hills, hills, hills (to the tune of "bills, bills, bills")

last night we did hills, or rather, one hill repeatedly, in central park. cat hill. if you ask me we should be running that huge ass hill at the top of the park, but whatevs, i guess its better to start smaller so that you can actually run it more than once. we ran it 5 times. i really dont mind hills because when you run up it, you get to run down it. i'm really good at recovering. i do not push myself on the recovery. maybe i should be pushing myself harder because ramon was like, 'dont be afraid to sweat ladies! that's what waterproof makeup is for' hahaha. .. like i could sweat in 25º weather even if i wanted to.

my biggest concern at this point is honestly the temperature difference that is going to exist in nashville. i mean, its not florida, but still .. running in florida in DECEMBER i was like holy eff i can do about 6 miles it is sooo hot and makes me want to vomit (which, in fact, i have done on more than one occasion).

i hope it stays in the 30s for the next several times we run. saturday is a long run and then sunday bridge and i are doing the 4-miler. im bummed bc im gonna be in florida when its the bronx half-marathon on feb 8, but i think i will just run my own half in florida, it will give me a better idea of the temps anyways.

xox

longest mileage yet!!! (9 miles)

running on saturday mornings is the worst. maybe it wouldnt be so bad except i have to factor in another mile at least for all the walking i have to do to and from the subway in addition to the regular mileage i'm doing.

so okay i have been really been sucking it up with the running, but i'm just so exhausted after work every day and since i dont have any other schedule (as in, grad school) its too easy to come home and sleep and tell myself i'm going to go when i wake up ... yeeee bout that, it uh, never happens. so the longest distance i've run thus far is a little over 6 miles, and that was maaaybe 2 weeks ago, maybe 3 weeks, i'm not sure.

this morning the weather was fabbbb 38º. bridget wasnt feeling well so she didn't make it out, which made it suuuupah hard to motivate myself to do it, but i knew i would feel too guilty if i didn't go. so i got there and saw some people i know and they asked me if i wanted to run 12 miles with them. i was like uhhhhh. lol. from 6 --> 12, that'd be quiiite the jump. ramon told us to run 1 mile longer than our longest run, but my mileage is off because i'm basically running a half-marathon runners mileage. soo they split everyone into pace groups and i ran with the pacer of the 10-min mile group. we did this loop from 72nd to the top of the park (110th street). where i encountered the biggest hill of central park: harlem hill. umm. i hate hills that go up AND curve around because you never know where its gonna end. luckily since i was runner with the guy who was pacing it, he told me to slow down and it was a wise choice.


when we got back to the 72nd transverse we basically lost the rest of the group we were running with. they decided to run the lower loop (another 1.7 miles) instead of running a big loop. so then it was just me and this guy. hahaha. i knew i couldnt keep that pace up though bc we were going on 5 miles and i had been talking and going pretty fast for the whole time. but he had to stop to switch his socks and i am confused about where i was supposed to meet him, but i ended up running another 4 mile loop by myself. when i got to the 102nd street transverse i really started to feel it. that was probably about 7 miles. i could just feel that i had no energy left. and yet, i kept imagining telling people that i ran 9 miles and i really didn't want to have to say, ohh yea i walked a little bit. not to mention that it wasn't even that i was out of breath ... it was just that my body felt like it was shutting down. hahaha. i just had literally no energy. i can definitely see why sport gels (GROSSSERRROOO!!!!!!!) become important because there's no way i can run a marathon without eating something somewhere in the middle. also, you obviously carbo-load the days before.

anyways, it was reallllllly rough running the last mile. from about w 95th to w 72nd it was like i was moving in slooow motion. BUT. ...

i did it!!



















it felt reallllly good to finish it and i actually can't believe i did!! so, i can officially run 1/3 of a marathon!!!

i need to run like 3 miles for the next couple days. 3 miles seems so easy again!! yaaay!

also, it was fun because the first 5 miles that i ran with that guy, we talked the whole time. i forgot how fun it is to run and talk, and how fast the mileage goes when you're talking. :)

stupid ice covered snow

i really hate it when i motivate myself to go running on a monday and then a quarter mile of my run is covered in snow thats covered in ice and i have to walk soo slow that i may as well be going backwards in time and then i still almost slip about 5 times. yeah, that's awesome.

hills tomorrow.

fred lebow 5-miler

Bridget and me after the Fred Lebow 5-miler in central park.

