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…

shoe upgrades suck

no better way to put it.

there’s a saying that goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” someone forgot to tell the running shoe companies that.

yeah, the infamous shoe search. i actually am very pleased with the Asics Cumulus 7′s that I had bought back in April-I don’t think I’ve been this happy with a trainer in a very long time. Unfortunately I had bought them a month before Asics came out with the upgrade. Right now, the mileage on these shoes is pushing 300, so I figure I needed a game plan in terms of what to wear for the remainder of the training cycle. I thought the best thing to do was work a new pair into the rotation now, and then break in a 2nd pair in early October and run the marathon in those shoes.

So back to JackRabbit I went to check out the Cumulus 8′s. They felt fine, but when running on the treadmill, there apparently was some late-stage pronation that wasn’t there when I ran in the 7′s (I wore my orthotics in both.) So the salesperson brought out something that she said was similar-Brooks Axiom 2. I was a little suspicious because I thought I remembered someone saying that was more of a lightweight trainer and she said “no it’s more in line with the Cumulus.” Anyway, it felt fine running in them, no pronation. So I decided to give those a shot.

I got home and did a little Internet research…and just as I thought, the Axioms are more in line with shoes like the DS-Trainers. Shit. I should never have been sold these shoes. They have to go back. (And normally, JackRabbit has great service-but this particular saleperson was not quite up to speed.)

So here I am, no closer to a shoe solution. So, my faithful readers, do you recommend that I continue the search, or find a site online that still carries the Cumulus 7′s and get 2 pairs of them to last me through the marathon? (And if anyone knows of a site that carries the Cumulus 7′s in a women’s size 8-please let me know!! I’d be everso appreciative. My usual haunts either don’t have the 7′s or don’t have my size.)

Got in a 3.2 mile run tonite to bring me to a little over 30 miles this week. 32 on tap for next week, and I’ll thankfully have plenty of company for my long run, as I’ll be helping pace lead during NYRR’s Long Training Run. I’ve done this the last 2 years and it’s fun (and I’m actually not too bad at keeping the pace!) Then the following week my long run gets scaled back a little bit. I just need to beat the heat this week…I have a feeling I will be doing morning workouts this week.

Other randomly scattered thoughts:

• Another blogger meetup!! I met the very nice Jay T while he was in the city today on a little bike excursion-we met up to grab a bite to eat and chatted for a bit about things like blogging, work, running, and oh, all of you :-p
• How we know MySpace is taking over the world (or at least the Internet world)-a movie’s “official” site is a MySpace site.
• It’s summertime. It’s hot. ConEd really needs to get with the program already. In addition to the power probs in Queens and Staten Island the last coupla weeks, my office building had issues on Friday-the main floor was having power problems and they were asking all the other floors to conserve power, so our office manager turned off all the overhead lights. I couldn’t work with just light from my computer, so I just worked from home the rest of the day. With another scorcher week coming up, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happening again… (i know this is child’s play compared to what happened in Queens, but still annoying all the same.)

that’s all for now folks…another loverly workweek awaits.

now playing: “every day is a winding road” ~ sheryl crow

well it wasn’t pretty…

…but i did it.

and in fact i miscalculated the mileage on part of the route and wound up with 15 miles total instead of 14…oops.

my plan to beat the heat, was to try and get in some mileage before the Flyers group run at 9. so i did 1 lower 5 mile loop, then ran down to 72nd street and east drive to meet the group. then did the full 6 with the group, ran back up to west 86th, then hopped on the rez for a loop. where i miscalculated, was the distance between west 86th and east 72nd…it’s over a mile each way and for some reason i thought it was less.

well the good news is that i’m no worse for wear, i just need to shorten my recovery run tomorrow and since i have Monday as an XT day anyway, I’ll be fine. and even though i slowed a little at the end, i didn’t feel the shakiness that i did the last time i did 15, so hopefully either i am getting used to the heat or i am getting a better handle on electrolyte replacement (1 gel before the run, 1 after 7-8 miles, and i carried a bottle of Gatorade with me the entire time.) after my failed attempt last week, i think i really needed this mental boost, that i really can do it (well, as long as i don’t start off at a sub-8 pace!! )

and it was actually such a relief to be done by mid-morning…was glad to be done with 15 miles around the same time that a lot of people finished 3.1 miles…

collision course

my legs were still feeling some tiredness in them (even though I took an XT day yesterday instead of running) so i decided to do my 4 miles on the bridle path…figured i could use the break from all the damn hills. plan was to do the 2.5 mile loop, then the 1.6 mile loop. works for me.

