This will talk about the last training efforts, Monday through Saturday. The race report will be another post.
Day 120 (October 26): Monday I did 1.2 miles really easy on the treadmill. I didn't want to tax my body too much because I was supposed to be tapering.
Day 121 (October 27): Tuesday I did 4.1 miles easy outside. I ran with Mish in central park and we saw the guys putting up the finish line. Mish is running as a guide for Achilles which I think is super cool!
Day 122 (October 28): I did 3 miles super easy on the treadmill before my 1 week LASIK followup. It turns out that my eyes improved immensely and my vision is perfect. 20/15 left eye, 20/20 right eye
Day 123 (October 29): Rest day! I went to the expo and met up with a lot of people. I impulse bought a super expensive jacket and started to get psyched.
Day 124 (October 30): Rest day! I had Chinese class in the evening which meant I missed the opening ceremony, but that's okay.
Day 125 (October 31): Halloween! I did my 1.2 mile shakeout run with hubby and prepped race stuff. More details to follow in the race report.
Sorry this is so short and sweet, but the week was short and sweet :-)
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Week 17: Bring it on Taper Time
After completing my 20 miler and the 13 miler last week, taper time was about to start. So of course I decided to complicate things by getting elective surgery during the week.
Day 113 (October 19): 5.2 miles on the treadmill. Nothing much to say about this, I really should post better workout comments :-) I was just trying to get some mileage in because I know that surgery would probably derail my running.
Day 114 (October 20): Holy crap thinking about LASIK was nerve wracking. I reread all of the documentation like a million times, so I only managed to get 3.2 miles done before surgery. I was so nervous for the surgery and they didn't offer me a Valium. I also didn't get to talk to the surgeon before being in the surgery room. That really wasn't good for me. The pain afterwards was out of this world and I also felt a bit of pain during the procedure itself. When I go to the dentist it always takes extra shots to get me numb. Maybe I don't react well to those meds? I'm pretty sure that I moved my right eye during the procedure and it was just.. ugh. Anyway...
After the surgery I went home and slept and just kinda was in tons of pain and didn't want to open my eyes. This was to be expected.
Day 115 (October 21): I had my followup appointment for LASIK. My eyes still hurt and are very dry and I look like a battered woman with all of the bruising. I have to tutor G and Z after the appointment too, so it was a long day. I took it as a rest day from running even though the doctor said I could run. There was just too much eye pain. As I feared my right eye is not so good. It is only 20/50 at the followup appointment and I'll have to see if it improves. Otherwise I'll be going under the LASER again.
Day 116 (October 22): I ran 6.1 miles on my usual route down to Williamsburg. It was warm out! It was my first post LASIK run. I wore both sunglasses and visor, the sun bothered me a tiny bit. I brought drops and stopped around mile 4 to use them. On the way back I got stuck on Pulaski Bridge because the draw bridge was up. Overall not a bad run, just a bit hot and I was worried about sweat getting into my eyes.
Day 117 (October 23): Friday was a rest day. It was too windy for me to run outside comfortably because my eyes were still really pissed off from the LASIK. I could have run on the TM but it was sunny and I didn't want to wear sunglasses on the treadmill.
Day 118 (October 24): I did my last longish run of training. It was the "Last 10 run" with Nike. It was a clusterfuck at the start because they'd budgeted for 300 runners but something like 700 runners showed up. I wasn't meeting anyone specific at this run. They had bag check which was nice so that I could have a change of clothes and wear warm clothes to the start. It was cool which I really liked. Miles 5 and 6 were slow because I was running without water and really started to feel it at that point. Luckily there was a water stop near the end of mile 6 so then I could speed up. I talked to two really nice girls, Lauren and Erika who are also running the marathon. I was proud of my speed overall and felt really good during the run. I really am a much better cool weather runner. I did drops at miles 4 and 8. I am hopeful that by the marathon my eyes will have healed enough to not need to do drops too many times.
At the finish I bumped into some Runners United folks and it was nice to say hi to them.
Day 119 (October 25): I did 4.1 miles on the treadmill next to hubby. He stopped after 2 miles, but I was glad that he ran. There are lots of thoughts floating through my head related to the marathon.
