Category Archives: Hudson River Park

Finally a good run again!!

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So I’ve had to switch the training schedule (for the week only) around a bit thanks to work hours and just being tired. As long as the miles get done, right?

This morning I set out for my 8 mile run after a breakfast of a Luna protein bar and RedBull light. Decided to go along the Hudson on this nice foggy morning. And so selected a novelization of The Scottish Play for my listening. It was actually a really good match.

And the run went fantastically. Like, I kept trying to slow myself down, but that never happened. Actually the opposite – it seemed like the more I tried to slow down, the more I sped up.

8 miles went by like it was nothing!!

And while part of me wishes all my runs could be like that, I know that the tough ones are really the ones the stretch me and help me to grow. And the nice, easy-feeling ones like this are the icing.

Let the taper begin!!

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For Chicago that is!

Today was my 20-miler, and I decided to try and treat it as close to race-day as possible in terms of pre-fueling, fueling during (with the exception of not having the professional Gatorade they will have on the course…but I’ll run with nuun anyway), and timing of it.

So I started last night by getting all hydrated and having pasta dinner – I found a restaurant with a menu pretty similar to the place where Team Breakthrough is having their pasta dinner and went there. Tried to get in bed early and get some sleep.

And then in something I don’t want to repeat, was awakened around 2:30am with calf cramps. No clue why. But they definitely had me nervous about the run.

Woke up around the time I expect I’ll be waking up to get to Aqua (Oh yes…I paid $10 for the CES Marathon Day VIP experience…it’s going to be so worth it!!). Ate and drank what I’m intending…though I think I won’t do it AS early on race day as I was a little hungry early on in the run based on eating closer to when I woke up. Walked to the subway and headed to the Hudson River to run alongside it.

Got started and everything easy and feeling good. Then around mile 9 or 10 my knees started randomly getting achy. I downed a salt packet even though I wasn’t sweating all that much as it was cooler and windy. Took a run interval or two as a walk interval, and then was feeling better! Kept going. I was able to finish strong – doing the final run intervals!! And honestly that hasn’t happened as much as it should have.

But I’m glad that I finished my last *major* long run strong!! I finished the 20.19 in 4:45, which, knowing my PR in the 10K, makes me really feel like on race day, with the rest that comes with the taper and the adrenaline I CAN go sub-6!! Visualizing it constantly!! 5:59:59 is going to be posted all over my apartment and wherever I can!!

Now to taper and get ready for marathon day!!

Chicago Marathon Week 8 Days 4, 5 and 6

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One would think I’d have more time to get this writing done during the summer since I’m only working one job. One would apparently be not quite right. LOL. Oops!

Thursday was XT and I opted to do an aerobics DVD. One day I need to do the whole thing which includes strength and core work. Thursday was just not that day. Maybe when it gets a little cooler so that even in my living room with the window unit I’m not drowning in sweat. We’ll see.

Friday was a short 40 minute easy run. Well, I opted to reset all my alarms for an hour later, which was a mistake. So hot out there already. You don’t realize what a difference the sun makes until you’re running with it on you. It was a slow 2.88 miles, but I got it done.

Today I was slated for 11 miles. And it was supposed to be HOT. I got off work last night at 11:15, and by the time I got home it was around 12:40. I wanted to be on the train by 4am, so I debated just staying up. But ultimately decided to “nap” and get up around 3. I was out the door by just before 4, and got on the G train fairly quickly. The issue with waiting comes with the A train. Even though there are TWO A train routes, in the wee hours those trains seem to come way less frequently than pretty much any other line.

When I got off the G to wait for the A, I was afraid that I was about to have a situation like last year where some guy was following me. I’m pretty sure he moved to be across from me on the G, and then he waited until almost the last minute to get off the G. He then walked sort of around where I was standing, so I casually walked down towards the other end of the platform where there were more people. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before he came down the platform – but he was walking pretty fast. Not coming at me, though, which made me wonder. The last time the guy wasn’t moving all that fast. I walked back down to the other end of the platform and remembered that the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station has a police presence in it, so I walked up the stairs and just stood where I could see the officers. Another G train came (and THIS is why the A being so long between trains is just bizarre…the train that everyone laughs at and only has one route has 2 (at least) trains stop before the train that has 2 routes further down has even one come?) and I debated getting on that and just running at Coney Island but ultimately decided to stay put. The guy hadn’t come back down to the end of the platform where I was (I could see from atop the stairs), so I waited at the bottom of the stairs knowing there were two cops outside of the office that I could run to and/or yell to if necessary. (I didn’t go to them immediately just because I wasn’t 100% sure he was following me like I had been last year – when I realized it ON the A train. I didn’t want to cause a fuss if there was no need for one.) Long story a little shorter, I never saw him again, so yay!

