Central Park, New York
Maureen and her friend Ally have decided to train for a half-marathon together. Very inspiring. And the first step on this road to semi-endurance racing was New York City's Race for the Cure in Central Park. I almost feel bad doing these, because I know to some of the people running it it is a really big deal to run 3.2 miles. For me, it could have basically been a day off, and I didn't feel much of a sense of accomplishment after finishing. But it really puts things in perspective, insofar as what level of fitness you are at when training for an Ironman. I guess the whole thing would have been inspirational if you're the sort of person who has never walked further than from the TV to the fridge, and you felt like you were pushing yourself for a good cause. I, however did not. It was just a fun thing to do on a Sunday morning, and a souvenir T-Shirt. Nonetheless, I joined Team Turtle Power, and found myself waking up at 7 a.m. on a Sunday and taking the subway to Central Park.
To say this was a big race would be an understatement. I believe roughly one-third of New York City was there. I got off the subway and met up with the rest of the team, consisting of Maureen's coworkers Ally and Jordan,, and was almost immediately lost in the throng of people wearing the pink and white race shirts. Then came time to check my bag.
You know, you always have some extra shit at any kind of race, like a wallet, cell phone, shirt to wear home so you dont gross out everyone on the subway. That kinda shit. But so did the other 25,000 people doing this race (not an exaggeration). And there was exactly one bag check, which consisted of some clueless volunteers tossing them all on a pile with some excuse for a claim check attached to it. I felt very secure leaving my wallet, phone, iPod and Lipodrene under the watchful eyes of some kids who couldn't even figure out an organization system. So as I stood behind about 20,000 people, four city blocks from the starting line, I realized the line to get bags might also be four blocks long. And I hate lines.
Run - 60 minutes
2 Lipodrene
No, it did not take me 60 minutes to do a 5K. Christ, I'm not THAT slow. But here's what happened:
As Uma Thurman, Michael Bloomberg, Judge Judy and Stephen Colbert all gave inspirational speeches to kick off the race, I realized that this bag check thing would serve as extra motivation for me to run faster. Every person i pass, after all, is another person I don't have to wait for to find their bag in the endless pile of shit that was the bag check. What I did not know is that the runners were supposed to start before the walkers (which comprised probably 75 percent of the race) and got stuck behind all of them, not moving, looking at the starting line. I finally decided to say to Hell with teamwork and running with the girls, and strided it out on the sidewalk to the starting line.
Took me twelve minutes. Twelve minutes just to START. I jogged past the celebrity-filled starting line to get to the course, whereI just took off. Now again, I do not run fast, but I run faster than most of the people in this race. So I was just straight dodging people through all of Central Park, running in and out of the pink-ribbon marked course. It was kinda like Voodoo People, but I wasn't blindfolded. And every person I passed I tohught "Well, motherfucker, looks lik you'll have to wait for ME to get my bag!" Every person who passed me (like maybe 4), I made a point to pass again because I knew that could be ten minutes of bag-findgin I could save. Impatience works well as motviation.
Despite pushing it, I still only finished in 26 minutes, which is not stellar. I'm going to go ahead and blame al lthe hills in Central Park. But as soon as I was done, all I could think was 'Ok, where's the fucking bag check?" So I jsut kept running. I ran and asked about 5 volunteers, none of whom had any idea. I ran some more until I ended up back on the course with all the walkers, where I ran about another mile until I found one volunteer who told me the bag check was on 72nd street, and gave me directions.
I ran the 3/4 of a mile to the bag check, and the volunteers basically told me to go dig through the pile myseld. I briefly considered trying to find a bag with some good shit in it, but ultimately I was able to find mine in under 5 minutes, at which point I put on my iPod, got back on the course at the 1.5 mile mark, and ran half the damn thing again. Not nearly as motivated this time, and having to run over walkers on the way back. I felt kinda bad, since they were sjut out for a morning constitutional for breast cancer, and I was blowing by them like that guy goign 110 on the freeway. btu whatever. I had some good music on and didn't want to slow down.
Eventually, I made it back to the finish line for a second time, a full hour after I started the race. The training card called for a 70 minute run, but given that I ran faster and with hills (hills covered in horseshit from those fucking handsome carraige things, I might add) I figured this should suffice. I met up with my teammates, who were thrilled they ran the entire length of the course, took some pictures, and got on the subway home.
I wouldn't exactly call this a tuneup race, but it was certainly worth doing. There won't be near than number of celebrities at my Ironaman, nor will it go through a world famous park, nor will I have to dodge 20,000 walkers. But hey, I did somethign for charity and not myself. I almost feel a little bit dirty.
