Harder, better, faster, stronger

Intervals, fartleks, tempo runs, Yassos, strides, repeats, taper. For those not familiar with running jaragon, all these terms can seem a little obscure, weird, and some downright funny sounding. However, becoming a good runner requires more than just lacing up your shoes and going out on that same old, same old 3 miler. Muscles quickly adapt to exercise routines, and therefore it's important to spice up your running workouts with different distances, speeds, and terrain in order to keep your progress from plateauing.

Today, I'm going to wax poetically about the tempo run. Whether you're training for your first 5K, already a 10K champion, or building marathon endurance, tempo runs are the best way to become a faster, stronger runner. How can a single workout be so versatile? Tempo runs teach the body how to sustain speed over distance by training at a speed that's close to the lactate threshold, the point when lactic acid begins to accumulate in the blood. It's really as simple as that. Most tempo workouts typically prescribe a 20 minute (or 2-3 mile) run at tempo pace, along with a mile or two warm-up and cool down. If you're training for a longer distance, well naturally the length you run at tempo pace needs to be longer. For example, those preparing for the grueling 26.2 miles of a marathon should work up to running long runs with 8 to 10 miles (or longer if you're super awesome) at tempo pace.

Now what is tempo pace, you ask? Most coaches and running experts state that tempo runs should be at a "comfortably difficult pace." Well that's not very helpful. I'll spare you the more boring, technical details of determining your pace based on heart rate or lactate threshold. Basically, you know you're running at threshold pace when it feels like you're working hard, probably could hold a one or two-liner conversation, but definitely no singing, which as Greg has pointed out (aka made fun of me) I am fond of doing on long, slow runs. Hey, it helps me gauge my level of exertion. See, there is a method to my madness! Note: tempo pace should NOT be running as fast as you can like we used to do during elementary school when everyone was sent to flail around the track for a mile once a semester. Save the all out sprints for interval training.

If you're interested, definitely check out these two articles for some great pointers on different running workouts:

• Running Shorts posted a solid glossary to running workout basics that I definitely recommend as a good primer
• Runner's World discusses specific tempo runs designed for all levels of running experience

What's your favorite running workout? How funny is the word fartlek (yes, I am a five-year old)?

So. Back to running. Last night I had plans to meet up with Christine (who's running the Chicago marathon this fall!!) and Camille for a boozey Georgetown reunion/lovefest. Between work, dinner, and errands, I was left with only an hour to cram in my scheduled 5-6 mile tempo run. No matter, sometimes having a packed schedule can be a great motivator to speed things up! I started off with 2 miles warm-up at a 8:50 mm pace, which felt very comfortable. I had my trusty knee strap on and didn't even feel a twinge of pain thank GOD. Notched up the pace to 8:00 mm for the next 3 miles followed by a half mile cool down at 9:20 mm. Probably should have had a longer cool down, but I was already running a skotch late so had to cut it short.

All in all, ran 5.5 miles with minimal knee pain. Definitely a victory! Not going to push my luck though, so I'll stick with my responsible (read: boring) resolution to run no more than 4 times a week for a bit longer. Tonight, yoga and the elliptical perhaps?

Great success!

Highlights of a fantastic weekend:

1. Engaged in healthy decisions for once and pregamed the 15K with a trip to the Korean spa in Flushing with the girls on Saturday. Sweated out any residual toxins/alcohol and loosened up my muscles in the 195degree sauna! Despite a brief freak-out when forced to go into the naked only shower/bath area, yesterday was delightfully relaxing and a great way to rest up before a long race. On the way back, there was no way Dasha and I were going to pass up a return trip to the Golden Mall (aka the most amazing place in the world) to get some authentic Chinese food. Yummy hand-pulled noodles and stuffed pork bao buns were the perfect carboloading for today.

2. Made it through the 15K without blowing out my knees! Low standards, I know, but seriously, I was crazy nervous earlier this week about the prospect of running 9.3 hilly miles in Central Park without incurring (additional) serious injury. Think my awesome new knee strap helped quite a bit. Not exactly the foxiest look out there but the straps did their job and kept my patellar tendon slightly in place. The pain only hit hard around mile 5 when it was time to climb back up Cougar Hill for the second time. Gutted it out and came in at 1:31, around a 9:45 pace. Pretty much the same pace as the 10 miler a month ago, but aerobically I felt that I could have gone a lot faster. Good to know for when my knees finally heal!

