Week Two!

I ended up going a full ten miles yesterday. This is really the best time of year for running. Nice and cool, but not cold. Cold stinks! My shirt froze last year, and that's no fun.

Week One

I'm supposed to run 3 miles on Wednesday, 5 on Friday, and 9 on Sunday. Nothing too challenging.

It's exciting! I'm glad I'm finally getting started. (But I got the timing wrong, so I'm actually starting the training plan on week two.) It's nice to have the whole thing listed in front of me. It really removes any excuses.

Cows run good.

The Great Cow Harbor 10K was yesterday. I finished it in 57.28 minutes, and was feeling pretty good about it. It's a really challenging course on the north shore of long island, which if you don't know, is pretty darned hilly! So there is really no even ground. You're either running up really steep hills, down really steep hills, or Up/Down really long gradual hills.

Up is tough, it can really put some strain on your muscles, but down is no picnic either. You have to work really hard to keep from just tearing off and running way too fast. I didn't have to stop running at any point, and even managed to move up in the pack on the hills.

Running a big race like this takes some getting used to. How to pass people and leave enough room so you aren't blocking people, how to keep your own pace without being influenced by those around you (Which I do by finding someone running at a good pace, and then following them. Thanks girl in green sports bra! We finished!)

It's a fun experience. The excitement you feel in the minutes before the race starts, crossing that finish line, all of it. It's a nice environment to be in. And this race course was really nice. Running along the Long Island Sound, and through some really nice neighborhoods, with families handing out water from their own little card tables, local boy scout troops giving out fruit, and cheerleaders from the local schools cheering you on.

Even you have even considered running a race, I say go for it! It's a great experience.

http://cowharborrace.com/

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's me! I'm the busy bee.

Grad school is lots of fun, but it take up so much time! I'm never to get to 100% completion on any of my PS3 games this semester, which is a horror of unimaginable severity! The assignments are fun, so I really don't mind that much. My natural laziness instincts must be ignored.

I've been trying to maintain, but not go too crazy. I did something weird to my knee, and since I have a 10K next week, I figured better safe than sorry. It's feeling better now. I managed to work in two leisurely 4 mile runs, and a 10K yesterday, which adds another 14 miles on to my total. This really is the perfect time of year for running. Cool, but sunny with lots of shade from the still-green leaves. (It gets really slippery when the leaves start falling, and for someone with the coordination of a tranq-ed rhino, it can be a problem.)

This is also the last week before I start my real training program. It's exciting! I like having a list of miles to do, it gives me a goal.

Gone... All gone.

I ran 10 miles yesterday. Longest run I've done in quite a while. I did pretty well too. It only took me an hour and a half, which is a pretty aggressive pace for me. (One of my problems is a difficulty finding the sweet spot between running way too fast and way too slow, a mistake that hurt me during the marathon last winter)

Anywho, I get to the end of my run and managed to reset my Ipod before it registered the run. I lost it! Not a super big deal or anything, it's not like the run doesn't exist, but I've gotten so used to adding my miles to my Nike+ account! It was frustrating. I was trying to finish a challenge I'm doing on there, so now I have to do it all over again.

Oh well, what can you do?

Turns out I won't start really training for a couple of weeks. I was under the impression that you could just go on the Nike+ site and enter the date you're running, and get a training program. Turns out their programs are much longer, 24 weeks at least. So I'm going to do the one from Runners's World again. It's a 16 week plan that worked pretty well last year.

The Human Race

I'm signed up for the Nike+ Human Race http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikerunning_humanrace-en_US/?tags=race_day&sitesrc=old_site
On October 24th. It's kind of cool because you can do an organized race, or just run with your Nike+ anywhere you want, and it counts as part of the event. It's a really fun idea.

Here's the thing that makes it more interesting, I'm going to be in Israel on the 24th. I'm going on a trip with my dad (he has a business meeting, I'm going for fun) to Tel Aviv. So my mission will be

A) To find a place to run
B) Remember to run
C) Not wander off into some disputed territory

It's fun to run in another country. I ran in Paris France with it's ankle-breaking cobblestones, and I ran in Sao Paolo Brazil through some pretty interesting neighborhoods. The only problem is working up the energy to run after walking around and being a tourist all day.

Ran another 5 miles on Labor Day. (Also rode many, many miles on my bike, which don't count.) Bringing my total up to 75. That's almost impressive sounding.

Trippin

I've been running for a pretty long time now, at least a couple of years. In that time I've never once just flat out fallen on my face.

The other night it almost happened twice. I don't know what made me such a spaz. I had the IPod set to 6 miles, which is a pretty standard distance for me, so it wasn't like I was crazy fatigued or anything. The first time I did the full on total body spasm "try as had as I can to not fall on my face flailing around motions" and managed to keep from going all the way down. I did the cliche "look around to make sure nobody saw my little dance of death" thing, and then noticed all the weird muscle aches from all the weird muscles I haven't used since the last time I spazzed out and almost fell on my face. Weird little achy back muscles and things. Very strange sensation.

The second time I went right down like a puppet who's strings were cut. Tumble, roll, everything. Something about getting a little road rash on the palm of my hands (complete with little pebbles stuck to your mitts!) really reminds me of being a little kid.

Strange, but not such a super big deal.

I did an actual conversion and found out that a 10K is a little over 6 miles, so I added those runs to my total, and I'm at 70 miles. Not too shabby. Every mile flys in the face of my instinctive laziness.

I'm going to get my real training started next week!