Achy Breaky... Legs!

OOOOOOH man. I know I ran 20 miles already and that was pretty uneventful (surprisingly) but I just got done with 21 miles and WHO KNEW I would be so wiped out from that one itty bitty mile! I'm laying in bed writing this and don't plan on moving from here for at least the next couple hours. Unfortunately I'll eventually have to go forage for food. It's mostly my hips that just feel 80 years old. That, and the bottoms of my feet are pretty wiped out. After I finished my run I still had another 2.5 miles or so to walk in order to get home. Coulda taken the subway, but it was a GORGEOUS day and I also felt rather disgusting to be in such close proximity to other (clean) people. The cute boy at the terrace cafe I go to for orange juice after these long runs (ok fine, Ive only been there once before) wasn't there today (sad face). Though Im sure my ultra-sweatiness/smelliness would not have gotten me far anyways. But the orange juice was still delicious and refreshing! I stretched for a while on the grass overlooking the water. So nice.

I felt pretty good for the most part... tried to go a little faster in the beginning, but by the middle I was tired enough that I just focused on keeping a steady pace. Last 3 miles (as always) were when it got tough, but the last half mile actually went fairly quickly surprisingly.

ALSO, I went back today to see how I've been doing overall on keeping to the schedule, and was SO sadly surprised to see that I've actually skipped a LOT. I think I've gotten most of the long runs in there, but seems like most weeks I've switched things around and skipped at least one run. My bike trip was a big cause of that, which isn't too too horrible since I was getting a lot of exercise in through that anyway, but DANG. I need to stick with it a little better from now on. Here's the two schedules side by side of what was planned and what was actually done. Eek!

So as usual, I'm pretty behind on my logging, so here's a reverse order summary:

Sunday, September 20

Time: 3:23'38"

Pace: 9:41 min/mi

Distance: 21.01 mi

September 19

Time: 1:01'14"

Pace: 8:42 min/mi

Distance: 7.03 mi

September 15

Time: 44'31"

Pace: 8:52 min/mi

Distance: 5.01 mi

September 13

Time: 56'15"

Pace: 9:14 min/mi

Distance: 6.09 mi

September 12

Time: 37'03"

Pace: 9:07 min/mi

Distance: 4.05 mi

Okay thats all for today!! Gonna try and get some speed work in soon. Really wanna work up to those 10 800 repeats. Eek!!

Speedy Gonzales

So today was my first attempt at speedwork. WOO!! Thanks to the finding (via google earth?) of an AWESOME track and sports complex up in W. Harlem called Riverbank State Park. It had a super nice rubberized track that ran around a pristine turf soccer field (tempting). There were also basketball courts, tennis courts, a roller rink, gardens, and a swimming pool. All with a great view over the Hudson. What a great find!

By speedwork I actually mean Yasso 800's to be exact.

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-255-624-0,00.html. Today I started with 4, w/ one lap job in between each. The goal is to add one more 800 every week 'till I can do 10. Since my goal time for the marathon is 3hr55, I want to run each interval at about 3min55. Today I did pretty well, although it definitely wasn't easy. It will be tough for sure, doing 10 of these in a row! With a mile warm up and cool down, I got my scheduled 5 miles in for the day.

Interval 1: 3'41" @ 7:46 min/mi

Interval 2: 3'54" @ 8:18 min/mi

Interval 3: 3'51" @ 8:16 min/mi

Interval 4: 3'52" @ 8:16 min/mi

I also calibrated my ipod, so it should be more accurate now - hopefully.

OH and I got new shoes! I got the same one's I've been wearing (only in blue), the Nike Moto. I've really enjoyed the ones I've been using, so I figured I'd play it safe. They have great padding in the forefoot. Could use a little more arch support though. I got them because with all the mileage I'm putting in, my current shoes will be worn out before the marathon, but by then it will be too late to break in a new pair. So over the next few weeks I'll be alternating between my old and new pair so that the new ones are appropriately broken in before November. On a side note though, what is WITH so many of the new shoes out there being so hideously ugly?? There was this rad pair of Pumas I would have loved... except they were baby pink!! What, pink is for girls and blue is for boys? What is this? Also, a ton of shoes are going waaaaay overboard on the space-agey metalic accents. Seriously. I feel stupid passing up a great pair of shoes because they don't look cool, but hey I got stanards!

Anyway.... till next time.

Big Apple Running

OK, well as you can see this blog has taken a turn for the worst, falling victim to the typical Dakota attention span of one week. But LUCKILY my actual training has NOT followed this trend! I've been plugging away at my training schedule (occasionally switching days around, but maintaining weekly mileage) and am now happy to say I'm in week EIGHT of my training! Around August 20th I took a few days and swapped running for biking in order to do a trip I've been wanting to do from Homer to Anchorage. Over 3 days I biked 86, 98, and 37 miles for a total of about 220 miles! There were such beautiful, gut-wrenching (in a good way!) panoramas throughout the trip and I'm so excited to have done it! The transition back to running was a little difficult, and sore quads definitely made me feel lethargic for a few days, but I'm feeling pretty good again by now!

