Fall Racing Season

10 miles steady in 70:28 at 11am.  Ran from home 5 miles up the Old Croton Aqueduct (OCA) trail to the Scarborough school and back.  Splits were even: 35:25 / 35:03.

We have been having a heat wave and today was hot again, but at least there was a bit of a breeze returning.   Ran without my shirt which always seems to make me go faster.  Overall, I went harder than planned and was surprised to hit even splits -- I thought I'd die coming back.  Ending HR was 160.  Felt strong overall, and it was a good effort considering the weather.

My left hip and right knee were a little sore as usual, but it's just the same old niggles, nothing acute.

In the last half mile after I got off the trail and on to the streets, I was running down a narrow street made more narrow by construction work on the side of the street.  A teenager (ooooh!!! I hate teenagers!) driving an SUV with a girl in the front seat was weaving as he came towards me, pretending like he might hit me.  As he passed I slapped the back of his car to let him know I didn't hold with his driving.  In retrospect I wish I'd hit the driver-side rearview mirror right next to him and knocked it off-kilter a bit.  Oh well - you always think of these things later.  One thing I've always wanted to have the opportunity to do is jump up on a car's hood if it pulls out and cuts me off.  Not sure I'd actually have the nuggets to do that, but it's fun to think about at least.

Hit the Tarrytown Y later in the afternoon for my upper-body routine.  If anyone is interested, this usually consists of:

bench press

standing row (where you lean over frontwards and pull a barbell up towards your stomach)

pec flies

shoulder press

upright row

shrugs

shoulder raises (front and side)

shoulder flies

lat pull-downs

tricep extensions

bicep curls

I use a combination of free weights and machines depending on the exercise.  I use whatever weight leads to burn out after ~12 reps. Normally I do just one set of each, and typically I do the whole routine every 3 days.  It takes about 45 minutes.

Current weight is 148 compared to a racing weight of about 144.

6 miles easy in 47 at 7:30am at Rockefeller.  Drove with Alana to Gory Brook Road and started and finished there.  [If anyone is interested, "Rockefeller" refers to the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Sleepy Hollow, NY, and the surrounding land.  All the land once belonged to John D. Rockefeller, who bought it up around the turn of the century.  A few years back, the family donated about a quarter of it for the park, and most of the land they still own is open to walkers and runners.  The whole area comprises about 3000 acres and there are dozens of miles of dirt/gravel carriage roads.  There are quite a few hills (some overlook the Hudson River) and a couple lakes and a bunch of streams, and the landscape is mostly wooded with some open meadows.  There is even a functioning farm owned by David Rockefeller.  All of this 25 miles north of midtown Manhattan.

http://nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/info.asp?parkID=60

It is probably the best place in the world to run.  I'm pretty lucky.]

I was a little groggy this morning so I wore sunglasses even though it wasn't bright yet.  Plus, they got fogged up on account of the heat and humidity and I didn't bother to wipe them off, so I definitely spent the run in a cloudy haze.  Fine with me.  The only thing even moderately memorable about this run was that I stopped to clear a large limb that had fallen on the trail and shattered overnight during the thunderstorms we had.

End HR was 140.  I felt OK and obviously didn't push it.

Lower-body workout at the Y at noon.  This normally consists of 2 go-rounds of my ab circuit plus a bunch of leg exercises.  The ab circuit includes:

knee raises in the captain's chair holding a dumbbell between my feet

reverse crunches on the Roman chair holding a medicine ball out in front

crunches on the balance ball

side lean-over thingies holding very heavy dumbbells

straight leg raises in the captain's chair

crunches sitting on the very front of a weight bench

For legs I usually do the following:

leg press

calf raises

leg extensions on the quad machine (I think this really helped improve my runner's knee)

hamstring curls

hips (flexors, extensors, ad- and abductors)

I use ankle weights for the hamstring and hip exercises.  All of this takes about an hour and I try to do it every 3 days.

9 miles in 63 at 6:30am at Rockefeller, starting and ending at Gory Brook.  It was cooler than previous days (about 75).  Here in the East, during summer it often never gets below 70 or 75, even at night.

Avg pace was 7:04 and avg HR was 151.  I ran fairly easy but threw in 6 or 8 pickups lasting, say, 30 seconds to 2 minutes each.  My legs accepted these only grudgingly.  When you have lifted hard the previous day, you really can feel exactly what muscles running uses.  In particular, my hips were feeling it today when I tried to pick it up.  After I finished my legs felt pretty beat up.  The ol' knees are aching but nothing out of the ordinary.  Took an ibuprofen and will ice later.

Stopped to look for a cougar around 4 miles.  Timed it to run past the visitors' center where they have porta-johns.

I saw some of the local Africans training this morning.  They are "sub-elite" or semi-pro, not internationally competitive, but it still gives me a little thrill to see them training.  I think they all have day jobs and just try to scrape up $500 or $1000 at the local and regional races.  If there is prize money at a local race, there will always be some of the local Africans there.  If you can run 5 miles in 24:00 and it feels like a tempo run and win a couple hundred bucks, why wouldn't you?

Khalid Khannouchi, US record holder in the marathon, lives in Ossining and sometimes trains at Rockefeller too, though I've never seen him.

Anyway, towards the end I passed a woman who I think is Kenyan and lives in Sleepy Hollow, and I said hi.  I have to admit it gave me a tiny bit of satisfaction to pass her.  Well, you know what, later my wife said she had seen her cranking out intervals on the trail, so I guess by the time I passed her she was warming down. I guess that's a little sad to feel like a stud for passing a woman on her warm-down.

Around 6 miles easy at 8:30am.  Ran from home south on the OCA to around Ardsley and back.

Not hot this morning, thankfully.  Very wet and humid as I just missed a pretty good rainstorm right before I headed out.  The trail was in pretty bad shape from all the rain.  I tried to avoid the puddles and mud as much as possible, but ended up with the backs of my legs caked in mud.

Felt fine and didn't push it.  End HR 140.

Off to a Yankees game in about an hour!  It is an afternoon game against the Twins.  Yanks have a 5-game win streak and Mussina is pitching.

12.6 mi in 1:31.  Avg pace 7:12, avg HR 146.

Ran at 8:45am in a big loop: up to Marymount, on the Tarrytown Lakes bike path, up the Putnam North County trailway bike path, up into Rockefeller, past Stone Barns, onto OCA and past the HS, and then back home.  First mile neighborhoods, then almost 5 on asphalt bike paths, and the rest (except the last half mile) on dirt/gravel carriage roads.

Weather was coolish, cloudy, humid, with bits of light rain.

Felt pretty good on this run.  The first 6 miles, on pavement, the legs really wanted to go and the pace was under 7 with not much effort.  Getting onto the trails and up the hills starting at mile 6, I lost a bit of mojo and had a couple of easy miles.  After that, most of the rest was downhill or flat, and hit those miles at 7:00 pace or just over.

Came home just absolutely drenched, as usual, from the humidity.  My shorts weighed about 3 pounds and my shoes were squish-squishing the entire way.  My feet look like prunes now.

Legs feel a little banged up.  Tomorrow is a planned day off and I'll look forward to that.  I'm trying a 6-day cycle: medium/short/medium/short/long/off (in terms of mileage).

No run today.  Planned day off.  Knees sore.

Weights (upper body). 

8M in 57:35 this morning at 7:45am.  Ran up the OCA to the Rockwood Hall bike bridge and back.  Weather was nice.

2M w.u., then 4x (200, 200, 400) with equal distance recovery, then 2M w.d.  Splits were 28:10/29:25.  The positive splits reflect a slower warm-down than warm-up, rather than slower reps.

