nyc half pictures

06nychalf4
Originally uploaded by nyflygirl76.

probably the best one they got of me, of course it was on 7th avenue, i think the only part of the course i really enjoyed!

other pics are here

i paid 60 bucks and all i got was this lousy nike dri-fit shirt

yep, this race report is gonna be a bitchfest. if a bitchfest is not what you want to be reading, then i suggest you press your browser's back button immediately. thanks in advance.

and if you continue on, i simultaneously thank you and apologize.

well actually, the dri-fit shirt was actually the only good part about the much-hyped NYC Half-Marathon for me. (what can i say. baby blue is my color.) i hate to say it, but I was very underwhelmed by today's race, and very disappointed in my performance.

Mile	Split	Comments
1	8:07	nice clean start from the purple corral...down cat hill
2	8:17	around the bottom of the park, up to Tavern on the Green
3	8:25	up the west side incline to around west 90th
4	8:08	up one of the first harlem hill inclines...down the big downhill
5	8:31	steeper harlem hill. meh.
6	8:23	to just past the start line...and i'm thinking this mile was a little long.
7	8:08	same here...this mile marker should have been much closer to the mile 1 marker
8	8:13	yay...finally out of the park and onto 7th avenue
9	9:11	oh you gotta be f*ckin kidding me. we're on 42nd street now...and it starts raining. hard.
10	6:51	on the west side highway...well that comfirms mile 9 (as well as the 15K mat) was long...
11	8:23	so much for negative splits...
12	8:20	the road is slick. im trying to pick it up as much as possible without wiping out.
13	8:05	the faster i run, the faster i finish...
.1	.49	finally...

Final result was 1:47:51, 8:13 pace. (not even bothering posting my 5k/10k/15k splits, as they were all wrong.) Yes, I know...there are plenty of people who would love to break 1:50...break 2 hours, or whatever else!! But when I was gunning for 1:45, this was an extremely disappointing result. If a lot of others had a bad race, that would be one thing, but it seemed like almost everyone else PR'ed, or had a good race today. (yep, the green-eyed monster rearing its ugly head...why can't that be me??) I don't understand, I'm not slacking off with my training or anything. I stuck to my plan...average an 8:15 pace for the first 8 miles and then use the kinder terrain of the city streets to pick up the pace but my legs just did not want to get with the friggin program. It frustrates me to put in the effort and continuously fall short. I could and should have done better than this-I've already gotten 1:47 before, I want to improve on that-I'd love to not have to have that damn asterisk next to my half-marathon PR.

I do have to admit, running down 7th avenue was pretty cool, and it was a good thing that the rain did hold off until after the race start, it sorta felt good and beat the hell out of 90 degree weather. (And I do have to commend the volunteers and spectators who came out in this-your efforts were really appreciated!) I do think there was really no excuse for the mile markers being off, and that both the start and baggage logistics could have been much better as well. it was a nice novelty race, not sure I'll be doing this one next year.

and as this will be my last race as a 20-something runner...this wasn't exactly the way I wanted to be closing out my 20s. Next race will be Grete's, 5 days after hitting the next age group...

red red wine...goes to my head...

midweek hangover. not fun.

beautiful nite in the park last nite. lots of friends, food and wine. perfect weather...even the slightest bit of chill in the air giving us that little bit of a fall teaser. the music was lovely, even though it took background to all our chatting. (though we did get "shushed" several times. but sitting as far back as we were, there was no reason for that.) and i'm surprised the wine even lasted til the end of the evening :)

but boy i paid for it dearly this morning. you know it was bad when i couldn't even have my coffee because i was afraid it'd make me sick. i don't know how i got through the workday...

somehow i escaped the shackles of my desk to make it to the Flyers group run. did the full 6-mile loop, plus 2 miles to and from the east side to make it a cool 8 for the day. (and just as i got back to the west side, ran into the TRD'ers just finishing up their torture speed workout :) )once again, i pretty much brought up the rear...wanting to take it really easy with the pace, as i had a killer hill workout to recover from. i actually wasn't as upset about it today...as the race and my last few speed workouts have shown, maybe there actually is something to that "not leaving my race on the training routes" thing. and as long as i can be fast when i need to be, when it really counts...

now playing: "dreams" ~ deep dish

take that, west side hills

oh those hills. always my Achilles' heel in races. Always the reason why I always seem to bomb mile 3 in those 4-milers that start/end at 72nd. I kicked their ass today...haha. The workout was 3 round trips...start at west 86th, run to the water fountain at west 93rd. recover and repeat. I've always felt the clockwise (northbound) direction is easier than the counterclockwise (southbound) direction...and I guess my splits show that too. GMaps says this distance is .4035 miles. I'm believing it. :-D

