Marathoning: Training Diary, 6/30-7/7
More training, this time with a few little races.
7/2: Cross-training? 25~ miles on the bike in a leisurely manner.
I took a spur-of-the-moment day off before the holiday and rode my bike down Flatbush to the Rockaways, in part to get some exercise, in part to check out fishing spots on Jamaica Bay. It was overcast and rained partway through the trip, but that didn’t stop me from getting a bad sunburn to start the long weekend in style.
Flatbush Avenue was busy on the way there and even busier on the way back, but once you’re over the Belt Parkway it gets quiet and the parkland starts to arrive. First off is Floyd Bennett Field, the precursor to JFK airport in New York, which is now a sports complex with some interesting areas around its periphery. The entire series of runways is overgrown but if you poke around enough you’ll find some gems. There’s an RC airplane runway and viewing area, and a group of older gentlemen were huddled under its canopied “pilot’s area” waiting out the storm on Thursday, a training area for the New York Department of Sanitation (strange small garbage trucks would occasionally dart across the runway) and a training area for the NYPD which included a beat-up ’80s-style limousine. I wound up finding the coolest thing when I was trying to get out of the heavy rains: a group dedicated to restoring historic warplanes.
The H.A.R.P. (Historic Airplane Restoration Project) is set up in Hangar B, a decrepit mess from the outside but full of interesting aircraft inside. I noticed a sign, chained up my bike and ducked in to dry off. The hangar was empty save a half-dozen gents busy restoring old aircraft, sanding parts or dunking them in a de-rust tank or just jawing with buddies.
Click through to see the whole Flickr set.
I hung around a bit to dry off then shoved on to my next destination, Jacob Riis park and one of NYC’s best beaches. After a brief toe-dip into the water I went further down to the Rockaways and Seaside then ate a chicken roll, checked out a surf shop and chatted with its interesting owner.
After that, the ride home, another pass through the mayhem on Flatbush and done.
7/4: 10k road race, 51:26, 8′17″ miles, AM
Wow, my first race. Tough and fun. Up at my parents’ lake house they do a town 4th of July race; my dad generally does it every year, and this year Juno and I were in town so I did it too.
I’m not exceedingly happy with my result–150th out of 298. The winner, who came from my age group, finished at 32:51, but I suppose it’s a good start. I had to figure out how to drink water from the cups they give you (pinch the cup until the fluid level rises then sip off the top) and how to pace myself. The course went out along the Lake Charlevoix shore for a few miles then turned back on itself; on the way back I tried to give more effort but got frustrated when a guy pushing two kids in a cart passed me. Oh well. It’s sort of tough to know how much you have left in the tank; I certainly felt fine the next day so maybe it would have been possible to push harder?
Anyway, my dad won his age group and beat me by five minutes or so. I’m pretty sure if I’m still running next year I can at least catch him.
An interesting, and maybe TMI note: I experienced the first chafing of the thighs during this race. It was a true rite of passage. Maybe because my gait was tighter and faster after the coaching session last practice, or maybe because of the general pace, but there was some post-race soreness. I’d prefer to somehow lose that extra thigh-fat but when I consulted some experts they suggested runners’ AstroGlide to keep things slick. Yipes. Next stop, nipple tape.
Observe my rictus of pain as I approach the finish, taken by the lovely Juno as she shouted encouragement:
7/6: ~4 miles on trails, ~1,000 feet of elevation change, 35-40 minutes
A fun trail run on my last day in Boyne City, this time at Avalanche Mountain. Usually I play disc golf here, there’s a nifty little woody 18 hole course, but this time we just ran up to the top of the hill. Rough.
7/67: 5k test run, 23′09″, 7.44 minute miles, plus warm-up and cool-down
The Brooklyn Team in Training coaches wanted to test us and asked us to run a hard 5k. The object of this is to figure out a good baseline training speed in relation to things like Vo2 max, the quantity of oxygen your body brings through itself during exercise. This’ll help us keep paces right as we approach our races.
I was hoping to make 7 minute miles but alas…perhaps if I’d been rested it would have been easier. Knowing from the 10k how I felt at the end of that race made it easier to gauge how much I could give during the 5k, so I went a little bit faster. We’ll see what the coaches compute for my training schedule.
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