Planning my long weekend race training

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

I went back out to the streets this morning after two days of rest. Although the temperature got into the low 80's yesterday and similar weather is predicted for today, I was happily surprised by how cool it felt when I stepped outside. It took almost a minute for the Garmin to lock onto a GPS signal so I used that time to do a few dynamic stretches.

The two day's rest definitely helped me at the start. Instead of the early discomfort from transitioning between anaerobic and aerobic running, I was good to go from the start. I followed my basic route and threw in some speedy sections throughout the run. My knee felt fine but I did experience some sharp shin pain a couple of minutes into my run. That went away and didn't return so I'm not going to worry about it.

I'm beginning to think about my (long) weekend's running and what might be the best workouts to close my training prior to my taper for the 8K. Right now I'm thinking one long run, one speed session and one shorter, but faster, run. Maybe I'll hit the trails with the bike as well. Lots to look forward to and hoping for good weather.

Race report: New Hyde Park 8K

At least the t-shirt was different this year

Today's run (New Hyde Park 8K): 44:42

I ran my third race of the year this morning. It was the second year in a row that I've run this race. Last year I ran it in 44:42 for an overall pace of 9:00 per mile. This year I prepared well for the race, rested two days prior and wore my new Saucony's that have proven to help my performance. Last year I struggled to get through the race and this year I felt good and thought I'd managed a fairly competitive pace. Despite my preparation, greater familiarity with the course and feeling very strong I still finished the race at 44:42. Exactly to the second what I ran last year.

Pre-race check- in

I arrived an hour before the race and they had already blocked off the parking lot at the school so I had to find a place to park on a nearby street. I checked in and was happy to see that the bib number was kinda cool looking and the race t-shirt  was nicely designed. The shirt I received last year was so garish and yellow that my wife forbid me to wear it out of the house. No problems with this year's t-shirt. I wore my new Brooks running shirt and that served me well. I also wore my Saucony Grid Tangent 4's that I really like but they didn't seem to give me a speed benefit.

I have to admit that I'm a little suspicious of the course distance. According to my Garmin the course length was 5.32 miles. That is .35 miles longer than an 8K. I checked the Garmin calibration on Thursday with the Tangents and it was accurate to less than 1%. I'm puzzled why it would suddenly be off by 6.5% - an unusual variance for a device that's usually within 3% accuracy even without calibration. I Gmapped the course and came up with 5.1 miles which is about 3% longer than 8K. Nonetheless, I fully accept the NHP Runner's Club's measurement as well as my time. It's just that if the course was actually 5.1 miles I would have broken 9:00 per mile. Oh well!

Although I wanted to do better than 2009 at least today's effort proved that I'm consistent. I don't have another race on the schedule yet but I'm fairly sure I'll run the Dirty Sock 10K again in August. It was nice to run this race today in the middle of a busy time at work. It's hard to be stressed after giving your all for 44 minutes and 42 seconds. Besides that, I got a cool t-shirt!

Giving in to low tech

During the check-in for my 5K race there was a man handing out flyers for the New Hyde Park 8K race that's scheduled to be held on Sunday, June 7. The race is only a few towns away from where I live and my wife encouraged me to sign up. Although the application says you can register online at http://www.nhprunners.com/ the site is still set up for 2008. I tried to find more information online but everything kept pointing back to the New Hyde Park Runner's Club website. I started wondering if the event was even going to happen and I was concerned that with no online registration there would be few people participating. The race is nine days away and although I have been training for it I started thinking that it might be a good idea to start looking around for another race.

As it happened, I tried one more time to find information and saw a link to the Runner's World Racefinder. The listing had contact information, including a phone number, so I called and spoke to Harold Axelrod who told me the race is very much on but their website is having problems. I asked him how many runners he expected for the race and he said 350 to 400. That sounded good to me. Harold offered to send me an application but I already had one in paper form. I told him I'd send it in and he wished me well in the race.

I'm excited that I'm back on track for this 5 mile race. I've been running about 20 miles per week over the last month and have been focusing on both pace and hills. The race starts at 9:15 on the 7th and I'm hoping that the sun won't be too intense at that time. Tomorrow AG and I are planning a long run along the Hudson (weather permitting) with a goal pace of under 9:00/mile. She's just had two consecutive weekends of highly intense competition and this will be her first run since the Patch Sprint. I'm looking to cover 12-15 miles between tomorrow and Sunday, perhaps starting with 5 or 6 on Friday.

Heading to the Charles

I'm getting ready to leave for another trip to MIT. I have a busy day on Monday but I'm planning to take a little time in the morning to do my favorite run along Memorial Drive in Cambridge. This morning I ran about 4 miles at 9:08. I'm not quite sure why my pace has slipped back over 9:00 but it has. I've been concentrating on distance and less on speed but all the same I feel like I'm pushing pretty well. I tried to calibrate the Garmin this morning using the automatic feature. It didn't quite work out but I believe I've managed to get it back to spec through manual adjustment.

