Eurotrip

Beginning of October I headed back to Scotland for the first time since moving over here!
We only had one day in Aberdeen before heading over to Prague for a few days then over to Amsterdam for another few days.

38.58, not bad for a belly full of dumplings

Singing to our section

Sightseeing, U2 in concert and a night time 10K in Prague along with a major amount of walking.
I won't go into everything we did but all photos are here and over on Instagram.

Back to Scotland and up to Inverness where we had birthday fun and I did my first Parkrun 5K. In trying to not lose too much fitness I then proceeded to do my 20M run. I'd average close to 50M a week since starting my marathon plan but dropped to 20-ish for the three weeks we were away.

Then we spent a few days touring the West of Scotland, particularly the area around Skye, my family and Heather's mum and sister along for the Scottish part of our trip.

Fairy Pools!

AKA, the Harry Potter train

Over the sea to....

As far as marathon training goes, I jumped straight back into it the week we got home and things have been going really well. The marginally cooler weather, still in shorts (just), and final 5 weeks of training left has seen my fitness improve dramatically.

3.15 is actually my age group qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. I don't have the pull to do Boston that everyone else seems to but it seemed an achievable goal when I started training especially as my first last year was 3.24-something.
I hesitate to say I'm now looking to maybe duck under 3.10 when I line up on November 22nd assuming the weather on  the day isn't too bad and these last 5 weeks go well.

Al Goldstein PPTC 5K #2

Last Wednesday was the next round of midweek 5K racing.
I tried my lighter shoes this time and the weather was a little cooler so I had hopes of going close to my 18.19 from a couple of weeks ago.

There was a bit of a course change though as the park was heaving last Wednesday.
National Running Day meant NYRR had a stall at one entrance, no doubt enticing a few more out for a run.
More importantly it was the first in the Summer Concert Series at the Prospect Park Bandshell so as well as the line to get in being insane there were a crap tonne of people all over the top end of the park and even food carts stuck in the pedestrian/running lanes.

So it was two lower loops. A very slight uphill, downhill then the regular flat-ish run along the bottom of the park.

The start was a little funny as there were about a dozen kids who all lined up right at the front. Although when the gun went they were a bit all over the place as kids tend to be and a few runners were a bit put off as it was a little crazy for the first 200m.

The slight downhill led me to a crazy 5.38 first mile. But I managed a 6.03 2nd mile and another strong 5.53 finish. 23rd out of 318 and 3rd in my age group.

So I ran a PB of 18.17 on National Running Day. Nice!

Al Golstein PPTC 5K #1

Wednesday night, yup, four days after the half marathon I ran the first in the local 5K Prospect Park series. Through the PPTC speed sessions I got free entry into the series too!

Some PPTC'ers, I know two of them!

I jogged the nearly two miles to the start and my legs, especially my quads were sooooooo heavy and tight.
For a seven race series and one that didn't cost anything either, it's not like I was wasting money on it or that I wouldn't have a chance to run faster later on in the series.
I didn't look at my watch for any kind of pacing and just went for it as normal.
I ran strong and finished the last mile with good strength even though my quads were really tight the whole way round and especially when I crossed the line!

I had splits of 6.04 (up the hill), 5.53 (along and down), 5.54 to the finish. 5.56 pace for an amazing 18.19 time. I would have settled for close to 19mins the way my legs felt.
11th out of 218 and 3rd 40-44.
That pretty much equaled my PB so I hope to run faster when I have fresher legs... and put a vest on and maybe try my lighter shoes.

In other news, we finally bought a BBQ. Put it out on our fire escape and have already BBQ'd twice.

And we went to our storage unit and I swapped over all my winter clothing for all my summer shorts and tees, etc.

It all starts here

I took a couple of weeks off running after the Queen's 10K. I cycled a lot, over 130miles and ate a lot of cake.
On a Sunday with no World Cup games we tried to head up to Williamsburg to see this giant sugar sculture.

The old Dominos sugar factory is being torn down and an artist had created this large sugar woman/sphinx sculpture out of sugar along with some (melting) resin sculptures.

NYTimes

animalnewyork.com

Unfortunately we didn't get there until about 30 minutes after it opened for the day and when we rounded the corner to see the queue was over a mile long, in the baking sun, we decided after a couple of minutes that we weren't going to wait. So we went for brunch instead!

a giant mural side of a cinema in Williamsburg

I'm just finishing week two of my marathon training. First couple of runs it certainly felt like I hadn't ran for two weeks, my legs felt disconnected from the rest of my body!
I made up a training plan myself based off two main plans I found online along with some responses I got to questions I posted on the Runner's World marathon forum. The marathon has a lot more variation in possible training compared to races of up to half marathon distance. I think I just have to be ready to react and adapt the plan as it's rare to follow a 16 week plan to the letter.

