speedwork fun, brought to you by mr. garmin

i think these graphs and maps from mr. garmin make tonite's speed workout self-explanatory...

lots of fast, slow, fast, slow work. and latched on to the fast group at the end for a little kick :) (for the record-after looking at a coupla maps, looks like the GPS signal was screwy around lap 12...it may have been uphill, but pretty sure I was going faster than that...def. felt harder!!) But definitely a great workout, felt much better than the track workout 2 weeks ago, and no lingering effect from those Rockefeller hills either!!

also, I didn't have an HRM before getting Mr. Garmin and I'll say-I like using it so far-I think it is gonna help me train smarter on easy runs, and also in the summertime give me a better idea of the effort put in even when the pace doesn't show it.

but i swear, I'm like a kid in a candy store here, with all this data at my disposal to analyze it every which way :) kinda explains why I am in market research...and like looking at numbers and telling a story from them!!

is this really what it takes?

Well now that The Hills is on hiatus til August, that means I need to find some other show to occupy my time on Monday nights...and The Bachelorette has done that job. Last week's premiere was quite entertaining...but I swear, the things these guys do to get attention have gotten more and more ridiculous...

• There was the martial-arts guy, who I guess thought it would be impressive to kick a lemon off the head of another bachelor...
• The guy who stripped down to his briefs to jump in the pool...oh yeah, the briefs had the girl's name on the a$$
• The personal trainer who's 'roid problem was evident after he did not get a rose-after all, he should get picked because his body made him God's gift to women, right?
• Not to mention gifts that ranged from necklaces to "crab cocktails" (the latter made by one of the bachelors who was a chef)

I guess you actually had to watch the show to really see what I mean...as I don't think I do a good job describing (or actually, Entertainment Weekly does a better job here.)

But good lord...I know this is TV, I know this is "fantasy," but guys...please do not get any ideas from this. You really don't have to go this far to impress me (or most other girls, I'm sure!)

That being said, I didn't know whether to feel sorry for the guy who botched the National Anthem during the Dodger Stadium date on last night's episode...or think "come on-you should know this by now!"

the long weekend, in pictures

Friday-martinis and admiring the view on the Met rooftop (and oh yeah, looking at some other art)	Saturday-long run down the west side, over 2 bridges and back north. West side path and Brooklyn Bridge very crowded. Quite a few seamen were spotted.
Sunday-2 watermelon martinis, 2 appletinis and some girl talk	Monday-almost 8 hilly miles in Rockefeller State Park

But how is it almost time to go back to work?? I just hope the whole summer does not go by as quickly as this weekend did!

tall buildings, bad reception

And once again, I did the Wall Street Run with my company (which has become our "in lieu of the Corporate Challenge.") We had 9 signed up...3 (including me) runners, 6 walkers. And actually...as the forecast seemed to change dramatically on Tuesday morning from about 60 degrees and 30% chance of rain to not even 50 degrees and definite rain. So knowing my company's track record w/ inclement weather, I was expecting quite a few to bail... but considering I've done 2 half-marathons in the rain, you can bet I wouldn't!

So after work, I did the same thing I did last year-2 mile warmup down the West Side Highway-more direct than taking the subway and a good way to get a warmup in. It was only raining lightly and actually felt nice!! And I was afraid I would be underdressed (not expecting the weather)...I had on a running skirt and a singlet under a jacket and actually felt warm-so I had a feeling I'd be OK come race time.

Arrived downtown, stashed my bag and headed for the start...oh boy. NO pace per mile markers. This was a recipe for disaster. I found my other 2 colleagues that were running and lined up with them...decent starting position. Was a little chilly waiting for the start (shoulda brought a throwaway shirt!) and not surprisingly, the start was delayed a few minutes waiting for the west side hwy to be closed off, but finally we got going.

So I was hoping to better last year's time (22:51, 7:36 pace) in order to get a better pace for corral placement :-p Had the Garmin on but wasn't really referring to it during the race as anything but a watch. Anyway, the same obstacles were there...potholes, puddles, people who did not line up correctly...however, I hit mile 1 in 7:25 and thought RIGHT ON TRACK!!