The reps were estimated since I was on the trail.  I could have programmed the Garmin, but I didn't feel like listening for beeps every 30 seconds that I can't hear half the time, and/or having to look at my watch every 10 seconds.  Instead, I went by paces: I estimated 220 steps per quarter mile on the workbouts and 340 steps per quarter on the recoveries.  I need to think some more about whether this is accurate.

I am guessing the pace on the workbouts was 35 sec / 200m or 70 sec per quarter, or possibly slightly slower.  It is supposed to be full recovery, and it pretty much was.  Only the last 2 quarters hurt.

Some of you might recognize this as a Jack Daniels workout.  I am following his program for the 5k-15k distance.  It is a 24-week program and my goal race is on Thanksgiving, so today is the first day of the second 6-week chunk.  This phase is early quality and focuses on "reps" like I did today (short, relatively fast repeats with full recovery) and threshold runs.

Legs felt pretty good.  Noticed just the slightest twinge on the inside of my right knee where I had trouble about 6 weeks ago.  I'll be sore tomorrow but it's an easy day.

----

Weights (lower body routine) at the Y in the afternoon.

9.5 miles in 1:14 at 10am.  Started at Gory Brook, then ran on Witches Spring, Eagle Hill, and 13 Bridges trails, then up the OCA to Rockwood Hall, through Phelps, all the way through Philipse Manor, and through neighborhoods back up to Gory Brook.  Weather was coolish and overcast, humid as usual.

Easy pace the whole way and didn't push it.  Felt OK though a little lethargic at times.  Wore sunglasses and zoned out most of the time.

Went quite a bit farther than planned, which was dumb.  I misjudged the length of the Rockwood/Philipse loop, and briefly took a wrong turn in the Manor.  Had meant to only do about 6.  This was dumb, since I plan to do a tempo workout tomorrow which I may postpone a day.

Triax (1): 356 + 300 est.

Triax (2): 93

Adistar: 493 + 50 est.

Cumulus: 228

Total of 9.6 at 6:30am in 70:30.  Ran on the Putnam bike path.  All on asphalt. Coolish and humid.

2.5M warm up + 4 x 1M with 2min jog + 2.3M warm down.  This is a Daniels workout, except he suggested 5-6 repeats with 1 min rest.  Since I am easing into speedwork I decided to do 2 min rest.

Target pace for the repeats was 5:45.  I hit 5:53, 5:54, 5:36, 5:45.  Wasn't looking at my watch and tried to pace by feel.  It didn't feel like I was pushing very hard, and when I saw the times and my HR, I realized I in fact wasn't.  Repeats 1 and 3 were slightly downhill, 2 and 4 uphill.

repeat # / time / avg HR / max HR:

1 / 5:53 / 157 / 162

2 / 5:54 / 163 / 169

3 / 5:36 / 164 / 171

4 / 5:45 / 166 / 170

Overall, successful workout, but will need to push a little harder next time.

After the run, full upper- and lower-body weight routines.

50 minutes very easy at Tryon Creek S.P. in Portland, OR, at 5pm local time.  Call it 5M since I was running as slowly as possible on single-track, hilly trails.

Weather was cool.  I love my old haunt Tryon but felt really awful today.  Exhausted and grumpy from traveling.  Stopped to walk a bunch of times.

66 minutes at 11am local time in Tryon.  Call it 8.2 miles.  Decent pace on the hilly, narrow trails.  Felt way better than yesterday after a very solid night's sleep.  Weather was super.

63 minutes at around 7am local time in Portland, OR. Ran down through Tryon and up "Rich People Loop". Didn't wear the Garmin, but call it 8 miles.

1:57 starting at 6:45am Portland time.  Long run - meant to do about 12, but got a bit disoriented and went about 15M, but that's OK because I felt pretty strong.  Cool, overcast, a tiny bit of light rain at the end.  Route took me from Maplecrest down in Tryon, up Iron Mountain and into Lake O, through 1st addition, down by the lake and the train tracks, past the country club all the way to Boones Ferry, then up Country Club, up Englewood Dr., back up through the park and back to Jenny & Nate's.  Knees and feet sore afterwards.  Tomorrow is a planned day off.

8.6 miles total in 64:48 on the beach in Manzanita, OR.  Ran at 6pm, later than I usually do, because we didn't arrive till mid-afternoon and then I took a nap.

This was a memorable run.  The plan was to do 10x400 reps with equal-distance recovery as per Jack Daniels, so I programmed the Garmin for that.  I took off south down the beach, which I had read was 7 miles long, and was moving fast.  I knew there was a tailwind and that there would be punishment for my sins on the way back, but it was hard to judge pace accurately not being used to running on the beach or in wind.  I did a 2.5M warm-up at 7:00 pace with minimal effort and was feeling studly.  Then I started the quarters. 

I did the first 4 reps with the tailwind in 75, 69, 68, and 70 and felt like I was flying before I came to a rock jetty and ran out of beach.  I turned around and was in for a nasty surprise: the wind was WAY stronger than I had thought.  It was so strong you had to turn your head to the side to breathe properly so you weren't directly facing into the wind.  I knew the remaining 6 quarters were going to be ugly, but decided to plow through them.  Well, I wasn't feeling so studly anymore: I ran the last 6 400s in 87-97 seconds, and the recoveries were at 10-11 minute pace.  Even so, my HR was up above 170 and I was really working hard against the wind. I finally finished the last one and limped home the last 1.1M at 8:45 pace, then basically collapsed in the hotel room.

I estimate the wind was at least 30mph, and it was bloody cold, too.  My hands and ears were killing me on the way back and I was certain I was going to get sick.  I guess the fact that it is August doesn't mean much on the Oregon coast.  Calves were pretty sore after the run too.

7.8M in 56:20 at 1pm on the beach at Manzanita.  This was a south-then-north out-and-back, and I almost reached the jetty at the south end of the beach.  Weather was cool, mostly overcast with some sun, and not windy till the last mile, thankfully.

Average pace was 7:10 and avg HR 140.  Felt fine and the legs were mostly OK.  Overall, a much more enjoyable run than yesterday.

8.1M in 56:19 at 8:30am local time on the beach at Manzanita.  Weather was cool, very moist and foggy, and mostly calm.  It was so foggy that it was a little hard to judge distances and tell how close to the water you were.  There were also quite a few puddles on the beach and little streams flowing into the ocean carving up the sand into little islets.

Average pace was 6:57.  2M warm-up, then 3M at 6:18, 6:14, and 6:00, and 3M warm-down.  I was planning to do about 6 miles instead of 3 at the faster pace, but didn't feel strong and I also felt that twinge on the hamstring inside of my knee that has bothered me on and off this summer, so I backed off after 3.  Average HR was 148 for the run; for the 3 faster miles it was 152, 157, 161, so I wasn't working that hard - just didn't feel strong.

46 minutes in Boise with Johnny along the canal banks going to Cassia Park.  Call it 5.8.  Ran a little before 7am local time.  Not much going on in Boise at that hour, and it was cool.  

We took the pace easy the whole way.  Good thing, because my legs weren't feeling too good.  The first 5 or 10 minutes, my whole left leg was stiff and kind of tingly like it was asleep.  Also the Achilles were very stiff, and I felt a bit of p.f. in my right arch, which always scares me.

Furthermore, I was having some minor stomach issues after last night's binge at The Melting Pot, so any faster pace would likely have caused disaster.  Evidently, though, my stomach problems paled in comparison to Johnny's, who sprayed a wet deuce along the canal banks hardly a mile into the run...

50 minutes in Twin Falls at CSI and the North College area/ Moores' house.  Call it 6.2 (probably farther).  Ran at 7am local time.  Not too hot yet though there was a decent East breeze.  Legs felt better than yesterday.

