Wanted to get in as much family time as possible today and I needed to sleep in a little. Luckily, today was a short run anyways. When the family was packing up to drive back to New Hampshire, I was able to get a 3.5 mile run on a treadmill at the gym at the hotel. Not the biggest fan of treadmill running but it was quick and easy and I had to catch a flight. Felt pretty good but, then again, anything would have felt good compared to yesterday’s run in the park.

Excited for the upcoming race this week. More to come.

We Are One 365.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

Ran to Central Park from my hotel on 6th and 53rd. I can’t really complain about the weather since it was a gorgeous sunny day but I love running in 90 degree weather so tights, arm sleeves, hat and gloves were necessary. Always love having company on my runs and what better than my best friend, my younger brother, Alex Karwoski. He’s a rower but still has some of his old endurance from his cross country days in high school. We ran around Central Park which I believe is around 6.5 miles in about 43 minutes which was perfect because I was extremely tight and sore. I think the little amount of sleep the previous two nights, the cold, and the hard workouts were catching up with me a little bit.

I don’t get to see my little bro that often so just having him by my side for a conversational pace run was awesome. I’d rather go a little slower and run with him (which we weren’t even going slow) then book it by myself. Ran by our brother-in-law Tim Weddleton on the way as well. Just one of the hundreds of runners that we ran by. You couldn’t run more than 3 seconds without coming up on or passing a runner. There was some sort of Team-in-Training going on because there were people cheering us on when we ran by. A nice, unexpected feature for a Saturday morning long run. Dodging people, strollers, bikers, dogs, and the occasional horse and buggy, it was a pretty cool 13 mile run in the 2nd biggest park in America (I overheard a tour guide say…which I assume he meant recreational park because I think Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon would have Central Park beat by just a little…I don’t know though…I’m not a geologist).

Hopefully the soreness and tightness will go away by Thanksgiving’s 10k in Orange County. Already feels a little better after walking about 10 miles in the city with my awesome family. If you think my humor is bad, hang out with the Karwoski’s for a day and you will see exactly where it comes from. #Gina

Will be adding a 4th workout to my daily training starting next week (hurdle work for steeple preparation). Time to get to work. Hope everyone’s training is going well and you are all ready for your Turkey Trots. Remember to rest up the night before the night before (Tuesday) and carb up on Wednesday night.

Also, Congratulations to the Dickinson College Men’s Cross Country Team for placing 10th at Nationals and to the Women’s Team for placing 25th. Outstanding performances all around. And a special Congratulations to Dylan Straughan for placing 33rd and becoming an All American. Wicked proud of all of you.

We Are One 365.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

My flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta was miserable. Sat next to a larger than average guy who had no problem hogging both arm rests. Had a kid behind me kicking my seat so I couldn’t put it down (not that the 3 extra inches of tilt make you that much more comfortable or anything). Then the flight from Atlanta to La Guardia was no better. Just a little travel tip. The seats in front of the exit row don’t go down. So again I was deprived of my 3 extra inches. And as I mentioned before, those 3 inches don’t make the chair go from vertical to horizontal but when your knees are jammed into the seat in front, it helps a little. Finally got to the hotel on Avenue of the Americas on about 1.5 hours of plane sleep. Saw some family, went to lunch, went and picked up my We Are One 365 shirt (Thank you Dan Sarsfield), and it was finally time to relax. No, not sleep. Run.

Not sure if you know how long 48 flight of stairs take to go down but its about 6 minutes at a quick pace. Wanted to warm the legs up but ended up getting dizzy with the hairpin turn every 8 steps. It seemed pretty nice out so I went with the shorts and long sleeve shirt. Definitely regretting it by the end. I have become a bit of a wuss and lost most of my New England cold weather roots. Granted I hate being cold in the first place, I should have brought gloves. Also, didn’t know Central Park was so big. So many random trails cutting around ponds, mini parks within the park, biking lane next to a car lane next to a running lane. The possibilities seemed endless. It was great. Originally was only going to run for 6 miles but I just kept exploring and decided to turn around at 30 min.

Got a little lost on the way back since it was pitch black. Got some weird looks as I was still running when I hit the city streets on the way back to my hotel. A little over 9 mile run in a little over an hour. Felt awesome. Slight lower pain in abs and upper groin but nothing out of the ordinary. Interested to see how this cold will affect me for the next three days.

Guess I looked out of place when I was walking through the hotel (there was a big medical corporation conference) because a security guard followed me up 15 flights of stairs and asked me if I was staying here. I told him I was but couldn’t remember my room number in that split second. I started untying my shoe to get the key and he got a little too aggressive and approached me with his hand ready for action. No need for a battle. I showed him my key and walked into my room. Honestly, that’s a pretty standard event for me. Especially when I’m visiting a new city.

