Training Year Ending 2004

"SwStudio" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

8. What were your goals for 2003? Did you achieve them?
9. What are your goals for 2004?

Obviously both of those years should be shifted forward one.
Sorry about that. Blame the evils of cut-and-paste. ;-|

cheers,
--
David (in Hamilton, ON)
www.allfalldown.org
www.absolutelyaccurate.com

SwStudio said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

2250km / 1400 miles - pretty much same as last year

Quoted message said:

2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

High 209km / 130 miles, Low 0k (9 times!)

Quoted message said:

3. What was your longest run?

103km / 64 miles - Toulouse -> Carcassone (abandon during 240k race)

Quoted message said:

4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

13 races, from 240km / 149 miles, down to 7.5km / 4.7miles

Quoted message said:

5. What were your best and worst race performances?

Best, 73rd place / 600 in the Sand Marathon.
Worst, 42'+ in a 10k which I'd done in 36'30 the previous time.

Quoted message said:

6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?

Running through the crowds in the casbah of Mahmid El Rozlane. Seemed
the whole town was out to see the Ahansal brothers coming through during
the long 76k stage of the Sand Marathon and I was just 1 minute ahead of
them at that point (49k) - BTW they started 3 hours after me :-)

Quoted message said:

7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?

Sand storm during Sand Marathon with 30°C at 9am.

Quoted message said:

8. What were your goals for 2003? Did you achieve them?

- Finish Sand marathon = Done
- Finish Integrale de Riquet (240km in one stage within 34h) = Abandoned
- Sub 3h marathon = not attempted - Sand Marathon & Integrale were too
much already

Quoted message said:

9. What are your goals for 2004?

Lose at least 4 kilos and get my back fixed.
Get down to 3h marathon form again.
Maybe finish that 240k race.

SwStudio said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

1884 miles so far.

Quoted message said:

2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

Highest 58, lowest 5 (following campylobacter food poisoning)

Quoted message said:

3. What was your longest run?

43 miles (Devil O' the Highlands)

Quoted message said:

4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

17 + 9 club 5k time trials

Quoted message said:

5. What were your best and worst race performances?

Best (in terms of running closest to my potential) was probably my March 1/2
marathon in Inverness (1:31). Best (as in "most fun"😉 was the 43 miler.

Quoted message said:

6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?

As above

Quoted message said:

7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?

Probably during a 25 mile trial training run last January when we ran
through driving sleet for most of the distance.

Quoted message said:

8. What were your goals for 2004?

Run faster, run farther.

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Did you achieve them?

Did better on the farther than the faster.

Quoted message said:

9. What are your goals for 2004?

As above.

Quoted message said:

10. Do you have a favorite running-related quote to share?

Nope.

Tim

SwStudio wrote in message ...

Quoted message said:

Greetings, rec.runners!
Have a great & injury-free new year everyone!!!

Thanks David. And thanks to the group for good debate and information.

Quoted message said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

Don't count miles/km, about 370 hours of biking, running and hiking this
year.

Quoted message said:

2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

About 35m and 0m. Better stated for me, The highest was 13 hours of
cross-training, and the lowest was about 3 hours of walking only.

Quoted message said:

3. What was your longest run?

50k

Quoted message said:

4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

Three: 50k, 10m and marathon

Quoted message said:

5. What were your best and worst race performances?

Best was 50k trail in 5:39, which was good for me. Worst was marathon in
3:59:45 - made my basic goal but was just a very bad race in many respects
and it destroyed my morale for weeks.

Quoted message said:

6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?

Yea, no question it was a 27 mile training run on hiking trails in the
western catskills.

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7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?

Cycling last winter in 5f temp with 30 knot winds.

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8. What were your goals for 2004? Did you achieve them?

A respectible 50k performance. Yes I achieved my goal.

Quoted message said:

9. What are your goals for 2005?

TBD.

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10. Do you have a favorite running-related quote to share?

no.

