Brooklyn Half an emotionally taxing PR

There are so many ways that this race report could come together -

...I had a great race and crushed my PR by over 3 minutes...
...from mile 7 on-ward all I thought about was being done, which is unheard of in my training and rare in my race-running...
...I actually managed to maintain a very good pace while watching my heart rate like a hawk...
...it was hot for the first time this running year and that took a toll, despite the fact that I stayed in the shadows of the trees the entire time...
...while running I made an conscious effort to look around and enjoy the run, which I certainly did for the first 6 miles in Prospect Park...

and amazingly all would be true, completely or to some degree. I suppose that distance running is partially/entirely a brain game and I struck out today - and still managed to finish with a decent time. Tomorrow I'll go on my recovery run (3.5 - 4 miles at a snail's pace).

Race Name, Date	Net Time	Pace/ Mile	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Place	Age- Graded %
Brooklyn Half May 30, 2009	1:43:23	7:53	1638	1368	273	57.9 %

Mile Splits:

#1 7:35
#2 7:49
#3 7:29
#4 7:22
#5 7:50
#6 7:50
#7 7:29
#8 7:38
#9 7:52
#10 8:00
#11 8:05
#12 8:39
#13 8:43
#13.1 0:54

Since I consider it a 'bonk' if I'm running slower than 8 min miles in these distance races (who knows what my marathon pace will be) I wasn't too happy with the last three mile paces. The 7th mile onward are one of on the world's flattest roads (see previous post). Positive was that I could see the mile markers coming a quarter away, but there were more disadvantages.

Average heart rate - 177 bpm (I had to slow it down on the end to keep my heart rate from ticking into the mid 180's. I was religious about 'following my heart' on this race slowing down every time I ticked up. Actually I'm AMAZED that my heart rate on average was that low. Felt much higher during the race and was certainly so on the last few miles...still the average is the average. High was 188.

Who knows where we go from here. Seriously, this race was a wake up call. Either I've got to take my training up a notch or retire from this attempt at this year's Marathon. Only time will tell. I'm not going to give up racing and I really like the half distance. I just can't see myself running another one of those after having run the first half, if you get my drift here.

Another thing - I am going to crush this time in the Nike 1/2 in August. It is just going to happen, must happen. I've got to get a hold of those last two miles - sure I was 30 seconds faster than I was in the Bronx a couple of months ago, but that was a hilly course that I didn't know before I ran it.

In the 'yada yada' department - it's been brutal around my house for sleeping lately. Mostly because of our little one's 'sleep training'. I don't believe in excuses, but this is a fact. let's hope that we're in a better spot in a few months time for the Nike Half (which will be hellishly hot, pray for a cold snap).

Final thought - this is by far the best my legs have felt after a long run/race - so that's a real glimmer of hope here. I've got to get out there on the streets more often and cut down on the excuses!

Shoulda been simple - Brooklyn 1/2 Prep run

This one should have been straight forward - go to Prospect Park, run to the corner, find Ocean Parkway, run to Coney Island to prep for the race. The only problem is that I left out of the WRONG exit and one can't just run down Ocean Parkway without a car...disaster ensued, but only a small disaster.

Definitely didn't do it in the time I'd hoped. But then again, I didn't run the 6.1 or so miles I'd planned either. The upside is that the part outside the Park next weekend is going to be pancake flat!

If I'd run another 1/4 turn around the Park all would have been so much better, you see...

8.9 miles in 1:22 or so, not my fastest performance. Oh yeah, Ocean Parkway simply never ends...but I'm glad to know that now (improving the mental game, huh?)...

Getting into the rhythm thanks to Jay

So I've found a new running partner. Jay met Susan through acting and he's a morning person looking to get fit, so he's happy to hop the train over to PS in the morning and hit the park loop for 40min. This is great motivation for me to get up and I always like running with someone rather than alone.

We ran yesterday, today and plan another run tomorrow. On the weekend we'll do our own long runs then back to the routine during the week together. I'm running just under 10min pace, which is fine for my mid-week runs right now. The plan is to stretch it out to 5 miles next week, then use interval training and some sprint work to get our speed up to about 8:30 over the course of the next few weeks.

