All Things Running-Related

hans said:

One of my favorite long run routes is to go through Golf Island to town and out to the end of Wyoming (by Glenn), take Wyoming all the way past Northfield Ave to Mt Pleasant Ave. Head down into West Orange onto Main Street, head north and take a right onto Harrison Avenue and follow it into Montclair (it becomes Orange Rd) to Bloomfield Ave. Then I make my way back the same way but from Main Street in West Orange I go to Valley Road which eventually goes past Hat City Kitchen and becomes North Ridgewood in South Orange. I can vary the route a bit depending on what distance I want to go but it's about 19 - 20 miles. A good 20-miler loop for marathon training.

I have another long-run loop that goes through Summit into New Providence/Berkeley Heights.

Wow. I got tired reading this.

Had a great long run on Saturday morning - 17.3 miles. Summer Streets is awesome! Drove to Brooklyn in 35 minutes. Ran over the Brooklyn Bridge and up to Central Park, ran the lower loop, and came back. Started at 7am and the streets were near empty. Two more weeks only - August 10 and 17! Go!

Also, some good advice: http://www.runnersworld.com/running-tips/25-golden-rules-running

Good tips, thanks!! But it's funny how the speed chart at the end doesn't include any times over 30:00 for a 5k For some of us mere mortals that time could still be a stretch! (My PR so far is 30:49)

Boo to the chart!! Use this instead: http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm

This will give you all your target times based on your current PR. Also, it'll give you your training paces (easy, marathon pace, threshold (tempo) pace, interval (5K) pace. Good stuff!

Hi folks! Had an interesting day at River to Sea this past weekend. I ran with Da Clams, a team founded by MOL's own @slowrunner.. Slow ain't all that slow. Just so you know. I should also tell you that teams are normally made up of 7 runners but one of ours dropped out and left us with 6 on race day morning. We didn't want to let the race director know so we just rewrote our race plan the night before and got to it.

Instead of an average of some 13 miles or so per runner we wound up doing more per poor bastard runner. Woo hoo! I lucked out and got mostly flat stages.

I rang up 4.8 at 7:02/mile, 9.1 at 7:26/mile and then 2.7 at 7:35/mile. As the day wore on it was tough to keep the energy up. A few good stories though... SR ran a pretty good team considering all the weird logistics. We started at 6:40 AM and our anchor runner sprinted to squeak into the finish chute at 6:59:45 PM.

Taper time for IM Mont Tremblant now...

Bike, that was our best R2C in four tries, by over an hour. That was in no small part due to the times you threw down. Thanks for a fun day. And our area was well represented: there were 3 teams with a Maplewood/South Orange/Millburn connection.

Congrats on River to Sea. Sounds like a blast.

I got 18 in on Sunday running all around Maplewood/South orange/Millburn. Wyoming is all good on the weekends but there were signs about more work starting today at 6:30am. Good incentive to get out early.

composer john your run sounds amazing.

We should think about an MOL R2C team next year. It really was a bonding experience, even with folks I barely knew.

ETA: SR, you're too kind. And btw, Da Clams were the fastest of the three local teams in terms of total elapsed time.

bikefixed said:

We should think about an MOL R2C team next year. It really was a bonding experience, even with folks I barely knew.

YES!! Count me in!!! Sounds awesome.

FYI: I'm helping organize a van for NYC Marathon runners. It's the same van organized in previous years by Amy... she's now in Colorado. The van will pickup runners on marathon morning at The Sneaker Factory. Last year the cost was $25 each. I'd imagine the price will be similar.

If interested, please let me know ASAP. You can email me at john (at) composerjohn (dot) com. Put "Marathon Van" in the subject line.

CJ: I'm definitely in on the van if it happens! Thanks for organizing.

Cool @slowrunner, thanks! You're on the old email list from Amy, right? If not, send me an email.

When would this all take place? I might be able to drive if you need a driver.

This week is Week 12 = "recovery" with more miles. No speed work this week, but my weekday miles (T-W-Thr) increase to 10 miles per day. Long run this Saturday is 2:30 and Sunday recovery run is 8 miles. So, if all goes according to plan, I'll be running around 56-58 miles. Yikes. That's a lot for me.

For my weekday runs (10 milers), I'm looking for new routes. Suggestions? I've pretty much exhausted all of Ridgewood, Wyoming, Valley, the Montrose area, Maplewood Village, Prospect, Springfield Ave (from Boyden to Vauxhall), SHU, downtown Millburn, and various other spots. Basically this whole area. Hahaha. I'd be awesome to find a few new routes.

hans said:

My preferred route is to head through Golf Island to town, head towards Millburn on Glen Ave, cross over Wyoming and continue on Glen past the RR station until you hit Marion Ave (just past Brookside) and take a left. Cross over Old Short Hills Road onto Hobart Ave and follow all the way to Hobart Gap Road (past Short Hills RR station and up big hill). Once you hit Hobart Gap Rd take a left (warning - no sidewalks here and a blind curve). Cross over Route 24 and up the hill into Summit. Take Hobart Gap until it hits Springfield Ave and take a right into downtown Summit. Then I just follow Springfield Ave into New Providence until I want to turn around. 10 miles from my house will get me to Central Ave and 11 miles will get me to the Trap Rock Brewery in Berkeley Heights.

