March 2010
32 posts
I asked a friend who’s a very experienced runner if she had any advice for the 10K on Saturday, and this is what she said:
I would say, start off at a slower pace, it is always better to pick it up than to burn out early. it is easy to get excited and start off too fast, but it will be regrettable later in the race. also, be sure to drink lots of water the day before the race, can’t ...
The Last Long Run
Today I did my last long run before Saturday’s 10K. Seven miles! Seven-freaking-miles. I realize this is the most cliché thing possible for a beginning runner to write, but, you know, if you told me two months ago… yeah. Really, I never thought I’d be able to run 7 miles, and yes it was pretty slow (took me an hour and 17 minutes, which is exactly an 11-minute mile), but, shit! 7...
Coney Island Run
Next weekend, assuming weather will cooperate, Matt and I are going to try out a run to Coney Island. Has anyone done this before? We’re thinking about starting from the 15th St. stop of the F and then looping back. It’s looks like it would be a 12-13 mile run, commencing in post-run drinks, and we’re not ruling out the possibility of packing our Metrocards. Anyone want to...
jaimealyse asked: You can do that yoga IT band stretch with a towel, too. I do it at the gym all the time, plus stretching the leg in the other direction (away from my body), to stretch my hamstring, which gets tight right where it meets my butt, because my body hates me. But tough shit, body, this is what we do.
bmichael asked: WORD! I just increased my pace and my right hip kind of goes dead/hurts after about forty minutes. What is the stretch you do?
MYSTERY SOLVED! The pain was in my iliotibial band, which, Wikipedia helpfully informs me, “is usually developed by people who suddenly increase their level of activity, such as runners who increase their mileage.” Yup! It’s like, textbook. Anyway, I only discovered this when I went to yoga today and was like, “Wow, that stretch feels REALLY good,” and I asked my...
Today was the first time I have run on a track in a long, long time.
Ran a roundabout route to the track in McCarren Park to make it a 3 mile run at my half marathon target. Still not really sure if that goal is ambitious or slow or what, but I guess that goes with never having run the distance as a race.
At the track did 3x800 at 10K pace (which I actually kind of almost know; again never...
Wednesdays are cross-training or easy, 30-minute run days; I’ve mostly been choosing the cross-training option but tonight I felt like doing a quick run. I ran up Court Street and back and it felt pretty good. Tomorrow I’m supposed to do a 4-mile run at “race pace.” I think I’ll do it in the afternoon, after I get some work done.
Runnin: Oops →
So the Brooklyn Half filled up before I had a chance to apply. I think it’s a sign. I’ve had this feeling for a couple of years that I’m still too young to be doing half-marathons and marathons, based on the career paths of practically every pro distance runner in this country.
But because I love those distances, it’s been hard for me to swallow the idea of just doing 10ks, 8ks, 4mis and...
bmichael asked: How does the mile repeats thing work?
I just signed up for the JackRabbit Anyone Can Win 5K in Prospect Park on April 13. When you register, you guess how long it will take you to finish, and then the people who are closest to their guess “win.” Anyone else want to try this?
YOU GUYS. I ran 6 and a quarter miles today! That’s what happens when you tell the No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Run to GO FUCK ITSELF.
The lovely Jess Grose sent me the following route and mix to post:
I start at the beginning of Union Street at Van Brunt Street, and then take it all the way up to Prospect Park. The good thing about this route is you can make it as long or as short as you want. If you are feeling super ambitious you can run around the entire park when you get there, or you can exit anywhere along Prospect Park...
quietbrava asked: About your very bad run: as a guy who has been a runner for 18 years I have to say that run was a major victory. You felt like shit, and you kept running. Give yourself a shot in the arm. Anybody can run when they feel great. Real runners do it even when it's shitty. Good for you, Doree. Keep it up.
The No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Run
Ugh.
Just when I thought I was starting to get the hang of everything, I had a really crappy run this morning that kind of got me down. At around the 1 mile mark my calves started hurting pretty badly, and after another quarter mile or so I had to stop. I loosened my sneakers and stretched for a few minutes, then started running again. I had to stop again after another quarter mile or so and...
Liz Coville has a great post up on Runnin about buying new running shoes.
The post submission thing doesn’t quite work the way I was hoping—the posts show up as though I wrote them. So I’m just going to turn this into a group blog. If you’d like posting privileges, email me and I’ll add you.
This was submitted by Liz G.:
The ratio of Patience I Have With Pop Songs: Hours Per Week I Spend Exercising doesn’t work out well for me and Madonna. (I reckon I could happily listen to three Madonna songs per week, which works out to about 10 minutes, or just over a mile of running.) On the other hand, the ratio of Indie Songs Which Make You Want to Run Faster: Total Songs on eMusic is a...
This is the mix I’ve been listening to lately while I run. It’s mostly pop stuff, some of it remixed; I’m listing the versions I downloaded and not the originals. I usually just put this playlist on shuffle.
I’d love to see other people’s playlists or download suggestions. (Feel free to submit them as a post, or you can email them to me and I’ll post them.)
...
chrshrrs asked: This is not a question at all, more of a comment. I think I might use your submissions to help turn this into a "group running tumblr" if that is what you are thinking of doing with that. I was going to start my own separate running tumblr after I moved to Brooklyn but never got around to it and barely even use my regular blog anymore it seems. I think writing reviews of routes here...
It’s not quite a group Tumblr but you can now submit your own posts to Running This Town. If I set things up correctly, they’ll show up in people’s Dashboards with your avatar and RTT’s avatar next to them.
rach asked: Hey Doree--I am easing my way into running as well, and trying to use Runkeeper, but I have yet to find a good way to hold the iPhone while I run that isn't slippery or device-threatening. Do you use an armband or some other kind of gadgetry to hold the phone during a run? Thanks!
spiegelman asked: This is one of those ideas I wish I thought of. Want an LA partner? Or a group tumblr? I ran my whole life, except the past 2 years. Now I'm fat. I know good routes in Los Angeles.
1 tag
I like to say I’m neither a morning person nor a night person; I hate waking up early and I can’t stay up much past midnight. I’m a needs-a-lot-of-sleep person, especially since the sleep I do get is usually punctuated by an episode of sleepwalking or yelling at Sam to get us out of here before it’s too late. (And I don’t even take Ambien!)
But today, I have a busy...
1 tag
bmichael asked: How many miles/wk do you run? Are you hip to the new(ish) running chi, no shoe thing? What's the deal???
Why I'm Running
I always hated running. As a child and teenager, I swam competitively, but whenever we had to do dryland training I was always at the back of the pack, huffing to keep up. I got cramps, shin splints, shortness of breath.
As an adult I’ve stayed fairly active; I’ve always loved cycling, and over the last couple of years I’ve become more committed to going to the gym, mostly for...
