Perfection!

The weather, that is. Low 70s, no humidity, sunny, with a nice breeze. Today made up for the last 4 weeks of grossness. If only every summer day was like this!

I felt like I had to have a good run today in appreciation of the awesome weather. I wanted to take advantage of the lack of humidity to push myself a little harder on the trail. It paid off! My overall pace for 10.11 miles today was 10:49/mile. That's the first time I've dipped below 11 min/mile on the trail! Check out these splits!

Except for my warm-up mile and 2 mile with a lot of climbing, all my miles were under 11. LOVE that. Like I've said before, the more time I can spend in the 10s will make up for the end of the marathon where I'm pushing 12s (and even 13s). The trail is good training for me because there is so much uphill and that's all I hear about NYC -- the bridge climbs and the rolling hills of Central Park that even the elite runners are wary of. I know I say all the time how much I miss running in West Haven but I know that if I were training I'd pick the flattest route possible so it's probably a good thing that I don't have that option.

That's 3 great runs so far this week. Tomorrow could be a total washout and I won't even care. I know that I'm getting more consistent with my pace and even if I have a really bad run tomorrow I'll be able to pick it up next week and move on from there.

Now off to enjoy the rest of this gorgeous day!

I'm really in!

Look what came today!

I was psyched to see this. It made things real for me -- I'm in a database of people accepted to run the NYC marathon! I wonder what the official handbook will be like! It's coming in September, apparently. This is all very exciting! We're 99 days out from the marathon now! I have a feeling this time will go by pretty quickly.

Also today NSAL emailed me to ask permission to share my email address with other members on the team. I'm psyched about that too because I have no idea how many people are running for NSAL and what kind of support NSAL will give us on race day, like a meet-up area or something. It will be neat to see where people are coming from for the team, etc. I keep checking FB to see if there is a team page but so far there hasn't been anything.

10 miles tomorrow and then Book Barn in Niantic. The weather is supposed to be perfect, I hope I have a good run!

Major milestone

I have been keeping track of my mileage since the first of the year. Even before NYC entered my mind I wanted to see if I could possibly run 1000 miles in 2010. That averages out to a little over 19 miles a week and in the beginning of the year I was lucky if I was doing 12. I knew it was a lofty goal but I thought it would be fun to keep track anyway just to see how many miles I could cover in a year. As of today I passed the halfway mark and hit 503.17. That's. Pretty. Awesome. If my training contines to go well I should make the 1000 miles and maybe a little more. Back in January, I wasn't even sure I'd get halfway. What a difference 6 months makes.

Today's run was great, I felt strong and never really struggled. My overall pace for the 5.67 miles was 10:34, a 12-second/mile improvement from a week ago for this workout. I know not every week will be faster pace and some weeks I'll have setbacks but it's been nice to see some solid improvements my last few runs.

Yesterday I started up the Shock Training System again for strength work. I did this program in the spring and really liked it and got good results. It's 3.5 months with 2 recovery weeks built in between phases. My training program allows for 2 days of cross training and I've been lax about it lately, to be honest. With my work schedule so unpredictable sometimes my main focus is to make sure I get in all my runs and the cross training days have been a lower priority. I'm going to work on that. I like strength training a lot so it's not like I'm struggling to add something that I don't enjoy. It's just been a matter of prioritization and time.

Today I'm happy that I got both my weekday runs in and it looks like I'll get both my cross training days in as long as I workout tomorrow. Saturday I plan to do 10 on the trail, Sunday I'll shoot for 5.

Everything is coming up Kelly

Had a GREAT run this morning. I slept until almost 7 and felt rested when I woke up. That makes such a difference, I'm learning. I can make myself do a lot of things without enough sleep but running in the morning just isn't one of them. Tuesday is hill day. I always dread this training run. But I was blessed with a humidity-free morning and a mild temp so that gave me hope that I could pull it off.

The first mile always sucks. Always. I could train for the rest of my life and get in peak physical condition and the first mile will still always suck. The first mile of my hill course is pretty much all uphill and that makes it suck even more. Even with the nice cool morning I was hating life trudging up that hill. A lot of bad thoughts passed through my mind on that first mile: Why did I sign up to do this? How bad would it look if I quit? Why wasn't I genetically blessed where I could not exercise and still be in good shape? It's a lot of internal whining on that first mile and it takes as much mental strength as it does physical to get up that first hill.

But! It turned around. Spectucularly, I must say. Here's my splits for the run:

Check out that 4th mile! That's what I'm talking about! I'm happy with my splits for the rest of the run too but I like seeing anything in the 9s. It shows me that I'm getting stronger and a little faster. My overall pace for today was 10:23/mile, a 17-second improvement from last week. I'm still shooting for an overall 11 min/mile pace for the marathon and the more time I can spend in the 10s now will help even out the end of the race when I'm back up in the 12s. It's going to happen, I'm realistic about that. 26.2 miles is a looooong way to go.

