Running update – NYC Runs Brooklyn Half

As I have mentioned a couple a bunch of times, I am planning to run NYC Runs Brooklyn Half Marathon on Sunday. This will be a very interesting half marathon because I have not really trained at all for it.

Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom:

Early in 2022, I thought that I had great momentum for my 2022 resolution of running a half marathon each month and setting up some attainable running goals.

I’m not sure what happened but somewhere along the way I lost my running motivation and did not really care that I was not hitting the street (or treadmill) and logging in some miles. Now, I am less than a week away from running a half marathon where I more than likely will have my worst performance. For NYC Runs Brooklyn Half Marathon, I plan on running 1 mile -> walking run 1 mile -> and repeating this cycle for the 13.1 miles. Actually, I hope that I can run a mile at this point ;). Maybe I should do a cycle of walking 0.25 miles and walking 1 mile for the 13.1 miles.

I guess this will be my rock bottom . . . In other words, there is nowhere to go but up after this week’s half marathon. While I will have a horrible performance on Sunday, I hope this will light a fire under my ass to get back to meeting some of my 2022 running goals especially since NYC Marathon training season is right around the corner.

That said, I am looking forward (somewhat) to running through the streets of Brooklyn. I’m partially excited that the half marathon’s course will take us through (under) Brooklyn’s three iconic (or near iconic) bridges – Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Brooklyn Bridges. I will say that I am NOT looking forward to the middle and last portions of the half because there will be some climbs.

Image courtesy of NYCRuns

Well . . . Since I pretty much will be walking half of this half marathon, I guess that I will have plenty of photos from the race. 😉

Cross-training:

Ok, so I am in the last week of Beachbody’s 10 Rounds, and I need to move one to another Beachbody cardio-esque training program.

While eating tacos, I decided on a few options:

22 Minute Hard Corps

This is an 8-week, 22-minute, 6 days a week bootcamp training program. It looks fun, but I fear that 22 minutes would not be enough for it to “work”. Keep in mind that I do not have a definition for “work”. From my understanding, it’s 22 minutes because there is no warmup. With that in mind, I guess it’s the same length of time as most of the 30-min programs, which contain a warmup. Also, I would need some additional gear for this program: dumbbells (I have those), chin-up bar, a resistance band with door attachment, and sandbags. Actually, I think that I have the resistance bands; I believe that was a random pandemic purchase, which I used once or twice.

Core de Force

This is a 30-day MMA training program that has daily 27-46 minute workouts. While the program has participants working out every day, there is a weekly active recovery day, which I guess would serve as a rest day. I will say that I have enjoyed Joel Freeman’s other programs – 10 Rounds and LIIFT4.

Insanity: The Asylum

This is a sequel to ShaunT’s Insanity, a program that has given me nice results way back in the day. The 60-day program has a combination of cardio, HIIT, and plyometric circuit training (25-60 minutes/workout). Quickly looking at some reviews of Insanity: The Asylum, folks recommend that you have a strong physical base before beginning the program.

What to do?

Based on my limited information, I think that I will go with Core de Force. Normally, when I do two concurrent programs, I like to have different trainers (ie different personalities) to mix things up. That said, Joel is pretty fun so I do not think that I mind doing two of his programs at the same time.

Goals for the week:

I remember that I used to list 3-5 weekly goals for my running updates. Let’s start that again

-Restarting my 2.5-3 mile lunch walks.

-Reading for at least 30-min a day.

-Preparing my workout clothes as soon as I arrive home from work.

-Daily stretching and planking (kinda already doing this).

-Developing a running calendar.

-Boulder at least once a week. Doesn’t make sense to pay for a bouldering gym membership that I hardly use.

Questions of the day:

-Have a pre marathon training plan that you wanna share? I guess this would be a plan to get me into decent running shape before training for NYC Marathon.

-Did you have a nice Easter (or as I call it Welcome Back Jesus Day) if you celebrate?

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