this blog has fallen by the waist side. my last post was at the end of december - almost 4 months ago. a lot has changed, while a lot has stayed the same. i'm still in boston; i'm still employed at the same firm; and i'm still running. actually, a lot has stayed the same. same apartment; same cat; same love of upper crust pizza. the major change is a new girlfriend - jen! :-) like i said, a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. haha! more than actually change, i've experienced a lot in the last 4 months including my first time in seats on the green monster at fenway park to watch the red sox, a relaxing weekend in maine with stops in portland and portsmouth, nh; best friends visiting for an awesome weekend; and the annual marathon monday party on beacon st.
in those last 4 months i've continued training, specifically for the pittsburgh half marathon. actually, i wouldn't classify it as training, though i ran a couple of sunday long runs with jen's training team, and did a speed workout as well as a hill one. regardless, i feel pretty good though physically and during my runs my goal of 1:3X:XX seems possible. but i'm still nervous. this is going to be my home race, and while the legend will be there cheering as he's done for a bunch of races, there should be a few more familiar faces in the crowd - or at least i hope so.
last night i did a 4 mile loop that combines a few hills. i ran it at an easy pace, and enjoyed the warm weather (it was in the mid 60's) and crowds of people around the neighborhoods. though at one point, coming down com ave and running near some buildings i imagined myself running in the half and the building the crowd coming out into the street and being right next to me. if the crowd is anything like building, i should feed off them and feel like i'm running on a cloud. a peak at my watch showed a 7:19 pace at one point, and i had to pull on the reigns to slow down and remember this was just a tapering run.
i'll probably go out for one more run on wednesday, and then rest for the remaining days till the half. i usually run pretty well after a long rest, so 3 days of no activity won't hurt - hopefully. ask me that question at mile 12. actually, forget the questions - just shout my name!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Friday, December 26, 2008
burgh
it's been over a week since my last run, and even longer for a real run, i finally made it out this afternoon. i'm back in pittsburgh for christmas for a week to celebrate w/ family and friends. but due to the proximity of my gym from my brother's place where i'm staying, as well as the freezing temps and social obligations, [and insert a good excuse] i haven't logged any miles. although my bro and i did walk around for some errands on christmas eve, but nothing worth blogging about.
so i figured i'd take advantage of the nice late-december pittsburgh weather by running a few k. i threw out the suggestion of trail running, as i wanted to stay in the sun, so we mapped out a route on mapmyrun.com that was a good mix of a residential and urban sights. the sun was actually shinning (shockingly, since it's been reported that there are 59 of such days per year here), and equipped w/ my polar hrm (sans footpod to measure any type of distance or pace) and oakley’s i headed out for what i thought would be a little more than a 5k. after 10 minutes or so i was on 5th avenue in oakland and could have hit my halfway point to start heading back at st. paul's cathedral (where my family went to christmas morning mass). but i was feeling good. and it was a beautiful day. and i needed to experience a more urban feel. so i continued down fifth past the university of pittsburgh's campus and made my turn to go by pitt again and headed up to carnegie mellon university. i haven't gone by these universities in anything but a car for years, but running by them and seeing the details of the surroundings reminded me of years ago when these universities were clients of ours and i worked there.
around cmu the flatness of pittsburgh ran out and i was i heading up a small incline. it leveled out, but my bigger concern was that now i was on my own and off the familiar path. but i have driven around this area a lot 3 years ago, so as the oncoming traffic was halted by a green arrow the way i was going, i jetted across the street onto beeler st. i've driven this road a bunch, and remembered it being really short. so after a few minutes of running on it, i came to the a good right in the street and after making the turn could see the end of the street was much further than i had remembered. oops. this is where the hill training started - the left onto fair oaks street was fun, as well as the left onto s. negley, but even better was when i crested the hill and started the decent. i swear that my first thought was "this is as steep, and as long, as a ski run!" most importantly i took caution on the sidewalk so i didn't end up tripping on a crack or slipping on some loose stones and doing a 'header'. thankfully i didn't and shortly after i was back near my brother's and cooling down.
while some people are lucky enough to have a hot tub at home and can just jump in for their post-run recovery, mine is the stick! i'm just glad i was smart enough to use it!
so i figured i'd take advantage of the nice late-december pittsburgh weather by running a few k. i threw out the suggestion of trail running, as i wanted to stay in the sun, so we mapped out a route on mapmyrun.com that was a good mix of a residential and urban sights. the sun was actually shinning (shockingly, since it's been reported that there are 59 of such days per year here), and equipped w/ my polar hrm (sans footpod to measure any type of distance or pace) and oakley’s i headed out for what i thought would be a little more than a 5k. after 10 minutes or so i was on 5th avenue in oakland and could have hit my halfway point to start heading back at st. paul's cathedral (where my family went to christmas morning mass). but i was feeling good. and it was a beautiful day. and i needed to experience a more urban feel. so i continued down fifth past the university of pittsburgh's campus and made my turn to go by pitt again and headed up to carnegie mellon university. i haven't gone by these universities in anything but a car for years, but running by them and seeing the details of the surroundings reminded me of years ago when these universities were clients of ours and i worked there.
around cmu the flatness of pittsburgh ran out and i was i heading up a small incline. it leveled out, but my bigger concern was that now i was on my own and off the familiar path. but i have driven around this area a lot 3 years ago, so as the oncoming traffic was halted by a green arrow the way i was going, i jetted across the street onto beeler st. i've driven this road a bunch, and remembered it being really short. so after a few minutes of running on it, i came to the a good right in the street and after making the turn could see the end of the street was much further than i had remembered. oops. this is where the hill training started - the left onto fair oaks street was fun, as well as the left onto s. negley, but even better was when i crested the hill and started the decent. i swear that my first thought was "this is as steep, and as long, as a ski run!" most importantly i took caution on the sidewalk so i didn't end up tripping on a crack or slipping on some loose stones and doing a 'header'. thankfully i didn't and shortly after i was back near my brother's and cooling down.
while some people are lucky enough to have a hot tub at home and can just jump in for their post-run recovery, mine is the stick! i'm just glad i was smart enough to use it!
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