28 July, 2014

Official day 1 of fall half training

I'm using the NYRR Virtual Trainer program for my fall half, which is on October 5th, and today is day one of the 10-week training program.

I love this product from NYRR.  I input my recent training history, how many days a week I'm running, current long run distance, recent race result, fitness level (i.e. height and weight) and injury history, and then it spews out a training program tailored to me, complete with training paces for the different types of runs I'll be doing.

So today, I have 3 miles Regular Run.  I guess that would equate to general aerobic miles in other plans.

25 July, 2014

NRR (not running related)

So, I had the pleasure of catching Ryan Adams at the Flynn on Wednesday.  My mini-review below...

What can I say but: f’ing a-mazing.  He does like the f word, and used it quite liberally in his between song banter.  :-)  He was hysterical, actually.  A few jokes poking fun at Burlington (well-deserved), a riff on roosters smoking ciggies in the alley next to the vegan restaurant he went to for dinner.  Etc.

He and the band were amazing – tight but relaxed at the same time, if that makes sense. A few songs beautiful enough to put a lump in my throat - Sweet Carolina in particular.  He and his guitarist had beautiful harmony going on that one.  Dirty Rain also gorgeous.  And I've got a hankering to go buy everything of his that I don’t already own.  :-)

Set list is below, along with one of my crappy photos from the show.


10 July, 2014

July already?

Dang, July already, huh?  I would normally be stressing already about my marathon training - oh, how I hate those long runs - but since sanity prevailed this year and I'm not training for a fall marathon, my training distances will be completely manageable.  WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Seriously, in case you didn't hear that, WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  ;-)

So, anyways, I'm planning on either Grete's Great Gallop half on October 5th in NYC, or Green Mountain Half on October 12th in VT, for my fall Fred's Team race.  Or NYRR Ted Corbitt 15k in December.  In my thought process:
* I'm not registered for Grete's yet, so might just save my $$ and go with Green Mountain Half which I registered for ages ago.
* On the other hand, Grete's is a Fred's Team/MSKCC race and we'll have lots of runners out there on race day, so that would be fun.  And a half in Central Park in early October is always wonderful - I've done this race many a time and it's always been perfect.
* The other thought is that going with Ted Corbitt 15k in December gives me more time to take some weight off, and build my mileage more slowly.  My achilles is STILL a problem, and not helped at all by the extra weight I'm lugging around.

Current training is a few 3s during the week, and a 5-miler on the weekend.  Clearly need to start moving that long run up a bit.  And I'm doing run/walk intervals - run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes, repeat until done.  I'll shift that to more running as my fitness improves, but no need to rush on that.