-Tony

Quoted message said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

About 3450 miles.

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2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

86 & 46 miles.

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3. What was your longest run?

Two 50 mile races. Longest training run was a 28 miler.

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4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

6 ultras, including two 50 milers. And three 10k's.

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5. What were your best and worst race performances?

Best: Bulldog 50k, where I would have finished in the top 10 if I hadn't
run an extra 5 miles due to a sabotaged course marker. After I got turned
around, I blew by most of the slower folk who got ahead of me all the way to
the end (passing about 100 people).

Worst: Avalon 50 miler where I ran in debilitating pain for 20 miles.
Still got 8th overall, but should have run much faster.

Quoted message said:

6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?

Each ultra I did was a real adventure, and a peak experience.

Quoted message said:

7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?

Just some rain turned hail turned snow as I climbed Mt. Wilson above L.A. I
think I only ran in rain two or three times this year. It's pretty tough
out here... :-)
Also ran through a dust devil, that was a treat.

Quoted message said:

8. What were your goals for 2004? Did you achieve them?

Try to run to my potential. Race more, and don't sweat trying to do the
perfect 15 week buildup. Note that these two goals are mutually
exclusive... I achieved the second.

Quoted message said:

9. What are your goals for 2004?

Get down to peak race weight of 140#. This is very tough now that I'm on
the far side of 50. Run shorter intervals on the track to try and resurrect
some remnants of my former speed.

Quoted message said:

10. Do you have a favorite running-related quote to share?

"Trample the weak, hurtle the dead" (not that I'd do any such thing...)
"My sport is your sport's punishment"
"Pride lasts longer than pain"

Now to give an end of running year response from a mere mortal instead
of ya'll rockstars...

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

Quoted message said:

From my best calculations I ran between 360-380 miles since starting to

run sometime in March. So basically in 8 months I ran what Donovan and
class run in a month...

2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

20.75 and 0 (bunch of zero weeks for most of the fall semester)

3. What was your longest run?

6 miles

4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

1 5K

5. What were your best and worst race performances?

NA

6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?

The first time I ever ran 5 miles was fairly awesome. It was
definitely the longest I had ever run up to that point in my life.

I meant to do my run on a Sunday but I didn't get it in. So I decided
that I would run on Monday morning before work. I left myself plenty
of time to complete the run on a trail set away from the roads, but I
didn't take a watch.

All of a sudden, the sun is up, it's bright out and there are all these
cars driving past me. I thought I had missed a turn on my
pre-determined route and was now stuck running until I could find a
cross street I knew.

I was so relieved when I finally saw the road that I was supposed to
take home. I was not so relieved when I realized that my last two
miles were straight into the blinding, glaring sun. I actually made it
home quicker than I expected - a bonus.

7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?

Recent 8ºF morning with blowing snow was pretty amazing...

8. What were your goals for 2003? Did you achieve them?

One goal was to build up to running 20 miles per week, which I did.
Another part of that goal was to maintain that mileage after school
started back up. I did not make that goal either semester.
My other goal was to remain injury free, which I have done. So here's
my thanks to the folks that advised the 10% increase when building up
mileage...I think that's a huge part of my ability to remain injury
free...

9. What are your goals for 2004?

Life is rather uncertain right now. I'm trying to gauge how much time
student teaching is going to take this coming spring. If it's less
than the full-time job/full-time student combo, I'd really like to run
the Fort Collins half marathon in May.

I'm just going to have to wait and see how my life shakes out over the
next couple of weeks.

10. Do you have a favorite running-related quote to share?

Nope...just thanks to everyone for the good advice and amazing
inspiration...

"SwStudio" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

Not as many as I should have, but more than I thought I would.

Quoted message said:

2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

Dunno. Weeks don't matter. Moments do.

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3. What was your longest run?

I'm still in it; it's my life.

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4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

A couple, and *they* chose *me*.

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5. What were your best and worst race performances?

