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.