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
T79 - Swimming, Manhattan Style - Swim
New York
The highlight of this workout may have come before it even started. Maureen was nice enough to bring me as a guest to 24 Hour Fitness - Derek Jeter somewhere in midtown. Sadly, no Derek Jeter inspirational comments ala 24 Hour-Shaq in Miami.But the gym was nice enough, and when we went in she scanned her card and told the guy at the desk I was coming in as a guest. And he just told us to go ahead. As in no guest fee, which is unheard of at a 24 Hour Fitness unless you have guest prvilages. Which Maureen does not. Anyway, I saved myself the $20 guest fee. And really, it was that kind of weekend.
It was funny though, people asked me what I wanted to do while I was in New York, and "swim" was my first answer (after the Maruy Show, the Mets Game and the Race for the Cure). Like I had a free Saturday in Manhattan, and despite not getting out of bed until noon, the pool at the Derek Jeter Sport was my #1 destination. Training is awesome!
S: long day
wu: 200swim, 200kick, 200pull, 200swim
main: 1900 ladder. Do a set of 300, then 275, 250, etc…until 25
10 x 100 (descend 1-5, 6-10)
2 Lipodrene
I was excited about this free swim, until I saw the pool. Like so many things in New York, it was about a tenth the size of what a normal person would expect. There was exactly one full lane, with some floaty lane next to it that wasn't more than ten yards long, and a jacuzzi. The whole room would have fit in about half the pool at GHFC. Fucking Manhattan, there's just no fucking space.
So I did the warmup, thinking by eyeing the one lap lane was a half-lane. Like 12.5 yards. So I did 8 laps instead of the usual 4 for each set, and the fucking thing took half an hour. I felt like I was swimming pretty strong, so I asked the lifeguard how long the pool was. 20 yards. I thought for a minute about just saying "Fuck it" and waiting for Maureen to finish her wokrout while I watch college football while walking on a treadmill, but I then realized I had to get this swim in. It was a long day and not something I could skip. So this would require some math.
What I essentially did was calculate the distances before each set and figure out how many 40-yard laps it would be. Obviously, they did not all divide envenly. So I rounded up 2 laps, and rounded down one. Like the 250 set would have been 6 and a quarter laps, so I just did 6.5, Then the 225 set would have been Five and a three quarters laps, and I just did 5 and a half. It all worked out in the end, and actually the shorter laps made this easier, believe it or not. I wasn't able to get up as much speed, but because the turnaround was shorter, I swam harder each length.
Now, I'm not going to go out and to and find a mini-pool anywhere. The Olympic-sized pools are good by me. But this swim went surprisingly well, despite the Manhattan-sized swim area. Yet another reason I really don't understand how anyone in a city like this ever trains for Ironmans. Like where the fuck are you supposed to bike? You can only do that Central Park loop so many times before you go nuts, and the idea of taking my bike downstairs to a subway is just not appealing. This was a thought that came to my mind when I was vaguely considering spending the summer in Chicago last March, actually. And I won't lie when I say that the logistical difficulty of training (and vicious wind) was one of the many factors that made me realize Chicago was a dumb idea.
So I now have a newfound respect for triathletes from super-urban cities like New York. It's a whole different level of dedication when you can't just bike out your door to a nice bike trail, or find an empty, olympic sized pool.
The highlight of this workout may have come before it even started. Maureen was nice enough to bring me as a guest to 24 Hour Fitness - Derek Jeter somewhere in midtown. Sadly, no Derek Jeter inspirational comments ala 24 Hour-Shaq in Miami.But the gym was nice enough, and when we went in she scanned her card and told the guy at the desk I was coming in as a guest. And he just told us to go ahead. As in no guest fee, which is unheard of at a 24 Hour Fitness unless you have guest prvilages. Which Maureen does not. Anyway, I saved myself the $20 guest fee. And really, it was that kind of weekend.
It was funny though, people asked me what I wanted to do while I was in New York, and "swim" was my first answer (after the Maruy Show, the Mets Game and the Race for the Cure). Like I had a free Saturday in Manhattan, and despite not getting out of bed until noon, the pool at the Derek Jeter Sport was my #1 destination. Training is awesome!
S: long day
wu: 200swim, 200kick, 200pull, 200swim
main: 1900 ladder. Do a set of 300, then 275, 250, etc…until 25
10 x 100 (descend 1-5, 6-10)
2 Lipodrene
I was excited about this free swim, until I saw the pool. Like so many things in New York, it was about a tenth the size of what a normal person would expect. There was exactly one full lane, with some floaty lane next to it that wasn't more than ten yards long, and a jacuzzi. The whole room would have fit in about half the pool at GHFC. Fucking Manhattan, there's just no fucking space.
