Maria's Running Blog

YMCA 5K. I ran the worst time of the season, although not by much (22:24). I got 3rd in F35-39, but it didn't mask my disappointment. I was doing well the first 2 miles (7:03, 7:10) and then I died a horrible death on a short steep hill that just knocked the wind out of me. I couldn't recover, both my cardio and muscular systems going at once. My legs felt like they were full of lead, and my breathing was out of control as well. Last 1.1mi was 8:11, which means I ran third mile in about 7:25-7:30! Not sure why I hit the wall so hard. The weather was nasty (77F with 80% humidity), but I should be acclimated to it by now, it's typical for this time of year. Really not happy with this race.

I have one more 5K left next Saturday, and then I'll probably go back to base building, it has worked for me better than anything else so far.

Progression run,1:25 easy and last 1.2mi in 9:26 (7:51 pace). Total time 1:34:51. I felt pretty good today, despite the humidity. It's gotten a bit cooler while I was running and around 8 miles I got into a really good rhythm on a slight downhill. It gave me an illusion that I can run at this pace forever. I didn't have that feeling for a long time, so it was nice.

easy run on the treadmill due to tornado watch in my area. It wasn't too bad because I found "So you think you can dance" show on Fox, which kept me distracted enough not to get bored. 4x20 sec. strides after the run. Continious run 7.1 mi in 1:07:11 (9:27 pace), the rest is stride mileage. Felt good today.

Felt great today! It was a late run, I started after 9PM and it was somewhat cool and breezy, although weather.com was reporting 73F and dewpoint of 66, hardly comfortable combo. But somehow it never bothered me. I warmed up and slowly accelerated to a comfortable high-end aerobic pace. I started at about 8:10 pace, but gradually I must have dropped it, because in the end, I did 5.65 mi in 44:56 (7:57 pace). I think I felt so good because I didn't try to always run the same pace regardless of the terrain. I think I have a tendency to push too hard on these runs, and I'm more tired by the end that I should be. Today I kind of went with the flow and tried to run the same effort, rather than the same pace, and the result was more relaxed (but not slower!) run. Total run time 1:11:10.

very easy run on the treadmill. My last 5K race of the season is less than 12 hours away. Tomorrow is supposed to be the beginning of the heat wave here, so I'm not hoping for a good time. This is an unusual race in that it is run entirely on the airport runway at Teterboro Airport, the main executive airport in NYC area. There is a lead plane instead of a lead car. For me, it's a special race, because I used to fly out of TEB in my student pilot days. It's a different feeling running on the same runway that you used to see only from the cockpit, either accelerating for takeoff or rushing at you from below on landing! So, needless to say, it is a completely flat course, but it's not fast, because in July the weather is just too hot. Of course there is no shade and you're running directly under the sun on the pavement.

So I show up at the airport at 7:30AM and it's already 75F and humid, with dewpoint of 69. On my warmup, I met couple of people from my club, who asked why I'm running, I should just walk. It was very hot when the sun would come out, and the race turned into another sweat bath. Interestingly, I saw several Kenyans and 2 Ethiopian women jogging in full warmup suits (the ladies had suits of Ethiopian national team), long pants and long sleeve jackets. That was quite amazing to see in such conditions.

Anyway, at that point it was clear to me that I will not break 22 min. today and I decided not to kill myself, run an easier first mile and focus on getting the most points for this race in the Grand Prix circuit.

I ran pretty relaxed, and there was minor congestion in the first 0.3 mi. with one runner going down right in fron of me, so I had to do an evasive maneuver in order to not fall myself. I hit first mile in 7:20 and I felt good. I kept the same pace on the second mile, which included 180 turn on the runway, and hit it in 7:09. I felt myself getting a little tighter and slowing down somewhat in the third mile, but I felt much better than in the last week's race and generally I was running strong. It was very hot under the blazing sun, and I kept catching up to and passing people, which was encouraging to me, that meant that others were slowing down and suffering at least no less than I was! No one passed me in the last 2 miles, and I must have passed about 10 people. I kicked in the last 0.2 mi and tried to pass one more guy, but he heard my breathing (it was loud :)) and sped up away from me. I ended up finishing in 22:38, the worst time of the year. Apparently, I slowed down more than I thought, but given the conditions, I think it's okay. Afterwards, I couldn't stop sweating for a good 40 min, it was incredibly humid. I made a mistake of getting back my bag right after I finished, because I needed a towel, but then I couldn't check it back in, or leave it unattended, so I couldn't run my cool down. I also couldn't put it back in my car, because due to very tight security (they required 2 forms of ID, one with picture, to enter the grounds), once you leave the race, you can't come back.