Repeat number	Time	Pace	Comment
1	2:51	7:03	northbound-really tried hard not to rabbit! had someone else to pace with.
2	2:51	7:03	southbound-ran this one with my pacer and one of our masters superstars
3	2:49	6:58	northbound-my pacer said she was pulling back on this one. ha.
4	2:50	7:01	southbound-my pacer stopped after this one...oh what will i do pacing on my own...
5	2:46	6:51	northbound-whoa!! where the hell did that one come from?
6	2:51	7:03	southbound-tired as hell, but hung in there

Combined with a warm-up and cool-down, that gave me about 4 and a half miles for the day. I think I've earned the right to take it easy (well intensity-wise at least, not mileage-wise) until the half on Sunday! And the right to sip on some red red wine tonite while socializing listening to music on Central Park's Great Lawn...

staying on course

oh, it would have been just too easy Sunday to take a lazy day. but nah, i had no excuse not to bang out 12, just needed to take it slow.

i ran into Chelle right before I started my run and chatted a little about the race the day before (in addition to the running partners she mentions here.) I set off, determined to get my run in before the predicted isolated T-storms would move into the area. And boy was it hot...the first 6-mile loop wasn't that bad, but I struggled on the 2nd. I tried to chance not carrying Gatorade with me, hoping that my gels and Endurolytes would suffice but nope. Bought a bottle after about 9 miles and downed it faster than a tequila shot-which gave me the boost to finish up. And along the course, I saw Coach J 4 times and Moz twice :) And after I got home, I downed probably the nastiest recovery drink I've ever tasted (pleasant tasting, my a$$!) I had gotten samples for free at the multisport carnival...so you get what you pay for i guess...

Another thing that had been on my mind-Chelle did refer to a little bit here-the presence of "ringers" at the Club Champs. Basically, those who either have never run an NYRR race before in their life, or they only come out once a year for this race (it's double points...so for some teams, this is a good chance to catch up. or get ahead.) Despite the Flyer open women probably having, time-wise, the strongest team we've had at this race in a long time (might have been possibly due to this course being sans Harlem Hill,) our women wound up 9th, our lowest showing since I've been a member. And even though our team really isn't uber-competitive, it's still a little disheartening that we got pushed back since a couple of teams ahead of us didn't really "play by the rules." (well maybe they sorta did. But I remember there used to be a rule that in order to run in the Club Champs, you must have run at least one NYRR race for said team? what happened to that?) It happens every year...for whatever reason, it was more prominent this year, it seemed. On a more positive note, our open men kicked ass once again-the double points they scored in this race just lengthened their lead in the open "B" division.

So anyway, getting back to business...today was an XT day (running muscles needed the break!) tomorrow, I think I will tackle the West Side Hills in the morning to leave my evening free to enjoy some wine and music under the stars (and hopefully no rain this time!)

now playing: "so special (original mix)" ~ judge jules

tunnels of cheering

oh, what a difference 2 months makes...

5-mile race in June: weather 78 degrees, 54% humidity-disaster
5-mile race yesterday: weather 77 degrees, 66% humdity (lies! i'm sure it was more humid than that)-million times better!

So yesterday was the much-hyped Club Team Championships. Unlike all the other NYRR races, this one is only limited to members of the local running teams-making for a smaller field, and a cleaner start since this one is yet another split-start race (men race at 8am, women at 9am.) I was sidelined for last year's race, but my main memory of the '04 race was hearing our guys cheering like crazy at the end, really helping me finish strong in a race that did not go as well as hoped (after a relatively mild summer, the heat and humidity were on full blast for that one!) Anyway, I was looking forward to using this race as a fitness check, to see where I am with my NYCM training. Thankfully, an easier course this year, eliminating Harlem Hill!!

The morning of, I timed my easy warmup jog up the west drive of Central Park to coincide with the first mile of the men's race...so I could cheer them on early on, I'm sure spectators were sparse at that time. The Flyer men in their red and white singlets were looking good in the early going. But by the time I was done with my warmup, I realized that I was already sweating a lot, and my heart was pounding-conditions were tough, this could make for a brutal race. Me and a few of our gals watched the end of the men's race to cheer them on. The first 11 men came in under 25 minutes-insane!! (With the first 2 neck and neck!) The first Flyer man came in at around 29 minutes-yowza, he did awesome!! The rest of the Flyer men started to come in, one by one...and we took note that no one looked happy at all-kind of foreshadowing of what the conditions for our race were gonna be like!! Around 8:45, we headed over to the start on the 102nd Street Transverse-while there, I saw Chelle and then Uptown Girl...chatted for a coupla minutes with each, wished everyone luck...the usual :) Finally, the starting horn sounded and we were off!!

