2011 Al Gordon 4-Miler in Prospect Park

Overall Time: 24:54
Pace: 6:13
Place: 81 of 3992
AG%: 67.7%

Weather: 31 Degrees, 54% Humidity, Fair
Start time: 9:00

Splits: 6:13, 6:11, 5:57, 6:27

Well it’s about goddamn time that NYRR had a race in Prospect Park! For once I could do a warm-up jog to the event, and didn’t have to wake up 3 hours to make sure I got to the start on time!

Only 36 hours before this race, I had participated in a 10K relay at an indoor track meet. My hamstrings were totally blown, and and knew this wasn’t going to go terribly well. I dialed back both the pace and the expectations. While this doesn’t mean that I allowed myself to give up completely, it did allow me to not worry about breaking a 5:59 pace this time around.

Racing the Al Gordon 4-Miler

My hamstrings were tight, and my legs had absolutely no “go” in them. It’s amazing how dead legs can feel after a hard speed workout — especially when said legs hadn’t done a speed workout in almost 6 months.

My only real goal was to break 25:00, which I did despite slowing way way down that last mile. I’m not really sure how I went from a 5:57 mile to a 6:27, but the Garmin ain’t lying and I’ve got no reason to doubt it.

As much as I do love 4-mile races, this will be the last one I do for a while. Racing the short distances seriously means that I forego long runs on raceway weekends — and with my emphasis being the half marathon and marathon this year, I can’t afford a little ego boost to get in the way of proper long-distance training.

Finishing the Al Gordon 4-Miler

2011 Manhattan Half Marathon Race Report

Overall Time: 1:28:35
Pace: 6:45
Place: 173 of 4369
AG%: 66.8%

Weather: 14 Degrees, 56% Humidity, wind 7mph
Start time: 7:00

Splits: …absolutely no idea. For once I decided to run this one without worry about time.

First, a note on the weather: it was mind-numbingly cold. The windchill brought temperatures downy to the single-digits, and everyone was fighting to stay warm. There were icicles hanging off peoples’ beards, mustaches, hair, eyebrows — it was insane, and it really slowed everyone down. I don’t know if it was more mental or physical, but very few people I knew had a good race.

After having been out of running hard or racing for almost 5 months, the Manhattan Half Marathon marked my return to the NYRR scene. Afraid of re-injury, I decided against racing it full-on. Instead, I would run with some friends (Mikey B, Matt) who were going to treat it as a fast-ish run (but not all-out). For a number of reasons, that didn’t end up happening, probably for the best — had I ended up running with them, I think I would have run slower than I had wanted.

At the beginning of the race, my Front Runner friends we were all running a little late getting to the corral, and couldn’t find each other so well. We more or less started together, but if I had any hopes of running some easy miles with friends that was quickly dashed as the horn went off and all 4000+ runners tried to jockey for position at the beginning of the race. Due to the snow and small streets in the south end of the park, the course really narrows down quite a bit. It left very little room to maneuver, and it bottlenecked pretty badly at the beginning. I immediately found myself behind my friends (who smartly let right ahead of everyone at the beginning of the race), and had to fight the next 3 miles just to find any of them.

Approaching the 102nd Street Transverse in the park around Mile 3, I saw my friend Matt. I caught up, and asked, “Where’s Mikey B?”

“Mikey? He’s way behind!”

“Well, where’s Sanderson?” I replied, referring to my training and racing partner.

“Ahead. Go catch him!”

And so I left Matt. I had passed Mikey B much earlier not knowing it, and trying to find him now would be impossible at this point. My mission was to find Sanderson, and that meant speeding up.

So speed up I did. One loop of the park (~10K) later, I saw the orange FRNY logo on Sanderson’s back. He was within striking distance, although I’d have to catch him up Harlem Hill (lately, hills are not my strong suit). If he had been on pace to PR, there’s no way I would have been able to make up the ground to catch him, but he was struggling in the cold and not having a good race. By the time I caught up with him, he looked like death. I’d later see that his splits according to his Garmin were hovering around 7:00 at that point, only to be taken down to 6:30 when I showed up.

