Long time, no see. Weeks 8 and 9 of marathon training were terrible :-( I felt so incredibly strong coming off of week 7, but I got sick with some tummy issues.
Week 8 recap:
Day 50 (August 17): After rocking my long run, I slept basically the entire day on Monday. I took only 4292 steps and was just pretty much a bum =( I should aim for at least 10k steps, even on a rest day.
Day 51 (August 18): I took an unscheduled rest day on the 18th. I had intended to run my planned mileage on the treadmill, but by the time I got around to it there was no availability. I'd also felt a bit rundown and sort of sick all day but was probably well enough to run.
Day 52 (August 19): I finally did some running, I felt relatively okay and did 6.6 miles on the treadmill.
Day 53 (August 20): This is when the tummy domination began. I was running a planned 9 mile run on the treadmill but only got to 4.5 miles. After that distance I began having tummy problems (burping, feeling bad) and had to get off and call it a quits.
Day 54 (August 21): I finally got to run outside - it was less hot. Unfortunately, my tummy problems were not going away =( I ran 5.2 miles at a very slow pace.
Day 55 (August 22): I ran a 5k with friends and then ran from the 5k to brunch, which was another 5k worth of distance. I felt fine during the race -- I even PRed (my 5k PR is still soft of course). I paced Caitlin during her first official 5k - she ran something like a 32:04 while I ran a 32:20. I sent her ahead at the end of the race because I knew that I was running another 5k afterwards. During brunch I began feeling really bad tummy wise. I made it home and rested for a bit, but then had social things to do in the evening. Because of the tummy issues I took a pregnancy test (just in case) but all is fine on that front -- still fetus free =P
Day 56 (August 23): Unscheduled rest day. I finally gave in and googled my symptoms -- feeling significantly worse after eating, the constant nausea and burping was a sign of gastritis. The cure: taking up the mormon lifestyle. By mormon lifestyle I mean: giving up coffee, alcohol, and spicy food =( Begin caffeine detox mode.
Week 8 summary:
Miles: 22.5
Pace: 11:37 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Hell no! =( The attack of the tummy issues begins!
Week 9 recap:
Day 57 (August 24): Nothing to see here other than a massive caffeine withdrawal headache.
Day 58 (August 25): See previous entry.
Day 59 (August 26): Ditto
Day 60 (August 27): My massive headache finally subsided. I went for a very easy 3.3 mile run outside. I didn't have tummy issues.
Day 61 (August 28): Another rest day. I just wasn't feeling 100%
Day 62 (August 29): I planned to do my long run on Saturday because it was the cooler of the two weekend days. I planned to do 12 miles to hop back on my plan. I ran in loops because of said tummy issues - this was probably both a bad and good idea. By the end of the first loop I was feeling pretty bad. Burping a bit and just generally not able to keep it up. Plus I was having some weird pain in my left knee (which has never been any problem before). I called it a quits after 5.7 miles and planned to move my LR to Sunday.
Day 63 (August 30): Well, the laziness beast struck. Or more likely the low grade caffeine withdrawal headache + lack of energy caused by lack of caffeine prompted me to turn off my running alarms and sleep. I actually slept in until like 9:30am which is unheard of for me. Usually sleeping in for me is waking up at like 7:30 instead of 6. The fact that I slept so late was probably a sign of my body just being so screwed up by the lack of coffee to regulate it.
Week 9 summary:
Miles: 9 :-(
Pace: 12:34 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: nope =(
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Week 7 (days 43-49): Lions, and Tigers, and Long Runs oh my
I really need to get back to reflecting on my running daily instead of weekly because I know my feelings on a daily basis, but on a weekly basis I forget what I was thinking about on a day to day basis.
Day 43 (August 10): Cross training day. Originally I was going to take this as a rest day, but I had a friend visiting from out of town who wanted to get drinks. Now that citibike is in my neighborhood, I decided to bike there to see him. Hubby and I met at Upstate for dinner beforehand. The service was incredibly slow, but the food was amazing. We grabbed a single drink with Ben and headed home because I tend to go to sleep by 10 or 11pm most nights and it was sleepy time.
Day 44 (August 11): I struggled to get the motivation to get out there to run because I had overslept in the morning, and by that I mean that since I didn't roll out of bed until 7am I decided that I didn't want to feel rushed with trying to get my run in and get hubby off to work =P I eventually ran in the evening and took some super beautiful sunset pictures. I really do live in a wonderful place to run. I ran 6 miles at a super duper easy pace. I stopped a lot to take pictures and just tried to enjoy running.
