Long(ish) Run Triumph!

Ok, let me start by saying this: I am probably NOT the person to emulate when it comes to training for long-distance runs. I have the best intentions of following schedules, but it never actually happens. Even with a simple training plan like the one I am following for the More Half Marathon, I just don't seem to log the mileage I am supposed to log.

This time especially. I am just not so gung-ho about the whole running thing and finding it hard to get up the energy to follow the plan. So I modified it (big surprise) the way I usually modify plans...I use the long run as a strict guideline that I must do on the weekend. During the week, I try to get in 2 runs. These runs vary in distance, but usually one tends to be a measly 2-3 miles and the other is a 4 miler. On the other days of the week I do some cross-training.

Now, the number of days I do mirrors the training plan, but the mileage, not so much.

Last night I told Bill we were going to do a longer run than normal because it was so nice out (I was even wearing my shorts!). Instead of doing our Riverside run up to our old apartment, we were going to do that run, plus our run from our old apartment to Grant's tomb (which was our old "standard run").

It seemed long. And I didn't realize how long until we got almost to the turnaround and Bill started talking about mileage (which I try not to think about these days). Turns out, I did exactly what I was supposed to do on the schedule last night...5 miles! (We actually did 5.42).

Despite being EXTREMELY tired at the end, it was a good run!

I felt pretty slow the whole time, but we ended with a 48:18, which means we were doing an 8:54 pace!
I was ecstatic with this, since my goal these days is to do under 10 minute miles on my runs. Also, I didn't end up stopping to walk, which I keep doing on distances over 4 miles!

I will take every little victory where I can :)

Riverside Run

Since Bill has been getting home at a reasonable hour this week (KNOCK ON WOOD) I actually decided to derail my cross-training plan for the evening and switch it up with today's workout, which was a 30-minute run (I think Bill was more interested in running than doing Jillian's workout video).

This was good, because I had another quite stressful day, and running always helps...especially when it is an easy run and especially when I can chat with Bill the entire run.

It also gave me a chance to try out three new Christmas presents...

The first, was my Garmin, of course. It's actually quite intuitive, which kind of surprised me because when I was reading the manual I was feeling quite overwhelmed (like "I will never be able to remember all of this stuff!) I think it is also fascinating to see what my heart rate is. I have a very low heart rate. It is usually about 60 beats per minute. Last night, my resting hr was more like 80 bpm...but when I ran the stairs in Riverside up to Grant's Tomb it was 181 bpm. So I just find that fascinating. (Those stairs are crazy hard, but I think they will be good practice for the Pig). I think I will have to make the monitor a little looser than I had it though. It was kind of uncomfortably tight.

I also got to wear my new workout pants, courtesy of Mom and Dad. Nothing extremely special there except that they actually fit me, they are long enough for a tall girl like me so that I don't look like I am wearing high-water pants and they are extremely comfy. All good things.

That was combined with my other new favorite thing...my Sugoi Speedster 2. I am so glad that my parents got this for me, because I really wanted it and I never would have bought it for myself. This is how Sugoi describes it:

The Speedster2 hoody has a sleek funnel neckline that gives it a unique style with a purpose. Perfect for colder climates, the hoody has built in hand warmers for extra protection when needed, as well as a pony tail port in the hood. The fitted style of the Speedster2 makes this flattering hoody live up to its name.

• Form fitted hood with sleek funnel neckline and self bound finish
• Pony tail port in hood
• Ergo Sleeve
• Smart Glove folds back into cuff
• 1 side pocket with stretch crossover opening

I like the ponytail port even though it probably makes me look silly. When Bill came home I was like "Do I look like a ninja?" He said yes, and I said, "Wait until you see the hood!" Because the hood has this "funnel neck" which kind of goes up over your mouth. It was the perfect thing to wear last night because it was cold and rainy...and I did look like a ninja, which was kind of cool.

I love all of my new Christmas presents! Who says that adults can't get toys for Christmas?

The Longest 40 Minutes

This heat is just killing me. I think yesterday was especially bad though because my side of the office didn't have air-conditioning all day. I was sticking to my desk. (Oh yeah, and did I mention that it was 97 degrees)? Anyway, the whole thing put me in a bad mood, so the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was run my workout, which was 40-50 minutes easy.

As soon as I got home I put on my workout clothes, because I knew that if I didn't I would convince myself to not run. Luckily, because of the air-conditioning thing, I had been hydrating all day.

Bill ran with me, and let me tell you, Riverside Park has never seemed so small. It seems like when we got to Harlem it would have been time to turn around (20 minutes). Instead, we had only run 10 minutes. So then, not only did we have to double back, but we had to run even further. I was avoiding hills because my calves have been really screaming at me lately. I also wanted to avoid the river. Even though you get a nice cool breeze from it there are also no trees, so the sun really beats down on you. In retrospect though, this was kind of stupid of me, seeing that it was 8pm and then sun was pretty much setting. At any rate, if you are trying to avoid hills and trying to avoid the river, and trying to not stray too far downtown there is really not that much of the park to run. And we all know how much I hate loops. It made for a very long run.

But, I was very very good and did all of my stretches once I got home.