Week 17 Summary:
Miles: 28.7
Pace: 11:29 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Close enough
Day 113 (October 19): 5.2 miles on the treadmill. Nothing much to say about this, I really should post better workout comments :-) I was just trying to get some mileage in because I know that surgery would probably derail my running.
Day 114 (October 20): Holy crap thinking about LASIK was nerve wracking. I reread all of the documentation like a million times, so I only managed to get 3.2 miles done before surgery. I was so nervous for the surgery and they didn't offer me a Valium. I also didn't get to talk to the surgeon before being in the surgery room. That really wasn't good for me. The pain afterwards was out of this world and I also felt a bit of pain during the procedure itself. When I go to the dentist it always takes extra shots to get me numb. Maybe I don't react well to those meds? I'm pretty sure that I moved my right eye during the procedure and it was just.. ugh. Anyway...
After the surgery I went home and slept and just kinda was in tons of pain and didn't want to open my eyes. This was to be expected.
Day 115 (October 21): I had my followup appointment for LASIK. My eyes still hurt and are very dry and I look like a battered woman with all of the bruising. I have to tutor G and Z after the appointment too, so it was a long day. I took it as a rest day from running even though the doctor said I could run. There was just too much eye pain. As I feared my right eye is not so good. It is only 20/50 at the followup appointment and I'll have to see if it improves. Otherwise I'll be going under the LASER again.
Day 116 (October 22): I ran 6.1 miles on my usual route down to Williamsburg. It was warm out! It was my first post LASIK run. I wore both sunglasses and visor, the sun bothered me a tiny bit. I brought drops and stopped around mile 4 to use them. On the way back I got stuck on Pulaski Bridge because the draw bridge was up. Overall not a bad run, just a bit hot and I was worried about sweat getting into my eyes.
Day 117 (October 23): Friday was a rest day. It was too windy for me to run outside comfortably because my eyes were still really pissed off from the LASIK. I could have run on the TM but it was sunny and I didn't want to wear sunglasses on the treadmill.
Day 118 (October 24): I did my last longish run of training. It was the "Last 10 run" with Nike. It was a clusterfuck at the start because they'd budgeted for 300 runners but something like 700 runners showed up. I wasn't meeting anyone specific at this run. They had bag check which was nice so that I could have a change of clothes and wear warm clothes to the start. It was cool which I really liked. Miles 5 and 6 were slow because I was running without water and really started to feel it at that point. Luckily there was a water stop near the end of mile 6 so then I could speed up. I talked to two really nice girls, Lauren and Erika who are also running the marathon. I was proud of my speed overall and felt really good during the run. I really am a much better cool weather runner. I did drops at miles 4 and 8. I am hopeful that by the marathon my eyes will have healed enough to not need to do drops too many times.
At the finish I bumped into some Runners United folks and it was nice to say hi to them.
Day 119 (October 25): I did 4.1 miles on the treadmill next to hubby. He stopped after 2 miles, but I was glad that he ran. There are lots of thoughts floating through my head related to the marathon.
Week 17 Summary:
Miles: 28.7
Pace: 11:29 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Close enough
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Week 16: Peak training week, only a week later than planned
After my week of the niggles, I still wanted to get in a 20 mile long run, if only for the mental reassurance that I could go the distance. I figured that doing the 20 mile long run 2 days later than planned wouldn't be terrible.
Day 106 (October 12): 5.1 miles easy, outdoors. Overall this was a pretty nice run, though I did get increasingly hot as the run went on because of the abundant sunshine. I'm really hoping for cool weather for the marathon because I'm not a very good warm weather runner.
Day 107 (October 13): 20 miles at once is hard! After getting hubby off to work I headed to Central Park. I ran up to the boathouse, where I met with Jess. I ran with Jess from mile 0.8 to about 5 miles into the run. While running with Jess I took a couple of stretch breaks because Jess is just getting back into running after a summer of laziness. I think that she needed the break. She was beating me in races all spring, but I guess a couple months off of training took its toll :P
I ran another small loop of the park before heading to the south east corner of the park to meet Mish. From about miles 8-12 of my run I ran with her. She runs central park very often on her lunch breaks to balance being a mom with marathon training. It was a short run for her, just 4 miles, but she had run a half on Sunday and was doing it at recovery pace. We ran two of the lower loops of the park together. It was really enjoyable to run with her because during long runs I think that a distraction is helpful.