Day 45 (August 12): Unscheduled rest day. I had two forces pulling at me - a 5k down in Prospect Park and the Nike group run. Instead of doing them I just sort of watched netflix and ate Chinese food. Yep, that was not part of the plan but at least I hadn't taken my rest day yet.
Day 46 (August 13): I ran 9 miles in the morning. I had trouble getting out the door again, but I made it work. I ran from my apartment to the middle of the Williamsburg bridge and back. Yay for hill training? Hubby had to leave for work early, so I met him as he was leaving to take the punk dog for her walk :-)
Day 47 (August 14): I ran 7 miles after hubby left for work. In the afternoon I biked to meet a friend for vegan ice cream. In the evening I met with hubby and other friends for a celebratory dinner. One of my friends is taking a few months leave of absence from her job so we went to celebrate at Amelie Wine Bar. The food was amazing. I'm really happy that my friend is taking some time to herself and away from her high stress job. Too many people in this world focus only on making money and burn themselves out emotionally and physically by working stressful jobs for years on end.
Day 48 (August 15): I met up with Kristin (a girl from some of the running communities that I belong to) to run part of her long run with her. She had misremembered the day of the NYRR long training run and was going to be forced to run 16 miles all by herself. I planned on joining her for 7 miles of her long run, but I wound up running 8. We ran through the "summer streets" event put on by the city which was nice, but also annoying. We still had to stop a lot for traffic, which is something I'm not really used to. Also, my GPS went wacky and definitely overestimated the distance. High rises really mess with GPS signal. We also did a loop of central park. I showed her my secret bathroom on the 72nd street traverse, because uncrowded bathrooms are necessary on long runs. We had a nice talk about our jobs and lives. Kristin is a really good running partner for me because she is basically exactly my pace (I think our HM PRs are less than 2 minutes from each other) and she leads an interesting life :-) After running with Kristin I took a zoom zoom shower and headed to my brother's to home brew.
Day 49 (August 16): NYRR long training run #2. I didn't run the first long training run because it took place the day after I got back from Paris. The long training runs are interesting -- they have water stations, portapotties, misters, and some food, but are untimed. People can choose to run any distance from 6 miles up to 20 miles. They provide pacers for 7:00 pace --> 10:30 pace at :30 increments. As a penguin, of course I couldn't take advantage of the pacers, but I still enjoyed the camaraderie of being joined by so many other runners. I was running a bit late to this, but still made it on time for my start. Of course in my morning rush I'd forgotten to bring my inhaler. Luckily I was telling a woman from Runners United about this and she offered me a puff from her inhaler. It was an identical prescription to my own inhaler so I gratefully accepted her offer. Normally I'm quite the germophobe but I really thought the risk of winding up in the ER and/or having a miserable run like the Brooklyn half was worse than the risk of germs... knock on wood!
Thanks to the inhaler I was able to kick ass (well, for me) despite the hot/humid conditions. I ran 16.5 miles during the long run and felt pretty good the whole time. I slowed down a bit from miles 11-15 but I was able to pick it back up for the last mile. My only mistake was standing in the misters too long -- by the end of the run my feet were a soaked sloggy mess. I also had some issues with the subway because of Sunday service and not checking the route in both directions but overall I felt really good with my longest run to date.
Week 7 Summary:
Miles: 46.5
Pace: 12:07 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Well, I got all 5 runs in and actually went 1.5 miles over my planned mileage for the week. I've been too lax with my stretching/foam rolling/yoga and I think it might come to bite me in the ass (or hip, or back, or knee). I need to set up some structure to make sure I get these workouts in. Maybe I should do them while watching TV?
Day 43 (August 10): Cross training day. Originally I was going to take this as a rest day, but I had a friend visiting from out of town who wanted to get drinks. Now that citibike is in my neighborhood, I decided to bike there to see him. Hubby and I met at Upstate for dinner beforehand. The service was incredibly slow, but the food was amazing. We grabbed a single drink with Ben and headed home because I tend to go to sleep by 10 or 11pm most nights and it was sleepy time.
Day 44 (August 11): I struggled to get the motivation to get out there to run because I had overslept in the morning, and by that I mean that since I didn't roll out of bed until 7am I decided that I didn't want to feel rushed with trying to get my run in and get hubby off to work =P I eventually ran in the evening and took some super beautiful sunset pictures. I really do live in a wonderful place to run. I ran 6 miles at a super duper easy pace. I stopped a lot to take pictures and just tried to enjoy running.
