New York City Runs- NYCRUNS.COM

2010 NYRR Henry Isola XC Classic post race, Van Cortlandt Park

It's fun. 

The trick is to get from here to there.

There appears to be only one path, on closer examination, there are many.

Excess, or reserve, capacity is the basis of training. Too excel, you need to go beyond what you already have. Everybody's current capacity is different, just as their potential to exceed that capacity. These are some of the cards we have already been dealt. Some people start stronger, in terms of speed and endurance, than other people's potential to catch up. Too bad: only one person gets the gold medal in each Olympic event. There are ways to work around this problem. You might be fixated on a discipline/event to which you are ill-suited for competition. Perhaps you should swim, rather than run. Perhaps you should be running track rather than marathons.

View on Mt Equinox Auto Road

These are the bare basics about training, which you could learn by reading, direct instruction or trial and error in about 10 years. Why learn from your own mistakes when you can get them from mine? 12 years of uninterrupted aerobic fitness via  cycling and running has to account for something. Herein lies training truth, from my perspective. Not a coach, I a merely a devotee of aerobic endurance. The point is to avoid pitfalls in injury and direction. If this helps you to stay in the game, perhaps you will read further, join a team, work with a coach, and prosper.

Yes, 99 degrees!

Why run in extreme heat? 2 good reasons: you are recovered and the timing is correct, and you want to compete in the heat, therefore you need to train in it.

How do you approach it? First, make sure you are physically up to it. If you aren't in tip top shape and medically uncompromised, stay on the porch. The demands of pushing the envelope under this much stress could lead to serious damage. That said, you need to understand a few things: hydration, intensity and duration of workout, and the need to titrate your status on the run. 

Looking down the 16% "5 Mile Grade"

The grade is steep on Mt Washington, all of 11.5% average for its 7.6 miles. But the grade is even steeper for performance as you get older, into the 60s and 70s. That's why I tip my hat to 2 outrageous competitors at this year's event: William Riley and Sumner Brown.

In the last mile, under clear skies and an above-the-tree line setting, a gentleman passed me. I passed him. It was back and forth till I had more than he, right before the final 22% "S" to the finish line. It was William Riley, 14 years my senior. Sumner Brown didn't do too badly either. He is a known legend in running. We all need heros. Here are 2.

It isn't the haircut!

How about the 2 switchbacks?

The race is Sunday, June 7th at 8 in the morning. It is not convenient to public transportation. The amount of energy you need to run it is the same as you would have to deal with by falling off the Empire State Building, if it were 3 times as high. And, you really never know what the weather will be like. But there is only one hill! Sorry, there are no downhills. There are however, 2 relatively flat stretches, neither all that long.