23rd August 2007
Smalley-Heanor 4 Mile
Conditions: Mild, Sunny
Run Type: Easy / Tempo
Notes: Today is the one year anniversary of my first ever logged run. With the pain and soreness that I have been getting in my knees getting steadily worse I thought that after today’s run I would be a good time to retire my current running shoes, and replace them with two more pairs of Brooks.
Since my injury I have been concentrating on pure mileage, however today I decided to opt for a semi-tempo run to see how my leg would hold up. I chose the four mile circuit from my home to Heanor and back again. This is a relatively flat run with only one challenging run on the return leg.
I set out along Allsops towards Heanor and it felt kind of strange as all of my runs of late have been on the flats of Shipley Park. With my leg feeling pretty healthy after all of these flat runs I knew that I must start running some hills again to ensure that I am ready for the hills in New York. Even with my injury however I have ran 32% more miles compared to the same point during my Edinburgh training. This is still not as many as I would have liked but I still have ten weeks until New York and I have no ‘boys’ holiday in Cancun to recover from.
After the first mile I noticed that the mile I had ran was sub nine minutes so as I ran down into Heanor I decided to turn this into a semi-tempo run and keep all my miles under nine minutes, as this is the pace I need to run in New York to ensure I get that sub four hour finish. The second mile was a good one as it involved a steady climb up towards town centre and I never dropped out of the sub nine pace.
The toughest part of this run was coming back up past HGS, and once at the top I was a little tired but I pushed through and made up the lost time on the final mile where I really pushed it and ran a sub eight thirty mile.
In closing I really enjoyed my first tempo style run in a long time and my leg feels fine the day after. I will not do anything stupid but I will be sure to add some more marathon pace runs into my training over the coming weeks.
Run time: 34:50
Pace: 8:43 / mile
Days to New York Marathon: 72
“Even if you fall flat on your face, at least you are moving forward.”
New York City
"Running 26 miles around this place.....I can think of nothing better"
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The Five Boroughs
"There's more to this place than Manhattan"
Staten Island
"Only the first half mile is spent on Staten Island as you immediately leave across the Varrazano-Narrows bridge into Brooklyn"
Brooklyn
"Almost half the race is spent in Brooklyn, where many different neighbourhoods and cultural changes are passed through"
Queens
"The race enters Queens at exactly the half way point by crossing the Pulalski Bridge, over Newton creek, where you get your first amazing view of the City. The next 3 miles are spent here until crossing the challenging Queensboro Bridge over the East river."
Manhattan
"The first of two visits into Manhattan comes at mile 16 as you leave the Queensboro Bridge. Greeted by thousands of screaming spectators makes this one of the most memorable moments of the race, before the 4 mile stretch up First Avenue towards the Bronx"
Bronx
"At mile 20 you cross the Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx where little over a mile is run before returning to Manhattan across the Madison Avenue Bridge, where you see the Yankee Stadium, which has to be the highlight of the short trip across the Harlem river"
Manhattan 2
"As you arrive back in Manhattan the course proceeds down Fifth Avenue for 3 miles before entering Central Park for the final push and that moment that will last forever."
Varrazano-Narrows (Staten Island-Brooklyn)
Pulalski Bridge (Brooklyn-Queens)
Queensboro Bridge (Queens-Manhattan)
Willis Avenue Bridge (Manhattan-Bronx)
Madison Avenue Bridge (Bronx-Manhattan)
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