Half way through Marathon training

NYCRUNS Labor Day, 10K; photo by NYCRUNS

I thought it is time to give a little update on what I am up to. It's mid-September, the NYC Marathon is 7 1/2 weeks away from now, and I am almost 2 1/2 months into my training for it. Despite all the fears about getting injured again I signed up for the NY Flyers Marathon Training Program which follows Jack Daniel's (no, not the whiskey) training method. So far, I must say that while my ankle and my hip are still in need of some more fixing (which will wait until after the Marathon) it has been very successful and rather pain free. My fitness is approaching levels not seen since summer of 2014 and I am really excited to be able to race 26.2 miles down NYC streets. This is what has happened since the beginning of July:

• It all started with the NYCRUNS Firecracker 5K on Governors Island in which I surprisingly placed first in my age group
• As part of the marathon program I got a gait analysis by Finish Line PT which pretty much came to the conclusion that my current running form sucks. I don't use my arms to propel me forward, my feet roll a lot after they touch the ground, and my hip extensions are almost non-existent, i.e. I pull myself forward instead of pushing. Oh, and I do some kind of claw thing with my left arm while running. It's interesting to see yourself running in slow motion. Well, I got a few exercises prescribed (stretching) and if I can gather up the $150 or so that it would cost me per session I can get it all improved. For now, I just watch my form (swing those arms, lean forward a bit more, focus on these extensions) and I must say there is a lot of potential in me to run faster and longer.
• I ran a few more races to check that my form indeed is improving. I ran the NYRR Fifth Avenue Mile with a new PR of 5:43, I ran a 5K while on vacation down in Virginia where I placed once more first in my age group, and I ran the NYCRUNS Labor Day 10K on Roosevelt Island where I came in fourth in my age group (so close, or not; I was a minute behind the third place holder). I also ran this year's NYRR Team Championships.
• I've been running five times a week with very few exceptions and, as mentioned before, without injuries.

For the curious ones here is the training plan for this week:

Monday: rest

Tuesday: 8 miles, easy

Wednesday: 6 miles easy, 3 miles threshold, 1 mile easy

Thursday (that's today): rest

Friday: 8 miles easy

Saturday: 5 miles easy

Sunday: 20 miles easy (my first 20 Miler)

My current weekly mileage is around 45-50 miles and I am filling up my months with 100+ miles. Not too shabby.

My take aways from the training program:

NYRR Team Championships
Photo by Richard Brounstein or Bob Cowin

• It is hard work. It is doable, though. Trust your coach.
• Don't fret if you mess up a workout. Once you do it again you will notice that it will get easier. My marathon pace long runs, for example, have always been really hard. I noticed, though, that the wall I keep hitting comes later and later, the more often I practice. It's mostly mental. If I take water breaks that are too long, for example, I am having a hard time to go back into my rhythm and the thought of calling it quit intensify.
• Doing hard workouts or long runs in a group is a lot easier than doing them on your own.
• Eat! Refuel! Get those calories, protein, and carbs in you. I have been scarfing down food like there is no tomorrow and I rarely feel like I ate too much. The good thing is that the next workout will burn another 1500 calories again.
• Refueling during a run is tricky. I still have to figure this out. Everything is going swell until it's time for a gel and some water. Maybe I still have to find the right flavor? I sure found plenty that I do not want to try ever again. Oh, and gels are nasty. They are sticky and the texture is just ugh. 
• You are not going to lose too much weight. You will eat and then run and eat again. It's pretty much a zero-sum game with very gradual changes. I am still a bit overweight and while the hard workouts are chiseling on my pounds it is very slow going. That's fine with me, though. I am going to run a Marathon and weight loss is really not my goal here.

I am still planning on writing about some of the races I have done this year, especially the ones that were the most fun, like the 5K in Virginia. I hope to get to do that soon.

I do not have many more races planned for this year. The NYC Marathon is the big one, and then there is of course the Bronx 10M and the Staten Island Half. I am really, really going to make sure I'll get into the NYC Half in 2017. I will also have plenty of races behind my belt to get into the NYC Marathon in 2017 as well. I am thinking of making this my two major races for the coming years: NYC Half in the spring and the Marathon in the fall. In between I do at least 7 more NYRR races, and some of the NYCRUNS events, especially the ones that are part of the club challenge.

That was a quick update. Keep on running, folks!

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!

Double header weekend

Go Flyers!

Only six weeks or so left in this year's summer and one more month with a full racing calendar. I have been taking advantage of this weather and raced pretty much every NYCRUNS and some selected NYRR races and have a few left. I also enrolled in a coached running class offered by the NY Flyers, won a first place in my age group twice, improved my 5k, 5M, and 10k PRs, volunteered in this year's iteration of the Marathon Long Training Run, and injured my right knee once more. Let's start with an overview:

Date	Name	Distance	Time	Pace	Overall position	Age group position
7/13/14	NYCRUNS Shore Road Summer Series #2	10k	42:27	6:50	6/193	1/13
7/16/14	PPTC Al Goldstein Summer Series #5	5k	20:02	6:28	67/353	5/20
7/23/14	NYCRUNS Riverside Park Series #3	5k	20:53	6:44	19/334	1/33
8/2/14	NYRR Team Championships	5M	32:47	6:33	323/842	48/117
8/3/14	Sgt. Keith A. Ferguson 5K Run	5k	19:31	6:18	19/860	5/80

It all started with a very humid day out there in Brooklyn on Shore Road. After I missed the first race of this mini series (last year I only ran the very last one) I was able to attend the second one. It was again a very simple out and back race that made us cross underneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge twice. Unfortunately, I bought a new pair of running shoes (New Balance 510v2, I am still trying to figure out if I like them or not) just the day before and decided to use them for this run. There was nothing really wrong with them except that one of them came untied and I had to stop a mile away from finish line. I could have run a new 10k PR if it weren't for that but nevertheless I finished just slightly slower than the Queens 10k and even won the first prize in the 40-49 age group. My first first place award! I repeated the same feat 10 days later in the third installment of the Riverside Park Series. There is one upside to winning awards rather regularly: your name gets noticed a lot more often now, especially at NYCRUNS events. I think I mentioned that already in a previous blog posting. That became especially clear at the Brooklyn Bridge race which I will cover in a bit. Stay tuned.