On many occasions, I have run into downtown Summit and back (about 12 miles total). You can even head into the Chatham area from Summit on Morris Ave.

@hans, I ran most of this on Saturday morning. Fun!

bikefixed said:

When would this all take place? I might be able to drive if you need a driver.

NYC Marathon. November 3. Super early (like 5am). Last year there was 12 or 13 people (hence the van).

Has anyone run the S-curves in the Reservation on South Orange Avenue? Would that be insanely dangerous? I'd love to run down those curves and take a left on Brookside into Millburn. I just don't want to get hit by a car. I'm sure this is possible on the trails, but I'm fearful of rocks and twisting my ankle.

CJ: I'm on Amy's original distribution.

@composerjohn, with 10 miles I wonder if you could really criss-cross most of the streets in Maplewood and South Orange. That could be kinda cool! I really like running "the grid," aka down Prospect, back over on Richmond, back again on Summit. I usually turn around at Parker, but you could easily run the length from South Orange Ave to Harvard or Springfield.

slowrunner said:

CJ: I'm on Amy's original distribution.

Great, that's what I thought.

TarheelsInNj said:

@composerjohn, with 10 miles I wonder if you could really criss-cross most of the streets in Maplewood and South Orange. That could be kinda cool! I really like running "the grid," aka down Prospect, back over on Richmond, back again on Summit. I usually turn around at Parker, but you could easily run the length from South Orange Ave to Harvard or Springfield.

Unfortunately I think I've covered most of that. Since my milage is a bit longer, I'm hoping to venture out of Maplewood into nearby towns (Millburn/SH, Springfield, Union, etc.). Running the Prospect grid is great, but I think I've done it about 5 million times! ;-)

FYI: I live right near Memorial Park, so that's my starting point. I'm going to have approx 30 10 mile runs before the marathon. So I'll need some new variations to keep my sanity! Haha.

Wow, what amazing weather! Ran 10 miles on Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. Now I have about 48 hours to rest my legs for Saturday's long run (19-20 miles). Planning to run Summer Streets. This is the last Saturday for Summer Streets, so if you haven't done it yet, go! It's great.

Summer Streets - http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/summerstreets/html/home/home.shtml

Today I ran through Union and Springfield. Not the prettiest route in the world, but at least it was new! My Tuesday/Wednesday run was in Millburn/Short Hills.

Ran 7 this morning at around 6:30. Can't remember the last time I felt chilly at the start of a run!

Beautiful, perfect running weather!!! I can't seem to get myself out of bed in time to do more than 2 miles, but I guess it's better than nothing!

slowrunner said:

Ran 7 this morning at around 6:30. Can't remember the last time I felt chilly at the start of a run!

Haha, me too! We both started at the same time. Good job!

TarheelsInNj said:

Beautiful, perfect running weather!!! I can't seem to get myself out of bed in time to do more than 2 miles, but I guess it's better than nothing!

Great work! You got out there and did it! Tomorrow is also going to be equally beautiful.

Philly Half training starts August 26... like it or not

Hahaha... you'll be great. Philly is a great race. You'll be in the routine of training before you know it! And then you will have finished a half marathon!

I was cold too for the first half mile! It felt great. Summer streets looks so amazing. I just don't have the time to get into the city to run. I did my 20 this past weekend - I tend to stick to tried and true routes on the long runs. Between the train station, my house and my car I have water stops.

Another beautiful day for running! I finally cracked 4 miles, yay. First time I've done that in a few months. I walked a little bit but I've decided I'm just going to need to make peace with that during my training, as I'm not in the shape I should be. 4 miles is the first "long run" of my HM training program, which would be in 2 weeks, so I at least feel better that I'm ready to get started.

Now I just need to get my mid-week frequency up!

Philly is 95% full so you should register now if interested. I would like to go.,,is anyone going up for that day only that I can hitch a ride with??

hauscat said:

Philly is 95% full so you should register now if interested. I would like to go.,,is anyone going up for that day only that I can hitch a ride with??

Do you know if that's the marathon or the half? Does it make a difference? I sent them an email but haven't heard back.

Also, @hauscat, I was reminded in another thread that there's no race-day packet pickup and they won't mail it either. So you kinda have to go the day before, unless you take a daytrip to pick up your packet. Frustrating, isn't it??

hauscat - I think you might be referring to the Philly Rock n Roll Half Marathon, which is next month. That race is 95% full. There's also a half associated with the Philadelphia Marathon, which is in November.