Working for the weekend

Oh faithful readers, you know I am coming off about 10 days of killer running. It comes as no surprise when I headed out for my 14 miles of fun yesterday that I was tired. So tired in fact, I cut my run short to 12.7 miles. I know, a real slice off the milage. No worries though, there was brunch to be had.

I am happy to say I finished Feb. with 195.2 miles. If it had been a normal month with a normal amount of days, I would have hit 200. Ok, if I hadn't chopped a few miles here and there I would have hit 200.

Moving on!

Today was the Coogan's 5k up in Washington Heights. People have this idea that NYC is flat. People who have this idea have never bean above 96th st., I'm sure of it. So yes, this 5k has a few hills along the way. My mom was slated to do this race as her first 5k. This was not to be however, as she twisted her ankle a few weeks and sidelined for today's race. I know she's bummed out this, Loren and I are as well. She'll been working hard! I have no doubt once she's all better, she'll be back on the horse.

On to the race...

It was a bit chilly this morning. The weather was calling for all sorta of wintery stuff that just didn't happen. We got some flurries which was nice. In years past, this course has been an out and back with a nasty little turn around. This year it was changed to go through Ft. Tyron park, home of the cloisters, which was a huge improvement.

Front Runners had 99 people out there today! A Great showing! Loren came through first, followed by  uptown running pal, Rachel, hitting a sub 7 pace. Soon, she will be too fast for me to run with.

But enough about everyone else, this is my blog. There's a big hill right before mile 1 that I didn't hit all out but benefitted from the downhill on the other side. Once I got to the mile market, I hit my watch. I hit STOP on my watch and not SPLIT because sometimes I am a moron and forget how a watch I've had for 2 years works. Oh well. All by feel now. I started it again having no idea how much time I lost. I hit split a mile 2 even though I knew it was wrong. So now I have that hill to go up again, this time I'm not holding back since I know there's not much more than a mile to go and some nice downhill. 

I get to mile 3 and manage to hit split this time 7:24. Cool, I think I'm close to PRing but really not sure. Ran the last .1 in 38 seconds. 

When I started this morning, my legs felt heavy. As I said, I've had some long and hard miles lately so I'm tired. Next week is  a cut back week and I am happy about that.

I had to wait until the official results were posted to see my final time: 23:17. A PR at 7:30 pace. It's been my goal to go under 23 minutes for some time now. I knew today wasn't the day with how I felt and the course. I am really happy about the PR however. Maybe some day when I'm not training for a marathon I'll actually train for these short things.

So let's see, this year I've done 4 races, I've PR in all of them. Not a bad start! Of course there's only 1 race that I really care about PRing and that will be in 2 months.

Running down underground to a dive bar In a West End town

Over the last 7 days, my legs have seen some hard miles. Friday I did my 20 so I could race 10 on Sunday. I found out this morning that I placed 2nd in my age group on Sunday! I am very excited about this. I take an age group place from time to time in small xc races but this was a bigger race (not a huge NYCC race, but a nice size). This weeks big work out calls for 15 miles, 12 at marathon pace. With my fast race on sunday, I went to the McMillan calculator to see what my new, faster paces should be. Now granted, I use this all as a guide, but according to mac, I should be able to run a 3:42:15 marathon, which is 8:29 pace. I decided to use that for my run today. 

Over the past few months, a small and steady group of girls have been meeting for runs at my house at odd hours during the week. We all have flexible schedules, so this has been great. Me, Ishii, Rachel, and Hilary headed out together. It was like having my own personal peleton. Hilary and Rachel went 1 loop of Central park and then were done with their work out. Ishii stayed with me until the bottom of the park and then off she went. I still had 4 more marathon pace miles to do on my own. I was 10 miles in. I never felt like OH MY GOD I'M GOING TO DIE NOW, I actually felt pretty good. Sure, the last few miles were a bit of a challenge. 

When my preset Garmin workout buddy beeped to tell me I was done, I had done 12 miles 1:41:09, 8:26 pace, well ahead of my set 8:29 pace. My garmin did it's little beep with the WORKOUT OVER YOU WON thingie. I am so glad when I don't hit my pace it does not say WORKOUT OVER YOU LOOSE, cause that would suck.

I'm tired. The rest of my week should be much easier. I have a 14 miler and some easy 6s. I'm doing a 5k on Sunday that will just be part of my 6. 

My mom is coming to do the 5k. She's been on the couch to 5k since xmas. She did twist her ankle a few weeks ago which has thrown a wrench in the plan. I'm hoping she'll be able to get through it. If not, we'll get her healed up and looking ahead to another race.

Still in the 'Ham

Today in the Ham it was 75 degrees with 400000 percent humidity. Much warmer than I've run in in a while with NYC's 30 degree weather and icy streets. Today we hit the track again with my mom. She's being a real sport about it. Even when she bitches. I think she wants to do this though doesn't want to come right out and say it (and I know you sometimes read this mom). Loren and I have both seen her looking over the training plan.

Mean while, Loren took me around to some of her HS running haunts. No wonder she's so friggin fast. Everything here is hilly. I put in 8.5 miles of hills. I felt terrible, though I know part of that was the heat.

Tomorrow we're heading home. All in all, this has been a pretty good trip.

sweet home alabama

I spent xmas down in Alabama with Loren and her folks. This year, we brought my mom who has never meet Loren's parents.
So far so good.
Yesterday, on xmas day, we went to Loren's HS track to run while her parents walked.
And...
To start my mom on the couch to 5k.
I gave her the program for xmas and today we went and got her some proper running shoes. I'm going to have her come run the Cogan's 5k on March 1st. She did her first workout with little complaint and pretty easily.
While my day was an uneventful 6 (hilly! Birmingham is hilly!), one of the best runs I've had all year was the minute on, 1.5 minutes off with my mom.