Sunny California

Yesterday: 4 miles
Week: 4 miles
Workout: Four miles around the streets of West Covina California with my brother.

I went from running in 40 degree weather to the 70s yesterday. I could get used to this! However, the weather gods must have felt I missed NY, so I'll be running in cool, overcast conditions today. Bummer.

59th Street Bridge

Today: 7 miles

Week: 25 miles

Workout: Niketown - 59th Street Bridge x 2

The chill of winter is still with us. The bridge was particularly windy, but it was nice to run somewhere besides Central Park. I haven't run across this bridge since the NYC Marathon 2008. Funny, it doesn't seem so steep during the marathon. But it certainly seemed steep today.

Strawberry Fields Hills

Yesterday: 4 miles

Week: 18 miles

Workout: Niketown - 5 loops of Strawberry Fields and back to Niketown

I just looked online at my NYC Half Marathon results and found that my time dropped 11 seconds. I went from a 1:27:06 to a 1:26:55. I got faster without even trying! HA! Maybe, it will drop a few more seconds in another week.

Lower Loop Repeats

Today: 7 miles

Week: 14 miles

Workout: 4 x lower loop

My splits for each loop were: 14:25, 13:40, 12:03, and 10:39.

Today: 3.5 miles

Week: 7 miles

Workout: Niketown - 65th & E. Drive - clockwise on lower loop - 72nd St Transverse - E. Dr. - 75th St & return the same way.

I was probably doing 9:00/mile and my legs were still hurting.

Recovery Run

Today: 3.5 miles

Week: 3.5 miles

Workout: 15 minutes up West Drive & back to Y

My legs felt as if I ran a marathon instead of just the half yesterday. My lack of training for the half marathon was sooooo obvious when I took my first steps on the run today. It felt like someone was punching me in my quads.

2010 NYC Half Marathon

Today: 13.1 miles

Week: 29 miles

Workout: Clockwise loop of Central Park beginning at E. Drive and 94th Street - Exit at 7th Ave (Times Square) - 42nd St - South on West Side Hwy to West Street.

Perfect weather for the race, unlike last year. I didn't train for this race. I can't even remember the last time I ran 10 miles. My goal was to run under 1:30 so that I would qualify for next year's race. I ended up with a 1:27:06, so I was pleased. Splits were: 7:15, 6:34, 6:34, 6:41, 6:34, 6:48, 6:37, 6:31, 6:25, 6:30, 6:35, 6:37, and 7:19 for the last 1.1 miles. Average pace was 6:39/mile.

The finish line announcer gave me a shout out. He said, "West Side Y" when I was approaching the finish line.

Thanks to Josh, Stu, Tom, and Megan who came out to support runners. And thanks to Darcy and Farbod for running with me in the park.

Lower Loop

Today: 2 miles

Week: 16 miles

Workout: Niketown - 1 lower loop

Abdi Abdirahman (3-time Olympian and 4-time USA 10,000 meter champ) was in the Niketown store today. He said one workout he does to see if he is ready for a marathon is a 14 or 15-mile tempo run at around 4:53/mile. What a coincidence, me too!

Lower Loop

Today: 1 mile

Week: 14 miles

Workout: Niketown - 1/2 of lower loop

Easy run.

Out and Back

Today: 3.5 miles

Week: 13 miles

Workout: YMCA - 20 minutes up West Drive and back.

10:00+/mile. Legs were dead from hills on Monday.

Allyson Felix

Today: 2 miles

Week: 9.5 miles

Workout: Niketown - 1 lower loop of Central Park

Great day for a run! I think I ran yesterday's workout too hard. Feel like my legs are going to be sore for the next couple days, and I have the NYC Half Marathon on Sunday.

Allyson Felix was at Niketown today. It always amazes me how track & field is not big in this country. If an NBA star was at the store, there wouldn't be enough room at the store to contain all the fans. C'mon! This woman won the silver medal in the 200m, and a gold in the 4x400m, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics! The only reason I didn't ask for an autograph or a picture with her is I was working. She also won the 200 meter World Championships in 2005, 2007, and 2009!!!

Cat Hill Repeats

Today: 7.5 miles

Week: 7.5 miles

Workout: Warm up from YMCA to the Boat House. Run 2 set of 5 Cat Hill repeats. Recover down the hill. 5:00 recovery after the first set.

Wow, that was a tough workout! I forgot to start my Nikeplus sportband at the beginning of the hills. DOH! My times for the first set of hills were: 1:27, 1:27, 1:26, 1:22, 1:25. The second set was: 1:19, 1:23, 1:24, 1:23, 1:22. Avg. for the first set was 1:25, and 1:24 for the second.