Day 45 (August 12): Unscheduled rest day. I had two forces pulling at me - a 5k down in Prospect Park and the Nike group run. Instead of doing them I just sort of watched netflix and ate Chinese food. Yep, that was not part of the plan but at least I hadn't taken my rest day yet.
Day 46 (August 13): I ran 9 miles in the morning. I had trouble getting out the door again, but I made it work. I ran from my apartment to the middle of the Williamsburg bridge and back. Yay for hill training? Hubby had to leave for work early, so I met him as he was leaving to take the punk dog for her walk :-)
Day 47 (August 14): I ran 7 miles after hubby left for work. In the afternoon I biked to meet a friend for vegan ice cream. In the evening I met with hubby and other friends for a celebratory dinner. One of my friends is taking a few months leave of absence from her job so we went to celebrate at Amelie Wine Bar. The food was amazing. I'm really happy that my friend is taking some time to herself and away from her high stress job. Too many people in this world focus only on making money and burn themselves out emotionally and physically by working stressful jobs for years on end.
Day 48 (August 15): I met up with Kristin (a girl from some of the running communities that I belong to) to run part of her long run with her. She had misremembered the day of the NYRR long training run and was going to be forced to run 16 miles all by herself. I planned on joining her for 7 miles of her long run, but I wound up running 8. We ran through the "summer streets" event put on by the city which was nice, but also annoying. We still had to stop a lot for traffic, which is something I'm not really used to. Also, my GPS went wacky and definitely overestimated the distance. High rises really mess with GPS signal. We also did a loop of central park. I showed her my secret bathroom on the 72nd street traverse, because uncrowded bathrooms are necessary on long runs. We had a nice talk about our jobs and lives. Kristin is a really good running partner for me because she is basically exactly my pace (I think our HM PRs are less than 2 minutes from each other) and she leads an interesting life :-) After running with Kristin I took a zoom zoom shower and headed to my brother's to home brew.
Day 49 (August 16): NYRR long training run #2. I didn't run the first long training run because it took place the day after I got back from Paris. The long training runs are interesting -- they have water stations, portapotties, misters, and some food, but are untimed. People can choose to run any distance from 6 miles up to 20 miles. They provide pacers for 7:00 pace --> 10:30 pace at :30 increments. As a penguin, of course I couldn't take advantage of the pacers, but I still enjoyed the camaraderie of being joined by so many other runners. I was running a bit late to this, but still made it on time for my start. Of course in my morning rush I'd forgotten to bring my inhaler. Luckily I was telling a woman from Runners United about this and she offered me a puff from her inhaler. It was an identical prescription to my own inhaler so I gratefully accepted her offer. Normally I'm quite the germophobe but I really thought the risk of winding up in the ER and/or having a miserable run like the Brooklyn half was worse than the risk of germs... knock on wood!
 |
| At the start of the long run! |
Thanks to the inhaler I was able to kick ass (well, for me) despite the hot/humid conditions. I ran 16.5 miles during the long run and felt pretty good the whole time. I slowed down a bit from miles 11-15 but I was able to pick it back up for the last mile. My only mistake was standing in the misters too long -- by the end of the run my feet were a soaked sloggy mess. I also had some issues with the subway because of Sunday service and not checking the route in both directions but overall I felt really good with my longest run to date.
 |
| Success! |
Week 7 Summary:
Miles: 46.5
Pace: 12:07 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Well, I got all 5 runs in and actually went 1.5 miles over my planned mileage for the week. I've been too lax with my stretching/foam rolling/yoga and I think it might come to bite me in the ass (or hip, or back, or knee). I need to set up some structure to make sure I get these workouts in. Maybe I should do them while watching TV?
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Week 6 (days 36-42): Cutback weeks feel so nice
This blog post is post dated a bit - I've been having some mojo issues lately. I'm sure that they'll pass once school starts again and I have some more structure to my life. Week 6 on my training plan was a scheduled cutback week. I'd planned on running 36 miles, but that didn't happen as I took the cutback week a bit to the extreme.
Day 36 (August 3): Rest day. I was a complete and total bum and watched a whole lot of netflix. I slept a lot because recovering from the 15 miler was tough. I'd probably have been better off if I'd done more active recovery: yoga, walking, etc.
