...You know the movement seems to soothe me
And the tempo takes control
And I loss my blues when the New York City Rhythm fills my soul
It's the New York City Rhythm runnin' thru my life
The poundin' beat of the city's streets
That keep my dreams alive
I'm lost, I'm found
I'm up, I'm down
But somehow I survive
It's got to be the New York City Rhythm in my life
It's got to be the New York City Rhtym in my life
In my life...
---New York City Rhythm (Barry Manilow!)
Yes, I've still been running but I've been way off track after a great week of vacation (More details later but I ran a TON at the shore).
This weekend I'm looking forward to the half-marathon at Virginia Beach but Tropical Storm Ernesto is making it hard to get there. I think the weather will be OK on Sunday but who wants to drive across the Chesapeake-Bay-Bridge Tunnel in a hurricane? Not me! I hate it even in good weather!
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Friday, August 11, 2006
Thursday Run + Some book Stuff
Went for an abbreviate run at Valley Forge on Thursday after work because we were in a hurry to get home to watch a lame Eagles pre-season game. We're such losers to be so football starved that we adjusted our plans for that!
Anyway, I ran maybe 3 miles? I didn't even bother to time it although I did try to make myself run fast since I wasn't going as far. It felt really good!
I'm leaving on vacation for the next week and won't have a computer so there will be no posts (not that there have been many lately anyway)!
I should get lots of miles in while I'm at the shore though so look forward to some reports when I get back.
I also got two new books to read and review from FreshWritersBooks which is an organization that encourages and helps high school students write books that actually get published! How about that!
One of their winning books is about a high school cross country team:
and the other is a novel and retelling of A Midsummer Nights Dream called Celtic Night.
They sent me the books hoping I'd review them here and they'd get some publicity in the blogosphere -- so stay tuned! I hope they're good!
Anyway, I ran maybe 3 miles? I didn't even bother to time it although I did try to make myself run fast since I wasn't going as far. It felt really good!
I'm leaving on vacation for the next week and won't have a computer so there will be no posts (not that there have been many lately anyway)!
I should get lots of miles in while I'm at the shore though so look forward to some reports when I get back.
I also got two new books to read and review from FreshWritersBooks which is an organization that encourages and helps high school students write books that actually get published! How about that!
One of their winning books is about a high school cross country team:
and the other is a novel and retelling of A Midsummer Nights Dream called Celtic Night.
They sent me the books hoping I'd review them here and they'd get some publicity in the blogosphere -- so stay tuned! I hope they're good!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Monday Run - I ran up the big hill!!
Our typical run at VF park.
There's one hill on the loop that just kills me everytime. It's a short, steep hill that comes at the end of a long stretch of small rolling hills that lead mostly uphill for about a mile. Usually I am so overworked from running up the steady incline that leads to the steep hill that I don't even consider running up the steep hill. I always walk and then drink at the top of the hill.
Today, for some reason that I can't explain, I ran up the steep hill! It was amazing! I never thought I could do that! It was awesome. Of course this great success had a rebound effect later in the run where at a point where I never walk I decided to walk. Here's the really strange part -- I wasn't hot, I didn't feel tired, my legs didn't hurt and weren't feeling heavy and yet I decided to keep on walking even after my drink. I just walked and walked -- for 5 whole minutes I walked! And then Brian passed me and after he got pretty far ahead of me I started to run again. I eventually caught him and we finished the loop together.
Overall it was a pretty good, if strange, run.
There's one hill on the loop that just kills me everytime. It's a short, steep hill that comes at the end of a long stretch of small rolling hills that lead mostly uphill for about a mile. Usually I am so overworked from running up the steady incline that leads to the steep hill that I don't even consider running up the steep hill. I always walk and then drink at the top of the hill.
Today, for some reason that I can't explain, I ran up the steep hill! It was amazing! I never thought I could do that! It was awesome. Of course this great success had a rebound effect later in the run where at a point where I never walk I decided to walk. Here's the really strange part -- I wasn't hot, I didn't feel tired, my legs didn't hurt and weren't feeling heavy and yet I decided to keep on walking even after my drink. I just walked and walked -- for 5 whole minutes I walked! And then Brian passed me and after he got pretty far ahead of me I started to run again. I eventually caught him and we finished the loop together.
Overall it was a pretty good, if strange, run.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Monday Morning - Still sore!
Can you believe it?! My legs are still a little bit sore from Saturday's run! I'm kind of in shock. I haven't had sore legs after a run in a very long time. I've done nearly this many miles the last two weeks without sore legs and I think the surface of Saturday's run was probably a little softer than what I'm used to so the sore legs are a big surprise.
