The year in numbers / A retrospect / Another year...

Stolen from http://www.dreamstime.com/

I couldn't decide on a title so I took the lazy way out. Happy New Year! 2015 is over, a year that started out with injuries and a lot less running than I planned. C'est la vie. Let's move on and focus on the next year to come: 2016. Maybe it is going to be the year of my first marathon, that elusive goal of mine that keeps slipping from one year into the next? Here is hoping.

I have so many race recaps to do but I don't feel like doing them right now and so I defer to the table on the left side of this page for race results. I also put up the planned schedule for next year and there are a few gaps that will be filled in as they are decided on.

Here is a quick recap of 2015:

• Miles run in total: 562 (more or less)
• Miles run in races: 96.1
• Time spent running: 5148 minutes (that's a 9.2 minutes per mile run on average)
• Lifetime PRs: none
• Best paces during the year:
• 1M - 6:00
• 5k - 6:52
• 10k - 6.58
• 15k - 7:48
• 10M - 7:16
• Half - 8:00
• Awards won: none
• Pairs of shoes used and abused: 2

To illustrate how I spent the year here is a break-down of the mileage per month according to Endomondo and my now go-to activity tracker Garmin Connect:

The beginning of the year was spent on doctors, physical therapy, and races, that I idiotically ran. I also came to realize that my quads problem was probably misdiagnosed and I most likely suffered from a stress fracture in my left femur. At least that's what my googling came up with when I researched the pain that I had when I let my leg dangle over the edge of a seat. The dip in my November mileage was caused by the reoccurring of some similar, but not as intense, quads pain. It's all good right now. Oh, and I definitely will look for a different doctor. I will also put my knee injections on hold until I get a second opinion. They are just too expensive to be done "just because."

What's going on at the moment? Well, I am currently not really training for anything and follow an unscientific and entirely made up by myself weekly routine until later this year when I start a marathon training program where I will listen to a coach and hopefully not get injured again. This is what I am doing right now:

• Monday: rest or cross-training
• Tuesday: 4.5M easy
• Wednesday: 7M with 2x1 miles fast and the rest easy
• Thursday: rest or cross-training
• Friday: 7-9M easy
• Saturday: 4.5M easy
• Sunday: 10M easy

Every four weeks (around the Tuesday of the third week of the month) I want to increase my mileage by 10%, i.e. maybe upping the Tuesday and Saturday runs to 6 miles in January and then increasing the Wednesday and Friday runs by 1.5-2 miles each in February. By the time I join a coached program I want to be at around 45-50 miles per week with two days of speed training. After a race on the weekend I would take the next two days as rest days and skip all speed runs for the rest of the week. Again, this is entirely unscientific and just for fun and I hope I am unable to overdo this. I would also cut a longer run short if I feel that I am doing too much, i.e. things are hurting more or remind of injuries I had in the past. The biggest challenge is finding interesting routes for the Sunday long run. I can do two laps around Roosevelt Island for 7-8 miles just fine but anything beyond that gets way too boring. My usual Triborough Bridge (oops, sorry, RFK bridge), Randall's Island, Upper East Side, Queensboro Bridge (no, while I can get my mind around RFK bridge I just cannot do "Ed Koch Bridge"), and back to Roosevelt Island route is becoming a bit boring. Also running down to the Staten Island Ferry terminal lost its novelty effect. Maybe I should look into new routes out into Brooklyn or Queens. Stay tuned.

The next race I am signed up for, as you can see in the table on the side, is the NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10K in Central Park. It'll be the entire loop including the Harlem Hill and all the other ups and downs that make running so much fun!

Keep on running hard and smart!

Another year, a new chance for even better things!

Happy new year, everybody. I slacked off a bit to keep my blog updated so this is going to be rather long entry again. I've got three races to cover, give an update on my injuries, recap the year, talk about my running resolutions for 2015, and finally mention a bit about my planned races in the new year. Let's not dawdle and jump right in, shall we?



