O'er the Hills

6.3499 miles  |  49:54 (7:52/mi)  |  61°F  |  Central Park

Running with Elizabeth Again! ...

Today, Elizabeth Corkum and I worked a commercial in the morning, and since we were wrapped at the same time, we resolved to do another run in Central Park today. Actually, this run replaces a cancelled run Sunday for us as she ended up with a cold then. Today’s run was significantly better than last as we both broke 8-minute miles. (Nice job, Elizabeth, with your 7:52s!)

Today’s run for me was about as decent as I can expect. The weather was gorgeous. I missed the actual temperature in the park but it was about 61 degrees, cool, sunny, and in the mid-afternoon. I had been up since 4am, when I got up, took 3 Redlines, and did 30 minutes of some workout DVDs concentrating on butt, thighs, and abs. Didn’t do much for fitting into my skinny jeans (on set the director had me turn my butt away from camera, for what I’ll read into as too much junk…), but it did help for my self-esteem knowing that I accomplished a workout despite an early calltime.

The run had labored breathing but it seemed I was doing the pacing and Elizabeth was actually keeping up (rather than last time when I was letting her set the pace). We didn’t do any sprints, just pushed a little toward the end to beat our last time. It worked.

Other that that, nothing much to report other than significant improvement in pace in such a short amount of time. I still definitely don’t feel in shape. Oh, but I did learn one thing: Don’t eat canned salmon just before a run. The taste was in my mouth by around mile 4 and it made me so nauseated toward the end that I didn’t want to sprint for fear of gastric consequences!

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6.3499 miles  |  51:27 (8:06/mi)  |  41°F  |  Central Park

Running with Elizabeth ...

My friend from the acting world, Elizabeth Corkum, called me up the other day expressing an interest in running in Central Park together this weekend. We’d talked about this before, but it finally was going to happen!

And it couldn’t have happened in a nicer clime. Not a cloud in the sky showed up for our run. It was 41 degrees and a lot of people were already in the park by the time we hit it around 10:30am. Elizabeth is pretty in-shape and she was a great running partner, especially at so early in my return to running. She was a stride ahead of me throughout much the first half of the run. She had a great pace herself (8:08s) and she’s going to get better and faster as she trains.

Myself, I was on the slow side, though I already improved my time from the run two days ago (8:06s today as opposed to 8:13s over a shorter distance two days ago). I was really having a tough time talking and running in the beginning of the run, but my breathing calmed down later in the run.

When we started off, we were kinda headed toward taking the 102nd St. Transverse to do 5.4 miles, but I left it up to Elizabeth to determine later in the run if we’d also see Great Hill. When the time came to decide, she wanted to try it, and try it we did. She seemed to do a bit better than me on the hill, though I am trying to guard against burnout, and hills and showboating are occasions that can trigger burnout in me, so I didn’t push myself that hard. No worries, though, because Great Hills pushed me.

Within the last couple miles, I challenged Elizabeth to a couple of lamppost-to-lamppost sprints at 80% full speed. I weathered them pretty well, feeling strong in them. In the final leg of the course, I also got into my mechanical “robot sprint” and finished strong. Today’s run was not all that fast for me, but if you read my prior post, you know I’m not demanding much of myself. But even despite not demanding much of myself, today was a considerable improvement over the prior run, in terms of pace and distance. Plus, it felt great.

Cheers!
Ben

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5.4457 miles  |  44:44 (8:13/mi)  |  39°F  |  Central Park

Casual Run ...

I’m a bit hesitant to call this my inaugural run back into running mode, so I’ll let that be determined. Yesterday, in a moment of dire flabbiness, I committed to going for a run in Central Park this morning. And it felt good to be back.

I missed Central Park. And I wanted to be back there. I’ve done nearly no exercise since the November 22nd marathon in Philadelphia. Then I ran a 3:07:32 marathon, which qualified me for Boston. Today, I ran an 8:13 mile. Ha! I didn’t think I was that slow, but it’s not that offensive to me. It’s just a testament to my being out of shape.

Nonetheless, I was not passed, and I even passed some people without having to push myself. I did my shorter route (taking the 102nd St. transverse) so I didn’t do reactive running and just did something that would get me back into it. At around mile 1, I was already trying to psyche myself out, but I overcame that pretty easily and wasn’t attacked again with rival thoughts. (It’s not that uncommon to try to psyche myself out around that same place.)

I’m daring not step on a scale right now. While I haven’t changed pants sizes, I have gotten bigger, and I’ve gotten flabbier. Nothing I’m too, too worried about because in the grand scheme of things, I’m going to run and get trimmer, but it’s more a cause for concern because I may be up for roles this morning for which my slimmer size might be an advantage.

Today’s run was without the aid of any caffeine pills or supplements. Just myself and the road. I wanted to get a sense of what I was like without any modifications. I felt good. I know I’ll get faster, but the theme I put in my head for this run and insisted upon was “casual, Ben.” Whenever I wanted to pass or chase someone, I decided to just stay casual and if I passed them casual, then that’s how I’d pass them.

I’m starting to strategize getting running back into my life. It’s been on my to-do list to plan my running, and reincorporate it into my life. Since November 22nd, I’ve been quite busy, and since December 18th, I’ve been seated for so much of those days, and when not seated, then not very active. This is not to say I haven’t been productive, which is perhaps the statement of the year because I’ve gotten so much done since December 18th it’s so astounding it’s laughable. I still have a sizeable to-do list, and that may rival my running a bit, but I hope I can incorporate it into my life again without going insane.

Cheers for now,
Ben

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I have received entry into the NYC Marathon 2010! ...

Woohoo! Take a look at this …

Dear Benjamin Hauck,

Congratulations! You have received guaranteed entry to the ING New York City Marathon 2010.

Your entry number is [redacted]. Please include this number and your name in any correspondence pertaining to the marathon. To check your status, or to update/change your personal information, click here and enter the username and password that you created within the application. Correspondence may be sent to marathonmailer@nyrr.org.

Your Official Handbook will be mailed in the summer. For further information about the event, please visit ingnycmarathon.org. Please note that the dates for the ING New York City Marathon Health and Fitness Expo, where you must pick up your race number, are Thursday, November 4 – Saturday, November 6.

Thank you for your interest in the ING New York City Marathon 2010, and best of luck.

What did I put as my expected finish time? Well, with a finish in Philly at 3:07:32, I thought I should challenge myself again. This time, I challenged myself to shave off just 8 minutes of the time to finish NYC in 2:59. 8 minutes is no piece of cake to do, though. We shall see!

Wish me luck for this November’s marathon!

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Welcome to the my new running blog ...

Howdy! Ben Hauck here. I would like to welcome you to my new running blog titled “O’er the Hills.” In this blog, you will find documents of my runs, particularly those runs as I train for upcoming marathons.

As of this post, I’m not really running. I ran the Philadelphia Marathon in November 2009, managing a 3:07:32 personal record and qualifying for the Boston Marathon. Since then, I’ve done a lot of television work and sitting at my computer building a website, and just one run on New Year’s Eve into the New Year in Central Park at a very slow pace. I miss running but I’m not ready to pick it back up just now. But soon enough I’ll be putting in leisurely miles, and eventually I’ll be putting in more serious miles! At least for as long as I stay healthy.

So stay tuned! Susbscribe to the feed for this blog to get updates when I start to post regularly about my runs and races. Untill then, happy surfing.

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