It also takes a lot of planning especially as I've tried to do a few of the shorter runs before starting work at 8am. That has involved leaving kit and food at work the day before along with my glasses, iPhone charger lead, etc. I've found it takes longer than you think if you want to do a little bit of stretching before showering and eating, before starting work! I've ran over the Brooklyn Bridge at 7am a couple of times though, pretty cool, have never ran there before.

I just managed an 18.45 5K on Wednesday in Prospect Park and despite being slower for the first two miles I managed a 5.41 last mile down the hill and felt a lot better than when I finished last time.

Wk1 32 miles, Wk2 39 miles

Another new PB

Wednesday night was the 2nd of the PPTC 5K series. I went off faster than the previous one to see if I could improve on last times 18.24 effort. I guess these little midweek events on the same course let you try and approach the race differently to see what best works.
So it was a 5.57 opening mile up the hill, then a 6.04 2nd mile followed by a 5.44 downhill and 33 sec slog where I had nothing left.
The clock came into focus right on 17.59 and I really was hanging on as it was a bit warmer that night too. 18.21! A few seconds shaved off I guess although I get the feeling that going off a little slower and trying to finish faster feels the way to go but you just get carried along with who you're racing alongside too.
Trouble is, it's only going to get warmer and more humid here as the weeks go by!

Wednesday night racing

Later that day, after I'd had a very tired one hour nap on the sofa, I downed a plate of oatmeal and put on my shorts and vest for the first in this years Al Goldstein Prospect Park Track Club 5K series of races.

I initially didn't feel that great, but it was more just tiredness and I managed a good couple of mile jog, mainly to the registration area at the bottom of the park and then another 1/2 mile looking for a toilet 3 minutes before the start! I would've had plenty time but they couldn't find my pre-entry. Turns out I hadn't entered as I thought, it was only the Roosevelt and Riverside Series I had entered, oops.

It was a mildly humid night so I was well warmed up even though it meant running the whole race with annoyingly dry lips. Due to the building work around the new centre there was a slight course alteration where the start was moved further down the hill to the bottom. This meant the first mile, luckily when you're fresh, was a gradual incline all the way before hitting the hill.
The second mile is along the top of the park rolling down into the completely downhill third mile, turning the corner into a nice flat run in to the finish.

It was a little difficult to pace yourself from the start immediately heading uphill but knowing it was just a 5K. I ended up with splits of 6.08, 6.05 and then a 5.41, pulling away from the couple of guys I'd been pacing with thanks to my new found strength, ha ha and finishing in a PB smashing time of 18.24 (@5.56 pace).

The better quality of the 231 runners meant that was good for 9th overall but only 3rd in my age group! Indeed, I ran side by side with an 11 year old for the first mile then watched him finish in 18.59!

Riverside Park Series No. 1

Wednesday night I tried another new event. A once-a-month 5K race held away up on the East side around 110th street in Riverside Park. It was only $30 for the entire 4 race series, worth it even if I just manage a couple of them.

I finished work at 4.30pm, ate a bit of food, cleaned my bike, ha ha then headed up to the very top of Central Park West. I've never actually walked around this area before, it is really nice. Definitely have to come back to explore more.

So I got there in plenty time, couldn't really remember the course apart from it is was all within the park and had a loop back around to the finish so I had a little jog warm-up to see what it was like.

The guy on the bike out front informed the runners on the line that he would lead but would have to pull away a little on the big hill in order to stay in front of us. I was like what big hill??!

Once the race started I was already in the front 4 or 5 runners.  The course was like one big running track shape with a flat front half and a rolling back half complete with incline to get up onto that level. At the far end you looped around a playpark and headed back up to do the top rolling section before dropping back down the big slope and having a nice straight sprint to the finish.

I kept steady in 4th place for most of the race and then really reeled in the 3rd place guy during the last mile, especially on the downhill then pulled in the 2nd place guy and finished on his shoulder with the exact same finish time.

Despite barely running for the last couple of weeks as I recovered from Bear Mountain, that training and last weeks 10K race, combined with cycling 42 miles this week as part of New York's Bike To Work Week I had a strong finish and came in at 19.21 / 6.15 pace... and won a mug. They gave out awards (leftover mugs from a previous race) to the age groupers and said where a lot of people were representing, clubs, etc. So when I went up for my award I said "representing Scotland" so the lady with the loudhailer told everyone "Representing Scotland. Let's have a round of applause for Scotland"... and they did, ha ha. By the time I waited for the awards, waited in line to get a burrito and took a couple of trains home it was time for bed. Ended up being a long day out, up at 6.30am and didn't get home until 10pm. I'll definitely be back to do more of the series although it won't be long before it's really warm and humid and nasty.