I finally got an accurate visual of this loop, the sun must have been in the right spot today because usually the GPS gets a little wonky on this route. It may not look severe but trust me, that's a lot of freaking hillwork to cover in a short run.

When I have a run like this before I start my work day I feel fantastic. I feel like I really accomplished something and that it's going to be a good day. I feel like everything is coming up Kelly! :)

Observations from the trail

I did my long run today. I was tired and the air was like soup. And it was hot. So very hot. This was a taper week on the schedule so I turned off my watch, turned off my running app, and just made the best out of the morning. It was actually one of my nicer runs, to be honest. Without the pressure I usually put on myself to beat last week's time I just did my thing. I did a little over 8 miles today and that was just fine. This coming week is a higher mileage week so I enjoyed today's 8 for what it was worth.

I've been running on the Airline Trail for about 4 months now. I started doing it because it was flat (it's not, just the first mile is -- once I got past that I realized it's a mountain) and because it wasn't on a main road. I miss West Haven in that you could run almost anywhere because there were shoulders on the main roads and sidewalks on the rest. We don't have either here and the roads are hilly and windy. I'm not looking to get taken out by a car so I look for places that are more runner-friendly.

Now that I'm a regular on the trail I've made some observations that amuse me (if no one else) about the people I usually encounter:

• Mountain bikers will never give you the little hand motion of acknowledgement. It's a subtle move, the hand motion, I was introduced to it years ago when my friend had a motorcycle and we'd go riding and he would raise his left fingers in a half wave (without the actual wave) when a biker would pass us in the opposite direction. He had a racing bike so I learned quickly that only other guys on racing bikes got the wave of acknowledgement and only other guys on racing bikes gave them. Harley guys never gave them to racing bike guys although my friend would give one to everyone on a bike. It's the same with mountain bikers and runners. Not only do they never acknowledge you they would rather run up your back and do a jump off of you than move over on the trail. They are come in 2 varieties: the younger shirtless kind or the older Under Armor wearing kind. When I see mountain bikers coming toward me I just move way over and let them do their thing.
• Runners almost always give the hand motion ofacknowledgement. The ones training for something -- and can tell that you're training for something -- usually are the ones that give you a little recognition. It's a little nod to say "Hey, look at us, we're out here in this heat because we're serious runners." Guys almost always give me the hand motion of acknowledgement. Today a guy gave me a thumbs up today even before I could raise my 4 fingers (because you keep your hand clenched the whole time, you don't smile, you don't move your hand -- it's very subtle), that was a new one. Women are about 50/50. You know us girls, we're catty, even while we're pouring sweat and supposed to be focused on our training. I find that that super serious women runners -- the ones who are 90 lbs and are doing 7-minute miles -- can't be bothered. Recreational women runners usually give the acknowledgement after giving you a once over probably because they're happy to see someone else who isn't 90 lbs and doing 7-minute miles. Me, I give it to all runners, I don't discriminate.
• Walkers are generally good for a little wave. Older people, especially couples, always smile, they'll even say "Good Morning" as you pass them. I love seeing old people on the trail, they make me happy. And families love people like me. You can't be too careful these days, which is a shame, but when they see someone like me they smile and wave. Like me, they've probably just done an ocular patdown (TM Mac from Sunny) of my risk and have determined I'm not a threat. I've seen plenty of sketchy people on the trail and I'm sure they have too so families like when I run by. It reassures them that if a single female runner feels safe then they should too.
• I love dogs on the trail. I realized today that their owners probably hate me though because when I run by I say "Hi, cutie!" in the same voice I use for my own dogs and if their owner is trying to pull them in me riling them up doesn't help. I know what it's like to walk 2 unruly dogs (my fault, not theirs, I got the dogs I raised) and if someone was running by which would automatically get their attention started cooing at them, I'd be annoyed too. Still, I love seeing dogs on the trail. When they wag their tail it reminds me what I'm doing this for.

Starting next week my long runs won't dip below 10 miles so I'm going to have a LOT of time to think about nonsense stuff like this.

Since I wasn't running for pace today I took the time to take a few pictures of the beauty that I get to see every week. I lamented not being able to run along the water in West Haven for a long time but when I see these pictures I realize I have something very special up here too.

Luxuriating and hidden treasures

It was nice to sleep until 7 this morning, I'm not going to lie. It won't be a habit any time soon since the next 6 days will be insanely early starts with long, long days. I'm glad I got my 2nd run in yesterday. I felt refreshed this morning because I got to spend a few extra minutes luxuriating in bed. Nice.

