5+6=6

I had a 6 mile easy run (9:58 pace) with 6 strides scheduled for today. My legs were still sore, although I have seen incremental improvement since Saturday. I am disappointed that it is taking me this long to recover from my long run. I started out my run feeling like my legs had acquired some strange, heightened reaction to gravity and that the earth was trying to suck my body through the pavement. I finally started to loosen up around mile 2, but really the entire run was uncomfortable. 

When I had made a full loop (which is about 5 miles), my legs were aching and I decided to bag the last mile in order to get the 6 strides in. I found a somewhat deserted portion of the bridle path and tried to eyeball about a 200 yard distance. I ran the 6 strides in succession with about a 30 second rest in between at about 85% effort. Whatever distance I had eyeballed, the strides ended up like this: 49s, 50s, 50s, 51s, 49s, 50s.

The 5 mile run plus the strides gave me 6 for the day. (actually I mapped it out and it gave me 6.3, but who's counting...oh yea, I am.)

Rest Day Scheduled

And I took it. My legs are still quite sore today. Better get ready for another high mileage week...

Recovery

I was incredibly sore when I woke up this morning, I could hardly drag myself out of bed. I knew that yesterdays run was taxing on me, but I had hoped that I was fit enough that I would just experience a bit of stiffness today. No such luck. Part of me was thinking that I am grateful that I have 10 more weeks to train for the marathon, and the other part of me was thinking I have 10 more weeks of training, ugh. I was most disappointed because my lack of energy and near immobility kept me from playing with my son today. I literally spent the first half of the day going back and forth between the sofa and the chair in our living room. Lame.

Around 4pm, I did muster enough energy to put on some running clothes and go out to the park with my husband and son. We went to one of our favorite grassy areas to let my son run around and play, and ended up meeting a couple who both run and the husband is also training for NYC; their son was 7 months old but he and our son played pretty well anyway. It was kind of exciting to talk to others about our training, even on a day when I was beginning to doubt my decision to run. 

We left the grassy area and ran a 2 mile recovery run to hopefully help loosen up my legs, and ended at a playground for my son. The run was painful, but also felt kind of good to get the blood flowing...I still winced when I had to carry the running stroller down the stairs to our apartment, but at least I got back out there, ran an bit and salvaged the day. Total mileage for the week = 34.

Leg Lesson

I had every intention of getting off to my long run this morning at 6:30am. I had a 15 miler to hammer out and preferred not to take up my entire day by prolonging the start...buuuuuut I kind of did anyway. My husband got back from his run at 6am and woke me, but next thing I knew my son was up and it was 8am. Crap. Well, might as well roll with it at this point. 

While my son ate breakfast I made some cinnamon toast...on white bread. I hate white bread but those simple, refined carbs absorb quickly so it works for quick fuel. I downed some coffee, hydrated and got ready to head out. I knew that I could complete the run, I just didn't want to ya know? I just wasn't feeling it. Too bad, marathon's awaitin' right?

I was going to use my same strategy of going out at a conservative pace and then pick it up for the second half, or at least the last quarter. I was feeling good about that plan until mile 7 rolled around and my legs began to ache; with each passing mile the pain in my legs became more acute. Great. Now to finish my long run I had to turn to survival mode. The longer I ran, though, the more I thought about it and decided it was not such a bad thing that I was feeling so poor. Lucky for me I have 2 marathons under my belt, so I am all too familiar with the invariable pain they cause. Time to use the rest of this run to show my legs what they have to look forward to in 10 weeks. 

I did just that, even when every fiber of my being was screaming for me to take a short cut and run home, I didn't. I dug deep for some energy and endurance to keep each leg pumping to complete all 15 miles. I was scheduled to perform the run at a 9:58 pace and it took me 2:33.41 to complete, so my pace was actually a 10:14. I am okay with that, particularly in light of the 2 hard runs I had on Wednesday and Thursday. Plus this run put over 30 miles for the week and I have not done that in 6 years. Bonus.

Run/Walk

The last two days of intense workouts have taken their toll and while I always strive to hit my mileage each week, I am also not stupid. I was scheduled to run 5 miles easy with 5 strides...nothing insurmountable, but I have to remember I also have a 15 mile long run tomorrow that I would rather not suffer through. My compromise? A 4.6 mile run/walk as it turns out. 