12.1M in 1:25 starting at a little before 7am Twin Falls time.  Weather was cool and dry.  Route went all over the eastern half of town, roughly Candleridge Smith's O'Leary Thomsen Hankins 4th Elizabeth Harmon Viola Bontrager Smith's Alturas and home.  Everything was asphalt except a lap around Thomsen Park on the thick wet grass.

This was a pretty good run and I felt stronger and stronger as it went on.  The first 2 miles I felt crappy and my legs were super-stiff.  But all the rest of the miles except the 1st 2 were 7:04 and under, and the last 6 were 6:52 and under.  Average pace was 7:01.

The run turned out to be pleasant, too.  I had been dreading running 12 miles in TF.  It helped to get an early start (sun rises late there and sets late) and it was quiet and still out at that hour. 

7.6M in 55:36 at 9am Twin Falls time.  Weather was clear, dry, and starting to get warm.  Ran with JohnR a.k.a. Johnny. Route took us up Madrona over the Perrine Bridge, along the new Rim Trail in both directions as far as we could get (not very far, yet, unfortunately), and back home.  Asphalt the whole way.

Average pace was 7:21.  Felt fine, better than expected after yesterday's run.

Daniels workout from 5k-15k Training Plan, Week 9 Quality Workout 1.  On Table 19.1 on p.244 in my book (2nd edition).  4x200 + 2x400 + 1x800 + 2x400 + 4x200 with equal distance jog. 

Ran at about 3pm.  Weather was 75, sunny, humid, with a light breeze.  Decided to do the workout on the SHHS track because I thought the trails would be messy after the heavy rain this morning, and because the workout is complicated.

At the level I'm at, Daniels recommends a pace of 73 seconds per lap.  I hit that on all but the 800.  The full recovery makes this an early-season "rep" workout rather than a mid-season interval workout.

Warmed up with 3 miles including strides and stretching, and the legs were not turning over too well.  Started the workout and averaged 35 for the first set of 200s, then hit 70/72 for the quarters, 2:30 for the 800, 74/70 for the next 2 quarters, and averaged 34 for the last 4 200s with a 31 for the last rep.  Jogged the recoveries at a pace that made the miles average 6:30-7:00.  You can break the workout into 5 one-mile segments, each of which has 800m of fast running and 800m of recovery jogging.

Did not feel speedy but only really hurt on the 800.  The fact that a single 800 in 2:30 was so tough reflects my training, I guess.  I still have a little bit of basic speed which makes running 200s in the low 30s pretty easy.  On the other side of the spectrum, aerobically I'm in the best shape of my life, and I feel like I can run 7-minute miles indefinitely (up to 18 or 20, probably).  However, I'm severely lacking in strength right now.  A 6x800 workout would be ugly.  The next phase in Daniels' plan should remedy that.

Warmed down with a mile home on the OCA. 

Triax (1): 356 + 300 est.

Triax (2): 107

Adistar: 546 + 50 est.

50:18 at est. 7:30 pace, so call it 6.7M.  Ran at 11:30am at RSPP.  End HR was 145.  Weather was pleasant.

My calves, which had been very sore after yesterday's speed workout, were fine, but both Achilles were stiff the whole way today.  Afterwards, my left achilles feels a little tweaked (worse than just sore).  It is down near the connection to the heel, similar to what I had last September.  Day to day for now.

Ran in a new pair of Adidas Adistar Cushion 6, same model and size as my last pair (but a lot cleaner and shinier).  Since they are exactly the same as my workhouse shoes, I didn't expect any problems.  They felt tight when I put them on, but didn't cause any blisters or problems. I don't think the Achilles issue today is attributable to the new shoes.

Ran past KK on the aqueduct trail.  He appeared to be cruising and looked fine.  We waved at each other and then he was long gone.

Full weights routine in the afternoon.

Triax (1): 356 + 300 est.

Triax (2): 107

Adistar: 546 + 50 est.

Adistar (2): 6.7

Cumulus: 273

8M in 58:02 to Dobbs Ferry and back.  Ran at high noon.  Weather was 80, sunny, and comparatively dry.  Pace felt easy and was very even the whole way.

Legs felt slightly lethargic.  Before the run, I soaked my Achilles in a bucket of the hottest water I could stand for about 15 minutes to try to loosen them up.  It seemed to help, as they were a little less stiff than usual and didn't really hurt during the run.  What was a little sore, though, was my right forefoot.  I am sure this is from running fast Monday wearing my Cumulus, which seem to have zero or possibly negative forefoot cushion.  This has happened before, and one of these days I'll learn.  If the foot is sore today, it will really be sore after tomorrow, when I run a 5k on hilly trails wearing 15-year-old Waffle flats...

Triax (1): 356 + 300 est.

Triax (2): 107

Adistar: 554 + 50 est.

Adistar (2): 6.7

Summary: 17:48 over a cross-country 5k for 2nd place at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.  A decent effort, but not great.  Would have hoped to have been about 20 seconds faster given the effort.  Almost a carbon copy of last year's race, in that I ran decent 1st and 3rd miles but got my butt kicked by the hills in the 2nd mile.

7 pm race, so I started warming up around 4:30.  There had been heavy rain earlier, so I jogged to the Y and ran a couple miles on the treadmill, then came back and stretched.  Left the house around 5:45 and drove down to the Bronx, arriving about 6:10.  Got registered and warmed up.  Storms were threatening with dark clouds and lightning in the distance, but it didn't rain.  It was about 70 and very humid when the race started.

Van Cortlandt Track Club puts on these cross country races every other Thursday all summer, and this was the last installment. I ran one last summer but this was my first this summer.  The atmosphere is super low-key: it only costs $5 to enter, there are no t-shirts, prizes are carrot muffins from the bakery across the street, and most of the entrants (around 100-150) seem to come from the surrounding neighborhood. In the play fields all around the start and finish area, neighborhood kids and adults were playing football, baseball, soccer, rugby, field hockey, etc without paying much attention to the cross country race. 

Van Cortlandt Park is probably the most famous cross country course in the country.  Tons and tons of championship races from HS to college to pro have been held here for decades.  This course started with about 3/4 mile around the play fields and then went back up into the wooded hills for the middle section until coming back down to the fields for the last half mile. The surface is all dirt/gravel paths and it was kind of rough in places.  Not only that, but it was a bit dark back in the woods because of the storm clouds and you really had to watch the trail closely.  It is not the place to run a fast time!

The plan was to not go out too fast, and I didn't feel like I did, but I found myself at the front when the course left the flat and went up into the hills.  This is where some interesting tactics played out.  In a normal fun run, you usually don't get a lot of surges and pace changes - everyone just usually runs the same pace the whole time - but this was different, maybe owing to the fact that it was cross country on narrow hilly trails with a lot of turns.  Around 1 mile, 2 guys working together (including the eventual winner, who I think is Jamaican) shot out in front.  I covered that surge and they eased off.  A couple minutes later, an older guy with a beard and yellow cap (who ended up 3rd) charged ahead but we pulled him in.  Not long after, the Jamaican guy surged again and the older guy went along, but I couldn't stay with them.  I was not doing well up the hills and they quickly had about 5 seconds on me.  At around 2 miles I noticed that the older guy was coming back to me, and I was getting a bit of a 2nd wind.  I was making up ground on all the downhills.  As the course came down out of the woods and around the soccer fields with a half mile to go, I passed him.  Unfortunately, the leader was long gone.  I put in a half-hearted kick but the winner had me by 12 seconds and seemed to have plenty of gas left.  The older guy lost 15 seconds on me but held on to 3rd.

It's funny because almost the exact same scenario played out last year when I raced here.  I had a strong 1st mile, then absolutely died on the hills and lost a bunch of places, then regained some mojo on the last mile and passed some people back.  Last year, though, I was fat and out of shape, so my time was 52 seconds faster this year.

