Since the last episode....

The weather has occasionally been nice, and I've occasionally run outside. Mostly the loop in Central Park. I've definitely had a hard time of running more than that.

4/30 - 6 miles in Central Park
5/2 - 5.25 miles on treadmill (tempo)
5/4 - 6.55 miles on treadmill (not tempo)
5/7 - 10.22 miles in neighborhood (nice. break at halfway point.)
5/9 - 3.3 miles on treadmill (intervals of 0.25. first time on a treadmill)
5/11 - 6.03 miles in Central Park

Earlier this week I went back to the track. I'm still not on a training schedule and so I made up a workout. 4 x 1200m with 400m intervals. I was terrible. It was about 70 degrees, but a little breezy, so it didn't feel too bad. I just kept running out of energy.

Here are my splits, with each of the laps.

4:59 (1:38, 1:40, 1:41)
5:01 (1:33, 1:40, 1:48)
5:05 (1:36, 1:43, 1:46)
5:18 (1:40, 1:50, 1:48)

I was so upset at how I just couldn't hang on. I looked up the last time I ran 1200's and it seems I ran them in about 5:04. But those were in sets of two, with only a short break in between. I can't get too crazy over it, but my fitness has definitely declined. AS opposed to my weight...

Fortunately, my down mood didn't last too long. My old roommate made the trip out for some tennis. First game of the season! After a long winter it was so good to be out there in the nice weather. (I've got to work on that as well. I let him take a set off me!)

Today the weather sucks again, and I skipped my run. I'll try and get a tempo run in on the treadmill later, though I'm feeling pretty tired.

Sunday's my birthday. Another year gone by. It's been a pretty good year, but I hate seeing that number creep up again. Not much I can do. (Even if I wanted to forget it I couldn't - my facebook wall is already attracting traffic!)

Next week is the American Heart Association Wall Street Run. I missed it last year due to injury, but I ran it the year before with ShoreTurtle. This year we're scheduled for another reunion, so I'm really looking forward to that. The race itself is sold out, and I'm sure will be a zoo. But it's always good to see the Turtle. (A turtle at the zoo... that's kind of funny. Eh, Maybe not.)

Have a good weekend all!

Toronto Running

Well I'm back. 10 days gone, and only 1 run. Sigh. I did play paintball one day, so maybe that counts for something.

I ran long on a beautiful day in Toronto. Started out at home and ran towards Edwards Gardens, where there is a beautiful running path. I kind of got lost a bit, and I actually had to use the map feature of my Garmin. It's only come in handy a few times, but it's worth it for those times. My cell phone is too expensive to use in Canada, so I would have been really stranded out there.


10.09 miles in 1:34:41. A 9:23 pace.

On the way back, I took the bus. I was so far that I had to ride to the train station, take the train for 2 stops, and then take another bus. I could even have taken a third bus, but I walked the last 15 minutes instead.


My return trip was 7.91 miles in 1:05:00 for an 8:13 pace.

Happy Passover!

No time for posting lately. Been doing slightly more running, but not enough. One more session at the track though. Also another 4M race at 7:27 pace. Whatever....

Anyway, I'm heading up to the folks for Passover, so I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Passover. (If you're not celebrating, just have me in mind when you're eating your delicious bread....)

Oh, and I signed up for the NYC Marathon. Better get back into shape...

Scotland Run

I ran another 10K on Sunday. Another cold one. The day was nice, but at race time the temperature was 37 degrees. As Sara pointed out, we've been running races since December, and they've all been at the same temperature!

It was unbelievably crowded. 6,928 finishers! It's no wonder they'll be starting a corral system soon.

As I've mentioned recently, I haven't been feeling too fast. Workouts have been tough. When the race started I didn't try and weave too much as I wasn't too worried about my time. I ended up running the first mile in 8:12, which was faster than it felt.

By the second mile, some space had opened up. I hit the 2nd mile marker in 7:28. I was surprised. Right about then I realized that I had - of course - forgotten to check my PR before the race that morning. (Why do I always do that!) So I had no idea if that was good, or if I had a chance to set a new PR.

I kept up the pace for the next mile, and finished it in 7:26. I was really hurting, and my mind was trying all sorts of rationalizations to get me to stop and slow down. I refused to give in and just kept pushing. I felt really beat and couldn't speed up as I've done in previous races, but I refused to slow down.