Focused!
Picture by Bob Cowin

The next race I want to recap a bit more in detail was this year's NYRR Team Championships. The New York Road Runners hold this event every year and it is open to members of local running clubs only. It's supposed to give us teams the opportunity to race each other. The women went first this year and the men followed an hour later on a 5 miles loop around Central Park. I actually planned on being on location to watch and cheer on the women but I wasn't able to get out of the house early enough. I arrived just in time to see the first woman cross the finish line, though. It is nice to see that a front of the middle of the pack runner like me struggles just as much as a world-class runner. The latter is just a lot faster but we all give everything we can. Oh, one more observation: puking after a race seems to be normal. One of the top-three female finishers made a pit stop on some grassy area, threw up for a while, and was then joined by a team mate of hers to comfort her. Then they chatted as if nothing happened. So, whenever you feel like throwing up, just pretend you ran your guts out and let it all out, literally.

The weather was perfect when the men lined up at the start. It was raining all morning long and the ladies had a little tough luck but we men were lucky. It was a rather smallish group of runners (less than 900) and we were not assigned to start corrals according to our predicted pace. If it weren't for all the NYRR branding you wouldn't have known it was the NYRR that organized this event. The course was a simple loop starting on 102nd St Traverse, going all the way south, back up on the East Drive, and ended a few yards away from the start. My strategy was pretty much to just run as fast as I could and keep it up and I was pretty successful with that. Within my team I ended up in third position which I am very proud of.

I think there are two dominant running teams here in NYC: the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) and the Westside Runners (WSX). The first is a very exclusive private club that takes in new members by invitation only, is extremely expensive, has a swanky building on Central Park South with overnight accommodations and dining facilities, and churns out Olympic medal winners. So, it is a quasi-given that these athletes rule most events, and that they rarely attend any of the NYCRUNS events. The WSX is open to everybody, dirt-cheap, and also has some extremely capable members. While I would love to run for a more competitive club like the WSX I am going to stick with the New York Flyers mostly because the average age of its members is around 40 years old and I don't feel like an old timer.

Rain does not discourage us.

The other race I want to talk about it one of my favorites: the Brooklyn Bridge 5k, aka Sgt. Keith A. Ferguson 5K Run. It was great fun again even though the weather just barely cooperated. It was the second race in the same weekend I ran the team challenge and it just stopped raining a bit after the start of the race. The wooden planks that cover at least half of the distance were a bit slippery and caution was needed not to fall and hurt yourself. I was surprised, though, how fast I went out and that I was able to hold a very good pace even though it was a bridge, i.e. up, then down, then up again, and finally down to the finish line. I assume the downslopes helped a lot to keep my pace up and the adrenaline made sure that I didn't slow down too much on the upslopes. Despite my new 5k PR I placed fifth in my age group which was a bit of a bummer but definitely added more motivation to keep on training and get the endurance up and upper! The race was spectacular but there was one thing that made it even better. While I was waiting for the award ceremony I hung out at the finish line to watch the runners come in. The race director was sitting there announcing each of the finisher over loud speakers as they come in and all of the sudden I heard him say: "Michael Hocke, how did it go?" Over the speakers. I looked and realized that he meant me and I gave my thumbs up. Then he just talked about me being a member of the New York Flyers etc. etc. I guess I earned my chops for real now and am officially a well known participant of NYCRUNS events. Even though I am not the person who wants to be the center of attention it sure gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling and I was validated for my efforts in running. I will make sure to volunteer as much as possible as well to keep my newly found status.

Running two race in two days was not such a great idea, though. My right knee flared up once more. Luckily a week of rest and some very easy running (NYC Summer Streets is back!) fixed this but it definitely has something to do with my arthritis in my knees. I have top be careful when going down hills fast. That said, tonight is the sixth installment of the PPTC Al Goldstein Speed Series in Prospect Park. One nice long downslope just before the finish line. Will I go easy? Nah, I don't think so. Ice and rest will do wonders.

I will dedicate a separate blog entry for the coached training class I am taking to prepare for my first half marathon that I want to run ready and hopefully injury-free. Stay tuned for that.

And fresh from the press: I was accepted to hand out finisher medals at this year's NYC marathon! This is exciting!

Keep on running!

This summer started out better than expected

Getting ready

I am in a racing mood. The warm and humid weather makes me want it even more - I guess I am perverted that way. Or, maybe, my constant streak of  improvements just gives me enough motivation to not slack off just because it's hot and sticky outside. In my last posting from a few days ago I mentioned that I set a running goal for this summer: getting my 5k race pace to 6:30 minutes per mile. Well, one week into summer and I already met this goal. At yesterday's NYCRUNS Brooklyn Cyclones Take Your Base 5k I finished in 19:51 minutes with a pace of 6:24 minutes per mile. That means I also achieved my long standing goal of running a 5k under 20 minutes as well.

