Central park ride and marathon finishline

My first stab at video editing! This is a video I shot on my bike ride through central park. Fall colors have lit the whole park on fire. I even got a brief glimpse of marathon finish which I may (or may not!) be crossing tomorrow....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDpBRI40ZQY

NYTimes article on barefoot running

I miss the excitement which comes with reading media attention on barefoot running. I have lost track lately but today I found surprisingly supportive articles on nytimes website. Its very cool to see Christopher McDougall on both articles and of course his best selling book. Sometime back I had a blog entry about how good ideas eventually find their way to the right people and then catch on like wild fire. NYtimes and bestselling book are certainly steps in right direction. Despite shifting my focus away from running, I find this quite exciting.

Things are looking up for this weekend's marathon. Rain predictions are gone. It is expected to be sunny and breezy 59 degree day. Cant ask for more if it holds. I have stopped crossfit to let my heel do a speed recovery and I also started eating some heavyduty carbs for change. I hate it but probably for the best.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/the-roving-runner-goes-barefoot/

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/phys-ed-is-running-barefoot-better-for-you/#comments

Marathon weather predictions

Marathon weather predictions say about 45degree lows and 30% chance of rain. The part about chance of rain is a concern since blisters seem to love cold wet weather. Not to mention the miserable 3hour wait at the start line in such conditions. I guess it could be worse so I should stop complaining.

It really sucks to wait for marathon not knowing if I can finish. I can understand the tortures others go through who have REAL reasons to have same concern. Mine is just stuburn stupidity:-) oh well...

Yawn.
BF in NY for 940mi.

Its official!

I will be attempting the marathon this year, against my better judgement of course. The theme for this year is to "wake up and run a marathon" i.e. no shoes AND NOT TRAINING. Yep. In last 4 months, I did total 3 runs with total mileage less than a marathon distance. This will be an experiment testing if I can wake up one fine day and run 26.2mi with no usual pampering which precedes the marathon. I know its kindda dumb but it fits the "black box" wod philosophy. I mean if I cant fit marathon into my wods, it will likely to be my last marathon so really, I don't have much of a choice.

Frankly, I expect it to be a train wreck. I am in decent overall shape (thanks to Crossfit) so I am not too concerned if I can run the distance. However, my heel injury is still bothering me a bit and just like last time, the limiting factor is likely to be blisters. There is really no easy way to risk manage the blisters without the training. I will be carrying tapes so perhaps I can tape feet up BEFORE blisters form. I am also hopeful that a slower pace run will somehow will be less prone to blisters.

I plan to stay within 10-11min/mi till half way mark and then see how it feels before slowing down or speeding up. Fortunately I live on upper east side so I can drop out around mile 16-20 if I figure out that finishing will cause some major injury/blister. Other wild card is of course the weather. If its raining then I will have to figure out a better game-plan.

This is exciting and nerve wrecking. Its a familiar feeling similar to my first marathon and first barefoot marathon. While biking to work yesterday through Central Park yesterday, I saw people setting up spectator benches at finishline. I got goose bumps thinking about how cool it will be if I do finish this year. Last three years, DNF wasnt an option and I knew I would finish. I am not sure if I am shooting too high this year round. I just dont see how I can drop out once I make it into the manhattan streets with all the momentum and energy.

BF in NY for 940mi

WOD#173 Cindy! 11.5x(5PU/10PSH/15Sqt) 20:00@166/180

WOD#173 Cindy! 11.5x(5PU/10PSH/15Sqt) 20:00@166/180

Compare with WOD#103 half Cindy 6rnds+PUs 10min@171/190,WOD#53 Cindy 10 20:00@153/172, WOD#17 Cindy 20min=5

11.5 is up from 10 so a nice PR on my favorite wod. Pullups and squats were easy but Pushup got progressively harder. I kept the depth good but in the very last round, I fell flat on my face...twice. 120Pullups were more than I could handle. Squats were easy but my quads were a bit surprised and sore. Pullups continue to surprise me by being easiest segment of the wod. First two sets were straight PUs due to equipment traffic. The splits in sec were as follows:

53-68-89-85-128-65-128-155-144-112-133-60

WOD#173 Cindy! 11.5x(5PU/10PSH/15Sqt) 20:00@166/180

WOD#172 BkSqt 5x5 45-65-95-115-125 9:25@122/148

WOD#172 BkSqt 5x5 45-65-95-115-125 9:25@122/148

Compare with WOD#48 at 65#(last at 75#) and WOD#18 @65#

125# is lower than a recent one rep PR of 135# but for 5 reps 125# is good enough. Perhaps the squats could have been a bit deeper in last set but I was having trouble balancing, especially with awkward shoulder positioning for stiff shoulders from the Jerks on Monday. It feels like the technique needs work but really the issue is that the back arch is not deep enough to sustain good bksqt at low point. I am pretty sure this depth has improved a lot from last wods though there is some more room to improve lower back flexibility.

WOD#172 BkSqt 5x5 45-65-95-115-125 9:25@122/148

PushJerk 125# and PowerGrace@95#

WOD#170 Push Jerk 1x7 (45-65-85-95-105-115-125) 11:08@106/150

Compare with WOD#82 Split Jerk 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 45#, 65#/85#. Okay 125# is a huge PR. It felt easy enough and I could have pushed more but not a whole lot more. The best part was feeling the bar quite literally fly through sticky point in a PP. I caught the splits at good heights so I didn't have to split a whole lot.

WOD#171 Grace 30 x Clean&Jerk@95# 15:15@162/182

First time Grace but this was a total flop. I misunderstood the wod and did HPC instead of full cleans from floor. I tried first couple of reps properly and rationalized to myself that there is no way this wod specs 135#x30 Cleans from floor! So I escaped the real wrath of Grace. The HPC version was bad enough. By the time I reached #10, I was thinking of quitting at 15 despite scaled down 95# weight. But then I surprised myself by moving from a 2per subset to 3 per subset after #18. It was fun. This is one of those wods which get HR pumping at anaerobic levels and the only thing you can think about is how NOT to put head under this weight. Interestingly 95@ Clean&Jerk is also my PR weight so 30 compromised reps is not that bad. Great full body wod. It felt good after the wod when nothing was hurting bad but everything in the body was aching. Poor technique caused some pains in wrists but nothing major. Also catching weight on bare shoulder caused some bruising on neck but no skin damage. About half an hour later my fingers were shaking involuntarily at computer keyboard which felt funny. But again nothing serious. Looking forward to doing this wod properly next time.

WOD#170 Push Jerk 1x7 (45-65-85-95-105-115-125) 11:08@106/150

WOD#171 Grace 30 x Clean&Jerk@95# 15:15@162/182