This morning’s run, which was nice but hot, broke down like this:

7:51, 7:00, 7:32, 7:58, 7:14, 7:29.

You’ll notice, mile 2 was again, the very fastest. I didn’t walk to the park like I mentioned before, but I also consciously tried to go slower. A very nice breeze kicked in at the end of my first mile, and I guess that lifted my spirits, so I just rode it on out. Like these splits otherwise, though. Funny how my faster miles always come after my slowest, then I hit the right pace. Whatever.

These 5-days-a-week runs have had me in Prospect Park more than usually, and I have to say that, despite the trafficky late-day runs and the ho-hum trail, I love it. Kelly and I have been there even more lately– multiple nights the last few weeks– for Celebrate Brooklyn events.  Last night was Phillip Glass & orchestra for a live performance of the score to Powasqquatsi, along with the actual movie. It was great. Couple of weeks back we caught old fave Beth Orton, Spoon a couple nights later, and Deerhoof last week. Tonight we’ve planned to take the grill to cook up some dinner to the sounds of Bear Hands, The Jealous Girlfriends, and Austin-natives Ghostland Observatory, who we saw years back at a party at Factory People in Austin. They seem to have really picked up steam since then– see below.

Much as I love Prospect Park though, tomorrow I’m planning to reach the beach, via the Shore Road path in Bay Ridge. Should be about 13 miles out-and-back to the beach at Coney Island. Kelly’s going to meet me in Bay Ridge after her run so we can enjoy my favorite bagels ever, from a no-name place on 86th street.

Ghostland Observatory – Sad Sad City

3 miles in Prospect Park
6 miles in Prospect Park
3 miles in Prospect Park

I seem to be getting better at slowing down, and things have felt pretty good. I’ve made it to three yoga classes this week and have done some leg strengthening, and I’m pleased to report that the soreness in my calves seems to be subsiding. I think I need to be warming up a little more before I begin my runs so I don’t have the lower-leg weak feelings when I bust into my run. Spending an hour at yoga this morning before my run got rid of that weird feeling, but it’s not realistic to think that I can do that most days.

Something strange that I did notice: my 2nd mile is always too fast, maybe a reaction to all the traffic and people evasion I traditionally have to do on my first mile. Kelly suggest walking to the park before I start my run, and I think I’ll start doing that.

Kelly came along and ran for about an hour, then greeted me with a cold lime Gatorade at the end. I wore a cotton shirt again, and ended up regretting it as I had to wring out about a gallon of sweat and ultimately finish shirtless. It was a while post run before I fully dried off.

Since it was a bit of a treat to go to Manhattan for a run, we decided to find a bagel for breakfast afterward, but being in midtown, it was ultimately expensive and unsatisfying. Why can’t everywhere be Brooklyn– land of delicious, cheap, and convenient bagels?

The change of pace was nice, but thinking I may hit the shore in Bay Ridge for next Sunday’s 8 miler. At least I can be certain to find great bagels there. Looking forward to the trip to Fredonia, though, in August, where I have at least on 10+ mile run scheduled.

Tuesday (3 mi)
Wednesday (5 mi)
Thursday (3 mi)

My shins have been feeling a bit tired after runs and in the mornings, but I’ve started a few new stretches to try and stop that, and I’ve been giving my legs a mini cold shower after runs. I think I need to get back to strengthening the fronts of my legs though, which I have kinda dropped off lately. Trying to get to 4 or 5 yoga classes a week, but it’s a bit hard with all these runs I have to get in. I skipped my cycling class on Monday because I ended up walking a lot and didn’t want to wear myself out too much.

I didn’t get too much sleep on Monday or Tuesday night (probably a combined 8 or 9 hours) because I’ve been hitting my qualifying paper hard, which involves sitting in coffeshops and reading, writing, thinking and drinking more afternoon coffee than I should. I’ve been erring on the side of getting too much sleep — that is, sleeping as late as I can and running in the evenings. This will likely change as the weather heats up; it’s much cooler right around sunrise. I can justify this because I read a quote from a famous running coach who said he’d never met a world class runner who didn’t get a solid 8 hours each night.

The increase in mileage doesn’t see too bad so far, but I am badly in need of some new scenery. I’m definitely going to try to s do some runs in Central Park and along the shore in Bay Ridge, maybe even this Sunday. It does seem a little silly to go out for just three miles, but I can’t complain about not being totally exhausted afterwards.

I’ve eaten almost the same thing for dinner every night this week, which I’ll detail since Libby seemed interested.