Great run in a great city. Excited for the longer one tomorrow. We Are One 365.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

Wanted to get an early start on the day but had to lay in bed for an hour before I got out of bed because I was pretty sore. Once I finally went for a light 5.5 mile run, the legs felt so much better and loosened up quite a bit.

5.5 in the morning. 4.5 in the afternoon. 10 x 100 strides.

Light day before my trip to NYC with the family. Not very excited to have to run with a hat and gloves on but I’ve never run in Central Park before.Any suggestions for other runs?

We Are One 365.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

Morning run was an uphill 6 mile run. Felt a little sore but figured most of that tightness would be let out throughout the day with Egoscue (body alignment clinic) and with massaging the muscles before the afternoon workout. On workout days, I do strider drills which consist of karaoke, high knees, butt kicks, quick feet, backwards, leg gates, and A and B skips.

Afternoon workout at Santa Monica College Track. Little chilly for Southern California standards but I digress.

2 mile warm up
10 x 100
8 x 200 (2 fresh (33), 2 good (30)
400 easy
3 x 400 (200 recov)
400 easy
3 x 400 (200 rec)
400 easy
3 x 400
800 easy
3 x 400 (All under 60 secs) (200 recov)
1.5 cool down

I thought of a clever way to get all of my splits since my Coach hates when I look at my watch. I had a teammate write them down secretly but when asked what he was writing down by my coach, he took the paper and said “oh, I could use that, thanks.” Plan busted.

For the last set of 400’s, the happenings around the track were shocking. Around one turn there were the cheerleaders practicing their cheers. On a straight away, there were two open doors to the athletic building. One was playing Irish jig music and the other was playing bongo music. The football team were practicing their field goals, so we were dodging the landings on the turn. Then the parking garage had what sounded like 5 different alarms going off. It was like a fan filled stadium except not at all. Needless to say, I ran that one the fastest.

About 10.5 on the track. 16.5 total for the day. Legs were pretty tired and sore but happy with the workout. Usually speed workouts would not be done this early in the season but we treat these like fartlek workouts so its more of a distance workout with quality minutes.

If you want to know more detailed information about my times for my workouts follow me on twitter (@NicKarwoski) or check me out on Logarun.

We Are One 365.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

After a tough week last week and a few hard days in a row, today was a nice break. I ran 4 easy in the morning and 6 in the afternoon. Legs felt a little tired today. Probably a combination from last week and the 20 minute ice bath last night that took me about 2 hours to warm up from. James Sunderland tucked me in nice and tight so no heat escaped.

Ice baths are an important part of training, especially after workouts/high demand days. All of the blood rushes to the vital parts of your body in order to keep the important interior parts warm while in the bath. Ice baths help decrease inflammation in joints and muscle tissue and allows your body to recover from the workout quicker. Its really good for nagging injuries that are starting up as well because when you get out of the bath, the oxygen enriched blood flows very quickly to the areas that need it the most. Welp, that’s it for today. Hope everyone’s training is going well. Put the work in now so that you can have that 3rd plate on Thanksgiving. The 2nd plate wasn’t in question. I realize that. We are only human. But We Are One 365.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

It’s almost a guarantee that Monday’s workout will involve a mile at a pretty quick pace. I used to be sort of scared of this because I had the mentality that “I’m not a miler” and would always get housed by the other guys doing it. But after the past several weeks, I have grown to really look forward to staring at the 26th st sign knowing that I had less than 4 minutes and 20 seconds to get to 14th st (exactly one mile away). Today, I got there in about 4:11.1. After the miles I hit last week, I was ok with that especially because it felt smooth and relatively comfortable. The workout in its entirety:

1 mile warm up

10 x 100 striders

half mile easy (3 min)

3 x 450 hill repeats (1:20 ish)

3/4 mile easy

half mile at 2:15

half mile easy (3 min)

3 min hard

1 mile easy (6:00 pace)

1 mile good (4:11)

1 mile easy (6 min pace)

half mile all out (1:55)

half mile cool down

10 x 100

5 min power abs: minute of crunches, minute of leg lifts, minute of twisted reaches, minute of plank, half minute side planks…..This ab workout is very good for strengthening the lower abs. There are plenty of ab workouts that can be much longer and have many other exercises but I always find this one to hurt the most. Having abs are more than just a looking good muscle. Especially for running, they serve the same purpose as your arms do. When you see someone running with very little arm movement (especially when they are sprinting), their core and lower abs are more than likely very strong. Having strong abs helps prevent your torso from twisting back and forth. It a stabilization function muscle just like your arms (that’s why your left arm swings forward when your right knee is driving forward…for stability). Shorter distance runners lift weights in order to have more strength at faster speeds. Distance runners don’t necessarily need to do this because they don’t hit the same speeds, which is why having a strong core with lean arms is a perfect distance running combo. Strong abs = stable and more controlled body.

