It is so weird how your perspective changes once you've been running less mileage. I had my "big" 4 mile run this weekend and I was a little nervous about it. Nervous is not the right word, but maybe just anxious about keeping a pace I was happy with for the full 4 miles.
I also decided to shake it up a little by changing my route, and doing part of the middle loop in Central Park. I knew this would end up with me walking a fair amount home (because I would end up running about 5+ miles if I ran the whole way) but I was all right with that because it was PERFECT running weather (high 30s and sunny) and I could use the walk as a nice cool down. My new course included Cat Hill (yuck!) and all of the little rolling hills on the west side (ugh). But I tackled them with aplomb!
I also noticed something a little strange...
Riding alongside me were 6 black sedans. This is weird because there is no traffic allowed in the park on Saturday morning. Must be someone important. All of the license plates were either from DC or Maryland. Hmmmm. AND there were helicopters overhead. A girl next to me started chatting with me and we were trying to figure out who it was...Obama? Wasn't he visiting the Dalai Lama though? Not sure. We speculated all the way up to 102nd street, where I pulled ahead of her. I hit my 3 mile mark and realized it was 30 seconds faster than my previous 2 miles. Score! I guess I do better when I am distracted while running.
The last mile seemed kind of long, especially with all of those little hills, but before I knew it my Garmin was beeping away telling me I was at mile 4. Hurrah!
(Btw, I asked Bill about the whole political caravan thing, since I knew he used to drive in them all the time in Cincy. He said it sounded like someone big. His first thought was Obama too, but then with the additional information that they were having the Run for Haiti that morning, he thought a more likely guess was Bill Clinton...especially since he lives kind of sort of near there.)
Monday, February 22, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Running Ups and Downs
A bad run can totally ruin your entire day. Really.
Saturday I had my "long" run of 3 miles...no different than the past few weeks...same course even. The hills got to me again though and I was all panty (hahaha, that looks weird typed out...I meant that I was panting). It was not fun, and I actually had to WALK for a few seconds at around mile 2. Yuck. Needless to say, this put me in a sour mood. I started in a downward spiral mentally too, telling myself 'You haven't even started training Harlem Hill yet, these are the easy hills.' and 'You know, you do have a 3 mile race in a couple of weeks, you shouldn't be walking then.' And then I started blaming things I can't control. 'Stupid snow. If it hadn't snowed last week you would have gotten out more and this run wouldn't be so hard.' and 'Stupid dental surgery. Screwed up my whole winter training plan by making me all tired and not able to train 3 days.' And then I started questioning myself 'Sure, I didn't get out to run very much this week because of the snow, but I did pilates and weight training every night!' But it all comes down to this: you can't have great running days all the time. I know this. Sometimes I think I need to remind myself of this.
Monday, however, running was once again redeemed as I had a fairly successful and quick 2 mile run in Riverside. I actually felt light on my feet and everything. Sometimes all you need is a good run to erase those bad ones!
Saturday I had my "long" run of 3 miles...no different than the past few weeks...same course even. The hills got to me again though and I was all panty (hahaha, that looks weird typed out...I meant that I was panting). It was not fun, and I actually had to WALK for a few seconds at around mile 2. Yuck. Needless to say, this put me in a sour mood. I started in a downward spiral mentally too, telling myself 'You haven't even started training Harlem Hill yet, these are the easy hills.' and 'You know, you do have a 3 mile race in a couple of weeks, you shouldn't be walking then.' And then I started blaming things I can't control. 'Stupid snow. If it hadn't snowed last week you would have gotten out more and this run wouldn't be so hard.' and 'Stupid dental surgery. Screwed up my whole winter training plan by making me all tired and not able to train 3 days.' And then I started questioning myself 'Sure, I didn't get out to run very much this week because of the snow, but I did pilates and weight training every night!' But it all comes down to this: you can't have great running days all the time. I know this. Sometimes I think I need to remind myself of this.
