Rain, rain, go away!

First, a plethora of articles! With the NYC Marathon this weekend, there are tons of stories being circulated. First, another cool piece on Brian Sell talking about his career. Next, a cool little story about one of the current marathon greats James Kwambai who will also be participating this weekend. Here is a good article about Ryan Hall and his aspirations past running - very inspirational. Liz Robbins, author of the book "A Race Like No Other: 26.2 Miles Through the Streets of New York"does a Q and A about the upcoming big race. I must mention this is an awesome book for any running enthusiast, more particularly for any NYC alumn out there. Here is an interview with Jorge Torres, and a quick tidbit about defending champion Marilson Gomes dos Santos. Last, but not least, Martin Lel withdraws from the NYC Marathon! This is a shocker, considering his recent triumph last month but apparently he is not over his leg injury. This really opens up the field, and really anyone can win it!

Got in some good track work last night (8X400). Legs were complete mush after the hard weekend running, plus it has been raining here nonstop for the last couple days so opted out of Monday's easy run for rest and stretching. Kept raining, and raining, and raining some more so I tried to wait it out a little after work but to no avail. Decided I had enough, strapped on my storm fit jacket, a hat, and some running tights and drove to the track. Weather was cold and rainy (low 50's/high 40's) and a little breezy but not too awful. Did the quickest, crappiest warmup possible because of the rain, and was checking out the track conditions which were pretty crappy and a lot of standing water on it, especially on the inner part of the track go figure. Cut my stride a little shorter than normal to adjust, and away I went! First one felt pretty crummy - was very tight from the very fast warmup, and just wasn't in synch. Was taking a whopping 1 minute break in between reps because of the rain, so certainly wasn't the easiest. 2nd rep was better, but the effort was a little more than I would have liked. Finally settled in a little, and breezed through the next few quarters. Tried to relax on the turns, and hit the straightaways hard, and was consistently hitting the first 200 pretty quick, thus made myself slow down on the last 100 meters every time. I need to work on better consistency, but I think the combination of the rain and me just wanting to finish probably made my body want to push harder. Last couple reps, let myself run through the last straightaway a little more, and let myself push the last rep. Did 1 mile cooldown on the track, stretched and went home, then did the rest of my cooldown as soon as I got back. Felt pretty good when I was done, stretched like a madman when I was done, then retired to the couch for the evening. Total mileage: 5-6 miles - 400 splits were: 1:20, 1:17, 1:17, 1:17, 1:16, 1:17, 1:14, 1:12.

My goal with 400 repeats this fall/winter session is to make the 1:20's seem like 1:30's, so was pleased to see I pretty much hit sub 1:20's on this workout. Legs feel pretty decent after the hard workout, and will enjoy the easy mileage tonight and plan on going pretty slow and enjoying the fall day, assuming the rain ever stops!