Actually, New Jersey is a beautiful state and I think it gets a bad rap because most visitors fly in an out of Newark Airport (or it could just be Snookie)...
On Saturday, at the conclusion of the Run For Your Life 4- miler, I'm heading up to New Jersey with the kids to spend a week with the Spada Clan (annual event). It's a big family and the week is already filling up and will include: Bagels, Pizza and Calzones (favorite food) and Lasagna (it's awesome and yet my wife's is actually better...sorry Mom), a day in NYC with my brother and his wife (my kids have already named 5 stores that they want to shop in), going to Spring Lake (Jersey Shore), out to dinner with my cousins cousin, followed by the boardwalk at Jenkinson's in Point Pleasant, an 8 mile progression run with my old running club (the Sneaker Factory from 15 to 20 years ago)...how cool is that!, etc. etc.
When I get back from Jersey, it'll be August 1st and that will be 3 months out from the New York City Marathon and I will begin my preparation (hopefully with some help from the Hovis') Speaking of training:
I have not felt good recently, and yet I did manage to have a fairly decent workout on Tuesday with Paul, Jay and Aaron. The workout was 6 X 1600 all in at 5:30 followed with a 1 lap recovery...not bad.
We'll see what Saturday brings...
Question: Today's post title refers to what Springsteen song?
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
McAlpine run...McAlpine fun!
Caitlin set up a workout at McAlpine of 6 X 1200 meters with a 3 minute recovery using the 3rd mile of the cross country course.
Met Meagan and Jordan, and Paul, Thomas, Billy and Justin at Old Bell and ran towards the course where we picked up Caitlin and Stephanie (Pezz) Pezzuli and continued our 3 mile warm up to the 3rd mile of the course. Paul and Jordan were going easy and, therefore, not taking part in the workout. Got to chat with Jordan which is always enjoyable.
After some last second procrastinations, we were off for the first one. My plan for the workout was to chill out for the first 2 by hanging back in the rear. Stick my nose up front for #3 and #4, and then open up on the last 2. I wanted to assess everyone's cadence, form, etc. Meagan and Caitlin dictated tempo on the first 2 and did a phenomenal job...the boys and Pezz tucked in behind.
For #3, I decided to get up front and run with Meagan (she is awesome!) and help out. Well, Meagan says, "Here comes Spada" and at that point I gave it a little gas and opened up a little gap. At this point, my guess is that Pezz saw this happening up front and wanted to get in on the action. So Pezz starts to go by me and we end up finishing together. It was only #3!
As we are recovering, Pezz sees my signet ring and asks me where I went to college (obviously she thinks its a college ring), so I say Montclair State University and I graduated 22 years ago. To which she says...that's impossible! You're 30 right? Plus 15! Anyway, I have to think about #4, to which Pezz is our leader and Thomas is starting to stick his nose up front and Meagan and I battled all the way to the line (Billy also wanted a piece of the action). #5 starts and Pezz goes to the front yet again, Meagan tucks in behind and now I got a battle on my hands with Caitlin and Billy (at the end, Caitlin would have none of Spada (she was awesome) Still one to go...
#6 was the last one, and I think it is safe to say that everyone wanted to finish up front. The pecking order was Stephanie, Meagan, Billy and me and Justin. Great workout as it was nice to run with such a fine group...
Met Meagan and Jordan, and Paul, Thomas, Billy and Justin at Old Bell and ran towards the course where we picked up Caitlin and Stephanie (Pezz) Pezzuli and continued our 3 mile warm up to the 3rd mile of the course. Paul and Jordan were going easy and, therefore, not taking part in the workout. Got to chat with Jordan which is always enjoyable.
After some last second procrastinations, we were off for the first one. My plan for the workout was to chill out for the first 2 by hanging back in the rear. Stick my nose up front for #3 and #4, and then open up on the last 2. I wanted to assess everyone's cadence, form, etc. Meagan and Caitlin dictated tempo on the first 2 and did a phenomenal job...the boys and Pezz tucked in behind.
For #3, I decided to get up front and run with Meagan (she is awesome!) and help out. Well, Meagan says, "Here comes Spada" and at that point I gave it a little gas and opened up a little gap. At this point, my guess is that Pezz saw this happening up front and wanted to get in on the action. So Pezz starts to go by me and we end up finishing together. It was only #3!
