I will be taking about a 20 day hiatus from posting to NYCin310. Getting married this weekend to my very excellent and amazing fiance Lauren, then off to the South of France for a couple weeks.

In the meantime, I will be running a little (can’t resist exploring the French Riviera on foot), but peroneal tendonitis has been flaring up in my right ankle, so I’m hoping it heals up in the downtime. Next on the agenda? Training for the Gasparilla Marathon, February 28th 2010!

http://www.tampabayrun.com

J

http://tr.im/NYCHalfResults

Saturday morning’s long run really gave me the confidence I need going into this upcoming Sunday’s NYC Half Marathon. I took on a 12 miler at a 7:12 pace, and felt like I could have definitely pushed even harder the last few miles. So my sub-1hr 35min goal feels very much in reach, even though I’m still a little disappointed that my busy schedule didn’t lend itself towards training for a PR.

Either way, if the weather conditions on 8/16 at 7am are anything like they were in Allentown, PA this weekend then we’re all in good hands. Here’s what’s forecasted for now…

http://www.weather.com/weather/weekend/10005?from=36hr_topnav_undeclared

I started thinking about race-morning strategy today. The race begins at 7am. Runners must be in their corrals by 6:30. That means getting to central park a little after 6am. Which means waking up a little after 5am. Which means this week I need to plan for early bed times and early wake-ups to get my body in sync.

As far as training is concerned, I know that I shouldn’t have pushed it so hard this weekend, but I still feel like I can squeeze in one more quality treadmill workout before race day. A hard workout at this point has the potential of doing more harm than good, but treadmill running is playing it safe in my book and if put in some good work, I know the confidence boost will be worth it alone.

My caffeine strategy this weekend was awesome. Basically, 20 minutes pre-run, I downed one of those caffeine/b-vitamin shots you buy at the check-out counter. Then, immediately before taking off for the run, I popped a vivarin. I imagine it took about a half hour for the vivarin to dissolve and kick in, so I got the boost right around the end of my 5^th mile, and it stuck with me for the duration of the run. And I didn’t feel to cracked out at the end!

That’s my thoughts on raceday for now, more to follow…

J

I had every intention of doing a long run on Saturday August 2nd, or at least some run/bike hybrid that would help build up endurance for the big day, Aug 16th’s NYC Half Marathon. I was headed down to FL for the weekend and had hopes of waking up early to beat the heat and do my run on the Pinellas Trail (http://www.pinellascounty.org/trailgd/).

JFK/Delta/the weather had different plans for me.

My 7:30pm friday night flight turned into 8:30, then 9:30, 10:50, 11:30, 12:19 and finally was cancelled and moved to 10:00am the next day… which quickly became 10:30am, 11:30am and finally take off at 12:45pm. Needless to say I was physically drained on Saturday afternoon as I headed off to reunite with highschool friends for a few drinks (and then a few more).

Long story short I woke up Sunday morning with no interest or capability of performing a long run. But extreme hangover biking isn’t actually that bad and I banged out 26 miles. By Sunday afternoon I heard reports of rain delays at all the NYC airports so I scheduled a preemptive strike and switched my flight to Monday afternoon. Lauren pointed out that it might have been more than just weather that motivated me to change travel plans… The fact that I could now fit my 10 miler in on Monday morning may have also influenced my decision. But I plead the 5th.

I woke up as early as humanly possible on Monday morning (5:45am) to try to beat the heat. And although it was substantially cooler than it would be a few hours later, there’s no avoiding the mid-summer Florida humidity. When you step outside, beads of sweat immediately collect on your forehead.

There’s no such thing as a “good time to run” in Florida, in August. One thing I do to try and beat the heat is to run shirtless. Everyday when I walk to work suited up, I look at the women around me, envious that societal norms don’t require them to be draped neck to toe in polyester. Running without a shirt on is one of the few perks of the summertime male dress code.

2 miles in, I noticed that the temperature climbed a few degrees an even though I felt comfortable with my 7:30 pace, I was still sweating like a ___ (you name it). One of the other tricks of the trade is to conservatively dump a little water from the bottle over your head. Even though I’m fully aware that this has a negligible effect on keeping core temperature down, psychologically its worth it… As long as you’re well stocked with fluids. In my case, my parents happened to be biking the pinellas trail whilst I ran, so I had the luxury of borrowing from them when I ran dry.

Longer story short, I ended up having an excellent run in Seminole FL. 10 humid sweaty miles down the Pinellas Trail, a run that most certainly prepared me for racing in what will likely be an uncomfortable August NYC Half Marathon… which at this point is less than 7 days away!e

Jason

I came down with a cold last Wednesday morning.  Not an awful one, but bad enough to take some of the wind out of my sails.  It was mostly a result of sleeping with the air conditioner on full blast, but I can also attribute it back to other things like irregular sleep, busyness at [...]