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I completed the ING NYC Marathon yesterday with a finish time of 3 hours, 16 minutes and 58 seconds. This is my best finish time for a marathon, an improvement of about ten minutes over the last NY Marathon I did in 2006.

In the spring of 2008 I ran the NJ Marathon in Long Branch with a finish time of 3:46:28, so my time in NY is actually a 30 minute improvement in a harder race, just seven months later.

Next time I run the NY Marathon, I must remember to bring a sleeping bag and/or thermal foil. Waiting in the cold at the base of the Verazzano Narrows bridge for four hours before the start of the race is quite a task. Unfortunately, there is no way around this since runners in the first wave must catch the mid-town bus at 5am to get to Staten Island before 7am when the bridge is closed off to traffic. There are a few large tents which fill to capacity very quickly. But they are not heated; they just help block some of the cold wind. I snapped a few photos of the staging area with a disposable camera, since it’s an experience I don’t think is fully appreciated 🙂

It’s finally here. Tomorrow at 9:40am is the start for the first wave competitors in the ING NYC Marathon. I’m running in the first wave, race number 8025. My progress can be monitored real-time here: http://fanalert.ingnycmarathon.org/Alerts.aspx.

My goal is to finish in 3:10, which is 16 minutes faster than my last New York marathon finish time. It will certainly be a challenge, but I’m ready to take it on! Thanks to a co-worker at Dow Jones, Michelle LaRoche-Gould, who tracked down an even-effort pacing chart, I know exactly what pace to run each mile. The spreadsheet is truly a work of art. Check it out here: NYCMarathonPacing.xls

I believe this has been my best training season. I ate much better this season (including more protein). I did every training run on my schedule and really worked hard during the speed workouts. I also did lots of cross training on my non-running days — much of which was core training. I also stayed mostly injury free. I have a minor shin splint which I’m hoping won’t affect my performance — usually I don’t feel the discomfort until after the race.

The weather looks good for tomorrow and I’m all packed. I’m heading off to the train station now.

ING — here I come.

Tomorrow is my last 20 mile training run before the NY Marathon on November 2, 2008. The remaining two weekends consist of shorter and shorter “long runs”, as part of my scheduled taper. I believe the last two long runs include a 12 mile run on the 19th and an eight mile jaunt on the 26th.

I decided to travel to Long Beach Island for my training run tomorrow. I’ll compete in the 18 Mile Race. Once I cross the finish line I plan to double back to mile marker 17, then make my way back to the finish to complete the full 20 miles. My training schedule calls for a 7:38 pace, which is 23 seconds slower than my target pace for the marathon. It will be a challenge, but I’m ready for it. I did this course last year with a finish time of 2:53:05; I remember it was very warm that day for a 10:30 am run.

This past week I ran eight miles on Tuesday, did six miles of speed work on Thursday, and ran seven miles on Friday. Thursday’s speed work included a warm up, followed by a three mile fartlek run at a 6:18 pace, then a cool down. I did this on the treadmill. To make the speed work more challenging, I did a 45 minute core workout just prior to the run. This included the regimen below. Yesterday I ran the seven mile course (gmap-pedometer is great) at a 7:29 pace with the last mile at 7:07. Then I left work at a reasonable hour for the first time in many months to make it to my evening karate class.

What follows is the core-body workout I did on Thursday. The first part I like to call “Don’t put down the plate.”

Holding a 25 pound plate, repeat the following exercises three times:

1. Front raises x 12
2. In place forward lunges with twist x 12
3. Squat and tap the plate on the ground, lift and press the plate overhead x 10
4. Reverse raises x 12 (Standing position, start with plate overhead and arms locked, slowly lower the plate until the arms are parallel to the floor, and return to overhead position)
5. Side bends (hold plate at right side, left arm over top of head, bend at waist to the right, lowering the plate to the ankle and return; after 10 switch sides); each side x 10
6. Overhead tricep extension x 12
7. Hold the plate directly in front with arms locked for as long as possible (I try to do this in front of a mirror so I can keep my eyes trained on my reflection through the hole in the plate)
8. Between each set, put down the plate and do six pull ups, then hold the pull up position as long as possible.

