A Quickie in Central Park

Haaaahahaha, I’m cracking myself up over the title of this post (in general, me no creative when thinking up post titles, so I’m particularly proud of this one.)

And I hope, by now, you’ve realized that the “quickie” I’m referring to has nothing to do with copulation and everything to do with running a 4-mile race last Sunday.

City Parks Foundation “Run For The Parks” 4-Mile Race and Kid’s Races

I know, I know, you’re thinking ‘Why is a four-mile race considered a ‘quickie’?  Well, my friends, a really good way to make four miles seem short is to run 13.1 miles on the same route two weeks before.  This race went by super-fast and with relative ease, especially compared to that beast of a half-marathon.

There’s good and bad news about the aftermath.  The good? I managed to finish in 27:45, which is juuuuuuust under a 7:00 mile and was fast enough to place me 18th in the women’s overall and 8th in my age group. It was a decent time for me (not a PR but a solid effort) and the fact that I did it without having run for the last two weeks, thanks to my knee injury, also adds to my happiness about the race results.

So what’s the bad news? Well, my knee felt alright during the race but started to hurt badly again afterwards, so now I’m back to where I was three weeks ago- resting, icing and ibuprofening the crap out of it.  Le boo

I want to run again!

However, really, the best part of the race was that I organized participation from both parents and children at the school I teach at.  We had more than 20 kids show up, ready to run, which makes my physical-activity-loving heart swell with joy and pride over their excitement and enjoyment of racing. Le awesome!

So that’s all the news that’s fit to print right now, no more racing and a lot more resting for this gimp.  I gotta get my knee healthy again because, all of a sudden, I’m less than 6 months out from the Chicago Marathon and time’s a wastin’! Hopefully I’ll be back to good soon and on the road to (cue ominous music here…) marathon training!

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Race is Run

I ran the More Fitness Magazine Half Marathon in Central Park yesterday! We had perfect (perfect, perfect, perfect!) weather and I ran it with my best friend since seventh grade, whom I corralled, cajoled and somehow convinced to run it with me.

It was her first half marathon and my fifth.  Since I may or may not have strong-armed her into signing up in the first place, I ran with her for the entire race at whatever pace she was comfortable with.

Congrats, Pip, on your first (and maybe last, haha) half marathon!

While I didn’t get a “good time” by race standards, I definitely had a good time by my standards (didja like what I did there with the pun?)

Our other best friend Cara (seriously, the three of us have been BFFs for.ev. er- Sandlot Style) came to cheer us on, as well as my dad, Pete and little Perri. It was so fun to have everyone yelling for us at the finish line, we felt like rock stars! Or track stars, I guess…

Heart you girls!

I also had six co-workers who ran the race and everyone finished and (I think) had a great time, which made the coach in me quite happy.  I really enjoyed leading training sessions over the past few months in order to get everyone ready for this race and I’m planning on doing it again next year! Go team!

We ran most the course at about a 9:45/mile pace which is significantly slower than what I would typically race at (for a half-marathon, I usually average between 6:30/mile and 7:30/mile, depending on what mile I’m at, ha!)

As much as I loved (LOVED) running with my friend and enjoyed the leisurely feel of the pace, there was a small part of me that missed the true adrenaline rush from racing my hardest and sorta longed for that dead-tired ache that comes from running your heart out.

Which is why I’ve decided to register for the Bronx Half Marathon in August and make the two months leading up to the race all about training, which means doing work-outs like mile repeats (ouch) and hard-core long runs.  Imma go balls to the wall because I want to see what I’m capable of!

So, to sum up: Half marathon yesterday, sore today and as always, had a blast.

Have you ever run a half-marathon? Would you consider it? I highly recommend!

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On Tapering and Tapirs

The animal below is a tapir…

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But in case you didn’t see through my corny pun, I’m going talk about tapering (but HOW perfect is that photo?!?)

Tapering (in the running world) is when the athlete lessens the distance they run each day as the race approaches.  The idea is to have your muscles be truly rested for the big event, thus maximizing performance.  In other words, we don’t want no “dead legs”!

I’m running a half-marathon on Sunday, so the past ten days or so have been “taper” days.  I ran my longest run (11 miles) about 2.5 weeks ago and since then, I’ve been gradually reducing my mileage, running 6 miles as my last “long run” just over one week beforehand.

Luckily, my spring break vacation (Ahhhh, one of the true joys of being a teacher- spring break!) coincided with my tapering week and we just happened to have a trip to Florida planned. While March in New York City is a cold, blustery wench, it was 85 degrees, sunny and (miraculously) not humid. Perfect running weather!

Here is my pre-race training, starting from 7 days out. Running in Florida was awesome.