3.. Greg ROCKED the race and left slow-poke me behind to finish in 1:21, a 8:40 pace. Very impressive, especially since he's only been seriously running for around 3 months. Gonna keep that up for 56 miles at Comrades?

Up next: long runs in Alexandria next weekend and the NYRR/JPM Run as One four-miler in the Park on April 11th. Greg's sitting this one out as he'll be too busy getting his blackout on at a bachelor party in Philly, but the GTS runchers will be turning up for a short run then our typical AYCD brunch.

Easy as one, two, three?

Runner's World recently posted an interesting and helpful guide to running your first ultramarathon. Calling on the expertise of several ultra veterns, the RW article offers some great tips on planning, training, nutrition, race day, and recovery. Although Greg and I may be violating one or two of their tips (picking a race close to home is for WIMPS!), by and large it sounds like we're on track. This spring and summer we'll both be working on steadily building up our training to a fall marathon, peppering our calendars with several half-marathons and shorter races. While neither of us are entirely injury free currently, we've played it pretty smart by cutting back mileage, crosstraining, and stretching like crazy. So hopefully we won't end up like this Comrades runner...

The plethora of how-to ultra guides and advice columns are definitely great, don't get me wrong, but it still doesn't diminish the fact that running an ultra is downright intimidating. A quick peek at the training plans posted on the Comrades' website offers a glimpse of what fall and next spring holds. 60K long runs on the weekend, three or more four hour runs a week - no big deal, right? Ha. I hear my social life dying a slow, painful death. I think the massive time commitment demanded by ultra training will be the most difficult aspect of the process for me, you know besides running 56 miles straight. As the old adage goes, New York City never sleeps and there's always a million new restaurants to try, neighborhoods to explore, free open bars to find, or cooking classes to take. I'll have to put some of my other adventures on the back burner in the latter half of the year with my fingers crossed that the Comrades experience will be everything I've built it up to be.

In the meanwhile, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow I'll be running my face off!

Food for thought

Literally. In case you didn't know by now, one of the few things I love more than running is food and as a runner is especially important to stay properly fueled with lots of carbohydrates and protein. Enter granola and Greek yogurt. My roommate and I should take out stock in Fage given the amount we go through in a week. And I'm the same with granola, which is often my breakfast, dinner, snack, you name it. However, this little food addiction adds up pretty quickly. Sadly I'm not exactly equipped to make my own yogurt (next life goal!), but granola? Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Even our tiny little oven can handle that.

Crunchy delicious granola

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and King Arthur Flour

The original recipe molds the granola into little chewy bars. The first time I tried the recipe that was my intended goal; however, after a little bit of fortuitous over-baking they were not the chewy bars SK had raved about. Blessing in disguise! After crumbling up the crispy bars, I discovered some of the best granola I've ever had. The maple syrup and sugar caramelizes into deliciousness without becoming too sweet and the recipe can hold a TON of fruit and nuts - perfect for breakfast or a pre-run snack.

1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats

1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar (use more for a sweetness akin to most purchased granola)

1/3 cup oat flour (or 1/3 cup oats, processed till finely ground in a food processor or blender)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 to 3 cups dried fruits and nuts (total of 10 to 15 ounces)*

1/3 cup peanut butter or another nut butter (optional)

6 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup honey or maple syrup

* My fave is 1 cup raisins, 1 cup dried apricots, 1/2 cup wheat germ, 1/2 cup pecans, 1/2 cup hazelnuts, and 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes. Honestly, you can pretty much throw anything into this recipe and it'll still be good. Okay, maybe not anything.... Pretty sure you wouldn't want PBR granola.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8″ x 8″ x 2″ pan in one direction with parchment paper, allowing it to go up the opposing sides. Lightly grease the parchment paper and the exposed pan, or coat with a non-stick spray.

Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit and nuts. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted butter or oil, liquid sweeteners and water. Toss the wet ingredients with the dry (and peanut butter, if you’re using it) until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Spread in the prepared pan, pressing them in firmly to ensure they are molded to the shape of the pan.

Bake the bars for 40 to 50 minutes, until they’re brown around the edges — don’t be afraid to get a little color on the tops too. They’ll seem soft almost underbaked when you press into the center of the pan but do not worry, they’ll set completely once completely cool.

Cool the bars in their pan completely on a cooling rack. (Alternately, after about 20 minutes you can use your parchment “sling” to lift and remove the granola, and place them in their paper on the rack to cool the rest of the way. This can speed the process up.)