Got off at 14th St and headed towards the Hudson. Parts of the park were blocked off when I first got there, so I ran along the far outer edge of the bike path until it was open. Well, I say ran…it was very shuffly and slow because of the heat and humidity. I had Hammer gels in my pack and Nuun in my handheld. I stopped a couple of times to add water to the handheld, and about 2 hours in, I added a salt packet because I’m definitely a salty sweater. Still, as I got further into the second hour, I was feeling something like the beginning of cramps in my hammies and a little in my calves. Thankfully I carry a little money on me and double thankfully around Chelsea Piers there are drink machines and one of them is ALL PowerAde (there’s a Gatorade machine further down the path, but I needed something right then). I’m not normally a PowerAde fan, but it was like liquid manna from heaven today.

Ended up getting my miles done at a 14:32 pace, which isn’t that bad actually. It’s right in the middle of my prescribed LSR pace, so I’ll take it.

I’m debating yoga tomorrow since I made Tuesday a rest day. But we’ll see. The GF diet is going well so far. I’m finding that it’s forcing me to eat healthier – if only by virtue of the face that I can’t get anything from the vending machine at work. The more difficult part of the week has been giving up soda. I’ve done it successfully before – without craving it. The giving up TWO things in one week I think has made the giving up soda thing harder. Still, so far so good.

Happy training!

Training mileage: 117.89
Weight: 176

Chicago Marathon Week 5 Days 5, 6 and 7

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Wow, am I really done with 5 weeks of training?!?!?!? How crazy is that???

Friday I ended up just doing a good bit of walking around, more than usual. Yoga didn’t happen, but with walking as much as I did and stretching out, I’m ok with that!

Yesterday I got my little butt out of bed and went to run in Prospect Park. Part of the fun of weekend running in Prospect is if you’re there early enough you get to run while bike races are going on. Very cool. Got just over one lap done for 3.4 miles. And it proved that yes, I need to make sure my butt is running with hills periodically during my training!

Not that that happened this morning. Because of a race in Central Park (yes, you can still run in the park…I just didn’t feel like going up and dealing with it, especially since I would have just wanted to do 2 laps of the middle loop), I opted to go for my long run favorite place – along the Hudson. It was a little humid, but there was usually a breeze, so that was extra nice! Got in 8.66 nice and feeling-good miles and even managed a negative split for the training run. Translation: I went faster than I should have for a LSR. Oops!


The RoadID finally arrived and survived its first run! Woohoo! Really, everyone who runs, bikes, etc. should have a RoadID!

And in the seen on my run category? The Space Shuttle Enterprise AND the Disney Magic. I’m torn as to which was more exciting. :)

It’s been a good week. Onto Week 6.

Training miles: 62.86
Weight: 177.4

Broad Street Week 8 Run 1. And a URD today.

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Run 1 of week 8 was yesterday. 5.1 miles along the Hudson. In the wind – which should be a good practice in case there’s wind off the water on Saturday.

It most definitely wasn’t the easiest run I’ve had. I really struggled with myself to keep going sometimes, even finding myself thinking “Oh, I’ll just cut it short. I’ll be ok.” But I kept going. I had opted to listen to part 1 of Marathon Talk’s interview with Kathrine Switzer, and honestly that’s what kept me going. Even though I’m far slower than she was/is, listening to her talk about her struggle to bring women’s running into the public eye really put my little 5 mile run in perspective. I should be celebrating my body’s ability to run and the fact that I can enter races and just love running, even if I know I’ll never be in a position to win anything.

And so I kept going. I miscalculated the number of reps I’d need (should have gone with 15 rather than 12), and so I wasn’t at 5 when I hit the “cool down” period. I had a choice then. Leave the run at 4 miles and change or go on my own to get to 5. I opted for the second choice, and while I didn’t necessarily stick to my 3/1 ratio I didn’t simply walk to get to the 5 mile mark.

