Memorial Day on Long Island

Great Memorial Day weekend, even though I only got one run in. On Saturday, I did about 4 miles in Mattituck, on the North Fork. It was cloudy and comfortable when I started but by the time I was halfway through, the sun had come out and it was hot! I was super sweaty when I got back, which felt great. Pretty much the rest of the weekend was spent sitting by a pool or on a boat, with lots of beer drinking thrown in. 

I slept in today, but I'll run tomorrow morning and I start track practice on Thursday morning so I'm excited about that...excited being a relative term. 

I've been thinking about marathon training, which officially starts in about a month. I have a couple of ideas for specific workouts I want to do to prepare. The track workouts should be helpful for speed but I've heard a lot about how daunting the 59th St (Queensboro) Bridge is when you hit the 15th mile. I'll let this speak for itself:

Sublime Climbs

The greatest, most daunting hills in U.S. races, ranked in descending order.

Where It Hits: Just before 15 miles

How Long, How Hard: .75 miles, rising 110 feet, 2.78 percent grade 
How to Conquer It: "Save yourself for that bridge because it's almost as tough as the final miles in Central Park," says Steve Jones, who won the New York City Marathon in 1988 by opening a big gap up this climb. "Don't pick it up at the apex; you've still got 10 miles to go." 

My plan: know my enemy. I've mapped out a long run that takes me across 4 East River bridges (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, and 59th St), totaling 16-18 miles (there are some places that can be cut out if I'd prefer to end with some work in Central Park), with the 59th Street Bridge coming at about the same distance it will in the marathon-I know I can get some other crazy friends to run it with me! I also plan to spend one or two days just doing repeats of the bridge, over and over. 


Gratuitous "I'm on a boat" picture