P’s Stinky Salad that Kelly will not go near

Big handful of baby greens
Big handful of grape tomatoes
Tablespoon of chopped bacon
One big granny smith apple, chopped
Handful of crushed walnuts
2-oz-or-so hunk of Stilton cheese (aka foot cheese)
1/3 cup balsamic vinaigrette

Put all that junk in a big bowl and mix it around. Then eat it.

It’s pretty strange and delicious; a recipe I adapted from my favorite salad that can be had at pubby places like Chip Shop and Telephone.

I’m thinking that I might try to keep track of all of the stuff I eat on this blog, just so I can see my habits. Maybe as a feed in the sidebar… that seems easy enough.

After seeing my marathon splits, I’m convinced I need to go out and figure out my PRs for various events. I’m certain that the first half of the marathon was my fastest half to date. & at the 3.2 mile mark on this run I think I probably got close to a 5K record. Funny how avoiding races for a few months causes you to lose touch with your times. Here are some PRs from my NYRR races last year. I’ll work on breaking them over the next few months. I also wan to see what I can do on an all-out mile, but I’ll save that for a cool day.

5K: I’m shocked– haven’t run an official one in at least a year.
4mi: 29:20 (Run for Central Park, July 2007)
5mi: 38:41 (WABC Fight/Prostate Cancer, July 2007)
10K: 47:34 (Healthy Kidney 10K, May 2007)
Half: 1:46:40 (Brooklyn Half, April 2007)
Marathon: 3:44:15 (2008 Buffalo Marathon)

I’m pretty sure I beat all of those records in my first 13.1 miles, but I didn’t pay too close attention. Hopefully I can beat most of them before I start my official NYC Marathon training in a few weeks.

I’m trying to follow a loose 4-week recovery plan where I’ll incrementally get back to 30 or so miles a week over the next month. Then I think I’ll begin the Hal Higdon Intermediate II Marathon Training system (which comes highly recommended) to get myself in shape for a better showing at the NYC Marathon in November. Til then, I’ll just be stepping up the spinning classes, stength training, and yoga to see how I feel.

Saturday marked the first time I’ve run outside since I strained my foot in my first marathon 2 months ago. I’ve been trying to keep my endurance up through interminably boring runs on the treadmill at the gym, and 2 or three spinning classes per week. I set out to Prospect Park on Saturday to see how things felt running in the real world again. Luckily it was a beautiful, clear, day; about 30 degrees and almost no wind. I ran 2 big loops around the park for about 7 miles total, and it was great. It was my first time back in the park since my last long (20 mile) run before the marathon… which was when I made the mistake of going off-trail to toss my gu wrapper and twisted my foot. That’s the injury that I made worse in the marathon.

I was a little disapppointed with my performance in the marathon (though overwhelemed with pride for finishing), so I decided to start training for another one, in Bufflalo, in May. Also, I received word that I’ve run enough NYRR races in the last year for guaranteed entry to the NYC marathon this year as well. So, more than anything else, I believe I’ll be using this blog to document my training over the next year for both events.

I training plan is to run 2x per week, with yoga, spinning, and strength training on off-days. Runs will be on Wednesday and Saturdays. You can keep up with my milage here:

Patrick’s Runlog

Wish me luck!

IMG_6572.JPG

Originally uploaded by our silly family.

Nathaniel and I finished the Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte yesterday. My foot/ankle wasn’t fully healed from what was probably a sprain a week or so ago, so it was pretty painful for me. I ended up about 35 minutes off my goal time, but I’m glad just to have survived. The first half was really hard on me, and it took me a while to adjust, but I knew I had to finish.

Beth posted more photos here.

So, once I got everything straight with my shoes and my new gait, I got to where I could run most of every mile. My final time was about 4:24, splitting 9:05 on the first half and 10 something on the second. Physically painful, but I feel really good to have gotten through it depite it all.
The track was more hilly than anything I’d ever attempted, so if I’m healthy for the NYC marathon, where the Verrazano Bridge is the only real hill, that’ll seem easy in comparison (I hope!). But the verdict is in– I’m definitely gonna run more marathons. Nathaniel seems to feel the same way.

Here’s my big nasty bruise that is probably evidence that I shouldn’t have run:

& if anyone cares, here’s my run playlist– “The Clap,” by Cherry Valence was the first song to come up, and Colin Meloy’s acoustic cover of “Sister I’m a Poet” was, strangely, the track that I was listening to when I crossed the finish line.

