Brrrr its cold

Countdown to Austin Marathon – 30 days.  Yikes!!

Boy is it cold here in New York.  Went out for my run at 8pm, and it was 11 degrees, wind chill of 0.  In scouring my records, which go back to 1999, I’ve only once before run in colder weather.  It was 10 degrees for the Fred Lebow 5 miler back on 1/11/04.  

I hadn’t run since Tuesday night and really needed to get the run in to be properly prepared for my planned long run on Sunday.  As it was Friday night and very cold, and I didn’t want to be bothered so badly by the traffic, I decided to run my 5.9 mile course over the Williamsburg Bridge and back.  Of the 6 miles, 3 would be on the bridge with no traffic and 1 would be in Williamsburg with minimal traffic.

Wow was it cold.  I was slightly underdressed, but figured I’d be fine for less than an hour.  I forgot to bring my neck gator thingy and my chin felt horribly exposed to the wind and cold.  Also I only had 1 layer of tights, which was not enough.  When I finished up and went into the shower, my legs were red, as if they had a deep sunburn.  I’m sure that’s not good.  Wonder how much exposure it would require to get frostbite?!?!

Run was a little rough.  It felt slow and heavy.  I should be running slow these days anyway as I shift into distance mode as I get ready for the Austin Marathon in 4 short weeks.  It was so cold that there was very little traffic on the path over the Williamsburg Bridge.  There is normally lots of walkers and bikers on the bridge, but tonight it was deserted.  On the way to Brooklyn, I saw only 3 bikers, 1 walker and 1 other runner.  On the way back, I saw 5 bikers and 1 walker.  This is significantly less than usual.  

From the bridge, had a clear view of the new snowboard ramp rising at East River Park.  It will be used for a big snowboard event in early February.  The ramp is going up in the lighted ballfield right next to Houston St.  I’ve played softball on that field before, usually in poorly lit conditions where at least half the lights were not working.  For this event, they have all the lights blaring.  I’m jealous – I guess the parks department can get it done properly when they want to.

Next up for me is another shot at a long run on Sunday.

Otherwise, made it to the gym twice so far this week.  Also, had a really nice speed workout on Tuesday night with the NYRR class in Central Park.  It was my favorite type of workout.  We did a fartlek workout over the Harlem Hills at the north end of the park.  We surged going up the hills and coasted on the downhills.  Quite an invigorating workout.  Do that a few times and you don’t notice hills in race conditions anymore.  I did 2 of the loops and bailed on the last one.  With long runs planned each of the next 3 weekends and then the marathon shortly after, I may not be able to treat the class as true speed workouts for awhile.

Finally, I’m really digging the Daily Mile website – see my profile here.  It is a very fun social network for runners.  It is really easy to post your workouts, and it is a lot of fun to get involved in the forum discussions.  I’ve been able to follow and connect with a couple of people that are running in Austin, which is cool.

Fred Lebow 5 Mile Race Report

The Fred Lebow 5 mile race is one of my favorite road races of the year.  It honors a man that I respect and look up to – he inspired me in the first few years as I was getting started.  Also, the race is traditionally the first scored race on the calendar, in early January, normally just after I’ve made a resolution to run!  This race was first held in 1995, as Fred passed away in late 1994.  I participated in that first race, finishing in 46:36.  In fact, I’ve run it 11 out of the 15 times it has been held.  Last year, I set my 5 mile PR at 41:59.  With all the running and improvements I’ve had over the last year, my goal was to beat that time.

The weather was definitely on the cold side.  24 degrees when I left my apartment, but no wind.  Very nice conditions considering snow was predicted earlier in the week.  For winter races, number pick up is at the NYRR office, and the t-shirt pick up is at the race site.  As a result, I almost forgot to pick up my shirt!  Not that I would be missing much, as their “XL” size runs small, and is too small for me.  Usually, I get a large and save it for my dad, which is what I eventually remembered to do this time.

I had to remind myself not to overeat for this race.  Of the 10 races I ran last year, 8 were 9.3 miles or longer, with 6 half marathons and 1 full.  For long races, I need to fuel up real good.  But, for a 5 mile race, it is better to eat a little lighter.  In the end, ate 1 plain roll, 3 oatmeal cookies and half a Cliff bar.  Also had about 10 ounces of Gatorade.