Worst? Anything I didn't win. Best? Hopefully, those races still to
come.

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6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?

No.

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7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?

Rain. I ran in the rain. The ONLY reason I ran in the rain was who I was
with at the time. And, yunno, I didn't care too hoots 'bout the rain that
day :-)

Quoted message said:

8. What were your goals for 2004? Did you achieve them?

I prefer to leave the door open to possibility. Setting goals is too
constraining.

Quoted message said:

9. What are your goals for 2005?

Not telling you. Besides, it's not so much a goal as a dream. Though, as
Will noted, "dreams are the children of an idle brain".

Quoted message said:

10. Do you have a favorite running-related quote to share?

No. But my favourite piece of writing is from the 'Oxford Handbook of
Clinical Medicine'. It's talking about death and goes;

"Death is Natures masterstroke, albeit a cruel one, because it allows
genotypes space and opportunity to try on new phenotypes... genes are not
really our genes. It is us who belong to them for a few decades. It is
one of Natures great insults that she should prefer to put all her eggs in
the basket of a defenceless, incompetent neonate rather than in the tried
and tested custody of our own superb minds. But as our neurofibrils begin
to tangle and the neonate walks towards a wisdom that eludes us, we are
forced to give Nature credit for her daring idea. Of course, Nature in her
careless way can get it wrong: people often die in the wrong order..."

It's good to remind yourself every now and then where you fit in the order
of things.

Roger.

Quoted message said:

This marks the third time I have had the pleasure to post the
season-ending Training Year thread. As always, thanks to
everyone who takes part in both this and the weekly verson.

Thanks David for the continued maintenance. These threads as well as the
race reports
are what makes this group worthwhile for me ( and easier to follow...)

Quoted message said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

1300 km (808 miles). 2003 was over 2000 miles...

Quoted message said:

2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

High was this week! (82 km - 51 miles). Lots of 00000 weeks.
4.5 months off injured. Managed a fair bit of pool running (yuk) and
biking. Have kept up some biking since returning to normal running
schedule. Trying to run as much as possible on more runner-friendly
surfaces like grass and dirt trails.

Quoted message said:

3. What was your longest run?

January marathon.

Quoted message said:

4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

Jan marathon 2:57:17
Jul 5k 20:00
Oct 10k 40:28
Nov 10k 39:41
Dec 1/2M 1:26:34

Quoted message said:

5. What were your best and worst race performances?

Best was the marathon.

Quoted message said:

6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?

The marathon.

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7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?

Blessed with fairly uncrazy weather in this part of the world, but did
manage
1 bike ride in a quite severe storm in which my hands felt like they would
freeze over and
almost got blown off the bike.

Quoted message said:

8. What were your goals for 2004? Did you achieve them?

Sub-3 marathon.

Quoted message said:

9. What are your goals for 2005?

Sub-3 marathon (London/ April) and hopefully a PR.
PRs at other distances would also be nice!

Anthony. Jerusalem, Israel.

Quoted message said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

1200 km

Quoted message said:

2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

highest; 60 km and lowest; lots of 0 k

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3. What was your longest run?

24 km

Quoted message said:

4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

6 road races and 6 duathlons

Quoted message said:

5. What were your best and worst race performances?

best; 17:35 for a 5 km 37:53 for a 10 km
worst; 18:45 for 5 km (in the beginning of season 2004)

Quoted message said:

6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?

Doing a 20 km run, along a river, at sunset, no wind

Quoted message said:

7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?

- 25 C last January

Quoted message said:

8. What were your goals for 2004? Did you achieve them?

my goal is always to remain injury free, almost achieve it in
04...

Quoted message said:

9. What are your goals for 2005?

NO INJURY , and if everything goes well, a PR in the marathon,
lower my 3H04 at Chicago...

Quoted message said:

10. Do you have a favorite running-related quote to share?

cheers,
--
David (in Hamilton, ON)
www.allfalldown.org
www.absolutelyaccurate.com

"SwStudio" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Greetings, rec.runners!