My plan for this Sat is a nice 8 mile run at ~10 min pace, then some more biking for x-training on Sunday. Feeling good these days and the early sunrise is helping that for sure.

Downtown NY 3 miler

A funny thing happened on the way to this race - I actually decided to race it, which, in retro-retrospect was stupid. The entire idea was to enjoy running through the financial district - a race that I missed last year due to a business trip.

So without enough recovery from my long run, I managed to race through this literally and was focused completely on running and did very little sighseeing. Now maybe that begs the question of whether you can sightsee with 4,600 other people anyway.

Sex/ Age	Bib	Team	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile
M36	1533	BRRC	495	445	93	21:25	7:08

For some reason I thought this race was a 5 k...

But I did manage to keep the pace and I did manage to get in front of the horde so that the start/race wasn't a total waste (key without corrals). So I planned my work and worked my plan, an important development as I sometimes 'lose focus' during the race and slow down (never stop, though!).

Pretty neat, but I think that next year I'll buy a $5 suit and run with a briefcase or something.

Heart rate was high - in the 175 zone on average, but with a nice maintenance pace of 172 at sub 7 miles for the first mile plus, so that felt good.

Tomorrow's a rest day - and I might just rest on Thursday too, too much City street pounding in too short of a time for me.

Nice active weekend

Ran the Healthy Kidney 10K on Saturday too. Felt strong and ran a 9:49 pace. This is much better than the last time I ran a long distance (10:09 pace for the 9.3 mile race in March).

The Nike+ sensor logged me a little too fast and a little too far but it mostly got the time and slow period correct:


I made it out for a ride on the bike with kids in tow for ~10 mile ride on Sunday and I'm heading out in the morning for a quick 4 mile loop of the park. Generally feeling positive about the weather getting better and logging more miles over the next few weeks to start building out the distance.

Healthy Kidney Long Run

I'm just not keen on the subway! Ran to the race - using the old link - although the route this time was up Broadway. Click here for last route.

Last time I did this I was sluggish on the run there and felt horrid on the run at the park. This time, I felt okay on the run there and great on the run in the park.

Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Split Time	Pace/ Mile	AG Time	AG Gender Place	AG %
1353	1140	213	47:45	0:23:40	7:42	46:27	1377	57.7 %

Remember, that I'd run over 6.5 miles before the race even started - in around 49 minutes this time...so these were miles 7-13

Race Mile :
1: 7:30
2: 7:30
3: 8:07 (hill)
4: 7:47
5: 7:37
6: (didn't catch)

my Finish of 47:45 was only 2:30 slower than my last 10k (which was fresh)
It was almost 40 seconds faster than my 2008 Scotland run, which was run with pacing from my unofficial coach (although we got super jammed at the start and ran a 9:30+ first mile). It was 30 seconds faster than the same course run in December, when I was just coming back from being off with Dylan's birth. And it was more than 30 seconds faster PER MILE than the last time I ran 10k before a 10k for a warm up.

A wonderful moment in the race: 10 mins into the race the very light rain picked up and it POURED. Just long enough for me to get through two of the three significant uphills. For some reason - must be the difference between good days running and bad days running - I welcomed the rain and took it literally in stride. It must have been good for everybody as the guy who won the race broke the course record too.

One more thought, while I didn't run a negative split in this race, I didn't really fade either. This is interesting especially when you realize the high miles that the second half of this race represented since I'd left my house. So I'm very pleased with that!

Thus I'm really looking forward to the Brooklyn Half at the end of the month. I hope to shatter my PR for the 1/2. Let's see

Additionally, my legs don't hurt as much as they have, and I'm hoping at least part of that is having the right shoes...

Brian and Diane also ran very good races, but I'll let them tell their tales.

JP

Three runs in one entry - Mom's day = new 4 miler PR!