Mile 1-I wanted to be careful here-as the West Side Hills can make for a tough mile and a tough remainder of the race if I rabbit it. I saw a couple of teammates who run around my pace and stuck near them at the beginning, but I eventually did pass them before the mile was up-nevertheless, I didn't feel like I did this one too hard. The support from the guys cheering on the side was great. Hit this mile in 7:47. Perfecto.

Mile 2-this mile started off with a large downhill, so tried to pick up the pace a little bit there. Saw a big group of our guys running the other direction and cheering (thanks guys!) in addition to Sister Smile over by the 72nd St transverse. Saw a water table right before the mile 2 marker and decided to grab a cup-I had a feeling with the conditions, I'd regret it later if I didn't. Didn't lose too much time really, as I drank it "on the fly." Mile 2 was 7:41-still pretty good, and under goal pace!

Mile 3-this was a pretty mentally challenging mile. As this mile wound around the very bottom of Central Park, this part had the least crowd support. And the heat was starting to get to me a little bit. I made a strategic decision to back off a little bit in this mile-I wanted to save myself for Cat Hill and a strong finish. One of my teammates who was behind me saw that I was slowing a little and shouted encouragement to me to hang in there (she wound up passing me before the mile was up, but said to me afterwards that she "was hoping i'd stick with her." aww, that was nice.) This mile was 7:52-still good.

Mile 4-yep, you guessed it, Cat Hill. And gotta love our Coach J, he was standing right by the cat!! No seriously, he actually climbed up onto the cat statue. Not surprised, he did that in the Snowflake 4-miler too. He was cheering as I approached and I made a face that pretty much showed I was hurting and he shouted "come on, you're almost at the top!" Ugh. Glad that climb was over. And I was still feeling affected by the elements...so close to walking but didn't. Grabbed another cup of water at the end of this mile. Figured all I'd have to do is get through this mile and I'd pretty much be home free. This was my slowest split of the race at 8:12-but I was still passing women during this mile so I think everyone was equally affected.

Mile 5-this mile, especially the last half-mile, is what makes this race so damn worth it. Surprisingly, I still had a little bit left in me, so I picked up the pace. There was quite a bit of cheering for the first part of this mile, especially around Engineer's Gate at 90th, but nothing like what I'd see once I got past the reservoir around 96th St. This last part of the race is absolutely unreal-I felt like such a rockstar here. It started with a bunch of the Flyer, Reservoir Dog, and Harrier men screaming my name-and even though it was the very end of the race, hearing that just motivated me to run like crazy, and had me on a high and put a smile on my face that lasted til the very end of the race. Though Coach Toby yelled at me to "stop smiling"-hey, what I can say, I totally feed off this!! I also passed a CPTC woman who I had been trading places with throughout the race..I heard her coach yell to her "come on, you can pass one more!" I thought to myself, Sorry, but that one more is not gonna be me!! The remainder of this mile was what was described as "tunnels of cheering." Every guy, every team, screaming at the top of their lungs-whether it was for me, or their teammates, or whoever else...I forgot about the conditions, I didn't bother looking at my watch anymore during that mile, the cheers from the men just carried me harder and further. And wouldn't you know it, that last mile was my fastest split of the race-7:31!

Final result was 39:03, 7:48 pace. (and I would have been happy with 39:59!)

Right after the finish, I congratulated the Rez Dog girl who finished right behind me on a good race (she too, had been trading places with me throughout the race)...then I saw both Chelle and Uptown Girl again, and congratulated them both on their PR's!! In addition, a writer for NYRR asked me a coupla questions about the race...and woudn't ya know it, I got quoted :)

Afterwards was the annual Flyer bagel brunch and team photo. This year's photo was also a huge family affair as well...our Flyer toddler contingent had a pretty good appearance as well :) The team festivities were not over yet though!! A coupla hours later, a bunch of us headed to the North Meadow to take on CPTC in softball. Apparently they beat us big time in '03, time for a rematch? Considering a lot of us hadn't played softball in quite a while (yours truly hasn't played in 15 years!) we really, really held our own!! Had a nice lead going on until CPTC rallied back in the last inning. (but the teams weren't evenly matched...ours was mostly women, theirs all men!) was still a lot of fun though.