Quoted message said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

No logs, no mileage - swag 2,300

Quoted message said:

2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

130-10

Quoted message said:

3. What was your longest run?

Laurel Highlands 70 mile trail race.

Quoted message said:

4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

5 - 2 50k's , 1 70 mile, 2 50 miles. An assortment of shorter races that
I don't count.

Quoted message said:

5. What were your best and worst race performances?

Best - Vermont 50, it all clicked. Each of the others had some degree of
too hot, too fast, too much mud.

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6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?

VT50

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7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?

It was 2003. 40 of 50 miles in a torrential downpour and ankle deep
mud. One of the survivoers to beat the cut off.

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8. What were your goals for 2004? Did you achieve them?

Stay healthy, smell the roses and run uninjured - yes!

Quoted message said:

9. What are your goals for 2005?

Turn 60 above the ground. Replace the 70 with a 100 and rock on in a
new age group.

Quoted message said:

10. Do you have a favorite running-related quote to share?

Endurance mantra - "Find a pace that feels comfortable and then run
slower"

-DougF

105 miles short of 7½ miles per day × 365 days.
most all done on a bike.
all outside real weather 4 winter,spring, summer fall winter.
2 bikes.
Break downs are many.
trash bikes replace parts allot of times.
in fact only real parts from starts are the frames. all near all been
change , like seats, wear out the most.
handle bar made into a seat bar. is the best. get a higher sit position.
because at about 1500 miles, your legs give out. evan if it would take 6
month. so a change of sit helps allot.

jock itch, ears rash, groin pulls and the old saddlers (-!-) soars. are
many.
ear rash or swimmers ear. and some ten to say whole year round.

helmets. well the list of spare parts for a year is really boring.

I know most think 7½ miles is not allot.
and some say. How can you do this?.
some and most in money. says. "YOUR NUTS".
no job,
no money.
no help in unemployment.
just live off streets.
and in a trailer in a place were all land.
when they are removing all trees and earth movers too.
old die,
rich want to be richer.
most government taken away.
A master plan. to turn whole land into money and homes.
They all call me nuts.
and I can not get a job, I have try till sick over 10 times fold.
they want my truck and this land.
in short: I fight till I die. because no were to go untill spring.and
live off streets.
105 miles or if I do monday to friday at 21.1 miles a day× 5.
I can have 7½ mile×365 or total of
2555 +182= 2736mils for year.
or now is 2632 miles for 2004
espn 25% off miller lite bottle cap stolen and replace with a sorry try
again one too.

this sig hasen't work in 113 weeks so don't bother,. I well be fine.
cheers:>😉 bikers are bad too.

numberus years painting. by the hour or job, you buy the paint and
supplies. Local of Ortonville Michigan. phone not in the book. e mail
only please. for work only or contact. ( a nature person. most likely be
outside.)
e-mail. [email hidden]

Doug Freese said:

Quoted message said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

No logs, no mileage - swag 2,300

That's quite a lot, especially for an old guy. And you think I overdo it ? (-;

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

130-10

(-;

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

5 - 2 50k's , 1 70 mile, 2 50 miles. An assortment of shorter races that
I don't count.

Snob (-;

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Doug Freese said:

Quoted message said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

No logs, no mileage - swag 2,300

That's quite a lot, especially for an old guy. And you think I overdo
it ? (-;

I didn't start untill I was 40. I do more races than some 8-10 years
ago but my mileage has held fairly steady. OTOH, much like the energizer
bunny, I keep on ticking. 20 years of running and 15 years of ultras
helps me discern how much is too much. I have history. 😉

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

5 - 2 50k's , 1 70 mile, 2 50 miles. An assortment of shorter races
that
I don't count.

Snob (-;

Nah, just less important in the big picture.

-DF

DF?

Quoted message said:

I didn't start untill I was 40.

Latent homosexuality?