And mile 2 seemed to have more issues...more turns, more bottlenecks...especially on one street where half of it was closed off. But I still felt I put up a good effort through this mile...which was why I was surprised that mile 2 was 8:30...what the!! I may have slowed down, but not that much...

Well obviously I had my work cut out for me in mile 3!! Just told myself to suck it up, it's only a mile to go...run hard, hard, hard!! Made the final turn onto the West Side Esplanade by the Hudson River and not too much later...could see the finish line in the distance and kicked it in. Mile 3 was 7:16, for a total time of 23:11.

Saw Uptown Girl (who had blasted past me around mile 2) after the race and we compared Garmin readings...hers had about 3.4 miles, however, my Mr. Garmin had 2.8!! So who knew what was right...and everyone I talked to after the race seemed to agree. (I do definitely think mile 2 was long...don't know which was the short mile though, 1 or 3.) I was cold and tired, so unlike last year, I didn't feel up for post-race festivities-though I did stop by Urban Athletics for a free Corona and 15% off a Sugoi top (and I thought leaving the credit card at home would stop me from shopping. ha!)

When I exported my Garmin data at home...I had to laugh. Apparently, no one, nothing, knew what the distance of this course was!!

Garmin Training Center said 2.84 miles

SportTracks said 3.12 miles

MotionBased said 3.6 miles (yeah right-like I really did sub-7's)

And if you look at the map...obviously the tall buildings really threw off the GPS signal (hell...there were some places where it said I was going sub-4 pace...in my dreams!!)

So basically, the moral of the story is, I will never really know what I actually ran yesterday...and just chalk it up as a tempo workout, and defending my title of being first in my company :)

And save the PR attempts for certified courses!

And like most men...Mr. Garmin isn't always right :-p

bonkers!

The one thing besides injury that runners seem to fear is bonking. And it's supposed to happen in the long-ass distances. Before today, I only experienced it twice...during the infamous 2007 Queens half, and at mile 14 of a 15-mile training run 3 years ago. I somehow escaped the marathon unscathed. But who'd ever heard of bonking in a 10K? I defined that today at the Healthy Kidney 10K...splits tell the story!!

8:00
8:03
8:19
9:01 (started the decline here...)
8:28 (sorta saved by cat hill downhill)
8:40 (the last mile of the race didn't motivate me as much)
1:45 (neither did that last uphill)

wound up with 52:16 (8:25 pace)...5K splits of 25:21/26:55. Oy. A 1 1/2 minute positive split.
(For the record-Mr. Garmin said I actually did 6.35 miles at an 8:13 pace. It's so funny...when I met up with some of the Flyers afterwards...seems like *everyone* has a Garmin!! And another teammate's Garmin measured 6.35 too...)

In a nutshell...my legs kinda felt weak from the beginning. They just didn't have the same bounciness they had at Broad Street, or the last 4-miler I did. Still, was hoping to maybe negative split...but things just felt like they shut down on mile 4...it was like I could see the mile marker, but I just could not get there. Couldn't get my legs to push hard for the rest of the race-so by that time just decided to quit trying to race and do the best I could...whatever it was.

I think what happened was a mishmash of things...

• Am I still not completely recovered from Broad Street? I think I am not, considering the effort I gave there.
• Still feeling the afteraffects of Wednesday's workout? Perhaps, which leads to...
• Was Thursday's run not a true "recovery" effort? Probably, I should have been doing closer to 9:30-9:45s to really recover. I think going forward, any Thursday runs will have to be done solo...
• Had I put on weight in the last 2 weeks, therefore slowing me down? It's possible.
• Was it the crowds? Actually no!! I actually think the corral system really worked. I just feel bad for those in the corrals behind me that had to go around me because I was having a bad day!
• The weather? Yes. Even though it was a cool 50 degrees, apparently it was 80% humidity...and the sun was STRONG! Not a good combination for me.
• Did I eat enough? I'm not sure...been feeling a little "off" the last coupla days-it's seemed like I've been full after smaller portions. I did have my usual "before race" food, maybe not enough yesterday...
• Was it pacing? I don't think so...under normal circumstances, I'd say I was "right on pace" for the first coupla miles...maybe even a little conservative.
• Was it the calf? Nope-thankfully, no body parts were causing me pain. Not even a dreaded sidestitch.
• Was it the course? Good lord, it seems like Central Park got hillier in the last 2 days. Yeah, it was like mountain climbing compared to Broad Street, but I don't remember the 4-milers being this hard!
• Was it the distance? 10K is a weird distance for me. Not really feeling the love for it right now...after mile 1 I had the "I wish this was over" thought again. You can't blast it like you could a 5K or 4-miler, and you can't do the "slow down and pace" strategy that you can do in a 10-miler or half-marathon.