Race recaps

Since I missed all of winter racing last year due to injury I am glad that things are better this year. I am planning on running all of the races part of the NYCRUNS Winter Series (two of them in Riverside Park, one on Roosevelt Island, and one in Central Park) and getting a head start on earning guaranteed entry in the 2016 NYC Half. So far I ran two of the winter series races, the 5k in Riverside Park and a 10k on Roosevelt Island, and my last race to finish up the 9+1 for the 2015 NYC Marathon, the NYRR Ted Corbitt 15k in Central Park. Due to problems with my right ankle and left hamstring I wasn't in tip-top shape and pretty much neglected any training and just ran the races. Considering the lack of mileage I think I did pretty well:

• NYCRUNS Winter Running Series 5k, 11/30/2014, Riverside Park, net time 20:35, pace 6:38, 26th out of 458 finishers total, 6th out of 42 finishers in my age group
• NYRR Ted Corbitt 15k, 12/13/2014, Central Park, net time 1:03:50, pace 6:51, 254th out of 4,468 finishers total, 34th out of 308 finishers in my age group
• NYCRUNS Winter Running Series 10k, 12/21/2014, Roosevelt Island, net time 41:21, pace 6:40, 28th out of 479 finishers total, 5th out of 45 finishers in my age group

I am especially proud of my 6:51 pace in the Ted Corbitt because I redeemed myself from the not so good outcome at the Bronx 10M. I met a teammate of mine, Chris, in the start corral and we talked about how we planned this run to be. He said he was going to run a 6:30 pace more or less, while I was aiming at a 7ish pace, so I just latched onto him and didn't leave him out of my sight. I also made a point of not overtaking him (there were a couple of opportunities to do so) because I wanted to leave this to the end of the race where I would come from behind, surprising him. Unfortunately, the hills in the second loop of the course put an end to this plan prematurely and I had to let him pull ahead while I struggled through the last couple miles. The course was a 4M loop, a 5M loop, and some through Central Park but the hills, especially the Cat Hill, makes it challenging. I definitely need a lot more hill work, maybe a few training runs in Riverside Park or the Harlem Hill in Central Park would be a good idea. The next half marathon I am signed up for is 2 complete loops of Central Park, all hills included. Fun! Here are the split times according to Endomondo:

1. 6:44, I struggled a bit with my phone and the armband, the start was on the 102nd St traverse
2. 6:23, nice and easy, rolling hills
3. 6:48, first edition of the Cat Hill
4. 6:34
5. 6:55, for some reason I slowed down as soon as I took the corner from the traverse back to the West Park Drive. That was entirely psychological.
6. 6:45, back to the rolling hills
7. 6:53, is it over soon?
8. 7:12, Cat Hill, 2nd edition
9. 6:53
10. last half mile in 3:11, back to the 102nd St traverse

That was my 9th and last one to get guaranteed entry in this year's NYC Marathon. This is exciting and I will be able to register for it in a couple of weeks. Once I pay my $200 and some I am committed and I am planning on taking advantage of the marathon training program that my running club offers every summer.

There is not much to say about the other two races. They were fun and I did as expected, maybe a few seconds too slow but it's okay. The competition was pretty stiff, I must say. Plenty of sub-40 minutes in the 10k race in my age group. One day I hope to join them.

Injuries

Ugh, let's talk about the not so good stuff. As I mentioned a few times before my right ankle and my left hamstring have been bothering me quite a bit. It didn't stop me from racing but I wasn't able to do much in regards of training between them. After the 10k I stopped running altogether for two weeks over the holidays and started again last Saturday with an easy 4M loop around Roosevelt Island. The ankle seems to be holding up but the back of my thigh, just above the knee, hurts when I step on the foot and it developed a spot that hurts when pushed deep within the muscle. The foam roller seems to ease the pain a bit so maybe I just keep rolling it out religiously. I am due for another round of Euflexxa injections anyway, so I will bring it up with my doctor. My right hip joint also flared up but this always comes and goes. I became a bit lazy with my strength training for my hips and gluts so this is definitely something I really need to pick up again.

Recap of 2014

I have been running now for two years, running races for 18 months. It's been a very good year once I recovered from ITB injury in the spring. I was able to go faster and longer. I hope I can add more to that in 2015. Here is the year 2014 in numbers:

• 28 races run
• 132.1 miles raced
• 764 miles run in total
• 8 PRs run
• 8 age-group awards won
• 5:45 best 1M pace
• 6:17 best 5k pace
• 6:25 best 4M pace
• 6:33 best 5M pace
• 6:36 best 10k pace
• 6:51 best 15k pace
• 7:03 best 10M pace
• 7:47 best half marathon pace
• 2 pairs of shoes used (and abused)

It's been a very good year. I hope my current injuries are just fleeting and 2015 will kick in with a bang. I have to catch up with quite a bit of training but the first race of the year will happen in a week already.

Resolutions for 2015

This is an easy one: treat injuries with respect. I think I did quite well last year but I probably overdid the racing part in the summer and didn't allow enough rest in between races and training. Other than that, I want to finish a half-marathon without injuries, and run my very first marathon. I also pledge to get myself a GPS-enabled running watch. I need to watch my splits with more care. All in all, I am just going to have even more fun.

