1 down; 17 to go!

I have finished my first official week of training! Today I ran my short run, thereby completing week #1 of my 18 week training program. I'm pumped. The ING New York City Marathon is 17 weeks from today! Wow.

I did a great little run across the GWB today. I don't know why, but until last night I hadn't really thought about running across the bridge, but when I was looking at various routes on MapMyRun.com I realized that it made perfect sense. I was aiming to run 3 miles today, a nice little short run at a faster pace after yesterday's long, slow run. I started out and immediately I knew that I was in for it. My legs were still pretty sore from the long run yesterday, so I decided not to push myself too much and just to enjoy a nice jog across the bridge.

I enjoyed running across the river and I got to the entrance of Palisades Park where I'm sure there are paths, etc, so I look forward to using this route more when I go for longer runs, and despite the fact that today was humid (not too hot though) it was a really enjoyable experience.

When I got home and mapped out my route, however, I realized that I ended up running 3.66 miles, more than I had thought, in a time of about 30 minutes. This translates to an 8:13 pace/mile . . . not too bad for the day after a long run. I felt like I was going much slower than that.

I'm feeling pretty good about my training right now. I'm reading my training book pretty religiously these days and I'm feeling pretty fast, and I'm getting pumped for the marathon in November. I feel like I've been working towards this for so long and I can't wait to finally be increasing my mileage significantly and having completed my first week is very exciting! It's funny how ready I felt for the 8 mile run yesterday and how ready I feel already for a 10 miler, and I still have almost two weeks until I run it! I'm really excited.

**Author's Note**
I use the phrase "long run" pretty liberally here . . . it is relative as far as I'm concerned. A true "long run" is about 18 miles, but I'm not there yet!

The long runs begin!

Today I took my first long run of the marathon training! While 8 miles is not very long to any seasoned marathoner . . . this was the longest run I've ever taken . . . and I felt great! I took a nice route down the river path to 72nd street and then cut across 72nd to Central Park West and ran down along the park to Columbus Circle where I took a left to go across the bottom edge of the park to the SE corner. 8 miles.

I ended up running it in 1:12:22 which is about a nine minute/mile pace, but I'm not sure that this is a completely accurate reflection of what I really did. First of all, I'm almost positive that I negative split the run. This means that I ran the second four miles faster than I ran the first. I suppose that for my longest run ever, that's not a bad way to go, but ultimately, I think I could've run the whole route a little faster, getting in under 1:10. Also, I left my watch running for a few seconds while I waited at various intersections. I wasn't standing still at these times, but I wasn't moving forward either. Usually I'd just run in place and keep the watch going. This might have added a little to my time as well, though I'm not sure how much. By the end, I was worried that I'd finish too slow, so I practically sprinted across Central Park south in order to finish in 1:12 . . . but who knows. For my next long run, I think I'm going to try to go out a little faster to begin with. I was going very conservatively to begin b/c I wasn't sure how much I'd need in reserve, but I ended up being fine. I'd like to push myself a bit in my next few long runs.

All in all, though, I'm very happy with my first 8 miler of the training. I definitely had something left at the end, meaning that I could've gone a bit faster, but I don't think it's completely bad to average 9 min/mile (my goal marathon pace) for my first run over 7 miles EVER and to feel that I had something left in me at the end. I actually feel pretty pumped right now! I can't wait to go out and run some more tomorrow.

Next week, my long run is another 8 miler, but I might combine this with a 10K race . . . and the following week my long run is a 10 miler, but again, I might combine this with a four mile race. Although I'm sort of interested in running the four miler by itself to see if I can set a PR and then running my 10 at a different point in the week . . . perhaps Thursday . . . so we'll see.

Yay.

Good runs

I've had a few good runs in the last few days. I have already done 11 miles this week, which means I'm halfway done with the week's mileage. I am running 22 miles this week, in the first "official" week of my training calendar. Tomorrow (Friday) will be my day off, but Saturday I am going to run 8 miles! I can't wait. I'm actually really excited to get such a long run in . . . it will be my longest ever and I know that I can do it!

I'm having a little bit an adjustment period now that I'm back to NYC. The breathing is fine, but it's much hotter here and more humid . . . I guess I can't win. In any case I'm feeling good so far this week, and I'm hoping things go well on Saturday.

You might have noticed that I've removed my calendar from the bottom of the blog. This is due to some issues with Google calendar's functions when you have multiple calendars. But I'm going to add an "upcoming runs" section over to the right that I'll update regularly.

That's it for now.

Altitude Running

Wow. It's been a long time. I've been super busy though and I was in Colorado Springs for a conference for the last 8 days. Today was my first day back home in a long time.

I knew that I really had to get some good runs in this past week, but I was a little worried b/c I also knew that I'd be super busy at the NAIS Summer Diversity Institute (SDI). SDI was amazing and really helpful. I'm looking forward to taking much of what I learned back to work to make Riverdale a more inviting, equitable, welcoming place.

As it turned out, I was able to get some good runs in, totaling about 17 miles. I was supposed to run 20 miles last week, the last week of my "base building" phase, but on Sunday I was exhausted and took the day off. BUT I am hoping that my 17 miles at 6000 ft will suffice when I try to run again in NYC.

I didn't enjoy running in Colorado Springs at all at first. The altitude made it hard to breathe, and the dry air made me really uncomfortable. I never thought I'd miss humidity, but I think this was taking it to the extreme! I ran 3 on Tues., and 4 each on Wed. & Thurs. Then I took Friday off, and ran 6 on Saturday. My long run Saturday was actually my best and I look forward to running here at sea level to see if I can tell a difference at all.

Again, I took Sunday off b/c I was really tired both physically and emotionally from SDI, but I think I'll be ok. I am slightly worried, however, b/c this week I have to run 22 miles . . . that's a jump of 5 miles. I'm concerned that I didn't get in enough weeks of 20 miles, but we'll see. My last four weeks (you can check for yourself on the calendar at the bottom) went 17, 20, 20, 17+. So maybe I'm ready for 22 this week. We'll see. On Saturday I have to get an 8 mile long run in. That'll be sort of hard, but I'm excited to give it a try. I just hope it's not too ridiculously hot and humid.

I am also skipping my running class tonight. I'm tired, and I miss Sara, so I didn't feel like being gone tonight. That means that I won't have a speed workout AND a long run in the same week when I'm up mileage a lot. Probably for the best.

So, I'm back and you can expect more posts in the coming weeks as I begin my formal training schedule. It starts today!