Washington Heights Week

A few months ago, I named this weekend's Coogan's 5k as my next "target race". When I made this declaration, I had built up a solid training base of 40 mile weeks, and was poised to add speed work and other focused training for the race. Unfortunately, my training plans were interrupted by life, and my training took a dive, including one week of 0 miles (!).

Returning home from a long work trip, I saw that I had scheduled two events for this week -- indoor races at the Armory on Thursday, and Coogan's on Sunday -- both in Washington Heights. The Armory was running four races that night, 1500 meter and 800 meter individual events, and two relays. I had organized a group of Flyers to run the relays. The Armory events are full of young fast runners, including college track teams and the like. Even though we couldn't be competitive in this field, it was a chance to run on a first rate track and have some fun.

Fortunately, the Flyers are good sports, and good at having fun. I ran a 200 meter leg in a relay, and an 800 meter individual event. That was enough for me, and I hoped it would leave me something for Coogan's. Some of the other folks ran the 1500 meter race, which gave them a little more track time. Afterward, a few of us went by Coogan's Pub around the corner for refreshment and some laughs.

On Sunday, I headed back up to the Heights for Coogan's, which starts right in front of the Armory. I had a great time in this race last year, and this year did not disappoint. I don't know if it's the music (live bands all along the course), the kids races, the police and firefighter participation, or the promise of free beer at Coogan's pub, but the vibe is great at this run.

I met up with my usual cohorts, PL and the H family (dad and both son's were racing), and I saw a few Flyers at the start including PD, RB and met RP, a Flyer I knew only from the forums.

At last year's Coogan's, I ran 23:15. This year my goal was to go under 21 minutes. Last year, that would have been a top 10 age group finish.

I ran hard and had a blast. I just love the 5k distance. I wish the NYRR ran more of them. I finished with a 20:48 (6:42 pace), hitting my sub 21 minute goal, and good enough for 13th out of 185 men in my age group.

Still, it was slower than my best 4 mile pace (6:38) from just a month ago. The course was hilly, but I suspect that most of the reason was that my training fell off in the last month.

Starting tomorrow, back to putting in the steady miles!

Fun Run

I got into JFK from Sydney on Friday night, so my plans for the race on Saturday were to just use it as a reason to get out of bed and get moving.

I called a friend from the cab, and he told me that the race had been changed to a "Fun Run", due to weather. It didn't seem that bad out, but I guess they were worried about rain turning to ice.

The race had been scheduled as a club points race, which would mean that there would be a big turnout from my club mates, and that in general, the fastest folks would be out. As a fun run, however, there would be no chips, clocks, awards or scoring of any kind. When this happened last year, I didn't go out, but later heard that it was a really fun event, with just a few people running in a snow covered park. I was pissed that I didn't go out that day, so I wasn't going to miss this one. And let's face it -- a fun run was all that I was up for anyway.

When I got out to the race, I was clear that this was not going to be the same sort of event as last year's fun run. That time, the weather had in fact been really intimidating. This time, the forecast was wrong. There was no new snow -- I think the concern had been about ice, which didn't materialize. It was actually a nice morning for a run, and a good number of people showed up.

I wandered in late -- hey, why show up early for a fun run? When I got there I found the starting area was pretty full. There were no pace markers, so it was even more of a free-for-all than usual. The front section had metal gates, and hopping those to push my way in didn't seem in the spirit of a fun run, so I just entered at the back and moved up as much as I could. I could see that it was going to be a slow start, but I reminded myself that I wasn't trying to break any records. Geez, just relax. It's a FUN RUN dammit!

After the start, it was really slow. I was actually walking a couple of times on the 102nd transverse (itsafunrun,itsafunrun,itsafunrun). After we made the first turn turn, it opened up and I was able to get up to pace. Although my training had dropped off (stopped) during my last week abroad, the upside was that my legs felt fresh and I was loving the feeling of running.

