The last 8 weeks!

Took a mini mid-season break with 8 days off with only 1 light trail run and a massage filling my time.

Then I dived straight back into it with the next round of PPTC speed sessions on the Tuesday and one of the midweek 5K series races. That didn't go great, mainly as it was around 26 degrees and a bit humid. 19.10 was my time, and a lot of lost fluids.

We 'celebrated' 4th July. Not really, just went up on the roof where we could watch the fireworks display they have on the East River.

The iPhone camera doesn't really do it justice!

We have decided to do the Philadelphia Marathon which is third week of November, a couple of weeks after the New York Marathon which so many people here seem to be training for.
So I drew up my plan, hovering between what I did before and the next mileage level up, we'll see!

The heat is one of the main disadvantages to any distance running at this time of year. If you can get out before 7am, it's generally nice running to work but unless you wait until after the sun goes down, and a lot of people do, you just suck it up like I do and head out from work around 4.45pm. It's normally just the first hour that the sun is really bad then it's just down to how humid it is!

Sleeping in the bath, it's that hot.

At least I don't have a fur coat.

I'm coming up for six weeks in and just hit 17M last Sunday. So far so good, I'm doing a few of my long runs with English Ben from the club. I'm not used to that distance (other than races) without music but the chat is enough of a distraction and also plotting the routes to show him a few new areas of Brooklyn.

I wouldn't run many races during the training as they tend to just get in the way of a regular plan but then I was persuaded to enter the NYRR Team Championships 5M.
It is only open to club runners and the men and women run separate races with each club generally cheering on their runners from their own little cheering sections out on the course.

 
A lot of the bigger clubs have their own little baggage and food area in Central Park and the support zone was a novelty as the cheers were so loud as you ran through it.

Unfortunately it was super sunny and hot, so much so that it was the first race I've done where when I picked up my number the day before, it came with an info sheet.

Plus I started a little far back so I took it easy-ish for 4 miles then went hard for the last mile, finishing with a 5.59 last mile for 31.44 and helping the Masters team to 9th place overall.

Diz-gus-ting - Queen's 10K!

Sunday's Queen's 10K was my remaining goal race for the year so far.

After the marathon and half marathon I went down to 10K hoping to use that leftover higher mileage training to get close to last years 38.11 at the same venue.
Oh well, best laid plans......

The night before there was a thunderstorm. They sent out notice they had delayed the start by an hour to 9am hoping the rain would have stopped and the course would be dry.
I was glad of the extra hour in bed and it seemed to have worked as there was only light drizzle when I left for the train around 7am.

The downside was the humidity was around 94% (21 degrees) and after a couple of miles I could already feel this wasn't going to work out well.

I started a little fast, 5.54 but the 6.06 2nd miles had me right on pace. Then my vest started to weigh me down as it was already soaked in sweat, ha ha.
Nah, more just the humidity started to work its magic and my breathing (and legs) felt heavy. I had to pour water onto my cap at each stop for all the good that did.
I started to slow, 6.16, 6.24 and I knew I wouldn't make that back up.

Mile 6: I'm flying, but inside I'm dead

6.19 and 6.20 was the best I could do to finish in 38.55.

The relief!!!!!

After speaking with a couple of people from the club, on reflection this was a decent time and without the humidity would've been right on last years time.

I came in 61st and 8th in my age group out of the 8650 finishers.

Everybody getting their globe photo

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.

Brooklyn Half Marathon

A kind of main race for the year but not really... but kind of.
I entered this race before I had fully committed to doing the marathon at Bear Mountain but then thought with all that training I could get away with doing very little in the two weeks following the marathon and have a crack at reducing my PB from 2013.

It hadn't gone wuite to plan in the build up. I had gotten the cold again two days before Bear Mountain and although it was just in my nose and didn't affect me that much during the race I was laid out for the two days following, even having to take a day off work on the Monday.

The race, the cold and bike to work month meant I biked the 14mile round trip 9 times in the two weeks but only managed three runs of 4-5 miles during which I felt pretty shit and heavy legged.

Race day night I decided to go for it from the start and see if marathon training could keep my form and legs going towards the end. I also decided it was easier for me to gently cycle the 1.5M to Grand Army, lock my bike and jog the other 3/4 mile to the wave 1 check in area for the 7am start!

With the size of event it was, 26,500 finishers, pretty much the largest half marathon in the states, you had to check in your bag, go through security then enter your coral where the toilets were (no outside toilets), then wait. I think partly for security and partly to get people into the corals early instead of them hanging about.

I got near the front of my coral and in the end I was standing beside the 1.20 pacer which was a bit too much as the gun went and they disappeared into the distance. Indeed, the 1.25 pacer went past and slowly pulled away which was a little disheartening as I was running strong for the first three miles with some good splits of 6.18, 6.17 and 6.05 heading into Prospect Park. A 5K split of 19.26 was a nice surprise as all I could remember from looking at 2013's even splits were they were around 21 minutes.

