running year 2010: the year of hot pink

well yeah.  I guess 2010 should be better known for my running apparel and accessory choices rather than actual running performances.  Obviously, I’m not too happy with how 2010 went.

I guess I will revisit what I wrote at the end of last year to be my 2010 goals and how I did….

So I’m a little hesitant to make concrete goals right now for 2010.  Except for the obvious-getting this (sh)IT band healed and to become a real runner again.  I do hope to run a half-marathon in May…and intend to get my revenge on the marathon distance in October, but those are not set in stone just yet.  I guess most of all, I really need to figure out what went wrong last year and make sure it doesn’t happen again.  Additionally, once I am healed enough to do speedwork, I intend to seek out a new group to do speedwork with…I think it’s pretty obvious I can’t-or shouldn’t-be doing this on my own.  And I know I can benefit from the guidance that coached workouts can give.  So will need to research that…

Well the (sh)IT band did get healed and thankfully stayed quiet ever since.  And I ran the Brooklyn Half in May.  And actually completed a marathon.  And found a different group to do speedwork with-even though I like the people a lot, I’m still not convinced it’s the perfect fit for me.

Why?  Well in a way, I feel like I took a step backwards this year.  Take a look at my season bests this year versus last year:

	2009	2010
5K	22:25	22:48
5M	36:49	37:36
10K	47:27*	47:53
Half-marathon	1:37:36	1:42:27

*My 10K split in the Philly distance run was 46:29-so that unofficially would be my best 10K time in 2009.

And I thought 2010 started off well…with an unexpected 8-second PR in the 4-miler and a halfway decent time in the Brooklyn Half.  But after that…the 2nd half of the year seemed to go downhill.  And I really don’t know if I can blame it on the heat.  Even in a way, I don’t feel my marathon time was much of an improvement-a 3:43 time on a flat course (Chicago) I think was actually a lesser performance than my 3:44 in NYC, as NYC was a (notoriously) much harder course.

Plus mentally, I still don’t feel like I’ve “recovered” from my DNF at MCM 2009…like it’s going to haunt me forever.  Like I forever have scarlet letters on my chest saying “quitter.”  Even though I didn’t quit my marathon this year, even with the weather being what it was, the damage from 2009 has still been done and I can’t take it back.  It seems, from what I’ve seen others say, that a DNF is nothing but weakness, regardless of the circumstances.

So.  Next year.  Unfortunately I can’t make any goals for 2011 right now, as all my racing plans are in flux until I find out what the deal is with the Boston 2012 qualifying standards (hopefully they will be true to their word and let us know in January?)  As whether or not my time will still be good in 2012 affects how I will train, what races I will do in 2011, etc.  And probably still will be on the search for better coaching…still felt in a way like I was going about this on my own.  Either way, I know I desperately need to GET FASTER.  I am so sick of being slow…I’d love to get my “easy” pace to at least 8:30s so I don’t have to worry about being dropped on group runs…tired of always having to run solo.

And once again, I have no idea how to go about any of this…

all I want for christmas are cep compression socks

Well, maybe not.  But I do know there are fans of CEP compression socks (aka the hot pink socks I wore during Chicago) who read my blog and want to make them aware of this promotion!

So I came across this promotion a coupla months back.  The details?

What do you do if I win? When you race in CEP Compression socks or sleeves, complete the form, send us a photo and tell us your experience in CEP we’ll send you a FREE pair of CEP socks of your choice. . . Yes, it’s that simple! Just complete the form and send us your photo of you racing in CEP at any of the races allowed in the drop down menu and get another pair on us.

How does it work? You must race in CEP compression socks or Sleeves during an approved marathon or triathlon, fill out the entry form below. Then email your photo to us racing in CEP. The socks have to be visible to win.

What do we send you? – Once we get your entry we will send the exact product you request when filling out the form Please allow 4 weeks to process.

So thanks to my fabulous paparazzi around the course, I did have a couple of high-res, non-marathonfoto pics of me in the socks.  I chose one taken with one mile to go, sent it in, and hoped for the best.

And kinda forgot about it til 1 week ago, when I had a UPS slip saying I had a package waiting for me-but I wasn’t expecting anything.  I picked the package, opened it up, and wouldn’t you know…

Nice surprise, indeed!!  A brand-spanking new pair of socks, this pair in the cool “progressive black” design.

And my legs were quite happy too.

So if you’re a fan of these socks and want another pair, can’t hurt to check this out, right?

And Merry XMas to all of you who celebrate it!!  As my holiday has been long over, I will be spending tonite being a glutton for punishment yet again amongst a bunch of Jewish singles.  And Chinese food with the parentals tomorrow.  Maybe a run around 5th Ave and the store displays/tree if I’m ambitious enough…?

the season of excess

oh hi again!!  damn, i’m not even keeping up with my previous “once-a-week” thang.  but the last coupla weeks have been the weeks of the holiday party and other assorted goodies (yet not much running)

To sum up the last coupla weeks:

at the work holiday party. damn, i really need a new pose.

playing bouncer at the Flyers holiday party. Apparently the most in-demand party there is.

and there were home-baked cookies by yours truly!! can u tell the color scheme I was going for?

ok, this has nothing to do with the last coupla weeks, but i just felt like posting a pic of my dog brother.

