Random Thoughts Thursday

26.2 reasons why I’m relieved that I’m not running NYC Marathon. Hopefully, I will not be a hater for a few of these reasons. 

TBT Marathon Monday 2018

Ha. I guess it was a good thing that I put “maybe” on my Instagram post. 

1. I am not running 26.2 miles.

2. I can sleep in on Marathon Sunday.

3. I’ll be able to root and cheer for folks this year because Mile 22 goes right through my neighborhood. Oh, I get to buy glitter for my signs.

4. I probably can schedule my toe surgery and have time to recover before training for Madrid’s marathon.

5. No Marathon Monday soreness.

6. No painful post-marathon shower. It’s over for me once the soap and water hit the areas of chaffing. 

7. I can have a beer while watching the runners. Well . . . technically, I usually have a few shots of beer while running the marathon.

8. Since I can defer my registration, I do not have to worry about completing my 9+1 for guaranteed entry into next year’s marathon. This is important because the marathon was supposed to be one of my 9+1 races and I am NOT doing that NYE midnight run again. I know this is bad, but I did (for a millisecond) consider selling my marathon bib. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that you are not supposed to do this. 

9. Once the hip fully heals (hopefully in a few weeks), my running motivation will be restored. Usually, after the NYC Marathon, I do not want to think about running until mid to late January. Maybe this will be the year (technically 2020) that I will run NYRR’s Fred Lebow Half Marathon, which will be held on Jan. 19, 2020.

Man, coming up with 26.2 reasons is tough. 

10. No worrying about having to use a porta-potty.

11. No post-marathon blues. I’m already dealing with the ‘I’m injured and cannot run’ blues.

12. I will not have to deal with the Marathon expo. I’m not really a large crowd, massive lines kind of guy. But, I do like taking this picture.

TBT: NYC Marathon Expo 2018

13. My friends and coworkers will be glad that I’m not going to be constantly talking about the marathon. However, it is a great way to make a conversation about yourself . . . unless you are in a group of marathon runners. 

14.  I will not have to deal with walking another half of a mile (at least) after the marathon to get my bag. Yeah, I know that it would have been easier to get the poncho. But, I like doing the bag check because I take a shower at my gym after the marathon and change into my “hanging out, let’s get some gin” clothes. Also, I need to have my post-marathon smoke.

15. No running across the 59th Street Bridge, which always has been a thorn in my side.

16. No stressing out about flying from Hawai’i to NYC the day before the marathon.

17. If I wake up early enough, I can see the top, elite marathon runners in action.

18. No falling short of time goals. I guess not running the marathon is technically falling short of a time goal.

19. Not running this year (hopefully) will make me want it more in 2020.

20. I guess that I do not have to buy new tennis shoes.

21. I probably will have a nice sleep the night before the marathon. Last year, I think that I only got only 3 hours of sleep the night before NYC Marathon.

22. No eye-rolling on the Staten Island Ferry bus to Staten Island. I cannot stand people who are super chipper first thing in the morning.

23. No bloody nips.

24. No constantly dropping F-bombs after mile 21. Once the marathon hits Manhattan for the second time (Mile ~20), I’m pretty much over the entire thing. 

25. I’m going to my favorite Seafood restaurant on Marathon Monday.

26. No monitoring what I eat 48-72 hours before the marathon. Actually, did I ever do that?

0.2. Who wants a heavy medal anyway? 😉

Advertisements

A Marathon Deferred

Let me stop going back and forth with the thought of running this year’s NYC Marathon. It’s just not happening. You know what? I’m fine with it. 

I was somewhat energized because NYRR released the corral assignments.

But after struggling through a four-mile run this morning, I realized that I do not want to struggle for 26.2 miles in and around NYC. It was a little tough coming to this decision because this would have been my sixth consecutive NYC Marathon. Also, I was planning on getting a marathon-related tattoo after completing this race.