A Certain Ratio    Do the Du
ABBA    Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
ABBA    Mamma Mia
ABBA    SOS
ABBA    Super Trouper
Aceyalone    The Faces
Air Miami    World Cup Fever
Bardo Pond    Tommy Gun Angel
Bauhaus    Kick In The Eye
Baxter Dury    Gingham Smalls 2
Baxter Dury    Lucifer’s Grain
Baxter Dury    Oscar Brown
Black Moth Super Rainbow    I Am The Alphabet
Blur    To The End
Bowery Electric    Fear Of Flying
Brian Eno    Here Come The Warm Jets
Broker/Dealer    Can’t Believe
CAM`RON     Hey Ma
Cherry Valence    Lose That Smile
Cherry Valence    The Clap
Chromeo    Fancy Footwork
Colin Meloy    Sister I’m A Poet
Cub    New York City
De La Soul    Brakes
Devo    Jerkin’ Back ‘n’ Forth
Dub Narcotic Sound System    Shake A Puddin
E.S.G.    You’re No Good
Egyptian Lover    Egypt Egypt
Flin Flon    Upper Ferry
Four Tet    Smile Around The Face
Garden Variety    Harbored
Gary Numan    Films
Glass Candy    Digital Versicolor
Glass Candy    Rolling Down The Hills (Spring Demo)
Gwen Stefani    Crash
Happy Mondays    God’s Cop
Henry Badowski    Henry’s In Love
Hercules and Love Affair    Athene
Honeymoon Killers    laisse tomber les filles
Huon    Complex
Ian Brown    Gettin’ High
Ikara Colt    At The Lodge
Jawbreaker    Boxcar
Jesus & Mary Chain Featuring Mazzy Star    Sometimes Always
Joanna Newsom    The Book of Right-On
Joe Jackson    A Slow Song
Joe Jackson    Another World
Joe Jackson    Look Sharp!
Joy Division    Disorder
Joy Division    Isolation
Justice    D.A.N.C.E
Koufax    It Had to Do With Love
Kraftwerk    Spacelab
Ladytron    Seventeen
LCD Soundsystem    Someone Great
Le Tigre    Well Well Well
Liz Phair    Support System
Lou Reed    Hangin’ Round
Luscious Jackson    City Song
Lynnfield Pioneers    Crossfade
MAKE-UP    They Live By Night
Mayo Thompson    Black Legs
Mayo Thompson    Good Brisk Blues
Mayo Thompson    Side Two To You
Mayo Thompson    Venus In The Morning
Michael Jackson    Rock With You
Mikkel Metal    Microho
Motorhead    White Line Fever
My Bloody Valentine    Only Shallow
My Bloody Valentine    Soon
Neko Case    Deep Red Bells
Neko Case    Hex
Neko Case    Hold On, Hold On
Neko Case    Knock Loud
Neko Case    That Teenage Feeling
Neko Case    Things That Scare Me
New Sweet Breath    Bring It On
No Doubt    Hella Good
Old 97′s    Timebomb
Oxford Collapse    Lady Lawyers
Oxford Collapse    Please Visit Your National Parks
Palace Music    Work Hard/Play Hard
Polvo    Vibracobra
Princess Superstar    Bad Babysitter (Featuring High & Mighty)
Public Image Ltd.    Socialist
Pulp    Party Hard
Pylon    Feast On My Heart
Ratatat    Seventeen Years
Redd Kross    Look On Up At The Bottom
Royal Trux    Let’s Get Lost
Shocking Blue    Inkpot
Silkworm    Couldn’t You Wait?
Silkworm    I Must Prepare (Tablecloth Tint)
Simian Mobile Disco    Hustler
Smiths    Girl Afraid
Snow Pony    Easy Way Down
Sole Sides Greates Bumps    Latyrx_Lady Don’t Tek No
Solex    A Round Figure
Solex    Oh Blimey!
Solex    Shoot Shoot!
Sons & Daughters    Awkward Duet
Sons & Daughters    Taste The Last Girl
Spoon    Anything You Want
Squeeze    Squabs On Forty Fab
Stephen Prina    Cums For Shove
Stereolab    Miss Modular
Stereolab    Our Trinitone Blast
Stereolab    Tone Burst
Subhumans    Mickey Mouse Is Dead
Suzi Quatro    Strip Me
Talking Heads    Dream Operator
Talking Heads    Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists    Hearts Of Oak
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists    The Ballad Of The Sin Eater
Television    See No Evil
The B-52s    Legal Tender
The Field    Everyday
The Lilys    lilys_nanny_ext
The New Pornographers    From Blown Speakers
The New Pornographers    It’s Only Divine Right
The New Pornographers    Sing Me Spanish Techno
The New Pornographers    The Laws Have Changed
The New Pornographers    Twin Cinema
The Odd Numbers    Holiday
The Stone Roses    I Am the Resurrection
The Stooges    Loose
Warren G & Nate Dogg    Regulators

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