Today was a big day in NYC running circles, the New York City Marathon. A thoroughly exciting event which makes for a distracting (in a positive way) week leading to the race, and an amazing race weekend. I was not running this year, and nor did I have time to get to the expo or spectate, but I did follow all of my virtual friends on Twitter today, which was loads of fun. Congrats to everyone that got it done!
My 2009 experience, including expo, can be found in several installments. I’ve also got my 2008 race report here.
As for my current activities, I’m knee deep in training for my next marathon (First Light in Jan), and trying to take the training very seriously this time around. For fall races, I blame my typical poor showing on not training well in the summer. I don’t have that excuse for a winter race, and so am trying hard to follow through on getting in the miles. This past week was pretty stellar:
- Monday – after a 16 mile long run on Saturday, I was going to take Monday off because I already had a softball game, but the softball game was cancelled, and I decided when I got home late that I should get a workout in. Just went for a 4 mile run in East River Park, but got the work in, rather than taking the rest day.
- Tuesday – went to the gym to lift weights for the first time since Feb. Will try to do this once a week as a cross training activity
- Wednesday – was a busy day at work, followed by a reception which caused me to get home past 8pm. Again, I felt it was really important to get some work in, and went out late for a 4.4 mile run down to East River Park. My other option was to go to sleep early, which I really wanted to do, but instead I dragged myself out and got in the miles, done at a strong pace
- Thursday – My 4th week in a row of speed work, did some hard intervals into the marathon finish line, which was really inspiring since the finish line was already built up.
- Friday – Took the day off, partially because I had no time to run, and partially because I think it is important to take days off after hard efforts, but mostly because I came down with a fever on Thursday night. Thankfully I was able to ditch the fever quickly and had no other cold symptoms. I chalk it up to liberal use of Zicam!
- Sat – easy 1.1 with my 14 y/o daughter – really happy my daughter is interested in light running to stay active, and this is the 2nd time we’ve been able to go out together around the park on a weekend morning. I’m definitely not a ‘push your kid into stuff you like to do’ kind of parent, but also hope that my long history of running and staying active will rub off.
- Sat – I felt I still needed to get a real workout in on Saturday because the run in the morning was really nothing more than a warm up. Headed down the East River for an extended run. 3.1 out and back for a 10k in total. This run was very rewarding. It is a little complicated to explain in detail, but on the way down, there was another runner than passed me and opened up a big lead on me. On my way back, when I hit the promenade, the same runner was in a similar position to me and opened up another lead. However, as we made it up the greenway, and started running along the water, it because very windy, with a still headwind. She was clearly affected by the wind and slowed considerably, enough for me to catch up, pass, and then open up my own lead by the end! I was grateful for her presence, as it gave me a little extra motivation to push a little extra hard to get a good quality workout done.
At the end of the day (or week, I suppose) I only covered 22.2 miles, but that was with no long run, and with some quality efforts in there. A good week to build on.