I think part of it has got to be that I didn't do my typical post run thing of eating protein. I don't always think about that with training runs but I always think about it after races. Saturday, while it was supposed to be LSD and even though it didn't feel overly difficult at the time, I was going at a pretty fast clip for me. That pace was right on target with my prior PR times at the half-marathon distance so it makes sense that my muscles would feel like they feel after a good hard effort. Too bad I didn't feed them!
On Sunday I slept late, did some yoga (which felt AWESOME! I don't know why I've been ignoring the yoga for so long -- it's great!) and then ran a couple errands. Late in the afternoon Brian decided he wanted to test out the bike rack before we go on vacation next week so we decided to go for a ride before dinner.
We went to explore a new trail, the Audubon loop, near our house that connects to the trail we always run/walk on. It was pretty great despite a long steep hill right near the start of the loop. It was quite scenic, not too hilly except for that big one at the start, and mostly shaded. I always like new scenery!
It felt good though to be doing something besides walking/running. Even though a lot of the bike ride was on trail I'm way too familiar with it seemed different somehow.
I think part of it has got to be that I didn't do my typical post run thing of eating protein. I don't always think about that with training runs but I always think about it after races. Saturday, while it was supposed to be LSD and even though it didn't feel overly difficult at the time, I was going at a pretty fast clip for me. That pace was right on target with my prior PR times at the half-marathon distance so it makes sense that my muscles would feel like they feel after a good hard effort. Too bad I didn't feed them!
On Sunday I slept late, did some yoga (which felt AWESOME! I don't know why I've been ignoring the yoga for so long -- it's great!) and then ran a couple errands. Late in the afternoon Brian decided he wanted to test out the bike rack before we go on vacation next week so we decided to go for a ride before dinner.
We went to explore a new trail, the Audubon loop, near our house that connects to the trail we always run/walk on. It was pretty great despite a long steep hill right near the start of the loop. It was quite scenic, not too hilly except for that big one at the start, and mostly shaded. I always like new scenery!
It felt good though to be doing something besides walking/running. Even though a lot of the bike ride was on trail I'm way too familiar with it seemed different somehow.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Long Run - 12 miles
Today was the first time I've put on my sneakers since the last long run. We had record high heat this week -- in the high 90s with heat index way over 100 every day. It just isn't worth it for me to run in conditions like that.
Today was fabulous for a run! We started at 7 and ran on a shady trail. The temp was low and so was the humidity. You really couldn't have asked for better summer weather.
The run went pretty well. I felt good through most of it and still feel good now, although I'm pretty tired. When I finish drinking my iced latte I think I'm going to take a short nap. Maybe a long nap.
I went out slow and ran with a guy I'd never run with before. He was awesome and set a steady pace that brought us in at about 2:17 for the 12. My sportbrain says that we only went 10.5 miles but I know that's totally wrong. We ventured past the 5 mile mark on the outbound portion and ran at least 10 minutes past it so I know we were very close to 12 miles. I felt really good for the first 9 and pretty good overall for the last three but if I hadn't been with my running buddy I'm sure I would have taken more walking breaks than we did. We hardly walked at all the whole time.
The pace we set was just about dead on with my PR for the half marathon (had we continued the extra 1.1 miles) and if I turn in a performance at VA Beach where I finish just a hair under 2:30 again I think I'll be OK with that if I run as consistantly as I did today. That's an accomplishment in itself for me. Still, I think I can do better on race day.
On a side note -- 3 months from now I should be more than halfway through the NYC Marathon!
Today was fabulous for a run! We started at 7 and ran on a shady trail. The temp was low and so was the humidity. You really couldn't have asked for better summer weather.
The run went pretty well. I felt good through most of it and still feel good now, although I'm pretty tired. When I finish drinking my iced latte I think I'm going to take a short nap. Maybe a long nap.
I went out slow and ran with a guy I'd never run with before. He was awesome and set a steady pace that brought us in at about 2:17 for the 12. My sportbrain says that we only went 10.5 miles but I know that's totally wrong. We ventured past the 5 mile mark on the outbound portion and ran at least 10 minutes past it so I know we were very close to 12 miles. I felt really good for the first 9 and pretty good overall for the last three but if I hadn't been with my running buddy I'm sure I would have taken more walking breaks than we did. We hardly walked at all the whole time.
The pace we set was just about dead on with my PR for the half marathon (had we continued the extra 1.1 miles) and if I turn in a performance at VA Beach where I finish just a hair under 2:30 again I think I'll be OK with that if I run as consistantly as I did today. That's an accomplishment in itself for me. Still, I think I can do better on race day.
On a side note -- 3 months from now I should be more than halfway through the NYC Marathon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)