"Nerrrrrrvy"

My brother has a dog named Mel Gibson.

This is Mel Gibson. He's part greyhound, part german shepherd, 100% awkward.

He's a pretty funny dog, and loves my brother. Every time Mel gets nervous (as dogs are wont to do) my brother yells at him "OH MEL YOU'RE SO NERRRRRRRRRRVYYYYYYYYYYY" and Mel perks up, runs over to my brother, and goes nuts, completely forgetting what it was that had him concerned.

I realize this story has no point other than to explain the title of this entry, but every time I get nervous, I think of Mel, getting all NERRRVYYY and it makes me feel better. Also, I realized that people like blogs with weirdo dogs, and it doesn't get much better than a dog named Mel Gibson, does it? 

And now for something completely different: 

If you've seen this, you just earned 10 points.

I have the NYC half coming up on Sunday. I'm psyched. I'm nervous. I'm hoping I stretch as much as I need to this week. I'm also turning 27 on Monday, so if anyone wants to make happy birthday signs and/or get me flowers and balloons and make a big deal about my birthday at the race finish, please feel free. I've got a great goal in mind, and I am starting to get antsy to get out and race. It clearly shows, as this is quite possibly the worst blog post I've ever written. Oh well. 

Send me good race vibes! And good school vibes, so I can make it through the week without losing my mind.

PR and stretching buddies

Coogan's Shamrock, Salsa and Blues 5K - 29.58!!!

PR by something in the neighborhood of 10 minutes and made my goal of finishing under 30 minutes. By two entire seconds - I like to keep things interesting and clearly wanted to do the last .1 in a dead sprint(ish).

After eating a delicious green bagel, I came home to my stretching buddy:

Next up, the NYC half in two weeks!

Then I may return to the land of speedwork and some strength training, now that I've proven to myself I'm actually capable of running reasonable distances without walk breaks. I think I'll try to shoot for a sub-60-minute 10k by the mini in June!

June Races

Just signed up for the NYRR Mini 10K!

I'm so excited - this will mark my 1 year run-iversary!

Who else is signed up?

Pacing and Racing

Last weekend I finished my 12 mile dress rehearsal run for the NYC Half marathon, which is - gulp - 18 days away. It went so well, just like my 20 mile dress rehearsal for the marathon. That makes me a little nervous, because I think my 20 miler went significantly better than my actual marathon, and so I'm a little worried that the 12 miler might not be indicative of how I can actually perform on race day. I finished 12.13 miles in 2 hours and 12 minutes, so a 10:53 average pace. I did feel like I could have pushed a little harder at the end, but the people I was with were struggling, so I hung back to get them through. That put me at just over 50 miles (53.65, to be exact) for the month of February. I'd like to see my monthly mileage get up to 60 by the summer.

So... pacing. I have done all of my long runs under an 11:00/mile pace, which according to the Runner's World pace calculator for my best 4 mile time (40.13) should be more like my tempo run pace, and my long runs should be closer to 12 minute miles. The thing is, I feel like that's my comfortable speed. When I get a chance to do speedwork, those paces are more appropriately on target, but should I be doing my long runs slower? And what if I don't want to? On the plus side, my predicted finish time for the half, according to the pace thingey is in the neighborhood of 2:21! My reach goal is to finish under 2:20. I know I can get under 2:25, and my totally-doable-no-worries goal is to be under 2:30.

And racing. I'm doing the Coogans 5K with NYRR on Sunday and am starting to get really excited. I would love to finish under 30:00 for a 5k (for the first time ever) but really, I'm just looking to get a sense of how I feel pushing myself without having anything hurt. I know those hills pretty well, and the last time I did this race, I finished in 42:06, so at the very least I'll be looking at setting the PR bar just a bit higher for myself. And if I don't make that sub-30, I'll be back out on the track in April and working on some speedwork to get there.

Awesome Sauce

This morning's run: 2.65 miles in 25:52 - average pace 9:43! So pretty much my fastest run ever. Boom. 

I went out wayyy too fast. I blame the iPod. I never run with an ipod but I needed a change of pace/ some motivation and since it was light out, I figured it would be safe. It definitely helped, except for my dying on my last mile. I really need to learn how to pace my shorter runs, or buck up and suffer through the pain of pushing myself hard. Also, maybe it 's time I invest in a pace watch (as soon as the Soleus 2.0 comes out). 

I think it helped that I took yesterday as a stretching/foam rolling day instead of running, to help my recovery from my 10 miles on Saturday. Since I only have about 30 or so minutes each day to realistically devote to a workout, I opted for some hardcore stretching, and I'm SO glad I did. It felt great and clearly it made a difference today!

However, cats are terrible workout buddies. All they do is lounge in bed with you and tempt you to get under the covers and snuggle with them. Hardly inspiring motivation. Yesterday, Charlie kept throwing himself down in front of the foam roller and demanding to be petted. It was really cute. 

Also, is it allergy season already? I have been sneezing like mad after I run lately and could probably be a test rat for Allegra. Ugh. I have never had seasonal allergies like this before!