2012 TRY Calendar

I have made my first attempt to capture most of the running events that TRYers frequent, including triathlons that I know about, and have updated the 2012 TRY calendar. Feel free to chime in if you want an event added. Due to laziness, I have not linked to the event websites this year. If you need help finding one of the events listed, please ask.

Things of note:

1) The TRY night at the Syracuse Crunch is this coming Friday (the 24th).

2) The local race coming up the fastest is the Shamrock Run on March 10th. (I assume it will be the first race of the Syrathon race series again.)

3) The Mountain Goat training runs start on March 24th. Will you be ready for that in five weeks?

4) The Making Tracks for Celiac's event is tentatively scheduled for May 12th.

5) The Liverpool Relay for Life is June 15th-16th. I had a difficult time finding enough runners last year -- got saved by a last minute influx of new people. This event may have ran it's course. I'll be looking for much earlier commitments this year -- and if not enough people want to do it, I will pull the plug on the running portion and just be part of a walking team. Not a big deal, but if I do that event, I want to do it right. So, think about your schedules and if you want to help out with that again or not?

6) The Boilermaker has about 6000 spots left out of the 14000 total allowed in the 15k.

7) I have penciled the TRY group runs as starting on March 13th, with a more official start (the speedwork portions) scheduled for April 3rd. Plan your lives accordingly! :-)

Winter Maintenance

Hi TRY-ers!  Adam noticed some bad links on the blog, and I am going to fix those.  While I am here, I'll add a few reminders.

The following events are open for registration:

• Boilermaker (4000/14000 entries as of today)
• Mountain Goat
• Green Lakes Triathlon (YMCA Members)

There are good number of TRY members signed up for the Boilermaker (me, Aaron, Terry, Ally, ET, Sue, Adam, Roger).  I hope everyone else will join in the fun!

Most of us took some breaks over the holidays, but I know I am back in the swing of running.  I hope everyone is doing their best to keep in shape over the winter.  Don't forget about opportunities for group runs:

• Lake Effect running club, Saturday mornings in Liverpool
• Fleet Feet Cold Feet on Sunday mornings in East Syracuse

If you are looking to do the Mountain Goat, the 10 week plan starts at the end of February.  Any base you have at that point will make you stronger for the program.  If that is too early for you, you can start later (the one on the Mountain Goat website is shorter).  However, it is a tough course, and the longer training cycle will make it a more pleasant experience.

If you want to contact anyone over the winter, post on the Facebook page.  Many of us check that regularly.  If you aren't a member of the group but want to be added, add me as a friend and drop me a note!

--Kelly :)

Last week!

This is the last week of TRY for the year.  This run is really to enjoy the lights and spend one last night as a group!  We will run at a comfortable pace for everyone...no speed at this one!  We will meet at 5pm.  I hope to see everyone one last time for the year.

Now we are moving into the winter months, and do your best to keep up your running through the winter.  The one thing we have found that improves running is consistency.  If you can keep your mileage up through the winter, you will have a much better fitness base for the spring and summer races.  Aaron and I spent last winter running during lunch at work.  We both had a great season, and I believe our winter base really put us in an excellent position for the year.

There are plenty of motivating opportunities in Syracuse to run through the winter.  There are races in the area (Turkey Trot, Jingle Bell Run, Reindeer Run, etc).  Fleet feet has the Dusk Runs now (http://www.fleetfeetsyracuse.com/training/dusk-runs) and Cold Feet Training Runs (http://www.fleetfeetsyracuse.com/training/cold-feet-training-runs) later in the year.  There are also plenty of running or triathlon clubs in the area to join if that is your thing (CNY Tri, Lake Effect Running Club, Syracuse Chargers, Syracuse Track Club).

Keep an eye open for Terry to organize a cross country skiing event when we get enough snow!

Here is where Terry adds to my post...I'm not sure why he isn't just writing these things ;-)

2 Weeks Left and Fast Women Have the Best Times

We are nearing the end of the TRY year. We only have 2 weeks left. Wow, this year has gone by fast! We hope to see everyone for the last couple of times for the year :)

This week I recommend doing a 4 mile tempo. That would be a 1 mile warmup, 2 mile at a faster pace, and a 1 mile cool down.

