5th Avenue Mile - Demonstrates improvements

This year my goal for the 5th Avenue Mile was simply to break 6 minutes. I have run this race now three times -

1. Right after my daughter was born - first time I'd put on my shoes - I ran 6:42
2. Last year - I ran 5:51
3. This year - 5:44 official time

I am very pleased with the result. It felt more like cruising then really sprinting and in other years the hills had felt very, very hard relative to my expectations. Now with all this hill running I peeled them away more or less without worry.

There's not much to write about a mile race - so I'll let the chart from Training Peaks do most of the talking:
Love the heart rate graph, looks like something from an algebra course! Approaching maximum capacity

Sunrise at 7 miles - 3 hours 20 min run to start the weekend

I’ve taken to blogging only the either very special or relatively long (or both) runs that I make. I’ll also probably keep you updated on my races –

This one started early but later than I’d hoped – 5:15 a.m.
Target – 3:20
Target pace – 9:50(ish)

Actual – 3:23 (yes!)
Miles – 22 (not that it matters particularly)
Average pace – 9:14 (a good and a bad thing as will be discussed)

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/sw/SLCTF4B4WJIRIQIYZB7M6U5SIA
Mile 1 – 9:23
Mile 2 – 9:30
Mile 3 – 9:00
Mile 4 – 8:38
Mile 5 – 8:56
Mile 6 – 9:12
Mile 7 – 9:36
Mile 8 – 9:39
Mile 9 – 8:47
Mile 10 – 9:31
Mile 11 – 9:25
Mile 12 – 9:16
Mile 13 – 8:42
Mile 14 – 8:56
Mile 15 – 9:10
Mile 16 – 8:27
Mile 17 – 8:57
Mile 18 – 9:23
Mile 19 – 9:14
Mile 20 – 9:33
Mile 21 – 9:46
Mile 22 – 9:38
Average pace – 9:14 min/mile
Average heart rate 147
Average heart rate was 145 for the first 2:13 and 151 for the second 1:09.

Red line = heart rate
Blue line = pace
Green line = height (as per GPS)

The morning started out cool and I wasn’t in a rush to get into it. I was working hard to keep my heart rate down over the early miles – yet it was relatively tough to keep my heart rate down in the high 130’s as I’ve been doing most of the time on my long runs, still the 138- 145 range is okay (I hope that I can get down to something like an 8:45 pace at that range for the big day, but we’ll get there, slowly).

But the course was hilly – with 1500 feet of climb (as well as downhill) – I checked it against the elevation chart for the NYC Marathon and it’s not even close. The marathon’s highest point is on the Verrazano Narrows bridge – not surprising – but what is relatively surprising is that for all of the talk about bridges (there are 5) it’s relatively flat throughout. My neighborhood isn’t – the highest point that I recorded on this run was 365 feet, so not so much higher, but this run hit 350, 125, 280, 52, 354, 161, 360, 149, 265 – so the rolling hills of Central Park look tame in comparison. That said, they must be respected especially after mile 23+!

This was something of a hybrid run – long run with some components of a tempo run, in that I was at least playing with my target pacing – still my goal was to finish the entire 3:20 and to see where I I’d end up. It was very clear that pushing the pace up into the 8:30’s wasn’t good. Also, although I knew I it would pay off in the long run, I just wasn’t able to keep down at 9:50 either – so I suppose that the 9:14 pace was acceptable.

Post run I jumped in the ice bath, drank a recovery shake and got on with my day. My legs felt much sorer the next day (Sunday) but are back to normal by Sunday evening (now, when I’m blogging). So all in I’m pretty happy with the result.

I felt as though I could have completed 4 more (and a couple of tenths to boot!)

Back in the swing of training - Tempo run

Was a twice-a-day today as I ran with my daughter in the morning and ran a nice tempo run this afternoon. Perhaps pushed the tempo a bit too high in the tempo run, especially after the workout in the morning.

As a rule I am relatively unlikely to blog regular training runs this year - especially in light of having a public profile on Training Peaks -

www.trainingpeaks.com/sandiver

there you can get a sense of what I wanted to do in a given week, versus what I actually did. Until I get the Global Trainer, you aren't likely to see that differ very much! But you can see where I ran (cool integration with Google Maps) and the data from my HRM - check it out.

