O'er the Hills

Today was the Boston Marathon.

This is the race I plan to be running in 2011.

And these are pictures from that race.

Alright. So after much consideration and mental preparation, I feel a little bit shy in saying that pre-training for the NYC Marathon for me has now begun.

In keeping with the theme of pre-training, while I headed out to do 6.3 miles today in Central Park, I decided about 2 miles in only to do 5.4. That is, I took the 102nd St. Transverse and avoided doing Great Hill.

The reasoning was clear: In this delicate time as I balance training with a chaotic and unpredictable schedule, along with other responsibilities, it is important to guard against burnout. For me, that generally means avoiding pushing myself prematurely. “Prematurely” is really any kind of training I haven’t developed into. Since I’m just starting training, I have developed into anything, so any kind of zealous desires to do amazing running work is a bad idea for me right now.

It was 51 degrees in clear, beautiful weather. I had my Garmin for the second time, and the box above links to intimate details of my run today. Of note, my pace of 5.4 miles was 7:49. That is a bit better than running with Elizabeth, though it’s generally in the zone of what I was accomplishing with her. While I’m quite a bit off of my marathon pace, there’s little reason for me to believe that this time is not going to melt pretty quickly.

It’s Monday and it’s hard to say what this week will spell. Last night I started eyeing races for training as well as for NYC Marathon qualification for next year. And the Philly Marathon is pretty much a given in my headl; in order to get a really cheap entry fee, I need to enter before month’s end. I’m still gonna hold off entering … at least at this very second …

Oh, and one last thing: With the Garmin now in my possession, how I formatted this blog needs to change a bit. So hopefully I can get around to that soon. Nothing too big: Mostly just the header area of each blog post needs to change because temperature is not that important! 🙂

I lied! One other last thing! I hit the gym to do some basic abs, back, and arms machines. Very light, but nice to be back there.

Today’s run was a warm, slightly hazy 65 degrees in Central Park with Elizabeth Corkum. It was a run of a couple firsts. First Number 1? My first official run using my Garmin Forerunner 405CX. First Number 2? Upon completion of 6.3 miles, just after a final sprint, I convulsed twice and almost vomited. That’s never happened in my years of training!

I attribute the wretchedness to the consumption of 3 Redline Ultra Hardcore about 2 hours before the run, plus general dehydration in light of the pills but also in light of my resistance to drink a lot of water just before a run (for fear of needing to go to the bathroom). Of those two factors, the Redline was probably more the culprit as I barely ever have trained with energy pills in my system, especially not in warm weather. Another factor is that I’m not quite fit yet, running at an 8:00 pace per mile rather than something more than a minute faster like last year. I should note, too, that around mile 2, I felt pain in my kidney area (middle back), which could be related to strain on my kidneys.

Whatever. The more important thing about this run is my Garmin! So far so good. The reviews I heard about this wonderful device were far from absolutely glowing, since apparently this bezel on the watch (or “super-watch,” as I preferred to call it to Elizabeth) goes unresponsive or just darn crazy when it gets wet. The advice I heard was to lock the bezel when running to avoid this spasming, and as much as that didn’t sound like an ideal solution, it seemed to work for me! I turned the Auto Scroll on to Medium and it seemed to be fine. It beeped at every mile (each mile was considered a lap), and it also gave me my instantaneous pace. From the watch, I learned that my pace slowed down considerably in the second half of my run (it’s hillier). Interesting! I foresee great possibilities with this watch, though I’m curious what frustrations might be lurking when I train with it in wet weather. Will I be able to set the darn thing if it’s raining when I start?

As for Elizabeth, she was showing me up in places during the run (she was passing guys quite often!), though we were overall pretty evenly matched. That was a great feeling. She has a Philly 10-mile race coming up in 3 weeks and I foresee good things for her. She strikes me as just competitive enough to impress herself with her finish time in that race.