Central Park in the AM!

Today I had a nice run in Central Park. I did the run at just under a 10:00 mile and it felt pretty good. This is the best run I've ever done (lots of personal bests this spring!) and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Here's the Garmin file:

And a look at the route from Google Earth because the GF was not complete. The route starts in the lower left of the picture at "A".

From Fitness

Today's conditions were cool and quite humid. About 30 minutes after I got home, a big thunderstorm broke out, so you can imagine the conditions.

I started out just south of the bandshell at 69th and East Drive. Tina dropped me off on her way to work at about 7 a.m. and I walked to the start point of both the Japan Day and Israel Day road races (more on this in moment). The route runs East Drive north, and immediately the Central Park rolling hills start. It's actually a great way to start the run and to get the heart moving. By mile .75, I was feeling it. The first milestone is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I had a nice flashback to our visit there a few weeks ago to see the guitars.

The route flattens out a bit to the east of the Jackie O reservoir, and mile two is not bad. I ran this route on Sunday and it was the end of mile two that I took the wrong turn and headed toward 110th St. Not so today; this time I made the correct left turn on Central Park Driveway and cruised to the west side. This was where I started to slow down a little and feel the previous two miles ... but the tough part was yet to come.

Mile three is basically when you head south on West Drive and climb all the way to the 80's. It was hard and my pace showed it ... but I didn't walk! I just followed a couple other dudes about my age who set a 10:10 pace who I followed for a while up the hills. Not too bad but I felt it at the end of the mile.

The last leg was the easiest ... nice gentle down slopes to finish it up. My pace doesn't show it, but I felt really good toward the end and could have kept going if time and inclination had been in my favor.

As a final thought, I think that late April and early May is the nicest time in NYC. The park is in bloom, it's not too hot, not too many tourists are here yet and generally the vibe is "happy post winter". On the run today, I felt very much in sync with that vibe and I think it's going to be a good first step to train for the race in June with some outdoor runs as part of the regimen.

A real (LACK OF) pain in the leg

On the leg

It's been a while since I checked in here so I thought I'd do a very quick update. After a regimen of Aleve for three weeks (twice per day), and a bit of a scrambled schedule at NAB in Vegas, I feel like I'm nearing the end of aggravation in my right adductor group. There's still mild pain, but I've been running 3 miles per day three or four times per week for a few weeks ... so I'm encouraged.

On weight loss

I'm also progressing reasonably well on the weight goal, though it's not clear if I'll get below 200 by June 14th. I'm at 208.2 right now, and still progressing, but it's not a done deal. With eight weeks to go, I should get there, but it's going to require real food discipline and continued exercise. I've averaged 1.5 lbs per week for the past four months so I should be good, but it's a struggle every day.

There are two more weight-related topics I would like to cover in future posts that I'm writing here so I don't forget.

1. I realize that I need a new goal for weight after June 14th. I think I'm going to set it to be 175 pounds by June 14th, 2012, and I'm really going to try to control that with diet. However, I'm think I'm going to test my weigh maintenance first, meaning, I will try to stay at 195 for two months without fluctuating more than 2 lbs in either direction. That will be tough for sure, but I need to see the cause and effect.

2. The other issue I'd like to write about is Gary Taubes. He's a pretty interesting physicist-turned-nutrition-writer who has a very low-carb-centric point of view. His thesis is that carbohydrates cause increased insulin levels in the body and insulin causes the body to retain fat. He also argues that exercise (as well as net calories strategies) doesn't help with weight loss. I have been thinking about my own experience since Jan 26, and I just can't agree ... at least on the loss part. As I started to get to above, I'm concerned about my ability to keep off the weight for the long-term (read: the rest of my life).

More to come.

Amended Goals

So, today I learned there is a difference between chin-ups and pull-ups. While pull-ups are a better goal because they require more strength, I think it's only realistic to expect to do 10 unassisted *chin ups*. That's what I'm working toward, and I think it's still a pretty cool goal.

This article was a pretty interesting discussion on the topic. I enjoyed the guy's bluntness on how to train for this, even though I'm doing the exact opposite.

http://stronglifts.com/how-to-do-pull-ups-and-chin-ups-with-proper-technique/

PS, today I ran my best time on the treadmill for a 5k, coming in at 31:50, which was nearly sustained running at 6.3 ... just two quarter mile rests at 4. I'm getting there!

A real pain in the leg III

As a final post to the leg issue, I'm pleased to report that there is little pain today after serious stretching yesterday along with regular doses of Aleve. The fitness director at NBCU suggested that I use Aleve twice a day for THREE WEEKS in order to get it in blood stream. He said that the anti inflammatory effects are actually good for you during exercise. I'm going to try to run again today and see how I feel.

The good news is that I'm almost half way done with my April distance goal and I'm hoping to do more of it running. Today, I'm going to calibrate my footpod to the treadmill at work and see if I can get a little better accuracy. Unlike most 405CX users, it makes sense for me to have this thing work on the same scale as the treadmill I use all the time rather than to my outdoor cadence.

More to come on that topic after I do the calibration today. Have a great day!