21M's and award

Despite some windy weather I had a great session on Friday night. 11M's from work to home with 7 of them around 7.15 pace. I felt so strong, I think the cool weather helps, no sweating!

Then Sunday I did my next 20M run.
It was a little overcast and my gloves were on and off as much as my sleeves were rolled up and down. I revisited last years routes to Coney Island and ran to the beach!

'insert ice cream here'

It was a lot quieter than last Summer! Also not as many toilets were open :-(

It actually ended up being 21M as I reached the bottom of the park at 20M and decided to go up and over the little trail hill for the last mile. I just hit the corner of the local St Patrick's day parade as I went straight into the local muffin shop. I scoffed a danish pastry and some Gatorade on the walk home. Other than being a bit hungry, I felt pretty good. Just got to add the hill part to it now.

Today after work I popped by the office of the Cherry Tree organisers and picked up my age group award!

Cherry Tree 10 Miler

Had a couple of good strong sessions the past week. Last Sunday I did 16M with the last 12M around marathon pace which meant various loops in and around Prospect Park as the other sidewalks were still a little slippy in places.

Tuesday's speed sessions are still going well and I am feeling strong at the end, this week was 3 x 1Mile with 800m jog rec, the last two I did on 6minutes. Thursday we had another snowfall, this was my view of Manhattan as I headed over the bridge on my midweek run to work.

But all that fresh snow meant I could get back on my trail shoes and I managed a whole 7M jumping around the trails the park.

The next day was the Prospect Park Track Club Cherry Tree 10 Miler.
I've never really run that much the day before a race but it wasn't a main goal race and with the (cold!) time of year I didn't think my time would be that great.

This was the rescheduled date as it was way too cold (for volunteers) the last time.
Is it a coincidence that the clocks changed here on Saturday night to Spring time and we woke up to amazing sunshine, 8 degrees & no wind. Despite wearing calf supports and a thermal top I dug out my new SHORTS!

Again, my kind of race. 10am start, leave the house just after 9.40am, jog over, straight into the coral and get racing 5 minutes later. As I've said before it helps that the NYCRuns races are a lot lower key than Road Runner's events. When the guy called out was the lead biker ready and didn't get a response he was like "whatever", let's go!

It was three laps of the park, I took the first one relatively easy as I couldn't decide how hard I was going to race it. Then picked it up as I tried to pull back a few people I could see up ahead such as a couple of guys with their PPTC kit and one of the leading women. Third lap I went for it on the last couple of miles after I crested the hill.

I didn't really think about the time I was aiming for, I'd done it in 1.08.30-something the year before but with my new found marathon strength I knocked nearly two minutes off!

1.06.47, 6.39 pace for 23rd place out of 457 AND as I found out afterwards 3rd place in my age group!

Onto this week, the last indoor speed session before we move to an outdoor track! Then a 14M midweek run, hopefully in the predicted 14 degree midweek weather, an 11M with 7M at 1/2 Mar pace and another 20M on Sunday. Hmmm, tough week.

First race of the year

Three solid weeks of 50miles per week. In the middle I ran my first race of the year, the Al Gordon 4M across the road in Prospect Park. It was pretty pretty cold.
I had to pick up my number on race day morning so tried to time it so I didn't hang to hang about too long but ended up having 30mins to wait. I jogged about for 15+ mins so combined with the jog over it was a good extra 3miles added to the log!
I could tell it was cold when I was sheltering behind the first aid tent near the start. I think it was around -6 but the wind felt cold and my hands and nose were numb during the entire race. Looking back at last year, I ran the same race in long shorts and compression socks, not this time!

Felt strong with all the distance training, averaged 6.16 pace for 25.01. It was a NYRR member only classic event ($10) and I finished 49th  out of 1050 and a solid 4th in the 40-44 age group.

Nice icy water

Sunday was my 4th ever time hitting 20M and possibly the best I've felt on a run of such length.
I even got some hill training in as I ran 12M on the road, using our mailbox as a storage unit for my trail shoes and some fluids etc, changed into my trail shoes then hit up Prospect Park for 7M of snowy trails and a few hill loops.

I even found some snow art which perked me up around the 16M mark.

Also been getting some actual good proper photos while out on my runs.
Had to pause during my midweek morning commute over the Manhattan Bridge to catch the rising sun and the ice flowing down the East River.

Then down Redhook at the piers behind Ikea on Saturday was like a frozen wasteland.