Day 7- Run 1:00, Walk 1:00 for 30:00 total

Day 6- 15:00 Water Aerobics (in the pool, yeah!) and 20:00 Walk

Day 5- 4-Mile Run

Day 4- Rest

Day 3- Run 1:00, Walk 1:00 for 30:00 total (same as Day 7)

Day 2- 30:00 easy Elliptical

Day 1- 20:00 easy Jog

RACE DAY!

I’m very much looking forward to this race, probably because I have no goal time and plan on just enjoying myself.  It’s the first race I’ve ever run like that and I think it’s going to be fun.

Have you ever run a half-marathon? Do you taper before a race?

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Two Exciting Things!

Alright, don’t pee your pants just yet, it’s nothing that great.  But first and foremost, I registered for the MORE Magazine Half-Marathon in New York City’s Central Park on April 3!

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This is exciting for two reasons.  First, it will be the first race I’ve run since the Boston Marathon in April of 2010.  Second, I’m running it with a group of co-workers from my school, most of whom are beginner runners.  I’m leading training sessions twice a week and will be emailing out a weekly run schedule.

Basically, it feels like my first real (well, only semi-real since I’m not getting paid) coaching gig, which is AWESOME.  As in, feels like the babiest of baby steps towards one of my life’s goals, which is to be a paid running coach (hence this blog!)

Anyways, while I won’t be running the race for a personal record, I have a feeling I’m going to be pretty damn emotional when my 12 female co-workers cross the finish line, some of them for the first time.  Oh yeah, did I mention it’s an all-women race? Girl power, roowr!

I’ll be sure to post more about our half-marathon training sessions, as well as our weekly mileage and work-out schedule as we get into things

And the second exciting thing to happen to me today? I took Perri for her first run and it was a grand ol’ success! Turns out, I somehow managed to adopt my dog soul-mate (in my ways than one.  But we won’t go there because you’ll all think I’m nuts.) In short, little Perri loves running!

At first, she was all like, ‘I wanna sniff the urine of every single other dog who has walked past here in the last 10 years’ but once I got her moving, there was no stopping her.

She was running all out, ears back, galloping at a pace that even I struggled to keep up with.  It reminded me of when I was little and used to just run, as fast as I could, like there was no tomorrow and no on could catch me, ever. Yes, I’m 100% sure that’s exactly how she felt (feel free to stifle your laughter at my craziness, oh about…now.)

We managed to get out for about 25 minutes, with a bunch of stops along the way (I jogged in place while she sniffed.)

You know what? Running with my dog is a million times better than running by myself.  I’ll definitely be doing this more often.  Suh-weeeeet!

For a Monday, this day wasn’t too terrible, thanks to the above incidents.  It’s the little things in life, eh?

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Sunday Morning Race Fun!

I know, the title sounds like an oxymoron (*snicker, that word is so silly) but yesterday, Pete, Perri and I roused ourselves at an ungodly hour of the morning (especially for a Sunday!) and trekked out to Central Park, where I ran a 4-mile race on a gorgeous (albeit chilly) fall morning.

I organized my school’s participation in the races, as well, and it was so fun to see so many of my students out there running.  As a PE teacher, I firmly believe in the power of physical activity for children and am dismayed at the increasingly sedentary childhoods being shoved on our kids…

Whoops, sorry, got caught up on my soapbox…*steps off.  Anyways, the point being that it was personally awesome to witness everyone’s face glowing with both exertion and excitement.  Plus, one of my second grade girls won her division.  What’s up, PE teacher extraordinaire? (Yeah, I know she’s 8, I never said I wasn’t a competitive one!)

It was also totally gratifying when another second grader told me today that she “can’t wait for the spring race, because that was the best thing ever.” And the cherry on the top? Two of my Kindergarteners brought in their participant ribbons for show-and-tell.

As a teacher, these are moments where you realize that you are somehow making a difference in these children’s lives…*tear!

Well, huh, look at this, what started off as a recap of my race turned into a philosophical moment about my chosen profession.  Didn’t see that one coming but I’ll take it (and hopefully I didn’t bore you silly.)

I ran the 4-mile race in 27:36 (averaging just under 7:00 min/mile,) which I was happy with since I didn’t train for this race and expected to run it much slower (maybe 9:30 min/mile?) but I couldn’t find any of the other parents before the race, so I was on my own.

I can’t say enough about how fun road races are.  I highly, highly, highly recommend that you sign up for one.  Not only will it motivate you to actually get out and run but it will also be a great experience that will leave you wanting more (I don’t mean to sound cliche but in this case, it’s totally true!)

So have any of you guys run a road race, like a 5k or 10k? What did you think? Anyone doing a Turkey Trot?

 

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