I wore the Garmin and HRM and had hoped to get some data from the run, but evidently I failed to start it, so I have no data, which is a bummer.  Also, the HRM kept slipping down from my chest onto my stomach during the race and I had to re-adjust it a few times, which was distracting.

Overall it was a decent race, definitely not great.  The goals were to run hard and get an early-season readout on where I am in training, and to try to increase the pace each mile.  For the effort I put in, even taking the slow course into consideration, I thought I would have been about 20 seconds faster.  It didn't feel like I went out too fast, but the 2nd-mile hills hit me all at once, so maybe I did.  I think the weak middle of the race reflects the fact that I haven't really done much strength work yet: I need some 800/1200/mile repeats, tempo runs, and hills to whip me into racing shape.  Competitively speaking, it was a decent effort, again not great.  I made an effort to stay in front for the first couple of moves, but couldn't hang in there the 2nd mile when they broke ahead.  I did reel in the one guy, but I should have put in a ballsier kick. On the plus side, I did win a carrot muffin.

Stayed up real late after the race lifting weights in the basement, icing, and watching the Olympics.

Triax (1): 356 + 300 est.

Triax (2): 107

Adistar: 559 + 50 est.

Adistar (2): 6.7

6.5M in 51:52 (7:58/mile) at noon from Gory Brook up the OCA to the school and back.  Pleasant weather (sunny, not too hot, moderately humid).

Slow pace the whole way, the slowest I've run in some time.  Wanted to recover from yesterday, but mainly, didn't want to run fast because my left Achilles was sore the whole way.  This is worrisome, since it usually loosens up 1-2 miles into the run.  Besides that, I had no soreness (i.e. muscular soreness) from last night's race.  Guess I didn't push it too hard.

There was a huge limb down across the trail just south of the bike bridge.

Lower-body weights routine in the afternoon.

Triax (1): 356 + 300 est.

Triax (2): 107

Adistar (1): 559 + 50 est.

Adistar (2): 13.2

11.2M in 78:24.  4 of the miles were 6:45 or better, so call those MP.  Ran south on the OCA to Hastings and back.  At 2pm, it was 80 deg, sunny, and comparatively dry.  Avg pace 6:59, avg HR 153.

Felt good the first couple of miles and even threw in some pickups, even though this was supposed to be a long run.  Starting losing energy around the 3rd mile but kept the pace under 7:00 until the 8th mile when I really started to struggle, but kept the pace 7:15 or under until the last mile, which was 7:30 and includes a hill.  Especially lately it is unusual for me to positive-split a long run. I think the 1st half was 6:51/mile and the 2nd half 7:07/mile.

Felt exhausted after the run.  I know I've been pushing it training-wise with both running and weights.  Probably I am overtraining right now.  I have a race in 16 days and I'd like to get in another hard week before easing up a bit the week before the race.  Tomorrow is a planned day off, but maybe I should take two.  We'll see.

My legs were shot and the 2nd half of the run I was having trouble with footing, which is a sure sign of leg fatigue.  I was bouncing all over the place side to side and my ankles felt loose and floppy.  This is from a combination of hard training, the weights from yesterday (unwisely did squats and lunges, which I just should not do, period), ongoing Achilles problems, dead shoes, and a slight turn of my left ankle which happened on Wednesday's run.  Also I have bad blisters on both feet from the race Thursday.  Very dehydrated afterwards as well.

Triax (1): 356 + 300 est.

Triax (2): 107

Adistar (1): 571 + 50 est.

Adistar (2): 13

Planned day off.  Lifted weights (upper body routine).

Hill repeats at RSPP.  Roughly 9.5M total; no time recorded.  Ran at 10am - weather was warm, sunny, and dry.

2M w.u. + assorted unstructured hill intervals with equal distance jog + 1.5M w.d.

Repeats were supposed to roughly match the Daniels workout in the schedule I'm following, but they were mowing the hay/weeds field up there so I had to improvise. As near as I can remember, I did: 1x200, 2x100, 6x500, 4x300, and 4x100.  Last 100s all out on the steepest part of the hill.  These distances are guesses and are based more on the time it takes to run them than actual distances.

Pushed hard and felt relatively strong.  About 1/3 of the way through I was struggling and not sure I could finish, but I gutted it out and got a second wind.  Probably pushed harder today than at Thursday's race.  Had those lovely symptoms of interval work, headache and upset stomach.  Legs felt almost fully recovered from last week.  Knees were slightly sore during warm up (from squats/lunges) and left achilles was a little sore during the workout but better than last week by far.

Full lower-body weights routine at the Y afterwards.

Triax (1): 356 + 300 est. OFFICIALLY RETIRED

Triax (2): 107

Adistar (1): 571 + 50 est. OFFICIALLY RETIRED

Adistar (2): 13

6M in 41:16 on the OCA South and back.  Ran at 1pm; weather was 80 and sunny.  Can't complain.

Threw in 5 pickups of 30 seconds or so each, which accounts for the overall 6:51 pace on an easy recovery run.  

Felt fine.  Legs were mostly OK, but feet were a little sore.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 19

Went to the running store this morning.  Since learning how to buy the right shoes is an ongoing process for me, I'm writing everything down for future reference.

Wanted to buy 2 pairs of shoes: (1) a 2nd pair of trainers mainly for long runs and secondarily for easy runs to rotate with my Adistars and (2) a pair of "performance" trainers for track work and tempo runs.  I usually wear my Cumulus now for speedwork but they seem to lack cushioning (esp. forefoot) for how heavy they are.

For the trainers I picked out 5 models to try on.  I chose these candidates from catalog info/ Runner's World reviews based on high amount of cushioning, soft feel, and not too heavy weight.  I came up with Nike Zoom Vomero 3, Nike Max 180 3, Saucony Progrid Triumph 5, Asics Nimbus 9, and Brooks Glycerin 6.

Nike Zoom Vomero 3: not in stock in my size, so didn't try on

Nike Max 180 3: store didn't carry them; salesman said they were BS/fashion shoes and not real running shoes

Saucony Progrid Triumph 5: first pair I tried on. Fit didn't seem great and they didn't feel very soft or cushiony, so ruled them out

Asics Nimbus 9: Great amount of cushion - of all the shoes they felt the best each time my foot hit the ground.  However, the fit wasn't great, just OK: felt a little loose and rubbed the wrong way slightly around the ankle and heel.  Salesman said that was normal and that there was a special material around the ankle that molds to your foot over time, improving the fit.  Almost got them.

Brooks Glycerin 6:  Best fit by far.  Size 9.5 was too snug but it fit like a glove, size 10 wasn't as tight but still fit great.  Feel was less cushiony than the Nimbus but still not bad, so I wasn't sure which to get.  Salesman advised going for fit over feel.  Basically a toss-up.  Bought these in size 10.

For the performance shoes I picked out NB 826, Mizuno Wave Precision 8, and Nike Zoom Skylon to try on.  Basically chose these based on weight of around 9-10 oz, amount of cushion, and no hint of any stability/motion control features.

NB 826: Size 9.5 felt great but were a little snug.  Size 10 was a tiny bit loose on the left foot but seemed OK but tighter lacing.  Couldn't see any reason not to get these, so I did.

Mizuno Wave Precision 8: Store carried version 9.  Didn't like the feel of these at all.  Felt like there was a lift in the heel and no cushion whatsoever in the forefoot.  Forefoot felt like it was 0.001mm from the street but heel felt like I was wearing high heels.  Bad.

Nike Zoom Skylon: Store didn't carry them.  Salesman said no one at the store liked the shoe.

Probably covered 2 or 3 miles running around the block and on the treadmill, but I won't count that in my mileage...