In terms of my goal time, as I said, I wanted to PR, which would be better than 41:59, which I did last year, 8:24 pace.  Also, I wanted to beat my fastest pace-per-mile in a race, which I set at the Salsa Blues and Shamrock 5K in 2007, an 8:14 pace.  Which brings me to a point about race pace.  NYRR seeds all runners in corrals based on their fastest race pace.  Last year, I was paced at 8:14 all year, which typically (maybe even always?) put me in the 3000 corral.  I would love to get this pace down to move up to the 2000 corral, but have been unable to do so.  I was suprised to find that in 2009, I’m still seeded at the 8:14 pace.  I figured this would be reset annually.  Let’s assume for a moment that I didn’t run for a year and entered this race.  I’d have no shot at an 8:14 pace, but would still have been seeded that way.  Don’t know what NYRR plans are on this, but I think the pace-per-mile seeding should be reset each year and should be at your fastest race in the prior calendar year.  I think that is pretty fair.

Anyway, stepping off the soapbox, and up to the start line!

Before the race, I did my little shin stretches, as I was afraid of my shins causing a problem after my debacle in Florida 2 weeks ago.  Otherwise, I felt ready to go.  Layered up in 3 shirts, 2 pants, 2 gloves, 1 pair of socks and 1 hat.  Before the start, it seemed that there were not that many people in the corral at all – it seems that many people were late in lining up.  I really don’t understand this.  The corral system has been used for a year now, and people should know that they need to line up at least 5 minutes before, otherwise they need to go to the back of the line.  I guess people don’t care?  My race preparation says last bathroom stop 30 minutes before the race, bag drop off 20 minutes before the race, and at the start corral 15 minutes before.  Otherwise, you get caught up in the crowds.  For me, it is important to get lined up in my corral so that I don’ t have to deal with passing slower people during the race.

Anyway, at 8am, we were off!  Felt good in the first mile.  Was nicely keeping up with the group.  While there were people passing my in the first mile, I also passed many more people than I expected.  I suspect this is due to what I talked about above, where people have a strong fastest pace-per-mile, but are out of shape and have no chance to deliver on the pace.  I knew that my goal pace per mile was 8:24 – that is what I need to PR.  First mile came in at 8:21.  Perfect, considering I was not pushing hard, and there were hills in the second half of the mile.  The 5 mile course is the ‘lower loop’ of Central Park.  This means we go across the 102nd St transverse and then all the way around the bottom of the park and up the east side (counter clockwise), missing the tough hills at the north end of the park.  

The uphills on the west side end early in mile 2, and the 2nd mile is mostly then downhill.  So, I was not suprised when I finished mile 2 in 8:09.  So far, so good.  Except, on the downhill at about 1.5 miles, I could feel that my right shin was tight.  Not in pain, but definitely tight and at risk of being a problem.  Good thing I did my stretches before the start.  For me, when my shins are acting up, it is worst on downhills, and uphills help to loosen the muscle up.   Unfortunately, in miles 2 and 3, there are very few uphills to be found.  So, just gritted my teeth, and hoped for the best.  

I did hold back a slight bit in mile 3, for two reasons.  First, didn’t want to blow out my shin on the downhill, and wanted to stay in control.  Second, with more than 2 miles left in the race, including cat hill, and wanting to run those 2 miles hard, I thought it prudent to hold back a little.  Mile 3 was completed in 8:27.   I was still ahead of PR pace!  Mile 3 is also the magical distance where I usually find my shin starts to loosen up.  When I have shin pain, if it stays under control to mile 3, then the muscle will loosen up and not be a problem.  Thankfully, that was the case today.  

Working on mile 4, I felt like I was cooking.  Pace felt hard, but not all out race pace.  I started getting bothered by one guy in particular that was being really annoying about passing me.  He’d pass me, and then slow down.  I hate that – if you are going to pass someone, then really do it.  So, over the course of 1/4 mile, he passed me a couple of times and I passed him a couple of times.  But, I had my secret weapon in my pocket.  My strategy usually is to push up the hills and then coast on the downhills.  I think this is the best strategy for conserving energy.  Use minimal energy on the downhills, and push the uphill so that the time spent on the hard uphill is less.  As a result, I typically get passed on the downhills and then pass a bunch of people on the uphills.  I was smug in knowing that I was going to blow by him on cat hill and then not see him pass me again, as after cat hill was over, I was going to turn it up for the last mile.  Finished mile 4 in 8:18.  This turned out to be the case…