Quoted message said:

OTOH, much like the energizer
bunny, I keep on ticking.

Then just explode.

i know i haven't posted here in forever...went back to lurker mode, but
couldn't resist participating in this thread. thanks for posting it. 🙂

Quoted message said:

1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?

Only really started keeping track since the week ending May 23rd. Between
then and now, approx. 950 miles.

Quoted message said:

2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?

46 and 0 (normally averaged between 25 and 35 a week.)

Quoted message said:

3. What was your longest run?

16 miles

Quoted message said:

4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?

19 in total (15 NYRR races, 3 out-of-town and the Corporate Challenge)
1-1 mile
1-2.5 miles
4-5K
1-3.5 miles
4-4 miles
5-5 miles
2-10K
1-half marathon

Quoted message said:

5. What were your best and worst race performances?

Well-what I've learned this year is that "best" and "worst" is all relative.

Best:
If we're going by time, I'd say my 6:33 mile and my 22:37 5K. However,
performance-wise, 3 races stand out:

NY Mini 10K (48:59)
First race associated with my running club, complete breakthrough race for
me, hitting a sub-8 pace after expecting a pace in the low-mid 8's.

Race to Deliver 4M (30:01)
Best race in Central Park since June, tight splits, got my revenge on the
West Side Hills

Joe Kleinerman 10K (47:38)
Couldn't have asked for a better race. Great pacing, negative splits, felt
much stronger at the end instead of crashing and burning (the last 1.2 miles
of the race were my fastest) Best race performance this year.

Worst:
Again-if we're going by time, I'd say my 35:56 4-miler and 25:47 5K.
However, there is one that has no contest for this prize...

Club Championships 5M (40:46)
Hopefully will forever be my PW for 5 miles. Hot, humid, muggy day, not
feeling 100%, knew by halfway that there was no way I was making a sub-8
pace and just switched my goal to hanging in there.

Quoted message said:

6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?

the Joe Kleinerman 10K-when else can a 10K PR feel like a fun run?

Quoted message said:

7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?

Training run in early September, when NYC was getting the tail end of
several of the hurricanes that hit Florida-this one the remnent of Frances
(I think.) A friend and I were trying to get in 4 miles one morning before
work. The very nice refreshing light rain that was at the beginning of the
run turned into a drenching downpour by the 2-mile point. We were soaked
already, so we decided to just hang in there and finish. (That was more
than I can say for the NYC subways that morning-the system was screwed up
due to the rain, I was stuck uptown for a few hours!)

Quoted message said:

8. What were your goals for 2004? Did you achieve them?

I achieved every last one.
Start racing, complete at least 9 NYRR races this year, run at least 1
half-marathon.

Quoted message said:

9. What are your goals for 2005?

In terms of racing in general:
Don't be so hard on myself-not every race has to be a PR.
Pick and choose my battles-I found I raced so much better in the fall that
way.
Get a few more half-marathons under my belt
Run first marathon (NYC)
Stay as injury free as possible while achieving those goals...

Time goals:
Sub-30 4 miler
Sub-37:30 5 miler
Sub-47 10K
Sub-1:50 half
(Sub-22 5K of lesser importance-I've found I don't like those as much as
10K's...)

Quoted message said:

10. Do you have a favorite running-related quote to share?

Two of them...
Courtesy of one of my teammates-a marathon-inspirational quote:
"Speed is sex, distance is love."

And from another teammate, who told me this one the day before I ran my 5K
PR:
"Pain is temporary, pride is forever."

All in all, very pleased with my first year racing. Racked up some great
times, and even some team and AG hardware. Looking forward to 2005.

Happy holidays, and may 2005 be a PR year for you all...
-lara
:-)

WestEndGirl said:

i know i haven't posted here in forever...went back to lurker mode, but
couldn't resist participating in this thread. thanks for posting it. 🙂

Good to see you back here. BTW, my fiancee just joined the flyers, so I
might show up at some flyer events some time.