Great day!! I can't wait to run this race again next year. And if the cheers are even a taste of what to expect...November 5th should be a lot of fun :)

And as for my race performance, I think I ran well, ran smart, didn't let the heat defeat me, pulling back was worth it to have such a strong last mile. I think I could have come close to PR'ing if the weather was better-something to look forward to come fall, especially seeing how it plays out over longer distances. I did pretty well in sub-optimal conditions at a distance that isn't even my best strength, so...dare I dream of sub-1:45 at Grete's??

now playing: "get together" ~ madonna

winding down

gotta love summer Fridays sometimes. I really needed this one. As I said to a few people last nite, I was calling this one a "hangover Friday." I double-booked myself last nite, and my drinks over the course of the nite included a strawberry margarita, 2 glasses of prosecco (sparkling wine) and a glass of pinot grigio. (good thing i turned down that last glass of wine, right?) so yeah, mixing. don't feel too bad today though.

The margarita was at the Boat Basin in honor of a friend's birthday ;-) before I headed to the east side for a fundraiser party one of my teammates was having. My teammate fundraises every year for the marathon, and hosts a fun party with some type of creative theme. This one had a Vegas theme-complete with Elvis!! Though I know quite a few of the guests enjoyed him, I'm honestly not the biggest Elvis fan, so me and a few others stepped outside where it was a little quieter and enjoyed the beautiful night and the view. Oh yeah, did I mention that this party was held on the rooftop of an apartment building on the UES with an amazing view of the city? Fun night, and no worse for wear today.

This week has been insane, not only with the workload and the move. Wednesday night, the Flyers (with the help of 2 other tri clubs-AGTC and TANYC) hosted their 2nd annual "multisport carnival"-which was pretty much a makeshift expo with...i'm guessing around 30? 35?...run/swim/bike/other vendors or clubs in the area. i bought a little t-shirt from the Raising Heartrates calendar booth that says on the front "I raise heartrates." can't wait to wear it. LOL.

other notables-i got a nice email informing me that there will be preferred starting corrals at the upcoming NYC Half and that I have run a time in at least 1 NYRR race this year that gets me in (however, i'm in the 3rd of 3 preferred corrals, but every little bit helps...)

i've been on my feet so much this week, no wonder my running legs have been dead. my last run this week before the race was an easy 4 on the bridle path and reservoir on Thursday morning but my legs still felt tired. I'm really hoping this 48-hour rest period will do something to get the legs back before the Club Champs tomorrow morning. My 5-mile PR is just under 38 minutes...and I know I'm nowhere near that kind of shape right now, but at this point, I'll take anything under 40...just to let me know that I am on the right track with my training. Running gods, what do you say?

a little respect, please?

ya know, i never claim to be perfect, but i think i follow decent etiquette when running in the park. stay in the rec lane, keep to the right and let faster people pass on the left, share the road and all that jazz...after all, the Flyers are very respected in the running community-leading by example or something like that.

and as i've bitched before, Tuesday nights are a very crowded night in the park when doing speedwork. and now, i found that it's even too crowded when just doing a normal training run. i was doing 4 miles, the middle 4 loop clockwise (wanted to get across the 102nd street transverse before it started getting darker)...yeah, i know it's against the flow of traffic, but i wasn't the only one running in that direction. by then, the cars were out of the park and i was keeping to the right, keeping a watchful eye of those running in the opposite direction. so i'm running on the east drive, and was probably just north of the reservoir when i felt a big group of people (some in highlighter-esque singlets-now you know who i'm talking about) coming up behind me, practically running on my ass. i hated the feeling of being tailgated by a large group and wondered why they just didn't go around me-oh no, they own the road i guess. soon enough i'd just f*cking had it and stepped off the road to let them have their f*cking way and pass me. and if that wasn't enough, as i approached Cat Hill, other huge groups of runners in highlighter singlets were taking up the entire damn road yet again, forcing me out of the rec lane (and having a couple close calls with cyclists in the process.)

you know, i try and show other runners-whatever team they run for, or if they're "unattached"-a little respect on the road-is it too much to f*cking ask to receive some in return? i originally didn't think so, but i guess it is.

(man, did that run get me steamed up. good thing i censored myself in this post.)

rearranged

2 things got rearranged today (albeit sorta planned)-my cubicle at work and my running week.

i was supposed to move my cube later this week, instead the office manager was barking that they wanted it done today (good thing i had already started friday...) was relatively painless. so my new location has it's pros and cons:

Pros:

• away from Dr. Insensitive-i love him and all, but he is damn loud. even my clients heard him from the other end of the phone line
• actually it's more quiet in general. easier to focus.
• CSG who works for the sister company sitting a coupla cubes away (OK, not sure about the S, but definitely C.) but yeah-NOT going there. but never hurts to have some new faces around.
• faster, lower traffic elevator on this side of the office. no need to have to allocate 15 minutes per elevator trip.

