2019 5th Avenue Mile

I like loooooonggggg goals, far far away ---- so here is the start of next year’s mile! I hope some people can come out to have some fun or grab a bite Saturday night.

eh, I’ll probably run it again - so here are my time goals

a) decent goal (PR) 5:17

b) 2019 seemingly very attainable stretch goal 5:15

c) payback 4:59 (2018 goal)

d) the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire: 4:55 (2018 stretch goal) e) fuck you, 5th avenue: 5:18 (90s PR tie) f) you have got to be shitting me 5:19 (2018 tie) g) ‘it was a fun race’: 5:20+

Image result for wasted runner girl gif

Must shows (dinner or race): KMD, Igor, CFABB, BS, WYG, CSI, Ohai, Brain_wash, Yayy, Iheart … anyone else? numi? JoeyDVivre? (long shot) 2nd annual event of the Water Cooler Mile… I might make T Shirts … yeah going big time … I’ll send out a final tally a couple weeks out if anyone wants a shirt (I’ll design/produce it).

Image result for 5th avenue sign

Image result for rhino sprinting gif … you’re welcome for getting this started early in the dying dying watercooler of AF… we have to keep it alive people

VirginCFAHooker might be able to make the event. I’ll reach out to daj224 to see if he wants to crush some natties to break his beer mile PR.

Main Goal: 5:59

Stretch Goal: 5:39, if I can break out of my continuous cycle of injuries

Ludicrous Speed: 5:30

I’ll take a WC shirt, as long as it’s sleeveless and tight enough that it looks like my abs are drawn on.

^ nice - I feel like the 1mi race is very psychological

I meant more souvenir type athletic shirts that you get for attending an event rather than the actual shirt we wear on race day - etc. I don’t want to be bound to wear a shirt! Yikess …

Yes, sleeveless and drawn on abs would be good - should just get a picture of SRK’s abs on stomach portion - haha

This morning I got up at the crack of dawn as usual to get a run in. I checked the temperature and it was actually quite chilly out but also 96% humidity. I was conflicted; do I wear a shirt and get soaked after 2 minutes, or do I forego the shirt and possibly get too cold? Then I had my WWACED moment of clarity and emerged victoriously from my house rocking straight shirtlessness. I saluted every passing car, and also every parked car for good measure in case someone was sitting inside and I couldn’t see them in the hazy mist. Great run this morning.

Nice - yeah I feel a little cold initially is ok - I like it

I’d be up for dinner. I still run, but I’ve hung up that hat on trying to get that sub 5-min mile. I don’t like the pain on the joints. About 6 years ago I clocked in at 5:18; was really close, but I gased out in the last minute.

damn dude that is close, nice job — and we are tied at 5:18 mile PRs… eek

dinner should be chill

Speaking of shirtless, check out Roberto Mandje (Olympian) and Nev Schulman (filmmaker) on strava. Both of these carpet-chested hooligans ran an entire NYRR 18 mile race shirtless this weekend and posted pictures of themselves doing so. Roberto’s even an NYRR employee. So much for enforcing that policy.

Man, I wish there was a town that was shirtless. NYC is technically, but no one really does it.

The 25 year old me would wear headphones for this bike ride on Sunday, but I read a lot about that and decided that I would not wear them, to obey the rules. I like to skirt the lines, but I generally don’t like to go into any races or competitions knowingly breaking the rules. My big headphones were legal for instance, but on the line. I really almost did go shirtless, but had to pin my number on the front for pictures or something, KMD said on Sat. I don’t know. I think my chip would have timed me correctly, would possibly have broken rules, but would prefer shirtless, number on butt for maximum speed. I don’t know why that is prohibited. Power to those guys that did it. That is the true runner, the true expression of freedom. Irie.

Yeah that’s right. That gameface site uses your bib number to ID you in pictures. Theoretically, if you weren’t ID’d, you could just select the times and locations on the course and scroll through a few hundred pictures to find yourself. I’ve done that before while bored, have actually found a handful of good pics where the camera didn’t pick up my bib but I was otherwise clearly visible in the shot. NYRR standard policy is to have the number in the front though.

Back into 5K training mode. Got back on the local high school track this morning and there were already 4 other people there when I showed up at 5:30am in the pitch dark, kind of ridiculous. Even with my WWACED philosophy I still get self-conscious when other people are around when I’m doing speed work. Two of them were larger women who show up at 5:30am every single day to jog a zillion slow laps together. I always want to throw some words of encouragement their way but not sure if they would interpret that as condescending. The other two were a man and a woman who were also doing speed work. I clocked the man doing 1200m reps at 5 min/mile pace, and the woman at 6:40 pace. I was going as fast as the woman so that was ok, but I tried to stay the h#ll out of the guy’s way so that he wouldn’t run me over. We all did our workouts completely in the dark so I couldn’t really tell how they looked like, but the woman looked to be in good shape based on what I could make out. But then at the end when the sun was starting to rise I got a better look and she was definitely in good shape but wasn’t that good looking, ha. The man was probably in his 40s and shirtless - impressive to be knocking out that type of speed at that age.

4:58 planned

not sure which shoes

I am planning to run an April 70.3 and June 140.6 in Vaporfly 4% Flyknits —- maybe the Sept mile in these too just cause I’m used to them

I’ve started sprints. My right knee is fucked in an odd way right now so only cycling and then sprints when I’m real pissed off at something.

I did a mile of sprints in ~4:30 last week, maybe 8 sprints … I’d like to build that workout to 2mi when my knee stops being a little bitch

4:50 pace is still very challenging for me to run - I’m ok with getting a little skinny this year. It’s pretty much unavoidable training for heavy endurance, but I’ve been somewhat surprised how much muscle mass my body has been able to keep and utilize.

Also was trying to max out some of my pace work and couldn’t get much past 3:50/pace. I can only hold 4:30 for like 1/8 or 1/16 mile. It’s so much harder than 4:50 pace / holy shit.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/this-was-the-slowest-boston-marathon-since-the-1970s/

some interesting stats!

My training has gone to complete sh!t so far this year. First I’ve been sick for two months, then I stupidly injured my ankle trying to squeeze in too many miles in between illnesses. Now we’re buried in snow every other day. I still have lofty running goals this year but basically way behind on my program:

Mile target: sub-6 minutes

5K target: sub-7 minute pace

Half marathon target: 8 minute pace

Marathon target: sub-4 hours