My husband had a work event over at the Boat Basin, so we walked down there, then ran up the Henry Hudson Greenway for about a mile and a half, stopped by a playground for my son, then walked up to Whole Foods and back home again. Good enough for me.

MP

Today's run was the first where I actually incorporated my marathon pace (MP) for part of the run, which is a 9:09/mile. The run in its entirety was only 4 miles, so I decided to run the first 2 at 9:58 on an out and back course and run the last 2 at MP. My husband offered to come along pushing our son, which I always love, so we headed over to Riverside Park to run up the Henry Hudson Greenway. 

This is virtually uncharted territory for me as, admittedly, I am a bit of a Central Park snob. I would venture to guess that 1 out of every 30 runs take place at Riverside...maybe less. What can I say, I love my park! All this to say, I am not as nearly familiar with mile markers at Riverside, so I had to guess when I had run about 2 miles, then turn around and try to run the negative split. Starting off my legs felt like lead, courtesy of yesterdays killer hill workout. I thought I may be in trouble when I got to the 2 mile mark...

I decided to turn around when we hit 125th st because it was a point I could identify on a map when I went back to track what I ran...the watch said 18:46. I turned around and retraced my steps, hoofing past the starting point in 15:52. I had to dig deep for that one, my legs were screaming, but it felt like a good solid effort at the same time.

Upon returning home, I mapped out the course and it was 1.9 miles, which means I went out at a 9:53 pace and returned a a 8:21 pace...I'd say I over shot MP, wouldn't you? 

HILLS

I had a 6 mile hill workout tonight scheduled at a 9:58 pace. I wasn't able to do my usual North Hill loop because the East side was open to traffic, so I modified the loop to be more of a "C" back and forth on the West side. I had never run the hills this way and let me tell you, it was more than an upward adversity. The West side of the North Hills is the steepest and longest and I was basically running hill repeats, so it was a good workout. I ended up running 6.2 miles by the time I got back to 90th street, in 59:00 which is a 9:32 pace. I will that that!

Running Errands

In the midst of trying to get settled back in from vacation with a mounting list of other things going on (my husband started back to school today, it has been raining all day, I found a much needed computer monitor on craigslist) I decided to run my errands today (2 miles total). I was supposed to do 4 miles, so I will have to make up the rest later this week. C'est la vie.

Rest

We rolled into town around 2pm this afternoon, completely exhausted from 2 days of traveling. By the time we got unpacked, got my son settled, made it to the grocery store, and through dinner and bedtime, I was too pooped for words. I decided to take my rest day as scheduled, even though I did not get a lot of running in last week. It's a new week. I am going to bed and it's just before 10pm.

Travel Day

We got all packed up and headed back for the 12-hr trip to NYC this morning. My son is not at a good age for traveling, so by the time we reached Harrisburg, PA (thankfully where my sister lives) it was past 8pm, so we pulled over and crasjed for the night with her. No run, of course.

At least I got three quality runs in this week. Total mileage for the week is 21.                  

Early Morning Race + Pool Party = NO Run Today

Which is fine with me because sometimes you just have more important things to do than run, even when marathon training. For me it is all about balancing priorities with your perspective. My husband had a 5k race early this morning in the next town over, so I got my son ready and drove over to surprise him at the start line. He won second place overall and first in his age group, which we thought was quite impressive and worth skipping out on a morning training run.

As soon as we returned from the race, it was time for the pool party to start, which ran all day. We all had fun catching up with friends and family, and my son got to play with 13 other kids!

Dam Run

I decided to tackle my long run today because we have a party scheduled for Saturday and Sunday we will begin our long drive back to NY. I didn't get a chance to run yesterday due to our lake trip, which was worth it, so I was looking forward to getting back on the road...sort of. I was also dreading the exposure to this relentless humidity. Again. My husband wanted to run with me, thankfully, so we got up at 5:45am so we could be running at 6:30am. We had planned to run across the same dam that holds back the very lake we played in yesterday. The irony is not lost on me.