Cons:

• further away from the good coffee on the other side of the office. you know i need my coffee.

(actually, that's the only thing I can think of for now.)

and in an attempt to "taper" for this Saturday's 5-miler (and gotta love NYRR's description for this one-"We've circled the day in red on our calendar. Saturday, August 19, the city's top running squads vie for bragging rights in the NYRR Team Championships 5M") i've shifted around my running week a little...usually i have Mondays off, but I snuck in 5 miles today, and I think my other 2 running weekdays will be tomorrow, and Thursday early AM (that way i do sorta get 2 rest days-or 48 hours, whatever you call it.) My legs are just feeling dead from coming off a 34-mile week, the highest I've done in a long time, so I think I am going to skip speedwork tomorrow in favor of an easy run. Missing one week won't hurt, if it means helping to get the legs back...

and my baby brother turns 27 today. wow-damn i feel old :-p

wake-up call was worth it

yeah, this morning i didn't feel like knocking the alarm off completely and sleeping til noon. great decision, this was an absolutely beautiful morning for running. my plan today was to do 6 miles with the regular 9am Flyer group run, then after that one was a 4-mile "new Flyer run" (co-led by fellow blogger jbl.) Combined with running to/from the meetup point, that would give me my 12 for the day!!

So thankfully, the crappiness that seemed to hang over me during Wednesday's and Thursday's runs seemed to have went away (guess the rest day yesterday helped.) Ran the first 6 with a very nice guy who was a prospective Flyer, and also with someone who was in my pace group at last week's Long Training Run. Was very cool to be recognized as a pace leader (I guess it helped that I was wearing my pace leader singlet!) Since we were running in the clockwise direction, I saw a sh*tload of Flyers (and one Rez Dog) I knew running the other direction...the prospective Flyer guy commented that I seemed to know everyone...hey, that's one of the perks of being a Flyer!! :) After the initial loop, I tacked on another 4 with some of the prospective/newbie Flyers, as well as others who wanted to tack on mileage as well (and ran into Sara, who was modeling her new running skirt-welcome to the dark side...haha!) After the run, a few of us decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and have a little bagel/iced coffee quasi-picnic in Riverside Park. Before we knew it, it was already past 1!!

If the weather could stay like this for the rest of the summer, I'd be very happy.

One thing had said on the run was "it's actually easier to get the long runs in than the weekday runs." I'm not kidding! At least with the long runs, you pretty much have a larger window of time to get it done. During the week, it's either cram it in before work, or after work before it gets dark. Anyone else find this true?

now playing: "let's get it started" ~ black eyed peas

one week later, 20 or so degrees cooler

..and wishing i was feeling some benefits of that.

wednesday and thursday were not good running days at all. despite the fact that the mercury had dropped, i was majorly dragging this week. i went to the Flyers group run Wednesday nite, but my legs were just not having it, and i had fallen way behind the group. And before anyone says it, I'm not buying that it was solely the speed workout Tuesday night, there were several others who had done that same workout the night before and were still zipping along, unaffected. as I had the nano with me, i don't care so much about dropping behind (though it can be a little demotivating) now that it's still light out...but what to do when it starts to get dark earlier? managed to slog out 7.5 total that night, and Thursday morning's 5.1 miles was a little better, but not by much. OK, running 12.6 miles in less than a 12-hour period was not quite ideal, but gotta love the wonders of scheduling...

the crappiness seemed to follow me into the office yesterday morning, as the first thing that happened was getting reprimanded for Internet usage and arriving at work at 9:30 am regularly (those 2 things fall into the category of "everyone does it, but i'm just dumb/unlucky enough to get caught.) so with the exception of lunch breaks, i'm really gonna have to try and limit my Internet usage. And as for the other thing...whatever, I'll do what I gotta do, but I notice no one cares if i get in earlier or stay later. Did get some good news yesterday though, with regards to the project that required travel...i only have to do 1 day trip, scheduled for a week during the taper :) so not too bad.

last nite was the Flyers' summer social party at Prey, a bar in the Flatiron District (anyone else remember when this used to be the Tiki Room and they served their margaritas in those tiki-totem like glasses?) $20 bought us a coupla hours of open bar and some decent eats...as usual, good time chatting up the regulars and others i hadn't seen in awhile. and after the day I had, boy was I guzzling the wine like it was water...