I'm not disappointed, I had my good race 2 weeks ago, and I'll chalk this one up as a "practice race." Means I got rid of all my strategic mistakes here and I got 3 weeks to get things right for the Mini 10K...

• Taking it easy the next 3 weeks, with the exception of the Wall Street Run. Meaning no speedwork the week before the race, and possibly skipping it the week of 5/26 too.
• Keep easy runs easy, and do recovery runs solo to keep them a true recovery effort.
• Make sure to get a long run of 8-10 miles in the next coupla weekends
• Don't skip Harlem Hill...no wussing out and doing the lower 5
• XT at least twice a week
• hopefully lose a couple of pounds in the process
• pray that the weather on June 7th is more like 2006 Mini than the 2007 one.

And back on the topic of today's race-I'm so glad the course record didn't fall-no need to reward cockiness :) "The course record is not that hard"...whatever!! Ritz still owns Central Park...

i love me some cilantro

Not the herb (though I do like that too!) but actually the restaurant. Seems to have been a hit with the Flyers the last 2 weeks!! And personally, I can't pass up their chicken fajitas with whole wheat tortillas and frozen pomegranate margaritas (which are much stronger than the overpriced Rosa Mexicano ones!)

Last nite a few of us gathered there for a little team powwow...yep, Team Black is back for another go-around!! If last nite was any indication, we're in for another fun day...I'm sure there will be a lot of "talking legs." :-p

Then last Wednesday was the Flyers' annual "let's celebrate Cinco de Mayo not on May 5th so we can avoid the crowds!" fiesta. This consisted of a 3-stop bar crawl...had the option of doing 1 stop, 2 stops, or if you have the endurance...all 3!! And you know I am better at endurance than I am at sprints...so you can guess what I did. Yep me and only 2 other brave souls decided on the early start and had a $3 margarita at Blockheads...before trekking a few blocks to Mustang Grill, where a few others started to join us. We had the back room to ourselves for a bit, so that was fun!! Finally, we headed a few blocks north to the final destination-Cilantro, which had the biggest crowd of the nite. More margaritas, some salsa, guac, fajitas, you name it...some fun trivia quizzes on NYC Mexican restaurants, Cinco de Mayo history, and tequila. I scored 100% on the first 2 (the restaurant one I finished answering in a minute!) but didn't fare as well on the tequila one. But was fun-and like any endurance event, paced myself well!!

Oh-that event was a certain other blogger's first Flyer event...yep, the Laminator is officially one of us. (welcome to the dark side...hehe.) Definitely as nice in person as he is on his blog...heck, he kept me company last nite during the group run when no one else would (probably since I called him out on this post...hehe.)

And on the topic of last nite's group run, a little bit of a mini-rant. OK...according to Mr. Garmin, I ran about a 9:10-9:15 pace for the loop last nite. Which considering the fact that my legs were still tired from Wednesday's tracky behavior and just felt like an easy run to "shake them out" a little bit...was pretty much what I should be doing. But the fact that in a group of about 15 people, I was SO far behind everyone...am I crazy, or is something wrong here? Since when has 9:15 pace become back of the pack? Yeah, I know-the runs are different for everyone, some are faster, some may not be using this as an easy/recovery run...but it is insane that I still have to worry about having to run by myself, or getting dropped. There...rant over.
(And in case anyone was gonna say it's the pot calling the kettle black...yes, I did use to be one of those. And I did learn my lesson and dealt with 3 years of injury/overtraining BS because of it. Trying to be smarter now...)

Got my bib for tomorrow's race...I'm yellow!! Which is the 3rd corral for those keeping track at home...not too shabby!! I'm curious to experience this whole corral hoopla for myself.

you win some, you lose some

Last nite's speed workout brought me to the track at Riverbank State Park...my first time at this track which was more...lively than E6th street? Well crowded at least. And more obstacles to dodge (lots of soccer balls!)

