NYC Marathon Training the 2010 version has begun not so much in earnest as in a dribble.  A 5-bridges Saturday morning 13-miler with fellow joggers was warm, but splend:

And just  a few images from excellent, recent Martha’s Vineyard and Bermudan long-weekends that involved much in the way of beach, water, sun, cycling, and sloth:

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Freshkills Park, Staten Island, being built upon the infamous landfill and largest human-made entity on Earth, is on its way.  It’s huge, ambitious, and the rubbish heaps are well-capped, but it’s sort of in the middle of nowhere by NYC standards, so not sure how or whether most folk will actually visit it en masse.

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Second week jogged in at just over 30 miles, included an excellent bright, cool jaunt with a couple of Flightmates via the NYC Bridges II route. Up and over the exposed, Hell Gate chunk of the Triboro’ (sorry…RFK…) Bridge is always fun, and added value of a skip around the Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens and a cable car ride back to Manhattan.  First ‘race’ down too: a cold Central Park 5 miler in the name of Lebow – didn’t push it pacewise, but  Manhattan Half is a mere week+ away, so eyes, and legs, on that.

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The 2010 race(s) to Joysey.  Weekends’re filling up already:

- Sat Jan 9: Fred Lebow 5 miler
- Sun Jan 24: Manhattan Half
- Sun Feb 7: Gridiron 4 miler
- Sun Feb 21: Cherry Tree 10 miler
- Sun Feb 28: Al Gordon 4 miler
- Sun Mar 21: NYC Half
- Sun Mar 28: Colon Cancer 15K
- Sat Apr 3: Flushing Meadows Half
- Sun Apr 11: Danbury CT Half
- Sun May 2: NJ Marathon

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Despite not getting organised enough to run long proper, the birdlegs clocked up 23 miles as an ease into this binary year. If that’s maintained as a mean throughout the next 51, the annual 1K mileage goal is achievable at least.  The temperature in Gotham has been jumping all over the area, which has made dressing for the cool / cold / fookenfreezing a challenge.  ‘Tis a measure of the recent frigidness that tonight’s -1 degC around the Central Park Loop felt comfortable.  Compared to Sunday’s dawn ride over the wind-blasted Brooklyn Bridge, was not exactly tropical, but not teeth-freezing biting neither.

Have also got motivated enough to restart the defatflabfookering core strength routine. Those planks (yer plank!) and crunches and (in)stability balling are gruelling, but it’s the only way to stabilise the chubby-middled trollness.  Am now waddling around like there’s a surgically-inserted medicine ball in me trunk given the stiff abs, but give it a few more weeks and I’ll be back in the swing. He. Says. With. Conviction.

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‘Twas a tad surreal, but the birdlegs saw out the end of the Naughties and the beginning of what?, the Teenies?, by joining the other Nut runners in Central Park for a slushy 4 miler.  Sort of odd to countdown to the new year, watch fireworks for about 5 seconds, and then start running, but there you go.  Was a bit tricky underfoot around the turns due to the slush underfoot, but no real problem.

Thanks to a fellow Joester, I finally dipped my bod into the briney in Coney Island on the 1st – the annual Polar Bear dip has been on my NYC list for years. We made it a ‘tri’ of sorts with the midnight run, a 40+ mile bike ride to Coney and back, and the frigid dip into the Atlantic.  All toughens you up, right?  Quite the event there on the beach when we got there – lots of New York colour.

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Despite the teeth-freezing temperature, at least the sun was out for my last 5 mile loop around the park of ’09. And thanks to the sveltelegs of my new runningmate, RM, it was a speedy trot around the bridle paths and under a few bridges.  ‘Tis grand to have someone who’s a bit fitter and faster to run with that can push you a tad, but still generally travels at a similar pace and rhythm.

There’s still one more NYRR run to go, but since it starts at midnight tomorrow, that’ll officially be running in 2010.  Looks like it’ll be a wet n’ cool one.

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2009 ON LEGS

Running the chubby birdlegs around 2009 has generally been stonking – one step back and two forward in terms of injury and recovery, but progress overall.  While the year hasn’t been without its run-related frustrations, generally I’m fitter and leaner than 12 months ago, and in better overall shape than for quite a while.  Slightlylessofafatfooker, in other words.