So overall, though it was a pretty rough run, I’m proud of myself for sticking it out and doing it.

And now we’re at today, where I’m taking an unscheduled rest day (URD). Sometime yesterday, my left…I’m guessing piriformis started screaming at me a bit. So today’s a day to rest it and stretch it gently (like I should have been doing all along but have been bad). Tomorrow will be the same as on Saturday I’ve got a 10K race – the Clare Fund Run. The nice thing is it’s along the beach so it should be relatively flat. Fingers crossed that things feel ok and it goes well.

BSR training mileage: 114.04

Broad Street Week 4 Run 1

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Gotta love it when a run feels great!

Ok, not the whole thing…there were some run intervals in the middle that were a little rough and I walked a bit in those. Of course one then ended up with me running during what should have been my walk interval – only discovered that when the beep went off only a minute into it. But on the plus side, I ran the entire 3 minute run interval after it! And that seemed to be the turning point.

Stats for this one?

4.66 miles in 59:30 for a 12:46 pace. 144 average bpm.

All in all it was a gorgeous run along the Hudson. I thought about trying out the High Line…but it’s still on Winter Hours and would have closed at 7, so…I procrastinated too long in leaving to try it out. Perhaps another time. I hope that this warm weather this early doesn’t indicate a long summer of three-digit temps. Because that will be rough. But today was wonderful!

Gotta love it when everything comes together like today!!

BSR training mileage: 46.24

18 miles!!!!!

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We all remember what happened the last time I went for 18 miles, right? Hurt foot, visit to the urgent care, etc.

Well, yesterday I went out to do a long run and decided just to set the garmin for intervals based on 18 miles at a 14mm average, but not really worry about the miles and just see what would happen.

The morning started off interestingly – I was on the subway shortly after 5am. Took the G train to the transfer point for the A (the C isn’t running that early). I noticed a man look at me a couple of times (not that it should make a difference, but I was in a running skirt with capris under it and a long-sleeved shirt, so I was NOT dressed skimpily or revealing or anything – again, NOT that it matters one iota how I was dressed), but didn’t really think about it. He was in the same car I was when the A train came, but again not a big deal – that’s the area where he was standing. The car was cold, however, so I made the decision to switch cars. I looked around and guess who had followed me to the car. Yeah. I tried to ignore him, but I could feel him staring at me. When realized the next stop coming up was one I’m very familiar with and is one that still has booths with MTA workers in them, I made the decision to jump out at the last moment. Apparently I choreographed it too well or else the doors didn’t close as close to the chime as usual, because guess who also came out of the car. That clinched it. I went up the stairs and over to the booth. The woman looked up at me and I said “Can I just stand here for a few minutes?” and explained what was going on. She was great, and asked if I wanted her to call the cops. Because he hadn’t physically done anything to me and had gone down onto the downtown platform once he saw me at the booth, I said no, I didn’t want to deal with that based on just being creeped out. I waited there until she told me that a couple of trains going downtown had passed. At that point I decided to abandon the idea of Central Park – I just didn’t feel like risking anything by going back to the uptown platform in case he was still hanging out down there somewhere. I could get to Hudson River Park and that area, and I know that’s a good running area too, so I went with that option. And I shall be shopping for pepper spray this week. Too many of these things have been happening to women all over the city lately – I’m lucky all mine involved was a guy creepily watching and following me between cars and off a train. No groping or worse was involved.

So I started over to the river and started running up. Turns out I had an amazing run – done at 4/1 run/walk intervals. I felt so strong through the HM mark, and even a bit after that. I did drop to more walking after about mile 16, but I was never hurting to the point of “I need to stop”. I even was able to get back to a run the last minute of the last run interval!! My final distance? 18.93 miles!!! The farthest I’ve ever run in my life!!!! Time was 4:20.

Next Saturday? I’m slated for my 20…but I’m more concerned with foot time to be honest. I’m going to set my garmin for 4/1 intervals that go for probably 5:15 – that will hopefully leave me with only 30 minutes of unknown territory at Disney rather than an hour or more. I’m going to work at holding myself back a bit in pace so it’s more about foot time. I should hit at least 20, and anything else will be icing!

Woo!!!

FOUR WEEKS PEOPLE!!! FOUR WEEKS!!!!!