Big tempo workout today.  Total of 11 miles in 1:18, all asphalt.  Ran 2.5M from home to the North County Trailway aka Putnam Bike Path, then ran 5.7M at tempo pace out and back, and warmed down with 2.8M. Ran at around 11am - gorgeous August day - sunny, about 70, light breeze.

Was trying for a full 6.4M at tempo which would have been the full out and back from where I get on the bike path to the parking lot where I turn around and back, but I started falling apart on the last mile and eased off.  Afterwards I was pretty mad at myself for doing that.

Stats on the workout:

2.5M wu in 7:24 (incl big uphill)

Tempo portion:

Dist / Pace / Avg HR / Max HR

1 / 5:50 / 155 / 161

1 / 6:03 / 162 / 165

1 / 5:59 / 166 / 168

.2/ 6:06 / 167 / 168

1 / 5:50 / 167 / 170

1 / 5:42 / 169 / 171

.5 / 5:56 / 170 / 171

So 1st 3.2M @ 5:58, last 2.5M@ 5:48, total 5.7M@ 5:53.

Felt pretty strong overall.  A better workout than the one 3 1/2 weeks ago where I ran 4x1M w/ 2min rest in avg 5:47 on the same course.  Left Achilles/ankle area was sore during the run, and afterwards my knees ached like they used to everyday but don't so much recently.

Lifted weights (upper body) at the Y in the afternoon.  Felt tired there.  I have lost weight: 141 first thing in the morning on home scale, 145.5 in midafternoon on Y scale.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 19

Cumulus: 293

45 junky minutes - call it 5 miles.  Slow pace the whole way.  Legs were dead from yesterday, and left Achilles was quite sore, so didn't want to/ couldn't pick it up.

Ran at 11am across Hwy 448 from Stone Barns.  Very hilly up there.  Saw a wild turkey hen and 3 baby turkeys (turklings? turklets?), and also ran on a cool new trail I didn't know about.  Weather was sunny and nice.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 24

Cumulus: 293

60 minutes bike = 8 miles Cross Training Equivalent (CTE).  I record these CTE miles separately but do not include them in running mileage.

10m wu + 10 x (2min hard, 2 min easy) + 10m wd.  18.1 miles total.  Most workbouts @ 100-110rpm @ Level 11 resistance on far RHS bike at the Y.  HR in mid-160s at end of most workbouts, but 171 on last rep.

Quality workout but not all out.  I wanted to get in a hard workout today but wasn't sure it was a good idea to run hard with my Achilles being tender, so I hit the bike.  Easy tomorrow, long run Sunday.

Weights (lower body and abs) beforehand.

Had a hard time raising the HR today, and this bike workout was not as good as a couple I did in May (where workbouts were generally 110-115rpm @ 12 resistance).  Some possible reasons:

*Different bike at the Y, maybe resistance is not comparable

*Not sure I had my feet properly in the stirrups today

*Did my leg weights beforehand today, so legs were already spent when I started

*My training has been hard this week and I'm tired

8 miles in 58:22 (7:18 avg) to Dobbs Ferry and back.  Ran at 7:30am, weather beautiful and trail "crowded."

Easy pace and felt fine the whole way.  End HR 145.  Ran in new yellow Brooks Glycerin 6.  They seem more or less fine.  They are a little stiffer and less cushiony than my Adistars, but fit great and didn't seem to cause any problems. 

The first couple of miles both my Achilles (left especially) were stiff and my right forefoot was sore, but these all improved as the run went on.  Felt better and better.  However, left Achilles is tender afterwards.

Weights (upper body) in the basement afterwards.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 24

Cumulus: 293

Glycerin: 8

12 miles in 1:36 at Lake Waramaug.  Ran at around 3 with Chris and Kevin.  Weather was warm and sunny.

The 3 of us started from the beach with the normal counterclockwise route at an easy pace.  We added on the big hill up Strawberry Ridge (also Strawberry Lane) and came down by Hopkins.  When we reached the beach again we were at 70 minutes, probably 8.8M.  (Alana measured the loop and it is 7.6.)  Chris and Kevin bowed out but I wanted to get to 12 for a long run so I started the loop again in the same direction.  Did another 26 minutes out and back.  I was feeling good so I almost committed to another whole loop, but I'm glad I didn't because my right forefoot started to hurt pretty bad by the time I got back.  It has been sore but 12 miles on asphalt with an uneven road surface didn't help.

Monday is a planned day off.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 36

Cumulus: 293

9M total this morning at 9:30am in 1:05.  Ran on OCA and in RSPP, S/F at SHHS.  Good weather.

Run consisted of a 16 minute warm up, then 15 minutes at tempo pace, 3min rest, 10min tempo, 2min rest, 5min tempo.  (This is a Daniels tempo workout.)  Then the warm down of about 15minutes which included 4 sprints up the steepest part of the hill. 

Alana was using the Garmin so I don't know pace, but I was moving pretty well on the first tempo portion, probably in the 5:50 neighborhood.  Pace fell off on the next 2 tempo portions, however, as I was having some problems concentrating.  All in all, probably averaged 6:00 pace for the 30 minutes of tempo running.  Not a great workout, but I got through it.  The last 4 days I have been completely out of my routine - keeping odd hours, binge eating and drinking way too much, and away from the house a lot.  Given that, I was happy just to start and finish the workout.

Ran in my new NB 826 shoes, which I bought just for up-tempo runs such as today.  They are pretty minimal and don't get in the way much.  The fit is fine.  My left Achilles was pretty sore for the whole run today, and the right one is a bit sore too.  No trouble with forefeet after Sunday's long run when they were sore.  Knees were a bit achey afterwards.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 36

Cumulus: 293

Glycerin: 8

NB 826: 9

8M easy in 57:33.  Ran to Dobbs Ferry and back around 11am.  Weather 75 and nice.  Splits 29:13/28:20.  End HR 145.

Just happy to get this easy run done.  The last couple of days have marked a low point for my running this summer.  Achilles problems, lack of motivation, and aggressive over-eating.  In retrospect, I am overtrained.  I had been red-lining it practically all summer without an easy week, hitting new mileage highs.  It goes to show that if you don't give yourself an easy week once in a while, your body will force you to take it.

After Tuesday's workout my Achilles (left mainly) were in bad shape.  Wednesday I knew there was no point in running, but I skipped cross-training.  Thursday I had intentions of running a track workout, but could not bring myself to do it.  This was my first skipped workout in at least a couple of months. Maybe it's better I skipped it, as it could have really messed up my Achilles.

Late last night I decided I was going to just forget the track workout and run easy today, just to get back on schedule.  I have a race Monday and now it's too close to it to be doing a hard workout and risk hurting myself, so I'm just writing off the speed workout I didn't do.  Will have easy or rest days Saturday and Sunday. 

In an effort to learn something about treating injuries, and preventing tweaks and niggles from becoming injuries, and to indulge my hypochondriac side, I'm going to start tracking leg issues daily.  Here goes:

Left achilles:  Trying to figure out how this happened.  4 big mileage weeks including 3 new weekly highs from July 14 - August 10.  Many of these miles done in old Adistars with 600 miles.  Soles were worn down and shoes were dead.  Speed workout August 11 which I did not properly warm down from.  First noticed Achilles problems next day.  August 14, ran hilly cross country race in waffle flats.  Achilles very sore next 2 days but ran anyway.  Also was breaking in fresh pair of adistars that week.  Felt better 18th-19th after day off, but sore again Aug 20th after hard tempo run.  Very sore next day on slow recovery run.  Cross-trained the 22nd, ran the 23rd-24th and Achilles were a little sore both days.  Wore new Brooks on the 23rd, and new NB on the 26th.

In summary, probably a combination of high mileage, introducing more speedwork, and running in dead shoes then breaking in new shoes.  One day off seems to help a lot.