After Mish went back to work, I was all alone (with the hundreds of other runners in central park of course). I probably took too many rest breaks in which I paused my watched and stretched out various body parts and ate shot bloks but I really just wanted to not pressure myself during this run. The route was just silliness, but that's okay. The good thing about central park is there are lots of different routes to run. At around mile 17 I was passed by an entire all boys high school gym class. Normally I would have tried to race them a bit, but I figured that it really wasn't worth it.
Did this contribute meaningfully to my marathon training? I don't know... let's see how I'm feeling in a few days. I certainly learned that I need to be more thorough in my use of body glide. It was a bit warm and humid and I've got the chafing to prove it.
Day 108 (October 14): Rest day is the best day! I figured I should give my legs a break after the 20 mile long run, because long runs are hard.
Day 109 (October 15): I did something a little bit silly on Thursday. I went for a LASIK consultation which involed getting my eyes dilated. That made seeing things a bit tough for the rest of the day. I grabbed lunch with Jess and walked around for a bit. When I got home I cleaned the apartment a bunch and then did 3 miles on the treadmill. I didn't want to run outside with my eyes still dilated. The result of the LASIK consult is that I am a good candidate for LASIK and the doctor says I'll be able to run the day after surgery. Because of this, I'll be getting LASIK on Tuesday the 20th. Yes, I am a bit impulsive...
Day 110 (October 16): I am trying to get Jess back into running, so I convinced her to come to LIC to run with me :-) She came over in the afternoon and I said I wanted to do 4-5 miles, she said "how about 3?" =P So I took her on a route where she could rest for a bit halfway while I ran a bit extra. She will get back into running. I'll have more ability to drag her out once marathon training is done. I wound up with 4.1 miles, I think she wound up with 3 miles.
Day 111 (October 17): 5.1 miles easy outside. I had to get this run done relatively early because my in-laws were coming in for a family birthday lunch. Yay for listening to lots of people speaking rapid fire mandarin. I still haven't let my in-laws know that I'm learning Chinese so they didn't really expect me to speak at all, which was nice.
Day 112 (October 18): On Sunday I did my last long run of marathon training. Through Runners United I met a girl (Tas) who is also training for the marathon. She told me about a group run hosted by the hellgate club which was open for people to join. It was a really chilly morning. I put on tights, a tshirt, a light jacket, and gloves. I also put on my flip belt in case I decided to tie my jacket around my waist. I'd much rather have my phone in my flip belt that bouncing back and forth in my jacket. I facebook chatted with Tas in the morning she seemed to want to skip the run because of the cold weather. I eventually convinced her to come.
However, Tas arrived 15 minutes past the starting time. I waited for her and tried to convince the bag check van to wait for her but they had to set up the water station. She was upset that the van had left, but honestly runners tend to be pretty punctual people so the van didn't budget any extra time for stragglers. That left her running with her backpack on. While I felt bad for her, if she knew she was running late she should have hopped in a cab or left the bag at home. It was still fun running with her. She is relatively new to running, but has run something like 6 full marathons since her first a year ago. I don't think that this serial marathoning bug will hit me. We ran over the Queensboro bridge and up 1st avenue. We missed the water stop because they had broken it down by the time we got there, which was perhaps to be expected because (a) I'm a slower runner and (b) I left over 15 minutes after the main group. It was okay though because there are water fountains at most parks in the city.
At some point we met up with friends of Tas. She lagged behind with her running coach friend while I ran with Katerina. Katerina is someone I'd never met before, but she is an inner city school guidance counselor so we immediately bonded over teacher stuff. It made the miles go by much faster to have someone to talk to about random life topics :-) We got a little lost in the Bronx but made it back to fifth avenue eventually. I don't think that I have to worry about getting lost during the marathon itself =P
Once back in Manhattan we buckled down. I stopped at a water fountain to refill my bottle and we kept on trucking. When we got to the park it was a sign that we were almost done. Of course the perimeter of central park is lined with cobble stones, so we decided to run in the bus lane instead. With headphones out and high visibility clothing on, I wasn't too worried. We ran into the other two girls again, who were now ahead of us because of our little Bronx detour.
