Excitement and Fear

Now that my taping "program" has begun, I am thinking more about the logistics of the Montreal half, which is in 16 days. Some of my questions include:

1. Where should I stay in Montreal? I have to book my Air B&B TODAY.
2. What should I bring?
3. How will I get to the start?
4. Will I have enough battery juice on my phone for pre and post race activities?
5. What should I put on my race music playlist?
6. Will I have to poop or pee during the race?

I have been somewhat spoiled by living in the "sometimes" great city of New York, because there are plenty of races here and I am an expert at navigating out metro system. Thus, I really never had to travel to far to get to a race, maybe except for the half-marathons on Staten Island and the start of the NYC Marathon. For the half in Montreal, I will be sure to give myself EXTRA, EXTRA time getting to the start by navigating Montreal's metro system. I will probably end up taking an Uber anyway ;).  This will be my first race outside of NYC, so it is kind of cool and scary at the same time.

I "Strava'd" the course so I will have a better feel for the turn-by-turn play.

The course looks pretty nice (at least in cartoon form), which has a lot of potential photo opportunities (maybe there leaves will have started to turn orange, red, and yellow), but the last 5 km are uphill, which I am not looking forward to. It could be worse, because the full marathon has 8 miles of uphill running after mile 10. That said, it will be nice to get a different perspective of Montreal, from a runner's point of view. One thing that I did not anticipate is that the locations of liquid stations are not too consistent because they are either 1.5 or 2 miles apart. Typically, I have been training to take a sip of water every mile after mile 5 during races. This means that I'm going to have to rethink my hydration strategy. However, it should not be that big of a deal because I am doing the half-marathon but it may have been problematic if I was running the full marathon.

I just remembered another goal that I have not completed for this race. When I decided to run this race, I really wanted to gain a better grasp of the french language. Enough of a grasp to have a basic conversation with some of the Montreal residents (I'm a bit of a chatter) in their native tongue. Last Christmas, I bought Rosetta Stone's program for French for myself and I kept at it for a few weeks but I never completed the program. :( Maybe I will try to learn French for next year's trip to Montreal.

For this weekend, I plan to do a 5-7 mile race tempo run and some cross training. Oh shoot, I need to register for 2 more NYRR races, so I can have guaranteed entry into NYRR's NYC Marathon in 2017. 

"Speed" Demon

Just a quick entry, while I wait for my experiment to finish. 

Since I have been slightly off with my marathon (now half-marathon) training, I realize that I have been neglecting the speed work what is necessary for a long-distance training program. Ack!!! Now, there is less than 25 days and 10 hours until my race in Montreal. 

Yesterday, I decided to do three "speed" ladder intervals - 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 800m, 400m, 200m, 100m, 100m, 200m, 400m, and 800m with minimal recovery in between intervals. I remember hating this type of workout back in high school but I did notice that my times  improved with it. With 25 days until the race, there will not be enough time to notice any differences from my speed work, but it will prepare my legs for quick sprinting that I will have do during the half-marathon. Overall, the run was kind of fun, because it was a nice change to breaking up the distances. I think that it gives your mind a chance to rest and regroup, which you do not really get an opportunity to do when running 10+ miles. Speaking of minds. I must have had early Monday morning brain because I screwed up the calculations for the first two intervals. As I showed above, the distances are in meters; whereas, my GPS tracker measure distance in miles. With my brain fart, I was equating 100 and 200 meters with 0.1 and 0.2 miles, respectively. This is crazy because: 

1. I have been involved with track and field for years, so I should know these distances quite well. 
2. I am a scientist who deals with using the metric system on a daily basis. I still do not understand why the U.S. does not use the metric system, but that subject is the topic of a different blog for a different day. 

The route in Saratoga Park in the Bed Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn. 

Even though I messed up a bit with my conversations, it worked out a little bit because I ran an extra distance that I had originally planned to do. What does not kill you will make you stronger, right?

All in all it was a fun run, because the park, with its oval walkway, near my apartment building is perfect for these types of runs. 

Song of the run: Shakira's "Ciega, Sordomuda." 

Although much of Shakira's style has changed, call it an artist's evolution, this song still is one of my favorites for getting some speed out of my legs. 

Ok, so moving forward in the week. I plan to do a 7-8 mile (depending on what time I wake up and how hot it is outside) tempo run. I am going to aim for an 8:10 - 8:30 min/mi pace. Plus, I plan to do my last long run (a 12 miler) this weekend, so I can get an adequate tapering period. I have not given much thought to the route but I think that it will include the Williamsburg Bridge, downtown, and the Westside Highway in Manhattan. I do not believe that I have done any runs on the Westside of Manhattan.

What I meant to say . . .

1. Adjusting plans

2. Changin plans

3. NYRR's France 8K

1. Adjusting plans

I have been going back and forth over running Montreal's Marathon and I have decided that I am not going to run it. This has been a horrible summer, rather 16 weeks, to train for a marathon. I am a little disappointed but I would rather drop out than do something that would injure my body. This realization came last week when I attempted to run an easy 8 miles in preparation to run 16 miles during the weekend. Even though it was very hot and humid last Thursday, I just was not into the run and I kind of knew that there would be no way that I could complete a 16 mile run. 

Although I did not care for the run, I was kind of happy that I was able to revisit Roosevelt Island for the run.

Instead, I decided that I will run the Montreal Half-Marathon rather than the full marathon. I do not think that I have it in me to run the full marathon but I know that I can complete the half-marathon. I know this because last weekend I easily ran 10 miles. 