I recall that I had a lot of Achilles problems in Summer '07 (caused I think by running only in Triax, and particularly doing speed work in Triax without sufficient base), but it always improved in a few days with rest and ice.

Today, I soaked in hot water before running.  Achilles was stiff and sore first mile, but gradually improved and wasn't really bothering me most of the run.  Not especially sore afterwards.  Did not ice Wed or Thurs.

Right achilles:  Probably same causes as described above.  Similar problem, but not as severe.  Often more stiff than sore.  Stiff for the first mile today but improved.

Knees:  Slightly achey when done but nothing acute.  Right worse than left.  Took Advil when done.

Right quad:  A little sore today after being pretty sore during Tuesday's run.  No idea how this happened.  Not too worried.  Left quad just slightly sore as well.

Right forefoot:  Getting tender at the end of today's run, but not terrible.  Left OK.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 36

Cumulus: 293

Glycerin: 16

Similar run to yesterday.  8M easy in 56:21.  Ran to Dobbs Ferry and back at noon.  Weather 75 and quite humid.  Felt like I was dogging it but pace was 7:03.  7:00/mile feels so easy now. Splits 28:24/27:57.  End HR 150.

Left achilles:  Did not ice yesterday nor did I soak it in hot water this morning.  Wasn't very sore walking around the house yesterday or this morning.  Quite sore first mile of run, a little sore 2nd mile, just stiff after that.  Feels OK now.

Right achilles:  Pretty much fine.

Knees:  Basically fine.  Didn't bother me during run, sore walking down basement stairs afterwards.

Right quad:  Still sore but not really bothersome.  I now think I did this stretching last week sometime.

Right forefoot:  A tiny bit tender afterwards, but basically OK.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 44

Cumulus: 293

Glycerin: 16

5.6M very easy with Alana in 1:02.  Ran at RSPP at around noon, weather 75, sunny and very nice.

Big race tomorrow!

Injury report:

Left achilles:  Quite a bit better.  Maybe because of slow pace, or because of shoes (Glycerin), or maybe it's just getting better.  Only slightly sore and stiff at the beginning of the run and not bad after.  Did not ice yesterday nor did I soak it in hot water this morning.  Wasn't very sore walking around the house yesterday or this morning.  Feels OK now.

Right quad:  Same as yesterday: Still sore but not really bothersome. 

Right forefoot:  A little worse than yesterday.  Tender in the last half mile on the outside of the forefoot (where it was painful last Sunday at Lake Waramaug).

Triax: 107

Adistar: 44

Cumulus: 293

Glycerin: 21.6

Summary:  A solid race for me and a small (6-second) PR in the 5k - 16:29.  7th out of 2500+ runners.  Ran even splits, passed a ton of people, and had a respectable kick.  The time was quite a bit faster than I was expecting given that I haven't done too much speedwork yet and that I had a rough last week in terms of training, motivation, and injuries. This was the first of a number of larger regional races I'm doing this fall.

---

Got up at 5:20 and jogged 2 miles.  Achilles was similar to last couple of days, stiff and slightly sore.  Stretched and ate my usual pre-race breakfast of oatmeal, banana, and tea.  Unusually, did not hit the john before I left.  Drove up to New Haven (about 60 miles) and got there about 7:30.  Hit the john first thing there in a big way.  Got registered, etc.

Around 8 got a call from Kevin (running the 20k today) that Chris (planning to run the 5k) had overslept after staying up half the night fixing a leaky pipe and wouldn't make the start.  Bummer!  Met Kevin for a short warm up and made my way to the starting line for some strides.

The race organizers brought in Ryan Shay's dad to present the awards this year because Ryan was a past 20k winner and I think he did the race every year.  His dad was saying a few words before the gun when I noticed I was missing my chip - it had fallen off my shoelace.  I momentarily freaked and ran out past the start line to look for it where I'd been doing strides, but I couldn't find it.  Later I realized I just hadn't tied it on right.  That's totally uncharacteristic of me because I never lose things and I usually triple-check everything.  I was mad at myself but decided to just run as I would have anyway and get the time from my Garmin even though I probably wouldn't show up in the official results. I was happy with myself for putting that out of my mind and just focusing on the race. 

The weather was about 70, sunny, with a slight breeze and the course was flat and paved - in other words, conditions were fast.  At the gun it took me a couple of seconds to get out of the crowd since I sort of lost my spot when I went searching for my missing chip, and I was about 5 rows back.  Tried not to trample all the little kids that lined up in front.  (On the one hand, it kind of irks me that race directors let kids line up in front, but on the other hand I sometimes line up behind them on purpose because it helps me not get carried away and go out too fast.)

When the dust settled after the first turn a couple hundred meters in I started moving up.  After that point I didn't get passed by a single person the whole rest of the way.  The course winds through New Haven, which besides Yale is really an awful place and I wouldn't recommend going there to anyone.  I hit the mile in 5:16 and felt about as I expected I would.  At that point I was pretty sure I was going to easily hit my goal of 17:00 unless something really went wrong.  In the 2nd mile I continued to pass people (mostly HS kids) and tried not to let myself get comfortable.  Came through in 10:40 for a 5:24 split and I think that mile was slightly uphill.  The whole last mile was a straight shot into the finish line and it was slightly downhill.  Kept moving up and hit 5:17 for that mile.  The last tenth was at 4:38/mile pace according to the Garmin and I chased down a guy from quite a ways back and nipped him at the finish line.  The Garmin had the course at 3.12 miles (it's certified) and a time of 16:29.  Afterwards I felt like I had run a solid race but I wasn't collapsing at the finish line or anything, so I wouldn't say it was all out. 

Met up with Chris who had finally arrived, then we watched the elites come in in the 20k race and cheered for Kevin who had a good race in 1:21 for 20k.  When we checked out the unofficial results, I didn't expect my name to be on there (either that or "Unknown Runner") on account of my missing chip, but they had me in 6th place in 16:18.  I guess they got my bib number, but not sure how they came up with that time and place.  But I'm taking my Garmin time of 16:29, and since there were 6 runners in the results faster than that, I'm gonna say I got 7th.  3 of the runners ahead were HS kids.

After the race we hung around the New Haven Green for a long time and talked.  Gradually all the yuppie runners left and the alcoholics, junkies, and hoboes filtered back in.  Around 1pm Chris and I headed into the countryside to his co-worker's house where he had procured a party invitation.  Ate, drank, and played tennis until it got dark.  Won all my matches, both singles and doubles.  Pretty awesome day.  Ended up not falling asleep till 3am.

Oh yeah, I was talking to a woman I didn't know at this party about the race and I used the term "get chicked" which I picked up from reading this blog, and let me just say, that did not go over well...

4.7 junky miles in 38:52.  Ran pretty much as slow as I could.  Route was south to Irvington and back.  Ran at 7pm; beautiful evening.

Sore and tired all day.  Wondering if I shouldn't have just skipped this one.  End HR only 120.

Injury report:

Left achilles:  Pretty bad.  Stiff and sore the whole way.  Haven't iced recently.

Right achilles:  Much worse than last week.  Got progressively more sore and stiff as the run went on, which is bad news.

Right forefoot:  Somewhat tender on and off the whole run.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 44

Cumulus: 293

Glycerin: 29.3

Needed at least another day off so I biked up to Croton Reservoir and back, about 26 miles.  Rode most of it with my mountain bike in its biggest gear.

Solid workout on the stationary bike at the Y.  7 miles cross-training equivalent.  53 minutes consisting of 10m w.u., 6 x (3m fast, 3m slow), 10m w.d.  17 miles total. 

Rode on the far RHS bike at the Y.  HR reached between 170 and 175 at the end of the 6 workbouts, which were done at around 110rpm @ 11 resistance.

