NYRR Gridiron Classic 4Mile Recap

Saturday morning I did a shorter long run before heading up to the city for Sunday's 4 Mile Gridiron Classic. 

I'm pretty sure those are negative splits!  Not very fast, but on average exactly at my long run goal pace of 12 minute miles.  Also exciting - I ate real food before the run with no GI consequences!  I think white toast with peanut butter might be my new pre-run fuel.  Much tastier than my usual clif shot bloks.

After the run, I took the train up to the city to prepare for Sunday's race.  By prepare, I mean eat my weight in chili cheese fries and vegan sandwiches with my sister.  Delicious.  After dinner I headed to Jill's to enjoy a little wine and tv.  Another wild Saturday night in the city.

Sunday morning, my legs were still a little tired from Saturday's run.  Jill and I sort of talked about goal pace, but didn't really commit to anything.  I had 9:30 miles in my head, since we had just done 9:44s at the Joe Kleinerman 10k a month earlier. 

We met up with fellow 9+1er Brad and took the subway up.  The race was really well organized and we had no problem finding Jill's friends Sarah and Kate.  Sarah and Kate are way faster than us, but they graciously started in our slow corral. 

Me, Jillian, & Kate

And then we were off!  The course was hilly, but we were feeling good.  At first my garmin was showing 10:30ish pace and I was not happy.  Pretty soon our pace started dropping... and dropping... and finally we were at 9:45.

And then we got faster:

Woohoo!

I'm pretty thrilled, especially since there were some nasty hills in that 3rd mile.  I would have majorly slowed down if I had been alone.  I love having a friend who runs at my pace. 

Our official time was 37:00, meaning 9:15 min miles - aka my fastest pace in any race to date.  And also technically a PR, since I've never run a 4 miler. 

After the race, the five of us enjoyed a carbilicious brunch and I discovered my new favorite morning drink - grapefruit mimosas.  So good.

A train ride later, I was back in Princeton.   I headed to the gym for some strengthening and, of course, foam rolling. 

Perfect weekend!

A Weird Running Week

The past week was sort of a weird, disappointing one for running.

Last weekend, I was so excited to run the Manhattan Half Marathon in Central Park.  First half of 2012!  My roommate Lisa's first half ever!  Yay! 

Saturday morning I woke up to a very snowy city.  The race wasn't exactly cancelled, but it was nonscored, which I took to mean, "Show up if you really really want to, but we wouldn't if we were you."  There was also a food poisoning situation, so we all decided to skip the race.  The sidewalks were terrible and super slippery and I figured I shouldn't take a chance with my ankle still being weird.  Plus who really shows up to run when it's snowy and slushy and gross?

Well apparently a lot of people.  My work friend told me that his friend said it was his most fun race ever.  Sort of feeling like I missed out.  Bummer.

Monday I went to a tradeshow aka spend the whole day on my feet.  My ankle swelled to disgusting proportions, so I figured I should take it easy on Tuesday (supposed to be 5 miles) and spend an hour on the bike at the gym.  I hate skipping a run, but I figure it's better to take it easy than push it too hard and get injured.  Then I foam rolled... DAMN that feels good!

Wednesday my ankle was still huge, so I did my 5 miles on the treadmill.  I sprinted(ish) 1/4 mile repeats with 1/4 mile recoveries.  Followed by foam rolling.  So good.




Thursday I finally got back outside and it felt amazing.  As much as I hate getting out of bed, I think running outside is the only thing that fully wakes me up.  I did an easy five and felt awesome all day. Went to the gym after work and foam rolled some more.  Addicted.

Yesterday was my longest run to date - 19 miles.  It felt surprisingly good, and as usual my first few miles were the toughest.  A lot of firsts on this run - nature called while I was running through the woods, and I made a pit stop at Wawa to use the ladies room and refill my water bottle.  Very classy.

My Garmin started dying around mile 11, so I reset it to make sure that data saved, and started again.  It eventually died, so I tracked myself on mapmyrun... until my phone died too!  Weird.  Here are my splits for the first 16 or so miles:

As usual, my pace was all over the place.  Hoping to smooth that out on next weekend's 20 miler.

NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10k

This weekend I ran my 2nd 10k with my friends Brad and Jillian.  I was super excited for two reasons: 1) it was my first 9+1 race for the 2013 NYC Marathon, and 2) it was the same course as my upcoming half marathon in Central Park.

So excited.

I'm pretty new to running, so I'm always surprised to see how many runners show up at a race.  Who are these people?  And why did I join the cool wake up early and run club so late?

So many runners.

I had a great race.  I ran with Jill the whole time, and we beasted Central Park's hills.  Jill sprinted up a hill around mile 4 and I got really nervous that I was going to fall behind and have to finish alone.  We finished together though, PRing with a time of 1:00:25, 9:45 miles. 

After the race, I was so thirsty that I drank some of this weirdly brown water they were handing out. 

Gross

We felt so great that we planned to run another 6 to make 12 for our long run.  A mile in, our legs were dragging and our stomachs rumbling, so we ditched that plan and headed over to peacefood.

Me and my sweaty friends.

This race was really well organized, and I'm pumped to do the same course in 2 weeks for the Manhattan half!