Next week is Lights on the Lake for the final TRY run. Check back next week for details!

[Terry felt like spicing this one up a little...read on]

Next weeks detailed plans:

MONDAY night - a walk under Lights on the Lake. Meeting at the normal Wegman's playground end of the park at 6. Walking from 6 - 7:30ish. Then going to Bankgkok Thai Restaurant for dinner starting at 8. Since I'm hoping for a decent turn out for dinner (It'll be Ivy's first time!) please let me know if you plan to join in as I may warn them and make a pseudo reservation. The point is to walk under the lights but if you can only join in for dinner - or can't make it at 6 and want to run us down under the lights, I'm flexible.

TUESDAY night - a group five mile jog under the lights on the lake. Meeting at normal TRY time at 5 next to the bike rental building and then jogging til 6:15ish? (Lots of people to dodge along the way.)

Note that it is free but they do recommend a $2 donation. If you are like me and haven't donated to the park in a while, this is a great time to give extra money to the park that gives so much back with all the exercising it allows us to do!

I was rather shocked this weekend to stumble across and interesting and insightful article on female marathon running on Grantland.com (which is an offshoot of ESPN.com). Here is the grand finale:

"...women running fair and square in a race from which their own mothers were expressly banned. Less than half a century ago, coverage of the sport in major magazines included descriptions of "fragrant hair" — imagine how they'd react to this new kickass generation of fast and feisty ladies."

It goes into some of the history of women's distance running, Syracuse University gets mentioned, there is a fun sidebar on why the former world record has been disallowed and also on the side there is a link to an article from Running Times that goes into the difference in gender based time standards.

Since we've had a glut of marathon finishers in TRY this fall (and all but one have been women), I thought it was a very timely analysis of the Boston Marathon qualifying time schemes. The articles are probably more interesting to women then men, but we all can get something out of them.

Happy Halloween! / NOT a Shocker

Kelly is an overachiever and posted while on vacation...so her post is now at the end of this one. Let me add some fluff to the top - since some of you like it fluffy.

Halloween weekend contained some shockers, but I would rather focus on the parts of it that were not shocking:

1) Tim and Lindsay throwing a great Halloween party. Thanks you two! For the generous sharing of your house with TRY and friends and the obvious huge amount of your time that you put into the decorations and the theme. I've been missing the heavenly harp music ever since. It was so tranquil!

2) Catherine (that crazy dare-devil) continuing her assault on every Syracuse area weekend race. This time she checked out the new location for the "AAA Halloween Run" at Jamesville Beach (which used to be the Brueggers Bagel Run at Beaver Lake Nature Center). They moved it to support the growing number of entrants but while Jamesville was more wide open, they definitely lost something in the switch. It wasn't as quaint. And was very muddy. So, it was a slow track that wasn't quite the same course as the Celiac 5k from two springs ago, although it used a lot of the same portions of the fields and trails. There were plenty of costumes, including a man in full pig attire (who did get a bit muddy just like everyone else) and some other fully committed costumes. So, it was still a fun event, just not as cute as it was at the cuter park that gets done up for Halloween.

3) Allyson continuing to be an expert, online fundraiser. In a time when it seems that requests on facebook don't get a lot of support, she threw out a quid pro quo offer that enticed the crowd. (Although one could argue that she would have gotten even better results if she offered more than baked goods?) Rumors from the walking event were that Allyson couldn't contain herself and broke into a run partway through. And the famously nutty Dunn sisters were the fourth largest team fundraiser for the entire event! Impressive.

4) Aaron and Kelly lighting it up in a frigid Marine Corp Marathon. Despite being harbingers of frost, they were primed for great performances at the marathon distance and they delivered. Aaron shaved close to an hour of his former PR and Kelly held off a late charge from him to beat him by a few minutes. (Her little running red woman was a bit too strong for his little running blue guy.) I'm not sure what Kelly's PR had been - so I'll await her comment - but I'm guessing it may have been a shared one with Aaron - in which case she took an hour off from that!

The point of #4 is that - if you put in the time that A & K have in your training and do as much speed work as they've done - good results and getting new PRs are not a shocker - they are expected. And while in a marathon anything can happen - it is great that ordinary happened - and that they both got what they deserved. Great job you two!