Let me recap the race very quickly. I got out of the house a little late and arrived at the MCU Park (the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team) with just enough time to spare to pick up my bib, drop off my bag, and do a quick five minute warm-up with half-hearted stretches. Next thing I knew the gun went off (okay, no gun, the horn) and we were off. The start line was in front of the ballpark on Surf Avenue, and, as always, I lined up pretty much in front and like with all races my strategy for the first mile is just to hang onto the fastest runners and keep up with them as much as I can which I did by running it in 6:05 minutes. From then on it went downhill very quickly and my paces slowed down to around 6:30 for the last 2.1 miles. We turned left onto the boardwalk and ran a mile or so pass the aquarium until a hairpin U-turn at Coney Island Avenue which slowed everybody down, unfortunately. Then back towards the stadium, into the stadium, a three quarter loop around the field, and through the finish line which was installed right at the home plate. I think I ran a very good race. There were a couple of guys in front of me and I let them pull me along for the first one and a half miles until I noticed that either I was faster than them or they got slower and after a few attempts and a bit of playing around I overtook them and left them in the dust. Once I found my rhythm I was the one overtaking others and did not have anybody else overtake me. As mentioned above, I crossed the finish line in a (for me) breath-taking 19:51 minutes as 23rd finisher (out of 860, which, by the way, is probably the biggest NYCRUNS event I have participated in so far). Unfortunately, I placed a bittersweet 4th in my age group (out of 50) with the third place finishing 45 seconds ahead of me. I did see that guy but he pulled away fast in the last half of the race. Speaking about pulling away: the first female finisher went by me (okay, I kind of stretched the truth when I said nobody overtook me) in the last few yards and I tried everything I could to catch up with her but she crossed the finish line two seconds ahead of me but at least I was able to see how the whole thing works when you win a race. She was 13 years old. After the race we were provided with tickets for free food and beer. The food was provided by Nathan and they handed out pre-cooked burgers or hot dogs and a small side of french fries. We all got two food tickets so in theory you could have lined up twice; I didn't. I also skipped the beer because I did not feel like lining up in line first for a bracelet (where they check your age) and then again at the beer stand.

Finish line

So, what is next now? I guess I want to be ambitious and I set myself a 6:00 pace as goal for this summer. I believe I have the strength to do so but I have to train harder to get my entire body to keep it up. It should be interesting. The NY Flyers offer a speed pass program starting at the end of July to prepare runners for a half or full marathon. I am thinking of signing up for this so I can get a coach-led program to prepare me for a half-marathon late fall and as a first step to the marathon I want to run in November 2015. I will definitely sign up for this year's Bronx 10 mile race in September and maybe the Staten Island half-marathon (I ran both last year and I want to conquer them this year) but those will be the longest races for this year. I don't want to risk a knee injury again. For now let's go fast. Later we can go long.

Talking about fast: next up is race #4 of the PPTC Al Goldstein Speed Series in Prospect Park on Wednesday. It'll be hilly but I'll keep it under 6:30 - I hope.

Keep on running!

One Year later, new adventures, awards, and new PRs

Portugal Day

Almost two weeks ago I ran the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge for the second time. That means this marks the first year anniversary of me running competitively. A lot of things happened but the most important thing right now is that I pretty much recovered from my injuries I sustained from running too far/long too soon and I am pretty much back to the same fitness level I used to be in the summer of last year. Over the last six weeks I ran quite a few races and I will recap some of the highlights. Let me start with the stats first:

Date	Name	Distance	Time	Pace	Overall position	Age group position
5/11/14	NYRR Japan Run	4M	28:23	7:06	463/5707	58/419
5/14/14	NYCRUNS Riverside Park Series #1	5k	22:33	7:16	24/100	3/40
5/26/14	NYCRUNS Memorial Day Ice Cream Social	10k	44:10	7:07	32/361	3/40
5/28/14	NYCRUNS Lousy T-Shirt Race	5k	21:53	7:04	12/72	3/10
6/4/14	PPTC Al Goldstein Speed Series #2	5k	21:12	6:50	70/301	8/18
6/5/14	JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge	3.3M	22:40	6:52	849	n/a
6/15/14	NYRR Portugal Day	5M	34:13	6:51	441/5027	59/481
6/22/14	NYRR Queens 10k	10k	42:25	6:50	333/8410	41/641

I was able to get my 5k pace down to below seven minutes per mile again and my goal for the summer is getting it closer to 6:30 minutes/mile. I also got my 10k pace down to 6:50 for the very first time (yay for PRs!) I have plenty of races on my plate to work on this more hardcore. My current week looks a little bit like this: Mon, Tue - one loop around the island for around 4 miles, Wed - a 5k in Riverside Park or Prospect Park (see more about this below), Thu - rest, Fri - one loop for about 4 miles, Sat, Sun - two loops around the island for a total of about 8 miles. If there is a race on the weekend I adjust accordingly and insert a rest day after the race as well, i.e. I will always take a rest day after a race unless the next day is race day again.

Front row seating

Let's start with Japan Day. When I went to pick up my bib at the NYRR headquarters I was surprised to see that my start number was in the three digits because that number determines the start corral and three digits means I would be running in front (the first corral in NYRR races is usually for start numbers 0-999.) For once I would be able to actually see the stage and whatever performance they put on after we lined up and before the gun goes off. You see, your starting position is determined by the pace you set in past races and the 6:55 I got in last year's Dash to the Finish Line 5k was enough to get me front seating at Japan Day. For the Scotland Day run and Portugal Day it was still enough to get into the second corral from the front (1000-1999.) Wait, this is not quite true. The truly competitive runners who can sustain a pace of sub 6 minutes or lower (that is entirely my own guess and I do not have anything but my gut feeling to support this) get two digits, i.e. they get to start in front of everybody else, there is no corral per se for them; they just line up between the start line and the first corral. The race itself was a good one and it felt really good to run a four miles loop in Central Park with thousands of others.

