Back to Marathon Training: Week 9 of 22

My long was run was part of my New Year's Eve celebration and amazingly enough it led to one of most exciting NYE's celebration I've ever experienced.

Through a friend I found out about the 4-mile midnight run that would happen in Central Park so I decided to make Central Park as the final destination of my long run and join the crowd of crazy people there. I chose a course that would lead me to 72nd st and CPW after 9 miles leaving home so that I would complete 13.1 miles in the end, a half-marathon!

It was great, Central Park was full of people, there was a station with Champagne (after the one with water). Since I got at CPW/72nd at around 10:45 to meet a friend who ran with me the 4 miles inside CP, we were early for the midnight run, but that was actually perfect because we ran in the empty course and afterwards we could appreciate the beginning of the run with fireworks when 2011 rang in. We stayed there and could also see the winners arriving at full speed (see video) while the fireworks were still on. It was amazing!

As for my run, I did it at a slower pace than planned, but it was good!

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After the blizzard that hit NYC last Sunday I was wondering if it would be possible for me to run outside at all soon again. Yesterday I went to Central Park to take some pictures and saw some brave runners, but it was already starting to get slippery so my conclusion was that today, Tuesday, would be a terrible choice to run. And so it was, but I went anyway. My friend Tatiana sent me a "field report" advising me to stay at home, but I decided to give it a try because I knew that staying in would only make me anxious.

But it was good that she called me, because I was going to Central Park and I guess that would have been a terrible choice. Instead I ran on the green way path along the west side, near my place, all the way through battery park. The picture on the left was my view after I stepped out the building. If you are not wearing proper shoes (and my running shoes aren't suitable for snow at all) it becomes really hard to simply cross a street. Fortunately, I've already been "educated" on spotting dark water puddles. Last year I stepped on a few, which taught me a hard lesson. They look like a thin layer of mud and get disguised by the asphalt, but their depth is enough to soak your feet. Anyway, the path was clen enough for a run, and I was so proud I was the only human being running there until a guy on a monocycle passed by. Yes, a monocycle! It felt like I would see an elephant next! And after that I saw many brave runners and felt normal again.

Battery park was completely covered with snow and I had to stop running there having covered only 8k, instead of the usual 10-11 of my tempo runs (6-7 miles). But it was great, I felt like I wanted more and this is a great feeling.

I could also check the tourists on Wall St on my way to the train station. By the way, the 1 train takes more time to get back to Times Square than it would take me running.

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Christmas time and I went for my Sprints run starting from the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a great motivation to do your training so that it takes you back home, more specifically to a hot bath after running in the cold. And now there's a lasagna waiting for me in the kitchen ;)

I took the A train to Brooklyn Bridge station, walked a bit, then warmed up over the bridge. There were lots of people there, I think there will always be.

I noticed I need more time to warm up, 10-20 minutes aren't enough in this cold, so I decided to start the sprints only after I felt I was warm enough. I also decided to run slower during the sprints and to start the recovery period with a bit of walking. Interestingly enough, I've never been so close to the sprint pace target: did them (12 in total) on an average of 4:30min/km or 7:14min/mile, target being 4:32 / 7:18.

I finally crossed 24 hours of running time since I started to count.

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PARAMETERS

	min/km	min/mi
10k pace	0:05:00	0:08:03
PMP	0:05:27	0:08:46	finish 10k	0:50:00
			finish marathon	3:49:58
Run Type	plus/minus	min/km	min/mi	explanation
Sprints	0:00:45	0:04:32	0:07:18	10k pace minus 45s per mi
Tempo	0:00:20	0:05:12	0:08:23	10k pace plus 20s per mi
PMP+15	0:00:15	0:05:36	0:09:01	long run slower pace
PMP+20	0:00:20	0:05:39	0:09:06	long run slower pace
PMP+30	0:00:30	0:05:46	0:09:16	long run slower pace
PMP+45	0:00:45	0:05:55	0:09:31	long run slower pace
PMP+60	0:01:00	0:06:04	0:09:46	long run slower pace