Change of plans of the previous change of plans

This year we got digital medals

Ha! I could not resist. I just ran the Bronx 10 Mile. In my previous posting I wrote about my ankle being in need for an extended amount of rest and that I should rethink my training and racing strategy. Well, when I went out to the NYRR headquarters to pick up the shirt and the bib that I already paid for I looked at all the people coming and going, looked at the nice looking shirt, and saw that bib that just longed to be pinned onto a shirt, and I started to have doubts. I really wanted to run these 10 miles and I deferred my final decision to Sunday morning. I couldn't resist and made up my mind Saturday night. I tested my ankle. I put weight on it, I hopped on one foot, I ran back and forth, I made the decision that I will be fine. I could always just drop out or slow down or put ice on it or whatever.

Sunday morning came, and even though the alarm was set for 5am I woke up without the need for it (thanks goes to my two youngest kids going in and out of our bedroom who made sure I was kept awake that night - that and the usual excitement and nervousness, of course), got my gear in order, taped some gauze over my ankle for some cushioning (which I ripped off almost immediately during my warm-ups before the race because it was a lot more uncomfortable and painful with it than without), packed my seven things, and off I went. Getting to the Bronx was rather simple even at that time of the day and you always know you got the right train when it is full of folks sporting running gear.

Ready, set, go!
Picture by NYRR

Once on location time rather flew. It was a very well attended race, the last count is 6,555 finishers. Not as many as my very first race, the JPM Corporate Challenge, but so far a lot bigger than in the previous few months. Despite the size it was very well organized and I found my start corral rather soon. I like to be early so I get to stand in the front row - might as well run with the best. When I signed up for the race I put myself into the 8:30 minutes per mile pace group which I based on my training at the point where I was able to run those distances comfortably. That was a mistake, though, because I had to zig-zag around a lot of people to find my spot. Up until the very last couple miles I kept overtaking other runners (while being overtaking by others as well, of course). The organizers claim that the course (which brought us up and down the Grand Concourse) was supposed to be flat but, my oh my, flat is relative. Going those few hills up on the first five miles is easy but doing the same on the last five? Killer.

Chugging along
Picture by MarathonFoto

Anyway, I finished the race in 694th position (out of 6,555) total and 93rd out of 579 in my age group. Well within my top 20% goal I want to keep for all my races. Some of these runners are truly amazing. The fastest male runner was able to finish the course in just a bit more than 50 minutes. That's a constant pace of 5 minutes per mile over the duration of almost an hour. This is crazy. Within my running team, the New York Flyers, I placed 2nd in my age group and 10th in total (out of 58 runners who affiliated themselves with the club). My net time was 1:13:59 and my average pace was 7:24 minutes/mile, a lot better than the predicted 8:30. The good thing is that from now on I will be automatically put into the right pace group for all NYRR races, no more second guessing.

Now to the bad things... my left IT band has started to bother me again on the outside of the knee. I am going to take good care of it over the next two weeks and see where we are for the Staten Island Half-Marathon. I have not registered for that race, yet, so I may really just take the month off and go back to the training and race plan I talked about in my last entry. Or, I could just run it and then take a few weeks off? The words of an addict, I know...

Change of plans

Not my ankle
Picture from FXRX

It finally happened. I injured my ankle and I don't think I should be running for a few weeks. What happened in the past was that I just randomly did things like normal runs, long runs, speed work, strength training without any real plan. In between I participated in races. I am not sure if I can just blame my non-existing training plan on my injury (I know I got injured when I did a few too many sprints around the soccer field) but I thought I should give it a try and make the whole thing a bit more predictable and with real goals in mind. The Bronx 10 Mile on Sunday is out, unfortunately. I will get my shirt and my bib, so at least I have the souvenirs without actually running. I may just go up there and show my support to the other runners at least.

What's next then? I kind of felt horrible about the whole thing (running seems to be an addiction for me) but on the way to work I figured out a plan that I can live with. I am planning on taking the entire October off from running and focus on strength training only while my ankle heals. I will follow some of the work-out plans on the Internet to strengthen my core and whatever else while I will religiously use the bicycle to stay active as well. Most injured runners swear on swimming but I am not real a fan of the pool and I'd rather go to the gym (now this is something I never imagined me saying). By the end of October (depending on my ankle, of course) or start of November, I will start a training program towards a 10k race in December, which will be my first one then. After that I will pick up a half-marathon training program in order to really prepare me for a long-distance race in the spring (around March, I would guess). In between I will keep racing anything between 5k and 5 miles or so as part of the training.

