Today was my first actual run of marathon training. The plan called for 5 miles, so I did 5.2 miles at a super easy pace. My pace has really slowed lately due to: heat and fatness. The heat I can't really do anything about other than try to get out there earlier. The fatness is directly under my control and I'm working on it. I'm not actually "fat" by normal people standards, but certainly by runner standards. I'm not used to being this heavy but after hubby's DNF at the Brooklyn half I ate my emotions and stress for awhile. Now that he's gotten a relatively clean bill of health from a cardiologist I'm really trying to worry less or do other activities when stressed. Hopefully hubby can help me by encouraging me to make better choices but not telling me "you can't" because I'm so damn oppositional that saying that phrase to me will ensure that I do exactly that.
Before my run today I did some dynamic stretching for the first time. I used this video to guide me through some basic exercises. It didn't feel much different from just getting out there and running, but I figure now is the time to get into better running habits. After my run I did a short video on fitness blender that focused on lower body strengthening. This is also something that is a bit new to me but I really want to make sure that I keep my injuries at bay.
As part of encouraging myself to run more consistently, I joined the 2015in2015 mileage game that is hosted on the Runner's World forums. I think that it has really helped me not slack off as frequently because I know that my teammates are depending on me to run my miles. I originally set my goal as 1000 miles for 2015, partly because if you were new to the game and wanted to create a goal higher than that you had to substantiate it - and I was a bit too lazy to do that ;-) I've since revised my goal to 1337 miles for the year. I am currently at 606 miles for the year. This puts me way ahead of my initial goal pace and a bit behind my new goal pace, but marathon training will really ramp up the mileage.
One of my teammates from the 2015in2015 mileage game is an amazing runner. He recently ran the Western States 100 which is just incredible. He blogs about his running and writes really wonderful race reports. Today he posted a race report that was truly inspiring. He wrote not about his own race, but of the finish of a 70 year old woman, Gunhild Swanson. I hope to someday be that fit.
Today's gratuitous post run selfie. I'm a millennial so I've gotta hop on the selfie band wagon of course. The background is the inspiring part of the picture.
Today begins day 1 of the smackdown. The smackdown is also known as training for my first marathon, the NYC marathon on November 1st. I am (hopefully) running the NYC marathon against my "hot" sister's advice. My hot sister has run two marathons and is generally a gifted athlete. I do not suffer the same affliction of being gifted in relation to athletics. I enjoy sports, being outdoors, and being active -- but that doesn't mean that I'm any good at it. My husband sent me a post today that really resonated with me: In Defense of Being Average I think that I often suffer from this idea that I must be good at everything, when really just getting out there is enough. After all, I'm lapping everyone on the couch.
This morning I woke up early and printed out my training plan. I formatted it nicely in excel and posted it on my whiteboard. Obviously since it is printed I will follow it to the T ;-) It is basically a modified version of Hal Higdon's Intermediate 1 training plan. I've beefed up the midweek mileage a bit and dropped one of the 20 mile runs. My hot sister says that 20 milers are grueling and since I am such a slow runner I'll be out there for a long time to accomplish the run. She has advised me that doing that to my body more than once during my first training cycle probably wouldn't be a smart approach to marathon training. I'll heed her advice because she's done this before and she's generally more knowledgeable about fitness than I am. Though of course I disregarded her initial advice to never do a marathon...
Today the training plan called for cross training. I dutifully did my 30 minutes on the exercise bike downstairs while watching some Netflix and trying not to be bored to tears. Maybe I should look into some more interesting cross training options for Mondays, but the local spin studio doesn't have convenient class times for me on Mondays. Unless I want to get to the spin studio by 6am, which isn't going to happen.
Speaking of early mornings, I really need to get better at getting out the door for my runs early because summers in NYC basically suck climate-wise. I have no problem waking up early, but I am habituated to reading, drinking my coffee, and relaxing in the morning. During the springtime I typically did my runs around 11am after I'd dropped of hubby at the train and relaxed for a bit.
Today I also finally stepped on the scale after basically eating my stress for the past 6 weeks. It wasn't a pretty number, but I've been in worse places with my weight before. I took my measurements and recorded them - let's see what marathon training does to this wonderful body of mine. Maybe if there's some progress on that front I'll share the information. I'm going to try to measure myself every two weeks or so and step on the scale everyday that I wake up at home. That probably sounds skeevier than it should; I'm referring to the travelling I'll be doing over the summer that will keep me away from my scale.
I think that this is more than enough for an introductory blog post. I'll try to post a bit every day, but no promises on that front. I'd rather be getting my runs done than writing about not having done them. I also noticed on a reread that I used the word suffer twice in the first paragraph - I wonder if this is the subliminal thought I'm having relating to the NYC Marathon.