Day 37 (August 4): 6 miles on the treadmill. I did a sort of interval routine and pushed the pace a little.
Day 38 (August 5): I decided to be social and do the Nike group training run. I joined the 5 mile route and planned on running back from central park where the run is held. The 5 mile route turned out to be 5.3 miles, it was still hot at 7pm, and I was *tired* after the run so I took the subway home instead of running back over the Queensboro bridge after dark. I think that pushing the pace two days in a row isn't something my body can handle. There are also hills in central park unlike on the completely flat waterfront routes that I normally take.
Day 39 (August 6): I woke up with lots of ankle pain, or maybe more accurately soreness. I think that two days in a row of pushing the pace did me in. I got out there and did one loop of the local park but then I was done. I try not to feel guilty about slacking off as long as I give it a good faith effort. This was definitely a "listen to your body" type of day.
Day 40 (August 7): Cross training! My cross training was walking from Chinese class in midtown west to a yummy Chinese restaurant in midtown east. :-) Not too much exertion but I intentionally walked extra when I certainly could have taken the subway.
Day 41 (August 8): I ran 6.1 miles on my normal waterfront out and back route. It went well, I started out slowly but progressively picked up the pace throughout the run.
Day 42 (August 9): Long run! The benefit of long runs during cutback weeks is that they are short ;-) I ran 10 miles, which meant I ran from my apartment to do two loops of Roosevelt Island and then ran to my favorite bagel place in Astoria. Yummy! The subway ridge back took awhile because Sunday train service sucks, but hubby appreciated the yummy bagel from Astoria.
Week 6 Summary:
Miles: 28.9
Pace: 11:47 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Nope, not really -- missed 7 miles from the plan but pushed the pace a bunch.
Day 36 (August 3): Rest day. I was a complete and total bum and watched a whole lot of netflix. I slept a lot because recovering from the 15 miler was tough. I'd probably have been better off if I'd done more active recovery: yoga, walking, etc.
Day 37 (August 4): 6 miles on the treadmill. I did a sort of interval routine and pushed the pace a little.
Day 38 (August 5): I decided to be social and do the Nike group training run. I joined the 5 mile route and planned on running back from central park where the run is held. The 5 mile route turned out to be 5.3 miles, it was still hot at 7pm, and I was *tired* after the run so I took the subway home instead of running back over the Queensboro bridge after dark. I think that pushing the pace two days in a row isn't something my body can handle. There are also hills in central park unlike on the completely flat waterfront routes that I normally take.
 |
| At the Nike group run. |
Day 39 (August 6): I woke up with lots of ankle pain, or maybe more accurately soreness. I think that two days in a row of pushing the pace did me in. I got out there and did one loop of the local park but then I was done. I try not to feel guilty about slacking off as long as I give it a good faith effort. This was definitely a "listen to your body" type of day.
Day 40 (August 7): Cross training! My cross training was walking from Chinese class in midtown west to a yummy Chinese restaurant in midtown east. :-) Not too much exertion but I intentionally walked extra when I certainly could have taken the subway.
Day 41 (August 8): I ran 6.1 miles on my normal waterfront out and back route. It went well, I started out slowly but progressively picked up the pace throughout the run.
Day 42 (August 9): Long run! The benefit of long runs during cutback weeks is that they are short ;-) I ran 10 miles, which meant I ran from my apartment to do two loops of Roosevelt Island and then ran to my favorite bagel place in Astoria. Yummy! The subway ridge back took awhile because Sunday train service sucks, but hubby appreciated the yummy bagel from Astoria.
Week 6 Summary:
Miles: 28.9
Pace: 11:47 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Nope, not really -- missed 7 miles from the plan but pushed the pace a bunch.
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Week 5 (days 29-35): Marathon Training during a heat wave
Well, well, I guess I've gotten a bit lazy with keeping this up to date lately because marathon training has gotten a bit ho-hum.
On Monday, my little brother came into the city with his girlfriend. I got them tickets to Avenue Q because it was their anniversary and I though that would be a nice thing to do. Though Monday was supposedly a rest day, I walked over 21,000 steps so it could be counted as cross training as well. My watch claims that was the equivalent of 8.2 miles measured in steps. Probably walking that distance in flip flops is really not the best for my body.