A much better bike workout than the similar one 2 weeks ago.  Glad to have this done as I don't look forward to stationary bike intervals.

4M easy on the Y treadmill at 1pm.  8:00 pace.  Boring.

Injury report:

Left achilles:  A lot better.  Noticeable during run but not really sore, more like stiff.  Iced Tues, Thu, today (after run) and soaked in hot water before today's run.

Right achilles:  OK.

Right forefoot:  OK.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 48

Cumulus: 293

Glycerin: 29.3

8M in 58:58 at 7:30am.  Ran up to the OCA bike bridge and back.  70 and very humid - drenched when done.  Easy pace but felt sluggish.

Injury report:

Left achilles:  A little sore the first 2 miles, OK afterwards.  Didn't soak in hot water beforehand.  Not sure if I should be running easy like this or not running at all.  Need to get back to speedwork ASAP.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 48

Cumulus: 301

Glycerin: 29.3

5M in 36:50 on the treadmill at the Quincy, MA Marriott.  Couldn't get out the door for a real run.  Boring.

Injury report:

Left achilles:  Same as always: a little stiff and sore the first 2 miles, OK afterwards.  Iced in the sink afterwards.  Later in the day, both Achilles were feeling pretty bad, not just the fleshy part of the tendon that sticks out but down by where it connects to the heel, which is worrisome.  This is similar to how it was last September when I trashed it on that long run in the Catskills.  Decided to take a week off.

Triax: 107

Adistar: 48

Cumulus: 301

Glycerin: 34.3

5M in 39 minutes at RSPP, S/F at Gory Brook.  Ran at 1pm.  Cool at 65 deg.  End HR 135.  Felt a bit sluggish and out of it.

Injury report:

Left achilles:  Having taken 8 days completely off while on vacation, I had hoped it would have felt a little better than it actually did.  Not really sore but stiff and I could feel it.  Will try to run through it till end of November and at the same time try to determine and fix the underlying source of the problem.

Other:  Right achilles also stiff.  Right forefoot sore.  Knees crackly, probably from hard bike ride Saturday. 

+ weights (upper body routine)

Triax: 107

Adistar: 53

Cumulus: 301

Glycerin: 34.3

4.7M in 35 minutes to Irvington and back.  Ran at 3pm.  70 and sunny.  No problems cardiovascularly, but legs felt sort of weird like I was off-balance the whole time.  Running felt unnatural, like I was doing it for the first time.  The sensation wore off as the run went on.

Injury report:

Left achilles:  Not that bad.  It is stiff and sore mainly down where it connects to the heel.

Right achilles:  Stiff, not really painful.

Right forefoot:  Sore and tender the whole way, right on the ball of the foot down from the big toe.  Worse than yesterday.

+ weights (lower body routine)

Triax: 107

Adistar: 53

Cumulus: 301

Glycerin: 39

Similar run to yesterday, but felt better.  Legs felt looser and more fluid; stride was smoother.  I think I may have been limping some the last 2 days.

4.7M in 34:30 minutes to Irvington and back.  Ran at 4:30 pm.  70 and sunny and breezy.  End HR 145. 

Injury report:

Left achilles:  Better than yesterday.  Not really bothersome today at the slow pace.

Right achilles:  Stiff, not really painful.  Not really an issue.

Right forefoot:  A little better than yesterday.

+ weights (upper body routine)

Triax: 107

Adistar: 57.7

Cumulus: 301

Glycerin: 39

5.2M in 39:18 at RSPP, S/F Gory Brook.  Ran at noon.  Sunny but cool.  Easy pace.  Slowly getting back into it.

Injury report:

Left achilles:  Same as yesterday, not really an issue.

Right forefoot:  A little better than yesterday.

Planning to race the 5th Ave Mile tomorrow.  Can't expect a great performance, and probably not smart injury-wise, but I really want to do the race.  And the reason we train is to race, right?

Triax: 107

Adistar: 57.7

Cumulus: 306.2

Glycerin: 39

5th Avenue Mile today - my heat at 10:15am.  Got up around 7 and jogged for maybe 12 minutes, mostly around the dirt track at the grade school.  Easily the coldest morning of the Fall out there today - could see my breath and my hands got cold.

Did all my normal pre-race routine and walked down to the train station to catch the 8:39 train into the city.  Very crowded for a Saturday morning with a lot of Wall St. types getting on.  Evidently everyone that still has a job is working weekends now.

Got off at Harlem 125th St station just after 9 and started my warm-up down to 80th St, which is about 2.5 miles.  The first 15 or 20 blocks go through some semi-rough neighborhoods (well, what passes for "rough" in Manhattan, the safest big city in the nation, these days - they are slowly getting gentrified) until you get to Central Park and all the expensive apartment buildings start.  I wouldn't run through that part of town at night, but on a Saturday morning, it's a non-issue.

Around 85th St by the Met I started looking for the registration tent. Couldn't quite figure out why 5th Avenue wasn't shut off to traffic yet, or where the hordes of other runners warming up were.  Got down to 80th St, the race start, and really began to get confused.  Where was everyone?  I thought the heats started around 9, and it was pushing 9:30.

I ran into the park and onto the loop road.  Tons and tons of joggers and cyclists out on this beautiful morning but not many that looked like they were warming up for a mile.  I was started to get a little panicked.  I couldn't find the registration tent, and I wasn't going to have enough time to get changed, hit the porta-john, do strides, etc.  Finally I called my wife.  In about 3 seconds she had found the Web site and started looking for packet pickup instructions:  "...Packets may be picked up on race day, Sunday September 21, at the tent..." 

What the deuce?  Sunday, September 21st?  When I registered several weeks ago, the race was on Saturday!  I know this for a fact because I had originally planned to run the 5th Ave Mile on Saturday and a 5k on Sunday, but had decided to forget the 5k.  How had I not gotten word that they changed the race day?!?!

I didn't have much choice but to turn around and run back to 125th St and get back on the train outta town.  Wearing my backpack stuffed with my racing flats, water, and gear, I probably looked like I was training for boot camp.  Got home and felt pretty tired and deflated.  Ego slightly bruised, but trying to be philosophical about it.

Turns out I received 2 emails this week from NYRR (which I read) that gave the race date as Sunday, but there was nothing highlighting the fact that the date had changed.  Looks like they just quietly erased 20 and replaced it with 21.  (Probably the city or NYPD made them change it due to traffic coneerns or logistics or what have you.)  But it goes to show, even if contrary information is right before your eyes, you tend to ignore it if it goes against what you think to be true.  I believe psychologists call this "confirmation bias" because people tend to seek out information that confirms rather than challenges their existing beliefs.

Total of 6.5M of warm-up and warm-down for a nonexistent race.  No time, pace, or HR information recorded!

Triax: 107

Adistar: 63

Cumulus: 306.2

Glycerin: 39

After yesterday's fiasco, I woke up not sure (a) whether it actually in fact was Sunday, September 21, 2008 and (b) whether the 5th Avenue Mile was really going to take place today. It was very Groundhog Day-esque, except that I have more hair than Bill Murray and my wife rather than Andie Macdowell was in my bed.

All the pre-race stuff was pretty much exactly the same as yesterday, except that I felt more tired, more sore, and less motivated.  On the train I was lucky enough to sit next to another Tarrytown runner, Jay, also on his way to the race.  He is a grizzled veteran and gave me a few tips on the course:  2nd quarter is uphill; don't kick too early because the finish line is farther away than it looks (optical illusion); and never, ever feed your Gremlin a Gu after midnight, or it will throw it back up.

Got off at 125th St station again today and jogged down to 5th Avenue.  As I neared 80th St I was elated to see evidence of the existence of a road race.  From then till the start, everything went very smoothly.  The conditions were very good, around 70 degrees with no wind, and sunny.