The dam is only 1.7 miles long and I was scheduled to run 13, so the plan was to run out to a pre-measured point of 3.2 miles and run out to this point twice for a total of 12.8. That was the plan. Even at 6:30 in the morning it was so miserable that when we reached the turn around point I said to my husband 'if we turn around now I am not coming back'. We decided to just keep running and see where we ended up.

We ended up running to an intersection of a major highway when we decided to turn around, the entire run being on concrete sidewalk. Boo. We were only at 50 minutes, so I knew I would be short mileage by the time we returned to where we parked at the dam. We trudged on alongside the heavy morning traffic, dodging obstacles from the seriously overgrown sidewalks, and finally made it back to the car. My legs were throbbing. Was it the all-concrete run, the constant side-stepping, the humidity, the lack of running this week? In any case, I decided to finish up with a cool down lap around the parking lot and call it a day. No sense in adding "junk" miles feeling so poor. We ended up running 11 miles. I'll take it. 

Lake Trumps Run

We decided to spend the day playing at the lake today, so I bagged my run. Totally worth it! I just had an easy 4 scheduled anyway, so as long as I get my quality runs in while on vacation I will be happy.

Sweltering Disappointment

Since I had access to a track this week, I decided to do another time trial. Besides, last weeks "trial" was only at 80% effort, at best. I was feeling good and planning to run a 1 mile warm up and a 2 mile cool down for a total of 4 miles with the time trial. Sounds easy enough, right? Yes, it's true that I have been complaining an awful lot about this heat and humidity in the South, but today if ever it is warranted! I wasn't able to go out until around noon (I know, not optimum timing, but I had to wait until my son went down for a nap). I can sum up the entire work out in one word: BRUTAL.

Of course the track was in full sun; what track have you even run on that is in the shade? And the track was being prepped for a new surface, so it was straight up black asphalt. The combination of the heat beating down from the midday sun and the reflected heat emanating of the hot surface was quite an unbearable environment. I was thinking, ok it's hot but it's just 4 miles with a mile time trial wedged in between, I can do it.

I ran the warm up slow, took a few swigs of water, stretched a bit and lined up for my four laps. I was feeling optimistic. My first time trial 4 weeks ago was a 7:22 pace, so all I wanted to do was beat that by any amount. Really, I would be happy with a 7:21, particularly in light of these conditions. No such luck. My legs felt great, but my lungs would not respond. I came through in 7:27. I was bummed that I did not see an improvement after 4 weeks of training.

My husband made a good point, though. My training program is geared to focus on my leg strength and fitness by incorporating early hill workouts. The tempo runs and intervals won't be added in until week 8, so I have performed essentially zero speed work. I was encouraged to view my disappointing performance this way since my legs did feel great, I just couldn't breath.

After the 1 mile trial, it was so hot and I was so exhausted I was only able to eek out another mile for a total of 3 for the day.

Hot Sweet Home

Being back in the town where I grew up, I am reminded while on my 7 mile hill workout today of one of the reasons why I don't live here any more. Heat. Relentless, smotheirng, humid heat. It's true that it has been one of the hottest summers on record in New York, but the armpit of the South has the city beat. Although I am enjoying the visit with friends and family, I am already looking forward to getting back to my park to run. On the positive side, I ran (literally to the second) the exact same time for the first half as the second. Being able to accomplish that kind of consistency in this oppressvie heat is noteworthy if I do say so myself!

What do you get?

when you mix a 12-hour car ride that turns into a 2-day trip with a cranky, teething 15-month old and 2 over-tired parents?

NO RUNNING.

Obligatory

Today is a travel day (we are spending the next week in SC visiting family) so we are about to embark on a 12-14 hour car ride down South. Boo. In light of the intense run yesterday and the lack of time as I prepare for the trip, I ran out for a quick 2.5 mile jaunt...pretty much just to do it. Blah.

Eeerrrrkkk!! (Brakes)

Again this week I took advantage of Summer Streets for my Saturday workout, however this week I actually ran instead of cross trained. I was scheduled for a 12 miler (my longest to date...correction I was scheduled for a 10 miler but since I missed my 12 miler last weekend due to work, I am running it this week...bonus 2 miles. Sort of). My strategy this morning, other than getting out the door by 7am, was to start off slow and do a better job of pacing myself than I did with my 9 miler two weeks ago that I ran at a 30 second/mi pace faster than I was supposed to. I paid for that for two days...

