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?
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
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.
Monday, April 12, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
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.
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.
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