The other big thing that happened was that for the first time ever I got awards! Not just once but three times in a row. I will never be able to pull this off at an NYRR race due to the sheer size and awesome competition in those but in NYCRUNS races it is definitely doable and I sure did it. It started with a tough race in Riverside Park which is known for its hills. The Riverside Park races this summer are part of a series organized by NYCRUNS. For $25 you get to run four 5ks, one every month from May through August, just bring the same bib you got when you registered. In that race I won third place in my age group and won a mug that was given out as swag in one of the Hot Chocolate winter races. This is one of the reasons why I love running and volunteering for NYCRUNS races: they don't take themselves too seriously. Its owner does not earn a million dollar a year like NYRR's CEO and you actually get to talk to him and hug him if you want to when you see him. I digress. I was able to win third place in my age group again on Memorial Day and the Lousy T-Shirt race. I was especially proud when at the award ceremony I was introduced as "... another well known name in the NYCRUNS community..." Did I mention again how I love, love, love participating in NYCRUNS events? I think I did. Then once more in the aptly named "Lousy T-Shirt" race which happened at Riverside Park. It was an invite-only race, it did not cost anything, and it marked the three years anniversary of NYCRUNS. It was a very small but great event and I got one more hot chocolate mug for my third place in my age group.

The other series I am running is the PPTC (Prospect Park Track Club) Al Goldstein Speed Series which is even a better deal: eight races for $25. It can't get any better. It also happens on Wednesdays, every other Wednesday from end of May through August. Winning any awards there, though, is really tough. It is called the "Speed Series" for a reason: these guys and gals are out for blood. The race did make me break through the seven minutes per mile again, though, and I cannot wait to run this course again. It is hilly but there is a very nice and long downslope almost at the end which allows you to really ramp it up once more and literally fly across the finish line.

Now that I crossed the magic seven minutes (6:30, here I come!) it seems that my current default pace for anything from 5k to 10k is around 6:50 minutes per mile at the moment. That creates the possibilities for many more PRs this summer. In the Queens 10k I was able to shave off more than 90 seconds from my previous 10k PR and if I keep pushing the 5k pace I'll beat my current 6:44 PR for this distance soon. This is going to be a great summer! I just got out my injuries stronger and faster. I wonder if the strength exercises I learned to recover in PT also contributed to my better running.

Did I say front row seating before already?

I marked my first year anniversary or competitive running with participating in the 2014 JP Morgan Corporate Challenge and it was a great event. Just like last year, it was an enormous number of runners (around 15,000 AFAIK) but this time I was able to start from the yellow corral which is the second from the front, just like what I promised I would be doing. I was surprised, though, how far in front I was, because the red corral was quite small and so was the yellow. Unfortunately, nothing really exciting was going on on the stage at the start line. Some JPM executives talked and, well, that was the fun part, one of the sponsors had a personal trainer on stage who tried to animate the runners to follow him doing some warm-up exercises. That was quite the hoot. The serious runners in front of the pack couldn't care less and the participants that may have had some fun with this were not in sight of the stage (do I sound a bit like a snob?) In the end I finished the slightly shortened course (it was 3.5 miles last year and 3.3 this year) in fourth place for Team NYU.

Queens 10k

I want to conclude this post with a recap of the Queens 10k which was the highlight of the last 6 weeks or so. The race was held in Flushing Meadow Corona Park in Queens, where we can find Citi Field (home of the NY Mets) and the tennis stadium that holds the US Open. The start and finish were close to the Fountain of the Planets and took us on a grand tour of most of the park. We circled the Meadow Lake, passed by the Queens Museum, had a quick out and back which led us to a 3/4 circle around the Unisphere, and we finished back at the fountain. The views in the park were great. The race course was flat and the weather was optimal to do the best running I was able to do. I was able to keep up with many of the runners up in front and for the first five miles I was able to hold a pace between 6:30 and 6:50. At mile 3 I overtook one of my teammates and knew that I was pretty much in first or second position of all NY Flyers that ran that day, as far as I could tell by the shirts they were wearing. Unfortunately, my mind slowed me down so much in the last mile that he was able to get passed me once again and finished before me. I was able to make up some time in the end by sprinting across the finish line but in the end I was the third Flyer to cross it BUT since I crossed the start line almost 20 seconds behind the number 2 guy in the end I was the second Flyer to place. It is always satisfying to see that I am able to beat other runners who are 5, 10, or even 15 years younger than I am.

Did I not mention in a previous post that I don't run to compete with others and this is all just about me getting better? Well, forget that. I am at a point now where I actually get to win stuff and where only a two digit number of people separate me from the top (in my age group, that is... let's be realistic.) I am out for blood now, plus I am curious how fast I am physically able to run long distances. Right now I am mastering 5ks and 10ks but I am going to sign up for a half-marathon training program that will start end of July to prepare me for a good half-marathon in the fall. This may be the Staten Island or the Yonkers Half, I do not know at this point of time. I am curious how it feels to run longer distances without getting injured badly all the time.

Oh, I also volunteered at the Brooklyn Half and the NYCRUNS Mother's Day 5k/10k. I will recap those experiences in a volunteering special post some day.

Next race up: the Brooklyn Cyclones Take your Base 5k in Coney Island. I am not a baseball fan at all but crossing a finish line within a baseball stadium at home plate sounds like an awesome experience. Plus, we'll get free beer!

Keep on running!

The Scots are coming but let's talk about the Irish first

A Beautiful Day

So much has happened in the last few weeks that deserves mentioning on this blog but before I do so I want to give you a recap of a race that I ran on September 14th, 2013. For some reason I never found the right words to put my experience on paper and kept postponing it until now. That one day in September has been the pinnacle in my very short race career. I ran the fastest ever. It was the Great Irish Fair 5k, an NYCRUNS 5k race on the boardwalk of Coney Island and I finished it in 20:52 minutes, a pace of 6:44 minutes per mile. I placed 10th out of a field of 176 finishers but awards were only given to the top three male and female winners. That's fine because we all got free food and beer at the Irish festival afterwards. From that race on things went pretty much downhill pace- and injury-wise because I started to run longer distances without training for it correctly.

