NYRR workout | 6x Columbus Cirle to Tavern on Green ~ 600m

Tonight I felt like running, which means my legs usually feel pretty sprite and light. I also hadn't run since Saturday so I felt fresh. To my surprise, my legs felt slow and heavy on the way to the workout. No biggie, I thought. I figure I'd feel better once the workout started.

The repeat distance from Columbus Circle to Tavern on the Green covers approximately the last 600m of the NYC marathon. There is an incline at about the halfway point which continues to the finish line. The incline is more pronounced the first 50m. My strategy is usually to go fairly easy on the flat and then be aggressive on the inclines. I figure I get a better strengthening session that way. My splits were as follows:

Rep 1: 1:46
Rep 2: 1:46
Rep 3: 1:46
Rep 4: 1:42
Rep 5: 1:42
Rep 6: 1:41

The difference between training this year so far is that I probably would have done those repeats in mid 1:30's. I'm not there yet, and I'm actually not sure if I want to be there. We'll see where I am in the coming weeks. It's still early.

NYRR Workout | 3 x 1mi repeats on CP lower loop

After a seemingly intense work day, I felt like I needed to give my negative energy a good a** kicking goodbye in the form a speed workout. Needed to create some happy juice, and nothing gets rid of grumpiness and gets happy juices flowing like a speed workout. I've been saying that I haven't cared much about running lately. That's still true, but I still need to go through the motions so I don't hurt myself training for and running a marathon.

Tonight's workout were 3 x 1 mile repeats starting at about 68th st on CP East and running CP's lower loop in a clockwise direction to the marathon finish at Tavern on The Green. The route runs flat, decline, flat (mostly), and an incline to the finish. My repeats were as follows:

Mile 1: 6:39 (was catching up with a friend, thus the slower time)
Mile 2: 6:11
Mile 3: 6:10
The highlight of my workout was actually just before the 3rd repeat, when I saw my wife jogging by and we got to say a quick hello. It was just fun to see her out there and give her a little kiss :-)

NYRR | 2 x 1.7mi Repeats (~6:25m/m avg)

Heading to NYRR speed workouts tonight, I was hoping we would get the 2 x 2mi repeats or the 3 x 1mi repeats along the lower loop. I thought either would be perfect for feeling Thursday's JP Morgan Corporate Challenge pace. My wish wasn't fulfilled, but I think our workout tonight was even better - 2 x 1.7mi, or twice Central Park's lower loop.

Here are my workout splits:


Lap 1: 11:06 min @ ~6:26/mi
Lap 2: 11:04 min @ ~6:24/mi

Interestingly enough, I thought the second repeat was a little easier. That should speak volumes for a good warmup pre short races.

My goal tonight was really to feel a 6:30 pace. I went a little faster, but I hope it doesn't affect me Thursday night. I'm a little nervous about the race since I have to try and race against my totally unexpected time of 22:11 last year. I'm hoping for a heavy dose of adrenaline on race day.

NYRR Workout | 800m Repeats

There's always something joltingly nice about hard workouts after a long day at the office. It was hard to get going, but I've learned that's only in my head. Also still felt a little stiff from Sunday's race, so I wasn't sure what kind of effort I could put in tonight.

Heading out to the NYRR, I noticed it was also really muggy tonight. When I finally got there, I was already soaking in my sweat. The repeats did feel pretty heavy tonight. The first 3 repeats felt harder than the actual pace. I'm guessing it's because of the heat and leg fatigue.

I also decided to try something different tonight - jumped up to the faster group for the last 2 repeats. It had always been sort of a mental block for me to join that group but it actually wasn't that bad. Here were my results:

1 - 3:10
2 - 3:07
3 - 2:58
4 - 2:59
5 - 2:49
6 - 2:52

(forgot to press the lap btn after the 3rd repeat but I remembered the splits)

The other reason I wanted to jump up to the other group was because I'll be running the Corporate Challenge in 9 days. I wanted to feel that a 3:10 pace is easy so that I could do 6:20 for the first 2.5 miles and try for 6:00 the last mile. It's probably aggresive aspirations, but I prefer to shoot for the stars and miss than aim for the gutter and hit.