Another week down!! (And thoughts on a couple of things.)

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Overall it was a really good week of training! Tuesday’s run was ok, Thursday’s was stellar. Today was 11 miles long and slow. I ran along the Hudson today for a change of pace. A lot of the run I had a nice breeze off the river, which was great!

I passed a scene on the Westside Highway where there were a lot of police cars with lights flashing surrounding a vehicle. Got closer and saw what was left of a motorcycle. All ambulances were gone, but I knew it couldn’t be good for the driver of the motorcycle. Got home, and found that about 3 hours before I was running by, the motorcycle was hit by a car that sped off, and then another car (I assume the one that was surrounded) ran over the driver of the motorcycle and was charged with DWI. The cyclist died. They’re still looking for the car that hit him initially. :( Not a fun sight to see!

I definitely need to be much better about stretching all over my legs and rolling out my ITBs. I’m able to go up and down stairs normally, which is good, but they’re a little twingy. Lesson learned. (I hope.) Lots of rolling this week since I can’t take my roller or my Stick to the beach (doing carry-on and the roller won’t fit and the Stick would likely be confiscated by the TSA) – so I’ll have to be extra good about stretching there.

I was considering doing entire posts on a couple of things that I’ve seen people saying regarding races lately, but I think with my work schedule coming up this week I’ll just address them briefly here.

* Pacing
I’ve seen several people, specifically regarding Disney races, freaking out about pace and being swept. While I can understand not wanting to be swept, Disney does a VERY good job at letting you know what the minimum pace requirement is. If you do your due diligence there is no way you can register without knowing that there is a 16 minute/mile pace requirement. (Granted, they did themselves a disservice by allowing the woman on Extreme Makeover to finish when she clearly had a pace of 21 minute miles and finished well outside the allotted time…now some people may have an incorrect idea of either what the required pace looks like or feel that “well she got away with it”. I get that the show’s on ABC, which is owned by Disney. But really? The fact that she tried should have been inspirational enough. And imho it would have been more inspirational to see her try and realize that she still has somewhere to go from there to meet that goal than to see her get a finisher’s medal knowing she finished outside the allowed time.) Actually, they recommend that you train for a 14 minute mile if you know you’re going to want to stop for pictures or to cover any bathroom line issues you might encounter. But the maximum pace requirement is 16 minutes per mile, and they make that very clear.

I understand the fear about pace. Don’t get me wrong. My first 10K didn’t list a pace requirement anywhere in the information – believe me, I looked. Then a couple of weeks before the race, a group of us who had estimated finish times close to the previously unmentioned cut-off got an email from the director that we were welcome to remain in the race, but we needed to be aware of the pace requirement and that we would have to be past a certain point by a set time or we would be swept because all racers had to be clear of that point. Had I known the pace requirement was so close to what I was doing, I never would have signed up. But since I had, I was going to suck it up and try. (The director was making us aware of the pace requirement, but he wasn’t offering a refund even though he hadn’t been up front from the start.) I did make the pace requirement. And I finished in front of I think 4 people only. But I did it.

Then the NYC Half marathon had a pace requirement of 13:45 minute miles. I knew I’d cleared that at Disney and felt pretty confident I could do it. A really crappy 4-miler proved to me that worst case I’d be under by about 4 seconds per mile. But I knew the pace requirement going in and knew there was the potential that I might be very close, and I just decided I was going to do my best and if it wasn’t good enough that day, so be it. I wasn’t going to fuss at them because they told me ahead of time.

Bottom line: if you know the pace requirement for a race ahead of time, make sure you that barring some kind of training or race day incident (which can happen to all of us), can either meet the pace at the time you register or that you’re close enough that with training you can get there. Being so far off from it that you freak out with less than a month to go isn’t going to help you and could actually get you injured if you push too hard in the last weeks to get there.

Which brings me to my second thing I’ve seen lately.

*Injuries
Like it or not, injuries are going to happen. Knock wood, mine have been minor – mainly tight ITBs that rub and hurt – and easily resolved with PT exercises, The Stick and foam rolling (see above…I know I need to get back on those things ASAP). But I still do take my time off when they hurt (three days, then try it slow and see what happens). And if it’s different enough, I’ll go to my doctor and get a PT scrip.