Just as you would expect it from an Irish event it started rather late, at 11am, which gave me enough time that day to get down to Coney Island without waking up in the wee-hours. The race was a good one. It started on the Coney Island boardwalk right under the Parachute Jump and led us West for a bit, back East all the way to the Aquarium, and once more West to where we started. The board walk itself wasn't the safest ground to run on because of broken wood and the occasional nail poking out but as long as you stayed on the planks that are parallel to your running direction you were fine. To this day I am proud of what I achieved that day and I hope that I will be able to get back into even better shape. I don't think I reached my best, yet. After the race I helped myself to a cup of beer and a hot dog, and did one of the things I always wanted to do after a race: I took off my shoes and socks and walked in the Atlantic Ocean. It was perfect (with the exception of having sand all over and getting wet quite a bit) and I will sign up again once registration for the Great Irish Fair 5k opens up for 2014.

We all know what has happened after that and how I have been plagued with injuries in my knees and feet for the last few months. After the last half-marathon I developed an unpleasant clicking in my right knee that just didn't want to go away and I eventually decided to see a doctor and have it checked out. When ice and rest doesn't do much you better get professional advice. The doctor figured runner's knee but sent me off for an MRI which agreed with his preliminary diagnosis. In my case I am suffering from chondromalacia patella, degradation of the cartilage under my knee cap, that causes my bones touch each other, bruise slightly, and keep the tissue surrounding them inflamed. For the medically inclined among my hardly existing readership here is the official diagnosis:

• Focal degenerative complex along the posterior portion of the lateral tibial plateau, with full-thickness cartilage defect, and subcortical reactive marrow edema.
• Focal grade 1-2 chondromalacia of the medial facet of the patella, with accompanying focal marked synovitis in the adjacent medial joint capsule. There may be an underlying medial patellar plica at the site, but this is difficult to visualize.
• Mild to moderate "iliotibial band syndrome."
• Evidence of old Osgood-Schaltter disease with superimposed acute component in the distal patellar tendon, and in the superficial and deep infrapatellar bursae.
• Small joint effusion.
• Study negative for meniscal tear or knee derangement.

Phew. That was just as hard to type as it is to read. Well, my cartilage in my knee is thinning, things are inflamed, there are some leftovers from a condition that I unknowingly had when I was a child, but the tendons in my knee are in good condition. I assume the fact that my right foot is not parallel to my knee is not helping my condition especially when pounding the pavement during a run for a prolonged time. Nevertheless, it is not bad enough to require that I give up running but if we don't do anything about the current condition I may end up with knee replacement down the road. So, for now I will get an injection into each knee. Two injections per knee once a week for three weeks, to be precise. Sounds bad? Yeah, I am not looking forward to it but it is not supposed to be as bad as it sounds. What's going to happen is that the medication that will be injected will act as a lubricant to keep the bones from doing damage to each other. It is supposed to reduce the pain I would get from too much running and prevent further degradation of the cartilage. The bad thing: that medication is extremely expensive (almost $2,500 for one full treatment of both knees - 10% of which will have to come out of my pocket, health insurance will luckily cover the rest) and it needs to be re-applied every six months. I will definitely do a progress report over the next few months and talk about how things improve, if at all.

The other thing that I was prescribed was physical therapy to make sure other muscles in my legs take off as much load from my knees as possible. The first evaluation showed that my glutes did less work than they are supposed to, especially in my right leg. So we are focusing at the moment on getting my glutes stronger and make myself more conscious about the bio-mechanics so that I activate my butt and hips more when climbing stairs or running or walking. I must say that I do feel a lot better after my first five sessions and the only thing that is left is the clicking (which only shows when climbing up stairs and may not go away ever again) and a bit of ITBS left over from my last race. We are working on it. Today I got a gait analysis and I was told that my running technique is almost flawless. I just need to work a bit on my hip extensions - I tend to turn out my legs a bit too much when running.

This has been quite a long blog entry already but there is more! Because of my injury I wasn't able to run the Spring Fling 10k but since NYCRUNS has an awesome volunteering program I helped out with the race doing course marshaling and I got credit for the missed race that I will apply to a future race. Volunteer for a race and get $25 race credit and whatever swag they handed out to runners, including the food. You cannot beat that!

Long sleeves wasn't the best
idea. Photo by Marathonfoto

And then the NYRR Scotland Run 2014 came along. I paid for it, I would get a point for guaranteed entry into the 2015 NYC Marathon, plus my knee didn't feel that much off, so... I ran it. I even finished it and not in last position. It was hard, though, but not unsurprisingly because I haven't run for almost four weeks now and jumping right into a 10k took a lot of effort. The fact that I was able to finish it and was still able to maintain a better than 7:30 minutes per mile pace still shows that my fitness level hasn't degraded too much, yet. It is far off from the 7:10 or so I did in a 10k last year but I am confident that I will be able to get back into it. I mean, I was in the middle of a 10k training program when my knee acted up.

The race was one complete loop of Central Park. We started on the West side at around 63rd Street, went all the way up north, back down on the East side, all the way down south, back north and a little bit further than the start line. The weather was great and the atmosphere awesome. Thousands of runners getting together is always an awesome experience - especially when you are one of them. Thanks to my performance in the Dash to the Finish Line from last year I earned my lowest bib number ever and I started in the second start coral from the front. In the beginning of the race I was able to keep up just nicely but when the rolling hills started up in Harlem I lost a lot of time. I think I have to run a lot more often in Central Park. The hills, no matter how small they are, really got to me very quickly. The mile that had the most hills was my slowest mile. I recovered in the end a bit but I spent my very last dose of energy that I had. It was hard. I crossed the finish line in 1,229th place out of 8,067 finishers, 126th out of 571 finishers in my age group (40-44), and 19th place (out of 87 participants) for my running team. I am proud that I was still able to stay in the top-20% of the entire field. My net time was 46:18 minutes which equals to an average pace of 7:28 minutes per mile.