on the northwest corner of the bridle path…just south of the 102nd street transverse, the path sorta thins out a little. not too narrow, but not as wide as the park drives. i’m just joggin along leisurely, minding my business….but even though i had the music on, i hear a voice behind me shout “ON YOUR LEFT!!!” and see a big group coming at me from behind. and if that wasn’t enough, i saw yet another group coming at me from the other direction. with both groups pretty much taking up the entire path-basically, i was going to get trampled either way, so i just stopped and got off the bridle path until both groups passed. (i don’t know how there wasn’t a collision, but somehow it was avoided…)

it’s no secret to all the park has been getting more crowded each year and it seems like it’s at an all-time high this year-with all the big training groups now going off the park drives and also using the bridle path, which i know some felt was pretty much the last resort to escape all the crowding. i know everyone has the right to train wherever or whenever…but man, would it hurt for some of these groups to practice a little etiquette…maybe, i don’t know, share the road??? i know this is nothing that hasn’t already been said, but i’m just thinking it’s going to get to the point where the over-crowdedness is really gonna be dangerous. (maybe this will be another motivator to keep cars out of central park 24/7??)

anyway, i finished up that first loop without incident and then on my second loop saw some Flyers who were doing the group run in passing (yeah, i know i was being antisocial by running solo, but i really just felt like running my own pace and i was majorly dragging too.)

so i’m completely resting tomorrow and as for my long run saturday…what’ll be, no one knows or at least not til after it’s over. i’ll say this much, i need to get an early start, as saturday looks to be a scorcher…

oh, and good luck to those who are running the Run to Home Plate 5K on Saturday!! I’m so sorry to be missing this one (not!) Say hi to Mr. Met for me. Or not :-p And for all you Yankee fans, be sure to wear your caps

now playing: “seven days in sunny june” ~ jamiroquai

old-school nyc marathon sign

old-school nyc marathon sign
Originally uploaded by nyflygirl76.

This was down the block from me, guess one of my neighbors wanted to toss it after 9 years…

i should be so lucky

ah, dating…always the controversial topic, isn’t it?

this post on Derek’s blog has turned into quite the heated debate. unfortunately, not the kind of thing I want to be reading to boost my ego-that in exactly 2 months, I will be considered “undesirable” by men!!

but this post by a commenter brings up a very good point that i think i have mentioned before…luck is a major player in the equation.

here’s a perfect example of that.

a couple of Flyers have just recently gotten engaged. the girl met the guy within hours of her joining the Flyers. they’ve been inseparable ever since. (and i am happy for them, they do make a very nice couple.)

on the other hand, I’ve been a member for over 2 years, with no luck in finding my Mr. Right. and believe me (and i’m sure others can vouch for that)…it’s not due to lack of trying

so…based on this scenario…does this make the other girl that much of a better person than me…that she accomplished within 2 hours what i haven’t accomplished in 2 years-or does it make her very, very lucky? i would think it would be the latter…correct?

i left it where?

was quite obvious i left my hill workout tonite on the streets of Lake Placid…between my aborted long run (and let me tell you, the hills there make Central Park look like child’s play) and just being on my feet pretty much from 7am to midnight on Sunday with really not a lot of downtime.

and i felt it during my hill repeats tonight…i normally actually don’t mind Cat Hill repeats (and my last Cat Hill workout was a pretty good one) but this one felt tougher. we did the full hill this time (.24 miles according to GMaps), 8 times hard up the up the hill, recover down.

the damage: 1:49/1:52/1:54/1:54/1:57/1:56/1:55/1:54

you can see where i really started to fall apart. i had to even walk part of the recoveries by that time. just slow jogging wasn’t helping with the recovery. i even said to the coaches “this isn’t good.” it just wasn’t my day and i knew it. and i know these days happen. but i know it could have been prevented…arrghhh!! i have 1 more running weekday for this week and that one will be done at a glacial pace…if i have to friggin do it by myself.