This may be a slight under-estimate (due to a switch from Windows-only Sportracks to the new Mac’s Ascent and the bleeden data incompatibility), but my final 2009 run on Wednesday morning will bring me to about 790 miles for 2009.  Less than my original goal started out at, but perfectly acceptable to me given the weeks out with leg knack earlier in the year.

That mileage includes 19 races, i.e. one race less than every 3 weeks (!):
- Three 4 milers
- Two 5 milers
- Four 10Ks
- Two 15Ks
- Five half marathons
- Three full marathons

Other non-race, memorable runs included parts I and II of JDB’s and my NYC Bridges Series.  One more part to go sometime in the new year.  Once that’s done, we should have crossed every runner-accessible bridge onto / from Manhattan, plus a few others such as a the Randall’s Island to Astoria part of the Triboro, the Roosevelt Island bridge, and the Pulaski.

The Flyers Summer Streets and pre-NYC-marathon Palisades 20 miler were both grand.  That last hill from the park drive back up to the GW Bridge in NJ was killer, but I’m sure it helped prime me for the last 10 K of the NYC Marathon. And running in the Badlands of South Dakota and along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, NM will stick in the birdbrain for a while.

The Miami and Austin marathons early doors were great events, but by then I’d run far too often and long in a short space of time.  While the run itself in Austin felt great, in hindsight it’s no surprise that two days later I could hardly walk down stairs.  What I’d thought was sciatic jip turned out to be a full on IT band tear that kept me from running over the next five weeks.  Not being able to jog for that long is mentally rough when you’ve been used to running at least 4 times a week for a year or more.  Was the smack around the chops I needed to adjust the training regime and concentrate on the body beyond the running legs.  I still came back to soon and spent a couple of weeks in the early summer dealing with shin splints.  Rest and diligent calf stretching finally healed things.

After those lessons learned, I took my sweet time building the mileage back up, only running 2 or 3 times a week,  and learning a proper set of core workout drills (grim, but rewarding).  I’d also got the message that I needed to further tweak and improve my diet and make concerted effort to lose some more of the flab.

That old cliché that you only know you’re full recovered from injury when you completely stop being aware of it turned out true.  The Queens and Staten Island half marathons ended up being the strongest I’ve ever run and it was only then I knew I was fully fit, and they were both a joy to run.  I fully recommend cycling to the start of those two too (or to the ferry in the case of SI) – a great warm up and warm down and no standing around in Flushing in the bus queue at 7 in the morning.

Those last couple of halfs set me up for NYC in November, and while I didn’t knock much off of my best marathon time, I felt stronger than ever before hitting the last 10K.  The speed of recovery over the following week was tellingly much faster too, so signs are good for future 26.2s.

LEGGING IT INTO THE NEW YEAR

So what now for 2010?  Goal one is to stay injury free.  For such a simple activity, the learning curve for the newbie runner is long and steep.  We’re all physically and physiologically different too – there’s no one-size-fits-all training plan.  Finally a few things have sunk in to my own dense noggin, and to prevent further leg knack, it’s pretty clear I need:
- a stronger core;
- to continue losing the flab which means further refining the diet;
- run less frequently, but still maintain the high overall mileage;
- not run 5 full marathons in 6 months! (just 2 in 2010).

With those in mind, I’m also more focused on a few running-related goals:

- Run at least 1000 miles total;
- Complete all 5 NYC Grand Prix half marathons (Manhattan was the only one I missed this year, so I was close);
- Continue running year ’round in all weather – toughens you up, I’m convinced;
- Qualify for NYC 2011 through NYRR’s 9+1 program;
- Run first my first relay (looks like it’ll be the Ragnar down from Woodstock)
- And while I’m loathe to be too speed oriented, it would be great to run a 1:45 half and a 4:15 full.  If the New Jersey course is flat enough, I may have a shot at the latter in May.

Last and not least, a huge thangs to all the NYC running bods who’ve provided encouragement, distraction, entertainment, and motivation – all the Joesters, Flyers, and Fred Teamsters!

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