At this point, I knew I had the PR in hand.  I felt I would only pick up the pace in the last mile, and even an 8:45 mile would be enough.  However, I had the very odd sensation that I might puke.  Weird, as I’ve never felt that before in a race.  Not sure exactly why that happened, but I held back a little in the first half of the 5th mile.  The last half mile of the race is virtually all downhill, and very fast.  Picked up the pace for the last half mile, passed a bunch of people, and ended with a 8:05 mile, for a total of 41:24, beating my PR by 35 seconds!  My pace-per-mile was 8:16, so just short of the 8:14 I was shooting for.  My finish was 1151 out of 3224

Anyway, had a wonderful run.  Great way to start the year.  With all the half marathons and other long distance races, I really miss the short distance race where you can really go almost all out for the entire distance.  Now that I have that out of my system, I need to focus on long runs between now and the Austin Marathon, quickly coming on 2/15.  Since I screwed up my last long run, I’m a little behind the 8 ball and MUST get one in next weekend.

Happy Birthday… to me!

Turned the big 38 today. 

Since I have no willpower at all, I started my day with one of those sinful cinnamon rolls you get from the corner coffee/pastry street vendors.  But it’s OK, I had a good run last night!  Yum, yum!

Nice speed workout

Went out last night for a group speed workout in Central Park – NYRR class.  Workout was at the lower end of the park, 600 yard repeats into the marathon finish line.  Done this workout often over the years, and yesterday was one of my best.  Did 6 repeats – check out the consistency:

• R1 – 2:05
• R2 – 2:05
• R3 – 2:06
• R4 – 2:06
• R5 – 2:06
• R6 – 2:05

Went with the 7:30 – 8:15 pace group and was somewhere in the middle.  Defintely not up front, and not trailing either.  What was great about the workout was how consistent it was, and how in the later repeats, I was able to pass more and more people late in the repeat.

Weather was nice and stormy.  31 degrees with freezing rain.  Total workout was 6.5 miles.

New sneaks

I realize all the posting tonight is a little out of control, but I have a lot to say, and haven’t posted in days!

After my recent foot trouble, I needed to get new sneakers, badly, and went to the authority, JackRabbit Sports, on 14th St between 5th and 6th Ave.  I’ve picked up sneakers at Super Runners Shop, where they do little more than talk to you a bit, and I’ve always had bad experiences with the sales people at Paragon.  I’ve walked into Paragon in the past with the intention of buying sneakers and then trudged out after being treated poorly or ignored by the shoe sales staff.  However, I’ve always had wonderful experiences at JackRabbit, where I’ve picked up some running, biking and swimming supplies in the last year, including my wetsuit.

They really treated me well.  Tried on lots of pairs of shoes, and took several turns on their treadmill where they analyzed my gait.  I learned something very important, that my foot requires a shoe larger than size 13.  That probably explains the little problems I’ve had with my toenails when I bump up the mileage, and the pains I’ve started to get on the tops of my right foot after some runs.  I also learned that I don’t over pronate as much as I thought I did.  I was able to find a size 14 that seems to fit OK, Nike Triax Structure.  I’ll give it a go and see how they work out!

On a final note, I’m officially signed up for both the Fred Lebow 5M, and the Manhattan Half Marathon in Jan.

Bad Long Run

Bad runs are just not so easy to write about, I guess.  That explains the delay here.

Got back from my nice, warm Florida vacation late Thursday night.  Drive back was fun, although it was not nice to lose 15 degrees of air temperature per day.  75 in Florida, 50 in South Carolina, 35 in Virginia, 20’s in NY.  Due to the blister on the back of my left foot, I decided to wear flip flops all the way back, including Thursday when it was freezing cold.  I got some odd stares along the way, but didn’t care!  On Friday, when I started wearing my sneakers again, the blister definitely felt uncomforable, so I’m glad I had the luxury of being able to wear the flip flops for the few days.

I was due to run my 2nd long run in training for the Austin Marathon, which is coming up quickly in 6 short weeks.  We had friends coming over right in the middle of the day, both on Saturday and Sunday, so I could not carve out the 3+ hours required for the long run on those days.  So, I had decided to do the long run on Friday.  In hindsight that was a very bad decision!