We ran the last 3 or so miles together, and crossed the finish line at the same time. I was happy to have run what felt like the easiest 1:28 in my life, and Sanderson was just happy to have the whole damn thing finished.


It was a big confidence booster that I could run a 1:28 without really racing 100%. I ran fast, but not all-out and it’s nice to think of what I might be capable of when I do decide to race a future half marathon. At the beginning of the race, I was nervous that I had lost all my speed and aerobic base — I’d be humiliated if the people who I used to beat were now beating me. But that wasn’t the case. I hadn’t lost much fitness, and in fact cross-training on the bike may have actually helped.

This isn’t to say I’m going to start PR’ing all over the place, or that the rest of the year will be easy. I have a lot of work if I want to hit a 1:23 half marathon and a 2:59 marathon. But at least at this point I know it’s not as far as my worst fears.

Coogan’s 5K Elevation Chart

It was brought to my attention that:
1.) Somehow, my blog post from a year ago is the 2nd search results on google for “Coogan’s Elevation”
2.) My chart / image (that I stole from some random person) is most probably wrong.

Whoops!

To rectify that, I present you with what I seem to think is a more accurate elevation chart for the Coogan’s Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5K Race.

Enjoy.

The Road to Recovery

It’s now been 9+ weeks since I stopped running due to my cuboid stress fracture. I consulted with an online running mate (Kristen F., on DailyMile) and with a Pfitzinger plan for recovering from stress fractures and have come up with a 7-week plan to get my foot back into shape. Having been on the bike so much during my recovery, I’m not fearful that I’ve lost much cardio fitness. I may have lost a little running-specific muscle, but that’ll come back very quickly.

My plan looks something like this:

Seven-Week Schedule for Returning from Injury

Week
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
1
Walk 10 min, Run 5 min, Walk 5 min, Run 5 min Run in water or other training Run in water or other training Walk 5 min,Run 5 min,Walk 5 min,Run 5 min,Walk 5 min,Run 5 min Run in water or other training Run in water or other training Walk 3 min, Run 7 min, Walk 3 min, Run 7 min, Walk 3 min, Run 7 min
2
 Run in water or other training Walk 2 min, Run 8 min, Walk 2 min, Run 8 min, Walk 2 min, Run 8 min Run in water or other training Run 10 min, Walk 2 min,Run 10 min, Walk 2 min,Run 10 min Run in water or other training Run 12 min, Walk 2 min, Run 12 min, Walk 2 min, Run 10 min Run in water or other training
3
 Run 15 min, Walk 2 min, Run 15 min Run in water or other training Run 20 min, Walk 2 min, Run 10 min Run in water or other training Run 25 min Run in water or other training Run 30 min
4
 Run in water or other training Run 25 min Run 30 min Run in water or other training Run 25 min Run 35 min Run in water or other training
5
 Run 30 min Run 35 min Run in water or other training Run 30 min plus 6 x 100 meter stridouts Run 30 min Run 40 min Run in water or other training
6
 Tempo Run (15 min warm-up, 15 min @ 15 km race pace) Run 30 min Run 45 min Run in water or other training Run 40 min plus 6 x 100 meter strideouts Run 30 min Run 50 min
7
 Run in water or other training Run 35 min Tempo Run (15 min warm-up, 20 min @ 15 km race pace) Run 35 min Run in water or other training Run 40 min plus 6 x 100 meter strideouts Run 55 min

I’ve done two workouts so far, which I’m just making as 800-meter repeats. The foot had some pain the first day, and that concerned me because I couldn’t tell if it was bone or soft tissue pain. I was hoping that it was just muscle aches from not having run for 9+ weeks, and from having worn a boot for 5 weeks.

This morning was my second run, and it was pretty clear that the pain was muscle and not bone (whew). I have to make sure to take it slowly so as not to re-injure anything. I have 6 weeks to go, which should be perfect. All my friends are doing the NYC or Philadelphia Marathons (or both). After they’re done, they won’t be doing any hardcore miles for a few weeks and that will be roughly when I’m back to normal.