Final thought from Terry - I keep hearing more and more about lights on the lake running night. It's now just 2 more weeks away - and we'll be meeting at our normal time and place - 5 near the rental building. And then doing a relaxing jog at group pace (may need to split into two groups if we're too cumbersome) and attempt to do all 5 miles of a down and back. It's free! (But they do accept donations.)

Kelly's remote post (thanks Kelly for being a long distance overachiever!):

Happy halloween! I hope everyone had a fun and festive weekend. What costume did you wear this year?

Aaron and I both had good races at the Marine Corps marathon yesterday. Did anyone else race this weekend?

Aaron and I probably won't make it back in time to join you, but I recommend quarters as a goup to prep for those end of year 5ks. That would be a one mile warmup, 4 x quarter mile intervals with quarter rest in between (regroup after each quarter), and 1 mile cool down.

See you next week!

Getting cooler!

I read this on a blog this week, and I thought it was a great quote.

"...you don't have to run a marathon to be a runner. There is too much hype and too much pressure on the marathon. Running should be about enjoying it."
--Joan Benoit Samuelson

We are all runners whether we are doing a marathon, 5k, or just out there for a 1 mile jaunt. Make sure to enjoy your time out there!

This past weekend we had Terry and Catherine completed the Eastwood Park to Park 5 mile race. I think Catherine (and maybe Terry?) did every run in the Syrathon (http://www.syracuse.ny.us/parks/SpecialEventsSyrathon.html). Great job Catherine! [Editor: Catherine did indeed complete the 2011 Syrathon. Terry did not. He is a loser. Don't ever forget that. Going into the last race, only 67 people had completed the first 5 races of the 6 race series. So, Catherine is in select company. Please use peer pressure to get her to post a picture of her medal and to show off her shirt. She is too noble of a person to update her facebook profile picture, but maybe you can guilt her into a picture somewhere else? Shirts were available for runners who completed 4 to 6 of the races, so you'll see more of them then the 60 something who did the full 'thon.]

We are getting to chillier temperatures this week, so make sure to bring the right clothing. I know I didn't pack well last week :) We will be out there running at 5pm again. We had a great turnout last week and hope to see everyone this week, too.

I recommend 4 miles with a 2 mile tempo (1 mile warm up, 2 mile at an increased pace, 1 mile cool down).

See you tomorrow!

Give Me a Break

Kelly needed a much deserved break, so you are stuck with Terry this week. See the entry below for the latest meaty subject - foam rolling.

For this week - a reminder that the TRY meet-up time has been moved up to 5:00. For those of you who can no longer make it: Sorry. But mother nature is a fickle mistress and we are running out of daylight.

The group work-out will either be 1/4 mile intervals or hill repeats at the 3/4 mile mark in the park. It can be decided during the pre-game chat as we meet up.

A special commendation to Lindsay who completed her first marathon on Sunday at the Empire State Marathon! Congratulations on the completion of months of dedicated training. An alley-cat told me that Albany-area-TRYer (and one of the Four Asian Tigers) Kerri completed a marathon this weekend as well. Congratulations to her on once again posting a Boston qualifying time.

Completing the Empire state half marathon were Centipediatrician Bob (Dr. Findacache) and the newest TRYer Steve. Congrats to you both for being half the men of Lindsay and Kerri! (While still being about four times the men that I am!)

Seriously though - congratulations to all of you who have completed your first, your longest or your fastest long races this fall. I hope you take some well deserved moments to revel in your accomplishments! :-) And if you need a break from all those long runs, think about doing some faster, shorter runs (and races). You'll barely notice them compared to your long runs and your marathons and half-marathons and you'll be bringing all that fitness with you...and may be in for a PR without much more than some quick speedwork touch ups.

And a last thought - the former Beaver Lake Bruegger's Bagel Halloween Run, now seems to be the AAA Halloween Run at Jamesville Beach? I assume it got moved for size reasons? It's on Sunday morning October 30th. Anyone want to run that in a group uniform of some sort? Could be fun? Comment or get a hold of me somehow if you are interested...we can figure something out. (Or can do individual costumes...or none at all...just a thought on making a race more fun.) Warning - it's a cross country course - not a road race.