NYRR Workout | 3x Harlem Hill

I was actually hoping rain would offer me up an excuse to skip this evening's workout. Unfortunately, the skies stayed mostly shut so I had to go. It was good thing I did. I needed to get out there after an easy week.

Before going to my splits, I do want to preface that I've been trying to do my speed workouts more "smartly." Read: lazily. I've been used to going all out for every interval workout but that's very taxing. After a PR effort marathon, a biathlon two weeks later, I guess I should have expected a desire to notch down my workout efforts. Going forward, I think I'm going to go at about LT threshold workouts instead of MAX HR. Here's my splits from tonight's workout around Harlem Hill.


The laps are those that measure 1.13 to 1.15. As a comparison, here's my splits from the same workout on March 17.


It looks like the two workouts compare favorably, but I much prefer tonight's effort level. Looking at my HR, it was still a great workout, but it felt a lot less taxing.

The other reason I'm trying to save legs on this workout is that I'm running the Japan Day race on Sunday and I'd like to try and race it.

NYRR Workout | 800m repeats

Still recovering from the NJ marathon, my goal for tonight's workout was to not go out at full effort for every repetition. I thought 3:00 - 3:05 per was a reasonable effort. Except for the last split, which I wanted to run fast, my pace stayed pretty true to 3:00 - 3:05.


Got another high intensity workout on Thursday, but it'll be a circuit workout in the gym. After that, the Queens Biathlon coming Sunday.

NYRR Workout - 3 x 1200 at East Meadow

I always go into these NYRR workouts with a little bit of anxiety. Tonight was no different, but I decided to try to take it easy to ease my mind. I figured that I had reason since I'm tapering, did a long run on Saturday and raced on Sunday.

Except for the heavy legged feeling tonight, the workout wasn't so bad. Three sets of 2x600m loop with undulations. I forgot to hit the lap button each time. If I remember correctly though, my times were 4:35, 4:31 and 4:34. Max heart rate was 180 on the 3rd interval after trying to sprint in the final 100m or so.

NYRR Workout - 3x Harlem Hill @ 1.15mi per repeat

Okay, the first NYRR speed workout of my season wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I didn't feel all that great during the workout itself, but I'm glad it's done. Jogging to the meeting area, I had a feeling it was going to be some sort of Harlem Hill run so I was mentally prepared. Coach seems to always start off every new class with that workout.

My run tonight is in the screenshot image. Laps 2, 4 and 6 were the repeats. What I like about the HH repeats is that it's a steep hill, one long downhill, and finishes with a long uphill along a winding path. It breaks down really nicely and I can pace myself and know where to start picking up pace. I ran towards the front during all 3 repeats and was able to improve my time on each repeat as planned. After the last repeat, coach yelled at me for running too far up front ahead of everybody. That wasn't the case at all. I picked up the pace by 1 second from my last repeat. Everybody just really tailed off at the end for whatever reason. Because of that, I'm probably going to be moved forward one group - the 6:00 - 6:30 milers. I don't think I'm up for that yet, but I didn't think I was up for tonight's workout either.

So I have to say that I was pleased with my effort tonight. I think I probably could have gone even harder, but it was a good effort. I finished with an easy jog home, and at the end, completed just over 12 miles. It was a good evening.

NYRR Workout - Fartleks from mile 22.5 to marathon finish

Tonight's workout consisted of fartleks from 110th and 5th Ave. to the marathon finish. This workout was important for us to feel the last four miles or so of the marathon. Especially important was for us to feel the one mile uphill climb from 110th to 90th, which is probably the toughest mile on the course. My lap breakdown before the workout and the post workout mileage is as follows:

