Sitting at home deciding whether to go out for your training run when it is raining out is one of the toughest decisions to make when you are running. One part of you thinks that I need to get my miles today and screw the rain, the other part thinks why the hell should I go out in the rain, I am not a professional, stay dry you fool.

Well come race day, the weather gods may not be so kind and you will have to run no matter the conditions. This years Boston Marathon was run under “Storm of the Century” conditions, so you may as well get used to it. Get out there and run.

There are some tips and tricks I have picked up over the years that will help in running in the rain:

• If there is lightning involved - STAY HOME
• Stay warm. Make it your business to avoid hypothermia
• Wear a hat to keep the rain out of your face
• Don’t wear cotton t-shirts in the rain. These cling, rub and weigh a gazillion pounds. Choose wicking Cool-Max tops instead
• Avoid puddles - seems simple but I see many people jumping right in
• Be extra careful around car traffic.  Wait for the signal. Cars and drivers have a lot less control on wet roads

Here is my number one tip and that is how to dry your shoes after your run. Lightly stuff your running shoes with newspaper, the key here is lightly, you want to make sure there is room for air to circulate. Replace the newspaper every few hours and you will have a dry pair very soon.

Good Luck and don’t forget to feel superior as you run past everyone through the raindrops, it is the best part!

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The next race I plan to run with the Father’s Day Fight Against Prostate Cancer 5M in Central Park on Sunday June 17th 2007. This is a nice race and more important raises money for a very important cause.

The main race starts at 8:30am and there is kids race at 10:15am

You can sign up for the race here

Hope to see you out there

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ING New York City Marathon Lottery Results Will Be Available June 12 2007

The names will be up at www.ingnycmarathon.org on Tuesday at noon Eastern
Time. A record 98,000 persons applied for entries in the November 4 race,
with more than 58,000 applying through the lottery. New York Road Runners
officials plan to accept nearly 50,000 and expect a starting field of
approximately 38,000.

Two-time defending champ Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia
is due to join NYRR President and CEO Mary Wittenberg for the ceremonial
drawing of the first three lottery names of WNBC’s “Today in New York” on
Monday morning between 5:00 and 7:00 a.m.

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Part of my training plan includes Tempo Runs, which is a term with a mysterious definition. After way too much research on the topic I settled on the following from Daniels’ Running Formula (Human Kinetics):

“A tempo run is nothing more than 20 minutes of steady running at threshold pace.” (He goes on to say that 20 minutes is ideal, but may be varied to suit the needs of a particular course.) Without getting too technical, threshold pace is the effort level just below which the body’s ability to clear lactate, a by-product of carbohydrate metabolism, can no longer keep up with lactate production. Daniels states that this pace is, for most people, about 25 to 30 seconds per mile slower than current 5K race pace.

This may seem a little technical or too much information for some, but these are the runs that are the difference makers. The runs where you push yourself to the next level of running and hopefully get me closer to a BQ.

Tonight I ran 7.5 miles with 2 tempo runs at 10 minutes each with a 1 minute slow run in between. I feel like I really worked tonight and convinced myself this is what I need to do.

As always your mileage may vary but I think these are worth a try

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I am willing to try any shortcut to improve my running, so trying this new idea out was an easy one. I have been reading many reports including a study at the University of Indiana that chocolate milk is the one of the best post-run drinks, better than Gatorade. The idea is that you will get the same amount of carbs and water (milk is 90% water) as a sport drink plus protein to speed the recovery.

I do not normally drink Gatorade after every run, but maybe I should go for the chocolate milk after my medium to long runs (over 7 miles). How else am I going to make a cow look this happy??

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Once in awhile there will be a break to write about other things in NYC that interest me or I may stumble upon while running.

Tonight was Manhattanhenge, one of the cooler events in NYC that nobody really knows about and hope this little blog may spread the word on it. Here is the Wikipedia description and some pictures from tonight May 31st 2007:

Manhattanhenge (also sometimes inaccurately refered to as Manhattan Solstice) is a biannual occurrence in which the setting sun aligns with the east-west streets of Manhattan’s main street grid. The term is derived from Stonehenge, at which the sun aligns with the stones on the solstices. It was coined by Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, in several of his writings in 2002.

The dates of Manhattanhenge are usually May 28 and July 12 or July 13. The two corresponding mornings of sunrise right on the center lines of the Manhattan grid are approximately December 5 and January 8 (as with the solstices and equinoxes, the dates vary somewhat from year to year).

I tried to make it over during my run tonight but could not make it. I will just have to plan it for the next time

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