i spoke briefly with Coach J (our assistant coach, the one who helped me with the game plan) about the long run dilemma-he thought i’d be fine doing the 14 this saturday, as long as i shortened the sunday recovery run. (and as long as i slowed it down!!) however, if i’m still feeling as tired as i do right now on saturday-i’m gonna scale it back. play it by ear. (i actually think i am sorta leaning more towards 12 or 13 instead…but we’ll see.)

one day late and a few miles short

i do mean to write up a longer post about my weekend in Lake Placid to watch a bunch of Flyers (and FOFs) compete in the Ironman. i’ll get to that either later or tomorrow-it’s just sleep and work took greater priority.

the good thing was that it was a very fun trip. watching the Ironman is amazing-I don’t think I’d ever want to put myself through that, but it was very fun to watch, especially screaming like crazy when seeing one of our own. all of our athletes did very well-only one didn’t finish, but the most important thing was that he was OK-he was very, very smart in his decision and i know he’ll kick major ass next time

the bad thing was that due to circumstances beyond my control (having someone who was running sub-8′s initially setting the pace, getting separated from said speedsters and making a wrong turn, and my legs just not wanting to get with the friggin program that day,) i came up short on my long run-planned 14 miles, only got in 10. so-how do i compensate for that? my long run for this week was supposed to be 10-should i just do the 14 instead (especially since my long run next week is supposed to be 16 and i don’t want to start falling behind on long runs now or i’ll never make it to the start line!) any advice would be appreciated.

back to work…isn’t it amazing how much can accumulate in 2 days off??

i can see clearly now…

oh, being that I decided to take a summer Friday, i thought it would have been a good idea to accept a last-minute drinks invite last nite with the co-workers and move my 8-mile run to this morning instead. hindsight is always…

well it wasn’t all that bad. last nite we had drinks at Buddakan since someone in my group was celebrating a birthday. I had this one great drink…though i can’t for the life of me remember what the name of this specialty cocktail was-maybe “Charm”?-anyway it was passionfruit liquor and champagne-y goodness, with blueberries at the bottom. And blueberries are good enough on their own, but liquor soaked as well…

so this morning, i found myself in the same boat as jbl-wanting to go out and run, but didn’t want to chance it during the torrential downpour. i waited it out and headed out a little after noon. i figured getting the rain out of the way would mean it’d be a little cooler and less humid-nope, so damn muggy. (at least it meant i’d get both a running and swimming workout in. or something.) slugged it out…ran into Derek when i had a little over a mile to go, and boy he pushed me through that last mile. not my greatest 8 miles, but it’s 8 miles in the book. and all i have left on tap for the week is a 14-mile long run, which i will be doing up in Lake Placid this weekend (the predicted high temps are in the 70s…how great is that?)

and thankfully, today’s run was done before the rains picked up again and again. once again, it’s forced happy hour plans indoors, but as always…the party goes on.

i called this one a mile away

just a couple days ago, i received an email from the guy i went out with over july 4th weekend…pretty much apologizing for not calling (though i had thought it was obvious that a second date…or even a future…was not in the cards…) and among the reasons for not calling (in addition to the age difference and just being completely different people…)

and maybe because I am not a runner and I think you really want to identify with someone who runs…..

(i really, really tried to keep the running talk to a minimum, i swear!! i know not everyone finds talk about goal races and long runs as interesting as i do :-p )

not to beat a dead horse here-but i am very envious of all those runner-runner couples (or could be runner-triathlete, same difference)…be it all the Flyer-Flyer couples, or Flyer-other running club, or even 2 unaffiliated runners. bottom line is, they “get” each other. they understand why you need to get up before 6 a.m. to sneak in a workout before it gets too warm, or why you plan trips around certain races, or they even just cross the finish line hand-in-hand. and understand why your fellow running club-mates are not simply “the road runners”-they’re actually a bunch of very cool people and your friends.

so yeah. nothing that has not already been said before. just found it funny that this one seemed to think what i was thinking a few weeks back.

weren’t their 15 minutes up a long time ago?

please reality TV gods, make it stop.

please keep those 2 off my TV screen forever (well, i guess with the exception of the unavoidable Survivor and Amazing Race reruns…)

thanks in advance.

in the "i’m so glad i’m a runner" files

well tonite was the Philharmonic concert in Central Park. With only a 30% chance of rain predicted, I was pretty optimistic the weather gods would spare us tonite.