Today is Friday and I am planning on getting back into a much more relaxed 10k training plan tomorrow. It is supposed to be a gorgeous Saturday outside and I really need to get back out there and run my heart out. I will officially be training for a 10k in July but will run multiple 5-10ks during that journey. No more half-marathons until fall, i.e. the Yonkers or Philadelphia Marathons may be downgraded to halves for me this year. I am in no rush, am I?

I want to finish with what's coming up next. The next race will be the Dawg Dash, a 5k on Roosevelt Island, organized by the University of Washington Alumni Association. Then May's schedule has volunteering three times and racing twice. Considering the condition of my knee I may have to postpone my first marathon to 2015 and focus on half-marathons only for this fall. I think I really have to take it slow and get a lot more miles under my belt before I do anything crazy.

Keep on running!

There is no such thing as bad weather

After a night of snow

I ask myself once in a while what makes me going back out there and run because the fitness and health aspect never really crossed my mind as the main motivators. Also, I have never been a very competitive person in my life when it comes to proving myself among peers or other people in general but there is something about running that wants me to get better and faster. I had enough time thinking about this over the last few days when I ran through snow, sleet, and rain and I formed a theory (which, by the way, applies only to me and me alone, as far as I know): I want to beat myself. I want to push my envelope because I want to experience how it feels to cross lines I have never crossed before and I want to feel that high you get when you bettered yourself once again. It's like a drug that my own body and mind provides and wants me to keep going. There is, after all, such a thing as being addicted to running.

Spectator

Yesterday my Endomondo training plan bummed me out. It made me run a 2 mile stretch as fast as possible and used the results to adjust the upcoming weeks. It downgraded my predicted outcome for the 10k scheduled for the 22nd of March from 42 minutes to 47 minutes and adjusted my easy run pace from 8:30 minutes to 9:28 minutes. Now, I don't really understand how the training plan was created, what algorithms were used (I think I found that info once before but cannot recall where and what it said), and how much I actually should listen to it but as long as I don't overdo it with the mileage it should be okay to run faster than prescribed. I do know and understand that I slacked off quite a bit since November last year due to my knee (which, by the way, has been holding up quite nicely over the last couple weeks of training) and that it takes a bit of time to get back to my previous fitness level. It took me six months last time and I assume it will take pretty much the same time to exceed it. And here we have proof that I am addicted and this is all about beating my own self.

I do would like to think, though, that running in all kinds of weather is not just about proving something to myself but it is also about building stamina. On race day you have two options if you have to deal with adverse weather: skip it or run it. I prefer the latter and therefore I go out and run when my training plan tells me to do it (only injury is an acceptable reason to skip a day) and that increases my resistance to slacking off.

I am going to finish up with a word about the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge 2014. I just got an e-mail from our HR folks that we will be able to sign up in a couple of weeks. Since it was my first race to run it will definitely always be on my schedule and this time I will be starting in one of the front corrals.

Off to putting plans into action

Pretty but too boring

I just signed myself up for a few NYRR and NYCRUNS races and took this opportunity to also update my blog. As I mentioned last time already, the schedule I put together depends on a little bit of luck, and, of course, I missed the correct timing to sign up for the Hot Chocolate, the Al Gordon, and the Brooklyn Half (which, by the way, I am the most disappointed about, because it will prohibit me from getting a guaranteed entry for next year's NYC Half). By the time I had the money to sign up for them they were sold-out. I did get into the Frozen Penguin Half (more about this a bit later), the Spring Fling 10k, the Scotland Run, the Japanese Run, Portugal Day, and the Queens 10k. This pretty much exhausted my budget for races this month and the Henry's Hope and the Ice Cream Social have to wait until next month. I am not sure if I am going to run the Israel Run this year; two races per month is plenty.

I kept talking about how I am lying low for a while to get my knees rest (and to get over yet another cold I got from my son) and that I will start training soon. Well, I finally renewed my Endomondo premium membership and scheduled in training for the Spring Fling 10k which will happen on the 22nd of March. I thought of taking it easy and build on getting faster in a 10k first and then move on to half marathon training (aiming at a still to be determined half marathon in the summer) and then off to full marathon training for my first marathon in the fall (I am thinking of Yonkers, with a lot of luck NYC, or Philadelphia). This is a rough plan and it all will start this coming Saturday with a nice slow 5 mile run around the island. Ah, how will the Frozen Penguin Half fit into this? Well, I could have chosen the 5k option instead of the half marathon distance but I have a 9 mile training run scheduled on the same day and I thought that I can wiggle it somehow (i.e. run for distance and not so much for time and placement) and even get a medal for my efforts as well. I'll update my training plans as soon as the 10k is over and I know what next race I want to go for.

Just a few words about running along the North Sea: it sucks. Don't get me wrong. It is a very nice place to hang out and relax but running even a few miles turn into a mental exercise due to the monotony: the sea on one side and the green levee on the other and nothing else. It was fun to do once (I only ran maybe a mile in one direction, turned around, and decided to run through town instead and pick up some rolls for breakfast) but I do not think I would do this again unless I had a running partner, I guess. Well, I tried.

Sidelined and volunteering

All lined up

Last weekend's NYC60k race (aka the Knickerbocker) was probably the most low key running event the NYRR is in charge of that I have attended so far. I assume the XC runs up in the Bronx and the announced Classic runs for next year are very similar? No fancy signage, no DJs (AFAIK), no thousands of runners, no national anthem and pre-start entertainment. Just 500 runners lined up in a no-frill race ready to run 37.3 miles in nine loop in Central Park.