Getting into the park itself was interesting. There was some sort of breast cancer walk going on and it was just terrible. There were barricades setup but the walkers didn't care and spread the entire width of the road. Weaving around them was a bit infuriating. Katerina hadn't studied the marathon route and wanted to continue on the main loop, but I remembered that the marathon route and thought we needed to keep heading south. She convinced me I was wrong (I wasn't) so we headed back again where we met with the other two girls again. We eventually made it to the south edge of the park and ran. We didn't run all the way to the finish because we were both above our planned mileage for the day. We hopped on the subway back to Queens and that was the end of my last long run =D Overall I ran 13.2 miles on this run.
Week 16 Summary:
Miles: 50.5
Pace: 11:42 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Nope, not at all. I was way above planned mileage because I pushed my long run back by two days.
Day 106 (October 12): 5.1 miles easy, outdoors. Overall this was a pretty nice run, though I did get increasingly hot as the run went on because of the abundant sunshine. I'm really hoping for cool weather for the marathon because I'm not a very good warm weather runner.
Day 107 (October 13): 20 miles at once is hard! After getting hubby off to work I headed to Central Park. I ran up to the boathouse, where I met with Jess. I ran with Jess from mile 0.8 to about 5 miles into the run. While running with Jess I took a couple of stretch breaks because Jess is just getting back into running after a summer of laziness. I think that she needed the break. She was beating me in races all spring, but I guess a couple months off of training took its toll :P
 |
| Jess and I at the boathouse. Note my nerd style glasses -- getting a LASIK consult on Thursday and can't wear contacts. |
I ran another small loop of the park before heading to the south east corner of the park to meet Mish. From about miles 8-12 of my run I ran with her. She runs central park very often on her lunch breaks to balance being a mom with marathon training. It was a short run for her, just 4 miles, but she had run a half on Sunday and was doing it at recovery pace. We ran two of the lower loops of the park together. It was really enjoyable to run with her because during long runs I think that a distraction is helpful.
After Mish went back to work, I was all alone (with the hundreds of other runners in central park of course). I probably took too many rest breaks in which I paused my watched and stretched out various body parts and ate shot bloks but I really just wanted to not pressure myself during this run. The route was just silliness, but that's okay. The good thing about central park is there are lots of different routes to run. At around mile 17 I was passed by an entire all boys high school gym class. Normally I would have tried to race them a bit, but I figured that it really wasn't worth it.
 |
| Right around where the high school boys passed me. |
Did this contribute meaningfully to my marathon training? I don't know... let's see how I'm feeling in a few days. I certainly learned that I need to be more thorough in my use of body glide. It was a bit warm and humid and I've got the chafing to prove it.
 |
| Boom! 20 miles done! |
Day 108 (October 14): Rest day is the best day! I figured I should give my legs a break after the 20 mile long run, because long runs are hard.
Day 109 (October 15): I did something a little bit silly on Thursday. I went for a LASIK consultation which involed getting my eyes dilated. That made seeing things a bit tough for the rest of the day. I grabbed lunch with Jess and walked around for a bit. When I got home I cleaned the apartment a bunch and then did 3 miles on the treadmill. I didn't want to run outside with my eyes still dilated. The result of the LASIK consult is that I am a good candidate for LASIK and the doctor says I'll be able to run the day after surgery. Because of this, I'll be getting LASIK on Tuesday the 20th. Yes, I am a bit impulsive...
 |
| Fuel? Post LASIK consult lunch. |
Day 110 (October 16): I am trying to get Jess back into running, so I convinced her to come to LIC to run with me :-) She came over in the afternoon and I said I wanted to do 4-5 miles, she said "how about 3?" =P So I took her on a route where she could rest for a bit halfway while I ran a bit extra. She will get back into running. I'll have more ability to drag her out once marathon training is done. I wound up with 4.1 miles, I think she wound up with 3 miles.
