No photos in this update because my iPhone is acting weird and the screen is unresponsive.
QUICK POINTS
NYRR's Achilles Hope and Possibility 4 Mile
"Four Months to a Four-hour Marathon"
Upcoming training week
1. NYRR's Achilles Hope and Possibility 4 Mile
Usually, when I sign up for a race, I go to the race, run, and leave. Most of the time, I rarely know what the race is sponsoring or supporting unless it is explicitly mentioned in the race's name or on the free T-shirt. For this race I decided to stay for the post race festivities, because I wanted to win something in the raffle and I thought that my birthday luck would help out . . . it did not.
I was very please to learn that this race is to support various types of people (and runners) will different disabilities. From the NYRR's website.
The Achilles Hope & Possibility (4M), now in its 14th year, is the signature race for Achilles International, a non-profit organization that provides running and other athletic opportunities to people with disabilities.
It was very inspiring to see "handiablied" persons (many of whom are wounded vets) running or being pushed along the course for four miles. I felt really good about participating in this even, even though I did not know what it supported.
My race was kind of nice, but I hate when I think that I received a personal best only to miss it by a few seconds. According to my fitbit, I edged out a personal best, but the NYRR official results proved otherwise.
Mile 1: Started out pretty slow because the field was so packed.
Mile 2: I was really feeling my groove and made up some time that I had lost during the first mile. Plus the second mile of the course is very flat and 90% of it is shaded.
Miles 3 and 4: The west side hills of Central Park will be the death of me. I felt slower but I thought that I was running faster because I tried to incorporate fartleks during the 3rd and 4th miles. Although I am sprinting during my fartleks, I think that I may be slowing down too much for my recovery. I say this, because my Mile 3 split was about the same time as my first mile. Within the last mile, I did sprint for the last 400 meters but that split was pretty much the same as my time for Mile 2 (around 7:15). Although I enjoyed the cause of the race, I was a little disappointed in my performance. But, hey there are more races to come right?
verall stats:
Net time: 30:42
Pace per mile: 7:41
Age graded time: 30:03
Age graded %: 56.7% (early in the day, my AG% was 70.1%)
2. "Four Months to a Four-hour Marathon"
I do think think that I have EVER read a book about about running, aside from fitness random articles. I e-checked out "Four Months to a Four-hour Marathon" by Dave Kuehls. I was thinking that this book would be more about a person's journal to break a four-hour marathon, rather than a training guide. I will admit that I pretty much randomly checked it out. That being said, I did pick up some extra training tips that will prepare me for Montreal in September.
It was a quick and easy read; I think that I finished it in an 1.5 hour subway commute. Of course, I skipped a few chapters. For example, I skipped the chapter regarding dressing for the cold, because I am training in the SUMMER. Also, a lot of the book consists of various training plans which I kind of blew through because I am somewhat content with my current training plan. I will say that Kuehls explained several concepts that are necessary in marathon training. Some of these explained concepts included:
Why tempo runs are important and must be done once a week.
Why long runs should be completed at a slower pace than you want for your marathon. I actually have been going about this the wrong way. Meaning, I have been trying to do my long-run to match what time I want to clear for the main event. Although I think that his pacing for the long runs may be TOO slow, but the general concept makes sense.
The importance of track runs in your training plan.
All in all this was a nice one-size-fits all type of book, which would best be used by someone who i just starting out in the sport. I am willing to bet that after running for a year or more, a person already knows what clothes to wear based on the weather, what to eat, when to drink water, etc. I think that I will give the book a once over again just to see if I want to add some of his training suggestions into my current training plan.
3. Upcoming training week
The training continues:
Tuesday: Fast Finish Run: 4.5 miles easy + 0.5 miles hard
Wednesday: Foundation Run: 4 miles easy
Thursday: Cross Training
Friday: Fartlek Run: 5 miles easy with eight 15'' hard sprints