I fall to pieces.

This morning, I got up much earlier than I usually do to get my NYRR volunteer race outa the way, the Empire State Building Run up. I've never had any desire to do this race, which is running up like 86 flights of steps. Volunteering for it didn't make me want to do it either. I pretty much sat around with pal/new running pal Rachel all morning. We got to give out the age group awards, so that was cool. Really though, I think I would have rather stayed in bed. Oh well. At least it's early in the year and I have that outa the way. The bad things is, I just haven't had enough sleep lately. 

When I got home, I ate, did some work, and managed to take a 90 minute nap. 

Even though this is a cutback week, I still planned on going to the track. I misread my workout for the night. I thought I was doing 1000 repeats, but no, I was doing mile repeats. 5 of them, on paper anyway. They were to be run the first 1200 at half marathon pace, the last 400 faster.

About half way through my first 1600, a pack of guys pasted me. It's a 200m track so it can get crowded. The rules of the track are posted and repeated via mic all the time. Lane 1 is for race walking only, so it's pretty much always empty. 2/3 is for people running SLOWER than 32 seconds per 200, so that's where I run. Always. 4/6 is for faster than 32 seconds and lane 6 is closed. So this pack comes by me and the lead guys says "you're too slow" and I tell him to kiss my ass. The 2nd guy turns to me and says sorry. Then the LAST guy, holding on to the pack for dear life says to me "you're too slow to be in this lane". I was like??? WTF? Is this your first time here, cause I know I'm in the right place. They were running 34s. I really wanted to just tell them to get a little faster if they wanted to run in the faster lane. I was not in the mood for this douch nozzle behavior by a buncha guys who dont  know the rules of the track. I dont care how fast they are.

Anyway, back to me.

My first one was ok, 7:25. I thought that was a nice start. 

Then I did a 7:24, 7:22. I was pooped. This was taking a lot more out of me then I wanted it too. Before I even started my 4th one, I sorta figured it would be my last one. This was just feeling too hard. That doesn't sound right. I didn't feel like doing 5 would be beneficial. 

I was right.

Number 4 was a 7:39. I had slowed down considerably (though still within McMillan's range). So that was it. Done and done. That was enough. And I am SOOOOO ok with that. Since it's a cutback week and I wanna run the Bronx well on Sunday, I'm fine with that. The rest of the week will be easy miles which I'm looking forward to.

1000

First, I want to say one of my goals this year was to run 1000 miles. I figured it was doable, I just missed last year.

Well, this morning, I logged my 1000th mile. Months early! Now I think 1200 is easily with in my reach. We'll see after all this marathon biz.

Anyway, as I mentioned yesterday, todays workout: 8 miles with 3x1600 (or 1 mile, just a hair longer than 1600 but easier to calculate). I had my typical sluggish warm up so I figured my intervals would be good.

WRONG.

I could tell on my first one, which I did not go out too hard on, that that just was not going to be the case. My goal was to be around 7:20.

WRONG.

7:30. Then 7:38, and let's be honest here, I knew things weren't going well, I phoned in the last one at 7:46. Eh. I finished them.

But can we talk about the 90% humidity? Cause that sure as hell did not help. Nope, not one bit. I'm ready for some more fallish like weather.

oh the road again

First of all, is  Hagan Daz bar good recovery food?

I say yes, yes it is.

Now moving on. I've pretty much been given the green light to resume training. I saw PT Pete yesterday and he really worked out my ankle. I was have a slight sensation of discomfort on the inside of the ankle I twisted. He said it was a tight calf and that my arch collapsed a bit from the twist. He suggested some OTC cheap arch supports to put in my running shoes. I did that this morning. They feel fine, just might take a bit of getting use to.

So on to the run. This morning was 8 miles with 5x600 repeats. I wasn't sure how these repeats were gonna feel. Loren told me to go out there and just let em fly. My 4.25 warm up felt crappy. Usually a good sign for intervals. No, really. My ankle was stiff. It usually is first thing in the morning then it looses up.

I got to the track and my intervals were GREAT.

The paces for each one:

7:10, 6:59, 7:00, 7:09, 7:05

These have been the fastest intervals I've run this cycle. I know the few days off really helped. The weather didn't hurt either. And no pain.

While I was out there, there was a group gathering. There was a table with trophies on the field. THis woman was putting up these TRACK CLOSED signs and telling everyone the track was closing. 

I kept going. I saw another guy doing a similar workout (much much faster than me!) doing the same thing. We'd do an interval, eye the parks woman, start another one. I really wanted to get these done on the track. I could tell he did too. 

Music was playing, Whitney Houston, The Pointer Sisters...and all the "special population adults" as the Park calls them were gathering and starting to dance on the track.

I finished my last interval just as the crowd was really starting to grow.