and they did, for the most part. it did drizzle a little in the beginning, but it felt pretty nice, as it cooled things off a little bit. i have to admit i wasn’t listening much to the music…too busy sipping on wine (red red wine…goes to my head…) and socializing…time really flies when you have fun, before i knew it, it was 9:30 and the fireworks signaling the end of the music were going off. it was much too soon for some of us, so a few of us said “oh, we’ll stick around for a little bit.”

famous last words.

before we knew it, the skies opened. and poured hard. and harder. it reminded me of the last night i ran in a rainstorm. from then, it was a game, to just get the hell outta there and home somehow ASAP. as i was closest to the east side at that point, i figured i’d get out to 5th avenue and either get a cab or the M79 bus, whichever came first. while trying to get out the park some guy says to me “well at least you look good.” (hey, something positive has to come out of this, right? typical new york moment…) finally made it to 5th avenue and ducked under the first awning i could find. and as soon as the first bus comes, i just book to make sure i get on that bus, and i do. and as soon as i make it to the west side, i just run the few blocks home as fast as i can. but my relief was short-lived as i find that my mini-wallet (that just held my money and ID) was missing.

uh-oh.

i grab my umbrella and hotfoot it out of my building…i thought i’d have to go as far as 81st St (where my loverly Banana Republic shopping bag had broke) but thank gawd, I didn’t have to go as far as all the way down the street where I found my mini-wallet.

so, can i credit being a runner with the fact that it gets me from point A to point B in everyday life that much faster? i think so. (and i think i’ve actually heard this quote before too…can’t remember from who though!) oh an the fact that i was wearing very runner-specific attire-a dri-fit tank and one of my running skirts-but did the job at looking stylish and being functional at the same time, especially with the weather!

well, at least the rain should end the heat wave…right?

now playing: “she drives me crazy” ~ fine young cannibals

executive decision

well, not knowing what tonite’s workout would be, and if there would be an option to take it easier, i decided to do speedwork this morning with the 6 am crew-yeah, it was still a cool 83 degrees, but would still be better than any running-be it fast or slow-in mid-90s weather with heat indices in the 100s.

anyway, the workout was a “reverse ladder” of sorts around the reservoir. 880 yards hard, recover to the “0″ at engineer’s gate, 660 hard (220 recovery,) 440 hard (220 recovery,) 220 hard, get some water, repeat again. anyway, i put up a pretty damn good fight in the weather:

Set 1			Set 2
Interval (in yards)	Time	Pace	Interval (in yards)	Time	Pace
880	3:34	7:08	880	3:39	7:18
660	2:53	7:41	660	2:41	7:09
440	1:52	7:28	440	1:48	7:12
220	0:55	7:20	220	0:48	6:24

I think I did start off a little bit too hard…chasing 3 guys that were running with us i let em go after the first quarter and just tried to run at my own pace. that first 660 repeat seemed much slower than all the others, so i’m not sure if that first hard 880 hurt me, or if i didnt recover enough, or if i even hit my watch too slow!! second set, the recoveries were a little bit slower, and i paced with 2 other girls who were around my pace, until i lost them near the end of the 660 (which i wonder if that one was right as well…yowza.) it had gotten hotter by the end, but i just pushed hard for the 440, and just booked that last 220.

we were given the option to do this “ladder” workout or do 220s…i preferred this one as i dislike shorter, more intense repeats…plus longer ones are better for marathon training, correct? and after the first loop, we also had the option to either continue the workout or do an easy loop…i figured if i made it that far, i can suck it up for another loop

anyway, i’m pleased with my showing in the heat, and especially since it’s tough for me to get out of slow mode at 6 am. here’s another one for the books…and it will leave my evening free to “enjoy” the Philharmonic in Central Park (i say enjoy in quotes because i’m not sure how fun 96 degree weather will be while sitting still!! we’ll see how long i last though…)

no excuses

with 4 miles left to go in my running week, i think i exhausted every single excuse in the book to try and skip that run…

• major hangover from having a bit too much to drink at Skylight’s birthday shindig the night before (ugh, i’d forgotten how nasty wine hangovers can be…)
• not enough sleep…i was out the door by 8 am to cheer on and take pictures of some Flyers on the run leg of the NYC Triathlon (read: did not sleep off the wine enough.) did that for about 2 hours, went home, took a quickie nap, met my bro at the Yankee game (and for the first time in god knows how long, I had no desire for beer at the game), went home, took another nap.
• was mad hot outside-like in the 90s.

