Memorial Day Workout

Today: 6 miles

Week: 6 miles

Workout: YMCA - West Side Hwy - Run north, hard for 3 minutes, 2 minutes recovery jog. 3 sets, turn around and do 3 sets back.

I don't know if it was the humidity, but I slowed down considerably on the way back. On the way back, I was tempted to stop at the Boat Basin for an ice cold beverage.

When I got home I settled for some Gatorade and Nilla Wafers. The Nilla Wafers were stale. I looked at the date on the box, and it said 060310. I figured they were still safe even though they didn't taste great. Then I started having second thoughts after I had already eaten half the box (snack size box) and threw the rest away. If I'm not at work tomorrow, we'll know why.

West Side Hwy

Today: 6 miles

Week: 22 miles

Workout: Niketown - WSH - 95th St and return

Cat Hill Repeats

Yesterday: 6 miles

Week: 16 miles

Workout: 2-mile warm-up.Two sets of 4 repeats, from Boat House to top of Cat Hill. 4 minute rest between sets.

First set: 78, 78, 79, 79

Second set: 74, 76, 76, 74

Whoa! That was a tough workout! 90 degrees. Felt a little dizzy at the end of the workout. Lost about 3 pounds. Drank over a quart of liquids after the run. It's midnight, and I still have a headache and can't seem to drink enough.

Yesterday: 4 miles

Week: 10 miles

Workout: Niketown - E. Dr. to 97th St & back

Uh-oh, weather is getting warmer.

Yesterday: 6 miles

Week: 6 miles

Workout: 6-mile loop of Central Park, surging on all the hills

Bridle Path

Today: 5.5 miles

Week: 27 miles

Workout: Niketown - lower loop - 63rd St. - Bridle Path - 1 loop of reservoir and return

Strawberry Fields Hills

Thursday: 4.5 miles

Week: 21.5 miles

Workout: Niketown - 5 loops of Strawberry Fields

Comfortable pace.

The NYRR club points standings have been updated to include the Healthy Kidney 10K, and the West Side Y Men's team has gone from 15th place to 5th place in the Open B division. Woo hoo!

Wednesday: 6.5 miles

Week: 17 miles

Workout: Y - 4 mile loop of Central Park and 1 lower loop

The workout was supposed to be an interval workout of 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes recovery. But my legs still felt tired from Saturday's race, so I ran easy.

Lower Loop

Today: 5.5 miles

Week: 10.5 miles

Workout: 3x lower loop of Central Park

Cold and rainy. FUN! FUN! FUN!

Out and Back

Today: 5 miles

Week: 5 miles

Workout: Y - north on West Drive to the top of Harlem Hill and back

20 minutes to get there. 17 minutes to get back.

Run-A-Thon for Strong Kids, Day 8 (Last Day)

Today: 8 miles

Run-A-Thon Total: 38.5 miles

Workout: 2 mile warm up, Healthy Kidney 10K Race

Great day for a race. My official time was 38:30 (6:12/mile). My splits were 6:03, 6:12, 6:07, 6:30, 6:11, 6:15, and 1:12 for the last 0.2 miles. The WSY men's team came in 11th place out of 48 teams. I think that was our best overall place ever! The WSY women's team was 24th out of 38 teams. Great job everyone!

After the race, we took a team picture with Abdi Abdirahman, an American Olympian. We also took a team picture with Mr. G, the weatherman at New York's WPIX-TV Channel 11.

It was the last day of our YMCA's Run-A-Thon for the Strong Kids Campaign. We were treated to free massages and refreshments at the YMCA.

Run-A-Thon for Strong Kids, Day 7

Today: REST! (I have a race tomorrow!)

Run-A-Thon Total: 30.5 miles

Run-A-Thon for Strong Kids, Day 6

Yesterday: 6 miles

Run-A-Thon Total: 30.5 miles

Workout: Niketown - Great Lawn - 8 loops and return.

I ran with a group of 10 runners @ 10:00/mile. We did the "Indian Run" for the first loop. Most of the group did 2 loops. Three runners finished all 8 loops with me.

Run-A-Thon for Strong Kids, Day 5

Wednesday: 6 miles

Run-A-Thon Total: 24.5 miles

Workout: One loop of Central Park

Run-A-Thon for Strong Kids, Day 4

Today: 4.5 miles

Run-A-Thon Total: 18.5 miles

Workout: Niketown - enter Bridle Path at 85th - 102nd

Run-A-Thon for Strong Kids, Day 3

Today: 11 miles

Run-A-Thon Total: 14 miles

Workout: 2.5 mile warm up, 10 x 800s with 400m recovery jog, 1 mile cool down

Ran to Riverbank State Park. I was only going to run 5 or 6 x 800s. But I felt good and decided to attempt the Yasso 800s. According to Bart Yasso, if a person runs 10 x 800s at a consistent pace, (let's say 3:15 for each 800), then, the person should be able to run a 3:15 marathon. These were my 800 times:

3:06

3:01

2:58

2:57

2:57

2:56

2:56

2:54

2:56

2:49

Maybe I did the workout incorrectly. Because based on these times, I should be able to run a sub-3:00 marathon, and I just don't think that's possible right now.