Only three weeks until the New Hyde Park 8K. I wish they'd put the online registration up on the site already!

Members Only

I originally assumed I would sign up for my 8K race online since the application says that you can. When I went to the New Hyde Park Runner's Club website I saw that the registration links were still set up for last year's race. I'm sure they'll sort that out somehow and, worse case, I can mail in the application. What struck me about the website were the photos of the happy club members posed in groups or running in events. I've seen similar collections on local club websites like GLIRC and LIRRC. I've seen many club members at both my recent races and was impressed by their community and by the way they clearly supported each other. I then started thinking about whether I should join a running club.

Years ago I used to run with one or two people and I didn't love the experience. Part of that was due to a mismatch in conditioning between me and them (I was constantly challenged to keep up) and part of it was environmental as I found running the streets of NYC to be stressful and dangerous. More recently I've run with AG and it's better because I'm in much better shape than I was those years ago and she is willing to stay at my pace. It's also time well spent since we are able to cover the same business discussions while running that would normally occur in my office. Some weeks back I ran with a group in Central Park and that was fun. I didn't do much talking because that's still a challenge for me when running. That's still true when I run with AG but it works fine because the focus of our weekly meeting is an update and I listen more than I talk. During the week I run alone on the treadmill and on the weekends I usually do a solitary run around my neighborhood. I find these runs to be very fulfilling and they serve as an opportunity to focus on things without distraction. When I encounter others on the road, more often than not, my counterparts are also running alone.

On the weekends I sometimes drive to the track to do my runs and I usually see groups of runners heading along the road. I've thought about being one of them rather than being just one of the people sharing the track at the High School. I ask myself which scenario fits me better and every time I conclude that I'm better off by myself. I'll admit that running with others can help you keep a faster pace. In both my races I found that having faster runners in proximity helped me run faster. With that exception I think I'm better off being a lonely runner. Much as I enjoy a community I'm not very good at groups. I enjoyed the Lululemon run and I like the runs I've done in Central Park (and elsewhere - see below) but mostly because they are discreet events: assemble, run, depart. No barbeques, fund raisers, meetings, bylaws or committees. I'm not saying these things aren't great, they're just not for me.

Last night I did my first street run with my new Brooks Adrenaline 9's. AG and I did our weekly meeting while running both directions on the George Washington Bridge which was an intimidating concept to me (fear of heights, bridges, speeding cars) but it was very different than I'd expected. The bridge itself is fairly flat with a gradual rise to the center and than a decline to the endpoints. On each end are areas where you encounter stairs and a couple of places had jogs in the path where you had to be careful not to run into a cyclist coming from the other direction. The cars were far enough away that they didn't factor in the experience and the view of the Hudson on either side was more serene than scary. We only covered about 2.3 miles but I was happy with the run and very happy that the Brooks performed well and felt good. This morning it was back to the treadmill where I ran about two miles at 8:45/mile. I'm looking forward to my Saturday run where I'm hoping to cover at least 5 miles. The Brooks are already helping my leg problem and that soreness was a wake up call for replacement that I didn't answer. Next time I'll be ready.

Next Stop New Hyde Park

It was a bit of beginner's luck that I placed second in my age category in my last race. Considering everything, I did maintain a fairly good pace but with a larger field of runners it wouldn't have been a competitive time. The person that placed first beat me by at least four minutes and with more runners in the mix I would have ended up farther back in the standings. It was a fun surprise to see that I'd placed higher than at least ten others in my age range but I have no aspirations of being a truly competitive runner. I will be happy to continue to improve my pace but I recognize that the only way to measurably increase my speed is to become a "serious runner." By that I refer to the people I often see on weekend mornings at the track doing intervals, tempo runs and long runs. They fly by me so fast that I feel as though I'm doing something other than running. I watch their form as they pass and try to understand how their leg movements are allowing them to move so fast compared to me. Aren't we both doing the same thing?

During the check in to Saturday's race a man handed us a flyer for an upcoming race in New Hyde Park on June 7. The distance is 8K (5 miles minus 53 yards). My wife encouraged me to sign up for it. It will be the longest race distance for me to date. So far I have run a 5K and a 4 miler (6.5K). An 8K would be a logical progression toward my goal of running a 10K this year. I know I can run 5 miles. My longest distance to date is about 5.6 but I haven't run much farther than 4.25 for a while. Time to start concentrating on distance instead of speed. My goal is to run 20 miles per week until the race. This will require at least 10 miles on the weekends. I'm doing a city run this afternoon, probably around 3.5 miles, so that will help since I rarely get past two miles per day during the week due to time constraints.

I'm excited to try my new Brooks for the first time on pavement. I'm pleased with the way my leg felt after yesterday's run and I'm hoping for no surprises today.