My slower pace got me down to Canal street (half way) in 61:45. My goal was to run the entire 12 in 2 hours, so I had just over 57 minutes remaining to climb back up to West 90th street. I say climb because the way down to Canal street is just that, down. Clearly this makes the way back more difficult...and I had to run it in less time. As daunting as it was, though, I knew this would be good training for the marathon where my plan is to run the first 20 easy, and go for it in the last 10k.

I slowly began to pick up the pace with each mile (sometimes with each block) that I ran back towards home. It felt good, challenging, but good. I made my first water stops at 24th street and again at 51st street before I surged up the hills of Park Avenue. Once I saw Central Park, I knew I had this run in the bag. I motored home, across the parka and up the west side to finish in 1:57:36...under the 2 hour limit I had set for myself and at a negative split from my first 6...did I mention up hill? The plan worked, and I felt great, like I could have run 14-15 today. My awesome husband was waiting for me at 90th street with my son atop his shoulders to cheer me on. It doesn't get better than that.

To top it all off, we hit Summer Streets again on the bikes, a cool down/recovery for me and a fun ride for my son. Look, it's not even 1pm and I have already run 12 miles and biked 7. Now who is going to put the brakes on me raiding the fridge?

Easy 3

It's already getting late in the evening and I need to get in an easy 4...I am running my 12 miler at 7am, in less than 24 hours. I think I am going to run an easy three with my two fav people and call it a day. Need to get to bed early anyway.

Time Trial +

This week has been a doozy with work and family and just life...everyone has those weeks. It's only Thursday and I've already taken my 2 (sacred) rest days. I am scheduled to do my 1 mile time trial today, which I had planned to do as part of an easy 4 miler. I knew I had to at least get the 4 miler in, but I was not convinced that the time trial would happen. 

When I swung around to the East side and approached my "mark" for go time, I decided to compromise. I picked up the pace for the length of the time trial and was at about 80%. This way I figured I am still meeting the intent with the quick pace, but not going all out with my nonexistent energy levels. I ended up running an 8 minute pace (time trial 3 weeks ago all out was a 7:22). I think if I had been able to run all out I would have beaten the 7:22. 

I finished up the 4 mile run and chalked this one up to a ragged week. I am going to run an unscheduled time trial next week on an actual track to get a feel for my fitness level to date.

Bummer!

I just can't seem to catch a break on my running...all I had to do today was run an easy 4 miles. Didn't happen. Granted, we took our son to the Brooklyn Aquarium and Coney Island today, so by the time we all got home from that trek it was nearly 5pm and we were exhausted...plus he has been up all night for the past 2 weeks teething. No sleep + full day = no run. Bummer!

Furious Hills

After my class today, and after we got our son off to sleep, I headed out the door for my 5 mile hill workout. I was still exhausted from the long 2-day intensive course, but I was also ready to get a good run in. It was already 7:30pm, so I thought the park may be a bit less crowded. I was wrong. Dead wrong. All of the local training teams were out doing interval training runs (TNT, NYRR, etc.). I started off on my North Hills workout, but was constantly fighting for running space in the running lanes, so after 2.5 miles I headed south to the great lawn area...where some punk thought it would be funny to say 'tag your it' while I ran by and throw a basketball at me...which hit me in the hip. Fabulous. I was thinking the world needed more jackasses. Check.

So my hill workout turned out to be a furious hill workout with the aforementioned frustrations. I finished up in just over 48 minutes. You win some you lose some.

Day One...

... of my 2-day 16-hour course = rest day today. I thought I might be able to go out for a quick run when I came home, but the last week preparing for the class is catching up to me. I will try agian tomorrow after my class is over.

Squeezing in Quality Run

I had actually been looking forward to my long run all week, a 12 miler. Unfortunately the hours I have been puting in for work have been ratcheted up since I have a 2-day course to teach tomorrow, so I have been barely getting in my runs as it is. When 5pm rolled around today and I sitll had some work to do, I decided I better just make a quality run out of the little time I had to devote. I ended up running a combo hill/interval workout. I started out on my usual 5 mile hill workout, but when I hit the 2 mile mark at 18:50, I decided to see if I could do the second lap quicker...I came through in 37:26 (18:36 for the second 2 mi). I finishhed it off with another 1/2 mile at a pedestrian 10 minute pace for a toal workout time of 42:13. Just enough time to get back to work...