The start is nice and scenic, slightly downhill, slightly uphill, round Grand Army Plaza and back downhill and into Prospect Park.

Grand Army circle

The Brooklyn Library at Grand Army

Some good signs on the course again, didn't really see many as I was really concentrating on this one, ha ha.

Up the dreaded hill in the park, but with the downhill exit out of the park onto a dual carriageway road, Ocean Parkway, ALL the way down (6miles) to Coney Island.

Park entrance/exit

I passed through the 10K split just before exiting the park in 40.17.

Once on Ocean Parkway I was determined to not look at the Avenue roadsigns that basically count down from Avenue A all the way to Ave Z and try and just get into a focused straight line run aiming for 6.30 pace. At this point there is much more room to run so I moved out a little and just did my own thing.

Rocking the PPTC kit

6.25, 6.30, 6.22, 6.28, 6.32, catching the 1.25 pacer, now in sight but feeling really tired. The last mile was pretty tough. I just wanted it to be over at this point.
I didn't feel I was going any faster but managed a 6.17 split up onto the boardwalk and as the 1.25 mini group crossed the line I gave it everything and finished not too far behind them and cracked 1.25, taking nearly two minutes of my last time in 1.24.46.

The last few hundred metres on the boardwalk

Really struggling

Am I gonna puke??

380th place but 29th in my age group which was fairly decent I thought.

It had been a little humid during the race but a nice temperature. There had been a chance of rain and indeed just as I walked to get my bag it started to rain. By the time I got my bag I was fast walking to get some shelter as the heavens opened. The other runners and especially wave 2 which didn't start until 7.40am got drenched. Although the way the weather is here, by the time I got the train back to my bike it was around 24 degrees and bright sunshine.

The family meet up and post-race 'party' was inside the MCU Park (minor league baseball) stadium.
It looked like this when I entered to take a sneak inside.

And when I seen the pics from later it looked like this!

Took the train back to my bike, bought a danish pastry at the farmers market and enjoyed a leisurely cycle home. My legs are sorer then after Bear Mountain though, must be the roads!

The novelty of an empty train

The winner

Leatherman's Loop 10K

I entered the Leatherman's Loop 10K race back in January through their lottery system. Luckily I got in at my first attempt but the way things worked out it turned out to be one week, actually just six days, before I do my main goal race, The North Face Endurance Challenge Bear Mountain Marathon.

I should be okay as it was soft enough in places (see below!) that I don't have the same soreness normally associated with 10K trail events and another good reminder of how good it is to get back into the countryside and get some proper off-road running done.

I shared a car ride up with one of the guys from the Prospect Park Track Club and we left at 6am to avoid the long wait to get access to the car park we had heard about if you didn't arrive before 8am.
We got there at 7.40am which felt really early but by 8am the place was heaving.

The warning pic form their website!

This was my first event competing in my new PPTC club kit which lead to me getting my first shout from a spectator of 'Cmon PPTC'.

It was the 29th running of the event and apparently it is one of the largest fields for a trail race in the US that isn't a Spartan or Tough Mudder event, there were over 1200 finishers this year.

The start was like a cross country, wide open over a rough dry meadow with the herd of runners trampling their way to a left hand bend and sprinting to get to the front as the path narrowed to single and double file for most of the next mile. 

Where's Chris?

Ready, Set, GO!

I had heard the first three miles were the hardest but without knowing the course it was difficult to know how hard to push it from the start. We started near the front but I was definitely delayed due to the number of people around me. A little here but more once we turned into the woods and the path and roughness underfoot meant it was difficult to run close or pass people.

Once the field separated and things settled down I began to enjoy the varying terrain, being able to see where you are going helps!

There were rough forestry trails with gnarly (a favourite word with a lot of REI employees) tree roots and rocks, then the mud flats!

Small video of the mud.

Then after a bit of narrow trail action it opened up to a dirt hill that was short but so steep everyone was using their hands to claw their way up.
Just before that I had a smile on my face as there was both a bagpiper and a mariachi band!

There were two mini water crossings during the first 4 miles and after a bit of a downhill stretch towards the finish there came the infamous water crossing where all the spectators lined the exit up the bank cheering as you jumped up and sprinted the final few hundred meters to the finish.
One of the best finishes to a race I've ever done.

There were tonnes of photographers there and they post the photos on their website for free!

1.

2.

3.

Despite the above 'technique' surprisingly picture 4 was me exiting the water and not falling face first in as you might have expected.
I felt good towards the end and finished with 7.03 and 6.47 mile splits.

Not everyone was so lucky:

On purpose??

I came in 17th and had heard beforehand that under 45mins was considered a good time. I did 45.41 and as is my thing nowadays I thought I might be close to the age group awards but similar to Scotland the 40-49 age group is very competitive in the rougher, hillier trail events so I could only manage 7th!

Definitely one I'd travel up to do again.

Hopefully not as wet next week!