Once cool, a serrated knife (or bench knife) to crumble the granola. It should break pretty easily at this point so you can even use your hands. To store, wrap the bars individually in plastic or stack them in an airtight container. In humid weather, it’s best to store bars in the refrigerator. They also freeze well. Assuming it lasts that long.

What's your favorite afternoon snack?

Spring is in the air!

And I've fallen in love with New York City all over again. Something about hyacinths and outdoor runs in shorts and a tank top restores my faith in humanity.

On Friday, I took the day off from work (!!!) to take care of some long overdue errands / get my life in a semblance of working order. Mission moderately accomplished; however, the 70 degree weather distracted me from getting a new passport. After two hours in the DMV line, the prospect of another encounter with bureaucracy at its worst was unimaginable. Instead, I was lured over to the East River Park to do some of serious speed work. Did two miles warm-up at half-marathon pace (9:20) then did 6 x 400m at 5k pace (8:45) with 200m recovery. Followed that up with a one mile cool down along the East River.

All in all, didn't feel horrible, which isn't saying much considering I haven't done any serious intervals for a few weeks. Last week, I limited my runs to a few short, slow 4-5 milers. Not very fun, but practical considering the state of my knees. However, with this weekend's 15K rapidly approaching I wanted to gauge where my pace was at and also decide if I needed to sit this race out. As much as I've been looking forward to running a race that ISN'T during a snowpocalypse, can't justify blowing out my knee due to stubbornly ignoring my pain. My (overly?) ambitious goals of running my first marathon this fall and the Comrades in 2011 are just slightly dependent on having functioning joints.

What are your running/exercise goals for 2010?

Running was the last thing on my mind Saturday as I nursed the hangover from hell, but by Sunday I was hydrated, rested, and ready to go! Set out in the afternoon over to the East River and ran up past Stuytown and Peter Cooper to tack on an extra mile then turned around to head down to the Battery. I think all of NYC was out for a run/walk/bike/etc yesterday afternoon, including 5 million tourists who would NOT GET OUT OF MY WAY. Angstangst. Headed uptown along the Westside Highway for a few miles than cut across town on Houston St. to head back to my apartment. Used the stop and go of running city blocks as a chance to throw in some intervals. Ran at 5K pace until I hit a stop light - definitely took some effort since my legs were pretty tired by that point. Ended up running a skotch over 10 miles at ~9:50. Nothing spectacular in terms of time, which was fine since it was supposed to be a long slow run. Major victory that my knees didn't hurt too badly the next day thanks to icing and dosing with Mortin like a semi-responsible person.

After yesterday's long run, I'm feeling pretty solid that I'll be able to finish the 15K without screwing up my knees further (knock on wood). However, I'm going to have to wave goodbye to my goal of running the race at a ~8:50 pace. Sadly that will have to be left for another day, perhaps the Brooklyn Half Marathon in May!

Run Tracking

One of the most important parts of running is tracking your runs - how else do you know if you're on target for your goals, burning enough calories, or having enough fun?

Monica has always been completely old-school about this, keeping detailed notes in a journal like the 12-year-old girl she is at heart. I, being the tremendous geek I am, have always been looking for a techy, geeky way.

We both tried the Nike+ SportBand. For me, it has worked flawlessly for the past two months, and I've managed to track almost every out-door run I've done with it. However, it was a complete non-starter for Monica - never tracking accurately, stopping tracking in the middle of runs, and such. So I'd say, at best, it's hit-or-miss. The other downside of the service is that, whilst the user website is pretty, it's pretty-damn useless unless you want to do the 5 things they prescribe you to do. Your data is locked up inside it - you can't export it to another format (excel, xml) you can't get RSS feeds of activity to load into other website; basically you can't touch YOUR data outside of THEIR site.

Thus, I've been on the look-out, for a while, for something a little better. Today, after forgetting my sportband at home, I decided to try RunKeeper - an iPhone app. In a word, it is incredible. It was far more accurate than the sportband (as long as you get good GPS signal) allows you to own, extract and share your own data; and spiffily shows all of your runs automatically overlaid on Google Maps like such:



And the really great thing - they're currently testing a feature to give live updating of your runs on the web, so whilst you're out doing that marathon, your friends can check in on your progress.

Currently the only downside I can see is that having GPS on REALLY drains your battery, so it's probably no good for runs over an hour long, unless you've got a Mophie JuicePack.

If you already have an iPhone, this is a no-brainer. It's the best $10 I've spent all week - aside from my first  St. Patty's day pitcher tonight, of course!