And I got to try out the Garmin for the first time during speed!! I decided to turn the "current pace" feature off and use the "current lap time" and distance to sorta give me an idea of pace.

So anyway-this workout was the same as the last track workout I did-the reverse ladder of 200/400/400/600/400/300/200. And my lovely Garmin made it so easy to download and export all my splits...

	Split Time	Split Distance	Split Pace
warmup	11:00	1.08	10:10
warmup w/ fast turns*	6:22	0.78	8:07
200m	0:47	0.13	6:06
recovery	1:24	0.13	10:52
400m	1:38	0.26	6:25
recovery	1:24	0.13	11:18
400m**	1:43	0.26	6:30
recovery	1:20	0.12	11:22
600m	2:42	0.37	7:14
recovery	1:24	0.12	11:24
400m	1:46	0.26	6:58
recovery	1:25	0.13	11:24
300m	1:17	0.19	6:48
recovery	0:49	0.06	13:06
200m	0:50	0.12	6:56
recovery	2:48	0.22	12:32

*Slow on the straightaways, fast on the turns for 3 laps of the track
**I hit the lap button a few seconds too late-what was recorded was 1:46-but this was what I remembered...at any rate, this one was definitely under 1:45.

This one definitely felt tougher than the last one. I think several things were going on:
1. started out too fast
2. maybe not fully recovered from Broad Street
3. an "off" day-not that everyone needs to know about female issues, but when it's *that* time, I usually do feel a lot more sluggish

But-I think that all but 1 being under 7 pace is good...fact of the matter is, it's still better than where I was at a year or so ago. And honestly-I think compared to how these felt, sub-8 miles in a race will seem easy...and isn't that the point of some of these workouts? :)

this brings a new definition to "annoying junk mail"

And may I add insulting to the description too? Yes I will.

OK, we all get those random junk mails addressed to "Our neighbor at" or "Resident" or something else.

But the one I got today? It was addressed to "Mr & Mrs (my name)"

OK-why is the assumption that every residence needs to have a couple living there, a family or whatever? Is it not unheard of-and may I add, normal!-for single people to live by themselves? Or forget the "live by themselves" part, how about the fact that not everyone is a part of a "Mr. and Mrs." jeez....

Well, Pinelawn Memorial Park and Garden Mausoleums-you ain't ever getting my business. (Not that I was in the market for...that...right now anyway!!)

disclaimer: it is that time of the month.

gotta love tax refunds!!

I'm sure the government is happy that I had plans to spend my additional tax refund...even before the money hit my account (any day now...woohoo!)

First off-my Garmin arrived a week ago!! And I've used it on 3 runs so far...measured the 2.5+1.66 bridle path at 4.15 miles, the full 6 Central Park loop at 6 miles even, and the lower 5.1 mile loop at 5.2 miles. So pretty damn close!! I'm definitely satisfied with it so far, and am looking forward to trying it out in a speed workout, and utilizing it for the upcoming marathon long runs...however, I am kind of iffy about using it in a race. I think had I used it at Broad Street...I may have been too conservative, instead of "trying on" the 7:45s. And question for those other Garmin users...I have tried out both the software that came with it for exporting data, and also tried out MotionBased...however, the MotionBased data always has the distance a little longer than what is actually on the Garmin...anyone know why?

Secondly...I treated myself to a fancy-schmancy haircut!! After hearing the rave reviews about Devachan...and actually having used their hair products for the last year!-I decided I needed to try it out for myself. And actually-thanks to my Amex Membership Rewards points, I had a gift card as well!! So I could not resist-and let me say, it did not disappoint. The stylists were great-asked me a lot of questions about what I liked and didn't like about my hair and what type of cut I wanted, really did a great job to make the most of my hair type with less maintenance, and were very helpful in showing me how to style it at home!! And I was very happy with the end result-and even was able to duplicate it yesterday! I definitely will be back...making my hair routine easier is definitely worth it. (And from what I heard, usually their cuts grow out better and need less trims...so I may not need to go back every 3 months like I usually do, so it just might be a wash...) So yeah...you can say I drank the Devachan kool-aid (or I should say iced tea...they serve this iced tea that is addictively good!)