Easthampton or Bust : 280 Miles on a Bike

On Thursday, October 21st I started on a three-day bike ride from New York City, New York to Easthampton, Massachusetts. It was a 280-mile day affair through three states, 11,000 feet of climbing, and millions of burned carbs.

The beginning of my involvement started back in September: I picked up a bike after my stress fracture from my friend Chris S. Chris was a huge help to my injury, lending me his $3000 Cervelo S1 to ride during my no-running 8-week recovery period. On the day that I picked up the bike, I ran into brothers Chris and Steve Root in my neighborhood. Seeing me with a fancy bike, Chris got the mistaken impression that I was a biker and later invited me to do this crazy long-ass ride with him and his brother. What he didn’t know is that I hadn’t been on a bike in 20 years. I was a runner, and only a runner at that point. Amazingly, I agreed.

On the ride would be:

Chris Root : Chris is the one with the crazy idea to do this in the first place. I know him and his brother Steve from the Amsterdam Billiard Club 9-ball League. Chris doesn’t take public transit these days, and rides around NYC on his single-speed bike. Apparently one day he wondered to himself, “Can I visit my parents without the aid of public transportation or fossil fuels? Let’s find out.” And so we found out.

Anthony B :  Anthony is a proper Ironman, having completed the Wisconsin Ironman in August. He was a no-brainer on the short list of people to ask.  He’s easy to get along with, doesn’t complain, and he had an upbeat outlook the entire way. Best of all he’s a strong cyclist who wasn’t afraid to lead the rest of us.

 

Steve Root: While Anthony is a proper Ironman, Steve on the other hand…. hadn’t exercised in 5 years. He’s clearly got superior genetics to 99.9% of the world, but he was rightfully nervous about just hopping on a bike and going to Massachusetts. Still, he agreed to do it and that mental jump was probably the biggest obstacle for him.  I have to give him props for even agreeing to this.

As I mentioned above, Chris thought of this entire thing  in a sort of non-fossil-fuel mentality about getting home to his parents. His parents live in Easthampton, Massachusetts and Chris just had to answer the crazy question, "Can I get home without the aid of a car or mass transit?" This entire thing was an experiment to see if he could get home with just his two legs, and the rest of the crew was just along for the ride. Yes, it sounds a little bit hippy-dippy, but that was all the reason I needed.  In truth, I didn’t know about this hippiness, and so really I didn’t even need *that*. I just needed to be asked.

Barring bad weather, the three of us agreed to set off on 9W for Easthampton. We decided that Day 1 would take us from New York City to Kingston, NY — roughly 100 miles — where we would spend our one and only night in a motel. Day 2 would be a 70-mile journey to Voorheesville (near Albany) where Chris/Steve’s cousin has a house that would could camp out at. Day 3 would depart Voorheesville for Massachusetts, racking up a final 100+ miles ending up at the Roots’ parents place, where we would stay the night before being driven back to NYC.

With only 4+ weeks to train, I got on the bike almost every morning to get into biking shape. Running a 60+ mile week was no problem, but getting my ass and quads comfortable on the saddle was another thing. I was bound and determined to get into proper shape to bike 280 miles in three days without walking funny after it was over. I only had a few weeks to get into such shape, but I figured it would be enough. It *had* to be enough, because there was nothing that was going to stop me from going on this ride. And if it killed me, I was going to get to Massachusetts.

I want!

Cervelo S1
I want!

I have been riding my friend Chris’s Cervelo for the past 5 weeks, and I am so hooked on this bike. It’s not funny. I can’t afford her, but I’m going to find a way to buy one for myself.

The Road to Recovery…

Holy hell, when was the last time I updated this thing?

On August 22nd I was out for an easy recovery run — oh, the irony — when I noticed a sharp pain under my foot. It was an arch pain of some sort, and I ignored it for a half mile but was soon forced to stop in the middle of my run. I decided to cancel the rest of the run, and let my foot rest for a few days before attempting to run on it again.