I finished the 4th mile in 7:45. A little slower, but it didn't feel it. Maybe there was a hill there, or the mile marker was off, because I was hanging in there. In any case, I guess it spurred me on to pick it up. The next mile went by in 7:30. I was really wiped, but I knew there was just over 1 mile to go, so I picked up the pace. I hit the 6th mile marker in 7:11. Nice! At this point, I sprinted for the last 0.2 miles. It was really killer, but I pushed through. My watch said 1:27 for these last 0.2 miles, which is a 7:15 pace, but that makes no sense. It was definitely faster.

In any case, my final time was 47:00 on the button, for a 7:34 pace. Turns out, that's a 23 second PR! I know I can do better, but I'll take it for now.

Back to Old Places

The last two weeks I've only run on Sunday. I've meant to get out there, but for a variety of reasons it hasn't happened. It's not very impressive.

This past Sunday, I went out for a long(ish) run near my apartment. While I was out there I realized I hadn't done this in so long. Many of my runs over the winter have been on the treadmill, and my long outdoor runs have been in races. The last time I went for a long training run in my neighborhood was January 6th. That was 11 weeks ago!!



It was good to get out again. I'm not in as good shape, but the weather was a bit warmer, and I enjoyed the run out to City Island.

To try and keep the momentum up, I went back to the running track on Tuesday. (Only 5 weeks since the last trip there. Sigh.) I randomly chose to do 3 x 1600m. I have a 10K race this Sunday, so I thought some mile repeats (or close to it) would be good practice.

I got busy at work, and didn't make it to the track until about 5. That meant it was packed with high school teams practicing relay transfers. (In addition to the usual groups of people walking in a group, kids dribbling basketballs, and people pushing wheelchairs while talking on their cellphone.) I might have been better off doing my speedwork on the street! It just makes me want to go earlier next time.

In any case, I warmed up a bit and did my intervals. I didn't feel fast, so I took it easy. Not too easy, but I was pretty sure I'd run these faster in the past.

7:01
6:45
7:07

That second one was tough, and I didn't have the energy to push through the third time. I was upset at myself for getting fat and slow.

When I got home I looked up the previous times I've run this workout. It was quite a surprise.

7/17/07 - 7:24, 7:23, 7:09
8/15/07 - 7:56, 7:13, 7:06
12/26/07 - 7:07, 6:50, 6:56

The first times were at the beginning of the FIRST training program. The one in July was before I started, and the August one was week 1. Clearly I'm faster now than I was then. The one in December is post-marathon, and that was the best running time for me. It's interesting to me that although I was faster then, in my mind the difference was a lot greater. I can definitely get back to my previous shape. (But I have to stop eating like I'm running 60 miles a week...)

On Sunday I have a 10K race. Unfortunately, I'm also on call this weekend. So the race may not happen. If it's not crazy busy I'll try and round really early and make it to the race.

In other running related news, I'm looking forward to two things coming out in May. One is the Nimbus 10. I'm still running in my old Nimbus 7's. I didn't like the 8's or 9's, and so I'm hoping the 10's will finally do the trick. There's a video review on the Runner's World website, and the written review comes out in May. (The June issue, which comes at the beginning of May.)

Also, the Forerunner 405 is coming out around then. My old 201 is still giving me problems, both with uploading, as well as holding its charge. It's really time for an upgrade. The 405 looks pretty cool, and the wireless syncing is really exciting. I have a few concerns. One is whether I'll be able to use it well with gloves. Their Q&A says yes, but I get the sense that it won't be so easy to switch screens while running. The other concern is whether I'll be able to wirelessly upload to SportTracks. Garmin has been pushing people to use Garmin Connect - which is just the old Motion Based. But I've been really happy with SportTracks. If I have wirelessly upload to Garmin, and then manually transfer the files to SportTracks, the advantage is kind of lost. I'm going to wait for some reviews of the device, and if I'm not impressed, I'm hoping that at least the 205/305 will be cheaper.

Unfortunately I'll have to live with some old Nimbus VII's and an old Forerunner 201 until at least May. (But my birthday does happen to be in May....)