Running Music Mixes

Every runner has their  audio entertainment preference when running. It probably changes from run to run, day to day, and what type of training you're doing. There are few things that can kill your desire to run more than boredom - hence the reason treadmills and winter are my anti-Christ. Music, or some other audio entertainment (recordings of people feeding tigers) is essential to keep your spirits up, and also importantly, keeping you running at the right pace.

So, what are my personal choices here? On the long, standard training runs, medium pace, I am in constant need of geeky, nerdy, downright pornographically pocket-protecting tech talk. Rather than keeping my mind focused on breathing and pace, it keeps my mind OFF of the fact that it's having to be idle for an hour or two. Luckily, great talk shows (in categories as varied as you can imagine - and yes Monica, there are "adult" categories) are extremely easy to locate, by way of the Podcasts section in iTunes. It hosts literally hundreds of thousands of free shows. One click to subscribe, and the new episodes are downloaded automatically to you iPod as soon as they're available. Careful, it's an addiction that can be hard to break (like peeps - topical time of year social reference!)

A few of my favourites:

• You look nice today - comedy
• This week in Tech - geekery
• MacBreak Weekly - Mac geekery
• Security Now - serious propeller-hat stuff
• The Skeptic's guide to the Universe - science (with an anti-pseudoscience edge)
• Stuff you should know, from HowStuffWorks.com - damn interesting
• The Disciplined Investor - finance

Falling into this "spoken-word" category are also audio books, and here there really is no other source than Audible.com. They have a fantastic collection (in categories as varied as you can imagine - and yes Monica, there are "adult" categories) My current recommended book is definitely Richard Wiseman's - 59 Seconds

But sometimes you're doing a faster run, trying for a specific time, or just want to turn your brain off for a while. Then, music is always a good choice. For me, the more euro-trashy the better. In this arena, you have a couple of options:

• The iPod shuffle (dangerous if you happen to have Kylie Minogue in your collection because of the summer of 2000 when you were obsessed with the way she smiled in the middle of the video to "Spinning Around"; penned by Paula Abdul, the second single from her triple platinum busting album "Light Years", posted below for your enjoyment)
  
• You can make your own playlists - if you have an inordinate amount of time on your hands
• You can hunt down pre-mixed sessions. I haven't yet found a good central repository of these, but there are a few good options:
• Sinanation - a turkish DJ in NY who generally lets you download his mixes - his latest, Apres-Ski is great:
  Après-ski by sbastas
• Running Music Mix - has pre-made mixes for pay, but also categorizes songs by BPM and style, useful if you want to put a bunch of songs together for a certain pace
• Nike+ mixes - Also for pay, but generally great stuff

Any other ideas for places to get great running music?

Shout out!

To Tom Vargas! Who's jumped on the marathoning bandwagon and started his own running blog to catalog his adventures (clearly I'm a gchat stalker). Tom and his friend Julia have committed to running a marathon in 5 months - very impressive.

Tom's comments on only halfheartedly committing to running in the past very much struck home for me. I was definitely a running commitment-phobe during college, going through spurts of running multiple times a week then wimping out for the next few months. I mean who wouldn't want to go for a run when spring and cherry blossoms are in the air or as the foliage changes to red and gold along the C&O Canal? However life, theses, extracurriculars, and The Tombs frequently interfered with any grandiose running plans I had while at Georgetown. Let's not even talk about the number of Army Ten Milers I signed up for and didn't run... Shame spiral. In retrospect, I don't necessarily regret taking so long to discover my passion for running since any serious training may have impeded my ability to take part in Monday Night Flip Cup, 80s Night, crazy MUN trips, and so many other activities that were fundamental parts of my college experience. But with so many of my friends getting into running or bumping it up to long distance these days (Emi, Kim, Tom, Christine, Christina, and more!!), have to say it would have been super fun for us all to have done a race together at Georgetown. And go daydrinking after. Oh well, just means we'll have to coordinate training/race schedules now!

Anyways, check out Tom's blog and cheer him on at Brooks Men's Switch 3! And Tom, watch out buddy, I just may show up in DC and force you to go running with me :)

Getting back on the horse

After taking the last week and a half off from running in a futile attempt to nurse my knee back to health, I AM BACK. Well to blogging that is. The first run back last night was rather frustrating as 1. it was NOT very springlike out aka far too cold/windy/rainy/nasty to be running in shorts and t-shirt outside and, more importantly, 2. my knee started flaring up literally half a mile down the Westside Highway. I carried on and did around four miles, not nearly as far as I would have liked to go but I didn't want to overdue it and miss out on gorgeous outdoor runs later this week. It's going to be 68 degrees on Thursday!!! This fact warrants many many exclamation points.