In one of my Marathon “support” groups on Facebook, I mentioned that not running this thing is not the end of the world. Surprisingly, I got a lot of pushback from folks saying things like:

• It’s not a thing; it’s one of the best races in the world
• It’s all about the experience
• You have to push and power through

First of all. I don’t have to do shit. 

Last year, I did that whole it’s all about the experience. I think that I even posted a GIF of Jade from America’s Next Top Model doing her “beautiful, wonderful, fabulous” thing during a challenge to represent how I felt coming off of the Queensboro Bridge.

I did the whole “let’s run 13.1 miles and see where the rest of the marathon takes me” for NYC Marathon 2018. Last year (once again), I was coming off of an injuring and flying back from Madrid two days before the race. Do not get me wrong, the experience is unbeatable, but I wanted more out of this marathon. I guess this would have been my redemption marathon. After this morning’s run, I do not feel confident that I can run 13.1 miles in a couple of weeks to the point of even seeing where the marathon will take me. Why risk further injury by doing too much too soon? Also, I will be traveling for work in Hawai’i will return the day before marathon Sunday. By deferring the marathon, I will not have to constantly think about it during my Hawaiian work trip/vacation.

So there it is. NYC Marathon . . . OUT! Wait. Not, 100% OUT. The marathon route goes through my block at Mile 22 so I’ll be out there cheering folks on. I’ll try to keep my hating and FOMO to a minimum.

Looking past NYC Marathon, I do have Madrid’s marathon to prep for.

The hubby checked tickets the other day, and they are fairly cheap right now – $320 RT (JFK <-> MAD). Actually, let me request some PTO in April so I can book the flight. He wants to see if I can take a full two weeks off. Those Europeans and their crazy concept of 2+ weeks of vacation.

For the months of October and November, I plan to do the following:

• continue with my dumb PT exercises for my hip that probably will not work.
• get a damn handle on my diet. It probably will not hurt to lose a few pounds.
• do more strength training and continue with biking, stair climbing, and Zumba for my cardio.

With a combination of these things, I should be able to start training for Madrid’s Marathon (Apr. 26) in early January. Ouch, running in NYC during the winter months.  Something else for me to bitch about. Should I add anything else to that list?

Happy training.

NYC Marathon Training Update

Well I’m back . . . not really.

A week later, and my hip feels a bit better. This hiccup in my marathon training plan made me a bit depressed. I think my hateration has converted into marathon training FOMO/depression. I am a member of a couple NYC Marathon FB groups, and I was getting annoyed with folks’ weekend long run posts. What was I doing yesterday? Eating pizza and watching old episodes of “Married with Children”. Random: I love the episodes where the Bundys and the D’Arcys visited England. Over the past couple of weeks, I have not done much of any physical activity. Yes, I’m having a hip issue, but it really does not prevent me from doing other physical activities such as biking, stair climbing, or weight lifting. I think it’s just a case of me being lazy and unable to adapt to not training for NYC Marathon. Also, I have been overeating (and drinking) quite a bit over the two weeks. I’m sure gaining more weight will not make life easier when my injury heals.

That’s gonna change TODAY.

I’m going to try my hardest to start 16:8 fasting again and hitting the gym at least 4 times a week. Although the NYC Marathon may be out of the question, I am going to Hawaii next month. I really do not want to be swimming or hot-tubbing with a shirt on (even with my tinea versicolor spots).

Keep hope alive

I am still on the fence about NYC Marathon. According today’s email, NYRR has informed me that I have the Grete’s Great Gallop 10K this Saturday. I guess that I can use this race/gallop to see where I am with this hip thing. Since we are about a month away from NYC’s marathon, I’m hoping that I can run at least half of it, and run/jog/walk/crawl/uber the rest of it. I wonder if NYRR will let me smoke during the marathon if I decide to walk the second half. It feels a bit of a waste to “defer” until next year and pay the registration fees again. Y’all know that I’m cheap as hell. Ok, time will tell.

