Last long run

16.5ish miles today. Today was the last "long" run before chicago. Down from 22 last week, but still considered long. We left from NIKETOWN and ran over to the west side highway and up to the GW Bridge where we turned around and a simple out-and-back. The run actually felt pretty good for me. It was humid, foggy, and wet. We even got some rain on the last couple miles of the run. The taper is now in full-swing.

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in unrelated news, the Marathon World Record was broken again today. Gebrselassie broke his own record and was the first to ever dip under the 2:04 mark. Ridiculously fast.

Simulating Race Day

i can't take credit for finding it, but it was a nice find nonetheless...thanks Ross.

Catching up

Its been awhile, but I've been in and out of town. I had a couple decent runs in Texas and one horrible long run. The heat, hills, and my allergies combined to make my 22 mile run on monday pretty brutal.

I took tuesday off and then hit the track last night with run club.

Mile repeats with 400 recovery.

My boss started talking trash during the day saying how he was going to "smoke me" on the track. I told him I was going to run him into the ground before his race (he's racing the Hamptons Half Marathon on saturday).

Repeat #1 - I pulled off the front of the 6:30 pace group after 400m (as I normally do) and continued to put distance between me and the pack. Little did I know, my boss was hanging back just out of sight. With 100m left, he pulled even. I sped up. He sped. I sped. By the time we get to about 75m left we were both sprinting. I beat him...barely. If he had waited long to make his move, he would have likely beat me.

Repeat #2 - We both struggled mightily. I finished about 5 seconds off the 6:30 pace and he was about 20 seconds behind me.

Repeat #3 - I recover and run about a 6:18 with a nice kick in the last 200. My boss skipped the last repeat.

Tonight I get back in the pool and then do a nice recovery run.

Fighting Injuries? This might help

The Beach. It was Reached.

An official race report will be posted eventually, but for now here are the results of Team CityCoach:

10th overall

355 teams

Citycoach

3/166

Mixed Open 24:02:24 6:54 pace
Personally, I ran much better than I expected and gave myself some confidence moving toward the Chicago Marathon. My legs were:

8.4 miles - roughly a 6:45 pace
4.9 miles - 6:30 pace for the first 4.1 or so and then a little over 7 for the last monstrous hill
3.1 miles - 6:50ish pace

all legs under 7 minutes, which taking the conditions into consideration I'm VERY happy with.

Lance will be back, its official

Astana has denied rumors, but the Vanity Fair article makes it official. Who Lance rides for is still up in the air, but he's making a comeback. I'm still not sure how I feel about this.

I just realized that I had the date for the Knickerbocker 60K wrong. I thought it was a week later than it is. Although I said I wouldn't run it again, I think I just might. I'll definitely be in town, so why not? 37.2 miles is just a leisurely stroll these days. Ok, well maybe not, but it doesn't seem that long to me anymore...perspective is crazy. So I am.

Track

Mornings are not my thing, however, to avoid the risk of going 0-3 on meeting Kevin for tuesday morning track workouts, I rolled myself out of bed and got to the East 6th Street track a little after 7:30 a.m.

I talked to Coach Cane last night to get an idea of what he'd suggest for a track workout keeping in mind that I'm running Reach the Beach this weekend. He suggested 4X800s with 400 recovery. JC is the man who knows things (mostly useless things, but he knows running too), so 4X800s with 400 recovery is what I did.

3:03
3:08
3:16 (argh)
3:07

overall not bad. I'm glad to have it over with, but none of the 800s felt good. They were all a struggle, and at that pace, they shouldn't have been.

I'm now 1-3 on the track workouts. Too bad baseball is about the only thing where being successful 1/3 of the time is viewed as good.

Is it wednesday?

nope, its monday, but i did a wednesday-like workout.

I ran with Run Club tonight. I did a nice, steady 6 miles at around 7:45 pace with a nice little kick at the end. I then left work and headed to the gym where I lifted biceps and back. Then I hopped in the pool for a 1000m swim. I was able to do a 400m swim without having to take a break. Nothing special but its progress. My freestyle is getting a little better, but I still can't get my breathing down.

