Make these old bones shiver

Ok, some of you may have noticed my blog post titles are song lyrics. I come by them in different ways. Today, this song was playing when I got home from my run. I think only once before have I actually included the song in my post. This song gets special treatment because I LOVE THROWING MUSES and it reminds me of 2 old and dear friends, Tracy and Beau. So this is for you guys.

Now on to my week in running!!!! THis is the big week, the bulk week. The week that may kill me. Ok, that's a bit much. It is, or was, however, my highest milage week of the cycle. 48.2 Yes, I know, not breaking any milage records here. Not even close to the 60 mile week I peaked with getting ready for NJ. Not even the 55 miles that Pfitz calls for for this week. But like I've been doing all along this time around, I'm modifying. And I'm running really well so I'm not worried about it. I do think it is enough.

And this is how it went:
Tues: 6 easy with Ishii
Wed 12.2 7 @ half to 15k pace. This is tricky since I haven't raced full out these distances in a while. I PRed in the half in Sept. with a pace of 7:48. I was a bit hurt then too. 2 weeks later I pretty much hung it up for the fall. I thought that might be a bit aggressive right now. So my fast miles were:
8:01, 8:04,7:48, 8:07, 7:58, 7:50,7:57
I averaged 7:56 and felt really good doing it, so I think that's a good sign.
Oh yes, Ishii ran this with me too.
Thurs: no running, but I went to PT. I'm feeling a little ITB and just want to stay on top of it. Pete is going to work with me once a week to make sure I get to Boston as healthy as I can be.
Fri. I moved my 20 to Thurs even though it was a little close to that hard 12 mile work out. NYC was expecting an Ark needing like storm over the weekend. And we sure got it! I did not want to run 20 in that. Oh yea, Ishii ran 14 with me.
Sat: off. Could have gone swimming down my street. There's also a big early season local bike race every spring down the block from me that circles Grant's Tomb Loren and I usually go watch our cycling friends race since it's just down the street and it's a lot of fun. I thought for sure it would be cancelled due to the weather, but while going to walk Bea, I decided to check it out.
Nope. It was happening.
I stayed long enough to see my pal Mattio take a few laps but then Bea was shivering and had to get home.
Now, a lot of us have run long races in the pouring rain. Hell, I BQed and PRed in NJ in horrible rainy weather. But let me tell you, running in the rain is an absolute cake walk compared to racing a bike in it. So Mattio, you get the Brass Ovaries award for the week. Great job pulling for your team and way to get out again the next day and race AGAIN in Central Park.
Ok, back to ME.
Sun: I ran 10 with Loren. Even though I'm a bit creaky and tired, this was an awesome run. A bit of rain, some clouds, and a touch of haul ass. Averaged 8:41 pace and my HR averaged 164 which is awesome since I try and stay below 165 on my run of the mill runs.
Really really good week.
5 weeks to go!
And thanks for running so much with me this week Ishii. The favor will be returned and we will get you to Boston!

And the bus and the tourists are gone

20 miler #2 of this cycle. This time around, it was an easy 2 followed by an "18 miler tune up race". Quotes because, well, I'm not going to race an 18 miler. It's great that NYRR puts on this race (with just for historical context, use to be a 30k). My plan was to do it as progression, since it's 3 six mile loops, it gives a great course to do such a thing. I did this last year while getting ready for Steamtown, it was my last 20 miler.
I started with RayK just below 9 minute pace and planned to speed up after. Once I got done with the first loop, I decided I was going to just stay right where I was. It was raining and I was tired. Maybe from my half last week. I just didn't feel like speeding up and decided that was ok. This is just a long run and no point in killing myself out there. Plus my foot hurt. I think that was in part due to the rain, maybe the slant of the road looping Central Park, maybe Mercury in retrograde. Who knows. I dont really care. Around 9s it is!
And that's what I did. 9:05 pace for 2:43:43. I was happy coming in under 2:45. Not a PR but another long run in the books.
Central Park was a complete ghost town this morning. Yes, it was a 7am start but that usually doesn't keep people out of the park. The rain, however, chased everyone who wasn't racing away.
A shout out to my teammate Rich who finished 2 over all with a blistering 1:48:33. People, that's a 6:01 pace. Thankfully he didn't lap me, I only got lapped by the overall winner. Better than last year when I also got lapped by the first woman...

going off the rails

How crazy did I look during NJ?
Crazy

.

Me and Rachel for the time we ran together.

The final kick, you can see the pig tail flying. Nice face.

STOP LOOKING AT YOUR WATCH!!!