Day 111 (October 17): 5.1 miles easy outside. I had to get this run done relatively early because my in-laws were coming in for a family birthday lunch. Yay for listening to lots of people speaking rapid fire mandarin. I still haven't let my in-laws know that I'm learning Chinese so they didn't really expect me to speak at all, which was nice.
Day 112 (October 18): On Sunday I did my last long run of marathon training. Through Runners United I met a girl (Tas) who is also training for the marathon. She told me about a group run hosted by the hellgate club which was open for people to join. It was a really chilly morning. I put on tights, a tshirt, a light jacket, and gloves. I also put on my flip belt in case I decided to tie my jacket around my waist. I'd much rather have my phone in my flip belt that bouncing back and forth in my jacket. I facebook chatted with Tas in the morning she seemed to want to skip the run because of the cold weather. I eventually convinced her to come.
However, Tas arrived 15 minutes past the starting time. I waited for her and tried to convince the bag check van to wait for her but they had to set up the water station. She was upset that the van had left, but honestly runners tend to be pretty punctual people so the van didn't budget any extra time for stragglers. That left her running with her backpack on. While I felt bad for her, if she knew she was running late she should have hopped in a cab or left the bag at home. It was still fun running with her. She is relatively new to running, but has run something like 6 full marathons since her first a year ago. I don't think that this serial marathoning bug will hit me. We ran over the Queensboro bridge and up 1st avenue. We missed the water stop because they had broken it down by the time we got there, which was perhaps to be expected because (a) I'm a slower runner and (b) I left over 15 minutes after the main group. It was okay though because there are water fountains at most parks in the city.
At some point we met up with friends of Tas. She lagged behind with her running coach friend while I ran with Katerina. Katerina is someone I'd never met before, but she is an inner city school guidance counselor so we immediately bonded over teacher stuff. It made the miles go by much faster to have someone to talk to about random life topics :-) We got a little lost in the Bronx but made it back to fifth avenue eventually. I don't think that I have to worry about getting lost during the marathon itself =P
Once back in Manhattan we buckled down. I stopped at a water fountain to refill my bottle and we kept on trucking. When we got to the park it was a sign that we were almost done. Of course the perimeter of central park is lined with cobble stones, so we decided to run in the bus lane instead. With headphones out and high visibility clothing on, I wasn't too worried. We ran into the other two girls again, who were now ahead of us because of our little Bronx detour.
Getting into the park itself was interesting. There was some sort of breast cancer walk going on and it was just terrible. There were barricades setup but the walkers didn't care and spread the entire width of the road. Weaving around them was a bit infuriating. Katerina hadn't studied the marathon route and wanted to continue on the main loop, but I remembered that the marathon route and thought we needed to keep heading south. She convinced me I was wrong (I wasn't) so we headed back again where we met with the other two girls again. We eventually made it to the south edge of the park and ran. We didn't run all the way to the finish because we were both above our planned mileage for the day. We hopped on the subway back to Queens and that was the end of my last long run =D Overall I ran 13.2 miles on this run.
Week 16 Summary:
Miles: 50.5
Pace: 11:42 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Nope, not at all. I was way above planned mileage because I pushed my long run back by two days.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Week 15: and... we've got a case of the niggles!
After PRing the half on Sunday I really thought that week 15 of training would be epic. It was epic in some sense - maybe that of EPIC FAIL. Week 15 was supposed to be my peak week of training, and well, that just didn't happen.
Day 99 (October 5): I've got 99 problems and being pain free ain't one. PRing the half left me sore. Nothing felt injured but everything felt sore. I was so tired, but I was determined to continue my streak. So I churned out an easy peasy 1.4 miles on the treadmill to bring some fresh blood to my tired legs.
Day 100 (October 6): My legs are really still feeling dead at this point. There's no pop to them and I decide to just do what I can. There are 7 miles on the plan and I manage 5.6 miles and call it a day. Maybe I could have pushed more, but so many people I know are injured and it just doesn't seem worth it.