Run-A-Thon for Strong Kids, Day 2

Yesterday: 0 miles

Run-A-Thon Total: 3 miles

Run-A-Thon for Strong Kids, Day 1

Today: 3 miles

Run-A-Thon Total: 3 miles

Workout: Niketown - E. Drive - Engineer's Gate and return

Temperature was in the 60s, and it rained a little. A good start to the Run-A-Thon.

Thursday: 4 miles

Week: 19 miles

Workout: 4-mile loop in Central Park

Wednesday: 6 miles

Week: 15 miles

Workout: 1/2-mile warm-up, 5 loops of Strawberry Fields, and a 3-mile cool down.

Today: 4 miles

Week: 9 miles

Workout: Niketown - clockwise on lower loop - enter bridle path at 63rd - up to 86th - return the same way.

It was obvious which runners ran the NJ Marathon, Half Marathon, or did the 5 borough bike tour. They were seriously sunburned!

Bridle Path

Today: 5 miles

Week: 5 miles

Workout: YMCA - Bridle path

It was nice running on the bridle path. I haven't been on it in a long time. Because of the rain this morning, the path was soft. I felt surprisingly good. I thought I would be sore from yesterday's race.

NJ Marathon Relay

Today: 9.5 miles

Week: 36.5 miles

Workout: Ran the third leg of a 4-person relay in the NJ Marathon.

I went into the race thinking I could run at least 6:40/mile for the race since I did that at the NYC Half Marathon, and my leg of today's race would be shorter. However, as soon as I was 2 miles into the race, I knew that pace wasn't going to happen. It was about 10:30 a.m., and it was already nearing 80 degrees. I managed a

6:21 for Mile 15,

6:47 for Mile 16,

6:51 for Mile 17,

7:08 for Mile 18,

7:17 for Mile 19,

7:22 for Mile 20,

???? for Mile 21,

10:30 for Mile 22 + 0.7 mile

Denie started us off with a 9.4 mile first leg. He came in under 7:00/mile. Bruno ran the next leg, approximately 3.5 miles. He handed off to me for the third leg, 9.6 miles. The heat was awful. I tried to go through all the sprinklers and water hoses that people were offering. I felt bad for all the people running the half marathon and full marathon. They must have been miserable. I ran with a guy from Van Cortlandt Track Club for about 3 miles since I didn't want to run by myself. He was trying to keep up a 7:15/mile pace and did it for a little while, but he dropped off the pace before we hit Mile 21. At Mile 22, I saw Alanna and Stu. It's tough to understand how nice it is to have someone cheering for you in a long race unless you have tried running a tough race without any support along the way. Alanna, Stu, and Jeanne, thanks for coming out!

I finally reached Rob for his anchor leg. I remember seeing the overall time at Mile 21 and thinking our team was about 4 minutes under 7:00/mile, which would result in a finishing time right around 3 hours. Denie met me, and I was about to walk to Mile 23 or 24 so that I might try pacing Megan or Josh. I made it about a block and decided it wasn't such a good idea. So I turned around, and Denie and I walked to the finish line. As we got close to the beach, which was only a couple blocks from where I finished running, I could feel the cool ocean breeze. It seemed like there was a 20 degree difference in temperature!

We saw Rob finish just under 3:01. But that was the gun time, so we're hoping we finished under 3 hours for the net time. I can't seem to get online to check the results. I think we may have been the 4th or 5th place relay team.

Everyone ran slower than they expected. Ten hours after I finished running, I still have a headache from being dehydrated, and I've been drinking water non-stop for the past few hours. A few people got a serious sunburn. I was fortunate someone had some sun block which I put on before I started running.

It was funny to see everyone back at Stacy's mom's house. We were all walking around rather gingerly.

Easy Day

Saturday: 2 miles

Week: 27 miles

Workout: Niketown - E. Dr. - 72nd - W. Dr. - 74th St. - around lower loop - Niketown

There was a run going on, and the people took up the entire road. For a brief moment, I felt sorry for people on bikes. They had to get onto the sidewalk. But the feeling of sympathy quickly passed.