So this weekend, I will be at the Healthy Kidney 10K...I signed up only as a way to get in a few miles (as the rest of the day will be occupied) and get a new techy shirt :-p Plus I figured it's better to test out the new corral system in a race that I really don't have much expectations for (hoping that the Mini 10K will have the nice weather of 2 years ago-I'd rather shoot for a good time there.) And hitting up Wall Street next week with my company...only goal there is to finish first among my colleagues :-p (and can act as my speedwork for the week!) Though I think it would be fun to have a pool to guess what the distance of that race will be (an actual 5K this year? Or 3 miles? 3.3 miles? 2.7 miles? The course map looks the same as last year so I'll say 3 miles...)

broad street pics!

me and crazy bandana-head before the race...



















nearing the finish...the homestretch!!

























kicking it in...finished!!

boycott nj transit!! (i wish!)

(BCG-this post is for you...your NJTransit tales came to mind when I was mentally composing this blog post.)

Being that my parents live in NJ, that means unless I get a ride from the city-I unfortunately am forced to take NJ Transit's lovely trains...from Penn Station to Secaucus Junction, then transfer to a different train heading to Bergen County. Should be easy, right? Wrong...you don't know the number of times I have come very close to missing the connection at Secaucus because the train was late leaving Penn-and one time heading back to the city, the train was running so behind schedule that I missed my connecting train to Penn by less than a minute (with the next one not scheduled to arrive for another 45 minutes!)-had I known that I was gonna miss the train, I would have stayed on the current train to Hoboken and taken the PATH train.

So-being that I am not crazy about buses, and that Amtrak would cost an arm and a leg-my travel plans were as follows-NJ Transit to Trenton, SEPTA to Philly. Then reverse that going home. Should have been easy. Oh boy it was not...

First off-as I mentioned in a previous post-the train heading to Trenton kept slipping further and further behind schedule and left us in jeopardy of not making the connection at Trenton. And we had to run for it once there. What was supposed to be about 10 minutes to make the connecting train was less than 1 minute. But make it I did, and they did even hold the train a coupla minutes. Now-I know that NJ Transit is horrible at making connections. To the point where I try and take a train out of Penn that departs a few minutes earlier than the suggested one to be on the safe side. But here-considering the trains were once an hour...didn't really have that option.

But that was nothing compared to the return trip!! The plan was to leave Philly a little after 1, catch the 2pm departure from Trenton, get into Penn around 3:30ish. Got the SEPTA without any problems, got into Trenton on time. But minutes and minutes went by and nothing was leaving. To top it all off, the conductors were kinda vague as to what was going on. Good thing I had a smartphone with Internet access, right? I got on the NJ Transit website and found out what the conductors were not telling us-that there was an incident in New Brunswick and that all NE Corridor service (both NJT and Amtrak) was suspended between Metropark and Trenton. You could tell that the natives were getting restless, especially when being told that no one knew when service would be back up and running!!

My thoughts? I understand that these things happen-and I understood why service was suspended-but at that point what I wanted to know what my options were. A bus? Find some way to get to Newark and take the PATH train in? Or just wait it out?

Well that "undetermined time" was only an hour...we were able to get going a little after 3 pm. Oh-did I mention I had to change cars twice? First I could not take this one annoying chick yelling at whoever was on the other end of her cell phone conversation. Then, I had to move again, because I did not feel like listening to a bunch of guys saying "f*ck, f*ck, sh*t" for an hour and a half. Unfortunately, where I finally situated myself was behind 2 girls yapping away the entire time...I didn't feel like moving again, just put on my headphones (though I did notice one woman move away from them...guess she also thought they were annoying!)

So we're on the move, all should be well right? Nope. First off, apparently some people got on the train that were smoking and I heard the conductor say that they'd have to get off at the next stop. And then the train came to a stop just a little bit south of New Brunswick...and just stood there. All that was announced was a "stop signal"...until about a half hour passed and the real reason was finally revealed-that 2 tracks in New Brunswick were out of service due to the incident, so they had to let trains that were going south use the northbound tracks to drop off passengers...OK, why wasn't this told to us a half-hour ago? You could tell that the conductor was getting pissed, one of the things he said was "I do not make stupid announcements."