However, I have to credit the triathletes for giving me inspiration…I mean, if they were able to run a 10K on such a ridiculously hot day, plus a swim and bike ride beforehand, I had no excuse. So I waited til after 7, hoping it’d be a little cooler then (it was, only 90 degrees as opposed to 92.) Got the miles in, but the effort was just not there, and my run time showed it. It’s ok, that was really, in theory supposed to be a recovery run…

The heat wave that has hit the big apple is supposed to continue through tomorrow evening. Luckily for me, my weekday mileage is a little lower this week (my weekend mileage upped.) I’ve decided to cross-train today, not sure yet what my plan will be in terms of speedwork tomorrow. I’m thinking I might do it tomorrow AM if I can wake up in time…

and on a non-running note, yesterday while waiting for the D train after the game, I run into one of my colleagues from my previous job (that i always seem to run into at yankee games!) he now works for the company where the account exec from my current company went last year, and my ex-colleague works for her now. so funny…it’s such a small world.

splish splash

The Dash and Splash 5-miler is one of my favorite runs…note I say runs, not races. In the July heat and humidity, it’s a good one to do non-competitively, or as part of a longer run, just to get access to Lasker Pool afterwards.

I had 7 miles on tap for today, so I ran to the start and did a loop around the northern hills to get a little over 2 miles under my belt before the start. They changed the course for this one-start on 102nd, then counter-clockwise around the lower 5-eliminating the nasty northern hills. I liked that change! Let’s hope they repeat that for the Club Championships next month.

Anyway, as it was a hot and humid day, I just wanted to run comfortably, whatever that may be, and slow for water when I need it too, and try to finish strong instead of fading. I kept it pretty controlled in the first half. A couple of teammates passed me and I just let them go. Around the halfway point, I saw a guy wearing a Harriers shirt (i dont know how that team wears black short-sleeve shirts in the sweltering heat-I was hot just wearing a sports bra!) who was keeping pace with me…he’d surge, then I would, so I sorta used him to pace off of for the remainder. Until the last mile, where I felt strong enough to seriously pick it up…left him in the dust and didn’t look back-picked off a Rez Dog in the process as well!! (i guess i am more competitive than i thought when i see other teams… )I had a coupla teammates taking pictures and cheering in the last mile, as well as a bunch of some of my favorite Flyer guys cheering near the finish. Helped make that last mile feel like a breeze!!

Splits:
1. 8:30 (west side hills.)
2. 8:19 (thought i had pulled it back but oh well. net downhill mile.)
3. 8:22 (slowed for water at the end of this mile and the beginning of mile 4)
4. 8:28 (cat hill)
5. 7:46 (show time!)

My final time was 41:25, an 8:17 pace…and if that sounds familiar, this is why…that is the exact same net time that I had in the Father’s Day 5-miler. How funny is that? The good news is that even though it was probably warmer today, definitely more humid, and the course a little tougher, that time took much less effort (and my slowest mile this time was my first instead of my last!! no falling apart in the heat this time!) so…i think i know what i want to run in next month’s Club Championships, which will be my next real “race effort”…sub-40 or bust.

After the race, a bunch of us headed to Lasker Pool…where oh.mah.gawd….that cold pool felt so damn good. Think an ice bath without the actual torture of one A bunch of us got silly and posed for pictures (and no, I will not be posting them here. :-p) The Flyers were having a picnic over in Harlem Meer, so we joined them after we were done splashing. All in all, a very fun morning.

now playing: “here i am (kaskade radio edit)” ~ david morales

i blame my co-worker for this one

yeah, this one has been on repeated play today. between said co-worker using it as part of his presentation to the company the other day about the financial update, and him emailing me the file of said song was just catnip for me because, well, the kind of week i’ve been having…

Where is the moment when needed the most
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
They tell me your blue sky’s faded to grey
They tell me your passion’s gone away
And I don’t need no carrying on

You stand in the line just to hit a new low
You’re faking a smile with the coffee to go
You tell me your life’s been way off line
You’re falling to pieces everytime
And I don’t need no carrying on

Cause you had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know
You tell me don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don’t lie
You’re coming back down and you really don’t mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day

Well you need a blue sky holiday
The point is they laugh at what you say
And I don’t need no carrying on