Day 101 (October 7): My legs are still not happy with me, but they are happy enough to run. I go out and do 6.4 miles, in the last mile or so my left knee started feeling strange. It wasn't acute pain, but it just didn't feel right. After my run I showered and headed to work. I walked about 45 minutes in my course of working/going between clients. My legs felt pretty good after my last student, so I decided to bike home using citibike from my last client.
Day 102 (October 8): The niggles. I wake up and literally everything in my body feels bad/tight/sore. Okay maybe not everything, but I have left foot pain, my right hip and lower back feel bad and everything is just not right. I decide that it is time to break my streak and at least take a couple of rest days. I feel like my body is crying out "don't mess with me or I'll give you an overuse injury" and "enough is enough".
Day 103 (October 9): Friday morning things feel a bit better but still off. I'm definitely not feeling 100% so I decide another rest day is required.
Day 104 (October 10): I get fed up with myself for taking too many rest days. I decide to at least churn out a mile on the treadmill if only for my mental sanity. Hubby runs beside me on another treadmill and after a mile I'm done. I felt mostly okay but my right knee felt a bit stiff/sore. At least I did something.
Day 105 (October 11): This was supposed to be my peak long run day of training... I was supposed to get to 20 miles. Instead I did 5.8 miles. I knew going into the run that I wasn't going to do my long run because I want to go into that long run confident and mostly pain free. This was not that day.
Moving forward, where does that leave me? In week 16 I'll try to get my 20 miler done on Tuesday. It is only two fewer days of taper, and hopefully I'll be able to crush the 20 miler and everything will be wonderful.
Week 15 Summary:
Miles: 20.2
Pace: 11:36
Stuck to Plan: Nope, not even in my wildest fantasy dreams could I call that sticking to plan.
Day 99 (October 5): I've got 99 problems and being pain free ain't one. PRing the half left me sore. Nothing felt injured but everything felt sore. I was so tired, but I was determined to continue my streak. So I churned out an easy peasy 1.4 miles on the treadmill to bring some fresh blood to my tired legs.
Day 100 (October 6): My legs are really still feeling dead at this point. There's no pop to them and I decide to just do what I can. There are 7 miles on the plan and I manage 5.6 miles and call it a day. Maybe I could have pushed more, but so many people I know are injured and it just doesn't seem worth it.
Day 101 (October 7): My legs are still not happy with me, but they are happy enough to run. I go out and do 6.4 miles, in the last mile or so my left knee started feeling strange. It wasn't acute pain, but it just didn't feel right. After my run I showered and headed to work. I walked about 45 minutes in my course of working/going between clients. My legs felt pretty good after my last student, so I decided to bike home using citibike from my last client.
Day 102 (October 8): The niggles. I wake up and literally everything in my body feels bad/tight/sore. Okay maybe not everything, but I have left foot pain, my right hip and lower back feel bad and everything is just not right. I decide that it is time to break my streak and at least take a couple of rest days. I feel like my body is crying out "don't mess with me or I'll give you an overuse injury" and "enough is enough".
Day 103 (October 9): Friday morning things feel a bit better but still off. I'm definitely not feeling 100% so I decide another rest day is required.
Day 104 (October 10): I get fed up with myself for taking too many rest days. I decide to at least churn out a mile on the treadmill if only for my mental sanity. Hubby runs beside me on another treadmill and after a mile I'm done. I felt mostly okay but my right knee felt a bit stiff/sore. At least I did something.
Day 105 (October 11): This was supposed to be my peak long run day of training... I was supposed to get to 20 miles. Instead I did 5.8 miles. I knew going into the run that I wasn't going to do my long run because I want to go into that long run confident and mostly pain free. This was not that day.
Moving forward, where does that leave me? In week 16 I'll try to get my 20 miler done on Tuesday. It is only two fewer days of taper, and hopefully I'll be able to crush the 20 miler and everything will be wonderful.