Oh, just to make sure we don't misunderstand each other. I did not run it. It did look like a lot of fun, though, so maybe one day? In a couple of years or so? Let's say three years. I volunteered, though. I thought that would be my +1 credit to get into the NYC Marathon next year but since that's not going to happen (I was only able to run three out of the nine required races to get guaranteed entry) I volunteered to a) to do something good, and b) to be part of something exciting. If I cannot run a race I still love to watch. And you may think that watching the same runners go pass you nine times can't be exciting but you would be wrong. It is great to watch how these amazing people make the best out of a situation that tests their physical and mental limits and since I was stationed right in front of the start/finish line I loved to see the beaming smiles every time they had another lap in the sack. Some of the volunteers and spectators were amazing to keep the spirits up even hours into the race (the winner finished in a little over four hours). You could hear them scream and shout the runners' bib numbers and encourage them to keep going. The watching crowd was in no way close to, say, the Marathon but it was just as noisy and up-lifting.

After watching these runners go by round after round I got a feeling who is in the leading group and who has how many more laps to go. The NYRR has a very nice write-up about the race but let me just add my few cents. The first seven laps were dominated by Vinicius Tavares (he's the guy in blue working his watch in the picture above) who clicked off one mile after another with a below seven minutes per mile pace. He really looked like he could keep it up forever but eventually he was overtaken by the winner and came in on a still respectable second place. Did I say these guys are amazing? Even when my shift was done at 11:30am (it started at 6:30am and, let me tell you, standing non-stop for five hours hurts just as much as running for an hour or two - at least for somebody like me who sits all day long on his job) I stuck around to at least see the top three finishers for the men and women. I finally made my way back home at around 1:30pm.

So, how was my volunteering experience? This time I signed up to help out in the start/finish area because I thought this would be the most exciting and rewarding spot to be. I definitely wasn't wrong with that and not just because it was a great place to be to celebrate with the runners and the spectators. Our captain, I assume an NYRR employee, was also a very interesting character. He sure knew how to secure the start/finish area. Most of us were positioned to secure the cross walk in front and at the back of the start and finish line at 90th Street and East Drive and made sure that pedestrians and bicyclists don't interfere with the runners. The NYRR got permits to use the pedestrian lanes of the upper short loop of Central Park and everybody else had to use the bike lanes instead. It sure got busy later that morning and in the afternoon and we had our hands full directing traffic across. We also had to make sure that non-participating runners would go around the start/finish area and most did do just that but some people couldn't care less and gave us the "but I don't want to" speech and just ran straight ahead. It wasn't such a big deal but it would have made the folks in charge of keeping tracks of the runners' laps a bit easier. They needed to see the runners' numbers and always had to remind folks to show their numbers when they cross the line. So folks who didn't want to help us out made things a bit harder but, again, luckily there were only a very few (I counted two) who behaved like the Lords of Central Park. After all it was a great experience, especially interacting with onlookers when I told them that this is a 60k race. Many couldn't believe that anybody would run such distances - especially on such monotone routes like Central Park. I also have to add my own kudos to the runners here. For volunteering my time I got a nice tech shirt and a great time. I will so do this again.

A few closing words about my own running. Well, my IT band sidelined me. After my last race I promised myself not to run until it cleared up. It's been two weeks now and it is getting better - very slowly, though. I am itching to get back on the road and run my heart out but I really, really, really shouldn't. For now I reset my training calendar for December, 1st to start a training program for a half-marathon that I want to run in the spring but I will keep this open because if I still cannot run for at least half an hour pain-free it is back to sitting it out until at least the start of 2014, which after all, would mark my first year anniversary for being back in running. We will see. I am not signed up for any races so the temptation is limited.

Marathon weekend

Running up on 6th Ave
Picture by MarathonFoto

It's the pinnacle of almost every runner's running career, I would assume. Running a marathon and keep running them. Last weekend was the NYC Marathon. It was an exciting few days and I got really into it. I did not run, for many obvious reasons like I only started running for "real" this year, my knee needs a lot more healing, and I didn't do any training to run 26.2 miles, but I did participate in a 5k the day before which finished at the Marathon finishing line in Central Park and I volunteered with my fellow team members at the Power Gel station on mile 18. It was an awesome experience and it just made me want to participate in the New York marathon in the future even more. Maybe not for 2014 due to not having a guaranteed spot but definitely for 2015. Let's cross fingers and knock on wood.

Almost at the finish line
Picture by MarathonFoto

Let's start with the Dash to the Finish Line on Saturday, a nice little 5k race that started in front of the UN, brought us over 42nd Street to 6th Avenue, all the way up to Central Park South, into Central Park at the corner of CPS and 5th Ave, up to the 72nd Street traverse, and going over the south loop to the finish line. This race, the NYC Half, and of course the NYC Marathon, are the only three races per year where Manhattan streets are closed to car traffic for us runners (I guess we have to count in NYC Summer Streets for leisure running) and it is such a rush to run Manhattan Streets with spectators lining up on both sides of the street. It was a sold-out race with 5,000 runners and it got a bit crowded. I believe it is rather hard to run PRs in short races with such huge crowds because you always end up jockeying for position. You rarely run in a straight line for the first 10 minutes or so and lose a lot of momentum when you have to find a way to get ahead of runners in the way or cutting in, etc. My knee was not recovered at all (thanks to my inability to just not run for a couple of weeks) but I just ran through it and made it to the finish line in a decent time despite everything including not really seriously running for a few weeks now. I finished in 316th place, 28th/496 in my age and gender group, first for my team, with a pace of 6:56 minutes per mile and a total time of 21:28 minutes. Not the best time (I had better) but considering everything not bad at all. Of course, the fact that thousands of really good runners were running the marathon the next day they either didn't attend this one or ran really slow to avoid any injuries. I know, for example, that there are a lot of faster guys in my running team, but they didn't show up.