So I did the warmup, thinking by eyeing the one lap lane was a half-lane. Like 12.5 yards. So I did 8 laps instead of the usual 4 for each set, and the fucking thing took half an hour. I felt like I was swimming pretty strong, so I asked the lifeguard how long the pool was. 20 yards. I thought for a minute about just saying "Fuck it" and waiting for Maureen to finish her wokrout while I watch college football while walking on a treadmill, but I then realized I had to get this swim in. It was a long day and not something I could skip. So this would require some math.
What I essentially did was calculate the distances before each set and figure out how many 40-yard laps it would be. Obviously, they did not all divide envenly. So I rounded up 2 laps, and rounded down one. Like the 250 set would have been 6 and a quarter laps, so I just did 6.5, Then the 225 set would have been Five and a three quarters laps, and I just did 5 and a half. It all worked out in the end, and actually the shorter laps made this easier, believe it or not. I wasn't able to get up as much speed, but because the turnaround was shorter, I swam harder each length.
Now, I'm not going to go out and to and find a mini-pool anywhere. The Olympic-sized pools are good by me. But this swim went surprisingly well, despite the Manhattan-sized swim area. Yet another reason I really don't understand how anyone in a city like this ever trains for Ironmans. Like where the fuck are you supposed to bike? You can only do that Central Park loop so many times before you go nuts, and the idea of taking my bike downstairs to a subway is just not appealing. This was a thought that came to my mind when I was vaguely considering spending the summer in Chicago last March, actually. And I won't lie when I say that the logistical difficulty of training (and vicious wind) was one of the many factors that made me realize Chicago was a dumb idea.
So I now have a newfound respect for triathletes from super-urban cities like New York. It's a whole different level of dedication when you can't just bike out your door to a nice bike trail, or find an empty, olympic sized pool.
Monday, September 14, 2009
T78 - It's Called Being Resourceful - Run, Swim
New York City
I think the best part about Ironman training is the fact that even on vacations, you have to make sure you get in your training. Such was the case on Thursday. When the good folks at Delta decided to move my flight back from 8 a.m. to 6 a.m., I was a little pissed I would have to get up at 3 to catch my flight. That all being said, I realized this would also give me an opportunity to get in my second-longest workout of the week during my first day in the city.
I found a gym on 43rd and 9th called The Manhattan Plaza Helath Club, that featured an Olympic-sized pool and full cardio equipment. It also had a locker room and showers, so it gave me a place to store my luggage all day, in addition to providing a training ground for my run and swim. All this for only $25, which thought was a pretty good deal for training and bag storage. The weather was absolute shit (another reason to never live north of I-10: It sometimes gets cold before Summer is even officially over) and since I had to do 2 hours at Tempo, I thought it might be fun to do 150 minutes on a treadmill.
Run - 150 minutes tempo (Treadmill)
15 Minutes RPE 2-3
2 Hours RPE 4-5
15 Minutes RPE 2-3
2 Lipodrene
I have to say, this was kinda fun. Yeah, the MPHC treadmill was dinky and looked like I could break it with one step that was too hard. And it looked out on a cement path between the cardio rooms and the pool (so nothing to look at but E!'s look at the top 10 Best and Worst Celeb. Beach Bodieas) but I used the iPod and even my slow run I was doing at 6.0
I opted to do like I would at home on this treadmill, doing an hour first, then three half hour sets with brief breaks (like under a minute) for Powerade in between. The breaks all ended up being shorter than expected, which was good. The first hour flew by, as I cranked it up to 6.6 after the first 15 miuntes. Then I maintained at 6.7 the rest of the run, dripping sweat everywhere and getting a few odd looks from the daytime crowd at this gym. No matter. I kept to my gel pattern of every 45 minutes, and aside from the iPod freezing with 25 minutes to go, the run went well.
The one issue I had was that I had so much adreneline going from the music and the ease of runing on the treadmill, that when the iPod broke, I just was like "Oh, fuck this..." I kept my speed up to the final 15 minutes, where I then speed-walked for about 5 minutes before going into a slow trot at about 5.2. I was a little disapointed in my premature cooldown there, but I think this is probably a product of my using the iPod more than anything else.
I was slated to meet with a couple of editors from Cosmo for lunch at 1:15, and oddly I saw one of them on the E! special talking about how bad Tara Reid looked in a swimsuit. It was a little surreal, I have to say, to see someone you were about to go and visit on TV while you get in your morning run, but I can't say it didn't give me a litte extra push.
Swim: Warmup - 6x75
Main - 3x700
1 Lipodrene
Lunch went well, as I rushed through my shower and got a cab up to the Hearst building for lunch. The food at their cafeteria up there is amazing, but knowing I had a long swim that afternoon, I opted for a light sandwich so I wouldn't die on the swim. I got back to the gym about 2:30, put on my jammer and walked over to the rooftop retractable roof pool deck they had. Immediately passed out for about 45 minutes ona deck chair. I'd been up since 3, for chrissakes.