You had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know
You tell me don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don’t lie
You’re coming back down and you really don’t mind
You had a bad day

Sometimes the system goes on the blink
and the whole thing it turns out wrong
You might not make it back
and you know that you could be well oh that strong
And I’m not wrong

So where is the passion when you need it the most
Oh you and I
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

Cause you had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know
You tell me don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
You see what you like
And how does it feel one more time?
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
You had a bad day

now playing: “bad day” ~ daniel powter

over the hump

3 days down 2 to go…

not the smartest thing i could have done…but anticipating rain tomorrow morning, and having a meeting tomorrow after work, I decided to get in my last weekday run, a 7-miler, during the day today. (i had to take a half-personal day due to something i can’t mention on here ) don’t know if my legs were just tired from speedwork, or because of the incredibly muggy weather, but the 7.3 miles I ran today took so much more out of me (and was slower-paced) than my long run this past Sunday. I was secretly glad that the Philharmonic got rained out tonite…though it would have been fun to hang out with my fellow Flyers, sip some wine and listen to the music, I was just drained.

Also, a tip to fellow bloggers-if you ever wanted to edit comments on your own blog-this is how you do it. I use that to the fullest extent when I see spammers leave comments (and there have been quite a few in the last few days.)

dog days

no pun intended!! tonite’s speed workout was held at the Central Park “dog track” or Great Hill track (which apparently is .21 miles, not .25 like the webpage says. anyway, the coaches decided to grant us a little mercy in this disgustingly hot and muggy weather-5 x .42 (or 2 laps) with 90 seconds rest inbetween.

Repeat number	Time	Pace	Comment
1	2:59	7:06	great start!
2	3:02	7:13	still pretty good!
3	3:02	7:13	how’s that for consistency?
4	3:09	7:30	damn. heat getting to me.
5	3:10	7:32	damn again. fell apart in the last lap.

85 degree weather will do that to you! I rushed to the water fountain during the 90-second rests to get some type of refreshment, but that didn’t even seem to help. But still, satisfied with the effort given the conditions. Our ex-pres brought donuts for everyone…but you know my ass was kicked when I couldn’t even think about eating.

The Great Hill track was absolutely packed tonite!! Not only were the Flyers up there, but we also spotted several other teams. Unfortunately, the groups that bring the real crowds showed up near the end of the workout-but thank god, they didn’t start until we were done…it was bad enough that I had to be afraid of soccer balls getting kicked in my path, but man, can we ever have a speed workout where we don’t have to dodge the masses?

Last night was a pretty fun run-a creation of our president, the Full Buck Moon Light Run. (and thankfully-no one acted out a full buck moon…ok, that was bad, wasn’t it.) Though a little on the warm side, was still a very nice night to run, and this was actually the first time I’ve run on the bridges and along the East River path!! Was very cool, may have to integrate into some long runs this summer. Uptown Girl and Sempre Libera and a couple of their TRD teammates joined us for the run and for some beers afterwards! Chatted for a bit at the bar with a Flyer who was another Albany alum…we discussed how our team almost did the impossible during March Madness and reminisced about the days of WT’s, in addition to other things. All in all, a good night for a 6-mile run, some drinking and socializing.

And yes, I did change my picture. I know what a couple of my readers will say and no I’m not changing it back :-p This is the best action shot I’ve seen of me in awhile (and I wasn’t even racing here-was taken during the Arches Run a coupla weeks back.)

now playing: “running one” ~ from the “run lola run” soundtrack

one week down!

So I wound up a little ahead of the game in terms of the first week of marathon training…28 miles planned, actual 29.4. Not too shabby for a kickoff week. Nope, not at all.

After a 3-day workweek that felt like 5, I was so ready for an alcoholic retreat on Friday evening. In an attempt to break the endless string of rainy East Side happy hours, the Flyers tried a different location for our latest TGIFF-Sutton Place in east midtown. And the Reservoir Dogs joined us again for another “mixer.” Don’t know if it was the fact that it was Friday instead of Thursday…or that we picked a place above 14th street, but it was a much better turnout this time. Was a bit crowded…and the tables that we were originally promised didn’t happen, but that was ok, we just went with it every time a table got cleared, our crew wasted no time in snagging it. All in all, it was a beautiful night for some good (albeit overpriced) drinks, great company, great conversation. (and who knew that “CSG” could mean so many things…LOL.)

