Nineteen Point Two to Go (Session 7)

Time: 1 Hour 8 Minutes (with a couple of two minute breaks here and there)

Distance: 7 Miles

Location: Silver Lake Park

No excuses. I did not run during the week. It's hard to work it into the schedule, and I can only work it in if I can wake up early enough and start my day with a run (until daylight begins to remain past 6pm).

I made a conscious decision to begin using my ipod again. I realize that running past a 1 hour time frame with nothing aside from my own thoughts to keep my mind preoccupied really is the most difficult part of running. And while I already knew that, it hadn't really hit me until I did away running with music. Even with the music however, the distance was not easy as it should have been, because of how quickly my mind became restless. I know I have to just suck it up and keep pushing, but knowing that it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any easier is just a sickening thought.

Post run: I'm good.

The Hills Have Lies (Session 6)

Time: 38 Minutes 23 Seconds

Distance: 4.14 Miles

Location: Clove Lakes Park

I lied. So much for that whole promise to go back to the 3x a week schedule... I hadn't completely taken into account the impending blizzard that would go on to white out the entire island. Needless to say, it's been over a week since I've run (bad). I really really will get back into the swing of things this week (Even though it's supposed to snow again tomorrow). I will figure something out, if I can't run outdoors without running in snow/slush/ice.

The slowdown in my training pace is starting to show. Even though CLP is far from flat ground, by my second mile I was already starting to feel winded (though that could have been attributed to the fact that my entire first mile was an uphill climb). However, the flat perfect ground of the track was obviously way too adaptable, so returning to the parks will be good for me. Once all the snow is gone, I may consider running through my neighborhood when/where traffic is light.

My head was out of sync as well, which I blame the cold for; and I'll be the first to admit, cold weather makes me lazy.

Post run: Normal sore/stiffness. Light knee ache, which wasn't as bad as my days on the track; which has also got me thinking that there is quite possibly a solid layer of concrete below which was causing all my knee damage to begin with. My next run shall take place on Wednesday (if the snow isn't too bad!). My Goal: Bring my distance back up to 6 in the park.

Happy Anniversary, Slacker! (Session 5)

Time: 33 Minutes 28 Seconds

Distance: 4 Miles

Location: Central Park (NYRR Gridiron Classic)

Last year I ran my first race, the NYRR Gridiron Classic, for a distance of 4 miles in 38:50 (a 9:42 per mile pace). Today, I ran my second NYRR Gridiron Classic in 33:28 (a 8:22 per mile pace). In one year full of injuries, shortcomings, and bouts of laziness, I'm actually surprised that I've managed to kill a whole minute off my short distance pace times. Not that they really matter in the grand scheme of things; I mean what is 4 miles next to 26? I'm not trying to kid myself into believing that I'll be able to run that same 8:22 on Marathon day. But most importantly, it is motivation on the possibilities of improvement.

Just about this time last year, I had never even considered running 8 more races to quality for guaranteed Marathon entry. Hell last year, I even remember standing in the cold before the race began, wearing my amateur makeshift "running clothes"; anxious and freezing my ass off, wondering how in the world I was even going to finish when I'd never run outdoors, or on hills, or while freezing to death. Less than 40 minutes later, it was all over; and I was hooked.

Today's run was cool! And by cool, I mean coooool. It was amazing too! But mostly cooooooooool. A comment was made by Mary Wittenberg during open announcements, that she could litter ally see the mist from our body heat rising from the crowd (yeah, thats not so cool...). Not that it's new to me, but after not running hills for so long, the course was actually kind of tough to keep pace. I opted out of wearing the heart rate monitor today because I wanted a good time, so it probably didn't have to be as tough had I worn it, but being back out in that race environment got me thinking: "I'm back, bitches! And I'm coming after your Marathon this year, so bring on as many hills as you've got!" as I charged as fast as I could to the finish line.

Post Race: Not a single ache, or a single pain. My knees were completely fine? I don't know why, but I'm not going to question it. I said I wouldn't use school as an excuse not to run, so I won't. I went a whole week without running up until this morning, but I will get back to my 3x a week schedule starting with today. That's a promise, I'm determined to keep.