What are you looking forward to as the weather finally starts to warm up?

Either way, I think it's time I bite the bullet and go see a sports therapist to get my knee checked out. It feels like cotton balls are being pulled apart under my knee cap - that's not normal right? Clearly proved that I'm capable of running through the pain but it's not exactly an ideal or sustainable situation. In the meanwhile, I'll limit my running to only 2 times a week (super sadface) and continue crosstraining. Unfortunately, my forays into non-running workouts over the past week have by and large left me unsatisfied and longing to lace up my shoes and go for a jog around Tompkins Square Park. I've tried to focus on activities that will maintain my aerobic fitness while targeting key muscles that need to be rebalanced. In other words, loosen up my calves and hamstrings.

Here's the rundown:

1. Power Vinyasa Yoga: Brushed off my very under-used yoga mat and trotted up St. Mark's to Yoga to the People a few times last week. Tip to anyone who lives in the area - this place is AWESOME (albeit pretty intense). The studio offers free yoga classes with just a $2 mat rental fee and a suggested donation of whatever you can afford. I have yet to be a class that wasn't jam packed so be sure to show up at least 15 minutes before class begins. Luckily they have a ton of sessions even a 9pm one for us late working banker girls. Vinyasa is one of the most aerobic types of yoga, which is perfect for me since I am not well suited to sit around and say 'Ohm' for an hour. ADD, whaaat? And although the YTTP studio isn't heated, with so many people it definitely gets ridiculously hot Bikram style and you work up a mad sweat.
Overall: A- for a good aerobic workout and much needed stretching out of my hamstrings. Slight drawback of utterly embarrassing myself in the camel asana.

2. Elliptical: Ugh. Okay, I know that ellipticals are good for knee injuries since you can closely mimic the motion of running with no pressure on your joints. Fine. But does it have to be so boring? Also, the elliptical basically exercise the same muscles used in running thus failing to strengthen my quads in order to balance out the posterior thigh muscles. Fail.
Overall: C- for being really boring, not strengthening underused muscles, and making me feel like a Jane Hoya at Yates.

3. Stationary Bike: While the bike maybe equally boring, at least I can get a solid workout when the resistance is ramped up. And, more importantly, the bike is the perfect way to target lateral and medial quad muscles with minimal strain on my knee. Might try my first spin class this week to mix things up.
Overall: B for offering a decent workout and meeting most of my crosstraining goals. Still find myself staring jealously at the runners after the first 20 minutes of biking...

Up next: NYRR Colon Cancer Challenge 15K in Central Park on March 28! Sadly the race has already reached it's cap, but Smithies and I would definitely be happy to see some of y'all at the finish line! Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I'm good to go in two weeks...

Double trouble

Citi: 3, Monica: 0. Was held hostage in my cubicle (see: shamble photo) again yesterday and forced to skip out on my planned 7 mile run. Angstangstangst. I probably could have hustled down to the gym at one point in the afternoon, but was way too paranoid that my boss would call halfway through my run and then I'd have to sprint up to a meeting nice and sweaty. Not so professional. What spandex isn't appropriate office attire? Lies.

Oh well, I made up for it today by sneaking in two runs. Mwuahahaa. Straggled back to the office this morning before 7am to pound out some work and, more importantly in my opinion, a few miles at the gym (lovely photo below). Logged six miles at what felt like a turtle's pace (9:50 - 10:00) compared to all the speedwork I've been doing the past month. However, it was a chance to check my form and see what I could do to ease this reoccurring knee pain. Not much, apparently, but I did discover that my stride is actually a lot faster than I thought. Endurance running is all about being as efficient as possible, so it's important to minimize over-striding (i.e. covering too much ground in each stripe). Elite/legit runners usually have a turnover rate of 178 to 184 a minute. If you're interested/as nerdy as I am, Runner's World had a really interesting article on how run faster by making your stride more efficient. Anyways, I counted out my stride and it turns out it's consistently between 170 to 172 - way better than I thought. Could obviously still use some tweaking but always nice to have empirical evidence of improvement.

Second run of the day was a smidge more intense... One of the "nice" things about running doubles is that your legs are more fatigued for the second run so it helps the body get accustomed to how the latter miles of a long race feel. Or least that's what I kept telling myself when I thought my quads were on fire. Started off with a warm-up mile at 9:20 to get the blood moving and then ran intervals 4 x 800 at 5K pace (~ 8:20) with 400m recovery at 10K pace (~9:05) followed by an easy mile to cool down. 11 miles total for the day - take that Citi! Can't let the man get you down. The knee held up okay but I think I'll stop behaving like an idiot and let it rest up for 48 hours. Ice ice, baby.