Monday, however, running was once again redeemed as I had a fairly successful and quick 2 mile run in Riverside. I actually felt light on my feet and everything. Sometimes all you need is a good run to erase those bad ones!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Second Long Run in Central Park
This weekend was absolutely crazy (as was this week) and I didn't get as much running in as I had hoped due to my second round of dental surgery. Yuck.
So I made sure that on Saturday I went for my run in Central Park, even though I didn't really want to. Luckily (for running) we had not gotten any of those crazy snowstorms that were predicted, so the paths were clear and I had a pretty enjoyable run. I even pushed myself to run up the Strawberry Fields hill at the end, because it is steep and because I knew it was good for me.
For some reason though, I can't seem to keep a consistent pace. It's the same deal as always...I do the exact opposite of a negative split. This one was very crazily un-negative, and I think it's because I was running by myself.
My first mile was 7:50, and I felt super good. It was mostly flat though. I knew the hills would kill me in the next two miles and I would have to slow down.
My second mile was 9:06 and my third was 9:12.
Hmmmm. Definitely have to work on more even pacing!
So I made sure that on Saturday I went for my run in Central Park, even though I didn't really want to. Luckily (for running) we had not gotten any of those crazy snowstorms that were predicted, so the paths were clear and I had a pretty enjoyable run. I even pushed myself to run up the Strawberry Fields hill at the end, because it is steep and because I knew it was good for me.
For some reason though, I can't seem to keep a consistent pace. It's the same deal as always...I do the exact opposite of a negative split. This one was very crazily un-negative, and I think it's because I was running by myself.
My first mile was 7:50, and I felt super good. It was mostly flat though. I knew the hills would kill me in the next two miles and I would have to slow down.
My second mile was 9:06 and my third was 9:12.
Hmmmm. Definitely have to work on more even pacing!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Central Park Welcomes Me Back
This weekend I decided to be a little cheerleader and encourage my non-running friends to train with me in Central Park (we have a 5k coming up soon). I promised we would take it nice and easy and max out our mileage at 2 miles. Afterwards I said we should go to brunch. I also made the run at 10am because I knew people would want to sleep in a little and I made it at 72nd Street because one of my non-running friends would only have to commute half a block for said run. Guess how many takers I had? That's right. None.
(To be fair, one of the girls lives in Brooklyn...so that would have been quite a trek for a little run.)
Considering that I pretty much HATE winter and HATE running (still) this was NOT motivating to me. :(
Luckily, Bill was willing to humor me, and we set off on one of the chilliest mornings of the year (16 degrees) to tackle the lower loop. As Bill very aptly put it, he has a love/hate relationship with Central Park. It is very very beautiful (even in the cold and winter) but it is also very difficult to run because of the hills. The hills are sneaky too. They don't look like hills, but you can sure feel them. By the time we had reached the east side I was panting a bit.
It's funny that Central Park would take that much more energy. I mean, we have been running Riverside Park every week. I guess it's those tricky hills. (I did remember about 3/4 of the way through the run that I absolutely hated the lower loop and used to do anything in the summer to get out of running it, including adding on mileage. Oh well. I guess it is good for me.)Bill and I decided that we needed to run Central Park at least once every week.
We also rewarded ourselves with brunch. Of course.
(To be fair, one of the girls lives in Brooklyn...so that would have been quite a trek for a little run.)
Considering that I pretty much HATE winter and HATE running (still) this was NOT motivating to me. :(
Luckily, Bill was willing to humor me, and we set off on one of the chilliest mornings of the year (16 degrees) to tackle the lower loop. As Bill very aptly put it, he has a love/hate relationship with Central Park. It is very very beautiful (even in the cold and winter) but it is also very difficult to run because of the hills. The hills are sneaky too. They don't look like hills, but you can sure feel them. By the time we had reached the east side I was panting a bit.
It's funny that Central Park would take that much more energy. I mean, we have been running Riverside Park every week. I guess it's those tricky hills. (I did remember about 3/4 of the way through the run that I absolutely hated the lower loop and used to do anything in the summer to get out of running it, including adding on mileage. Oh well. I guess it is good for me.)Bill and I decided that we needed to run Central Park at least once every week.
We also rewarded ourselves with brunch. Of course.
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