On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I did a trifecta of treadmill runs. I created little routines on index cards for each day and gutted it out while watching the biggest loser. I vastly prefer running outside but this past week in NYC has been brutal. There have been heat advisories and air quality alerts for most of the week. I think that my exercise induced asthma can handle one or the other, but not both. Thus, I ran 6/9/6 all on the treadmill.
On Friday I worked on studying my Mandarin. I went for a very short swim - it would have been longer but there was a 12 or 13 year old boy behaving like an idiot in the lap lane and a screaming baby by the pool. There's only so much junk I want to deal with while training. I also got a deep tissue/hot stone massage at my favorite cheap massage place in Manhattan. It really helped me feel a whole lot better.
On Saturday I ran 6.1 miles - finally outdoors. The first 5 miles were easy and then for the last I had some crazy stomach pains. I was dry heaving ... thankfully this doesn't usually happen on runs and it was probably just a result of dehydration?
Today I did my longest run to date of marathon training -- 15 miles. I got out there by 5:15 am to beat the heat. There were still drunk people out partying in the park when I left for my run in the morning.
I also experimented with fueling. I used two packets of clif shot bloks and two nuun tablets. I felt pretty good throughout the run and between pre and post run I lost less than two pounds - so I stayed pretty well hydrated. Since it was my first time running past the half marathon distance I took the advice of people in the running communities I belong to. They suggested multiple shorter loops near my apartment so that if things weren't going well I wasn't far from home. I did two loops of my 6 mile route and then picked up hubby. He ran the last 3 miles with me. Knowing that he was meeting me was really helpful. It made me focus on just getting the first 12 miles done, without being preoccupied by completing the total distance. Since I've run seven half marathons getting to 12 miles wasn't overly worrisome to me. In the end, I successfully completed the run and it went a hell of a lot better than my long run from last week :-)
Week 5 Summary:
Miles: 42.1
Pace: 11:55 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Yes, runs as sequenced and I even did strength training/yoga a few times this week. I'll try to do it every day this week!
On Monday, my little brother came into the city with his girlfriend. I got them tickets to Avenue Q because it was their anniversary and I though that would be a nice thing to do. Though Monday was supposedly a rest day, I walked over 21,000 steps so it could be counted as cross training as well. My watch claims that was the equivalent of 8.2 miles measured in steps. Probably walking that distance in flip flops is really not the best for my body.
On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I did a trifecta of treadmill runs. I created little routines on index cards for each day and gutted it out while watching the biggest loser. I vastly prefer running outside but this past week in NYC has been brutal. There have been heat advisories and air quality alerts for most of the week. I think that my exercise induced asthma can handle one or the other, but not both. Thus, I ran 6/9/6 all on the treadmill.
On Friday I worked on studying my Mandarin. I went for a very short swim - it would have been longer but there was a 12 or 13 year old boy behaving like an idiot in the lap lane and a screaming baby by the pool. There's only so much junk I want to deal with while training. I also got a deep tissue/hot stone massage at my favorite cheap massage place in Manhattan. It really helped me feel a whole lot better.
On Saturday I ran 6.1 miles - finally outdoors. The first 5 miles were easy and then for the last I had some crazy stomach pains. I was dry heaving ... thankfully this doesn't usually happen on runs and it was probably just a result of dehydration?
Today I did my longest run to date of marathon training -- 15 miles. I got out there by 5:15 am to beat the heat. There were still drunk people out partying in the park when I left for my run in the morning.
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| It was really dark outside when I began my run at the local park. |
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| Oh baby, look at those sunglasses resting on my head - I'm glad I had them for when the sun came up :-) |
I also experimented with fueling. I used two packets of clif shot bloks and two nuun tablets. I felt pretty good throughout the run and between pre and post run I lost less than two pounds - so I stayed pretty well hydrated. Since it was my first time running past the half marathon distance I took the advice of people in the running communities I belong to. They suggested multiple shorter loops near my apartment so that if things weren't going well I wasn't far from home. I did two loops of my 6 mile route and then picked up hubby. He ran the last 3 miles with me. Knowing that he was meeting me was really helpful. It made me focus on just getting the first 12 miles done, without being preoccupied by completing the total distance. Since I've run seven half marathons getting to 12 miles wasn't overly worrisome to me. In the end, I successfully completed the run and it went a hell of a lot better than my long run from last week :-)
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| Bam! 15 miles done! |
Week 5 Summary:
Miles: 42.1
Pace: 11:55 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Yes, runs as sequenced and I even did strength training/yoga a few times this week. I'll try to do it every day this week!
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