Starting from Scratch – 1st Quarter Update

I gotta say that the first 3 months of 2022 have not been so great in terms of running. Actually, this quarter has not been so great in several aspects of my life. I guess this is fine because April (for me) has always marked the beginning of Spring, which is all about rebirth and all of those other warm fuzzy sentiments.

Main targets for the first quarter

Rather than beating myself up about not hitting these goals, I guess that I will shimmy these on over to the 2nd quarter of 2022. It’s probably better than I move these goals over because I probably lost all the progress that I have made while training for and running Fred Lebow Half Marathon (Jan.) and Rock n Roll New Orleans Half (Feb).

Unfortunately, the month of March has been plagued with a couple of injuries that kept me from improving on my half marathon times.

Besides meeting the goals in the above picture, I have/had a couple of goals for 2022

-Run a half marathon each month.

-Run 2022km by Dec. 31

Running a half marathon each month:

This goal is now out of the question since I could not get over my injury in time to run last weekend’s Run Love Philly Half Marathon. I’m not going to beat myself up too badly about missing this goal because there were some things that were out of my control. When I signed up for these half marathons in December (at least the Jan – Mar ones), the college course that I teach was supposed to be virtual. However, a couple of weeks before the semester began, the college changed the course from virtual to in-person. I‘m not complaining too much about this change because I prefer teaching in person. Since I had already made my travel arrangements for New Orleans, I told the department that I made these plans before the department decided to make the course in-person. I’m not sure that I could have pulled that excuse (again) for Philly’s half marathon. That said, I did request off for April’s Brooklyn Marathon. Well . . . actually, the Brooklyn Marathon is going to be a half marathon for me because there was no way that I could train for a full marathon on a bum leg.

Image courtesy of NYCRuns

To be perfectly honest, this upcoming half marathon will be more of a walk->run->walk->run situation. Depending on how the next couple of weeks go, I plan on doing the following: walk (1mile)->run (1mile), rinse and repeat for 13.1 miles. If I can run the 1st three miles and do my walk->run->walk cycle, then great. If not, oh well . . . feet smell.

Image courtesy of NYCRuns

Taking another peek at the course, I guess that I’m not missing too much by switching my registration from the full marathon to the half marathon. After Mile 13, the full marathon pretty much is an in-and-out course along Ocean Parkway, which can be a bit boring.

Running 2022km (1264mi) in 2022

To meet this goal, I have to run about 168.5km per month. Looking at my total mileage (errrr kilometrage) as of March 31, I’m a bit off of my goal.

At this point, I’m supposed to be around 505.5km so I’m about 63.5km (40mi) off of my goal. Although I’m a bit off of my target monthly mileage (errr kilometrage), I think that I can still make 2022km by Dec. 31. Now, my target monthly kilometrage is 176km (109mi), which is about 5.8km (3.6mi) a day. If I do not have any other issues with my leg (fingers and toes cross) or other random BS, I think that I can manage this new goal, especially through easy runs.

Becoming more social:

During the next quarter, I’m going to try my hardest to get reconnected to NYC running culture through my running groups. You know, until people get on my damn nerves.  Right now, I’m a half-assed member of two in-person groups (Harlem Runs and Front Runners NY) and one virtual group (Black Runners Connection). HA! I was even featured in Front Runners’ Member Spotlight in February.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZhFlysuaWB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

For some, it might be a huge honor, but in this case, I was a bit conflicted.

-It’s clear that they wanted someone of African descent to be featured because of Black History Month. Also, I’m probably one of 5-7 (I’m being generous with these numbers) active (well . . . near active) African descent/Black members of the group.

-For the spotlight, you are asked to answer a few questions. I will admit that I felt a certain way with this question: Black History Month – Is there anything you want to see from the running industry as it pertains to Black runners? If the club is trying to show that they improving diversity, shouldn’t all members be asked this (or a similar question)? While probably an oversight, the person who sent me a list of the questions didn’t bother to keep the font consistent with the other questions.

Actually, let me stop there because this is supposed to be a positive (or a near positive) update.

Running update

I do not even remember what I’m training for . . . or to a larger extent even care what I’m training for. I don’t know, but I think that I have lost my running mojo over the last few weeks. Well, technically, I lost my running mojo at the beginning of the pandemic and have spent the last couple of years trying to get it back. There have not been many running-specific updates because it seems like one injury turns into another (or life gets in the way). Over the past couple of weeks, I have been dealing with a couple of leg injuries. First, I thought it might have been a stress fracture in my shin (or really bad shin splints), which more or less went away after modifying my cardio boxing workouts. Now, the calf muscle has been a bit problematic. For instance, my calf muscle does not bother me when I walk, but I experience mild soreness once I start running. I’m not really sure where to go from here. Actually, I wonder if last week’s deep tissue massage is playing a role in this injury. Perhaps, my muscle was injured, but the deep tissue massage really exacerbated it.

It’s like every time I get some steam going in a fitness journey, there’s something around the corner that takes me out. Perhaps, I just need to take a break from running for a bit.

In earlier posts, I’ve mentioned that I had two long-term goals for 2022.

Run/jog 2022 km in 2022

1. Run at least one half marathon (or full marathon) during each month.

2. I’m only three months into 2022, and I do not really care if I reach goal one or goal two.

GOAL 1: RUN/JOG 2022 KM IN 2022

Based on my mileage (err, “kilometrage”), I did not hit my running goal in Feb. To run 2022 km in 2022, I need to run at least 168.5km (105.3mi) each month. However, logged about 98km in February. Basically, I feel pretty defeated on my trek to run 2022 km this year, and we are only in the 3rd month of the year. Then again, my recent injuries have been screwing up things left and right. Honestly, I do not think that I have been overexerting myself because most of my runs are easy runs. Perhaps, these “easy” runs are not so easy on my body.

