Improvement Continues

Having just completed the Brooklyn 1/2 Marathon I have started a 8 week speed training program before my July 1 commencement of an 18 week training program for the NYC Marathon. Yesterday was a scheduled tempo run which basically was 5k in distance. The run was done at a 8:35 pace which was basically the pace of my last 5k race at Coogan's about 2 months ago. The 2nd mile of this tempo run was at 7:57 pace. Needless to say I am quite happy that I seem to be getting faster. Time will tell where I will end up.

Brookllyn Half Marathon!

Got to Coney Island about 15 minutes before the start which was perfect because it was a bit chilly and sitting around wasn't doing any good. This was the first race in which the corral system was used and I think it worked out well as there seemed to be less passing and being passed in the crowded beginning. Weather was overcast and about 52 degrees I estimate 5000 to 6000 lined up on the board walk for the race. After the gun sounded it took less than 1 minute to cross the start line and I was off along the decredped hole and nail filled boardwalk. Three miles of this having to be careful not to get injured on this thing. I had my garmin on which I debated heavily whether to bring or not. In the end I figured it would be a good thing to know my pace so I don't go out too fast. The first three miles I did at 9:10 pace. It was off the boardwalk and north on Ocean Parkway for 6 miles. Was flat the entire way but there was a slight headwind now and then no biggie. I felt pretty good and by mile 5 I see I am doing 8:40 pace..much faster than I needed to break my 2 hour goal. I kept looking at my watch and saying "I feel good, I'm running this pace, don't let your watch psyche you out". I kept running about 8:50s to 9s to mile 9 where we entered prospect park and where the hills began. Needlees to say it got tougher, later in the race and on the hills. I kept repeating to myself "trust your training, trust your training". It was also at this time I knew I'd break 2hours if I just relaxed. Mile 10 by far the toughest was essentially entirely uphill 9:20 pace. 11 and 12 back to bascially flat with some small hills. At this point my legs are really hurting but with so little left I just pressed on. In the end 1:58:30! Six months ago I ran 1 mile in 12 minutes and felt like I would collapse. Now for a little speed training (7 weeks) before I start Hal's Novice 2 for NYC Marathon.

The Best Running Headphones

If you are like me the headphones that come with the Apple I-pod are not designed to stay in your ears laying down, much less running. I've gone through and have experimented with many a pair of headphones only to find one particular design flaw at least when it came to running. These flaws include: 1) pods do not stay in ears, 2) cord is too long, 3) cord is too heavy, 4) cord transmits vibrations to ear piece causing unwanted noise, 5) sound quality is poor. Well I have finally discovered the perfect headphones. They are the Senheiser PMX70 headphones.
These headphones are perfect in every way. The "buds" are connected to a lightweight, sturdy neckband that keeps the buds comfortably in place. The cord is just the right length as well as light. The sound quality is excellent with deep base. Since the buds do not insert all the way into the ear you can hear outside as well but not enough so that it over powers the music. I highly recommend these headphones if you are a runner.

A First!

Today I did a standard 3 mile run along the west side highway and I'm not sure what happened but the middle mile of the 3 was a sub 9 minute mile (8:39). While running sub 9 minutes is nothing really new it is a first in any of my training runs ever. I was not trying to do this mind you but sort of just running with the grove and before I know it my pace was about 8:30. I feel great and am happy things are progressing.

Colon Cancer 15k

To make a long story short I had a 9 mile run scheduled for Sunday as part of my 1/2 Marathon training schedule. I figured I'd run the 15k as a training run to get in my 9 qualifying races for NYC '09 Marathon. Well I didn't quite run it as a training run and didn't quite run it as a race. I figured to make sure I'd run it long and slow I lined up in the 10mm corral. As the gun went off we walked to the starting line which felt unusually long..at least 5 minutes to get there. Crossing over the carpet I hit my watch and was off. Was moving with the 10mm group (which felt somewhat slow) and as it turned out my first mile split was like 10:30. I picked up the pace just moving along with the crowd and kind of started to get into it, nothing overt or heavy. The balance of my runs were done at about 9:30 pace..mostly negative splits. Bottom line was this was the fastest I've run 9 miles without racing. I think had I wanted to I could have run the nine miles faster than 9:09 pace. This is significant to me because if I can maintain this pace for 26.2 miles then I will have accomplished one of my intermediate goals of running a marathon in less than 4 hours. (Yes I do want to finish my first marathon but this is a nice sub goal). The downside was my Tuesday 4 miler was horrible, slow and painful. The race was great fun though even though I didn't "race".