Today would have been a nice day to run though. It's the first day I can remember in at least the last month where it was cool and dry this morning. By the time Sunday comes and I'm back outside I'm sure it will be 9 million degrees again with 99% humidity. It's just going to make me stronger in the end, that's what I keep telling myself. I'm not the only one who holds tight to that belief -- I was reading some posts on the NYC Marathon FB page and so many people said they're out running in the heat and humidity because it will all be worth it on that nice cool November morning. I hope for everyone's sake that that's true. I hope the day is as idyllic as everyone pictures a November Sunday morning to be.

I was in the basement this morning before work since I had a few extra minutes and I was looking for a box that had my old work stuff in it to start transferring to my new office. I have some reference books and other stuff that would be nice to have. While I was looking for the box I stumbled upon 3 books that I didn't even know I had: Marathon: You Can Do It (Jeff Galloway), The Idiot's Guide to Marathons, and A Guide to the New York City Marathon. For a second, it was a rough reminder of where I had gotten to with running in 2003-2004 and how far I subsequently fell. As far as I remember, I had no plans at the time to run NYC -- the one I was training for was in Vermont. So it was an unexpected gift to find these books in my basement. I flipped through the Idiot's guide and it really is an idiot's guide but I'll still skim it.

The Jeff Galloway book is a good one except his plan is so different than what I'm following. He's a huge advocate of walk/run, which I do to some extent because I take timed water breaks. Drinking while running is a talent that I simply don't have. Besides, for the time it takes me to drink it provides just enough relief to my heart, lungs, and legs that I am refreshed to keep going. Also, as a side note, my uncle ran NYC and he told me that at one point the water he was taking in wasn't emptying out of his stomach so he felt like crap the last 7 miles. He threw up at the finish line and immediately felt better. That's why I like to drink while I'm walking because the few times I've tried it while running I feel like I take in more air than water. Back to Galloway, his program is more like run 2 minutes, walk 30 seconds. That's too much math for me, to be honest. Many, many people successfully follow his program. I've been behind armies of them in bigger races and trust me, when someone's watch goes off for their 30-second walk break, they take it whether you're right behind them or not. Since they seem to travel in packs it just makes a huge wall that I've crashed into plenty of times. I could be biased but I have never seen a Gallowalker (that's what they're referred to in running circles) look behind them, move to the right, and THEN walk. Rant over.

The other thing about Galloway's marathon program is that he has you doing a 26-miler as your long run -- even as a beginner. I don't know of any other expert that advocates that. In fact, I just read an article on runnersworld.com discussing if slower runners (ie, me) should split up their long runs because the body is at risk for injury after 2.5 hours. The article was interesting but I could never split up my long run. If I stop, I'm done. I just want to get it over with. But anyway, I have no intention of doing a 26-miler before the marathon. So I'll glean what I can from his book and see what I can incorporate into my own training.

I only glanced at the NYC book but I think there will probably be a total of 6 pages that will be helpful, and those concern the best way to get to the start line and away from the finish line. I have my entry, I have my hotel room, I have a training program so I can skip those parts. There's an article on the NYC marathon website which I'll be posting excerpts from in the coming weeks that details the course borough by borough. It's a scary read, let me tell you. The writer makes no bones about the difficulty of the course. This book may get into stuff like that but the article I already read was so thorough.

By the way, my hair -- that I switched today's run to yesterday for -- came out great. This whole experience of the marathon is priceless but, on a shallow note, so is having a good hair day.

Juggling act

Second weekday run done. Barely. Some days you have it, some days you don't. I had 3 great runs in a row, it was bound to happen. I just had no energy at all this morning. I stuck it out though. And really, what a lousy run is now was a pretty decent one a few months ago. It's all good. Miles are miles.

I can't breathe a sigh of relief yet though. Normally I'd be thrilled to have both my weekday runs done and look forward to the weekend but this weekend is going to be tough. I'll be in NYC Friday and Saturday so I'm switching my long run to Sunday and doing a shorter run on Saturday. But to do that I'm going to have to get up around 5 because I need to be down at the meeting by 7 at the latest. I'm not looking forward to that.

The short runs on the schedule were 3, 4, and 3. Since I did 4 yesterday and 4 today I'm not going to try to be hero and do more on Saturday. I'll be lucky to have the time to do the 3. It's a taper week on the training schedule anyway, total mileage for the week is back down to 15 because next week it goes up again. I'll still be ahead if I get a decent long run in on Sunday but I know I'll be tired from the meeting. I'll probably do 8 and go back up to 10 next week. Next week is going to be rough too because I have to go to NJ twice because, of course, we can't have two meetings in the same day there, they need to be on different days. One meeting I can understand because it will be at least a half-day but the other one is only an hour. So pretty much 7 hours of travel for 1 meeting. Whatever. I'll manage somehow. I think a big part of marathon training is learning how to keep a lot of balls in the air and not drop too many.