In reverse chronological order -

Today's race – Mother's day 4 miler

My goal was to run the entire race in under 28 mins, at least matching my time from a couple of weeks ago.

Comps:
Last year's Mom's day – May 11th – 28:17 (which seemed unbelievably fast at the time and for a long time thereafter – my fastest per mile race by far up until that point)

Run for the Parks – April 11th 2009 – 27:48

Today's race – 27:32
Splits – Mile 1 6:49
Mile 2 6:41
Mile 3 7:10
Mile 4 6:49

The stupid hill on Mile 3 always kills me (but I can't complain when mile #4 is straight down hill). Overall I am very pleased both for breaking my PR and for maintaining my tradition of 'doing it for Mom' (including this year Steph!) and running my fastest on Mom's day.

Now let's hope that unlike last year I continue to peak all the way through the Summer.

A final thought – this was a taxing race. My AVERAGE heart rate was 181. I'll have to check the pace and heart rate against the Run for the Parks...but I think that this shows that I'm a bit further out of shape that I was in April. Time to hit the streets a bit harder. But the new shoes (got racing shoes as my old racers were spent) helped out a ton.

Friday's run

A little 2.22 miler out and back. First with my brand new, proper, shoes. I went out fast and tried to beat my time coming back, which I did easily. In retrospect, I wonder if I used a bit of energy on Friday and this caused my elevated heart rate in today's race?

Out (downhill) 16:23 HRM Ave 158 Pace: 7:23
Return (slight uphill) 15:46 HRM Ave 171 Pace: 7:03

note the difference in heart rate – which includes starting from basically scratch both times (long wait, like 10 mins between runs).

Sunday Night Run

5.92miles
53:43
Perhaps interestingly, I had to stop – for the first time basically ever as my forefoot (right and to a lesser degree my left) throbbed with pain. When I got home I realized that I was a. wearing the wrong shoes (I have high arches and these shoes are for normal footed folks) and b. I flex my foot really hard when sitting at this and my work computer. Since then I've been working to address both factors. The sitting was easy – just mentally break the habit. I also ordered some new shoes (which are working like a charm, as you can see above).

Vienna Scenic Route - Travel

Week long trip to Vienna didnt' stop the running (although I only got one run in).

1:30 with a low - 138 average bpm ran over 9 miles - so that's good.

Back at it after a week off

My last run wasn't the most fun, and it knocked some of the MoJo out of me, so I took the week off. Not something I can do in a month or so, but nothing that I'm too worried about now. Plus I have a big meeting (oh yeah!) this week so I was putting in a bit more time at work than typical.

Today's run was supposed to be nice and slow, but I didn't really have that discipline and ended up going out reasonably fast (for me).

Run: 10.27 miles (I don't care anymore what MapMyRuns says, it's always too short).
Time: 1:31 with a couple of stops - for water, to tie shoes, for traffic, blah, blah it was a training run

Felt great and it was nice to be in the double digits again.

Next stop Vienna - I hope to run there on Monday afternoon local time, with an immediate blog to get on my MapMyRun globe to the right here.

Finally a run during the week....

Wow....been a long time. After my sore knees got better (only a week or so) and my broken toe healed (it's been 6 or 7 weeks now) I finally committed to get back out there even if it means giving up some sleep time.

I ran the Colon Challenge cuz I signed up, but the 15k after not running for a month was brutal on me and my toe was complaining most of the way. Despite that I was pleased with my time and ran a consistent 10min/mile pace. You can see from the photos that I was suffering though...






Yesterday morning I was up at 6:30 and hit the pavement. Here are the stats:



you can see that I did have to walk a couple of times - I went out a little too hard at first, and had to do the first walk, then the second one...just lazy I guess....the third walk, I manage to power up a major hill without walking which pushed my HR over 180 so I had to walk that one off before jogging the long hill back down to home.

Grabbed a quick shower, saw the kids, talked to Susan then zoom out the door to make it through the 60+min commute to the office in time for 9am. Today I took a day off. My legs are a little sore but my knees and toe both feel fine and I'm in better spirits in general. Will hit the pavement again tomorrow for another run.

