Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Vacation + Running = AWESOME!

We are downashore thru Sunday, so that means plenty of Beach, Beer, and of course RUNNING!
I went out and ran 14 miles on Sunday, from our place in Wildwood to Cape May and back!
While the temps were very nice (low 70's @ 6:00pm), the humidity was a KILLER (95%)!
I felt pretty good, and when I reviewed my times, I avg. 9:20's for the 14, so I was pleased with those figures. I did have 2 nice bridges to cross, so the hill work was welcomed.
Monday was a quick 3 mile recovery run, and today, Tuesday was 7, and I pushed the pace, and avg around 8min/miles, and felt pretty darn good!
So it's off to have a Landshark, and get ready for a night on the Wildwood boards!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

2 weeks and 2 races!

The past 2 Saturday's, on my way to our Wildwood place, to do the "flip"; renter's in, renter's out, I found races to run!
The 1st was a 5 miler in Cape May, Coombs Douglass 5 miler. My goal was to beat my pr of 39:03, and I thought I would have a good shot at it, based on the weather and my marathon training. I did track work the Thursday before, and was hoping it would help, rather than drain me.
I started out as usual, FAST, for me with around a 7min mile. I slowed it down to 7:30ish and was cruising, until my right heel started to get numb. At the turn around at 2.5, it was bothering my so much, I stopped to loosen my laces. That did the trick, but the stop cost me about a min in time.. an eternity in a 5 mile race.
Funny thing, when I crossed the finish, I had equaled my PR.
This past Saturday, I ran a 5k in Ocean City, Guts & Glory 5k. I did this race last year, and for a 5k, it has big race amenities! They get approx 1200 runners/walkers for this event.
I ran with some friends I made at the 5miler the week before, and wanted to do this around 22mins. My training plan had me running 6 miles, so I ran 3 before the race.
When the horn sounded, I was off with a 7:06 & 7:08 first 2 miles, and with a mile + left, I could feel the tank emptying. I did 4x 300meter hill repeats on Thursday, and they were tough! Mile 3 was 7:24, and I finished at 22:26, 89Th out of about 1200.
The amazing thing about running the past 2 races down the shore, is how competitive the 50+ age groups are. Those guys are HARDCORE! One of the friends I made was 54, and ran 6:30 min/miles in both races! I can only hope to get that fast in 10yrs!
I did get out today, and ran 13.5, my longest run since the Long Branch 1/2 back in May, and felt really good, surprisingly. I ran 8:45's, and it was nice to not run in the heat & humidity!
Week 5 of marathon training has intervals on the schedule. Hard to believe I'm 5 weeks into my 18 week plan.. time is flying by!
Also, I registered for the ING PDR Rock & Roll Philly 1/2, or whatever name they are calling it, and I will get my sub 1:40 that day!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Track Work.. UGH !

Last nite, for the 1st time in ages, I did track work.
My schedule called for 4 x 800's, with 2-3min recovery.
I got to our local HS track, and started with a mile warm up. It was disgustingly hot & humid at 5:30pm here, but good news and bad news.. there was a breeze! Good news.. breeze felt good... bad news.. breeze made it tough running!
I started with an easy mile warm up, making sure I was warmed up enough, I didn't want to pull a hammy!
The 800's went by really quickly. I wanted to do them around 3:40, like Yasso's. They were tough, especially the 2nd lap of them.
  1. 3:18
  2. 3:19
  3. 3:24
  4. 3:30

After the last 800, I did a mile cool down, and was wiped out! I was really surprised at how hard they were, but I was glad I did them.
I am running a 5 miler on Sat, in Cape May, so hopefully the speed work will help. My schedule says to run 6 @ MP, but I'm going to shoot for a PR. Weather should be good, and Cape May is flat, so we'll see !

Sunday, August 1, 2010

2 Weeks down, 14/16 to go !

The first 2 weeks of my fall marathon training are in the books! It has been 2 hot & humid weeks here in NJ! I was lucky enough to be in Wildwood last week, but even still, it was hot & humid the first few days. It's amazing, when you get out to run at 6:00am, and it's 85deg F and 99% humidity!
I still am not sure how I am going to run NYC. I really want the 3:40 in Philly, so I am thinking my plan for NYC, might be to run it leisurely, and try and leave something in the tank for Philly 2 weeks later. Only problem with that is I don't know if I could handle P Diddy or Oprah having a better finishing time than me!


One last thing, thanks for those who have donated to help me raise the $2500.00. I need to run NYC! It is very humbling to have running friends willing to help me achieve my goal.