BTW, do you do the flyers speed sessions ? What are they like ? And what do
they have in terms of range of ability ? Do they have many people at about
your pace, or maybe a little slower ?

Quoted message said:

Well-what I've learned this year is that "best" and "worst" is all relative.

(-;

Quoted message said:

Best:
If we're going by time, I'd say my 6:33 mile and my 22:37 5K. However,
performance-wise, 3 races stand out:

NY Mini 10K (48:59)
First race associated with my running club, complete breakthrough race for
me, hitting a sub-8 pace after expecting a pace in the low-mid 8's.

The NY mini is a nice course-- the change (removing the west hills) makes it
faster. I wish they had a coed race on the same course. Conditions were
perfect this year.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Club Championships 5M (40:46)
Hopefully will forever be my PW for 5 miles. Hot, humid, muggy day, not
feeling 100%, knew by halfway that there was no way I was making a sub-8
pace and just switched my goal to hanging in there.

Those were very tough conditions, and that's not a bad time considering what
it was like. I was about a minute or so off my PR that day. If it's hot, you
*will* run slower. The real lesson in that race is that summer is not the time
to be running PRs, or to be even thinking about running a fast time.
Likewise, there are other races like cross country where the courses are
difficult, so you will run a slower time. Just remember, as long as you're
not getting your butt kicked by people who'd normally be behind you, you're
doing OK.

Quoted message said:

I achieved every last one.
Start racing, complete at least 9 NYRR races this year, run at least 1
half-marathon.

So you're in. Congratulations!

Quoted message said:

Don't be so hard on myself-not every race has to be a PR.
Pick and choose my battles-I found I raced so much better in the fall that
way.

Yes! A way to apply both of the above principles -- use summer for training,
not for racing. Sure, do the team pointers. But don't worry if you can't run
a fast time. The longer you run for, the more the law of diminishing returns
kicks in, the more certain that the effect of seasonal variation will trump
the progress curve, resulting in slow summer race times. Likewise, summer
training is a thankless task, especially when you're doing marathon specific
things like tempo runs or long intervals -- heat slows down tempo runs a lot.

But trust your training, train hard, and when you do either Gretes Gallop or
the Staten Island Half (and you really should do one of these if you're doing
the NY marathon), you'll get to see all that summer training pay off.

Quoted message said:

(Sub-22 5K of lesser importance-I've found I don't like those as much as
10K's...)

The 5k courses in central park are all pretty lousy. If you want a good 5k
race, you'll need to go somewhere else. I did one in Hoboken and one in Long
Island. Both were reasonably fast courses, but it was hot, so I didn't beat
my central park time.

Good luck in 2005.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

Quoted message said:

From: "WestEndGirl" [email hidden]
Date: 12/26/2004 10:24 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Message-id: <[email hidden]>

i know i haven't posted here in forever...went back to lurker mode, but
couldn't resist participating in this thread. thanks for posting it. 🙂

Hi Doug!

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Good to see you back here. BTW, my fiancee just joined the flyers, so I
might show up at some flyer events some time.

Hey thanks, Donovan!! And good to hear your fiancee joined the
Flyers-she'll have a blast. I'm usually around a lot of the events (and am
actually in the running for e-board next year!)

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BTW, do you do the flyers speed sessions ? What are they like ? And what
do
they have in terms of range of ability ? Do they have many people at about
your pace, or maybe a little slower ?

I haven't formally participated in the Tuesday evening ones yet (the ones
that Toby Tanser coaches) but I am going to in '05. (I went to it last week
to try it out before committing for next year!) I was doing "informal"
speedwork sessions with another group of flyers (alternated between
intervals on the reservoir and hill repeats) But I've found it hard to get
out of slow mode at 6am. And I hate intervals-but love hill repeats. Go
figure 🙂
But getting back to the nighttime speedwork sessions-there are people at all
paces that do it (my pace, and faster and slower runners) And everyone
raves about it. I've seen a lot of entries in the Flyer PR zone this year
🙂

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The NY mini is a nice course-- the change (removing the west hills) makes
it
faster. I wish they had a coed race on the same course. Conditions were
perfect this year.