12 miles on tap for tomorrow. i'm just so drained by now that I am sooo tempted to not set the alarm tomorrow morning. but i am liking what weather.com is saying about tomorrow morning's temps being under 70.

anyone else think this is insane?

if the NYPD has their way, this could make for a lot of unhappy runners, cyclists, and pedestrians.

i know i have been vocal on how crowded the park has gotten lately...but I'm putting that aside for now and thinking jeez-has the NYPD forgotten about safety in numbers?

Or do they have a short-term memory and have forgotten about 3 days in December-where the most efficient way to get around this city was either via foot or bike?

easy now, rabbit

some people never learn. and in the case of speedwork, "some people" would be me. tonight's workout was a 4-mile tempo run-engineer's gate to the west end of the 102nd street transverse was mile 1...then to west 83rd was mile 2...then turnaround and run back to engineer's gate. and that would be done 3 minutes hard, 1 minute easy.

my mile splits for this workout: 7:22/8:35/8:33/8:22 (32:52 total, 8:13 pace)

when, oh when, will i learn to not go out so fast at the beginning. and mile 2 is a tougher climb than one would think but still...i'm not sure if i really slowed down in the end on the hard parts, or if the recoveries were slower.

oh well. even though i was hoping to do this workout under 32 minutes, this was still 30 seconds faster than the last time i ran a tempo on the same course-and that previous workout didn't allow for any "easy" minutes. and after all the people who were decidedly faster had passed me, i pretty much kept my position the entire time-so i was where i was supposed to be, i guess. so all in all, not too bad. doesn't mean i like tempo runs any better. i still don't :-p

maybe i was running off some work angst at the beginning. having remote access to work email is a blessing and a curse. blessing being that it does allow flexibility to do things like work from home occasionally. the curse is that you're always so tempted to check it when you really should not be working. so basically i got a heads up last nite that due to a mistake the salesperson made in the proposal, i was going to have to do extra work on a project of mine (that we wouldn't be charging the client for) and i'd have to turn it around in record time-which was confirmed this morning. whatever, it got done, though i had to push off other stuff to do it. and as you all know, everything is priority....

so yeah. i need to make sure i do not rabbit the first mile of the Club Championships. Flyer guys, if you're reading, please make sure you yell at me if you catch me doing that. thanks in advance :)

now playing: "un-break my heart (soul-hex anthem radio edit)" ~ toni braxton

sampling the goods

3 easy miles today, and got to use a couple of my recent purchases...

• Started the new white/purple pair of the Cumuluses into the rotation. Love that bouncy new-shoe feel. Here's a question I'm throwing out to the crowd. What's the minimum amount of mileage you'd recommend on a pair of shoes that I'd be running the marathon in? (obviously, it's a model that I've worn before, and I will be doing at least one long run in them.)
• My new MarathonGirl skirt. I actually like running in this one better than the GymGirl! Was afraid of chafing, but applying BodyGlide beforehand took care of that :) Was actually very comfortable, nothing too revealing...what a difference proper sizing makes. And comes with a pocket on the side to keep keys/ID/money. (For those in the NYC area who don't want to buy online, they sell the skirts now at the Running Company in the Time Warner Center-but limited selection, I only saw the Marathon Girl skirts in Black and Blue Hawaii.)
• oh and speaking of goods, 72nd street between Columbus and Amsterdam can be so deliciously tempting. Buttercup Bake Shop (best.cupcakes.ever.) on the north side of the street. Cold Stone Creamery on the south side of the street. Yum. And simultaneously, yikes!!

34 miles on tap for this week. the build-up continues...

now playing: "you give me something (full intention mix)" ~ jamiroquai

run your own pace

another weekend, another long run in the bank.

The Flyers act as pace leaders for the two Long Training Runs that NYRR puts on for the marathon each year. Great way to get in your long run and help the NYC running community as well. They do 4 loops-the full 6, the lower 5, lower 5, middle 4...and you have the option to do the full 20, or less to fulfill your training needs. So I chose to do 16 at 9:30 pace.

I got there bright and early today (6:30...yikes!) Compared to the heat wave this week, the weather felt "chilly" (though it was probably in the 70s at the start and warmed up to the 80s by the end.) Checked in and picked up yet another oversized pace leader singlet (though better than last year's-I had done the last 2 loops, so there were only larges left by the time I started! oh, and the pace leader singlets were unisex) and headed on over to the 9:30 group. Me and a coupla others positioned ourselves near the font of the first group. We waited for the faster groups to leave, and off we went. First loop went pretty well, my watch showed we were pretty much on pace, but I felt I needed to drop back just a little because it seemed like the leaders were pushing it just a little.