Summer Streets

Every August NYC closes down Park Avenue from 72nd street all the way down to the Brooklyn bridge for three Saturdays in a row, a program called Summer Streets. I  love being able to run unabashed through NYC...it makes me feel like I am in a movie or a video game. Yesterday was the City's first installment for 2010 and it did not disappoint. I actually was scheduled to run an easy 5 miles, but I could not pass up the opportunity to hop on my road bike and turn it into a cross training day. My husband and son and I biked all the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge and back. Awesome. I figured, hey this isn't one of my quality runs, so I can afford use it as a cross train day. Besides, I did bike 15 miles and that counts for something! I logged it as a 3 mile run.

5 Mile Winder

My husband and son came along with me today on my 5 mile run, which I always love. 99% of my runs are in Central Park, my backyard, and really how can you complain about one of the best parks in the world as your training ground? Typically I don't, but it is frustrating to try and run when they open one of the drives to commuters for a few hours in the morning and evening (rush hour). Especially when I am running with my one year old, it's just best to avoid the traffic even with the designated running lane. Somehow that thin white line just doesn't instill a lot of peace of mind for me against the barrage of NYC cab drivers. All this to say, my 5 miler today was an assemblage of winding around on the bridle path, through the great lawn, and in between the baseball fields. It was a nice change of scenery, but also kind of annoying. But like I said, who can complain? That's just life ;)

Good Thing

... I did not have to run today because I have a ton of work to do for my class on Monday...I will hit the bricks tomorrow.

Elastic

Man it was stinkin' humid on today's run...it has finally gotten out of the record-breaking heat here in NYC (2nd hottest July EVER), but the humidity will not loosen its grip on the City. I literally felt like I was running through a web of rubber bands during my run; stuffy, nasty...constricting. Evidence, you ask? I ran the exact same 5 mile hill workout as I did last week and finished a whopping 5 minutes slower. There. 

City Run

I was scheduled for an easy 3 today, so decided to double up and literally run some errands around the City. Three mile run: check. Book from Barnes & Noble, exchange at Bed, Bath & Beyond, a trip to Lee's Art shop and finish a run in the park on the way home from errands: check.

Recovery = Rest

Today is a rest day for week 3, but since I was 4 miles short for last week, I decided to run an easy 2.5 mile recovery run and add that mileage to last week, while counting it as a rest day for week 3. My hamstrings were quite sore from the 9-mile effort, so it felt good to run a slow pace today. I also incorporated a lot of stretching today...ready for week 3!

Staccato ...

... seems to be working for me. I am quite short (5' 2") and, having a longer torso, my legs are actually the length of someone who is 5' or less. I have been running in some capacity since I was 13 years old, but only recently have realized the importance of a shorter stride to accommodate my legs. Okay, so sometimes I am a little slow. Each training run I have to concentrate on my cadence, and my arm carriage for that matter, to make sure I am not stretching too far; keeping my legs up under me. Think quick feet. 

Anyway, so I was on my 9 miler today and started off as I usually do, repeating to myself 'quick feet, quick feet' (which incidentally makes running slightly less enjoyable, but also makes the time pass more quickly).  And, maybe because I live in New York City and the majority of Americans that run the NYC marathon live here, there were a lot of people out on their long runs. A lot. You can just tell. Besides the fact that you pass the same people two, three, four times...runners know. So where am I going with this? I began to notice, albeit over the drowning repetition of my new mantra, that I was able to keep a quicker pace over a long distance. I felt like I had more energy and stamina to complete the run. What a revelation she says!

I was scheduled to run the 9 miles at a 10:08 pace and I ended up running 9.3 miles in 1:29, which is a 9:34 pace. This is good because it felt easy...it's bad because I risk injury when I don't follow my mileage and pace schedule. I know, I've done that before. Overall I am encouraged and plan to continue to monitor my stride as I train with my little cadence experiment. I ended up with 24 for the week (4 shy of the 28 projected due to...well you know why). Here is to closing out week 2.