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.

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Random Thoughts Thursdays

• Is it me or did this week zoom by pretty fast?
• So this happened today. 

• Why is Amazon annoying? I needed to reset my password so I was sent a validation code to my email address, put in my validation code, was asked the expiration date of my credit card. Here’s the problem: I no longer have that credit card, and now I have to call them to reset my stupid account. Now, I don’t even want to order the damn item. 
• I need to buy new underwear and t-shirts. Oh and some new work clothes. 
• This weekend, I have a 10K race so I guess this race will be a litmus test to see if I can attempt this marathon in a few weeks. 
• What is all the hype around the iPhone 11? No one really has been able to tell me what’s so great about it. That said, I probably should upgrade my phone, which is an SE. I rarely update my phone unless it is super damaged. Although my current phone is old as hell, it works fine and has no damages/cracks. Actually . . . my is having some battery issues. 
• I love this album. 

• My employment tuition exemption benefits kick in in a few months. I’m wondering if I should “go back” to school. I’m thinking of maybe an MS in higher education administration, Sanskrit, or feudal farming 😉
• I’m back on 16:8 intermittent fasting and hitting the gym more often. Perhaps, I can lose a few pounds before Hawaii in a few weeks. 
• Oh, I need to buy vitamins. 

Random Thoughts Thursday (Hater Edition)

• I’m a bit in hater mode. Since I’m injured, I have major FOMO seeing folks’ training updates on their blogs and social media.
• Why in the hell does TicketMaster charge a goddamn $13 service fee? I’m going to a show in a few weeks. The tickets are around $39 which makes the service fee is like 30% of the ticket price. FYI, I’m pretty cheap when it comes to live shows. There is no one that I’m going to pay more than $100 bucks for a ticket. Hell, nowadays, artists’ concerts are on Youtube.
• Oh, I’m going to see this nut.

  • “No, no era yo. La que lloraba amargamente abandonada en un rincon. No, nunca fui yo. La que vivia de migajas y sobras de amor.”
• This is how I feel during my post-work commute when I take the bus. I don’t get why people bring so much crap with them on the bus.

• I think that I’m going to remove my work email account from my phone. I wonder if there is a way to stop work emails from going to my phone between the hours of 7 pm and 6 am? I guess I could always put down the freakin phone.
• I know mental illness is not a laughing matter. Buuuuuuut. Can I go ONE day without being harassed by someone wanting something? I guess that I should be thankful that I do not have any mental issues (for the most part), but damn. This is partially related to my job because I spend most of my day answers questions from or about my students. 
  • Oh, the other day, I was called a not so nice word because I would not give a person a cigarette (I was down to two) or money (who carries cash nowadays?).
• I think that I need an NYC break. Fortunately, I have some work trips lined up – Hawaii in October and Anaheim (Disneyland) in November.
• Why must people bike on the FREAKIN’ sidewalk? If you are too scared to ride a bicycle on the street (especially those with bike lanes), then don’t ride a bike.
• How much money would you spend on the medical care of a pet? One of my Facebook friends’ FOURTEEN-year-old dog has been through T-cell lymphoma (or was it leukemia), THREE rounds of chemo, and at least eight blood transfusions. The chemo has caused some kidney failure, hence all of the blood transfusions. As a dog lover (well a floppy-eared dog lover), I totally understand that pets are a part of the family, but it just seems like this person’s family is prolonging the inevitable. Talking about: send thoughts and prayers. Maybe God is trying to call the dog home, but y’all keep blocking his attempts.

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.