Week 15 Summary:
Miles: 20.2
Pace: 11:36
Stuck to Plan: Nope, not even in my wildest fantasy dreams could I call that sticking to plan.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Week 14: More Miles & a Half Marathon Tuneup Race
Week 14 finally brought some speed to marathon training. Since I knew that I was running a half marathon at the end of the week, I did a few intervals while running on the treadmill to get my legs used to turning over at more than a complete turtle speed. I ran a lower mileage than the previous week. I definitely didn't taper in the true sense of the word, but I used this week as a cutback week.
Day 92 (September 28): Easy day! I did a 1.3 mile streak run on the treadmill along with some recovery yoga. I wanted an active recovery day from the long run on Sunday.
Day 93 (September 29): 7 miles on the treadmill. I kept my speed on the treadmill set at 5.2 miles per hour, but did 6 x .5 miles at 5.5 miles per hour. I think that doing intervals on the treadmill keeps me entertained and makes the workouts much less boring. I've also started hitting the lap button on my watch at the end of every mile. I had just been using my watch as a fancy stopwatch, which is helpful if I hop off of the treadmill or when the damn thing stops on me after an hour.
Day 94 (September 30): 7.5 miles on the treadmill. I make this run easier than the previous one by running at 5.2 miles per hour and then bumping it to 5.3 or 5.4 during the commercial breaks on hulu.
Day 95 (October 1): 6.2 miles outside. I wore my new running clothes to test them out. It was super windy and blustery out and I overdressed a bit for the temperature, but I just shed my top layer after the first mile and felt good to go.
Day 96 (October 2): 4.3 miles on the treadmill - mostly at 5.2 miles per hours with jumps up to 5.7 miles per hour during the commercial breaks. It felt good to move my legs a little faster.
Day 97 (October 3): 1.2 miles on the treadmill, just a very quick streak/shakeout run.
Day 98 (October 4): The big event: Grete's Great Gallop Half Marathon. When I set up my training plan I decided that this would be my main tuneup run and help me get a good idea of my fitness. I have mostly been logging all easy miles during training because I am terrified of injuring myself and not getting to the marathon starting line. That said, I still needed some measurement of my fitness. My half marathon PR going into this race was 2:18:58. This was definitely a tougher course than my marathon PR course, but I thought my fitness was better. I guessed that I was probably in 2:15 shape, so I made a custom pace band for 2:16. I didn't want to risk blowing up during the race or injuring myself.
Before the race I met up with the Runners United group outside of the band shell.
I had facebook chatted with Vince before the race and he agreed to run with me, which was very kind of him because I'm much slower runner than he is :-) I told him my plan was to go out at about a 10:30 pace and see what happened.
Day 92 (September 28): Easy day! I did a 1.3 mile streak run on the treadmill along with some recovery yoga. I wanted an active recovery day from the long run on Sunday.
Day 93 (September 29): 7 miles on the treadmill. I kept my speed on the treadmill set at 5.2 miles per hour, but did 6 x .5 miles at 5.5 miles per hour. I think that doing intervals on the treadmill keeps me entertained and makes the workouts much less boring. I've also started hitting the lap button on my watch at the end of every mile. I had just been using my watch as a fancy stopwatch, which is helpful if I hop off of the treadmill or when the damn thing stops on me after an hour.
Day 94 (September 30): 7.5 miles on the treadmill. I make this run easier than the previous one by running at 5.2 miles per hour and then bumping it to 5.3 or 5.4 during the commercial breaks on hulu.
Day 95 (October 1): 6.2 miles outside. I wore my new running clothes to test them out. It was super windy and blustery out and I overdressed a bit for the temperature, but I just shed my top layer after the first mile and felt good to go.
Day 96 (October 2): 4.3 miles on the treadmill - mostly at 5.2 miles per hours with jumps up to 5.7 miles per hour during the commercial breaks. It felt good to move my legs a little faster.
Day 97 (October 3): 1.2 miles on the treadmill, just a very quick streak/shakeout run.
Day 98 (October 4): The big event: Grete's Great Gallop Half Marathon. When I set up my training plan I decided that this would be my main tuneup run and help me get a good idea of my fitness. I have mostly been logging all easy miles during training because I am terrified of injuring myself and not getting to the marathon starting line. That said, I still needed some measurement of my fitness. My half marathon PR going into this race was 2:18:58. This was definitely a tougher course than my marathon PR course, but I thought my fitness was better. I guessed that I was probably in 2:15 shape, so I made a custom pace band for 2:16. I didn't want to risk blowing up during the race or injuring myself.