GOAL 2: A HALF MARATHON (OR FULL MARATHON) EACH MONTH.

This goal was DOA before I really could get it up and running (no pun). In addition to my main job, I work as an adjunct professor of biology at a local college. Since my main job is a standard 9-5/6, I typically teach during the weekends (12:30 – 3 pm). When the college asked us for our availability for the Spring semester, I was under the impression that my course would be virtual as it has been for the past four semesters. Literally, 1-2 weeks before the semester was set to start, I was told my course would be in person. Fortunately, I’m only teaching on Sundays, 12:30 – 3 pm. Unfortunately, for this running goal, most half marathons are held on Sundays, which causes a time conflict. For instance, I had to cancel class last month in order to travel and run in New Orleans. Because of class, I probably will not run this month’s half-marathon in Philly. If this semester’s class was virtual, I do not think it would be a big issue running half marathons outside of NYC and teaching because I would not have to be in NYC to teach a virtual class.

That said, I’m going to try my hardest to run next month’s Brooklyn marathon. If I’m able to run a marathon, I have a feeling that it’s going to be 70% walking and 30% running depending on what’s going on with my calf. I guess time will tell.

Then again, we’ll see what happens. Over the weekend, I was supposed to run a 5K, and I was so over it that I stayed home EVEN after putting on my running clothes.

Believe it or not, I was looking forward to this NYRR race because it’s one of the few races that is held outside of Central Park.

Ok, let’s talk about something a bit more positive, which does not have anything to do with running. Another goal for 2022 is to read more, and the plan is to read at least two books each month. Seems like a moderate goal since the New York Public Library book loans are for two weeks. Here are my current books:

I decided to start with Mayer’s The Gut-Immune Connection, and I am loving it so far. I have often told folks that I would have studied something at the interface of oncology, immunology, and microbiology if I could redo my Ph.D. life. Over the past couple of years, I have been so fascinated by the recent advances in linking the microbiome to various types of cancers.

NYC MARATHON TRAINING RECAP – WEEK ???

Since I actively maintain a running blog with updates on WordPress, I’ll just provide training update links to that page.

LINK: NYC MARATHON TRAINING RECAP – WEEK ???

A run down memory lane - New York Colon Cancer Challenge 15K (2012)

As some of my previous posts may indicate, it has been really tough to get back into my running grind. At the beginning of the pandemic, I was running 5 - 6 miles on a daily basis, but this initiative has kind of fizzled out. I think the lack of having in-person races has contributed to this lack of zest for running. In my mind, I’m kind of like what’s the point of pushing myself during training runs when I have nothing to train for. I figured that I could revisit some of my previous races as a way to reignite my love for running.

Background:

Before I get into the New York Colon Cancer Challenge 15K, I want to mention how I got into running. Actually, this review about my entry into running would be useful because I do not remember much about this race from 2012.

High school and college:

During my high school days, I used to run cross country and track (1600m and 3200m). I admit that I was not the greatest runner and pretty much participated in these sports to make myself a well-rounded college applicant. As a college student in New Orleans, I did join my college’s cross country team, but I never really got into it for the following reasons:

1. The humidity in New Orleans humidity no joke.

2. Because of the humidity index, practice started at 5/5:30 AM.

3. I never really acclimated to the humidity.

4. I never really loved running THAT much to put myself through all of that “stress”.

How did I get back into running:

I pretty much did not start running again until the first year of my postdoc. At that time, I would commute to and from the lab by riding my fancy road bicycle to work. Unfortunately, the rough NYC streets + a fancy road bike with thin tires do not really mix so I would constantly get flat tires. One day before going to work, I noticed that BOTH of my bike’s tires were flat. Rather than wasting time changing the tires, I decided to run the 3.5 miles to work. Ok, 3.5 miles does not sound like much, but I used to live on Roosevelt Island, which meant running over the Roosevelt Island and 59th Street Bridges. In my mind, those 3.5 miles were like running 5 miles. Over time, I started increasing the distance from 3.5 to 7 miles by adding a loop around Roosevelt Island before running through Long Island City to the Upper East Side.

A few of my labmates were avid runners, who constantly asked me if I considered running a half- or full-marathon. Anytime someone starts running, they are always asked if they plan on running a marathon. Honestly, I did not consider this at all but one of my labmates told me about New York Road Runners’ 9+1 guaranteed marathon entry. For this program, one would get guaranteed entry into an NYC Marathon if they run nine NYRR-sponsored races and volunteer for one. Basically, I was like why not and what do I have to lose.

What a long background; let’s get to the race.

New York Colon Cancer Challenge 15K (2012):

Distance: 15K; Date: April 1, 2021; Pace: 8:38min/mi; Location: Central Park, NY; Overall Place: 1,188 of 3,032; Gender Place: 873 of 1,559

Since I ran this race almost 10 years ago, I do not remember much about it. However looking at my pace, I’m really sad to see how much my running fitness has decreased over the past decade. Then again, I have aged 10 years so I guess that it’s par for the course.

Looking at the finisher stats, I was pretty much on par with running an average pace of the male runners. My finishing time (1:18:36) was about 10 seconds faster than the average. I guess that makes me above average, right? After completing this race, I was hooked on that running life. Honestly, I was so proud of myself because this was the longest distance that I have run since . . . well ever. Following the race, I was like LET’S DO THIS AGAIN, and LET’S SEE IF CAN RUN EVEN FASTER.

SOCIAL MEDIA PLUG:

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