Repeat three times:

1. Jump from the floor onto the rounded side of the bosu and do a squat; jump back to the floor and back to the bosu with no pause, x 12
2. Push-ups with one arm on the bosu, switching arms between each push-up x 10

Repeat three times:

1. Suitcase squats with the kettlebells, standing on the bosu, x 10
2. Bent over rows with kettlebells, standing on the bosu, x 10
3. Upright rows with the kettlebells, standing on the bosu, x 10 

Repeat three times:

1. Static hold for as long as possible in a modified push-up position; hands positioned away from the body making a 30 to 45 degree angle with the floor 
2. Double-arm dead cleans into push presses with the kettlebells, x 10
3. V-sits with feet on the stability ball, x 10

Families’ treasured homes are forclosed; very personal belongings are left for the landfill, lawns turn brown and pools turn into green mosquito-breeding lagoons. A very sad state of affairs.

http://kcet.org/socal/2008/09/foreclosure-alley.html

I did a timed training circuit yesterday. It was great — especially with the squat thrusts mixed in! I would like to do this routine more often. Here’s the breakdown:

1. 1 mile sprint at about 5:20 pace (on the treadmill)
2. 50 body weight squats
3. 25 push ups
4. 50 sit ups
5. 15 pull ups
6. 20 squat thrusts
7. 50 more body weight squats
8. 25 more push ups
9. 15 more pull ups
10. 20 more squat thrusts
11. 1 mile sprint at 6:00 pace (on the treadmill)

My total time was about 20 minutes and 15 seconds. I have to consider the fact that I ran 16 miles the day prior, which surely affected my performance. After that, I threw around the kettlebells a bit. I did three sets of one-arm kettlebell snatches, and three sets of double-arm dead cleans into push presses. Between sets, I did v-sits and stability ball passes.

Today I ran my obligatory eight miles. My legs were burnt out a bit after yesterday’s sprints, but I pushed through and finished in about 63 minutes. Tomorrow is a rest day (sort of). I have a short warm-up jog, then karate training at 5am, but no serious running scheduled.

Thursday I’ll be in NYC but need to fit in an eight mile run. I think I’ll bring along some workout clothes and run around battery park and along West Side Highway. Should be a nice change of scenery.

One week ago was the Philadelphia Distance Run. I improved my time from last year by a bit more than three minutes. Finish time was 1:36:18. I expected better, but wasn’t really tapered having run 20 miles seven days prior and having done seven miles of speedwork just three days prior. Unfortunately, if this half-marathon is an indicator of my performance on Nov 2 at the ING NYC Marathon, I won’t hit my 3:10 mark. I need to dig deeper with my training.

And so I think I have — all my runs were outdoor except for the speed work. I ran an eight mile “easy run” on Tuesday (two days after the half-marathon) in 61 minutes. On Thursday I did speed work: 6 miles total, 4 x 1600 at 6:07… only possible because I was on the treadmill. On Friday I ran 7 miles in 51:27 — in the rain. I felt great though and think the rain helped.

This morning I started my 16 mile long run just before 6am. 20 minutes into the run, the rain came. And the rain never stopped. Sure, it keeps you cool but ’tis a bit of a drag running 16 miles in the rain. The sun never peeked through the clouds during my run. My performance was good — first four miles at an 8 minute pace, then slowed the pace to about 8:20-something.  I haven’t uploaded my garmin stats yet but I finished in 2:13. That’s two runs back to back in the rain. Yesterday I trained twice — an hour of karate at Gold’s and two hours of karate at the dojo. And my core training during the week is really making a difference – I feel more solid during my runs.

