friday to spend the rest of the weekend with her family which was a very nice change of scenery from ny. Yesterday was a rest day and today after i got home from MA I went out for about 13 and a half miles. i ended up running the whole thing in 1:34:30 for a 7:02/mile pace. I felt pretty good, although for the last couple miles my back was pretty sore and my legs were a little sore as well, but I certainly could have kept on going.

2 day update. Long run and Speed Workout

Yesterday I did an easy 7 at about a 7:00/mile pace.

Today I did a 2 mile warmup. Headed down to the track in Red Hook. I did 4 x mile intervals at a 5:48-5:51 pace with a 400 meter recovery jog in between each one. 2 mile cooldown for a total of 9 miles for the day. My achilles felt fine today which was a big relief. It was a bit of a slog getting through all 4 intervals, but in the end I felt alright.

7 mile long run

I did 7 miles in about 48 minutes today for just shy of a 7 minute pace. My achilles is still a little sore, but otherwise everything was fine.

Long run Day 13.75 miles

I went for my long run of the week today. My plan was just to run down a stretch of Brooklyn that I had never ventured into and at 50 minutes to turn around and come back. So I went up to Prospect Park and made my way to Coney Island Ave where I ran down until Ave. U, hooked left, went up to Ovean Ave and took that back to the park and home. Coney Island Avenue isn't really the prettiest part of brooklyn to run through, but nonetheless, its always pretty awesome to see parts of the city i have never seen before.

My legs felt pretty beat up for a lot of my run, which was a bit of a surprise. Around mile 10, I actually had to stop and walk for a couple blocks because I got a really intense pain in my Achilles, which I really hope does not become an ongoing problem. After walking for a little bit, I slowly began up again and made it home. The run came in at just about 13.75 miles, which I did in about 1 hour and 38 minutes (i stopped my watch for my walking period). That put my pace at about a 7:09/mile. I'm going to take tomorrow off, and I think I am going to play the rest of the week by ear with my achilles. If it is the start of some form of tendonitis, I want to make sure I don't over work my body to put me in a bad situation in the future.

Here's the route for the day.

5 miles easy recovery day

5 miles in about 36 minutes for a 7:12 pace. Nice and easy which is what I needed after yesterday. My legs felt pretty heavy today, but everything went ok. Tomorrow is a much needed day off. All said and done, I got in 45 miles for the week.

2 day update: 6 mile easy run and 10 mile workout

Yesterday I went on a 6 mile easy run. I did a loop from my house, around prospect park and back home to get 6 miles in at just about 42 minutes for a 7:00/mile pace

Today I originally had meant to go to the track in red hook, but decided I would rather just run instead. So I with the aid of mapmyrun aka the best website ever, i figure that i went for an easy 2 mile warmup, then i blasted out 2.5 miles at a 6:02/mile pace, then I did about .8 miles easy as a recovery, follwed by 1.3 miles at just faster then a 6 minute pace, followed by 2 miles easy as a cool down. All said and done I got about 9.7 miles in. Totally awesome.

3 day update

again...getting lazy here.

friday i went for an easy 5 miles.

saturday i took the day off.

i had planned on doing my longrun on sunday, but a day filled of freezing rain made me reassess, as i figured spending almost 2 hours in the rain was a good way to get sick. so instead on saturday i just did an easy 4.5 miles. i pushed the longrun back a day and went out for 15 miles yesterday. the weather was pretty damned amazing. almost 50 degrees. i started out feeling a little draggy, which i am going to go ahead and attribute to mine and my roommate danny's decision to go to the jakewalk the night before for gin martinis and beers. but finally around mile 6 or 7 i started feeling normal. i ended up doing a total of 14.92 miles in one hour and 42 minutes for a 6:50/mile pace. i do believe this was the longest run i have completed post ny marathon.

here's the longrun from yesterday.

6.9 mile longrun

I did my oft run loop through the promenade and dumbo into fort greene, by the park, and back home. It ends up being 6.88 miles according to mapmyrun. I finished in just about 46 minutes for a 6:40/mile pace. I felt a little draggy. Especially around miles 4 and 5. I think that's just after effects of yesterdays workout.

Speed Workout - Hill Repeats

Did about a 2 mile warmup.

Went over to Prospect Park and did some hill repeats on the big hill on the northeast end of the park. I don't know exactly how long the hill is, but when i'm going at what feels like a good 5:45/mile pace, it takes me about 1:55 to get from the bottom to the top. So I did 6 repeats of the hill, with a slow jog back to the bottom for recovery.

Finished with a 2 mile cool down.

My legs were a little rickety, but overall everything felt fine.

whoops.

man, i've been really lazy with this since the ny marathon. i took it pretty easy for a couple months after the marathon. now i'm a few weeks into training for the boston marathon which is on april 19. so, i'm going to try and get back into updating this everyday as a training diary. this week, i went on my long run on sunday. 13 miles in about 90 minutes. i believe this is the longest run i have completed since the ny marathon. all in all, everything felt pretty good. my main enemy was the weather. i was smart enough to run a course that made my last two miles against the wind. training in the winter is slightly less then ideal. yesterday was a rest day. today i did an easy 7.25 mile loop over the brooklyn bridge and then back over the manhattan bridge. took about 49 minutes. i felt fine the whole time, except i kept burping up the bbq i had for lunch from the smoke joint in fort greene, which is delicious by the way.

i'm hurting for some new good music. any help?