Early February Déjà vu

I'm sure I've written about this before, but when I was around 8 I asked my dad for a pair of Nike Air Max Triax running shoes for Christmas. That was his brand of choice and I guess I thought they might make me like running as much as he did. Boy was I wrong. Running sucked in spite of my fancy shoes.

When I was 12 a treadmill dropped into my life and I began to develop a love/hate relationship with running. To this day, I'm impressed remembering the different treadmill runs I concocted for myself, which I now know were rudimentary interval workouts. During those early years, I started to think of a 10 minute mile average pace as a decent baseline.

I consider 2008 to be the year I decided to start running as an adult, at 21 in my last semester of college. I signed up for a 10k back in the days of folding up a check in a registration form and mailing it away to the race directors. It shouldn't have surprised me that after a few years of no running and eating like a college student, 10 minute miles were way out of my reach. And yet, it did surprise and disappoint me!

But hey, I'd already mailed off my $20 (honestly it was probably less). I accepted the harsh reality of grinding out 5 miles on the treadmill at a 12 minute per mile pace. I did this at Anita Newman Hall, after I finished work at the dining hall around 10pm. It sucked, but I did it for days, weeks, months, because what choice did I have? $20 was on the line.

Somewhere in that mess of late night, post dining hall turtle miles, 12 minutes per mile became easy. I graduated myself to 10 minute miles and never looked back...Until I did. Two-ish years ago, 10 minute miles had become hard again! Back to square one.

ALL THIS to say that I ran some effortless 10 minute miles on the treadmill today, and 10 minute miles haven't felt that good since 2008. Then and now, it was less about achieving a certain pace and more about rediscovering what it's like when running feels good.

First Long Run of 2020

In terms of regularity,  February has been less strong than January, but is starting to pick up a bit. I did my first long(ish) run of 2020 this weekend. It was right around 10 miles in Manhattan and a little in Queens. Pace was a bit under 11 minutes per mile. This is what Garmin had to say about it:

Rude.

I also collided with a slow-moving pigeon and accidentally kicked it into my friend Emily, who also kicked it out of her way before it flew off. I apologize to the universe for my mistreatment of its idiotic child.

One thing I haven't done yet but need to do soon is sign up for the popular 9+1 races I like. Some of them will probably sell out soon if they haven't already. I've already signed up for the NYC Half, Brooklyn Half, and NYC Marathon so that's 3/9. Ideally, I would also like to do the Queens 10K, Bronx 10 Mile, Staten Island Half and I dunno three more I guess. The 18 mile tuneup is convenient training for the marathon, so probably that one.

I'm also mulling over doing an ultra in mid-summer. I have one in mind, but I'm not ready to commit to it here yet even though I'm already excited about it.