Today I did the longest run yet in my schedule, 20 miles! I went pretty dang slow, but can't believe I completed nearly 3/4 of a marathon today! I even felt pretty good for the most part (thanks to not starting too fast) and had somewhat of a kick at the end. I went from my apartment on the upper east side across to the West Side Highway and all the way down to Battery Park (near where I lived last summer) and back. It's a really popular place to run and bike, and I kept wondering if any of the other runners I saw were training for November 1st as well. I'm pretty sure one guy was wearing one of the official training shirts, and a couple others seemed like marathoners just from their pace. The piers were nice to run out on, especially as there was often a nice breeze coming off the water. A really beautiful day for a run. 75 degree high!

For my long runs (over 10 miles) I've been using a backpack with a water hose in it (similar to a camelback) that carries about 2 liters of water which I pump up with grape gatorade powder. I also have been bringing along some sort of gel feed. I'll eat half a packet at a time starting at 6 miles, and then again at every 3 mile interval. I thought I loved the Powerbar gels, but today I tried GU and I LOVED it! Especially the vanilla one I had first. Yummy! And it seemed to stay pretty cool so it was like a refreshing pudding snack break : ) (sorry if that sounds gross!). I look forward to trying more flavors!

I still haven't done any speed work. I want to find a track somewhere this week so I can start doing some Yasso 800's (http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-255-624-0,00.html). I'll need it if I want to beat 4 hours. If I were to run at today's pace I would still be about 17 minutes short of my goal. Not bad, but I'm gonna have to kick it up a notch!

Sunday September 6, 2009

Time: 3:16'31"

Pace: 9:37 min/mi

Distance: 20 mi

OK, well here are the rest of my runs (I think a few are missing due to ipod issues) since the last time I logged, in reverse order -

September 5 2009

PART 1

Time: 11'37"

Pace: 8:50 min/mi

Distance: 1.30 miles

PART 2

Time: 29'27"

Pace: 8:47 min/mi

Distance: 3.34 miles

PART 3

Time: 12'17"

Pace: 8:41 min/mi

Distance: 1.41 miles

*OK sorry this one is so confusing. 4 miles was on the schedule. Part 1 = running from my apartment to 59th and 5th to meet my sister, Part 2 = my run with her, and Part 3 = my run home from Central Park. I got about 6 miles in total.

September 4 2009

Time: 51'53"

Pace: 8:24 min/mi

Distance: 6.17 miles

September 2 2009

Time: 1:11'45"

Pace: 8:35 min/mi

Distance: 8.35 miles

September 1 2009

Time: 52'00"

Pace: 8:25 min/mi

Distance: 6.17 miles

August 31 2009

Time: 35'00"

Pace: 8:28 min/mi

Distance: 4.13 miles

August 29 2009

Time: 2:10'17"

Pace: 9:17 min/mi

Distance: 14.02 miles

August 28 2009

Time: 1:03'44"

Pace: 8:46 min/mi

Distance: 7.26 miles

August 27 2009

Time: 45'06"

Pace: 8:32 min/mi

Distance: 5.28 miles

*added on an extra quarter mile for accuracy.

August 15 2009

Time: 1:58'22"

Pace: 9:03 min/mi

Distance: 13.1 miles

*Woo! This was my second half marathon. Went pretty well! Although I did learn the valuable lesson not to eat a truck load of pasta the night before lest you desire digestive issues during th last two miles of your race! Sadly I did not beat my PR of 1:52'41", but I've signed up for some more halves before my marathon training is over, so there will be more opportunities. I was happy to be under two hours though - a good indicator for my sub 4 hour goal for the marathon. Oh, and I also discovered that my ipod distance tracker is slightly off. It was about a quarter mile short for the half, so I've been adding some extra time onto my runs since then to make up for the discrepancy. Next time I find a track I can calibrate the device to be more specific to my own stride.

August 13 2009

Time: 49'42"

Pace: 8:16 min/mi

Distance: 6.01 miles

August 12 2009

Time: 1:12'16"

Pace: 9:01 min/mi

Distance: 8.01 miles

August 11 2009

Time: 56'33"

Pace: 9:25 min/mi

Distance: 6 miles

August 9 2009

Time: 1:24'11"

Pace: 9:21 min/mi

Distance: 9 mi

*This was supposed to be a 16 mile run, but my ipod died mid-way. I went with my friend Rachel, and we went 13 before I had to stop and walk. Maybe we started out too fast or something. Anyway, we walked for about two miles, and then ran the last mile. So 16 miles completed. Not all running, but hey, no shame.