Today's tempo run was great - 20 mins warm up, 9 mins pushing it, 2 off, 9 mins back on, 2 recovering and then 20 min return home. stayed right where I was supposed to stay in terms of heart rate (well maybe a bit high?) and pace (spot on).

I really like my new training plan off of io.com - Dan Becker's Tri site, article by By Benji Durden: http://www.io.com/~beckerdo/triathlons/trainmarathon.html
I highly recommend it.

it's great to feel this positive early in the training. the next weeks are telling, if I improve that's great, if the niggly little injuries get worse, that's telling. All in I'm super excited about the Fall. that's one of the major advantages of having nothing to prove and no real time goal. As we get closer the pressure will build, but for now it's enjoyable simply to do the workouts as planned.

tomorrow's either a double or a fill-in for my hill work that I missed, looking forward to it.

JP

Bronx half race report

Last year the Bronx half was a tale of two halves - first one smoking fast (including the fastest 10k I'd run to that date) - it was unexpectedly warm and the miles just ticked by. At one point I remember running next to two women who were talking as though walking through a supermarket at a sub-7:30 pace, just before they dropped me. And the second one a painful, slow, stumbling up and back on the grand concourse. This year I vowed to do better. The link to last year's race - a blazing 1:46.50 is here:

(photo at left, me in white, other dude elated over his finish, well in)
http://joshbrianrunning.blogspot.com/2009/02/bittersweet-second-12-in-three-weeks.html

This year the pre-race plan was to run at whatever pace I needed to keep my heart rate between 155 - 165 bpm. Accordingly, I ran out for the first 6 miles below 165.

My splits were:
Mile 1 - 9:11 (including the wait for the start - 8:30 or 8:45?)
Mile 2 - 7:56
Mile 3 - 8:13
Mile 4 - 8:24
Mile 5 - 8:26
Mile 6 - 8:40
Mile 7 - 8:46
Mile 8 - 8:22
Mile 9 - 8:10
Mile 10 - 8:12
Mile 11 - 8:40
Mile 12 - 8:13
Mile 13 - 8:31

Finished at 1:52:08 08:34/mile
so all in not a bad performance - certainly something to take as a good starting spot, especially relative to what I'd done in Brooklyn (no training) and Queens (pictured above, oh the heat!).



The real joy of this race was how strong I completed the second half - miles 7.5 through 11 on the Grand Concourse were like night and day from last year - notice that those are some of the fastest miles that I ran today - and were the slowest last year. There's something to be said about knowing the course and knowing when to push and when to sit back. I think that's one of the true joys of running frequently in Central Park, which is certainly a difficult place to run if you don't know it well.

All in I'm proud that I could hold the faster second half at average 175 bpm (although I don't know if I had much after the race, but I was racing it and timed my pace perfectly).

It's a relatively long time (2.5 months) until the marathon, but still it will come very quickly. Thus it looks like this won't be the year to break my 2009 time - oh well, if I can run more races and runs like I did today (start out slow, keep a relatively low heart rate, finish strong and control my pace/heart rate) I'll be happy. After all it's really about relative effort and I'm starting to learn to manage the relative effort to match the first and second halves of the race.

and that's why I like to throw a couple of races into the mix in the run up to the marathon. First I'm a much better half marathon runner than marathoner. And second if you don't go relatively 'all' out once in a while it's hard to get in the mental state necessary to bring it home on Marathon Day. there's a level of pushing and of running in the crowd that's important.f

Starting with philosphy - 'lite version'

One of the crimes of distance running is that they call a half marathon 'half'. When you're really pushing yourself over those last 2 or 3 miles in a half marathon, there's nothing 'half' way about it. I think they should call the Marathon a double something and make the half the full.

But then again, I'm really not built to run marathons at all - perhaps we could make the argument that nobody is, but that's for another blog.

this blog's Raison d'être is to chronicle my various running exploits. It's a chance for me to interact with other runners and particularly with my coach and family (those who care about the details). Mostly it's an opportunity for me to capture some sketches of the experiences that I have during my runs.

Following the successful (nobody read it but we both finished) - Road to the 2009 NYC marathon - this is planned to be something of a longer term project. perhaps lasting for a couple of years or more (who knows!?).

As you may have captured by now, I'm something of a middle distance runner, but the real point for me is to stay fit and active and maintain my fitness and energy level to be around longer and better enjoy my young family.