So we finally get to and past New Brunswick (albeit over 2 hours behind schedule!)...should be smooth sailing, right? Well, we pull into Secaucus where the platform is absolutely packed (i guess there was a lack of trains heading into Penn...hmmm, wonder why?) And I guess those natives were restless, because there were several announcements saying that the train was full, we couldn't take anymore passengers, wait for the next train right behind this one...

Well finally, a little after 6, we got into Penn. And the conductor said to us "For those of you who have been on here since Trenton...this has been one hell of a ride!"

Understatement of the century.

NYRR probably thinks I don't even run

Just got my Spring 2008 issue of NY Runner magazine in the mail yesterday...and first flipped to my favorite section, the "This Running Town" pullout...as it highlights the local scene.

And on the back cover...well looky looky here. Why it's me and Flyer JD, smiling pretty for the photographer before the Colon Cancer 4-miler. Very cool! :)

So...why the title? Well, thats because any pictures that NYRR has captured of me and published-be it print or online-I'm either....

frolicking in Lasker Pool after the Dash and Splash

looking silly on the dance floor

posing with teammates before a race

They have yet to get a picture of me actually running :-p

But honestly-not complaining. I actually think it's kinda funny!!

pocketful of sunshine

Oh boy. This is gonna be a long one. Let me just say-Broad Street did not disappoint at all. This was probably one of the most fun races I have done in a long time. And I intend to be back. But to back up...

My regular readers probably know that I was targeting Broad Street as my spring "A" race-I was working my way back from a calf injury and not really up to doing a half-marathon...and I had never done a 10-mile race before!!

Even though I didn't say em publicly-I had goals. And I can say what they are now:

Main "I'd be happy" goal-1:20 to 1:21ish-which would be in line with my recent 4-mile race.
Secret stretch goal-sub-1:20
Uber secret super stretch goal-beat my "unofficial 10-mile PR" of 1:19:09 (first 10 miles of the Vegas Half.) This I felt would only happen if the stars were aligned...

So anyway, a couple of encouraging recent speed workouts left me feeling like I was ready to "pop a good one." I was ready, the only thing concerning me was the weather report...

Saturday morning, I make my trip to Philly. Subway to Penn. NJ Transit to Trenton. SEPTA to Suburban Station. Easy peasy, right? I'm sure you can guess which was the weak link here. Yep, it was the one and only NJ Transit. As the train headed towards Trenton, NJ Transit kept doing their NJ Transit thing-it kept slipping further and further behind schedule and left us in jeopardy of not making the connection at Trenton. And we had to run for it once there. What was supposed to be about 10 minutes to make the connecting train was less than 1 minute. But make it I did, and they did even hold the train a coupla minutes. First stroke of good luck for the weekend...

Got to my hotel in Center City which-I didn't realize it at the time, but I could not have picked a better location. Was not even 5 minutes from Suburban Station, from the shuttle bus to the expo, right in the middle of everything-so convenient. Oh and my favorite part-on every floor they actually had a water cooler and bottles to put the water in-so no having to buy bottled water-it's like they catered to runners or something :) Anyway, dropped my stuff in the room and went to hit the expo. Only thing I did not like about the expo was you had to go to one end to get your bib, then all the way to the other end to get the T-shirt...I bet it was their sneaky way of making sure that everyone sees all the booths :-p Actually didn't spend too much money-and really wanted to stay off my feet. Later, me and Flyer NH hit up Buca di Beppo for dinner (same place we went to the night before the SF Half too!) A little pasta, a little merlot-all was well-and time to rest up!!