After we finished the first loop, we usually take a couple minutes to re-group, let people use the portapotties, grab gatorade/water/gels. I took some gatorade and a gel with water-and I didn't think I took that long-probably no more than 3 minutes, but by the time I was done, my group had already left-I was a little annoyed at that, and there were a few others in that group who were in the same boat. So we all just decided to form our own little 9:30 group, and that worked out very well-they were a bunch of very nice people, and we even picked up a few others along the way. I was a little nervous about pacing without the other leaders to support me, but every split was dead-on...less than 5 seconds faster or slower than 9:30, which everyone seemed to appreciate!! going up the east drive, we saw one of the other 9:30 leaders who I guess got left behind by her group, so she just joined our little party :)

2nd loop just flew by, and I made sure to wait around on the transverse to make sure everyone had time to do what they needed to do, plus another group was coming in behind us so we did some consolidation. 3rd loop went just as well with the pacing-in fact some of the people in my group were disappointed I wasn't pacing the full 20!! :) (hmmm...maybe a certain other blogger's pacemaster skills were virtually rubbing off on me today? now if only i could do that in a race!) so we finished up the third loop and thanked everyone for running and sticking with it and wished them all luck on their fall marathons :) 16 miles down-and a fun 16 miles it was!!

afterwards, just hung around for a bit and socialized. saw one of the other 9:30 pace leaders who was in the group that left me behind and she said that they had wound up speeding up-damn, it was probably a good thing I didn't go with them for the 2nd/3rd loops. The Flyer bloggers were out in force, and all I spoke to sounded like they were very pleased with their runs-Sister Smile, jbl, Runner26, Sara-and I'm assuming Jon also had a good run too, though I only saw him in passing when I was finishing up my second loop. (oh and I think I may have possibly seen another blogger near the baggage area as well-but not 100% sure!)

So, 16. Longest run since the fall of '04. The 9:30 pace was a very wise decision, much easier on my body. And I can still keep going...in a way :) You see, last year this time, the 9 miles I had done at last year's Long Training Run was my last run for a month. No signs of stopping now!! On tomorrow's plate will be an easy recovery 3 miles. Then next week the long run gets scaled back a little bit. No worse for wear, though can seriously use a nap after this morning's mad-early wake-up call...

now playing: "nobody knows me (peter rauhofer's private mix)" ~ madonna

giving the "marathon girl" another chance

(i meant the skirt. what were you all thinking? :-p )

yeah, SkirtSports had the MarathonGirl skirt on sale throughout July, so as I could not resist a sale...well, I hoped what they said about the black skirts running small was true. So I picked up one in Daiquiri Ice, or the color pictured here. The fit of this one was much better. Weird how a certain color can run that much smaller!! Maybe I could have sized up on the black one originally, but I don't think my ego would have been able to take that...

And thankfully, it looks like the mega heat wave has finally broken...was actually pleasant last nite to sit outside and sip on sangria and mojitos and caipirinhas (oh my!) felt it a little more than i felt the Wednesday nite drinks, but hell, after the day i had (meeting with a client-let me just tell you, they should never have assigned someone like me who's never been married or close to it to work on a project for a wedding website-i swear, i must have seemed so ignorant...oh and yet another power scare in our office building) plus the fact that i actually got to "sleep in" this morning...just felt like knocking 'em back.

Must be on the wagon tonight, I need to represent the Flyers well tomorrow morning :) (and hoping there will be some CSG's in the 9:30 group too...lol.)

hangover prevention techniques

how to avoid being hung over the morning after knocking back 2 Cosmos and an appletini?

Well for starters, drink plenty of water inbetween those drinks.

And make sure you drink them on the roof deck of a bar in 90+ degree weather, so any alcohol is pretty much sweated out.

And when leaving, walk an extra 9 blocks to take the express subway instead of the local to ensure your body will be rid of any trace of alcohol.

went to Red Sky last nite with the coworkers...we were originally supposed to have the second floor, but others decided to go to the roof deck instead. i don't know who's bright idea that was...but then again the A/C wasn't working too great on the second floor (plus we were sharing the 2nd floor with another group that was talking about global warming...uh hello, we're experiencing global warming first-hand!) i only held out for a coupla hours-I was hot and tired, plus I had running to do in the morning.