 So there being lotsa eating, drinking and socializing.  Which also equals hangovers, late nights, not waking up til the afternoon, lazy weekends on the couch.  I’ll actually be glad when January comes around and the party season has died down.  but don’t get me wrong, it was a lot of fun.  Work party was a good time, though this time around the CFO wasn’t even there, so a certain party tradition did not happen this year   But what did suck?  Party on Wednesday, work on Thursday (couldn’t take off like I usually do since our group had a vendor take us out to lunch.)  Flyers party was a good time as usual, though some peeps were missed.  Throw in others here and there…then last nite I crashed the Flyers speedwork session (as UA is on hiatus this month) and partied at Rathbone’s afterwards (yum 2-for-1 Blue Moons…love their 2-for-tuesdays!)…sorta late night for a “school night” but still fun.  But man, I don’t know what worked harder yesterday, my legs or my lungs.  Short repeats on minimal running are not the best…neither was breathing in that cold, icy air.  Thinking tempo is better for the winter months…?

On the topic of running, no races on the horizon right now.  After that crappy job at the 10K, I figured a 15K PR would not be happening and decided to pass on that race.  (Turned out to be a good thing-as I didn’t leave a party the night before til after 3 AM!)  I had tossed my name in the ring for the NYC Half, but I got rejected…as did 90% of the tri-state area…

Needless to say, NYRR’s facebook page blew up, and rightfully so.  Did I know there would be a chance of being rejected?  Oh yeah.  Did I know I wouldn’t have a shot in hell of getting in?  Hells no.  i definitely think that NYRR did not handle this well.  Between pushing off the lottery to mid-December (and leaving many in danger of getting closed out of other spring halfs) to disclosing all this information after the fact…I do appreciate that they sort of “came clean” but it’s also “too little too late.”  (And yeah, the truth does hurt.  Meaning about how they’ve strayed so far from their “base,” local runners (no I don’t mean local elite.)  As a friend of mine said (very well, I may say): “NYRR needs to remember their Charter and that the club was formed First & Foremost to benefit runners in New York City; The club was NOT formed to host triathlons, pay rabbits for professional track meets in CA, or to donate money to professional clubs in Mammouth Lakes or Minnesota.“  (There’s a good post on Joe’s blog too.)

So next year will be interesting I guess.  Especially since now NYRR is offering a guaranteed entry to the 2012 NYC Half for those who complete 4 out of 5 borough halfs in 2011.  I feel they are just going to cause another problem to try and solve another.  (Oh and don’t even get me started about the $70 registration fee for the More Half-marathon-which is 2 loops of Central Park!)  First off, given that 2 of the 5 halfs are on Saturdays, if someone can’t race on Saturdays for work or religious reasons, or other reasons, they’re automatically out of it (same thing for Sundays too.)  Secondly, those who want to run the borough halfs just to run them (and not caring about NYC Half entry) may get screwed.  Brooklyn is already tough to get into, I see it selling out in record time this year. (you can bet i’m going to jump on registration once it opens!)  Not to mention how they are always changing around the dates of the borough halfs…

As for me, I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get in, but it’s not the end of the world (there’s always the Brooklyn Half I guess.)  I’ve only done the NYC Half once and it was a bad race for me, so I thought that like Brooklyn, this could be a good race to “get revenge” on.  Guess only way I will ever get to run it again will be to have a qualifying time under my belt-and please don’t tell me that it’s so easy and everyone should be able to do it.  Those qualifying standards are no joke, even having my best half-marathon ever I still came up 36 seconds short…

Anyways, back to work…man, they’re still expecting us to work?  Doesn’t everyone go away for the holidays?

season finale

Some TV show season finales have a perfect story wrapped up in 1 hour or less.  Others are a cliffhanger.  Others…you don’t know the direction things are going.  If I’d compare my 2010 racing season to a TV show, and the Joe Kleinerman 10K to a TV season finale, I’d compare it to the last. 

Well in a way, this was a race of firsts.  First time I had to trek up to the NYRR offices to get my race bib.  Quite a change from the days when it was just a hop skip and jump across Central Park   Not to mention, the first time for a Central Park race that I’d have to travel there via subway.  Yeah, I had the 18-mile Tune-up back in September, but I had frontloaded by running up to the start.  Thankfully on race morning-I had no MTAfails…but I heard those on the east side weren’t so lucky as the 6 train didn’t behave as well as the A train did (just another reason why the west side is the best side…)  First time since February that I’ve had to bring out the tights for a race…30 degrees isn’t exactly shorts territory for me, even if I had the obnoxious pink socks   (I instead wore my LunaRacers to get the pink fix in.)  Oh and first time in awhile that I’ve used a normal watch instead of Mr. Garmin for the race-as Mr. Garmin’s buttons have been freezing up quite a bit in cold weather lately and I didn’t want to chance it happening during the race.