This whole thing, of course, puts a stop on a guaranteed entry into the 2014 NYC Marathon but I will still aim towards running a marathon in the fall of next year. If I don't get in through the lottery there will be others that are easier to get in (and they cheaper in the first place), like the Yonkers Marathon or the Philadelphia Marathon.

New York is small

by f.trainer, found on Flickr

I just realized something. You do not need a car or a bicycle in this city. Nor do you necessarily have to depend on public transit all the time. If it weren't for getting sweaty I would pretty much run everywhere. I just read an article about where to celebrate Oktoberfest here in NYC and one of the suggestions were to have a nice dinner at the more down-to-earth, much quieter and more appropriate for older folks like me (ha!) "Zum Stammtisch" in Glendale, Queens. A hard place to get to by public transportation so I mapped it out on Google Maps. It's seven miles from home. I could get there within an hour if I strapped on my shoes and ran along the streets of Queens. Very tempting. Of course, there is that one little thing that will prevent me from doing this for getting to the destination for a sit-down dinner: I will smell like pig. If only businesses were required to offer shower facilities to their customers...

I am preparing for my longest race, yet: the Bronx 10 Mile. I know I can run the distance (I just ran more than that last weekend for training and a few times before that) and I am quite sure I can keep at least an 8 minutes per mile pace. I will aim for 7:15, though. Crazy? Maybe. I admit that I even think of running my current 10k race pace. In the end, what is 3.8 miles more? Just another 5k and a bit. It will be a much bigger race, though, since it is an NYRR event. That just means that getting an award is pretty much out of the question. This year, that is!

I still owe you a recap of my latest 5k that I ran in Coney Island a week ago. Stay tuned and wait for me to get into the mood to write about it. It was a great race and the first 40 or so runners even got a medal and we all got a free beer and a hot dog.

A truck on fire wrecks havoc to a race

It's a go! Start of the 5k.

For Labor Day I decided to run a 10k in my backyard. It was my second 10k and I was eager to improve my time. Unfortunately, it did not work out. It was a very humid day and I thought to myself that it was probably a much better day to run a 5k instead of a 10k, especially that the 5k was scheduled just before the 10k. Nevertheless the gun went off and the race was a go. The route pretty much makes you go around the island almost twice. When the Queensboro Bridge was back in my view I noticed black smoke coming from the lower roadway and when I got closer I saw fire. That was the second fire on the same bridge and roadway in three weeks. Since I heard small explosions I wondered if race management would stop or reroute the race but by the time I was at the bridge I was waved through to run the predetermined route and that was that. I reached the finish line in 44:24 minutes which is equivalent to an average pace of 7:10 minutes per mile, just a slightly bit slower than last week. During the award ceremony, though, we were told that only the top three finishers of men and women would get an award because there was no correct time to be had for everybody else. The reason was that just moments after I passed the bridge the rest of the runners were rerouted to a much shorter route which, of course, invalidated the finishing times because nobody knew who ran what distance exactly. NYCRUNS did the decent thing and offered all runners a discount to the next 5k/10k on Roosevelt Island in December (which, unfortunately, I will not attend because I want to run a NYRR 15k the day after instead).

First finisher of 5k race

My next race will be a simple 5k on Coney Island and two weeks later I will tackle longer distances. First off a 10 miler in the Bronx and a week later two half-marathons on the following two Sundays. I am not quite sure how I will prepare for it but I will make it work somehow. I am still suffering a little bit from the week I ran around 40 miles so I had to reduce my mileage by quite a bit and had to take two weeks off here and there. I am thinking of starting out with a single loop around the island in the morning followed by some speed work around the soccer field behind the apartment building I live in. Then ramp it up to a mix of single and double rounds with a long run across the Queensboro Bridge and then up or down Manhattan up to 10 miles on Sunday, concluding with a relaxed 6 mile group run on Mondays. Tuesdays and Wednesdays have always been my rest days. I am planning on running the 10 miler with a 8 minutes/mile pace. That will determine my fitness for the two 13.1 miles races. Stay tuned.