First thing Friday morning, I went to Paragon to buy some new socks, and an outer jacket to keep me warm on long winter runs.  I really wanted to go to JackRabbit so I could also get properly fitted for new shoes, but they don’t open until 11 on weekdays, and I couldn’t wait that long.  I also picked up a strong bandaid to put over my blister.  When I last had blister problems in Sept, I found that I had a hard time keeping the bandaid in place during a run.  I bought Extra Large Tough-Strips Waterproof bandaids, which worked pretty well.  Just placed it over the blister bandaid which was right on the blister.  I also keep my left shoe a little loose, and it worked well – bandaids stayed on during run!

Otherwise, the run did not meet expectations at all.  First of all, I overdressed.  It was 32 degrees, cold but not freezing.  Still, for some reason, I wore 3 shirts, and also the heavy outer jacket.  I also felt completely out of sorts after eating a lot on vacation.  I had gained 5 pounds on the trip, and could feel them all in my stomach with each step, or so it seemed.

Anyway, I bailed.  Cut it short when I got to Williamsburg and took the L train home.  Stopped at about 7.7 miles.  Figured if I toughed it out, the run would be poor and then I’d be in bad shape for awhile.  Instead, I resolved to run again on Saturday and Sunday, then get a good speed workout at the NYRR running class on Tuesday, and then get at least 1 more run in before the Fred Lebow race on Saturday morning.  Hopefully some good short, fast workouts will work out the kinks, shed some pounds, and leave me in better condition to do the long runs.  I realize that skipping this long run is risky, but I still have 2 other long runs on the calendar in addition to the Manhattan Half Marathon before the Austin Marathon on 2/15.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens.  I was very discouraged by the aborted long run Friday, but was then encouraged by my strong shorter runs on both Saturday and Sunday.   6.2 miles on Sat at 9:16 pace, and 5.2 mile on Sun at 9:01 pace.  That gave me runs on 3 consecutive days, which is a high water mark for me.  I also went to the gym yesterday.  Today is a rest day, and I look forward to a group speed workout tomorrow night in Central Park, although the forecast calls for snow/rain.

Going for 100 pushups

Inspired by LIRunner9 at http://trainingfornycmarathon2009.blogspot.com/, and some others I’ve seen write about it, I’ve decided to try the One Hundred Pushups training program.  I get to the gym sometimes, but not as often as I like, so 100 pushups seems to be a great way to strengthen the arms in a way that I can’t seem to do in my limited workouts at the gym – it’s easy enought to do at home too.  My only worry is that when I’ve tried to do lots of pushups in the past, I run into pain in my wrist.

When I made it to the gym yesterday, I was able to do 15 pushups as my initial test.  Next step is to begin the 3 times per week program, and see if it works!  Of course, today, my arms are totally sore from the 15 initial pushups (and my full workout afterwards), so I’ll need to wait until tomorrow or Wednesday to get started…

East River Park

Little East River Park update…

On Saturday, I was in my car on FDR Drive and noticed that the north section of the main path in East River Park looked to be open again! It has been closed the last few weeks while they repaved the road surface, forcing runners on a roundabout detour, which included running through a baseball field.  Instantly decided my run on Saturday would go through the park to check it out firsthand.

Wasn’t able to get out until 5:30, but continued with an East River Park run anyway, even though it was dark.  East River Park is a little tough in the dark because the lighting is not great and the road surface is also not great.   Normal run to the end of the park and back is 4 miles.  When I want to run 6, like Saturday, I continue down to Catherine Slip and then around the park between Catherine Slip and Market Slip.

Lo and behold, when I got to East River Park, I found the main road nicely, beautifully and symmetrically repaved!  At least until the track, then the road resumed it’s normal messiness.  I was a bit dismayed when I got to the bottom of East River Park, by the amphitheater, to see that the lights at the lower section of the park do not work at all.  They were all off, causing that section of the park to be in complete darkness, making the normally bad footing even more dangerous.  I hope they get that fixed soon.

Anyway, very happy the construction at East River Park is moving along.  Hopefully by summer, they’ll have the next section of the promenade all redone and the main road repaved down to Houston St or the WB bridge…

6.2 mile run completed in 57:25, for a 9:16 pace.