So I made it to the start in plenty of time (got off the subway a stop early and used running to the start from there as my warmup) and got into my red corral easily.  Yeah not sure what was up with that…as usually I’m yellow for points races/crowded races/stacked races.  And not only was it a points race with all the ringers, I knew it would be crowded…it had sold out a coupla weeks ago-probably since this is the last “9th race” that is relatively short and doesn’t cost $40 to run.  Other Flyers were in my corral and we chatted and tried to stay warm through the announcements (dear god they were piercingly loud, dont people know you don’t have to shout more than you need to on a loudspeaker?) and the national anthem and huddled together to try and stay warm.  The start seemed to have little fanfare…no “do we have clearance on the roadway” or anything else to make sure the roads were ready for us

And just like the start, my race had little fanfare….

I guess just from the first mile, I knew it wasn’t going to be my day.  Combination of the crowded start (see below) and my lack of hill training as of late…

down the first harlem hill...can you spot me?

By the 2nd mile, I knew any hope of a decent time (sub-50) was out, so pretty much just “tempoed” it, but this would still be slow for a tempo effort.  Oh, and those people in miles 5 and 6 shouting that I’m almost there can just shut it.  Dudes, I’ve run this loop millions of times, I know how far I have to go, and even 10 minutes left can seem like a long time.

my reaction to all those shouting "almost there!"

Even the last 1.2 miles, which I can usually pick up the pace on significantly…just felt flat.  Was happy to be done…50:27 on NYRR’s clock-yeah, that one second made such a difference

Anticlimactic.  I guess that’s the word to sum it up.  I mean yeah, I know I’ve been slacking since Chicago and it shows.  But I actually ran a better race right after being out for awhile due to the (sh)IT Band.  Maybe it’s a sign that I need to hang up the racing shoes for the remainder of 2010, and just concentrate on getting the base (and the hill training) back.

But on the other hand, I do have to give props to the Flyers women, our open, masters and vet teams had one of our best showings of the year, and our master blaster men (that one is for you, AP) did quite well too.  Congrats guys!!  I’m glad someone had a great season finale

testing, testing…is this thing still on?

Oh hi there!!  Yep, I have been MIA in blogland for the past 2 weeks…even better than my recent slackerdom of one post a week   Between the holiday craziness at work (2-day workweek before Thanksgiving?  Still have to do 5 days worth of work since the show must go on, even on Thanksgiving when almost every office is closed!) and running blahs, just hadn’t had much to report.

Oh yeah, that thing…running.  I feel like I really haven’t had consistent mileage since Chicago.  It’s getting tougher with the colder weather, more darkness and people choosing to stay indoors.  (I actually made it to a Flyers group run in Central Park last nite-first one since moving to Midtown…and only 2 other people were there!)  Plus apparently speedwork is on hiatus in December.  I guess I understand the need for a break but part of me is like “well I already had my break in October…I want to keep going, build back up!”  And speaking of speedwork, the hill workouts I’ve had the last coupla weeks showed me that I have committed a serious training error the last few months-too many West Side Highway runs, not enough Central Park runs…hence I am not hill trained.  So even though the West Side Highway is closer to my place now (and has less crowded streets to run through to get there, unlike Central Park where I have to run up 8th or 9th ave…which can be a zoo at times) I’m gonna have to limit those runs and run more in Central Park.

And I hope this doesn’t hurt me too much in the Joe Kleinerman 10K on Sunday.  At the very least, we get Harlem Hill out of the way in mile 1, but Cat Hill in mile 5 may give me trouble.  We’ll see what happens, I’m really not expecting to PR, I’ll be happy to get under 50 minutes.  But I actually have a bottle of Blue Point Blueberry Ale in the fridge…maybe I should drink that Saturday nite.  As I did have that the nite before the Kleinerman 10K 2 years ago…and I didn’t have a bad race at all.  Still deciding on the attire as it looks to be chilly Sunday morning.  Shoes-it’s a toss-up between my Saucony Fastwitches or the Lunar Racers.  Yeah…don’t think I’ll be utilizing the Kinvaras on Sunday-sorry, Kinvara Mafia   Even though they felt good on a regular easy run, I haven’t really loved them in speed workouts, therefore sorta iffy about using them in a race.  Maybe I should just use the Kinvaras on short, easier runs…?

That’s it for now…want to save material for other posts!!  But before I go, I just had to post this:

My dog brother’s first visit to my apartment!!  And he was incredibly well-behaved.  Amazing how much he has grown since you all saw him last about 6 months ago…but he’s still the cutest dog I’ve ever seen!