A few pointers on dipping your toes into the realm of running doubles. Multiple runs in a day may sound crazy, but if you're short on time to do a long run in one fell swoop or really looking to up your training, there are definitely some benefits. But first, start off slow! Don't do doubles multiple days in a row and you may even want to ease into it by running for the first workout and then doing cross-training later in the day. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time (at least 5 to 6 hours) between workouts and fuel up. I devoured Greek yogurt and granola post run then leftover Vietnamese from last night for lunch. Mmmmm pho to face.

Question of the day: What's your favorite cross-training workout? I need a little (read: a lot) of inspiration since I'll have to stick to non running workouts as I rest/ice/chop off my knee for the next day or two. Boooo. There are few things worse than the cyclebike...

Weekly revelation: Missed runs equal cranky Monica

Apologizes for being a total slacker at posting over the past week. A manic week at work devoured all free time and any motivation to even look at a computer at night after living in front of one at the office. Promise to inundate y'all with my word vomit at least a few times this week.

So. About that running. Forced myself to take last Monday and Tuesday off after the back-to-back races. My knee has been acting up a bit the past couple weeks so I figured it was best to give it a little rest before throwing myself back into training. 4 weeks till the 15K and given my recent times I think it's totally possible to hit a sub-8:45 pace if I stick with the training plan. Oh and don't blow out my knee. Last thing I need is a case of ITB syndrome. Unfortunately, speaking of injuries, Smithies was taking it easy last week and sat out Sunday's 4 mile race in Prospect Park as it's looking more and more like he's got a bad case of planters fasciitis, which does not bode well for his running mission. Hopefully with a little more R&R he'll be back out on the road! I don't know how he's holding up - literally two days sans running had me going bat shit psycho. More so than usual.

Fast forward to Sunday, which was the NYRR Al Gordon 4 miler in Prospect Park. Great turn-out with over 9,000 runners braving the cold and icy paths. Luckily no falling tree branches (several people were killed in Central Park this week...) but the sidewalk and asphalt were definitely slick with black ice. The race route followed the same loop from last weekend's 10 miler, but rather than starting on a slight downhill, the 4 miler threw us smack onto the steepest incline for the first mile. Didn't mind getting it out of the way early on, but probably started out a bit fast, especially for uphill, clocking ~8:10 for at the first mile marker. Mile two was a series of undulating hills and by that point my right knee was being pretty vocal that I need to start doing freaking FLAT RACES. No more of this hilly crap - Comrades, what? Pretty much straight downhill for the third mile and then climbed a long gradual hill to the finish line. Finished in ~35 minutes at a bit over a 8:45 minute pace. Not too shabby and my best race finish yet for a 4 miler!

After the race, my legs were feeling pretty fresh so I decided to go on a scenic tour through Brooklyn and run home. Not that I exactly knew where I was going or anything as is pretty clear from the meandering route on the map... Only intended to run 7 to 8 miles back, but I got slightly detoured on Vanderbilt Avenue so the long run came out closer to 10 miles. Oops? Had fun exploring Prospect Heights though and discovered some super yummy looking restaurants that need to be tested (Le Gamin anyone?). Of course by this point, everything looked tasty because I was STARVING. Really should have eaten more of the post-race bagel since I was definitely not fueled up enough to run 10 miles. Minor details. It was my first time running across the Manhattan Bridge - lovely view up the river of Manhattan and luckily the bridge wasn't too swarmed with touristas since it was still pretty early in the morning. Once back on the island, just popped over to my standard running path along the East River, waved goodbye to Brooklyn and pushed the last couple of miles up to 10K pace (~9:00mm). All in all, almost 14 miles for the day so more than made up for the missed runs during the week!

Later in the day, I definitely made up for the lack of food with two lunches and then the Taste of 7th Street, where I snagged some arepas, a porchetta sandwich, lobster roll, two cupcakes, and a few beers for just $18. Amazing! If you haven't explored the ethnic culinary greatness of E7th St between Ave A and 1st Ave, do so immediately! It is a foodie's dream. And apparently a great place to get your eat on after long runs.

Up next: no races this weekend! Will do a long run on Saturday or Sunday and a few tempo runs this week to keep whittling away at my times. I have no doubt that work will give me plenty of frustration to pound out on a fast treadmill run...