Entries from February, 2010

It was 7pm on Thursday tonight.  Time for my weekly beating.  In other words, Thursday night tempos!  Similar to the theme of Tuesday’s intervals, we have been building over the last few weeks for a very challenging session.  Tonight was the night.  The workout called for 2×4 mile loops in Central Park with no recovery.  The first loop was to be run at marathon pace and the second at half marathon pace.  The session really targeted those getting ready for the NYC Half Marathon (late March) and spring marathons.  Since I’m not participating in either and getting ready for a 5k (early March), Coach suggested that I only run one aggressive 4-mile loop. Continue Reading

After a weekend of longish miles, I was happy to be back indoors on the track. Although, based on how I was feeling most of Tuesday, I wasn’t certain of the result at The Armory. Call it the 12-hour funk, but something washed over me at work and even on the subway ride uptown to the track. I wouldn’t call it lethargy, but I felt kind of bleh. I thought about it most of the day and the best I could come up with is that I might be in the beginning stages of catching the latest illness floating around my household. We’ll see if I am right later in the week. Continue Reading

I am definitely primed for warmer weather.  Either that or I am in for an epic head fake.  As is my wont on weekends (especially those of the extended holiday variety), I lounged around in the early hours.  I still woke up in time to see day break occur at 6:24am (hello Spring), but had no desire to do anything other than surf the web, observe the kids destroy the apartment and drink cappuccino.   The upside to laziness is that the temps warmed up to 35* a.k.a. shorts weather!  I’m starting to experiment with clothing options for the 5k on March 7^th.  Unless the weather reverts to December-like conditions, I’m definitely wearing shorts.  I’d be surprised if it will be warm enough for just a singlet, therefore, I broke out my old Nike LS base layer today as a test.  If anything, I was too warm, but that should do the trick.  I’ll also likely wear the racing flats that day. Continue Reading

Nothing heartfelt about this morning … No shorts … way too much wind.  Think Spring only takes you so far … especially at 28* with 10-12 mph winds whipping around every direction. Continue Reading

After all of the focus on speed and intensity during the week, it is a welcome change to hit the streets for a (mini) long run at Long Slow Distance pace.  I consider a run between 12-15 miles a “mini” LR.  Why?  To me, there is just a physical and psychological difference between runs north of 15 miles.  They require more energy, effort and concentration.  I’m not saying a run under 15 is a cakewalk, but my body definitely knows the difference (likely the glycogen depletion).  With no HM on the near-term horizon, why beat up the body unnecessarily?  Therefore, today’s goal was 12. Continue Reading

I figured I’d keep the “I Heart”, “I Hate” theme going for a little longer. I nearly entitled this post “I Respect Tempos,” but that’s not really news … I wouldn’t run them if I didn’t believe they drive improved performance. Continue Reading

We had a terrific discussion yesterday in the comments section about speed, pacing, etc. Thank you so much for all of your contributions. My favorite comment (of many) came from Larry who said in reference to some of the 20-something women in our CPTC interval sub-group: Continue Reading

Tuesday’s = intervals!!! I really look forward to Tuesday nights at the track. They have it all … indoors, soft running surface and flat. Most importantly, it’s fun to go fast. An added bonus tonight was that I broke out the new racing flats … Asics Piranha’s. It was my first time in flats. After warming up, I really didn’t notice them on my feet … other than feeling like I wasn’t wearing any shoes (4 oz.). Even Coach gave me props on the new kicks! Continue Reading