The Cyclicality of It All

I'm starting to believe that training involves cycles not only of intensity and phase but general well being. I must say that for the 3 weeks prior to Coogans I was not feeling great physically. I had on and off general pain in the butt, lower back pain, and something new: sore calves. I really cut back the mileage the 5 days before the race and I am convinced that not only did it enable me to PR @ Coogans but also allowed my body to get the recovery it was craving. I think we all tend to feel guilty about cutting mileage and missing workouts but I must say I've read over and over the importance of rest. The importance of giving your body recovery time cannot be over looked. Its critical. That rest period I gave myself I think also resulted in some of my best, fastest and enjoyable training runs since Coogans. I had a run on Tuesday where I can tell you that runner's high kicked in..I was flying and I know it was endorphins. I hope this cycle continues and stretches itself out.

Woot! Coogan's 2008!

I was looking forward to this race in terms of its progression in my training and as a comparison to the one and only other 5k I ran in my life which was ten years ago. That race was the super flat Wall St. 5k. I was triathlon training at the time and entered this race to get my first taste of competition. In that race, lacking any experience whatsoever, I went out entirely too fast running the first mile in 8 minutes and spending the remaining part of the race in complete agony and slowing down considerably. I ran that race in 27:05.

For Coogan's I felt better prepared both in terms of what to expect and in terms of my training. I have a Garmin 305 and was disappointed to learn it could not pick up a proper signal between all of the buildings. Thus my plan to pace myself accurately was thrown out the window. I would be relegated to just knowing my splits and my HR. I lined up about 10 minutes before the start in the front of the 9mm pace group. A few min before the start the groups seemed to compress but I think stayed relatively intact. As the gun goes off we start to approach the chip timing line for the official start. I think the time between the gun sounding and me passing through the start gate was perhaps 2 minutes, 3 tops.

I hit the start button on my watch and was off. Not having he benefit of actually pace I began to run clearly faster than my training runs but not uncomfortably so. I estimated at the time that I was running between 8:50 and 9:00mm pace. (My first split was actually 9:00). What became immediately annoying was the plethora of runners and walkers I was passing. Clearing a large number of people lined up in the 8mm and faster areas that should have been in the 9mm and slower areas. I might have burned 10 seconds running laterally just trying to get around people the first mile.

At mile marker 1 I hit my watch and saw my split was 9:00. (I didn't realize at the time that I hit start/stop instead of lap). About 3/4 into mile 1 a long (1/4mile) hill of reasonable steepness begins. I felt I held my own on the hill but with still little hill training under my belt they are hard for me. However, I think I might have discovered my strength. Often runners complain about running down hill because of the strain on their quads (muscles not often primarily used). I've always had well developed quads from hockey and various other sports and I think just genetically it’s my strongest feature. As such, I found that as I began the downhill run to start mile 2 entering Fort Tyron Park, I was flying so to speak. I was passing people left and right. The downhill for me was refreshing, recovering, and restful almost as it gave my legs a tremendous breather. There was no pain.

Going round the turnaround in Fort Tyron Park the half way point, begins another up hill, again hard for me and somewhat laborious. I'm still running strong and continue to fly again as we move downhill. As mile maker 3 approaches I look at my watch and finally realize that as I’m about to press lap I had previously stopped the timer to only record my first mile split. I hit it again to start to record the last 1.1 mile leg. (Later I could calculate my mile 2 split).

Pushing as hard as I can into the finish I stop my timer to see I had run the last 1.1 mile in 9 minute!! That’s 8.11 pace! Final race time was 26:37 with the following nice negative splits for a PR!

9:00
8:37
8:11
:49