Weekly Blog - too busy for dailies - Great update worth reading

Of course they're always worth reading, but rarely do you get three runs from me in the same post.

First - Wednesday - 12 hours after my previous run - didn't have the 'hops' in the legs. 4 miles 37 minutes.

Thursday and Friday were de facto rest days (craziness not worth blogging, including work, go figure).

Saturday - ran the famous NY 5th Avenue Mile.
Posted a 5:51, which pleased me
ran 51 seconds faster than last year - but partially that was the first RUN that I'd taken after Dylan's birth. Mind you, not the first race, but the first run...

Sunday got up early, drove to the rainy start of the Marathon tune up 18 miler. Couldn't find parking, wasted more than 30 mins. Decided to 'call it' - committed to running anyway. Ran 20 and a 20th in 3:11:04. Certainly could have used the folks handing out drinks. Was slowed every time I had to get something to drink. Came home looking forward to the marathon, convinced yet again that I'll finish, but not so sure about the speed. Oh well, first marathon is about finishing, not about being a speed demon.

Times per mile (I walked at LEAST 1 min per mile - my goal was to do a faster second half, as always)

1 9:49
2 9:24
3 9:09
4 8:52
5 9:20 (Williamsburg Bridge)
6 9:23
7 10:42 (bought a drink)
8 9:06
9 10:32 (34th street w/ tons of lights)
10 9:10
11 8:31 (first mile of second half, picked it up)
12 8:28
13 9:27
14 9:19
15 9:18
16 9:51 (Brooklyn Bridge)
17 8:41 (what goes up must come down, Brooklyn side decent)
18 11:30 (bought another drink)
19 9:28
20 10:10 (just wanted to finish)

I did 'striders' at the end of the run to try to get some life back in my legs.

this map is wacky and worth a closer look -

One heck of a recovery run

Ran 6 miles in 47:10
160 average BPM - no stopping, just good old hard running
very little, if any soreness in the legs from the half.

mile speed in order:
7:52
7:37
7:33
7:41
7:46
8:04

clearly was faster than it's been. Was also cooler than it's been too. Felt nice to get out there and move. Could be a real example of what NOT to do on Marathon day, but felt great to kick off the 6 week count down.

Amazing to see the heart rate stay down for so long at this pace - shows marked improvement!

Queens Cruise

The Queens Half marathon was by far the worst organized of the Continental Series this year. We were also late, due to a massive post-Turkey GI issue that I had. It wasn't Brian's fault, for sure.

More on the GI issue in a moment - details

Lap	Lap Time	HR Ave	Cadence	Stride Length	Altitude	Grade %
1	10:13.8	137	85	3'0	75	0.3
2	10:19.8	135	86	2'11	49	-0.5
3	10:12.8	135	86	3'0	49	0
4	08:37.4	153	88	3'5	69	0.4
5	08:25.5	155	90	3'6	75	0.1
6	08:32.0	152	89	3'5	75	0
7	08:35.9	154	89	3'5	105	0.6
8	12:35.7	136	89	3'7	66	-0.7
9	07:44.0	158	91	3'10	75	0.2
10	07:47.6	157	90	3'8	49	-0.5
11	07:51.9	159	90	3'9	69	0.4
12	07:40.7	160	90	3'10	49	-0.4
13	07:38.9	164	90	3'10	46	-0.1
1	00:06.5	174	101	3'11	46	0

As can be seen, I applied a, start slow get quicker, progressive running approach. Just short of the 8 mile marker, I had to stop and use the loo. The woman behind me suggested the real gentlemen use a distant tree...thus not holding up the line. Talk was on the 'elites' who just go in their running gear. I politely informed her that I'd been to Turkey earlier in the week and what I had to do would get me arrested if I were to use a tree. The story was better than the reality, but as I emerged from the john, I was a different runner.

note the speed and stride differences for miles 9 through the end. A real progressive run to be sure!


I was very pleased that I ran:
A. Below two hours
B. consistently faster as the race went on
C. without pain and could EASILY have continued

Key stats:
official time (does it matter?): 1:56:22
Average BPM (including the break): 149 bpm

14.5 miles - finishing with 4 mile race in CP

ran to a race today. Happy with the results 9:44 pace for miles 10-14. I had one slow mile at 11:30 for the 3rd mile of the race which dragged down my pace quite a bit. Felt good overall.

Ran 0.5 miles from home before I realized I forgot my chip and had to go back home...then when I got to the race just at 9:00 on the nose I noticed it wasn't a chipped race, but an RFID tag so I had to go pick up my number. What a pain in the ass.

Loved running with the new HRM - kept up my cadence around 80 - a little slow from what I read online but something I now know I can work on. I'm going to have to get Josh to show me how he posts the cool graphs and uses the software if we ever manage to get together before the marathon.

Overall I basically ran the 13.1 half this week in a little over 2hrs. I'm happy with that and will run the Queens race next weekend. I really see the value in the gels I carry with me as I can feel the difference when I start to run low.

Knees are quite sore tonight so I'll take a couple of days to rest and maybe do one run this week on the treadmill. Need to look carefully at the plan for the next 7 weeks to get the mileage up to the level needed prior to the marathon in Nov.

Treadmill...ugh

Well, logistics are what they are...today was first day of school so I couldn't bail out this morning for a run...so I went to the gym this evening for 60 min on the treadmill. New HRM came today and I luuuuv it. Sent the old one to Polar for warranty repair as I found rust in it...when it comes back working I'll sell it on eBay!

60 min went quickly, felt great and I caught an episode of TV which is always fun...commercials and all (gross - thank g-d for PVRs).

Forgot to put in the battery for the S3 so I'll have to check that out next run, but overall very happy with the way I feel and that I made it out....only issue is now that it's 11:30 and I have a couple of hours of work to do.

Now for a real long run

First off, welcome back to Brian - glad to see that he's found time to blog his runs. With 60 days left until the marathon, I'm sure he'll have enough time to train to be ready for the big day. More importantly, it's been lonely here without the other author.

Long Run on Sunday - HRM is busted (see a pattern here?) so there's no heart rate info. Ran much slower than I'd hoped, although the second course was 0.08 longer than 10 miles.

Actually ran in two bits, with a change of shirt, shoes, and socks in between. I also got to put my daughter to bed, well kiss her, so that felt good. It will be important to have friends and family around the course to keep me encouraged.

Times are in the following graph - not that I was walking 1 min per mile and that I caught the light at the Manhattan bridge for a entire minute on mile 19 (thus the sluggishness). This graph really shows the hills - 2, 9, 14, & 19 - well the bridges. So I need to do a better job of being consistent there.

Finally, I'm hopeful that I can get my per min time down well below 9 mins per mile. But if I can't there's always 2010. I'm doing what I can to stay fit and I am hopeful that the next 50 days or so turn out to be fruitful for my training. Regardless, I know that I can finish this race now. I know that my gear works and that I'm strong enough mentally and physically to do it. So now the training is simply and purely for speed - and that's an ego thing anyway. Just finishing the first one will be enough for now.

I'm baaack

Ran 5 on Friday....nearly 15 on Sun (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3169427
) and hoping for another 60 min in the morning.

My HRM is busted, so I'm going to buy a new one tomorrow either in a store or online depending on the best deal I can find.