It was actually a little unofficial “bloggers meetup” of sorts…from our side it was myself, Sister Smile, Skylight and Jon…from the Rez Dogs side was Uptown Girl, Sempre Libera and Morrissey. And I found out I had quite a few other readers too…from both teams, mostly from the Flyers side. There was an article about blogs in last month’s Flyers newsletter, and mine was among those listed. So I had quite a few people asking me questions about and talking to me about my little work rant from the other day. And if you’re reading, I thank you for asking me about it, and I thank all of those who commented too. For understanding that I may not say the right things all the time, and I do talk (or blog) before I think sometimes, but this is where sometimes I do need to get those thoughts out, and the comments do really help…sometimes two (or more!) heads are better than one in terms of formulating a game plan.

OK, enough rambling. Today was long run day. 10 miles were on tap for me so I passed on doing the Bronx Half-I had done this one last year and didn’t really feel the love for it, so I decided to let it go this year. So instead, I decided to do a little out-and-back on the West Side highway down to Chambers St and back uptown…which actually turned out closer to 11 miles than 10-oh well. I figured I needed a break from the park and hills and it would be cooler down by the water…well I was right about the first but not the second. But the heat wasn’t as bad as it was last weekend, so I didn’t feel too affected. (I did need some gatorade after about 6 miles, which I downed in seconds.) Anyway…the run was done at around an 8:50 pace. Good news-the “back” portion was 30 seconds faster than the “out” portion, so it was encouraging that I was able to negative split a long run. Bad news-this was still too fast for a long run. Don’t know if it was because the path is much flatter than the park or that it’s early and my legs still have some freshness. But still, gotta pull back a little… (but at least I earned the right to pig out at Carmine’s later-yum! belated anniversary dinner for the parentals.)

This week, another 28 on tap (this is the “base” portion of my training cycle.) Weekend mileage lower, but weekday mileage a little higher. Which will include a moonlight run tomorrow night, a speed workout Tuesday night, and a coupla miles before the Dash and Splash on Saturday. (and a coupla more runs inbetween.)

now playing: “seasons of love (gomi’s lair club mix)” ~ from the “rent” sountrack

too confident?

i’ve been accused of many things in my life, but i can’t say being overly confident is one of them.

but this week, that’s how i was feeling about my training. for probably the first time since getting injured, i felt like i was in a good place with my running, the speed was coming back, i was pain-free, i had some decent races this spring, and a fun marathon training cycle to look forward to.

and of course when I start feeling confident about something, you can count on something to quickly bring me back to reality. that thing of course, being work.

there’s a project i am on that is going to require some travel in…you guessed it. september, october, november. just the time when i have to be racking up the miles. dammit!!!!!!!!!

yeah, it’s only gonna be 2-3 days out of a workweek. but it’s going to be several of those weeks. (Good thing I really don’t have a life!) And it will most likely be the beginning of the week, so that means missing Tuesday speedwork…and after I worked so hard these past few months to gain back a little bit of speed. And I’m sure cramming 40 miles into 3 consecutive days is not the best thing to do either…ugh, I really did not want to do this training half-assed. If there is going to be any walking during the marathon, I’d want it to be because I pushed myself to the limit, not due to being ill-prepared.

Look, I know you gotta do what you gotta do to get the job done. (And if this project was at the very least…interesting and fulfilling…maybe I wouldn’t be as upset. Not to mention the people who used to do the travel portion, were retirees/students/other people who didn’t have jobs, who didn’t have as much of a packed schedule.) But don’t I have the right to a personal life, personal goals? I guess not.

Basically, I was this close to tears after hearing about it. Did I make a mistake in ’04 by deciding to concentrate on shorter distances-why didn’t I take advantage of the opportunity when I had it? Did I make a mistake last year by not training through my injury while I actually had the time to really train?

i don’t know. i’m crossing my fingers and hoping for the best, but expecting the worst-that I am going to have to either put this marathon off until ’07, or do it severely undertrained.

you can guess i was fired up on my run tonite-i did the 6-mile Central Park loop at an 8:22 pace-which was faster than I had any right or reason going for an easy run.

thank god for happy hour tomorrow nite…boy, I am going to need to drink a LOT.

now playing: “so under pressure” ~ dannii minogue