For the fun run, the NYRR had not put up the usual big mile marker signs, and had instead just drawn markers on the road. I missed the first marker, so I don't know my first mile time, but I hit the two mile point at 14:55. My guess it that this broke down to something like 8:05 and 6:50. The third mile (cat hill) was at 7:05, and the final mile was 6:37. Besides the first mile, these were real race pace times for me, so I didn't really take it as easy as I thought I would.

Hey, it was a Fun Run right? And what's fun for me is going out and running as fast as I can. May we all have many fun runs ahead!

Sydney

The last few weeks, I've had to cut back on running, due to work and other life circumstances. I'm through the tough period now (famous last words), and ready to get those steady miles going again.

I have just returned from a 2 week work trip to Sydney. I didn't run as regularly as I would have liked, but I did have a couple of wonderful runs. I took the camera with me on just one run, but it was a great one, with gorgeous views. Temps in the 70s made it that much nicer.

The Route: From my hotel, I ran to Hyde Park, to the Domain, down along the water to the point at Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, around the U to the Sydney Opera House, through the Circular Quay to the Rock, up the steps to the Harbor Bridge and across. Turned around and crossed the bridge back, took the pedestrian path on the Cahill Expressway above the quay, and the steps down into the Botanical Garden. Wandered through the garden back to the Domain, and returned to the hotel the way I came (via Hyde Park).

Redemption

This morning was the Gridiron Classic 4 mile race in Central Park. I had promised to pick up numbers for myself and my friend Peter, and meet him near the start.

Now why, you ask, would I make such a ridiculous promise for the morning after the Flyer's Gala? Well, to be honest, only because I didn't look at my calendar. I planned to jog over to the NYRR office, pick up the numbers, and jog down to the start, but when the alarm went off this morning, I had to question my plan. Perhaps I could take a taxi to the NYRR office, another taxi to the start, give Peter his number, and go back home to sleep a few more hours.

After I dragged my ass out of bed, I started to feel better, so I started off on my jog, with enough money in my pocket to revert to the cab plan if needed. Once I got running, I felt still better. By the time I met up with Peter, I felt ready to race.

At the start, we were told that we would have a lane and a half to run in for most of the race. In the past, the NYRR tried to squeeze the field into the rec lane as soon as they could. The result was that tons of runners strayed outside of the official course. Today's setup worked beautifully. It was tight for the first mile or less, and from then on it was wide open. I didn't see a single runner stray outside of the boundaries.

I started out with a 6:59 mile -- respectable, but I would have to pick it up to PR. When my second mile was 6:28, I realized I had a shot. I hung on over the West Side hills for a 6:50 third mile. A PR was still possible, but only if I smoked the last mile. The set up was right -- the last mile was mostly downhill, and I wasn't too tired. I also had a little extra motivation. Last night I was given an award for "Most Improved" runner, based on some questionable data. It would be great to put together a good run the next morning. Also, my best AG% was 69.8, and I was dying to break 70%.

I gave it everything I had and ran the last mile in 6:17. In the end, I PRed with at 36:35 (6:38 pace) with an 70.7 AG%. OK, it wasn't 72.2, but breaking the 70% mark was a big goal for me, so I'm pretty happy.

All in all, a good weekend. Cheers.

Gala

When I joined the New York Flyers last year, everyone in the group runs was talking about the Annual Awards Gala. They made it sound like a great event, but I didn't go since I didn't yet know many folks in the club.

I did attend this year's Gala, which took place last night, and I was not disappointed. My wife came, and was able to meet some of the amazing folks that I've been telling her about, including a lot of the folks from the 6AM group runs, and the entire Flyers Black relay team from the Need for Speed Relay.

After lots of drinks and food, the group sat down for a presentation that included an entertaining slide show, introduction of the new executive board, and lots of awards. So many awards, in fact, that there was even one for yours truly -- "Most Improved".

I was a little embarrassed during the description of my "achievements" when one was included that wasn't real. Those who read this blog, may remember a mistake made by the NYRR in timing a race in July. They credited me with a time that was a good deal faster that my real time, and the MC mentioned the resulting 72.2 AG%. In reality, my best AG% was 69.8. Oops. Improved, yes. Just not quite that improved.

