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.