Package pick-up for this race was at the Marathon Expo at the Javits Center on the West Side of Midtown. It was crazy there. Thanks to security (I tell you, the terrorists have won...) I had to stand in line to get into the building, stand in line to get through security checks, stand in line... you get the picture. In the end I got my shirt and my bib but no bag. Only marathon runners got a bag for their goodies. We 5k-ers are second class citizens who had to wait until bag check-in or crossing the finish line to get a clear plastic bag. Ugh. Well, I did throw it away eventually after eating the meager snacks that came with it (one apple, a baggie of pretzel sticks, and a pint-sized bottle of water) so none of this really matters in the big picture. And that big picture was: I ran the streets of Manhattan and I crossed the NYC Marathon finish line without actually having to run the marathon. It was awesome. Period.

Cheering on some runners
Picture by Linda Chan

My motto for this weekend was: if you cannot run the marathon at least do some volunteering work. And that I did happily. My running team has been staffing the Power Gel station at mile 18 of the race for a few years now (I think). This year I signed up for it and helped out. It was amazing. By the time I arrived at my spot the wheelchair racers were just passing by. Image propelling a wheelchair for more than 90 minutes just with your arms, shoulders, and back. Some people say running is hard but doing that motion non-stop? Then the hand-cycles whizzed by, followed by the woman pro-athletes (which I missed because I jumped into a deli to get some water), then the pro-men, followed by the amateurs. I was able to stand right there at the curb, without a barricade, and have the runners pass by me just like that. Very few of the pros and the wheelchairs needed gel - I assume they have their own fueling system - but as soon as the masses of runners (more than 50,000 I read) started to come by we all were handing out packets of gel non-stop. I wasn't able to stay there for the entire day (the last runner crossed the finish line after 10pm) but was able to see probably the first half to 2/3s of the runners. We had runners of all kinds. Serious ones, costumed ones, always smiling ones, picky ones ("does this have caffeine" or "ugh - hate that flavor"), polite ones ("thank you!" or "It's awesome you guys are doing this"), you name it. I even had two people recognize me (one co-worker and one other runner from Roosevelt Island who I met on the way to the Bronx) and I was told a few others noticed me but didn't make themselves noticeable to me. I was just standing there, stretching out my hand, with a packet of gel in my hand, for everybody to grab. Some women runner had long fingernails which scratched my hand when they pulled the pouch out of my hand. After a couple of hours my hand was cramped up but I did what all endurance athletes do - push through it. If I can run a few miles, I can keep handing out gels for a few hours.

Marathon is over now. The races are not slowing down, though, but I will for a few weeks. I promise that I will not run for at least two weeks and then pick it up very slowly. I have to let that IT band heal. Starting January I will start a training program towards marathon distance for the fall of 2014. That's the plan and will, as always, be adjusted.

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.

First 10k race

It was a beautiful for a nice run

Yesterday I ran my very first 10k. I now have some data that I can use to figure out my progress. And progress it was indeed. We ran along Shore Road Park down in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and in the organizers' words (paraphrased) "we ran 3.1 miles this way, turned 180 degrees, and ran another 3.1 miles back." The route brought us to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (the bridge that connects Staten Island with Brooklyn), underneath it, and another half mile beyond it. I like landmarks like that because it shows you a) how short a mile can be by looking back and seeing how far the bridge is behind you already, and b) how long a mile can be by looking at the bridge in front of you wondering if you can make it there. I did make it back to the bridge, under it, and back to the finish line in 44:02 minutes, a pace of 7:06 minutes/mile, on 13th place (out of 122 finishers total), and 2nd in my age group of 40-49 (out of 17 finishers in that category). And again, no, no awards were given to anybody but the first finishers in each age group and the top three of the race. One day I will snatch
one up, one day. When I looked at the splits in Endomondo I also realized that I ran my best 5k in the first half of the race with a pace of 6:55 minutes/mile with a total of 21:26 minutes. That's a 20 seconds improvement over my last 5k. I think I can be proud of that achievement, too. My 10k finishing goal to cross the finish line under 45 minutes is already done. Next run I'll try a 6:45 pace for a finish time of under 42 minutes.

The Verrazano Bridge is about 3 miles away

When I came back home I published my results on the NY Flyers' web site and noticed that the guy in red shirt, who kept running in front of me all the time and was just a lot better at keeping a constant pace, was a fellow Flyer and he placed first in my age group. I then checked his racing history and he has been doing this for at least 12 years now and his first 10k times back in 2001 were around 55-57 minutes. That gives me hope that within the next 10 years I will finish first somehow somewhere. Another guy also in a red shirt (which you can actually see in the picture above - he's got PPTC written on his shirt, Prospect Park Track Club) placed third and was 45 seconds behind me.

I always hear that you usually run a lot faster than usual when you run a race. This is very true. It seems that a little bit of competition and probably a bit of the need to show off makes your legs go faster. Also see my more recent post why I always want to finish in the top 20%.

How did I train for this race? To be honest, I did not. After the 16 miles the previous Sunday and another 6 miles the day after my left knee was in pain. I did run 40 miles over 5 days that week and the golden rule is never to run more than 10% than the previous week(? month?) but, of course, I hardly heed such rules. Maybe I should. Anyway, I took the rest of the week off. Literally. I didn't run, I didn't ride the bike, nothing but walking. The first time I ran again after five days of rest was when I got out of the subway station in Brooklyn and ran the half mile to the start line for warm-up. While my knee still felt it could use another week of rest I noticed that the pain disappeared as soon as I started running. That's the way I like it.