Plus the clockwise direction makes it easier, Cat Hill downhill,
etc...that's partially why my PR at the Kleinerman was such a
triumph-tougher course. But I do wish they had more races on the clockwise
loop.

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Those were very tough conditions, and that's not a bad time considering
what
it was like. I was about a minute or so off my PR that day. If it's hot,
you
*will* run slower. The real lesson in that race is that summer is not the
time
to be running PRs, or to be even thinking about running a fast time.
Likewise, there are other races like cross country where the courses are
difficult, so you will run a slower time. Just remember, as long as
you're
not getting your butt kicked by people who'd normally be behind you,
you're
doing OK.

Yeah, no one in my club PR'ed that day. And I even said earlier that day I
knew a PR was not in the cards. Wasn't feelin' it. Next year, might just
run it as a training run depending on scheduling and conditions-just there
to support the club for the points race. But yeah, I kinda fell in place
where I should have among our females. Little over 2 minutes off my upper 5
PR (I keep separate ones for lower and upper 5)

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So you're in. Congratulations!

Thank you!! I'm very excited already. I was living vicariously through my
teammates this year 🙂 and will have over a year's worth of mental prep,
just need to have strong training and ideal conditions.

BTW-I was volunteering at mile 18 and I think I did see you run by. I did
read your report and good job this year. I know the conditions were not
ideal. As far as my team went, while there were a good share of PR's and
strong performances, there were a good share of disappointments too. Just
goes to show that the marathon distance really is a crapshoot and not to
take anything for granted.

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Yes! A way to apply both of the above principles -- use summer for
training,
not for racing. Sure, do the team pointers. But don't worry if you can't
run
a fast time. The longer you run for, the more the law of diminishing
returns
kicks in, the more certain that the effect of seasonal variation will
trump
the progress curve, resulting in slow summer race times. Likewise, summer
training is a thankless task, especially when you're doing marathon
specific
things like tempo runs or long intervals -- heat slows down tempo runs a
lot.

Well, hindsight says I did much too much racing this summer. My thinking
was "I'm not marathon training this year, might as well have my fun" and as
a result felt burnt out by the end of August. Limited myself to 2 races a
month for September-December and while not every race was a PR, had a good
share of performances that I was happy with.

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But trust your training, train hard, and when you do either Gretes Gallop
or
the Staten Island Half (and you really should do one of these if you're
doing
the NY marathon), you'll get to see all that summer training pay off.

I actually wanted to do Grete's this year but had a conflict with that
day-shame, conditions were perfect that day. The one half I did this year
was Manhattan-not ideal for my first half, but due to scheduling the only
one I could do this year. Despite the conditions, was very happy with my
time (1:52:55) Next year I want to attempt all 5 of the borough halfs-even
if I have to do Bronx and Manhattan as long runs instead of races. (And
hopefully SI will have both a correctly measured course and correct mile
markers next year!)

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The 5k courses in central park are all pretty lousy. If you want a good 5k
race, you'll need to go somewhere else. I did one in Hoboken and one in
Long
Island. Both were reasonably fast courses, but it was hot, so I didn't
beat
my central park time.

I completely agree. I also did the Wall Street 5K, but it wasn't a good
race for me-I really don't like the downtown streets, I think I'll be
skipping those weeknight downtown races next year. The other 2 5K's I did
were in northern NJ-flat courses, my times were good (PR'ed each time,) got
an AG award in each (1st in one, 2nd in the other) but I wasn't too thrilled
with the execution-would blast the first mile and just try and hang on for
the remaining 2.1 miles. I've been much happier with my pacing in 10Ks.

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Good luck in 2005.

Thanks!! Same to you!!