That's more like it!

Another Saturday morning 5K in Prospect Park, The Central Park Founders 5K in tribute to the guy that had founded the Central Park Track Club.

After another uncomfortable couple of weeks, the humidity finally broke on Wednesday night. I did a speed session of sorts on Thursday morning and felt amazing... the fresh air and lack of humidity was I'm guessing like the feeling you'd get if you've been away training at altitude and come back down to sea level so I was hoping for a better time than the last one two weeks ago.
A slightly later start time of 9am, and although the sun was out and it was hot under the sun, the lack of humidity was noticeable and probably 90% of the course in in shade.

When I got to the start line it turned out a tree had fallen down and hit someone earlier on so the start was delayed 30 minutes. Unfortunate for the guy, who was apparently alright and bad news for us as it meant I had to pass the time by sitting on a bench for 20 minutes meditating, watching the swans etc.

The smaller 389 finisher field start

© 2013 SmugMug, Inc.

A woman who is maybe connected to the CPTC took some photos and I popped up in a couple.

Then when we lined up at the start we were informed that because the start had to be moved up a few hundred metres they didn't have time to realign the mile markers so they would be out. Plus the wrist strap on my Polar heart rate monitor had snapped on Thursday. So no mile splits and no heart rate! I don't really use the heart rate on a 5K race but it's nice to see the averages etc afterwards.
So basically I just ran! First time in ages I've not looked at my watch or anything and just ran on feeling, knowing how fast I can hold for a 5K while knowing the course obviously helped.

© 2013 SmugMug, Inc.

I was pleasantly surprised to finish in 19.14 (6.12 mile pace, 62nd/389), about 26 seconds slower than my best time from May's month of supreme fitness, ha ha.

Then a jog up to the farmer's market where I picked up a raspberry danish, a cherry pie pocket, a sweet onion and goat cheese focaccia and some carrot cake.

The week that was

Getting into my shipping and receiving job. Although I need to get into it fast so I can help train a couple of other people! None of the managers even know how to do a lot of the stuff so when I take a day off and the other part-time guy isn't on there is a crap load of things to do the next day I'm in!

I switched my days around so we could go to a concert on Thursday night. During the summer Prospect Park has a lot of free performances and a handful of benefit shows to do with Celebrate Brooklyn so we purchased tickets for one of the benefit shows to see the Scottish group Belle & Sebastian.

A different type of show than normal. There was the regular standing room up front if you were eager but the majority of people take rugs and sit on the grassy slopes, at least until the show starts. They have a lot of different food and drink on sale plus an Etsy store, which if you know what Etsy is, tells you the type of crowd it was catering too.
So we took along our new camp chairs and a little bag of homemade food and juice, gotta save our money for all the future gig tickets we've bought recently.

One of the highlights was getting a lot of folk out of the crowd to dance on stage for a couple of songs, really funny to watch.

Friday night I was back in soccer action. A couple of teams I've played for needed some players for a cup night so I played 30min games with no break, the first outfield and the next two in goal!
During the second game it started raining and during the third it was torrential. It was so bad all the stuff in the bottom of my bag got soaked and I kept having to ring out my gloves and t-shirt.
When we went to the bar afterwards everyone took turns changing in the toilet into whatever slightly dryer clothes they had with them.

Then with my quads a little sore this morning, I sleepily got out of bed just after 7am for a 5K in Prospect Park. The baseball MLB All Star Game is back in New York so they had a tie-in with the race with proceeds to the Hurricane Sandy relief fund.

NYRR

It was "only" 69 degrees but the humidity was apparently 93%, I say apparently but it was high as the sweat was running down my forehead.
I am starting another training programme for some other races but it's proving difficult in the heat. Steady runs are fine but trying to do any ind of speedwork is real hard. I tried running before work on Tuesday but midday is not a good time to run, no shit, and I was dead on my feet.
So with the lack of training and the humidity I was a whole two minutes slower than back in May and even a minute slower than June's 5K. I know I did a tonne of training in the Spring, so much so that my pace was faster for 13M in May than it was for 3M today!

Just seen tonight's news and the weather forecast is for temperatures in the 90's all next week, "and it'll feel like over 100".... great :-(