New York Road Runners Run for the Parks 4M

This morning was a chilly four mile race in Central Park that I ran sensibly, contrary to my usual tendencies of late. My plan, last month when I entered, was to make this an all-out effort at blazing speed… but two and a half weeks down with a cold made me re-evaluate my goals. So, one more race completed towards the nine needed to qualify for the New York Marathon in 2011.

Last Name	First Name	Sex/ Age	Bib	Team	City	State	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG Time	AG Gender Place	AG %
GOREE	LANGSTON	M56	3182		NEW YORK	NY	2017	1515	45	33:37	8:24	27:58	774	60.2 %

I put in a 70% effort but was feeling about 85% due to this lingering chest cold. It may be my misguided science, but I’m guessing that congestion in the lungs has to have an effect on aerobic performance, blocking the ability of those little alveoli to absorb oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. Maybe I’m off base, but that is the only explanation that I can come up with for how I can only average 8:24 per mile for four miles, but was able to run the last four miles of the half marathon in 8:10 per mile only four weeks ago.

But, nice negative spits (taking into account the hills):

• Mile 1: 8:43
• Mile 2: 8:17
• Mile 3: 8:33
• Mile 4: 8:00

29 weeks until the New York Marathon and today I signed up today for Hal Higdon’s 30-week marathon training program, which incorporates a 12-week base-building period and an 18-week intermediate-level schedule of workouts. I’ll be incorporating some running with bike rides and weight-loss between now and the end of June, getting ready for building distance and speed from July through early November. I’m hoping to start the serious training at around 175 lbs and work down into the 160s during the summer. It is not the best weight for me overall, particularly since I think that keeping your body fat at that percentage elevates cortisol levels and leads to premature aging and increased stress. Again.. may be my misguided understanding of human biology.

[image unavailable: workout1982 - image missing from source archive]

1982 and 155 pounds.. running 35 minute 10k races.