Here's the map of my route:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2753532 apparently my nike+ is off a bit as it logged me in at less mileage than the map reads. My footpod on my HR was a little more accurate tracking me at 3.95miles and a 9:55 pace. In the end, I ran, didn't die and am psyched to get up and go again tomorrow so I'm not going to worry about the small mileage and pace differentials!

More Tomorrow!

Who needs the subway? Ran to the race and then ran the race.

While preparing for today's race last night I learned that it's about the same amount of time to run to Central Park as it is to take the subway. This is particularly true with weekend service delays.

So before running in the official race I jogged up to the start - which left me relatively tired and without a number (didn't have enough time before the start). So I comfortably snugged in with the back of the pack and awaited the start.


4 miles and a little over 31 minutes later I was done. Of course this is much, much slower than my recent PR. But I was proud to finish (these were miles 6.6 through 10.6 run today - so from that perspective not bad). Also, my last 1/2 was run at above an 8 min per mile pace, so compared to that I was moving...

Last Name	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG %
PARKS	1662	1369	275	31:21	7:50	55.2 %

Still I never felt in the groove today and fighting all the people (even though I passed a pretty good number of folks, which felt good) took its toll.

Next week will be better and I'll run more than this week. Also, I'm looking forward to running in Vienna at the end of the month!

I think I can get my per mile down to somewhere in the mid-7's (7:35) for these longer runs. But even the progression from 8:05 to 7:50 is okay considering how I felt.

Needless to say, I took the subway home! The $2 was well spent and so was I.

Slow recovery run

Simply put I've been taking the concept of 'rest days' way too seriously. Who knows when the next time I'll get to run. Clearly not tomorrow night as my father in law is coming to dinner (thankfully!). So in the last hour of sunlight I threw on the shoes and hit the streets.

My goal was to keep my heart rate below 155 bpm at all costs. So I ended up walking whenever I hit 155 and showed a considerable amount of discipline to keep an average rate of 148 throughout the run. Needless to say I absolutely adore my Heart Rate Monitor. One simply cannot run this way without the instant feedback. Perhaps I am overly technical but that's the way I am, so this is the way I train. The result is that I ran 9.13 miles (by both MapMyRun and the GPS, so that's a first!) and I felt very, very strongly that I could have continued.

However, I'd already run 20 + miles in 3 days and also had run for 1:24.09 - so I'd probably had enough...still I didn't feel tired or 'done'. Instead I felt great. This is the huge advantage to running aerobically.

At this pace I can enjoy the scenery - something that I noticed today that I 'zone out' on my typical run.

Another funny one - as I was crossing the Manhattan Bridge I really had to slow it down (but NOT walk) to keep my heart rate down. It wasn't until a couple of miles later that I realized that I was running straight into a 12 - 25 mile an hour wind. When I turned off of the protected West Side Drive, on to the causeway in Battery City Park, I was hit straight in the face with the river-level cold breeze - 'that explained my slow cross of the Manhattan Bridge' I thought. That way I ran back, I only got the wind at my back for the Brooklyn Bridge crossing.

Still 9:15 average at 148 isn't horrid. And this race was designed to clear out anything from the 10k and to continue to build the base.

10k Scotland Run results in another PR

As the announcer said, 'the Scots managed to bring their weather with them' and he wasn't joking.
Distance: 6.2 Miles, 10.0 Kilometers
Date/Time: April 11, 2009, 10:00 am
Location: Central Park, NYC
Weather: 48 degrees, 93% humidity, rain.

My hands felt frozen in the warm-up and in the corral waiting for the start of the race. There was really nothing I could do to get warm - and the first mile's heart rate shows it - it was a real bear to get started - and I had to slow myself down about the 3/4 mile point not to speed through. I was very happy to have heart rate feedback, as I slowed dramatically (in the first mile and again on the big hill in Mile 4 to keep from blowing out).

