3 posts tagged “team in training”

itness Games 4M - Men

Fitness Mag 4M

Distance:  4.0 Miles, 6.4 Kilometers
Date/Time:  Sept. 9, 2006, 8:30 am
Location:  Central Park, NYC
Weather:  71 deg,. sunny, 76% hum.

My best pace and overall time yet. Wouldn't believe that I was out late the night before. Don't ask why. Jason had a great performance as well, sub 8 minute miles. Well done.

The temperature was perfect, everything was ideal. I actually stuck to a semi-solid diet pre race and this worked out the best of all my experiences thus far. Just Goo and bananas.

Distance:  5.0 Miles, 8.0 Kilometers
Date/Time:  August 6, 2006, 8:00 am
Location:  Central Park, NYC
Weather:  Cloudy, 73 deg., 69% hum.

Hope and Possibility 5M

Although not as satisfying as the last race, I had a great time keeping up with Vanessa for the irst 3 miles at what seemed like a sub 8 minute pace. Then, my body reminded me that I'm no where close to her conditioning level! Man, can she run. :)

Note to self: don't eat bagels a half hour before running, unless you like gagging in the middle of your run. 

Oh well, thats the fun of learning a new sport, overcoming a new challenge.

Run for Central Park
Distance:  4.0 Miles, 6.4 Kilometers
Date/Time:  July 22, 2006, 8:30 am
Location:  Central Park, NYC
Weather:  73 Deg., 94% Hum. and Cloudy.

A few weeks back I entered in my first organized race ever. Anyone who knows me, knows I used to loathe running. Not much of a surprise I decided to become a hockey goalie, versus other more cardio-involved positions.

All that has changed since I've been inspired by Vanessa to take up running. More than just to relate to her conversations about the sport, I chose to pick up this form of cardio out of necessity since my bike was stolen this winter. 

After running a few weeks, I developed some annoying knee pains and gave up shortly afterwards. Months of agonizing pain prevented my progress as a runner, until I flat out gave up running. The reall kisser was that by this point, I had developed a joy for running after gaining a respect for its many positive outcomes, that were completely new to me.

After researching the possible causes, I narrowed it down to IT Band syndrome, a common malady for the desk-job prone. After learning the simple stretches to target this tendon, commonly using a Margarhita Mix bottle as a make-shift therap roller, I was able to recover fully within a week.

As a result, I've been able to work up to about 15 miles a week total, spread over three or four runs over the week. Again, I can vivdly recall the "Mile Run" gym days of my high school career, and beeing happy to simply finish in one piece.

I'll let the stats speak for themselves, as I was completely surprised by my times. Here are the chip times from the event.

Also, some great snaps courtesy of NYRR.

This was an amazing event. Having played collegiate sports, I missed the competitive nature of athletics, as there isn't much hockey to be played on Manhattan. (Ok, there is at Chelsea Piers, but I'm too lazy to drag my goalie gear on foot.) The minute the race started, I snapped back into an "athletic flashaback" if you will.

The most memorable moment was the start of the race. As the foghorns sounded, you could make out the tops of the heads of those in front of you - the faster packs - as the wave of bouncing heads approached, signialling it was almost your time to begin, to run. Completely awesome.

Another highlight was being able to run with Vanessa and her sister Cheryl, who was visiting from California. Pictures are upcoming, but the funnies part was that I had run the whole race, trying to catch up to Cheryl and Vanessa, only to realize that, unbeknownst to me, I had passed them early on. How's that for motiviation?