I feel stormy wheather moving in

Today was the Scotland 10k in Central Park. And someone ordered Scottish weather just for the event. 48 degress, 93% humidity, RAIN. Oh and 7603 finishers. So much for the 5000 runner cap NYRR uses. I can only imagine what it would have been if the weather had been nice. I was in the 4th corral. With my time from last week, I should have been a corral up but the new time wasn't entered in time. Oh well. It took me 4 minutes to cross the start. Part of the give aways for this race were ponchos. I couldn't believe how many people were wearing them in the start and actually RAN in them. I decided on short sleeves and shorts. I wasn't uncomfortable, I think anything else would have annoyed me. I wasn't cold when I was running, just wet. This was also a Club Team Points race, so all the big guns from all the big clubs were out in full force.

So when I finally did cross the starting line, I stayed left and just muscled my way past people. No noodling in the first mile for me. 

Now, I had 2 goals today. I wanted to beat my PR of 48:51, I wanted to go under 48 and I would have been happy. My other goal, was to run 7:30s. I just raced last weekend, I had a speed workout on Tues, I have a 20 miler tomorrow, I didn't want to go ALL OUT OH MY GOD KILL MYSELF. If I wasn't hitting 7:30s fairly easily, I was going to ease up.

Mile 1 7:27, ok, not bad, I feel really good it's just CROWDED.

As I've mentioned before, Central Park is hilly. This race went clockwise, which isn't the usual way races are run. I find it to be a bit faster, but not by much.

Mile 2 7:32. Its still crowded, but I've averaged about 7:30s for my first 2 miles so not bad. Now we move into the Harlem hills. Up then down then up.

Mile 3 7:22. I worked that down. I run the hills up in that part of the park so much I'm really use to them. It's FINALLY starting to clear out a bit. Going into mile 4 is a lot of gradual uphill. I'm just trying to keep the effort steady.

Mile 4 7:50. Poop. Slower than I wanted. But now I know I have Cat Hill to run DOWN so maybe I'll make up a bit of time in mile 5.

Mile 5 7:19. Yup. Time made up. One mile to go around the south end of the park and then up towards Tavern on the Green. The finish is where the marathon finish it. I'm looking at my watch. Sub 48, no problem, maybe even sub 47. Thing about this finish is there are 2 little rises. I know them well. Whenever a races finishes this way, I think about the 4 NYC marathons I have run and how what ever I am doing now feels better than it does when I'm finishing the marathon on this stretch. 

I'm soaked, I am tired.

Mile 6 7:30. Right on the nose. Oh here's that lovely .2 uphill to finish.

.2 1:27

Total: 46:30, well over 2 minutes better than my PR. 

I can't feel my hands. I am soaked to the bone. 

I find Hilary, Loren, and Rachel all close to the finish line, the 4 of us making up 4/5th of our top 5. Hilary and Rachel both PRed, Loren ran a lot better than she thought she would. Our women's team finished 10th, the men finished 7th. 

This will be my last hard race before NJ. Next week I'm suppose to do a tune up race, but I did this instead. I am signed up for a 4 miler but I'll use it as a tempo run. The week before NJ, I'm running the More half for my last long run, but running it easy. I did this before Steamtown as well and really liked it for a long run.

Wow, I can't believe I'm about to taper! This training cycle has gone so well for me. Fingers crossed for just a few more weeks.

Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me

Rain. Thunder. Lightning. Ankle deep water across the road in Central Park. Sure, that sounds like a great way to start a run! And that was just in the first 2 miles. Luckily, it eased up. I will admit that Rachel and I considered making it short. She was going for 20, me for 17. Honestly though, bad math and some lack of giveashit made my run just shy at 16.2. I was tired at the end there. I almost never cut my runs short. I was wet, had prune feet and really was just done. Still averaged 9:20 pace which is totally where I should be for long runs.

Other runs this week included a fast 11 and an 8 with 5x600. 

Sunday I have a 4 mile tune up race. I'm hoping to go under 30 minutes.

Next week is my last big training week, then bring on TAPER MADNESS. Already? I can't believe it!

slip slidin away

I woke up to the sound of snowblowers very early this morning. I'm guessing around 6am. The school across the street in anal in it's snow clearing. I'm glad for this since it's on a hill, a hill I run up all the time. I looked out the window, and sure enough. Snow. A fair amount of it. Luckily, the temps were a bit up from where they had been.

Today was an easy 5. I had planned to run with my uptown during the day running pals. Everyone showed up though I am guessing it would have been hard to get out there if we had not already made a plan. When we left at 10, the snow had turned to rain. Central Park was mostly clear, just slushy. I was so wet when I got home. I'm glad it was only 5.

Yesterday I did 10. I rearranged my plan this week because of the half I ran on Sun. Tomorrow I'm planning on 9, 4 at tempo. I just hope everything doesn't turn into a sheet of ice.