The race is done in heats and the men's 30-34 heat was at 10:15.  Just in that tiny slice of demographics, there were 330 entrants.  Having just turned 30 2 weeks ago, I was certainly one of the youngest.  Looking around at the starting line, no one stuck out as looking particularly speedy.  Honestly, most of the other dudes looked old, fat, and hairy, and very few were wearing racing flats.

The gun went off and 2 guys shot to the front, one at least 6'4" and the other definitely south of 5'2".  The first quarter was slightly downhill and I came through around 65.  That was faster than I had planned but I thought I felt OK.  I was in 8th place or so.

The 2nd quarter was indeed noticeably uphill.  Right away everyone in front starting melting away.  At the half mile (2:19) I found myself in a situation I never thought I'd be in:  running down 5th Avenue, in the lead by half a stride, with NYPD motorcycles beside me and the timing truck with the big digital clock and a camera crew right in front of me.  It was terrifying.

Well, luckily another dude made sure the sensation was short-lived as he moved decisively ahead of me in the 3rd quarter.  It was downhill and he really took off.  From my high school and college miling days I should have known to push the 3rd quarter, but I didn't or couldn't go with him.  (To add insult to injury, he was from Central Park Track Club, which is kind of like the Yankees of the New York-area running club league: big, deep, rich, and successful.)  By 1200 he had a gap of about 5 seconds on me.  I think I came through in 3:29, which would be a 70-second quarter, way too slow since it was downhill.

I can't remember much of the last quarter except that it went by fast and was not downhill.  The clock said 4:38 when I hit the line.  The heat winner was 5 seconds ahead and 3rd place in the heat was maybe 5 seconds back, so I was all by myself.

The official results said 4:40.  Everyone was saying that official results were 2 seconds slower than what they thought they ran, so it wasn't just me.  There were 2 chip mats, and the finish line was at the first one, but some people said the official times must have been taken from the 2nd mat.  If that's true, it's retarded.

So I was 19th overall (across all age groups, and not counting the local pros and national elites, who were in separate classifications) and 2nd in 30-34.  For some reason, 30-34 turned out to be a super-weak group, but that's OK because it allowed me to get an NYRR trophy and get my name read over the loudspeaker.  But to keep myself humble, I'll note that there was a 52-year-old with a 4:40 and something like 6 guys over 40 ahead of me.  (In fact, the overall amateur winner was 42 with a time of 4:17 - sick.)

As a competitive effort, it was mixed.  I was initially elated with the time and place.  After all, I have done literally ZERO mile-focused speedwork, little 5k-focused speedwork, my last month of training has been a wreck, and I ran the thing half injured.  On the other hand, I realized later I could have pushed a lot harder since I wasn't collapsing at the finish line.  I need to re-learn how to go totally balls-to-the-wall.  Also, I should have pushed the 3rd quarter and should not have let the heat winner get away so easily.

Afterwards caught up with the coach and other runners from Westchester Track Club, which I just joined.  Watched the elite races from a vantage point about 200m from the finish.  Lagat, Symmonds, Sullivan, Lukezic, Rankin, and Leer all jogged by on their warm-ups.  Also Erin Donohue.  Didn't see Nick Willis, Rowbury, or Sara Hall warming up.  Right after the women's race, Ryan Hall ran right past.  I thought he looked the same as always, but someone from the club said she thought he looked "heavy."

Later in the day, lifted weights at the Y (lower body/abs).

Triax: 107 

Adistar: 63

Cumulus: 306.2

Glycerin: 45

Planned day off.  Feeling a little run-down.

Lifted weights (upper body).

7.3M in 54:50 (7:30 pace).  Ran at about 12:30pm at Rockefeller, S/F Gory Brook.  Very nice fall day: sunny, 70, pretty dry. Easy pace, felt pretty good.  Longest run in over 2 weeks (ouch).

Injury report:

Left achilles: Not too bad. A little stiff during the run, slightly sore afterwards.  Iced the last 2 days.  Still very stiff in the mornings, but less painful than before.  Probably should continue to lay off the speedwork, as much as I might want to do it.

Right forefoot: A lot better.  A little tender at the end of the run.

Knees: A little sore and crackly just like in the bad old days.  I chalk that up to slacking off on strengthening and stretching over the last month or so.

Quads are quite sore from lifting 2 days ago, but that's muscle soreness only.

Triax: 107 

Adistar: 63

Cumulus: 313.5

Glycerin: 45

7 miles cross-training equivalent on the bike at the Y this morning.  56 minutes, covered 18.2 miles.  10min wu + 5x(4min hard, 4min easy) + wd.  Not a very hard workout as I could only get my HR to mid-160s on the workbouts.  That was 110-115rpm @ 10 resistance.  

Achilles didn't feel too bad but I wanted to get some kind of quality so I thought it safer to hit the bike.  I really hate bike workouts, though.

Also did my full lower body and core routine.  Worked hard at that at least.

8.5M steady in 57:30 (6:45 pace).  Elevation gain/loss of 600 feet.  Ran at noon at Minnewaska SP.  Weather 60 and nice - beautiful fall day.

Had the opportunity to run the dirt/gravel carriage roads up at Minnewaska, about 75 minutes' drive from my house.  Did the green/blue counterclockwise loop.  First 5 miles uphill (600 feet), last 3.5 downhill.  Last 3.5 miles in 6:16, :05, :09, :24.  Will call it marathon pace.  Wasn't planning on running hard but the legs wanted to go and the Achilles wasn't bothersome.  The first half, felt like I was laboring a bit and had an upset stomach.  Felt better and better as the run went on, and the 2nd half was just awesome.  Phenomenal views from up there too.

Best run in a month, Achilles also feeling the best in a month.

Lifted weights (upper body) in the morning before we left, and walked 7 miles with Alana and Ann after the run.

Triax: 107 

Adistar: 71.5

Cumulus: 313.5

Glycerin: 45

Achilles was sore again after yesterday's solid run so I had to hit the bike.  6 miles CTE.  45 minutes covering 15.1 miles.  HR mostly 140-145, mostly 105-112rpm @ 9 resistance.  It was one of those days where it was a victory just to get myself to the Y to do this.

5 miles CTE: 40min bike at the Y.  13.1M.  HR around 160, mostly 105-110rpm @ 9 resistance.  Funny, when I biked the same pace 3 weeks ago, HR was only 140.  However, my legs felt very fresh today.  The good thing about being out of shape is that you can get a good workout without pounding your legs.

Have taken 3.5 weeks completely off as an "off season" to let my body recover, especially my Achilles.  I want to get my Achilles completely better before I run again, so I'll probably continue to just cross train for several more weeks.

Also did lower-body circuit including eccentric calf raises.

2 sessions of warm-up on bike and thorough stretching.

Plus upper-body weights.

5M CTE consisting of 45min on the stationary bike for 14.9 miles + stretching.

Weights (lower body & core).

45 min bike = 5M worth of cross training.  14.9 miles on bike, HR 145-150.

+ upper body weights and stretching

12 mile walk.  Hips sore.

5M CTE consisting of 45min bike covering 15.1 miles.  HR about 150, getting easier each time.

Plus weights (lower body).

weights (upper body)

45 minutes bike = 5 miles CTE

weights (lower body)

45 minutes bike = 5 miles CTE

+ weights (upper body)

45 min bike = 5 miles CTE

+ weights (lower body)

lifted weights (upper body)

6 miles running equivalent: 25 minutes elliptical + 25 minutes bike

Jogged to and from the Y (1 mile total) - first running of any kind in 5 weeks.

2 miles easy: 0.5M to the Y, 1M on the treadmill there at 8:00 pace, 0.5M home after lifting weights (lower body/core).

45min bike (15 miles) = 5 miles CTE

+ weights (upper).  I am a buff stud.