NYC Summer Streets Week 2 and CONS excitement—I’ll explain

11. August 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: running · Tags: , , , , ,

Hi everyone,

After a more serious post the other day I wanted to share a happy day yesterday. I met my running peeps (Jorge, Cinde, Elvia, Mike, Lisa and Shishaldin) for a long run in NYC to take advantage of the NYC Summer Streets event again. I ended up running about 14.5 while most everyone else went on to do 21.5. We got to experience this interactive light and sound exhibition in the Park Avenue tunnel which is right below Grand Central. This was the first time this tunnel has ever been open to pedestrians!

photo 5

i’m usually freaked out in tunnels. but this was fun.

 

photo courtesy of Jorge Lee

Running peeps! -photo courtesy of Jorge Lee

The we ran along Pershing Square and through Grand Central, heading up Park Avenue…

photo 3-1

It’s nice to be where pedestrians are usually not allowed.

Banana Boat had an activity area and we were so excited when we saw they were giving out FREE chocolate covered frozen bananas…

0810130809a

get your mind outta the gutter! they are bananas! =)

That really gave me some much needed energy because I was feeling super slow and wasn’t even sure if I’d make it through our 6 mile Central Park loop. Even with Cat Hill (I walked some of it), I made it through the loop and ran straight to the subway to get back to my car and get home.

this is why they call it Cat Hill...

this is why they call it Cat Hill…

Ok now for the CONS explanation. CONS (Center of the Nation Series), is coming up in about a month. I think I’ve mentioned it before. It’s 5 marathons in 5 days in 5 states (ND, SD, WY, MT, NB). They offer half marathons each day too which is what I’ll be doing =) My friends are MUCH crazier. Roger, Elvia, Lisa, Mike and I will be the 5 wild ones headed out in September for this event. Roger lives in Massachusetts which makes him always feel sad that he can’t train with us on the weekends. So today Lisa brought a paper doll version and we took him with us.

Roger took the subway from Boston?

Roger took the subway from Boston?

paper roger and the girls

paper roger and the girls

And then I came home and used my creativity to make this awesome graphic that we’re gonna use for t-shirts.

for a good time call 555-CONS

for a good time call 555-CONS

We fly into South Dakota two days before the races start so we’re headed to Mt. Rushmore to check off a bucket list item of mine=)

I realize that I don’t usually run consecutive days, let alone 5 days straight. I think I’d better get in a few more weekly runs even if they are only 5 miles a piece….just to get my legs used to running 5 days straight. The rest of the group is actually out right now running another 20 miler!

Question: Have you ever done consecutive or back-to-back races? How do you train for it?

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Tried to “run free”. Didn’t succeed.

28. July 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: running · Tags: , , ,

Howdy readers!

So this morning in my news feed I came across this photo…

runfree

along with this quote from this facebook page…quote

Well, I thought about making today’s long run a “run free” run. First I said no watch, then I decided how about tape over the face of the watch. I’m not ready to not track my run with my Garmin but I did think about how nice it would be to not get caught up in keeping a certain pace and just run based on effort. Of course after I left the house I realized I forgot the tape. So I TRIED to not look at my watch. And for the first mile I didn’t. I knew I was probably running a slow 11:35 pace. When I looked at my watch it said 11:37! How crazy is that?! Anyway, I kept cheating and realized that I might be a failure when it comes to the whole “run free” thing. Meanwhile EVERY time I looked at my watch it was the pace I FELT I was running. So really, I DO know my pace by effort and don’t really need the watch.

splits

9 miles at just under a 12 minute mile pace. Woah! That’s SNAIL pace for me (I’m usually between 10-11 min per mile pace). I started my run at 2:30pm with hot sun beating down. It was 82 degrees. But the humidity was at 50% and my unhealthy fixation with the hourly weather showed that the humidity was going up a whole lot while the temps were only dropping a degree or two in the next few hours, so I figured i’d go with the lowest percent humidity for the day to start my run. In hindsight, I should have waited until 7pm to start. Oh well. But the 9 miles are done. And I think I want to try a “no-peek-at-my-garmin” run again.

After I came home and showered I decided this doodle deserved a little fun time….so we went to the beach.

beachbum

Question: Have you ever gone for a run without a gadget to tell you your current pace? Do you run with music or without?

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