Another Week
by Robert James Reese » January 10th, 2010 » 7 Comments
On the running front, this week has been less than stellar. It started well, but went to shit when I decided to race the mile up at the Armory. Thanks to that, I finished with less than 47 miles for the week. Not where I need to be 6 weeks out from my marathon...
Monday was off, as always. Tuesday was a quick trip over the Queensboro, the best run of the week as far as numbers go. On Wednesday, I met up with my GMR teammate Jeff in Central Park. While warming up, we randomly ran into two of our other teammates, TK and Eric, who were heading out on their own run. Small town, this New York.
NYRR didn't post the events for Thursday's meet up at the Armory until earlier this week. Helen and I had other plans for the evening, but when we learned that the mile was this week, she suggested we go up there instead. I was anxious to get a shot at sub-5 and happily agreed. I ran the mile, but nowhere close to sub-5. I was in the 6th of 8 (I think) heats and still managed to finish dead last. It wasn't that I raced dumb. In fact, I went out exactly as planned, hitting 37 seconds each of the first two laps. My legs just didn't have fast in them. Starting in the fourth lap, I slowed and fell from the middle of the pack to behind the pack, eventually finishing in 5:18. Eh... I cheered on Helen as she ran the 800, and then we ran a super-relaxing cooldown to and over the George Washington Bridge. It was the perfect run to take my mind off the disappointment of the mile.
Unfortunately, the mile didn't just bruise my ego, it did a number on my lungs as well. I was tightening up bad and having trouble breathing when I got back home Thursday night. I didn't even set my alarm early enough to get a run in Friday – I already knew it wasn't going to happen.
Saturday morning I woke up early and got a run over the Williamsburg Bridge in, but it wasn't pretty. About 100 yards into the run, I wanted to quit. My chest was on fire and I was having to fight for every step. I ran into some serious digestive and lack of fuel issues too. The last couple miles of what ended up being only an 11 mile run felt tougher than the end of any marathon. It was a fight.
Good news is that today's run went much better. Helen and I headed down to Central Park, did a loop, then an extra trip up the Harlem Hill. I was still feeling pretty shitty at the start of today, but by the end, I was almost back to normal. That's good news for next week.
Finally, a couple random notes: With yesterday's run over the Williamsburg Bridge, I have already run all 6 major Manhattan bridges in 2010. (I've run 3 of the ones over the Harlem River into the Bronx too.) Did I ever mention that I like bridges?
And, more exciting, I got an email yesterday informing me that I was accepted into the Empire State Building Run-up. That comes as a big surprise. I didn't think I was hardcore enough to get invited to that event yet. I guess I need to start doing a bit of stair work.
Monday was off, as always. Tuesday was a quick trip over the Queensboro, the best run of the week as far as numbers go. On Wednesday, I met up with my GMR teammate Jeff in Central Park. While warming up, we randomly ran into two of our other teammates, TK and Eric, who were heading out on their own run. Small town, this New York.
NYRR didn't post the events for Thursday's meet up at the Armory until earlier this week. Helen and I had other plans for the evening, but when we learned that the mile was this week, she suggested we go up there instead. I was anxious to get a shot at sub-5 and happily agreed. I ran the mile, but nowhere close to sub-5. I was in the 6th of 8 (I think) heats and still managed to finish dead last. It wasn't that I raced dumb. In fact, I went out exactly as planned, hitting 37 seconds each of the first two laps. My legs just didn't have fast in them. Starting in the fourth lap, I slowed and fell from the middle of the pack to behind the pack, eventually finishing in 5:18. Eh... I cheered on Helen as she ran the 800, and then we ran a super-relaxing cooldown to and over the George Washington Bridge. It was the perfect run to take my mind off the disappointment of the mile.
Unfortunately, the mile didn't just bruise my ego, it did a number on my lungs as well. I was tightening up bad and having trouble breathing when I got back home Thursday night. I didn't even set my alarm early enough to get a run in Friday – I already knew it wasn't going to happen.
Saturday morning I woke up early and got a run over the Williamsburg Bridge in, but it wasn't pretty. About 100 yards into the run, I wanted to quit. My chest was on fire and I was having to fight for every step. I ran into some serious digestive and lack of fuel issues too. The last couple miles of what ended up being only an 11 mile run felt tougher than the end of any marathon. It was a fight.
Good news is that today's run went much better. Helen and I headed down to Central Park, did a loop, then an extra trip up the Harlem Hill. I was still feeling pretty shitty at the start of today, but by the end, I was almost back to normal. That's good news for next week.
Finally, a couple random notes: With yesterday's run over the Williamsburg Bridge, I have already run all 6 major Manhattan bridges in 2010. (I've run 3 of the ones over the Harlem River into the Bronx too.) Did I ever mention that I like bridges?
And, more exciting, I got an email yesterday informing me that I was accepted into the Empire State Building Run-up. That comes as a big surprise. I didn't think I was hardcore enough to get invited to that event yet. I guess I need to start doing a bit of stair work.
7 Comments
Sorry about the mile. I'll sit on the other side of the fence to Flo. Still reckon you can run a 'good' mile while doing marathon training. Might not be sharp enough for your best mile, but still could be close to 5 minutes.
That's exciting about Empire State. A lady from my club ran last year - incidentally, she also runs about 5 minutes for the mile.
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