I still feel light headed.

My tickets to the Adidas Grand Prix arrived yesterday!

The Thursday Night at the Races results from 2/25/10 were finally posted. My official time in Heat 4 of the 1500 was 4:48.6 and 2:24.6 in Heat 6 of the 800. I love it when my official time is a few seconds faster than what my watch says. I had timed myself in 2:27 for the 800.

Today: 3 miles

Week: 23.5 miles

Workout: Niketown - West Side Hwy and back.

I guess the weather could have been worse. There could have been a hurricane.

More 800s

Yesterday: 6.5 miles

Week: 20.5 miles

Workout: Warm up from Niketown to 84th St & E. Dr. Pick up the pace from there to 94th St. - recover back to 84th - repeat 3 more times.

Ran each repeat at 10:00/mile.

800 Meter Intervals

Today: 5.5 miles

Week: 14 miles

Workout: 6 x 800 meters with 90 seconds recovery

The first and second intervals were a little long. The 3rd through the sixth were a little short. 2:59, 3:00, 2:23, 2:22, 2:20, and 2:30. Legs were dead. I'm surprised I even got through all six.

Today: 4.5 miles

Week: 8.5 miles

Workout: Niketown - lower loop - 72nd St. Transverse - E. Dr. - 85th and return.

Ran 7:00 - 7:30/mile. 59 degrees!

Recovery Run

Today: 4 miles

Week: 4 miles

Workout: YMCA - West Drive - one loop of reservoir and return.

Legs didn't feel too bad. I'm registered for the NYC Half-Marathon on March 21st. I'm a little concerned because I haven't completed any runs longer than 10 miles in many months. And the 8-10 mile runs I have gone on have been very slow. I would like to break 1h 30m in the half-marathon, just so that I'll automatically qualify for next year's half-marathon.

Coogan's Salsa, Blues, & Shamrocks 5K

WSY

Today: 4 miles

Week: 30 miles

Workout: One mile warm up. 5K race in Washington Heights.

Splits were 5:57, 5:52, 6:01. Total: 18:24 (5:56/mile).

The WSY women's team did great, 14th out of 45 teams. The men's team was 23rd out of 57 teams. And the masters team was 22nd out of 45 teams. I missed being in the top 10 of my age division by 1 second. DOH! Should have sprinted harder at the finish.

I hadn't been to this train station by my job in quite awhile. I was pleasantly surprised to see they had installed something that tells you when the next train will be arriving. It's about time!

Bridle Path

Today: 7 miles

Week: 26 miles

Workout: Niketown - lower loop - extended bridle path - back to Niketown

Beautiful day! Still a little cool. I finished the run looking as if I had run a cross country race. Mud was splattered all over my calves.

I had a dream that I was on a relay team. We were running a race on trails. My team was doing well. I was expecting to run a good leg. I could see my teammate coming toward me with a baton. When he was about 100 meters away, I looked down and noticed I was wearing any shoes! I quickly began looking all over for them and realized I probably left them at home. I woke up feeling frustrated. In fact, I'm still frustrated. Tonight, I am going put myself back into that dream, and this time, I'm going to bring my shoes.

Strawberry Fields Hills

Today: 3.5 miles

Week: 19 miles

Workout: Niketown - E. Dr. - 72nd - Strawberry Fields (2 loops) - Lower loop - back to Niketown

This must have been the shortest workout I've done in awhile. (Not counting Thursday Night at the Races.)

Before heading to Niketown for the run, I saw a guy doing jumping jacks and realized I never see anyone do jumping jacks anymore. It seemed so strange.

Easy Run

Today: 5 miles

Week: 15.5 miles

Workout: 5-mile loop of Central Park at conversational pace.

On Monday I was severely wounded by my locker at the Y. I accidentally slammed my finger against the latch portion of the locker. It tore a hunk of skin off my finger, and it wouldn't stop bleeding. I thought I was going to need a blood transfusion. (I might be exaggerating a little.)

Lower Loop

Today: 5.5 miles

Week: 10.5 miles

Workout: Niketown - 3 lower loops

I ran at 9:30/mile pace with a decent size group for the first two loops.

Strawberry Fields Loops

Today: 5 miles

Week: 5 miles

Workout: 25 minutes of loops around Strawberry Fields at a consistent pace.

My legs are STILL sore from Thursday's track races!!! The splits for my loops were 2:41, 2:40, 2:41, 2:41, 2:39, 2:37, 2:38, 2:39, 2:33, and 2:34. Average: 2:38