Race day!! I woke up too early as usual-had to have a cup of coffee, have a bagel with white chocolate peanut butter, get dressed, stretch, hydrate, make sure I have everything...and left my room a little after 6:30...a little on the early side, but I had heard horror stories about the SEPTA train on race day. I stopped by Starbucks to get a concoction that did work in SF-coffee with a shot of vanilla syrup. Walked the couple of blocks to the subway and didn't even have to wait long for a train. (And gotta love that I was able to ride the train for free but just showing my race bib!) We got to the start area by 7:15-in plenty of time!! Better to kill time than sit on the train and stress, methinks. So I hit up the port-a-johns, stretched for a bit, then went to the baggage busses to drop off my bag...and who do I see? Crazy Bandanahead. Yep, he was there running the race with a friend of his. We chatted for a couple minutes before they headed towards the start. Before I checked my bag though I had to make a decision-to iPod or not to iPod? Even though I had a good playlist...I leaned towards no. Although it had stayed dry so far, there was still the 30% chance of rain-and also I had good results in my last race without the iPod. But I did have to listen to my lucky song-"Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield. My last 2 races, I've heard that song before leaving my apartment, so it's become my lucky song :)

Warmed up a little bit and then lined up near the front of the 8 minute group with Crazy Bandanahead :) We both could not believe the crowds-over 20,000 people there!! The announcer said that probably the following year they would move to a corral system-which would be a good thing...the "honor" system doesn't work!! As the race start drew closer I didn't have the nervousness I usually feel...I was strangely calm. Hmmm. The horn sounded and I crossed the start line...about 2 and a half minutes later. The speakers were blasting "Eye of the Tiger"...nice song to kick things off!!

My plan for the race was as follows-take it easy on mile 1, miles 2-6 are for pacing, 7-10 are for racing. I did have to do a bit of weaving in and out of slower runners, but I kept it easy, not even breathing hard...that was rewarded with an 8:00 mile 1-I was actually relieved!! Then I just decided to pick it up a tiny bit, but to a pace I thought I could maintain for 10 miles, and even pick it up at the end...which turned out to be in the 7:45 range, give or take a second or 2. Miles 2-5 really seemed to fly by, before I knew it City Hall was in my sights...was fun running through all the different neighborhoods, but just also knowing I was having a good day...maybe the stars were going to align for this one!! Hit 5 miles in 39:03...1:19 was definitely doable, as was 1:18...but could I run a negative split and do 1:17? Let's find out!!

Took a gel during mile 6 as we were approaching City Hall...didn't know if I'd need it, but it couldn't hurt. We finished with the one turn (or turns) of the race around City Hall, back onto Broad Street and hit the mile 6 marker...OK, time to get to work.

Miles 7 and 8 were both 7:41...a little faster, but I was definitely tiring. A guy wearing a maroon shirt came up alongside me and said "good pace." Thank you Mr. Maroon-and you are going to be my rabbit for the remainder of the race. For those last coupla miles...I really had to play some mental mind games. You made it this far. 1:17 is so within your reach. You got it, just do the work. It's not even 20 minutes to go...let's go!!! Mile 9 was a tiny bit better at 7:39...and Mile 10 actually had a hill in it!! OK, so minor compared to, say, Mile 13 in the Queens half, but it was still at a time when I did not want one. I really tried to go all out here...but dammit, another sidestitch snuck up!! Breathe. Breathe. 5 minutes to go and then you can stop. With about a half-mile to go, I came up behind and passed another runner I knew from NYC...was surprised as she is usually way in front of me!! Finally, saw the Navy Yard Gate meaning a quarter mile to go...and nope, did not fall for that as being the finish line!! (I had many warnings!) Got closer and closer and saw the finish line...and the clock...dammit, looked like I was gonna miss out on sub-1:20 on the clock. But finish strong. The runner I just passed passed me back (but shouted out encouragement to me)...she had a good kick going but I couldn't match it. No worries-I just ran my fastest mile of the race anyways (7:34) and more than achieved my uber-secret super stretch goal!!

Yes kiddos...that was a 1:17:30 (7:45 pace)...and a pretty cool negative split too-39:03/38:27!

Splitsville:

1. 8:00
2. 7:43
3. 7:46
4. 7:47
5. 7:47
6. 7:52
7. 7:41
8. 7:41
9. 7:39
10. 7:34

I was quite sore at the end-especially my quads! But very happy.
Hmm...and a certain someone said to me when I told him last year that I wanted to run this race and shoot for a good time, that I "shouldn't get my hopes up" because "I may get disappointed." Ummm yeah...what you said. (OK granted we were both drinking at the time. But still.)

And how great was it that there was no rain, the weather was absolutely perfect...talk about the stars aligning.