Anyway, I was lucky enough to get my own lane for the warmup and about half the first set. Then some girl came in to swim with me, which was fine. But then another person came in the lane. And another. Fucking ciricle swimming. Then I remembered I was in New York City, not Gainesville. You want your own swiming lane? At 4 p.m.? Ok, you want your own 1-bedroom apartment too? Hou 'bout your own subway car? There's 18-fucking-million people in this city, and 4 swimming lanes. Good luck with that. I accpeted the unfortunate fate of circle swimming and sucked it up for the second set and half of the third.
I was swimming well when I could get some speed up, but I was constantly having to pass people, and then tread water so I didn't run into someone coming the other way. Much like New York, just constantly dodging people. So I guess the swim went well, such as it was. But not being able to really get in a groove was frustrating. You can't just knock people out of the way like you can during a race. Or when you're going fore a subway.
I think the best part about Ironman training is the fact that even on vacations, you have to make sure you get in your training. Such was the case on Thursday. When the good folks at Delta decided to move my flight back from 8 a.m. to 6 a.m., I was a little pissed I would have to get up at 3 to catch my flight. That all being said, I realized this would also give me an opportunity to get in my second-longest workout of the week during my first day in the city.
I found a gym on 43rd and 9th called The Manhattan Plaza Helath Club, that featured an Olympic-sized pool and full cardio equipment. It also had a locker room and showers, so it gave me a place to store my luggage all day, in addition to providing a training ground for my run and swim. All this for only $25, which thought was a pretty good deal for training and bag storage. The weather was absolute shit (another reason to never live north of I-10: It sometimes gets cold before Summer is even officially over) and since I had to do 2 hours at Tempo, I thought it might be fun to do 150 minutes on a treadmill.
Run - 150 minutes tempo (Treadmill)
15 Minutes RPE 2-3
2 Hours RPE 4-5
15 Minutes RPE 2-3
2 Lipodrene
I have to say, this was kinda fun. Yeah, the MPHC treadmill was dinky and looked like I could break it with one step that was too hard. And it looked out on a cement path between the cardio rooms and the pool (so nothing to look at but E!'s look at the top 10 Best and Worst Celeb. Beach Bodieas) but I used the iPod and even my slow run I was doing at 6.0
I opted to do like I would at home on this treadmill, doing an hour first, then three half hour sets with brief breaks (like under a minute) for Powerade in between. The breaks all ended up being shorter than expected, which was good. The first hour flew by, as I cranked it up to 6.6 after the first 15 miuntes. Then I maintained at 6.7 the rest of the run, dripping sweat everywhere and getting a few odd looks from the daytime crowd at this gym. No matter. I kept to my gel pattern of every 45 minutes, and aside from the iPod freezing with 25 minutes to go, the run went well.
The one issue I had was that I had so much adreneline going from the music and the ease of runing on the treadmill, that when the iPod broke, I just was like "Oh, fuck this..." I kept my speed up to the final 15 minutes, where I then speed-walked for about 5 minutes before going into a slow trot at about 5.2. I was a little disapointed in my premature cooldown there, but I think this is probably a product of my using the iPod more than anything else.
I was slated to meet with a couple of editors from Cosmo for lunch at 1:15, and oddly I saw one of them on the E! special talking about how bad Tara Reid looked in a swimsuit. It was a little surreal, I have to say, to see someone you were about to go and visit on TV while you get in your morning run, but I can't say it didn't give me a litte extra push.
Swim: Warmup - 6x75
Main - 3x700
1 Lipodrene
Lunch went well, as I rushed through my shower and got a cab up to the Hearst building for lunch. The food at their cafeteria up there is amazing, but knowing I had a long swim that afternoon, I opted for a light sandwich so I wouldn't die on the swim. I got back to the gym about 2:30, put on my jammer and walked over to the rooftop retractable roof pool deck they had. Immediately passed out for about 45 minutes ona deck chair. I'd been up since 3, for chrissakes.
Anyway, I was lucky enough to get my own lane for the warmup and about half the first set. Then some girl came in to swim with me, which was fine. But then another person came in the lane. And another. Fucking ciricle swimming. Then I remembered I was in New York City, not Gainesville. You want your own swiming lane? At 4 p.m.? Ok, you want your own 1-bedroom apartment too? Hou 'bout your own subway car? There's 18-fucking-million people in this city, and 4 swimming lanes. Good luck with that. I accpeted the unfortunate fate of circle swimming and sucked it up for the second set and half of the third.
I was swimming well when I could get some speed up, but I was constantly having to pass people, and then tread water so I didn't run into someone coming the other way. Much like New York, just constantly dodging people. So I guess the swim went well, such as it was. But not being able to really get in a groove was frustrating. You can't just knock people out of the way like you can during a race. Or when you're going fore a subway.
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