Day 64: Sunday, January 24th, 2010

RACE DAY

I didn't really know what to expect in my first half-marathon race, and had no idea what pace I should run. When I started training at the end of November, my goal was to break 1:23:00 (6:20/mile), but it had become clear that there was no way that was going to happen for this race. I was just as likely to set a new world record, so I decided that I would take this race as a training run - an opportunity to set a benchmark for myself, hopefully without blowing up. I picked 7:30/mile as my pace for the first mile or two and decided to reassess the situation after that.

Unfortunately, because I showed up pretty late as I didn't want to be standing around in the cold, I ended up getting stuck near the back of the corral and found myself "running" with the 10:00/mile pacers. Not ideal when there are 5,000 other runners and no where to pass except outside the race course (and on the outside of all the turns). I'm not sure how much distance it added to my run, but I was having too much fun passing people to really notice. 7:30s felt really easy so I decided to try and negative split each mile to the end, really dropping the hammer after mile 7. Looking back on my splits, that's not exactly what happened, but the second half of my race was faster than the first half so overall I'm very satisfied. I'm really looking forward to the NYC Half-Marathon in March.

Distance: 13.1 Miles, 21.1 Kilometers
Date/Time: Jan. 24, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
Location: Central Park, NYC
Weather: 37 deg., 76% humidity, wind 5 mph.

Finish Time: 1:34:33
Pace/Mile: 7:13
Overall Place: 607
Gender Place: 539
Age Place: 110

I ran with RunKeeper, but the pacing and distance was a bit off. Still, it give a general overview of elevation and pacing changes throughout the race. For details, click on the link in the upper left hand corner:

Day 63: Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Rest Day

I woke up this morning with a slight fever - about the same temperature that I went to bed with last night. I decided not to ride with NYAC and take the day off. I think it was a good move on my part. My fever broke later in the day, during a 3 hour nap. I was feeling fine by the end of the day. I think my body was just telling me to take it easy.

Day 62: Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Full Throttle Endurance | Swim\Spin | Chelsea Piers

Despite the race only being two days away, I hit it pretty hard this morning. My legs are going to be smoke on Sunday, but the half-marathon is now just a training run for me. I plan on pushing myself and racing it so that I can have a baseline and set the bar for the NYC half-marathon in June, but my goal during this particular race is no longer 6:20 miles.

Workout of the Day:

SWIM

Warm up - 300 pull / 200 kick / 100 swim
Tech - 100 backstroke kick / 100 backstroke / 100 Butterfly kick / 100 Breaststroke
Mainset

• 2 x 300 swim steady with paddles R=20
• 3 x 200 swim steady with paddles R=20
• 4 x 100 swim solid; no paddles
• 5 x 50 alt. kick/ hard swim

Cool down

CYCLING

5 min ez intensity effort
25 min steady effort aero
5 min climb steady effort
25 min steady effort aero
3 min ez effort cadence at 105

Day 61: Thursday, January 21st, 2010

NYAC Cycling | 24 Miles | Central Park

Three days to go until the half-marathon in Central Park... I'm looking forward to running in my first road race for quite some time and to my first half-marathon ever. I won't hit my goal of 6:20/mile pace, but this race will be a solid base to improve on in the March half-marathon. We'll see what happens on race day.

This morning I did four laps of Central Park with a small group from the New York Athletic Club Cycling team. It was a bit colder today than it has been, but I don't mind because it keeps most cyclists away from the park. We averaged about 22mph - a moderate pace for us. This average is different than the information shown in the link below because I adjusted for the last mile - most of the time associated with that mile was spent at Columbus Circle chatting with one of my teammates.

Day 60: Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Full Throttle Endurance | Swim/Run Speed Work | Chelsea Piers

I love Wednesday speed work days with Full Throttle. The workouts are short(er), but intense.

Workout of the Day:

SWIM

Warm up - 200 swim / 200 pull / 100 backstroke
Tech - 100 each: rlcsw / 3-stroke / 2x scull
Main Set

• 5 x (150 swim steady / 50 solid kick) R=30
• 10 x 50 alternating ez / hard @ 1:00
• 8 x 100 steady pull R=15

Cool down

RUN

1 mile warm up ez
4 x 800 at (+7 sec per 400 from previous 400 workout - 3:05/800 pace for me)
w/ 200 down ez
1 mile cool down

Day 59: Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Cycling | 6 Miles | Central Park

I had a business meeting on the bike this morning. A first for me. Unfortunately, the cycling wasn't as good as the meeting. The guy I was riding with got a flat after the first lap. He didn't have any spare tubes, tools, or a pump with him so I let him use mine. Unfortunately, he had a different tire size (29c vs. my 23c). We tried to use one of my tubes anyway and spent a solid hour+ trying to figure out a way to get the walls of the tire underneath the tube. It didn't work and his tire popped again within 100 yards. We ended up walking from the bottom of the park back to my apartment and in the time it took to change the tire and walk, we had some great conversation about a business idea I have.

Day 58: Monday, January 18th, 2010

Tonight's run was a redo of the 10 x 4on 1off. i aimed to run a bit steadier from the outset and was surprised with my pacing. I did need to take extended rest after interval 4 in order to switch into shorts due to some really bad chaffage in a really bad area caused by unfortunate seams in my new running long tights. It was a rookie mistake.

1 mile warm up @ 7:30 pace
Following are pacings for the the 10 intervals in order 1-10.
5:52
5:45
6:04
6:08
6:04
5:52
6:04
6:10
6:18
6:01