Legs feel loose and strong. Biked home. Need to put the lights on my bike since it now gets pitch black at around 4:45 pm.

With 4 miles this morning, 11 for the workout. 15 total. We Are One 365.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

1:00 pm: Since I don’t have official practice with my team on Sundays and the runs are normally pretty short (comparatively), I usually don’t plan where I’m going to go and just turn down random streets. I figured I would decide how long the run would be once I gauged how my legs felt after a pretty heavy workload this previous week but I felt very fresh from beginning to end. I ran to Montana, Washington, Georgina (ok, take out two letters and its a state), and Idaho, about a mile and a half from the ocean. I wanted a nice recovery run so I kept the pace slow. Gorgeous sunny 70-degree day with a little breeze and, while I hardly ever listen to an ipod while I run, “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” podcast keeps passerby’s curious as to why I’m laughing when I’m running. Great afternoon 6 mile run in 40:53 (6:48 per mile). Did some relaxed leg swings and high knee drills after I returned. Will run 3 miles later this afternoon with a 4th grader that I run with. He’s a 22:30 minute 5k runner. Pretty impressive stuff for a 10 year old.

Hope everyone’s workout was great and ready for some goal setting as we head into the holiday season. Enjoy the NFL games tonight. Not a crazy Patriots fan or anything but it would be nice to have them beat the Jets. Yeah…I said it but remember, We Are One 365.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

Hello and Welcome to my first post for the We Are One 365 Day Challenge! The first of many…well… 365 to be exact.

A couple of things to start off. First and foremost, I would like to thank the Veterans, past, current, and future, for their constant sacrifices to this country.

Second of all, I want to personally thank Matt Wood, Marena Perkins, James Epstein and all of the We Are One 365 Team for coming up with and helping create this corner of the website as a part of We Are One 365 and allowing me to put my training towards a greater cause.

While the next 8 months of my life will be focused on preparing and qualifying for the Olympic Trials, I am truly excited for the next year of my life in terms of my training and being able to share it with the We Are One 365 community.

Thirdly, training with the incredibly talented Santa Monica Track Club in Los Angeles is an experience that many athletes don’t get the opportunity to do. As no one likes regrets, I am dedicating everything I have physically and mentally to this challenge. I believe I have a chance to make the Olympic Trials. How good of a chance? We will find out.

I look forward to sharing my running journey with all of you. With that said, I encourage any and all suggestions regarding the information I provide as well as helping decide the most interesting and engaging direction to take. Some days, my training will be short and sweet with the blog following suit. Other days will be more complex with more miles and workout breakdowns. Again, I would love to hear from you with any questions, suggestions, or comments.

Lastly, I understand that accomplishing my Olympic trial goal is going to be difficult and require an incredible amount of focus, industriousness and, most importantly, enthusiasm. If you don’t love what you do, you will never be great at it. I’m still learning a lot but it’s something that makes me happy. Because of this, I want to help put more happiness in your life by pushing you physically and offering different ways to get to new levels. By reaching out to me, you give me more meaning, purpose, and drive with my own goals on good days and bad. Having this blog holds me accountable every day and it increases my commitment to training, to We Are One 365, and to the military members that we have made our pledge. Let’s work hard together and see the impact we can make. We Are One 365.

9:30 am: Westridge Mountains

Met up with Tony, Moses, Yermie, and Zach at the Westridge canyon entrance in Brentwood. It was raining but not too chillly. I was very excited to be running in the canyons for our long run. First time this season. As we started, I forgot how steep the canyon actually was and how long an inclined 3.5 mile run can seem. We ran 45 minutes out and it took us about 42 to get back (about 7 miles out). The downhills were very slippery so watching my footing was crucial and we weren’t able to go as fast as we normally would down hills. Felt good to push up the hills and to see that I was in some sort of shape. Did some leg swings and high knees after the run.

14 miles in 1:27:30 (6:12 pace)

5 miles later this afternoon which will put me around 110 miles for this week. Most ever. Groin feels good and body feels strong.

12 days til next race. Turkey Trot in Dana Point. Trying to decide between 10k and 5k.

Congrats to the We Are One 365 members who ran the 5k this afternoon in NYC. Looking forward to hearing all about it. I’m sure it was a huge success. A great start for a great organization.

Always Remember. Never Forget. No Regrets.

Nick