Today is supposed to be just as hot. AND we have a cross-training run. All I've heard from the mentors and coaches is that these workouts are really difficult. We will be teaming up with the intermediate group tonight. However, we have a longer run than they do. We have to run down to meet them before we start the workout. Then we divide into two groups. The first group stays with the coaches to do cross-training exercises while the second group does an out and back run for 12 minutes. Then we reverse. We will do this a "few" times according to Coach Ramon. Who knows what this means? He also told us that the cross-country course had 1.5, no 2.5, no maybe 4, no maybe 10 hills. After running it I would have said closer to 10. :)

Goldfish a No-Go

I am stupid. I only packed myself a sandwich for lunch yesterday, (no fruit, no snacks, etc) so when I got home last night I knew I should eat something before my run. I had a little time too, because Bill was taking Benvy out when I got through the door. So what did I do? I got dressed superfast and sat on the couch with a bag of Goldfish crackers. I gourged myself. Oh, and then I topped it off with the last Mallomar in the box.

Needless to say, I did NOT feel good during my run. Well, I mean I actually had a good run, but my stomach didn't feel 100%. We did 5ish miles (maybe more?) at a pretty fast clip. Well, fast for me. I think we might have been doing about a 9:30 the whole time. Since I base my runs on time instead of mileage (because on mapmyrun.com they don't actually have the trails laid out in Riverside Park) it is difficult for me to tell how far I ran (you have NO idea how annoying this is to me).

Unfortunately, good runs for me = bad runs for Bill. He just wasn't feeling it last night. We think it might be because he took a week off from running last week. Come to think of it , the last time I ran was also Tuesday. But I guess it probably affects me less because I have been running for the past year. And also, my long runs are up to 10 miles whereas I think Bill's is about 6. So this was kind of a lot of mileage for him.

Maybe tonight we will both have good runs.

Recovery Run

I am really trying hard to follow the marathon training schedule, but it is difficult when you don't have assigned group runs. Last night I did not want to go at all. I didn't even have a good reason...it was a beautiful night, I felt good, even Bill said he'd run with me. I IMed him at work "You have to make me run tonight because I don't want to." So he did. When I got home he was already dressed to go out for our run.

So we did a 5k recovery run in Riverside Park. Bill has decided that he is running with me in the evenings since we don't know enough about our neighborhood yet to know if it's safe. It's probably actually a good thing, because that way we will encourage each other to run when we don't want to. The only bad thing is that we are not good for pacing with each other. I have to keep yelling at him to slow down, and I automatically run faster when I run with him. When we got to Grant's Tomb in 15 minutes (it is about 1.7 miles away) I had to yell at him: "Bill! This is my recovery run!!! It is not supposed to be at a faster pace than my long run!"

Afterwards, I sat on the couch and read my new Runner's World (it finally came!). I'm sure Bill really enjoyed this (sarcasm) because I truly made it an interactive experience. I can't help myself from pointing things out "WHOA! Look at Paula Radcliffe's stomach! And she just had a baby 10 months ago!" or reading passages aloud (like about the Minnesota Marathon where they took pictures of everyone at the finish and everyone who had earphones was disqualified and banned from running in 2008!!!!) I especially had a lot to say because there was a huge article about the Chicago Marathon breakdown where Runner's World launched their own investigation into what happened. It was a really good (and fair) article and brought up more things that I didn't even know happened. Every issue of that magazine I can't help reading cover to cover.

So I guess that seals the deal: I am a true running dork.

Riverside Park Run

So, as predicted, my alarm went off Sunday morning and I did NOT want to get up to run. Luckily though, the weather had warmed up considerably so it was not as painful as it could have been. Needless to say, I didn't get to try out my gloves or headband because of this. :)

I was being lazy and decided NOT to walk to Central Park and do the loop like I had planned. The thing was, I wasn't sure how long of a walk it was to Central Park, and this being my first run in about a month I didn't want to add on any miles. So I checked mapmyrun.com and figured out that looping around Riverside Park (much closer, only half a block away) is also 6 miles.

My run actually went a LOT faster than I thought it would. This is probably because I was site-seeing the whole time. Plus I wanted to check out the park a little more. We take our dog, Benvy, there every daybut she can only take it about 5 blocks and then has to turn around (about a 1/2 mile walk).

The coolest part was when I got to the top of the park. I was just coming out of the park actually, onto the street, heading towards Harlem when I saw this HUGE building. Judging by where I was, I figured this had to be Grant's Tomb.I don't know if it's just the building or the building in its surroundings, but the whole thing is rather magnificent.

I also realized that I really don't have to be concerned about lack of hills in NYC. Riverside Park has PLENTY. Plus a ton of steps. I tried running up these but they took my breath away so I had to walk. It made me reconsider doing the Empire State Run-Up. Bill said "good" after I told him this. I think he thinks I am going to have a heart attack some day. :)

I finished my 6 miles at a 10:30 pace, so I was pretty happy with myself. Tomorrow I am going to try and meet up with the Reservoir Dogs, so we'll see how that goes.

I am only a little sore today, which I take as a good sign. I think it is also more due to about the 5 miles I walked around the city and IKEA rather than my 6 mile morning run.