As we are recovering, Pezz sees my signet ring and asks me where I went to college (obviously she thinks its a college ring), so I say Montclair State University and I graduated 22 years ago. To which she says...that's impossible! You're 30 right? Plus 15! Anyway, I have to think about #4, to which Pezz is our leader and Thomas is starting to stick his nose up front and Meagan and I battled all the way to the line (Billy also wanted a piece of the action). #5 starts and Pezz goes to the front yet again, Meagan tucks in behind and now I got a battle on my hands with Caitlin and Billy (at the end, Caitlin would have none of Spada (she was awesome) Still one to go...
#6 was the last one, and I think it is safe to say that everyone wanted to finish up front. The pecking order was Stephanie, Meagan, Billy and me and Justin. Great workout as it was nice to run with such a fine group...
Monday, July 5, 2010
The week in review...
Training update:
Sunday: 6/27- Aaron sent out an e-mail to meet at McMullen at 7:30am last Sunday and when I got there and it was already 90 degrees, I looked at Aaron and said, "7:30...Really?" There were about 10 of us and we started out not much slower than 7 minute pace. We ran to the end of the greenway and got up on the road and when we did that I could hear a lot of heavy breathing. People would surely be falling off the pace shortly (A pace that was set by Jay and Aaron). I played the role of the great former British middle distance star, Ian Stewart...never leading...always following! With 4 miles to go, the leaders decided to bring the pace down to just over 6 minute pace and I was the only runner able to maintain contact. By the time we finished, 14 miles later, a solid progression run was completed! Good stuff...
Monday: 6/28: Just an easy, uneventful 8 mile run with the ipod...
Tuesday: 6/29: As of late, I have been doing some of my workouts with Aaron and Jay (great training partners who are both about a zip code in performance outcome ahead of me). I certainly appreciate the fact that they let me tag along. For this workout, we met out at McAlpine and ran a couple of miles on the roads before we started the workout portion at the Old Bell entrance. Mike Beigay and Caitlin Crisman joined us for a marathon pace run of 45 minutes. What we ended up accomplishing was 7.2 miles in 43 minutes which was about 6:03 pace. That pace would put me just under 2:40 for NYC on 11/7. Maybe a stretch and you gotta dream big! It was warm out there and I want it to stay hot so that when the weather breaks in the fall when marathon training kicks into full gear, we'll feel that much better.
Wednesday:6/30: Just an easy 8 miler with the ipod (Jovi, the Crue, White Lion, and Jordan Sparks (?)...
Thursday: 7/1: Got an e-mail from CaitCris to meet her at McAlpine and when I showed up it was actually Thomas (who I've never run with before) and Meagan Nedlo (again, never run with and she was coming off of a 16:59 just 36 hours ago!) About a mile into the park we caught up with Caitlin and Justin and ran to the start of the XC course to start the workout which would consist of 14 X 1 minute followed by 1 minute and 15 second recovery. I must admit, when I heard this workout my first thought was...what am I going to do with minuters?" Since I hadn't run with these peeps before, what I decided to do was hang in the back and just assess the situation and see how everyone looked. Well, the girls set a visciously fast pace up front and it was all I could do to stay close behind. This went on for about 7 reps and one of the things I noticed was how Meagan's feet never seemed to be on the ground (it was rather impressive). After 7 reps, I decided to stick my nose up front and help share the effort with Caitlin and Meagan. This went on 'til the last one when I just needed to clean out the pipes! A good workout was had by all...
Friday: 7/2: Another easy 8 mile recovery run with the ipod...
Saturday: 7/3: Usually I run long on Sunday and since it was the 4th, Caitlin reached out to see if anyone was willing to go long (17 miles) on Saturday instead. I figured that I would be the only one showing up at the Monroe Rd. entrance to McAlpine. Boy was I wrong! Jordan, Ben, Mike, Caitlin, John, Jason, Paul and myself. At one point I looked at Paul and said...can you believe this? What a group...
The weather was cool for this run and the pace was comfortable UNTIL I was talking with Jason and we looked up and the pack was 10 seconds ahead of us. We finally caught up as we were in the 6:30 range and Caitlin was rolling. We still had the course to run and that is when things got fun. Jordan made a break (he hadn't had an effort based workout since his 14:59 4 days before) and Mike and Caitlin followed. I finally got a second wind and was able to go by them and go after Jordan (NOT!) Still a good long progressive run...2 hours of tennis in the afternoon...Prefontaine after that and then the Tour de France on Versus...great stuff!