I’m lucky in that my doctor is also a runner, so he gets it and isn’t going to immediately say “no running” – he’ll go with the PT scrip and see what happens from there. So that’s part of what I want to say. If your GP isn’t a runner or athletic and doesn’t get it, go ahead and if possible see a sports med doctor on your own (or see if your GP will refer you if you need a referral for insurance) – definitely try to do that for a second opinion. A sports med doc is going to do all s/he can to keep you running or get you running again as soon as possible and won’t say “don’t run” unless it’s a last resort.

But that leads me to the disturbing thing I’ve seen. More than once I’ve seen posted (again, mostly Disney-related, but it also applies to some other races) things along the lines of “This injury is driving me nuts, but I’m definitely running the race if it kills me.”

If this is your thinking, please rethink this. If you want to continue running and avoid further injury and/or surgery, running a race come hell or high water is not what you want to do. NO race is that important. If you need to sit it out to heal, sit it out to heal – and likely you will be able to run it the next year (Disney doesn’t, but a number of races do allow you to defer in the event of injury). Trying to run through an injury, especially when you’ve been instructed by (hopefully) a sports med doctor and/or a PT NOT to run is setting yourself up for a) worsening the injury (and possibly not finishing the race) b) possibly having to have surgery when rest and PT would have eliminated that need and/or c) injuring yourself to the point where running truly will not be an option again. Use your common sense.

Would it be disappointing? YES. Will you get over it? YES. This is one case where the DLF > DNF > DNS doesn’t apply. If you’re injured to the point where you’ve been told not to run for x amount of time which includes the race, a DNS is probably the best gift you can give yourself for a continued running career.

Ok…enough preaching. Listen to your body and be smart about it. :) No, I’m not an “expert”, but I am a runner, and I have learned to pay attention to a lot of things – from what I’m signing up for to my body and what it’s telling me. I’m just sharing my thoughts and experiences.

Happy running!!

Week 2 is Done!

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As the title says, week 2 of my training for the Walt Disney World Wine and Dine Half Marathon is in the barn! It went well!

Monday I did Jillian Michaels’ Banish Fat Boost Metabolism dvd. I do like it, and I burn a lot of calories doing it, but my calves killed me for about three days afterwards. Not a good thing. So I’ll look into other options for XT days for sure!

Tuesday I had a meeting at 6, so I went in and ran along the Hudson in Hudson River Park. It was good, but it was also hot and humid. I managed 4.4 miles at a 2/1 ratio. Average pace = 12:30. Not too bad all things considered.

I also learned (along with everyone else) that they’re having a new medal at Disneyland for the Half! It’s SOOOOO pretty!!!!

See??? Excited!!!!!

Wednesday I was supposed to go to Pilates, but my calves were still not happy with me, and I felt like it would be risking too much to go and do all the leg work there, so I just took a rest day. It’s all about listening to your body after all. :D

Thursday I headed over to Prospect Park. The weather was much better – a lot less humid! I did 4.48 miles at a 2/1 ratio. Pace = 12:17.

Friday is my wild card day. I can do XT of some kind or I can run, depending on what I’m feeling. I felt like running, so I went back to Prospect Park for an intended “easy” run. Did 3.25 miles at 2/1 ratio. Pace – 12:18. So maybe it wasn’t so easy after all. LOL.

Saturday I headed down to Coney Island to run on the boardwalk for my LSR (long, slow run). It was supposed to be 4.5 miles, but I know I haven’t gone time-wise long enough for the 10K prep, and I don’t want to irritate the ITB if I can at all help it. So I planned to go out for almost 1.5 hours (1 hour, 27 minutes), take it slow, and whatever the mileage was, the mileage was. Ratio was 2:30/1. Total distance = 6.57 miles. Pace = 13:13. So I did better at going slow than last week. But I could probably stand to go slower on the LSRs.

Today was a rest day. Love the rest days! That said, I did do Bob Harper’s Yoga Abs. I’m going to *try* to do those 15 minutes every day. We’ll see what the abs think about that. LOL.

Total mileage for the week: 18.7
YTD Miles: 282.81

Minutes of outdoor fun this week for the 100 Day Challenge: 327 (we had field day, and though it was work, it was play!) Well over the 100 minute minimum!

Weight this week’s weigh in: 168.6

And I’ll try to blog each night next week. Promise!