I tried something new today — I carried gatorade with me. In the past when I drank gatorade on the race course, it sat in my stomach like a rock. But I think I’m finally ready to take advantage of all the positive things it supposedly does for you during long runs. I plan to use gatorade in the NYC Marathon so I need to get used to it. The first few drinks I took today were unwelcome, as I’m used to simple water, but I adjusted. I carried a 24 ounce bottle of grape G2 and came close to finishing it. After the run, I downed two servings of muscle milk, finshed the gatorade, and drank another 20 ounces of water or so. I wasn’t dehydrated (as evident by my “color” during elimination) — I was just very thirsty. Through the remainder of the day, my hunger was insatiable. I think I may have consumed too many calories, but the bulk of them were good calories.

Next week’s training schedule is a relatively light one, but I have some extracurricular runs squeezed in. The sked calls for 8 miles on Tue, 8 miles on Thursday, 7 miles on Friday and 7 miles on Sunday. I’m running the JP Morgan Championship run (3.5 miles) Saturday with the News Corporation team. The race is on Park Ave in NYC at 9am. And tomorrow I’m doing a performance test, which includes two one-mile sprints. It will be interesting to see how that goes, the day after a 16 mile long run.

I had a good long run yesterday. A good friend Bill joined me for the 20 mile training run. This was his first 20 mile run and he did awesome. I used gmap-pedometer to map out the course from the Lawrenceville Gold’s gym parking lot, along Village road to Old Trenton Road, then three miles into Mercer Country Park, and back to the starting point.

The weather was perfect! We started the run about 4:30am so there were not many cars on the road and the temperature was still very cool.

Nice Run Bill! Thanks for coming out hours before the sun and putting in the miles with me.

Here are the details and splits. We kicked at the end and pulled off some negative splits. Mile 12 was higher because we stopped for a water and orange slice break.

Elevation Gain (ft): +4,087 / -4,067
Pace: 8:58 mins/mile
Total Time: 3hr 01min 35sec

And here is the route on motion-based, uploaded from my Garmin 405:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6657086

I’ve been meaning to watch Randy’s last lecture for some time. Today I found an hour to spend (being on vacation) and really appreciated it. You will too – but if you don’t have an hour to spend, watch the “Reprisal on Oprah” which clocks in at about 11 minutes.

Full Speech: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams (1:16:27)

Repirsal on Oprah (11:32)

Here are some choice quotes from the speech, in no particular order:

• Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.
• Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals.
• When you’re screwing up and nobody bothers to tell you anymore, they’ve stopped caring.
• Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
• Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things. They also separate us from the people who don’t really want to achieve their dreams.
• Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you.
• Don’t bail – the best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap.
• Get a feedback loop, and listen to it.
• Don’t complain; just work harder.
• Decide if you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore
• Get others to help you:
  Karma – tell the truth, be earnest, apologize when you screw up, focus on others – not yourself.
• Apologizing has three parts: 1) I’m sorry 2) it was my fault 3) How can I make it right?
• Be good at something: it makes you valuable.
• Work hard… People ask him how he succeeded and earned tenure so early; he explained “call me at 10pm on Friday in my office and I’ll tell you.”
• Find the best in everybody; no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it.
• Be prepared: “luck” is where preparation meets opportunity.

Steve gave this speech in 2005, but I’ve never heard it until now. I came across it at Zen habits, which I read regularly.

Here are the highlights from his speech, found on YouTube:

• You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
• Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
• For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”
• Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t … [live] with the results of other people’s thinking”
• Stay hungry, stay foolish.

This morning I hopped back into a terminal services session with Win2003. I’ve been doing MOSS development for a project at work for the last few months, so I’m using MS Visual Studio again. For the last four years or so, I’ve done most of my development work in Linux and Solaris. I must say my favorite editor is vi and I try to avoid using my mouse. But now, back in the MS world I must reach my hand over every so often to that little mouse and nudge it a bit and click — it really does slow things down.

So this morning instead of kicking off an ssh session, I click Start->Run, typed mstsc, then logged into my development Win2003 server (since you can’t really do sharepoint development anywhere but where the server is actually running). I switched to the visual studio window I left running and noticed some odd characters in the middle of my code.

I circled the oddly-placed characters in the middle of my code so you can see what I’m talking about. Perhaps you’ve done this before. When I saw the :wq, I knew immediately where they were from and had a sense of calm come over me. I miss my vi.