6 miles this morning that thankfully went much better then my 3 on Wednesday, which leads me to believe that my legs just really needed a recovery day from Tuesday's workout (or maybe actually forcing myself to eat something before the run helped...plus listening to some great music-my new fave running CD is the 1st CD from the "Ultra Weekend 2" 2-disc compilation.) I was completely prepared to cut it down to 5 miles if need be, but I felt fine as I approached 102nd street so i continued on instead of cutting across the transverse. I saw several other Flyers in passing that were also trying to get in their run before it got too hot.

And with the exception of some stretching, tomorrow will be a very well-deserved rest day, before I tackle my 16 on Saturday at NYRR's Long Training Run-I'll be one of the pacers for the 9:30 group. i was previously wavering between 9 and 9:30 but a very smart teammate of mine told me I'd be better off with the slower group and I think he's right...wouldn't hurt to give my body a little bit of a break. Remember, it's a training run, not a race...

heat wave, record heat, blah blah blah

yeah, i guess we've all seen the headlines in every newspaper, on every news website, hell, on every blog that has been updated today. (and NY1 reports that the mercury has hit 100-yowza.)

last nite our coaches made the executive decision to cancel that evening's speedwork, and tonite the Flyers group run is canceled as well. smart decision on both parts, considering last nite i was hot and exhausted just walking. and today, i have yet to go outside since getting to work-to quote one of my colleagues "the only way i'm going outside is to go home."

even though it was a relatively "cool" 83 degrees this morning, the 3 miles i ran were probably the slowest 3 miles i have run in an extremely long time. don't know if it was the heat (doubtful, if i did speedwork in the same weather the day before, but who knows?), or if it was because i left it all out there in yesterday's workout (please tell me that was the case) or if i'm just tired between the heat, work, or whatever else...i'll just say thank god i was running solo this morning, no one would have been able to put up with my snail-like pace.

yeah, maybe since today's run was so short i probably should have just sucked it up and done it on the treadmill...but it's tough when you're within stumbling distance of the Central Park reservoir and bridle path-in fact i'm closer to that than I am to the nearest NYSC! much, much easier and quicker to hop on over to the park.

on a positive note, my shoes arrived today!!! yay yay yay. now I have 2 pairs of Cumulus 7's that will last me from now til after the marathon...one white/purple, and another white/orange pair. (and the Axioms went back to the store yesterday...)

and if I didn't already love Starbucks enough...tomorrow they are providing complimentary iced coffee between 1 and 3 (or so the ad in AM New York said) at participating locations in the NYC metro area. now that's how you help people beat the heat :)

always check your email message before hitting the send button

so what would you all think if you received an email from a fellow female co-worker, emailing our group to let us know she would be out of the office the end of the week with a fellow male co-worker and they would be "far far far away from our Treos!!!"

mmm hmmm, you can imagine what i thought. LOL.

and said male co-worker thought that was the message that was coming across as well, as he sent a follow-up email to the group saying that said trip (and time spent away from wireless communication devices) was completely innocent.

well c'mon, you all would have thought the same...right? right? :)

on another note, 2pm and no office/building calamities yet. i'm somewhat hopeful for today. :-p

another one down

managed to drag myself out of bed this morning to do speedwork before work in order to beat today's predicted record heat...this morning's method of torture...12 x 220 yards on the rez (plus recoveries)

Set 1		Set 2
Time	Pace	Time	Pace
:49	6:32	:51	6:48
:51	6:48	:51	6:48
:49	6:32	:51	6:48
:51	6:48	:51	6:48
:52	6:56	:51	6:48
:50	6:40	:49	6:32

tough, but for the most part, consistent. 220s hurt a lot. i was hoping to be able to sweet-talk others into longer repeats, but this was probably a better hot-weather workout anyway.

3 easy miles on tap for tomorrow, and looks like i'll be doing a repeat morning appearance as well.

And in office news, for the second day in a row, we were forced to "evacuate." Around 5:15 yesterday we heard the fire alarms go off and heard someone speaking over the loudspeaker saying something about there being something happening on another floor...we didn't quite understand him, he was about as muffled as the announcements on the subways. And apparently the elevators weren't working so we all just decided to escape via the stairwell. I think halfway downstairs we heard another announcement saying that everything was OK...but who wants to chance it. So OK, anyone got any creative ideas of how my office will be forced to evacuate today? :) (i swear, this building is cursed!! i think my office needs to move back to the Flatiron district...)

now playing: "walk away (chris cox club mix)" ~ kelly clarkson

a new month, a new look

alright...i decided the blog was due for another makeover (i primarily wanted to switch to a 3-column format, felt the sidebar was getting too cluttered.)

and tried my hand at a little header creativity as well...