This Saturday, our weekend run moves downtown for the DWRT Metric Marathon 26.2K. The Metric starts at City Hall and traverses the city using a miniature version of the NYC marathon course – crossing the Brooklyn Bridge through downtown Brooklyn heading toward North Brooklyn before crossing the Pulaski then Queensborough (out and back), continuing through Queens ending with a lap around the perimeter of Astoria Park.
Info on the Metric – meet up spot, course, bag check, post-run brunch – can be found here:
http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/233643873/
http://files.meetup.com/1454408/DWRT_MetricMarathon_2014.pdf
At least some portion – if not all of it – should be completed as close to marathon pace as possible. With this run through the streets, we’re not asking you to endanger yourself to maintain pace by playing Frogger in NYC streets but some modicum of pace should be inserted into this run. We’ll have pace leaders available to assist. (If you’re interested in leading a pace group, please let us know!)
We’ll be starting a little later than usual (9am) to allow folks to warmup in advance of the run to prepare for the pace and to achieve the recommended 18+ miles in the schedule. Like any other workout, this 1-2 mile warm-up is necessary to get the body moving before a faster effort. Similarly, a great way to add on “miles while tired” is to run a cooldown after the event is over. A couple suggestions – after grabbing some refreshment at the finish line – include jogging a lap around Astoria Park or jog over to the brunch spot.
For those not running a fall marathon, feel free to join us for the 16 mile run to Astoria as part of your overall training. Those training for every race distance can benefit from a steady state long run. If the distance is a little too much, there are spots at miles 9, 10, 12 and 14 to stop along the way without doing the whole thing.
Our good friends at Brooklyn Running Company will be hosting a water stop for us near the 6 mile mark. Please remember to thank them for their generosity!
Sunday features Grete’s Gallop Half Marathon starting at 8am in Central Park. With many folks having raced the Bronx over the weekend and the key event of the marathon training cycle – the Staten Island Half – the following weekend, we are encouraging folks to run the Metric Marathon to achieve a run with greater time and distance. If you decide to run Grete’s, pace should be no faster than marathon pace at any point since we’re focusing on Staten Island as our ‘fitness test’ for the marathon. Also, aim to achieve the same 18+ mile total for the day.
For those marathon training, this is the last of four straight weeks in which total mileage has increased each and every week. There will be small respite next week as we prepare for the Staten Island Half. Stay focused and maintain the mileage this week. With that in mind, stick to the schedule outlined in the marathon plan and reiterated in Scott’s email: If you raced or did a MP workout at the Bronx, Tuesday’s run should be at your easy pace. NO workout! Take advantage of the opportunity to run some easy miles with folks and discuss marathon training, what they do for work, their pets, their passion for origami, whatever. There is far more to lose than gain by running 5 workouts in 8 days (last Tuesday, last Thursday, Sunday, this Tuesday and this Thursday) during marathon training.
As always, we’re here to help. Look forward to seeing many of you on Saturday!
Chris 40
