Saturday Morning Jog

Time: 22:56

Easy morning jog with Nick towards RCP and on the Piney Branch trail. Hamstring and hip flexor both tight and a little sore.

No stretching, because brunch was a bigger priority.

Piney Branch

Time: 21:35

Easy evening run around Piney Branch Park and the neighborhood. My right hamstring and left hip flexor were about as tight/sore as they have been recently, but I didn't start to feel the hip flexor until about 15 minutes.

This was a pretty good day to get mentally started with the come back, as I got pumped up watching the Boston Marathon this morning at work. I was happy to see Nick Juravich ran a PR (2:51:32). Taylor caught the end of the race in Boston and got this great shot of Ryan Hall:

Manhattan Half Marathon

Time: 117:00
Distance: 19 mi.
Course Map

Target: run comfortably at target marathon effort (and a little faster), hopefully beginning around 5:40 effort and average 5:35 (~1:13:10)
Race: 1:12:19 (5:31 average) for 6th place; ran controlled and even effort throughout

Splits:	Loop 1 - 5:38, 5:44, 5:25, 5:43, 5:37, 5:21
	Loop 2 - 5:31, 5:34, 5:21, 5:40, 5:31, 5:16
	Loop 3 - 5:25, 33 (5:31 average)

Full Results

Nick, his friend Nat and I got up early in Brooklyn to trek to Central Park for the first race in the New York Road Runners Half Marathon Grand Prix. The NYRR put on a half marathon in each borough in New York City throughout the course of the year, beginning with today's race in Manhattan. While we were treated with beautiful sunrise, it was shy of 20 degrees F out with moderate gusts of wind.


Race morning in Central Park, by fellow runner ECWC

While my legs were a bit stiff throughout the race, due to the cold, after warming up in the first few miles it wasn't too much of an impediment at the pace we were running. I ran pretty much exactly the way I was hoping to, keeping the effort very under control early and then slowly dropping the pace to a faster, but comfortable clip. While the splits were all over the place, due to the hills in Central Park, I dropped the effort fairly evenly, running 33:28 for the first lap (5:35 pace) down to 32:53 for the second (5:28 pace). Luckily I had company throughout the race, as T. Patrick Hynes of the Greater New York Racing Team and I figured out that we had fairly similar plans for the day. We led a chase pack for most the race and picked up many of the people who fell off the leaders in the second lap. He and Victor Vientos, who ran with us for a while, kicked fairly hard at the 13 mile mark and I didn't really give them a run for it. I was having a great day and wasn't going to jeopardize it by threatening my tight right hamstring on such cold day. I finished feeling aerobically comfortable and with my legs in good shape. The "cooldown" was rough, though, as the cold seized my legs very soon after finishing.


The start of the race at 8 AM

Nick and Nat also had good races, and we were in good spirits (despite freezing again) heading back into the subway. The only thing I missed out on today was practicing taking some GU and water while running hard because, well, it was just too damn cold.

More: NYRR Manhattan Half Marathon Video, NYRR Photo Gallery

Brooklyn-Manhattan Loop

Time: 77:10
Distance: 11 mi.


Manhattan from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, just south of the Brooklyn Bridge

Morning run with Nick on a loop over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan, and back to Brooklyn over the Williamsburg Bridge. My legs were a bit beat from yesterday, but I enjoyed getting a historical tour along the way from Nick, who is becoming an expert on the local urban history.

Connecticut River Run

Time: 86:30
Distance: 12 mi.
Map


We ran along the near side of this section of the Connecticut River, shown here from Mt. Sugarloaf

A morning loop along the Deerfield side of the Connecticut River and through South Deerfield from Nick's mom's house. We ran south along River Road, looped up on 116 and through the "center" of South Deerfield, and came back to complete the lollipop on Hillside Road. We were running easy, but that was just what I needed today, because the run was fairly hilly and I am a little tight from running in flats yesterday.