2. Changing plans

Since I really wanted to run a marathon, I think that I will run the Shamrock Marathon  (March 2017) in Virginia Beach, Virginia . . . my original hometown. It will give me to reason to visit my family while accomplishing a goal for myself. Plus, it will be cool to have some family support . . . along with some good food during that weekend. 

Although it will be cool to run a marathon in my hometown, I do find the route to be a little boring. I find it boring because it's one of those "been there, done that" routes. Being from the area, I guess it would be hard to close down a bunch of streets, like the marathons in big metropolitan city such as NYC, Boston, and San Fransisco. However, it is worth a shot. Plus, the marathon is in March, so training would be easier because my long runs will be done during the colder months. So, I will see how this goes. 

3. NYRR's France 8K

Although I had a horrible time running 5 miles on Roosevelt Island, I enjoyed NYRR's France 8K on Sunday. Initially, it was super muggy, BUT there was an INTENSE downpour during the run. The downpour felt good and bad. Obviously good, because the weather was cooler. Bad, because I hate running in wet shoes. 

According to my running apps, I ran the race with a pace of 8:09 min/mi but the official results were 8:21min/mi, which is really slow for me. 

It was nice getting back into some friendly competition at an NYRR race. Also, I need to completed only 2 more races to qualify for the NYC Marathon in 2017. 

A Terrible Summer for Marathon Training

Quick Points:

1. Close to defeat

2. Back on that horse

3. New training plan

1. Close to defeat

I will say that the last few weeks has been disastrous in terms of my marathon training, between this oppressive heat and a couple small injuries. Seriously, this summer's heat has messed up training plans, because my body just gets to a point when it gives up on me when it is too hot out. At one point over the last few weeks, I considered:

1. not running the Montreal Marathon.
2. downgrading to the Montreal Half Marathon.
3. going to Montreal to enjoy poutine and beer.

But, I think that I am going to power through and go with Option #1 (I'm still not opposed to Option #3). I decided to give myself until August 25th to make the final decision, because that will give me a chance to do two long runs (the 12 miler today and the 15-18 miler on Sunday). Scratch that, August 24th will be the day, because it is the last day that I can change the distance.  If I crap out and cannot hit at least 15 miles on Sunday then I will do either option #2 or #3. Perhaps, I will do both because I will feel sad going Montreal during that weekend and not participating in either event.

2. Back on that horse

To "ease" back into running, I did a 12 mile run today. Unfortunately, I ran on a treadmill because of the weather outside. For this run, I did it based on running for 2 hours rather than running for distance. To my surprise I was able to run a little over 12 miles at an fairly east pace with changing inclines. Doing this "long" run was a little surprising, because I have been really lazy these past couple of weeks and I did not do any real physical activity. . . no running, no swimming, no lifting, NADA. So, I guess that I had a decent physical base, but we will see how that last going forward with my new training plan. Many trainers say that it is fine to give your body a week or so to recover from a hard training program. We will say that I was not being "lazy" but I was being proactive to let my body "recover."

Also, I did have a little inspiration for this run, because the women's Olympic marathon was on TV, so it was nice to watch the second half of the marathon while training for a marathon. I only wish that the treadmill's TV had better quality for the screen. I know, I know, First World Problems.

3. New training plan

I found a new training plan for an eight-week training period, but I will pick up the training at Week 2. I think that I may adjust the back to back running days for Saturday and Sunday.

WEEK 2
Monday: 40 min XT
Tuesday: 3 x 1.25 mi (10K pace) with 3 min jog to recovery between each set
Wednesday: 4 mi + strength training
Thursday: 10 mi
Friday: off
Saturday 4 mi total including 8 x 100m strides with jog back recovery between each
Sunday: 16 mi

WEEK 3
Monday: 40 min XT
Tuesday: 8 x 400m (85-90% percent max effort) with 2:30 min jog to recovery between each set
Wednesday: 4 mi + strength training
Thursday: 10 mi
Friday: off
Saturday 4.5 mi
Sunday: 20 mi

WEEK 4
Monday: 40 min XT
Tuesday: 4.5 mi
Wednesday: 4 mi + strength training
Thursday: 10 mi
Friday: off
Saturday: 5 x 800m (85% max effort) with 2:30 min jog to recovery between each set
Sunday: 15 mi

WEEK 5
Monday: 40 min XT
Tuesday: 5 min @ 10K pace, 2 minute jogs x 5
Wednesday: 4 mi + strength training
Thursday: 10 mi
Friday: off
Saturday 4 mi
Sunday: 21 mi

WEEK 6
Monday: 40 min XT
Tuesday 4.5 mi
Wednesday: 4 mi + strength training
Thursday: 10 mi
Friday: off
Saturday: 4 mi total including 8 x 100m strides with a jog back to recovery between each set
Sunday: 16 mi

WEEK 7
Monday: 40 min XT
Tuesday: 3 min “on” (10K pace), 2 minutes “off” (recovery pace) x 6
Wednesday: 40 min XT
Thursday: 6 mi
Friday: off
Saturday: 4 x 5 min @ 5K pace with 2:30 min recovery between each set
Sunday: 12 mi

WEEK 8
Monday: strength training
Tuesday: 4.5 mi easy
Wednesday: 6 mi easy
Thursday: 4 mi easy
Friday: off
Saturday: 3 mi easy
Sunday: Marathon!