Trying not to cry over the spilled milk – Madrid 2020

If the hubby wants to visit his family in Spain during the spring; perhaps, I can tack on the Rock n Roll Madrid Marathon to the trip. It would be nice to run an international marathon; I’ve only run a half marathon in Montreal. Well, I was supposed to do the full marathon, but I was injured (of course). Eh, we’ll see. Madrid’s marathon looks like it will take you all over the damn place. 

Since I am not really running, what the hell do I write about in a running blog?!!!

NYC Marathon Training Update (Week, who cares?)

I realize that it has been a bit of time since my last post, but I really wanted to take a week off from all things running-related. I guess it is that time in marathon training, when one is simply over all of the training, logging miles, dealing with chaffing, and the list goes on.

Little did I know that my subconscious (I think) was telling me to take a break. Why? . . . It turns out that I am injured.

HUH?

Before taking my break, I noticed that I had a slight pain in my pelvis, but it was nothing nagging. As a matter of fact, I completed an 18 miler relatively pain-free. Today, was my first day back from my 1.5-week running hiatus. I get on the treadmill to do an easy 3-mile run, but every running step resulted in a sharp pain on the right side of my pelvis. I literally ran 4-5 steps, before I climbed off of the treadmill in defeat. Here’s the thing. I have not really noticed this pain in everyday life; it just popped up while I was running this morning. Well . . . if I could call today’s activity running. The treadmill did not even get up to the full speed before I had to stop. The other weird thing is that I did not feel this pain when I biked to the gym and did 30 mins on the stair climber. I guess this is a movement associated with running injury.

Since we have another 50 or so days until NYC marathon; perhaps, I’ll focus more on cross-training, stretching, and other randomness. I found an article that suggests a 1:3 run-to-bike mile ratio. Perhaps, I can substitute cycling for running for the next week or two. I’m not planning to PR for this marathon so I do not really mind if I have to take a couple weeks off to recover. Come to think of it, I’ve never run more than 18 miles during a marathon training season. Technically, I’m already at my max training distance for this thing. 😉

It’s funny how things like this happen. This time around, I thought that I was (somewhat) killing this marathon training. This season, I was actually doing all of my long-runs and not blowing them off for boozing around the city. While I bitched about the summer heat (quite frequently), I still managed to log most of my planned miles.

Let see how this goes.

Any advice on active recovery. Is there such a thing as active recovery?

NYC Marathon Training Update (Week 3)

General housekeeping: 

-The weather has not been too bad out there. 

-I have been having a slight pain near the inner right side of my hip. 

-I’m surprised that I have not missed too many training runs.

Monday:

Planned, 6mi easy

Actual, 3mi

I just was not feeling running any extra mileage. 

Tuesday:

Planned, 8X 800m (7mi total)

Actual, 6X 800 (5mi total)

I think this may have been my first speed work exercise for this round of marathon training. I know that I was supposed to do eight 800 intervals, but I totally misread my training calendar and did only six of them. Oops. I will say that it was nice to do something a little “different” rather than just running for a set distance. 

Unbeknownst to me, the pool where I swim morning laps has a decent outdoor track in the sports complex so that makes life a bit easier. 

Wednesday:

Planned, XT

Actual, 30min laps (morning) and 45min Zumba (evening) 

My Zumba workout made me realize that I have missed my weekly Wednesday Zumba class. 

Also, I am a bit sad that the summer open lap swim program is coming to a close. Where I’m a going to get my swim on?

Thursday:

Planned, 6mi easy

Actual, 2mi ~3mi hot mess 

Maybe my previous day’s workouts were too much, but I had no energy when trying to attempt this run. The original plan was to run to and around Randell’s Island, but I ran down the wrong avenue so I decided to run to and through the Bronx. Outside of running the NYC marathon, I do not think that I have ever run in the Bronx as part of my training. 

This run started off very sluggish. I thought it was because of the previous day’s workouts, but then I noticed the right side of my hip was very sensitive and sore. I just assumed that it was due to my body warming up. Rather than doing the full 6 miles, I decided to cut it short so I would not further injure myself. You know what? I just realized that I did not start Strava until a mile into the run, so I guess that I did run close to three miles. 