Sunday: 7/4: A 10 miler at 8 minute pace and beautiful weather...
Monday: 7/5: Just an easy 8 miler because we're getting after it tomorrow...
Question: Since there is so much happening in the world of sports including the World Cup, Wimbledon, the Tour, Prefontaine...what performances have impressed you?
For me it was Rafa and Wheating...
Sunday: 6/27- Aaron sent out an e-mail to meet at McMullen at 7:30am last Sunday and when I got there and it was already 90 degrees, I looked at Aaron and said, "7:30...Really?" There were about 10 of us and we started out not much slower than 7 minute pace. We ran to the end of the greenway and got up on the road and when we did that I could hear a lot of heavy breathing. People would surely be falling off the pace shortly (A pace that was set by Jay and Aaron). I played the role of the great former British middle distance star, Ian Stewart...never leading...always following! With 4 miles to go, the leaders decided to bring the pace down to just over 6 minute pace and I was the only runner able to maintain contact. By the time we finished, 14 miles later, a solid progression run was completed! Good stuff...
Monday: 6/28: Just an easy, uneventful 8 mile run with the ipod...
Tuesday: 6/29: As of late, I have been doing some of my workouts with Aaron and Jay (great training partners who are both about a zip code in performance outcome ahead of me). I certainly appreciate the fact that they let me tag along. For this workout, we met out at McAlpine and ran a couple of miles on the roads before we started the workout portion at the Old Bell entrance. Mike Beigay and Caitlin Crisman joined us for a marathon pace run of 45 minutes. What we ended up accomplishing was 7.2 miles in 43 minutes which was about 6:03 pace. That pace would put me just under 2:40 for NYC on 11/7. Maybe a stretch and you gotta dream big! It was warm out there and I want it to stay hot so that when the weather breaks in the fall when marathon training kicks into full gear, we'll feel that much better.
Wednesday:6/30: Just an easy 8 miler with the ipod (Jovi, the Crue, White Lion, and Jordan Sparks (?)...
Thursday: 7/1: Got an e-mail from CaitCris to meet her at McAlpine and when I showed up it was actually Thomas (who I've never run with before) and Meagan Nedlo (again, never run with and she was coming off of a 16:59 just 36 hours ago!) About a mile into the park we caught up with Caitlin and Justin and ran to the start of the XC course to start the workout which would consist of 14 X 1 minute followed by 1 minute and 15 second recovery. I must admit, when I heard this workout my first thought was...what am I going to do with minuters?" Since I hadn't run with these peeps before, what I decided to do was hang in the back and just assess the situation and see how everyone looked. Well, the girls set a visciously fast pace up front and it was all I could do to stay close behind. This went on for about 7 reps and one of the things I noticed was how Meagan's feet never seemed to be on the ground (it was rather impressive). After 7 reps, I decided to stick my nose up front and help share the effort with Caitlin and Meagan. This went on 'til the last one when I just needed to clean out the pipes! A good workout was had by all...
Friday: 7/2: Another easy 8 mile recovery run with the ipod...
Saturday: 7/3: Usually I run long on Sunday and since it was the 4th, Caitlin reached out to see if anyone was willing to go long (17 miles) on Saturday instead. I figured that I would be the only one showing up at the Monroe Rd. entrance to McAlpine. Boy was I wrong! Jordan, Ben, Mike, Caitlin, John, Jason, Paul and myself. At one point I looked at Paul and said...can you believe this? What a group...
The weather was cool for this run and the pace was comfortable UNTIL I was talking with Jason and we looked up and the pack was 10 seconds ahead of us. We finally caught up as we were in the 6:30 range and Caitlin was rolling. We still had the course to run and that is when things got fun. Jordan made a break (he hadn't had an effort based workout since his 14:59 4 days before) and Mike and Caitlin followed. I finally got a second wind and was able to go by them and go after Jordan (NOT!) Still a good long progressive run...2 hours of tennis in the afternoon...Prefontaine after that and then the Tour de France on Versus...great stuff!
Sunday: 7/4: A 10 miler at 8 minute pace and beautiful weather...
Monday: 7/5: Just an easy 8 miler because we're getting after it tomorrow...
Question: Since there is so much happening in the world of sports including the World Cup, Wimbledon, the Tour, Prefontaine...what performances have impressed you?
For me it was Rafa and Wheating...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)