NYC Marathon Training Wk 7

Planned Miles: 23

Completed Miles: 12

Now that I was supposed to hit 14 miles for my long run, I think it might be time to start focusing on improving my speed. While I have speedwork and tempo runs on my training calendar, I have been brushing them off by telling myself that I’ll do them the next day.

Upcoming struggles:

Lately, my sleep schedule has been kind of loopy, which has been affecting some of my morning runs and eating.

The hubby recently obtained a sous chef position at one of the major hotels in the area, which is wonderful because I have not landed a job just yet. However, his schedule is from 2 to 11:30 pm. The thing about my part of Virginia is that you pretty much need to drive everywhere, but the hubby does not have a license just yet. This means that I have to take him to and from the light rail station. I do not mind this, but my sleep schedule has been thrown out of wack.

According to my chronotype, I’m supposed to prepare myself for bed around 10 pm and be asleep by 11 pm. With the hubby’s schedule, this is impossible. After picking him up from the train station, we arrive home by 12 am. Since I want to hang out with him for a bit, I now get to sleep around 1 – 2 am. As one can conclude, going to sleep around 1 – 2 am makes it a bit difficult to wake up around 5 – 6 am to go for a run or do a morning workout. To make matters a bit more struggle, I have noticed that I have been eating (eg having a second dinner with him) around 1 am, which screws up my intermittent fasting plans. We all know that late-night eating/snacking is not good for weight loss goals. However, I cannot blame my failures on late-night eating because that’s more of an issue with my lack of self-control. One workaround: I think that I’ll prepare bottles of warm seltzer to have for my “second dinner”. The bubbles in the seltzer tend to make me think that I’m full.

Hopefully, we can enroll the hubby in Drivers Ed sometime this week so he can start driving himself to work. He told me that he has not driven since 2010!

Trying to kick out some negativity during my Core De Force Workout

Nutrition Plans:

Ok, this week has been hit or miss, which mostly misses. Last week, I mentioned that I was going to start another round of 21-day fix. While I have been preparing food and somewhat following the plan, I have been cheating way too much. Right now, The Waffle House has been the biggest thorn in my side. Last week, I ate at the Waffle House THREE times. Put it like this, the Waffle House probably does not have any healthy items on its menu. For my guilty pleasure, I usually get the All-Star Breakfast, which includes a waffle, two eggs, four strips of bacon, toast (drenched with butter. . . margarine, of course), and hashbrowns. Going forward, I will have to put myself on Waffle Hosue restriction.

Not blaming anyone or anything else, but I think my job search has contributed to this struggle a bit. Unfortunately for me, I tend to turn to food (crappy food at that) when I feel like a failure. It has been hard not feeling like a failure after interviews that go like this: You are an excellent candidate with years of experience, but we are looking for someone who has experience with X, Y, and Z.

Side rant about a recent job interview:

An HR rep asked me if it was ok for her to pass my resume to a hiring manager for a Sr. Scientist position. She did so and set up an interview with the manager. During the interview, the manager kept giving me crap about not having experience in a particular area and being out of biomedical research for a few years. Here are the things that pissed me off:

-The HR person who reviewed my resume forwarded it to the manager. I guess it’s my fault for not following up with my request for the job description. Outside of conducting biomedical research, I did not have much context about the position.

-I do not understand why the manager was giving me crap about not having a certain amount of experience with assay development. DUDE, you have my resume. Clearly, if assay development was not mentioned on the resume then I do not have ample experience with it.

-Also, why constantly bring up that I have been out of biomedicine for a few years? Again, you had my resume so you already knew this. If you wanted a candidate who is currently working in biomedical research, then why waste both of our time? Obviously, if something was missing from my resume that you feel is essential for the position, then there was no need for you to request (or have the HR person) set up an interview.

Rant over

Back to food. One afternoon, I meet up with some friends at Red Robin, which is a burger place that is known for its bottomless fries. I will say that I was proud of myself for ordering a Wedgie Burger (a burger with no cheese and lettuce as a bun) with a side salad. Oh, salads also are bottomless at Red Robin.

However, I was not 100% “good” because I did have two margaritas with my meal. Hey, it’s the thought that counts.

Long Run Chronicles:

Unfortunately, this week’s long run (14 miles) did not happen, and I’m still a bit bummed out about skipping this run. On both Saturday and Sunday, I woke up EXTREMELY exhausted. It was really bad because I did not wake up until 10:30 am on Saturday. Even when I do not have early morning long runs, I still wake up around 6 or 7 am on the weekends. On one hand, I was a bit disappointed with myself for not attempting my long run. However, it’s good to listen to your body, and Kwame’s body was telling him to sleep in. Although I did not run, I did Bodybody’s Core de Force and 3-Week Yoga retreat on Sat and Sun, so I guess that should count for something.

ETC:

-I will say that I have been enjoying swimming laps 1-2 times a week. While I’m not focusing on speed or anything, it’s nice just to use that time to somewhat relax and be in my thoughts since I cannot listen to music while swimming.

-While I did not go for a long run over the weekend, I did spend a few hours doing some yard work on Sunday. I mowed the grass, edged the lawn, pruned bushes and small trees, and did some watering.

Before

After

I’ll say that the edging itself was an intense workout because my biceps and triceps were so sore the next day. Note 1: I know that it’s not perfect, but I did the 1st run on Sunday and probably will clean it up today or tomorrow. Note 2: Doing this with a manual edger was not fun, perhaps, I should invest in an electric or gas-powered edger in the near future.

-I wonder if I should run my high school’s 5K fundraiser in October.

NYC Marathon 2022 Training Plan:

Image from Hal Higdon Training (Link ***)

Goals for the week:

-ACTUALLY, start focusing on nutrition and eating a bit better. For this goal, I have restarted Beachbody’s 21-day Fix, which I’ve talked about in another post (link: ***).

21-day portion plan

-Figure out my daily running and workout schedules. I wonder if I should take an evening nap (say 8:45 – 10:45 pm) and then pick up the hubby around 11 pm.

-Go for a run with one of the local running groups. The Va Beach chapter of the November Project has been doing this RUNGO challenge until Labor Day. The challenge is supposed to help folks meet new people in the community through running. LOL at the disclaimer “We are not responsible for any injuries to yourself or your feelings during this challenge”. Hopefully, I can run with the Kempsville Run Club this week since it’s the club closest to my neck of the woods. Ohhhh. The Garage Run Club looks fun because it combines beer and running.

-Since NYC is more of a walking/taking public transportation town; whereas as my part of Va is more of a drive everywhere kind of place, I would like to add daily 1 – 3 mile walks to earn some passive miles for my 2022 km in 2022 challenge.

Long Run Playlist:

N/A

Questions of the Day:

-If you are supposed to get 7 hours of sleep a night. Do you think it’s ok to break up that time throughout the day? I’m not sure it would work, because it takes some time to enter the various stages of sleep, so taking a 2-3 hour nap might make things worse.

-Do you stay involved with events hosted by your old high school and/or university (eg fundraisers, homecomings, reunions)?

-Now that we are approaching the end of summer, what is the ONE thing that you would like to cross of your summer list?

Social Media Plug:

Instagram

@smokinscientist (Twitter)

Kwame s (Strava)