These sprinklers in Marcus Garvey Park were the best thing from this run. 

Friday:

Rest

Stayed home and binged watched Family Guy. Oh and made some delicious pork chops for dinner.

Saturday:

Planned, 16mi

Actual, 15.1mi 

Long run day!!!!

The plan was to start my run at 8 am, which meant that I did not get to my run until 10:45ish. It never fails with my procrastinating ass. 

Although this was my longest run (so far) in this training plan, I did have a few issues, which are numbered on the map above.

1. Started to feel a little sensitivity in my right shin.
2. Right hip sensitivity started up again. #1 and #2 more or less went away about 2/3 miles into the run. 
3. My right foot started to hurt. I stopped and took off my shoe and noticed that a blister was starting to form. Since it was not anything affecting a bone or a muscle, I decided to push on and blocked out the pain. I may have been at mile 8 when that happened. After another mile or so, I did not really notice it any longer . . . until I finished. 
4. Man! There were  SO MANY tourists out. 
5. The original plan was to run across the Brooklyn Bridge into Brooklyn and run across the Manhattan Bridge back into Manhattan. When I got to the Brooklyn Bridge, I saw that the bridge was SUPER congested with tourists.

Congested Brooklyn Bridge? That will be a Hell No for me.

6. While running over the Manhattan Bridge a small group of tourists hailed me down to take a picture. I guess that I was running THAT slowly. The poor folks thought they were on the Brooklyn Bridge, instead of the Manhattan Bridge. I felt kind of bad for them. But, did they not see the million signs that said Manhattan Bridge before getting on it? Maybe someone gave them the wrong directions.

Overall, my run was just ok. I think Strava was a little off because it said that I was running some of my miles around a 9min/mi pace rather than a 10min/mi pace. Also, I really need to start figuring out my nutrition needs for my long runs. I’m somewhere between eating too much or eating too little before starting these long runs. 

Sunday:

Planned, Rest

Actual, light XT with strength training and stretching 

Since I have been having some issues with my hip, I decided to hit up the gym to do some stretching. Oh, I checked out a New York Sports Club because I’m interested in switching gyms. I mentioned this last week’s Random Thursday post (***). More on this in another post. 

What pace do you typically run for your long runs when training for a marathon? Do you run faster than, at, or slower than marathon pace?

I normally aim for 1-1.5 minutes slower than my anticipated marathon pace. 

Plan for the upcoming week.

Random Thought Thursday – Marathon Training

Now that I have finished five weeks of training for TCS NYC Marathon, I can share some insights about my (lack of) progress.

Training in General:

• Training has been going so so. I have been sticking to my long runs (with the exception of this weekend), but I could be a little more focused on my weekday, shorter runs . . . especially if want to get faster.
• I am not a morning runner, but I’m definitely not a post-work runner either.
• Do foam rolling and ice baths actually work? I’ve done ice baths after my last three long runs and have not really observed any changes/increases in recovery.
• I have really enjoyed incorporating swim days into my training seasons. Perhaps, I will try to find a cheap, indoor pool so I can continue to swim during the fall and winter. During the summer, NYC has an open lap swim program, but all of the pools (or the ones closest to me) are outdoors so this will not be a suitable option for winter in NYC.
• I have been kind of indifferent to my training runs. Since I have this Hawai’i to New York flight two days before the marathon, I’ve resigned on the idea that I’ll get any type of PB for this marathon. Looks like this will be another “run how you feel” marathon.
• I have not been complaining about the heat that much.
• Honestly, I do not miss logging runs with a wrist GPS tracker.
• I have not kept up my commitment to running with my running groups. One group meets after work, but I feel like I’m too slow for the other group that meets in the morning. Actually, I’m going to try . . . again to run with these groups.
• Lordy, I had to mute a couple of Facebook NYC Marathon groups that I follow. I swear people need to learn how to read and search for information before asking simple questions. This was apparent when NYRR opened the transportation and baggage options for the marathon. Folks were freaking out left and right. Sh*t like:

How do I get from my hotel to the ferry or bus?