Oh well, what could I do? I accepted the award with a smile and left it at that. When Trakmaniak came up to me and congratulated me specifically mentioning the 72%AG, I still didn't say anything. I just didn't want to go there during the event (sorry Trakmaniak).

Despite being a bit embarrassed about the award, I really enjoyed the evening. The folks that put it together did a great job, and the spirit of the club was overwhelming. One of my favorite moments was when the new club President asked members of the club to stand who had helped with various club activities. As he went down the long list of events, more and more people stood, until by the end it seemed as though there were more folks standing than not. Go Flyers!

Negative Splits

In my last post, I stated my aim to run negative splits in the Manhattan Half. Everyone seems to agree that starting off easy and speeding up is the best way to approach a long race, but I've never really done it. I guess I've just been afraid of losing time at the beginning that I couldn't make up. For me, trying to run just under pace and picking it up has always resulted in just going out fast and hanging on like usual.

Today, the course was two loops of the park, plus a mile, and I planned to do one loop easy and the second loop fast. I knew that this was a bit crude to really maximize performance, but my goal was more to experience negative splits than to PR.

I lined up with my friend PL at the 8 minute mark, as this was my planned pace for the first loop. In the first mile, I made it a point to go with the flow rather than "bob and weave" through the crowd. I saw runner26 and chatted for a while, chatted with PL, and generally tried to repress my competitive urges and enjoy the run. The result was that the first two miles were pretty slow. The second was over 9 minutes, and the first was probably slower. I forgot to turn on my watch at the start, so I'm not sure.

From the third mile, PL and I picked it up to the planned pace of 8 minute miles, which felt comfortable. As the second loop began, I picked up the pace to close to 7 minute miles. It was nice to be speeding up rather that slowly dying as I usually do in a half, but it was pretty clear early on that a PR was out of reach. I had just given up too much time at the beginning of the race. I felt strong, but hey, I know my PRs for 10k, 5 miles and 4 miles, and I wasn't going to beat any of them at the end of a half.

Toward the end of the race, I heard someone call my name and it turned out to be Flyer CB. I remember well how she ran me into the ground at last year's NYC Half, so it was great to be able to finish with her today feeling strong.

In the end, I finished in 1:41:31 (7:44 pace) -- a minute 33 off my PR. Could I have PRed if I had gone out a bit faster? Maybe. The jury is still out on whether this is the fastest approach for me. One thing is clear though. It's a much more pleasant approach psychologically. It was great to feel fast and strong for the second half of the race. My body also feels much better than before. In the past, half marathons have made me sore, but not today. It felt like a shorter race. Hopefully that's a trend that will continue.

Target One

This year, I'll again run more races than I should. There's no stopping it. The best I can do to keep things sane is to pick a few races to target for my best efforts. Hopefully that will allow me to relax a bit in the other races and not over do it.

In that spirit, I am now announcing my first target race of 2008 (drum roll please). It is the Coogan's Salsa, Blues & Shamrocks 5K on March 2nd. Why, you ask? Here's why:

1. I haven't run a 5K since last year's Coogan's.
2. My 5K PR is in dire need of an upgrade. It's 30 seconds per mile slower than my 10K PR.
3. I'm still enjoying my post marathon backlash of training for shorter distances.
4. I had a great time at Coogan's last year, and I look forward to running it again.

Coogan's is run in Washington Heights, where I lived for my first few years in the city. In fact the route goes right by my old place. My friend PL lives nearby, and will hopefully jog down to join me.

So what about the races before March 2nd? Well I'm planning to run this Sunday in the Manhattan Half Marathon, but I won't be pushing the pace too hard. I have a different goal: to run negative splits. I've never really done it, and this race provides a great opportunity since it's two loops of the park. I'll just do one loop at training pace, as I've done so many times before, and then pick it up for the second loop. How hard could it be?....