Three days later I attempted to run an easy 1.7-mile loop through the lower part of Central Park. I couldn’t do it. 48 hours, two doctors, and one MRI later, it was revealed through that I had a stress reaction of my right cuboid. It was caught relatively early and there was only pain associated at the site when running (importantly, not when walking or standing). The recommended course of action was 6 weeks in an air cast, before resuming to any normal walking or running activity.

It is now October 1, 2010 and the boot is coming off tomorrow. It’s a few days premature to take it off, but I have parents coming into town and it will irritate me having to wear it if I have a lot of walking to do with them.

I’m not 100% sure what my post-boot recovery phase will look like, but I have asked an online friend (Kristen F from dailymile.com) for her suggestions. The week before my cuboid injury, she got the same injury (although not for the same reasons) and I’m basically hoping to rip off her recovery plan day-by-day.

I do know that come December I will be back racing again, and I can’t wait for that day. It will be early enough that I can ramp the mileage back up and train with everyone doing Boston, and will also get me into great shape for the May Reach The Beach event.

Before I close the entry, I will admit one thing : I’ve been cheating on running with a little bit of cycling on the side. My friend Chris has lent me his super fancy Cervelo once I got word from my podiatrist that I could get on a bike during my recovery process. Since then, I’ve been biking as much as the weather has permitted. It’s been fantastic, and I plan on keeping it up even once my running craziness is in full swing. Although I was a little nervous about getting on the bike for the first time in 20 years (fear of falling, fear of looking bad in spandex), it’s really become an activity that is just pretty wicked fun. The whole workout thing aside, it’s just plain awesome to get on a bike and see parts of New York City that you can’t do as a runner.

2010 Bronx Half Marathon

Overall Time: 1:29:21
Pace: 6:49
Place: 184 of 5045
AG%: 66.28%

Weather: 70 Degrees, 73% Humidity
Start time: 7:00

Splits: 6:58, 6:57, 6:41, 6:57, 6:55, 6:48,6:54, 6:40, 6:41, 6:47, 6:53, 6:38, 6:47, 0:41

 


Finishing Strong.

This wasn’t the race that I really expected. It all started when I headed down to the train, and ended up waiting FORTY TWO god-damned minutes for it to arrive.  I and all the others waiting for the train were quite irritated — and of course, when we’re only 5 stops shy of the half-marathon stop the conductor makes an announcement: “Dear passengers, due to being behind schedule, the next stop on the train will be Woodlawn.” Woodlawn is course was the end of the line — and past where I needed to be. I, along with an ENTIRE TRAIN of irritated passengers, got off and waited for the next train to arrive. What. The Fuck.

A few minutes later another train comes, and the crazy masses all pile back into the train. I’m sure the passengers in the train were like, “WTF is going on?! Where are all these runners coming from?!”  A few stops later, we make it to our stop, to the cheers and applause of the entire train car.

What ensued next was one part pandemonium, and one part hilarity (I find the two often naturally go together). Hundreds and hundreds of passengers empty the train, and start running to the baggage check / porta potties / start line. They’re darting down stairs, running across traffic, hurdling over toddlers – all trying to make it to the start of the race, knowing that they’re already late.  At this point it’s a little unclear where the race start even is. I throw my bag into bag check, make a quick stop at the john, and head to the “start” of the race – only to find that I am officially more than TWELVE minutes behind the entire field.  Christ.

It was really hard snaking my way through the entire race. I had to run alone the entire time, and couldn’t even find a single person to pace off any of the 13.1 miles. I was irritated, I had to *somehow* find a way to the front so that I could run without being boxed in, and I was alone – this was basically going to be a mental uphill battle.

That in mind, I wasn’t going to try and PR today; it was just too difficult to start off a race in such hellish fashion. I just wanted to run a good pace, finish, and go home.  With a 1:29, that’s exactly what I did.

I was supposed to meet up with Ryan Q from dailymile to run a few miles together, but of course that never happened. He did have good enough eyes to spot me after the race, and came over to introduce himself and his girlfriend to me. He had tried to break 1:26, but told me he didn’t quite make it (1:26:03).  However, I just checked the nyrr.org website and his official chip time is 1:25:59!  I hope he’s figured this out by now! Congratulations, Ryan!