I’m pretty sure that you can use Google Maps or even MapQuest. 😉

• Oh, while I’m being a hater. An administrator of one of the Facebook NYC Marathon groups is planning a gift exchange the day before the marathon, which is a cool idea. HOWEVER, the person is like if you sign up for the gift exchange and do not come to the exchange, there will be SEVERE consequences.

Like what the hell is he gonna do? Bash my knees if I don’t bring the gift?

  Call my father and tell on me? Put me in marathon jail?

Probably one of the weirdest songs on my long run playlist.

• What do with all of those race medals? Convert them into refrigerator magnets. That was my arts and crafts plan during one of my days off, but I ended up running errands and drinking wine all damn day.
• I’m really on the fence of switching from Crunch Fitness to New York Sports Club (NYSC).  I have been a member of Crunch Fitness since 2008/09 and have been fortunate enough to live and work close to few locations. However, now, the nearest Crunch gym is a bit out of the way (40 or so blocks) from work AND my apt. Yes, I know, first world problems. Why should I drag my ass 40+ blocks, if there are TWO NYSCs within walking distance to my apt and job? I will admit that on Monday, this kind of pissed me off.

I dragged my ass 40 blocks and THREE avenues to this adversity?!!’

Also, NYSC is slightly cheaper, and word on the street is that NYSC has special deals if you are switching gyms. I just gotta double-check how many NYSCs are available with the passport membership.

If you have any fall races on the calendar, how is your training going?

Race Report: TCS New York City Marathon Training Series 12M

Date: August 11; 7:00 am 

Distance: 12mi/19.2km

Place: Central Park, NY, NY

Weather: 71 F

Finishers: 4,536 (2,396 Men/2,140 Women) 

Offical time / pace: 2:07:33 / 10:37min/mi

With my slow ass. Anyway.

This is the second of three training runs that NYRR sponsors in preparation for the TCS NYC Marathon. Technically, we are 12 weeks away from NYC’s marathon. Umm, yea! I guess?

This training run allows one to run two full loops around Central Park, starting off with the tough Harlem Hills.

I find the run challenging in a good way because you do not have much time/distance to recover in between hills.

Although this “race” was 12 miles, my training plan called for 14 miles for this week’s long run so I ran two miles before the race. For the most part, I felt pretty strong until about mile 8 of the run (or 10 total miles).

Once again, I was BSing in the apt before the race so I ended up starting with the last corral, which was not too much of a biggie because I was not trying to get a PR. Living close the a race’s start is a blessing and a curse. However, I got off to a really slow start because I had to move around A LOT of people during the first three miles. Actually, I found it quite frustrating to weave around people, so I kind of gave up. But, it was my own fault getting to Central Park late and having to start with last corral. Perhaps, it would have been better to run my extra two miles after the twelve miles.

Once I hit Mile 8, I really started to lose steam. I do not think that I ate enough before or during the run. Come to think of it, the Gatorade at all of the fluid stations was really watered down for this race. Going forward, I really have to start noting how early I need to wake and how much I need to eat. I believe that my body’s digestive abilities have changed a bit since last year. This may be a little TMI, but I find that I have to take TWO poops, typically 30 – 45 minutes apart every morning. Depending on what I have eaten, I usually have to poop again before starting the run. Pretty much three poops within a 1.5 hr time span. Because of my double, sometimes triple, poops, I have to wake up even earlier to prepare breakfast and make sure I clear out my system so to speak.

Eh, I don’t feel like typing anymore.

Liquid carbs for a post 14-mile run

Upcoming races: 

• Oct. 5th; NYRR Grete’s Great Gallop (10K)
• Nov. 3rd: 2019 TCS New York City Marathon

I  probably should register for one more race so the NYC Marathon will not count as one of my 9+1 races.