At first I was annoyed that the whole track was being closed for this small group of folks. I stood around and watched before my cool down run home. It was very cute to see them dancing on the track and wearin team shirts that said CHAMPION on them.

Sometimes it's far too easy to get lost in my own goals.

Repeat after me

So today's work out: 8 miles with 5x600. I always misjudge this. My total run ended up being 7.5.

Oh well, close enough.

When I was looking though my plan, I thought, what the hell is Pfitz thinking? We just did a marathon pace run and now 2 days later intervals?

Well ok.

I ran along the river and it was really windy. And very humid. At least there were clouds so I wasn't getting totally killed.

Wind on Riverbank track is fun...from turn 2 through the straightaway it's like a wind tunnel. Total headwind.

I was actually a bit nervous when I got to the track. I wasn't feeling stellar this morning and had some lingering doubts after my bonk.

I got to it.

First one: 7:07 pace. Felt good, felt easy. I Kept telling myself to not go out hard, to stay in control. 2nd one: 7:07 perfect. Funny thing is, I dont check when I'm running. I may look down at my Garmin to see where I am, but I dont check my splits til I'm done the whole workout.

3rd one: 7:04 COOKING. Maybe a bit too fast. I actually think this is he one where some guy out there downing basketball drills wanted to race me. I hate that. I'm doing my workout, do yours. The only time I'm ok with it is when it's a kid. Then I think it's funny. I had this little girl, about 8, try to stay with me for a lap a few weeks ago. I thought it was great. Even if I'm doing my workout, I'll take time to be encouraging and try to get them to stay with me even if I have to slow down. Last summer I had some JR high kid try and stay with me. At about 300m I looked at him and said you wanna stay with me that's fine, but you gotta work. And he just nodded. Maybe lasted about 200 more meters. I think they see this little white chick runnin around the track and think I CAN TAKE HER!

BRING IT!

I digress.

Number 4: 7:28

7:28? 

What the hell happened? I fell asleep apparently. And it seems every set has one like this. I go out too slowly and try to make it up. I stop paying attention. Maybe in this case, I start to get tired. My legs are heavy. Maybe now I'm understanding why this work out is 2 days after a MP run, so you do it tired and run through it.

5: 7:12 That's better.

Tired, heavy legged. Pretty good workout. There were slight raindrops as I left the track.

It started downright pouring about 15 minutes after I got home.

lather, rinse, repeat

Today: 9 miles with 5x1000.

It's warm again, maybe not as humid as yesterday and certainly not as nasty as it was earlier in the summer, but warm. Got spoiled by those cool days.

I was out the door by 8 am, even though earlier would have been nicer. Ran up towards the GWB, did 4 miles to warm up before the 1000s.

I live Riverbank track in the morning. It's not crowded, it's mostly older people from the hood out there walking. There is one guy I keep seeing when I do my intervals, he's doing them too. I've seen him in the park too. I think we might be on the same plan.

Things went well. I didn't go all out crazy and stayed in control. My HR maxed out at 186 and I dont think it was every there for long, or even close. Every time I looked down it was more about 181. For my intervals, I averaged about 7:14 pace. I'm happy with that. I didnt' kill myself and a few weeks ago when I did 5x600, that was my pace. So looking good hollywood. I think I may be recovered from the XC debacle on Sat. I ran home at an easy pace and now I'm wondering what I want to eat. I know I need to eat after my runs, it's just not always easy.

Please come to Boston for the Spring time

Every time I hear this cheesy song it get stuck in my head. I heard it Sunday after my 20 miler and I said to Loren is going to be in my head all week.

Yup, it's in my head. 

Maybe it should be my BQ training song.

SeeqPod - Playable Search

This morning I had 8 miles with 5x600.

It's very cool for August, it was 65 degrees this morning.

While doing my 4 mile warm up, I didn't feel recovered from my 20 and thought today should be a recovery day. Then I got to the track and started my 600s. 

I felt good. I know part of it is the weather.

My times were much faster than last time. I averaged 7:18 pace 2 weeks ago. Today I averaged about 7:08. PROGRESS!!!

It's a huge monkey off my back to have that 55 miler out of the way. It seems all down hill from here even though I know I still have a lot of work to do.

Ok, I have to hit the ice bath and get to work.

intervals!

Ok, I have not done speedwork beyond the tempo runs in months. Months I say.

So this morning was 8 miles with 5x600 with 90 sec. rest. After yesterday's not so great run, I wasn't too thrilled about this. I'm usually not thrilled about speed work anyway.

I started out with a 3.75 mile warm up then hit the track.

It went pretty well. I averaged about 7:18 pace or there abouts. The weather has been great. Warm and the sun has been strong through the humidity has been much lower.

So I would say yes, my run was better. My ass still hurts from PT. I'm tired, I thought I'd feel a bit better in the cut back week. Next week is going to be a bear but let's get through this one first.