Lap

Time

Distance

Avg Pace

Avg Heart Rate

Avg Cadence

Calories

1	00:23:44	2.89 mi	08:12	149 bpm	--	315 C
2	00:16:01	1.64 mi	09:45	123 bpm	--	178 C
3	00:05:37	0.67 mi	08:27	140 bpm	--	71 C
4	00:00:04	0.00 mi	23:02	144 bpm	--	1 C
5	00:02:34	0.31 mi	08:24	147 bpm	--	29 C
6	00:02:31	0.37 mi	06:54	156 bpm	--	38 C
7	00:16:18	2.25 mi	07:15	163 bpm	--	238 C
8	00:28:10	3.13 mi	09:00	149 bpm	--	326 C
9	00:08:17	0.90 mi	09:13	137 bpm	--	92 C

Going into tonight's workout, I was concerned about my knee holding up. It still hurts a little, but I'm actually quite pleased. It's going to continue to get better. I can't believe I only started praying about it last night. Coincidence? Perhaps, but I've had too many things happen in my life that have been "coincidental" after prayer.

Speed class benefits

Tonight's speed workout was an upside down ladder - long to short intervals. I felt energized going into the workout because I felt well rested from a decent night's rest and last week's relatively low mileage. Here's a breakdown of this evening's workout from my Garmin 405:

2 mile interval ~ 12:44
- mile 1.02: 6:33
- mile 2.04: 6:11

1 mile interval ~ 6:15
- mile 1.02: 6:15

2 x 600 meters
- interval 1: 1:41
- interval 2: 1:35

When I started doing these NYRR speed classes earlier in the year, I remember my previous best for the 2 mile interval was 12:58. My time tonight was a nice improvement, and my max HR was only 183, which means that I confirms my feeling during the run that I could have pushed harder. I did the 1 mile interval a little slower because I didn't want to be bumped up to the group ahead. The last 600 was a lot of fun because I started off in the back, starting about 5 seconds after the group, and I had to chase everyone down. Tonight was probably the most fun I'd had doing speed workouts in a while. Anyways, I'm hoping this improved efficiency will translate to a Boston qualifying time on Nov. 2.

On a side note, half the group went to see David Blaine hanging upside down at Wollman Rink. I guess it's his next publicity stunt.

NYRR Workout

Tonight's NYRR workout consisted of 2 x 2 mile repeats around the lower loop of Central Park, starting from Columbus Circle and finishing at the NYC marathon finish at Tavern on the Green. I tried my best to keep going on the "take it easy this week" theme, and I think I did for the better part. Tried to go 7 mins/mile pace, but it was hard to stay back once the group took off. I ended up sprinting the last 100m towards the uphill at Tavern for each repeat for the strong finish and increased heart rate. Here are my breakdowns:

2.5m @ 22:01 - warmup run to PS 81 to meet NYRR group
1.49m @ 14:53 - easy jog to Columbus Circle
1.02m @ 6:50 - 1st mile of 2
1.01m @ 6:20 - 2nd mile
.34m @ 4:52 - easy walk/jog rest period back to Columbus Circle
2.03m @ 13:35 - forgot to click at mile 1, but I was chatting with a friend so I'm guessing we were doing about 6:55 or so.
2.63m @ 25:43 - easy cool down jog around lower loop and slow jog home

Last time we did this workout, I did the two repeats at 13:01 and 12:58. While those times were certainly faster, I don't feel I would have had a problem with those times had I pushed. But again, I'm not into pushing this week. It's seemingly taking more discipline to hold back than it does to keep pushing.

NYRR speed workout and celebrities in Central Park

Last night's NYRR speed workout consisted of a 2m, 1m and 1m intervals. My times were as follows: 12:45 (6:33 & 6:12), 6:26, 5:51. I thought we were going to do another 2m interval so I paced myself for 2m...thus the 6:26 time. I felt a little bad about that, so I did the last interval hard. I was most interested in getting my heart rate into the 190's but managed 189, which shows that I worked pretty hard. Since I've started running, I think I've hit 191 twice. After my warm-up and cool-down, I managed to log just over 11m.

On the way to the workout, I ran into Elliot Spitzer. This was actually the 2nd time I've seen him around the park. He looked to be enjoying some banter with a lady I'm guessing to be his wife. This got me to thinking which celebrities I've seen around the park. Here's my very short list...

Serena Williams
Bobby Flay
Ming Na
Joan Rivers