Splits:
Mile 1: 7:13
Mile 2: 7:09
Mile 3: 7:09
Mile 4: 7:40 (huge hill)
Mile 5: 7:10 (regained focus)
Mile 6: 7:23 (lost focus? Or just couldn't keep the pace...)
Rest: 1:32

Last Name	First Name	Sex/ Age	Bib	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Place
PARKS	JOSHUA	M36	1503	1041	917	191

Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG Time	AG Gender Place	AG %
45:17	7:18	44:03	1102	60.9 %

Overall I'm overjoyed. I beat my goal time of 46 minutes by a mile. I almost made my long ago stretch goal of completing a 10k in 45 minutes (but that will have to wait until another time).

Looking back, there is only really one thing that I'm not happy with - my 'kick' or lack thereof. I tend to go out too fast and then hold on until the end. This year and last year I ran the last 0.2 miles in the same amount of time (90 seconds in 08 and 91 seconds this year). I'd like finish stronger. Still taking 30 seconds per mile off my time feels pretty great. And too think that it felt like moving last time!

Comparison of my per mile times in 2008 (pink) and 2009 (blue) - you can see that the slow first mile cost me last year and I never really recovered. Still the 40 second per mile faster pace through the first few miles increased that lead (hard to see here).

Heart Rate (upper) and Altitude (lower) '08 vs. '09

Here you can see how hard I had to work over the first mile this year to get started. Nice to see though that I was moving more quickly and spending less effort to do it - that's text book better training. And to think that I'm 'only' running a couple of days per week. Let's see how this Summer's training goes.

Over all a very good result. I'm happy, especially that I didn't let the rain interfere with getting the work done.

Scotland Run warmup - Maintenance Drop

Ran to drop off the monthly maintenance and just kept running. Stayed in the 145 - 155 bpm band - using my new hrm band.



Time taken - 44 mins

Generally pretty uneventful, save the fact that I'm nearly two minutes faster at this relatively sane bpm band relative to when I started slowing down to go faster. It is amazing how long it takes to improve and then how quickly the results build up.

Tomorrow's the Scotland 10k - last year I did it in 48:24. I can safely say that I will crush this PR tomorrow. Last year I ran with my good friend Mika. We ran that race like this:

Mile 1: 9:25 (huge crowds to manage at the start)
Mile 2: 8:00
Mile 3: 8:05
Mile 4: 7:35
Mile 5: 7:25
Mile 6: 7:20
Last: 1:30 (I hope that works out)

Average pace 7:48 - My PR is 7:47 from December 7th.

I don't want to put too much pressure on, but I do expect to perform considerably better in this race tomorrow. Let's see where the splits come in. I am going to go out on a limb and predict a finish of around 46 minutes or thereabouts. My personal goal from a long, long time ago was to run a 45 minute 10k. I've clearly never done that, but tomorrow I might just go out and try.

Sub 28 minute 4 miler sets new PR! By almost 30 seconds...

My goal for today's race was to at least beat my time from last year's race of 28:53 or 7:13. I was thinking that, more likely, I would run between my most recent 5k pace of 7:09 and my PR pace for 4 miles of 7:04 (last Mother's Day). As a stretch goal, I hoped to break 28 minutes, maybe. Instead I got a great start and ended up blowing all my expectations away.

Distance: 4 miles (with a 1 mile warm up and cool down)
Breakdown:
1 - 7:05 (crowded and hilly)
2 - 6:48 (thinned out, downhill)
3 - 7:09 (slightly uphill)
Put me spot on 21 minutes at the 3 mile turn - I said to myself 'I've got to finish this strong and beat the 28 minute mark!'
4- 6:45 (downhill)

Last Name	First Name	Sex/ Age	Bib	Team	Overall Place	Gender Place
PARKS	JOSHUA	M36	1458	BRRC	439	411

Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG Time	AG Gender Place	AG %
100	27:48	6:57	27:02	558	62.3 %

Needless to say I was elated at the finish and very pleased with my performance. This the first time that I've gotten out of the 60% AG and into the 62%s.

For more information on the results of all the races I've run with NYRR click here.