Plans for 2015

I would say I will have at least four highlights this year. The first one would be, of course, the 2015 NYC Marathon on November 1st. I have guaranteed entry and I will run it. Secondly, I will also earn guaranteed entry for 2016, of course, doing the 9+1 again. Included in this will be running all five of the NYRR 5-Borough Series (excluding this year's NYC Half) to get guaranteed entry into the 2016 NYC Half. Since I volunteered for the Brooklyn Half last year I have a guaranteed spot in this year's edition, which is a good thing to have because this race sells out within a couple of days. Last, but definitely not least, I will be doing my first destination race. I was accepted into the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in Washington D.C. via lottery. The hotel room is already booked and we are going to go on a family vacation that weekend.

My preliminary race calendar for the next three months (and a bit of a preview for the rest of the year) is as follows:

• 1/11, NYCRUNS Winter Running Series: Central Park 5 Miler
• 1/25, NYRR Fred Lebow Manhattan Half
• 2/1, Volunteer at NYRR Gridiron 4M
• 2/4, Volunteer at NYCRUNS Empire State Building Run-Up
• 2/7, NYCRUNS Winter Series: Riverside Park 5k
• 2/21, NYRR Al Gordon 4M
• 2/22, Volunteer at NYCRUNS Central Park Marathon
• 3/1, NYRR Washington Heights 5k
• 3/14, Public Prep Ultimate Pi Day 5k
• 3/15, Volunteer at NYC Half
• 3/21, NYCRUNS Riverside Park 10k
• 3/29, NYRR 10k Spring Meltdown
• 4/12, Cherry Blossom 10M
• 5/16, NYRR Brooklyn Half
• 6/21, NYRR Queens 10k
• 8/1, NYRR Team Championships
• 8/22, NYRR Percy Sutton Harlem 5k Run
• 10/11, NYRR Staten Island Half
• 11/1, NYC Marathon
• 12/12, NYRR Ted Corbitt 15k

I will probably pick up a few more NYRR races and fill in the gaps with NYCRUNS events. I may also add a few more volunteering opportunities for NYCRUNS produces races since it pays the bills. I enrolled as a member so I get the added benefit of discounted entry fees and the ability to defer up to three races per year. The three most exciting events in the current schedule: Volunteering at the ESP Run-Up (this is awesome!), the Cherry Blossom, and the Marathon.

Happy new year! Keep on running all through 2015!

Music on the course

Stolen from www.timtim.com

On my way to work this morning I was thinking about music. Actually, I was thinking about why I am not a fan of going from any point A to any point B, be it walking, running, or taking the train, with earbuds in my ears. Okay, let me rephrase that. Of course, I started to think about it with why I don't listen to music on my runs. If you flip back a few pages to the beginning of this blog you will read that in the beginning I did listen to music on my training runs and during races. I quit doing it, though, because it was a hassle to deal with bouncy wires and sliding earbuds, and I never had the money to buy a decent pair for my workouts or the patients to find the best routing of the wires from my phone to my ears. Why did I never make it a priority to figure it out or spend a few bucks (like I would when it comes to shoes, shorts, or gloves)?

I hate using the car. Every time we go West to visit family I am dreading the accumulated time I would have to sit in a car just to do simple errands or going on a trip. I don't drive so I always end up being the copilot but it is the fact that I am very restricted when it comes to interacting with my surroundings that makes me not look forward to taking the car. When I sit in the car all I have are the other people in the car, the radio that is usually playing nonstop, the stale air that gets blown around, and that seat that gets more uncomfortable the longer I have to sit in it. I cannot just stop and look at something that caught my eye. I can't touch a fence or the leaves of a tree or the flowers that I think look interesting and need my attention. All I hear is road noise, whining kids (okay, a bit unfair to my kids because they are actually very good kids when it comes to road trips), the same music over and over, and the sometimes forceful conversations just to bridge the time. I feel isolated and forced when I have to use the car.

When I put music into my ear on my commute, on my walks or runs, and during my races, I feel the same kind of isolation. When I got a new iPod many moons ago there was a time when I listened to music every time I stepped into a train or walked to/from work. It got old very fast and I started to leave it at home. I love music but I don't love it that much that I would want to shut out my surroundings. I love the latter a lot more because it empowers me and all my senses are available to enjoy life around me. Even though the homeless guy begging for money or the group of subway acrobats shouting "It's showtime!" are annoying but they complete my experience. I would not want to miss it.

And during races? Besides the usual recommendation from race directors to keep the volume at a level so you can hear instructions and warnings I think listening to the sometimes thousands of running shoes hitting the asphalt instead is a lot more entertaining and especially motivating.

Keep on running, and try it without music once.