Brooklyn Bridges

Time: 80:14
Distance: 11 mi.


The Manhattan Bridge and skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge

I met Nick early before his first day of work at the New York Road Runners. We ran from Brooklyn to Manhattan on the Manhattan Bridge and back into Brooklyn on the Brooklyn Bridge. Despite dealing with cars and traffic, it was a great way to see the some of Brooklyn and the beautiful bridges on the east side of Manhattan.

Mt. Toby

Time: 98:26
Distance: 13 mi.


The view south of Mt. Toby from the top of the fire tower

I picked up Nick and we headed up to Mt. Toby in Sunderland/Montague/Leverett, MA. It is the highest peak in the Pioneer Valley, at 1269 feet. There is actually a race up and down the mountain, somehow making a 14 mile loop. I should have found out what that was before we headed out, but instead we ran somewhat aimlessly. We took the shortest way straight up to the top, which took 18:00 and was no more than 2 miles. We couldn't resist climbing the fire tower at the top to get the view of the area, ranging past Amherst and all the way to the Berkshires. After that we took a longer switchback trail back down which took just shy of 30 minutes and got us back to the start. We then did a different loop to the north of the peak and came back part of the way on the road. We were never really moving very fast (despite the good effort on the hills), and it ended up being a somewhat disjointed run as we tried to figure out where we were and where we should be going, but it was good to be out there on my feet for that long.

It was a beautiful day. I have seasonal affective disorder.

Leverett Loop

Time: 86:00
Distance: 12 mi.

Easy recovery run with Nick, who is back in town for a couple of days. I'm still a little sore from Saturday, but still wanted to get some volume in. Nick is preparing for an early October marathon (Twin Cities) so he was down. We took a pretty standard loop through North Amherst and Leverett, past Atkins Reservoir and up on January Hills Road.

Mt. Orient

Time: 66:50
Distance: 9 mi.

Afternoon run from Nick's house on the classic Mt. Orient loop through Amethyst Brook. Taylor and John came with me and Nick brought two friends from Chicago. This is some of the best running I've done anywhere.

Rock Creek Park

Time: 123:51
Distance: 18.5 mi.

Morning run with Nick, Bogden and Reinauer starting from Pierce Mill. The weather couldn't have been more cooperative... a bit overcast and fairly cool. Kept the pace relatively chill, which was good, as we were up pretty late last night and I want to keep feeling good even bumping the milage again. Started with the Superloop (with a brief detour into Maryland), and then did an add on up Beach Dr. together and then I tacked on a little bit by myself down near the zoo. Calf definitely better today despite the workout, so I'm pretty happy about that. Staying in the Motos for the time being to protect it. Last long run in DC.

4 Mile Tempo

Time: 90:35
Distance: 14 mi.

Target: 4 miles in 21:15 (~5:18 pace)
Workout: 5:15, 5:17, 5:13, 5:02 - 20:49


The Cardozo High School track and view towards downtown DC

First workout of the cross country season! Couldn't have been a more beautiful day. Was a bit worried before the workout because yesterday's ankle pain has moved up to the inside of my inside calf, but after two miles of warming up it seemed like it was getting looser rather than getting tighter. Nick is in town, and I convinced him, Seth and Colin to come down to the Cardozo High School to run around a little bit. They ended up jumping in for some "pacing by committee" which was nice and made it more fun... a bit of a high school running reunion. I stayed focused though and felt very good the whole way, despite being up late picking up Nick from the bus stop. Left calf very tight afterward, but tried to ice it and keep it loose. In total had about a 4.5 mile warmup, 4 mile workout, and 5.5 mile cooldown.

RCP Loops

Time: 115:16
Distance: 16.5 mi.

After a late night with the AR/XC boys in town, went on a run with Nick and Jean for the first little while and continued for most of it with Chetan Huded, a friend of Nick's from Chicago. Did a few different loops. Pretty dehydrated and tired. Pace was slow for pretty much the whole thing.