Some short trips along the way

It's been a little while since my last entry.  And while I'm still averaging a little over 12 miles a week, it has been noticeably more difficult to keep myself motivated.  I used to run so I could post my times on Nike+ and Runnerplus and comment on runs posted by my friends.  I guess the novelty has started to wear off.

So... in an effort to keep myself driven, I've decided to do a 5K each month.  10Ks would have been better, but the way schedule worked out, these 5Ks will have to do.  My first one is on October 18th and my goal is to finish under 28 minutes or close to it.  I also have ones scheduled for November 9th and January 1st.

I was talking to one of my coworkers about doing the NYC half marathon in July and she said that she was doing the NJ half in May.  We agreed that we'll both run it next year.  I started recruiting other runners at work and I'm up to 5.  Being realistic about the holidays, I've decided that I won't start training for that until January.  Hopefully this won't hinder me too much.

Ahh-Haa!

So the past weeks I've been "Playing around" with my stride. For some reason I thought if I took longer strides, I would go faster. I had mixed results and my legs were a little sorer than normal, but I attributted that to just being old. Then Sunday, I ran my heart out, based on the way I felt afterwards, it should have been my best 5K time yet. However, I ended up being slower than normal and infinitely more tired and worn out. Now I was really confused, so when I posted my run on runnerplus.com, I mentioned my change in stride. One of my friends posted an article about stride and cadence. Basically, everything I was trying to do by lengthing my stride was not only inefficient, but somewhat hazardous. It ended up giving me shin splints and made both of my knees sore.

So long story, slightly shorter...
I needed to go back to shorter faster strides. Tonight I went out and ran 5K to put this theory to the test. I knocked 2 minutes off my last 5K time and I feel a bajillion times better afterwards.

Just in case anybody is interested I'll post the link. It really is quite informative.
http://www.runrichmond.com/id23.html

Post 9/11

Don't really have any earth shattering news about running.  Started doing intervals once a week, but I wanted to talk about something that really bothers me.  

Last night, my family and I went to the local fire department for the towns September 11th commemoration ceremony.  One our neighbors lost his son, who used to be a Wyckoff volunteer firefighter before he joined NYFD.  They had a awesome life size statue / memorial built at the fire house for him a few years ago.  The town also lost 11 residents in World Trade Center, so it's not like the whole town wasn't touched in one way or another.  Anyway, the part that bothers me was the turn out.  It was about 75% fire fighters and only 25% civilians.  The volume of people who turned out for the ceremony was embarrassingly poor.  I was really surprised and kinda mad.  How quickly we forget!  

My wife and I used to goto Ridgewood where they would have a large ceremony in the park at the center of town.  Every year it got a little smaller and smaller, until two years ago, we showed up and there was nothing.  I love how everybody says they'll never forget.

Anyway, we remember and while we personally did not know anybody who past away, we will never forget.  And everyday I remember and pray for my fellow brothers and sisters who serve proudly in the Corps and other branches of the military.  It doesn't matter if we're state side or in the suck, when the wolf calls we answer, that's what we do.  Semper Fi and God Bless America!

Finally some speed! (It's all relative)

Thanks to hurricane/tropical storm Hanna, I got to the gym yesterday.  As usual, I planned on doing an easy 5K.  Normally when I go it's pretty late so there aren't a lot of people there, but today I got there at 3pm.  While it wasn't mobbed, there were a good amount of people there.  Fortunately my favorite treadmill at the very end was available.  Unfortunately there was lovely young lady, two treadmills over who moving at pretty good clip.  I usually don't like to run next to people running fast, I find it screws up both of our paces and it's a little embarrassing.   Anyway, I guess all those miles I've logged are starting to pay off, because I was able to step it up and shaved a minute off of my best 5K time.  

As a side note, there two "old guys" on the other side of her.  They both started out strong, but it was slightly amusing to see the rapid decline as one quickly changed to a very labored jog and the other just decided to walk.  

Nike+ 10K Human Race - The aftermath

Well it's been 5 days since I ran my first 10k. I was a little more worn out and beat up than I expected. I guess I didn't stretch enough afterwards and then I did a boat load of walking at the Renaissance Festival the next day while pushing a double jogger with a 3 and 5 year old. Somehow I ended up with shin splints on Tuesday so I rested an extra day, which didn't help at all.

On Wednesday, I went to the gym and did an easy 5K on the treadmill. The first 3K was horrendous! I thought my calves were going to lockup and I was going to get shot off the back of the treadmill. The last 2K actually felt pretty good and the stretch afterwards helped a bunch.

Thursday I planned on running another easy 5k on the road, but at the last minute I remembered that I got that training mix "My first 10K" from Nike for signing up for the Human Race. Just before I started out, I decided to try it. I probably should have listened to the whole thing before trying it. As it turns out there at two sets of 1 minute intervals, which I have never done before. The funny thing is that they say in the mix, that if you can finish this whole workout without walking you can definitely finish the Human Race. So since I finished it, now I know I have to run the whole thing! The workout wasn't that hard, other than the intervals, so I guess I'll try to work it into my "routine" once a week. The only thing is that 1 minute intervals don't graph well, and as one of my fellow runners said, it's looks like you were running drunk.

While my next goal is still to run the NYC Half-Marathon next year, I don't think I will start training for it until next year. This year I think I will continue running 3-6 miles and hopefully pick up some speed.

I plan on running a 5K in October and hope to post a sub 30 minute time. I know that's not really a stretch, but it's still an improvement over my last 5k race time.