OMG sooo cold afterwards. it was 24º and the snow held off, but good god it was cold -- but the cold only hits you after you stop running.

i think its getting easier to run these races now that i kind of have an idea about the layout of central park. its always easier to run when you know where you are.

id say we finished in about 50 minutes. i dont know for sure because i dont know how far in to the start i actually crossed the start line ... but after the first mile it said i was at 14:46 and i know there's no way it took me more than 10 minutes to run the first mile, the 2nd mile was at like 24:00, 3rd at 34:00, 4th at 45:00, and 5th at 56:00. So i'd say 50 or 51:00.

Again I started way in the back and without bridget but after the first mile i saw her up ahead .. she tricked me though because she was without her hat this time. hahaha. but so we ran the rest together.

the only part that sucks is this one hill -- cat hill -- its always at the end, its from like e 75ish up a couple blocks. in terms of hills i've run, its really not that bad -- compared, specifically to the hill at the end of the turkey trot, it's nothing -- but i just hate hills that are sort of gradually rising. i prefer steep inclines over shorter distances --- like the bridges on the causeway.

anyways, we start hill training tuesday so i'm sure i will learn to love 'em. :)

ps. in other news:
to the man forcing his 6 yr old son to run a 5-mile race in 20º weather in SHORTS .... even AS he is crying, "IT HURTS SO BAD" and you say, "It doesnt hurt" ... stop being a d-bag!!

pink is the new purple!

so another exciting running milestone (?): today when bridget and i went to pick up our race numbers for the the 5-miler tomorrow, we had NEW colors! whooo!! instead of the purple, slowest-time-imaginable-number, we got the pink, moving-on-up-number. it says our paces are in the 10-minute mile marks which is happy. the thing i like about running is that there is always something you can improve on - whether its distance, or time, or whatever, it never lets you down!

so, im not going out tonight because i want to avoid another repeat of the morning of the 15K which i never really quite got to.

also, its supposed to snow tomorrow so that should be interesting!

groin pull!

i'm sorry, is that too much information?

but really, why does this always happen to me?

considering that happened after a 5 mile run it is just reiterating that i HAVE to start stretching, doing cross training, and strengthing my "abductor" muscles.

why cant training for a marathon be easy?

;)

test #1

ok so tonight we had our first test for the timed mile on the lower loop in central park.

i haven't run in a week.

the last time i ran it was 80º in la florida.

in new york it was 34º (feels like 25º) annnd on the last loop it started to rain. so ran at 34º folks is quiiiite chilly! originally i was only going to do 2 loops which is 3.4 miles but then a couple of people id met before like literally made me do another loop. i was like, 'nahh im good' and theyre like, 'nahh you're not' so i did the 3rd lap for 5.1 miles. i mean, lets be honest, its not that i couldnt do it -- bc i obviously did -- i was just lazy. hahaha

so what was my mile time? 8:38, 8:30something, 9:20. pretty decent. especially the 8:38 one. i never run that well the first mile. also, i was pumped bc my total time for the 3.4 loop was 28:00 and the last 5k i ran (3.1 miles) i did in 30:28. so yeee im definitely improving my times. now i just need to start improving my distance.

we're run a 5-miler on saturday and then probably the bronx half-marathon in feb (8). the fun thing about running is that everyone wants to know about it. i mean, when i was just running just to be in shape nobody gave a hoot but now that im training for a marathon people are always asking me about it, so its super nice. also im sort of a sicko in that i like doing the type of training we were doing tonight in intervals like that because it just feels sooo good to run slow after youve been running hard yanno. same thing with hills. we start hill training next week and while im sort of dreading it, im also (secretly) excited because #1 i know that hill training is really going to help me and #2 i love the part after you run up a hill where you get to run on a flat surface and it feels so easy. hahaha. i always do that on the treadmill too -- i run on an incline until its too much and then i take off the incline and its like smoooth sailing.

so, the only thing that SUCKED ROYALLY about tonight was during the last mile it started to rain. and yeah, it wasn't blinding rain or anything but when youre running any amount of rain feels like a lot, and did i mention it was freeezing!?? so then i get to the subway i am completely soaked, im sitting in wet running clothes on a train that is being held REPEATEDLY and i get home like i am going to take the most scalding shower of my life and OF COURSE the hot water cuts out halfway. WHAT THE FUUUUU.

peace