Before the race I met up with the Runners United group outside of the band shell.
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| The Runners United Group before the race. |
While I chatted with the Runners United crew I made sure to use my inhaler and eat my first two shot bloks. I had bundled up for the start, and waited until the last minute to take off my outer layers and drop my bag. I hit the nice bathrooms right before the start, jogged an easy half mile or so, and then got to my corral and stood next to the 2:15 pacer so that Vince could find me. The race started and I took off my final stripper layer, one of Ed's old button down work shirts. The 2:15 pacer set out at a fast clip and I decided it wasn't worth it to keep up with him.
The Grete's Gallop course is two loops full loops of the park starting on the west side at 64th street and ending after getting back to the east side on the 72nd street traverse. I hit the first mile marker in 10:34, which according to my watch was at a 10:19 pace at 1.02 miles into the race. That makes sense given the weaving. The second mile included cat hill and I hit mile 2 at 21:05 (10:31) and was settling in nicely and starting to warm up. I took a shot blok here and drank some water. The third mile felt pretty good because I was finally warmed up and not fighting so many hills and I hit the mile marker at 31:14 (10:08). I knew that the dreaded Harlem hill was coming up and I'd slow down substantially but I got to mile 4 at 42:04 (10:50). The really annoying thing about Harlem hill is that it is then followed by some rollers on the west side of the park, so I hit mile 5 at 52:27 (10:23). I took my second shot blok right around the 5 mile mark. After the rollers, however, it is a nice flat/speedy slightly downhill portion. Still, I was shocked when I hit the mile 6 marker at 1:01:35 (9:07) because there's no way that I ran a 9:07 mile. Indeed, looking at my watch later it definitely was placed early. But at least the first loop was done!
Moving onto the second loop, I had to keep in mind that the mile 6 marker was placed early and as a result, I didn't hit the mile 7 marker until 1:12:56 (11:21). It wasn't me running an inconsistent pace, it was NYRR placing the mile markers at the incorrect places! I'm glad that I sort of knew this. I mentioned it to Vince and he agreed that the mile markers were off. During mile 8 I started wearing down a bit and knew that I had to buckle down and focus, I took another shot blok and hit the mile 8 marker at 1:23:18 (10:22). Mile 9 was the nice downhill before the dreaded Harlem Hill for the second time, and we hit the marker at 1:33:17 (9:58). Going up Harlem hill again in mile 10 was just hellish and I slowed down a lot but I didn't walk, we hit the mile 10 marker at 1:44:13 (10:56) and at this point I was pretty certain that I would PR. I had thought that mentally as long as I made it to 10 miles by 1:45 then I had over 33 minutes to run a 5k, which I was confident that I could do. I wanted to take my final shot blok but there wasn't another water station until nearly the mile 11 maker. Vince kept cheering me on and encouraging me to keep it up. In dealing with the west side rollers, tiredness, and looking for the water station my 11th mile was slow and I didn't hit the marker until 1:55:14 (11:01). After mile 11 it was time to drop the hammer and just go for it! I hit the mile 12 marker at 2:04:50 (9:35) and then just had to hold on! I hit mile 13 at 2:15:04 (10:14), and wound up with a final time of 2:16:05. Result: a new PR by over two minutes. This is a 10:24 average pace, and makes McMillan think that I can run a 4:46:xx marathon :-)
I feel really happy with how I performed during this race. I was able to maintain my focus and keep just about the pace that I wanted. I think that overall I negative split. I probably could have run it a minute or two faster, but my ultimate goal for this training cycle is the NYC Marathon. I proved to myself that lots of really easy miles do indeed improve fitness. Doing several runs longer than half marathon distance have also made it much less daunting to get to the half marathon distance.
Now onward to the last week of hard training before taper time.
Week 14 Summary:
Miles: 41.4
Average Pace: 11:04 min/mile
Stayed on Plan: Sure, for the most part. I even squeezed in yoga at least once. ;-)
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