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In a completely unrelated story, rumors are abound that Lance Armstrong has his sights set on 5 cycling races next year, including Le Tour. He would be racing for no salary and no bonuses, posting all his blood work online. He was reported to be joining Astana, but Astana is denying the rumors. Still no word from Lance or his people. He apparently pulled out of the Chicago and NYC Marathons, which would go along nicely with these rumors. I'm not sure how I feel about it if rumors prove to be true. I'd love to see him win another title just to shut up the naysayers, but part of me wants him to just stay retired. No matter what he does, people will always be convinced he was doping.

What a difference a day makes

I got in a FAST 6 miler tonight. I went out without a watch because I just wanted to log some miles and didn't care about pace. I ran in the Skylons for the first time in a quite a while. The first 1/4 mile or so my legs felt dead, but then everything loosened up and I was flying. I felt phenomenal. I felt like I could have done 20 at the same pace I was clocking my 6 miles in. I had endless energy.

The weather was great and I felt great. Very surprising after logging 20 horrible miles the yesterday.

Slow Saturday Slog

Today was a 20 miler. Today was HUMID. The run felt more like a swim. I drew up a course for 20 miles. Tiffany, a potential pacer who is trying to run Chicago in the same time as me, met me at Niketown and we headed out to the west side and proceeded down to the Runners' Station. By the time I made it down there I was already drenched in sweat. A few miles later, near the Brooklyn Bridge, I looked like I'd just stepped out of the shower. My clothes were literally dripping with sweat. We went over the bridge and started up flatbush ave toward prospect park. The long, slow incline started wearing at my legs and I could feel I was starting to get dehydrated, but it wasn't too bad. We entered the park and found a water fountain to down some more water. As we made the loop and found ourselves at the last hill going out of the park, I could tell I was starting to fade. There were enough gels in the world to bring me out of it. I slowly made it up the hill and caught back up to Tiffany (she likely slowed to let me catch up). We went back down flatbush toward the Manhattan bridge and I really started feeling bad. Right before we made our last turn to the bridge I started feeling dizzy. She was nice enough to walk with me for a bit as I prayed for the sky to open up and break the humidity. The heavens were stubborn. We slowly made our way to the apex of the bridge and then picked up the pace a little on the descent. Off the bridge we were about a mile from the finish. It was a ROUGH mile, but I made it.

The run was one of the worst I've had in a LONG, LONG time. I felt bad for holding Tiffany back when she was actually having a great run. It definitely was not my day.

Recovery Thursday

All day my entire body felt like jelly. My legs from the run and my upper body from the swim/weights. I just did an easy 4 miler at work with Run Club. I set out with the 8 min/mile pace group to take it easy, but ended up breaking off the front about halfway through because it was a little too slow even for a recovery run.

sweet, sweet rest day tomorrow.

Weekly Wednesday

(back dating a few entries)

I set out to punish myself once again. When I got off work, I didn't really feel like doing much, but I had called to reserve a lane at the pool earlier in the day to lock myself in. Like the week before, I scheduled it for 9:30 so that I would have a 45 minute gap in which to lift weights. I got to the gym and worked out chest and shoulders and then hit the pool. I did 800m. It was slightly easier than last week, but still challenged me quite a bit. I'm getting my breathing down a bit better, but my form still sucks and I'm having to mix in quite a bit of breast stroke. It feels good to be swimming again though. I really need to get a real suit instead of the "board shorts" type I'm currently in. Reducing drag would probably help me out a lot.

I finished up the swim, came home, and changed into running gear. I set out to get in around 9-10 miles, but had no course in mind. When I got to the Williamsburg Bridge, I just decided to do bridge repeats. I did 7 miles (2.5 out and backs) on the bridge doing .3 mile pick-ups on each uphill side of the bridge. I felt great the entire time and even better when I got home.

Swimming, the bike, and (not) running

going to swim again on wednesday. I put in 800m last week and it was tough. I had forgotten how taxing swimming can be. It felt great, but I'm definitely out of shape. I'll keep going for 800m until I can swim it continuously and then I'll add some distance.

the bike. the new wheel set and cassette sure look pretty on my bike. too bad the chain is sitting on the floor and the bike is unrideable due to two blown out valve stems. i should have known better than to start a project at 11 pm. I gave up.

I haven't been running like I need to. I blamed work over the weekend, which was legitimate due to the Human Race, but tonight I had no excuse. I still didn't run. I've got to get myself into gear or I'll never qualify for Boston.