I couldn't stay too long afterwards-had a noon checkout at my hotel. Grabbed some water and Gatorade, a pretzel and my food bag...headed to the baggage buses to claim my bag and then to the shuttle bus to take us to the subway. And we got free subway fare again!! Cool.

Quickly showered, packed, checked out, got something to eat, left Philly at 1:05 pm...didn't get into Penn Station until a little after 6. (That's an adventure for another post, don't want it to detract from the race report!)

What a great race!! First off, was very well executed-especially for the size of the field! The city really gets into it as the support is great...and oh yeah, the fact that it's a very flat and fast course doesn't hurt either. Makes me wonder what I'd be capable of on other flat courses!! But I was very proud of the execution-I kept things in check at the beginning, kept on pace for the first half, picked up the effort when I needed to, pushed through the pain when I needed to.

So on what was a cloudy morning in Philly...this race was definitely my "pocketful of sunshine."

"The sun is on my side
Takes me for a ride
I smile up to the sky
I know I'll be alright..."

like i need to be more obsessive about split times

Yep-I just ordered one of these bad boys today-couldn't resist a great deal (rei.com through May 11-hint hint. just in case anyone else was looking too!!)

But seriously, I didn't get it to obsess more about my times/paces. I thought it would be useful during marathon training...doing long runs outside Central Park, making sure I'm on pace during the NYRR Long Training Runs when the mile markers render themselves useless. And may help cure my "rabbiting" problem during speed workouts too :)

I've heard good things about this gadget, plus I wanted to get a GPS-based device...a few years back, I had the FitSense-which utilized a footpod that needed to be calibrated. Anyway, even though I tried to calibrate it with the measured mile around the reservoir (didn't really have access to a track at the time!) it was still off...I remember using it in a race and the mile splits being totally off (plus it has an "autosplit" feature at each mile that I could not turn off!!) Not sure if I'd use the Garmin in a race though...

Big race weekend-good luck to everyone (whether you're running Brooklyn, Broad Street, NJ, LI or wherever else, 5K to marathon!!) Still crossing my fingers that the weather forecast for Sunday improves...

gotta hold back

Common sense says I should be taking it easy this week. But couldn't pass up a speed workout at the East 6th Street track-it's like a novelty for me!-as well as a coupla Blue Moons afterwards :) Just figure I'd modify it based on how I was feeling, no?

The workout was supposed to be 200/400/400/600/400/300/200-a reverse ladder of sorts. Wasn't sure if I would do the whole thing-play it by ear-as as you will see, I skipped the 3rd 400 in favor of extra recovery and the last 200 as well-had some intervention there (thanks!! someone had to do it :) ) Oh yeah-these intervals were supposed to be at 5K pace-which i'm guessing for me right now would be 7:30ish. Didn't quite net out like that...

Interval Length	Time	Pace	Comment
200m	0:46	6:10	holy crap, that sure as hell is not my 5K pace!
400m	1:39	6:38	neither is that. SLOW DOWN!!
400m	1:44	6:58	better, did feel like I was holding back, but still too fast...slow down, biatch!! :-p
600m	2:41	7:11	well at least I didn't sub 7 this one!!
300m	1:22	7:19	ok, this is more like 5K pace...my PR 5K pace!! Still really felt like I was holding back...but have to keep Sunday in mind.

I think, after doing intervals in Central Park and on the reservoir (slower surface, plus lots of people-dodging)...once I hit a flat surface like the track, it's a whole new ballgame. The first few intervals weren't easy pace, but I didn't feel like I was going all out either. (And had I not been racing this weekend, I would have been told to keep doing sub-7s for the workout!) But I did end the workout still feeling good, which was the most important thing. (And feeling fine today too.)

Also-last time I was at this track was back in October...the workout was 400m repeats...5 or 6 of them? I was told to shoot for 1:40s...the first was 1:42, the remainder was between 1:45 and 1:47...and that felt harder than yesterday's workout did!!

So...even though I did feel like I really had to hold back in this workout-knowing that compared to last time-if the problem last night was finding it hard to hold back, that was the better "problem" to have.

It just means I will have to really keep things in check for mile 1 on Sunday...but I usually do better pacing in longer distances...as a certain marathon showed :)