NYC Marathon Training Recap – Week #2

Since I had a bit of a family emergency last week, I did not log a whole bunch of miles. Then again, do I ever log a whole bunch of miles? I was supposed to run Front Runners NY’s annual LGBT Pride Run over the weekend, which would have been my first real race since March 2020, but I just had way too much on my mind. But, I guess there will be other races in the future. Speaking of future races, this reminds me that I have some unused race credits with NYCRuns.

Motivation:

Normally, I am not a fan of inspirational posts because I am a hater. However, I saw this IG post on someone’s feed, and it really touched me for some reason.

I think this message hit me because I saw it a couple of days before birthday, which was on Friday. You know that folks like to restart things on New Years and birthdays. To be honest (and slightly depressing), I have more years of life behind me than in front of me. According to the CDC, the average life expectancy for an African-American man born in 1980 is 63.1 years (Link to the study: ***).

What will I start today . . . or tomorrow?

Cancer sticks:

First things, first. I’m going to in a strong effort to stop smoking. As of today, I have a few smokes left, which should take me through the remainder of the day, and plan to use nicoderm patches to help in this effort. I had decent success with nicoderm patches in the past because I managed to stop smoking for about four years. Then again, I guess that I always attempt to stop smoking on or near my birthday. A Facebook post from last year.

Since I tried to quit cold turkey for that attempt, it obviously did not go so well, and dealing with a pandemic did not help much. With the exception of my morning (or post poop smoke), I tend to smoke out of boredom. Knowing me, I probably went to my sketchy bodega to buy my cheap cigarettes after writing that Facebook post. I typically buy cigarettes from this sketchy bodega because it sells cigarettes for $9 (cigarettes in NYC are about $15/16).

Eating Better:

Since there are about 30 days between my and the hubby’s birthday, we’re going to try Whole30 once again.

I’m going to admit that I will not follow the plan completely because I will have a drink or five over the next 30 days. Hey, the Fourth of July is only a few days away. I will say for the past few weeks, I have been doing a better job in watching what (and how much) I eat.

General Life:

More on this in another post because I need to get my thoughts together.

Marathon Training:

I will say that I’m looking forward to training for NYC’s Marathon. As some might know, I’m kind of doing an easy breezy training method by following a couch to marathon training plan. It looks like this week begins the second phase of the training plan – 5K to 10K.

Ugh, I’m not looking forward to this week’s high temperatures. But, no pain; no gain.

Madrid Marathon:

The organizers of Madrid’s Marathon have rescheduled last year’s marathon for Sept. 26, 2021. It was originally scheduled in April last year, but it was canceled because . . . you know, COVID. The hubby and I are planning to go to Madrid, Santander, and Barcelona in September. Unfortunately, I cannot change my registration from a full marathon to a half-marathon because of capacity issues. BOOOOO! I’m not too sure that running two marathons within 1.5 months will be good for me. Madrid’s Marathon is Sept 26; and NYC’s is Nov. 7. I guess that I have a few options for Madrid:

1. Run the marathon as a VERY easy long run. According to my training plan, my long run should be 16 – 18 miles during the week of Madrid’s Marathon. What’s 10 more miles? 😉
2. Run 12-18 miles of the marathon’s course, take a subway to the city’s center, and take a DNF.
3. Skip the marathon all together because I’m sure that I can find OTHER things to do in Madrid on Sept. 26. Fortunately, Madrid’s marathon (~$90) is pretty cheap compared to NYC’s ($255). To be perfectly honest, I was not THAT interested in running Madrid’s Marathon last year. I only registered for it because I did not win a spot of London’s Marathon, which was supposed to be held during the same week as Madrid’s marathon. Speaking of things to do in Madrid: I wonder if the restaurant that has 1 Euro mimosas is still around. 😉

What to do? Or as they would say in Spain: Qué voy a hacer?

Questions of the day:

-Since everything starts at Day 1, what are you going to start today . . . or tomorrow?

-Which of the three Madrid Marathon options would you do?

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