I'm back . . . Again

Ok. I have not been here in a WHILE, probably since November/December 2016. I do not know why but this year has been so up and down.  

I do not know what happened after the Montreal Half Marathon (Oct. 2016) but I just lost interest in running.  I planned to take a couple months off before training for the NYC Half in March….THEN I threw out my back badly (a relapse of my herniated disc) in January. I had to visit the emergency room twice in one week. I had to defer the race till next year. 

Now we are in May but I have not really done anything related to running. Also, I have not been doing any bike riding due to the intense winter we had in the northeast. 

*** Yeah, Yeah, I know that I am coming up with a lot of excuses***

I will say that I have been enjoying Zumba (4 times a week) over the past few months. I needed to do something to keep my cardio up. Plus, I have been doing some weight training to retain some muscle mass. 

Back to the title of this post. Last year, I completed my NYRR 9+1 program, which means that I am registered for the NYC Marathon in November. EEK. Thus, I have to start training as if I am I a true novice to long distance running. One mile at a time, right?

I am a little afraid but I am up for the challenge. That said, I am not looking forward to long runs during the summer. 

See ya in the streets. 

NYC Half marathon . . . DONE!!!

QUICK POINTS:

• NYC Half Marathon, sponsored by the New York Road Runners (NYRR). 
• My next crazy athletic challenge

NYC Half Marathon

This past Sunday, I had the wonderful opportunity to run the 13.1 miles through the immense borough of Manhattan. *Side note: I think that the island only is about 2 miles at its widest part.*  This race took us runners through Central Park, Times Square, West Side Highway, and the Financial District (FiDi). This blog entry will be mostly a photo blog.  I was a little sadden that I did not achieve my goal of running this half in one hour and 45 minutes; BUUUUUUUUTTTTT, I did achieve a personal best (PB). I think the fartleking on the West Side Highway, really improved my time. I am a little annoyed that I had to use a portapotty during the race because it cost me about 3.5-4 minutes.

Next Atheltic Challenge:

After training for an athletic feat for months, one can get slightly depressed once you have completed your event. You know, because you do not have anything to look forward two. To circumvent this issue, I really think that I will train for the Rock n Roll Marathon in Montreal this upcoming September.

Looks fun, huh?

Montreal has become one of my favorite cities and I think that it will be super cool to run 26.2 miles through this city. After running the NYC marathon in 2013, i wanted to run a marathon in another U.S. city and in another country. I had signed up for the San Francisco marathon but I screwed up my back really bad and did not run it. Hopefully, the same will not happen as I prepare for the marathon in Montreal. Fingers crossed. Next step is to find a decent sub 4-hour marathon training plan and COMMIT, COMMIT, COMITY to it.

Busted Weekend

I did not do much in preparation for the NYC Half marathon this past weekend. There was just too many things that were all over the place, and I just could not focus enough to do the run. I think that I was supposed to run 7.5 miles this weekend. Actually, I tried to do it on Friday, but lack of motivation defeated me. However, I did complete a fast 3 mile run. So that is something  . . . I guess. 

Saturday I had a nice cross training session where I lifted for a bit (biceps and triceps) and participated in a bootcamp class. 

It was a decent class. I find that sometimes I cannot focus on a workout and I need to sign up for a class where someone is telling me what to do. I will say that Krista is a very enthusiastic instructor and I will gladly take another class taught by her. 

Random:

Random thoughts for this:

1. Why are spanish-langauge cartoons shown in the Bushwich location of Crunch? There were no kids working out. 
2. There is no way that a beagle would be a chef. They are too greedy when it comes to food. 
3. That said, the chef's hamburguesas marinas did look delicious

Why I hate the MTA

I was really lucky that I decided to cut my work out short after the bootcamp (I was going to do some lower back work). I get out of the gym to catch the J train (Saturday Brunch Day). I actually ran up all 80 million stairs to catch the train, because one was in the station. Looking forward to having multiple brunch beverages (ultimately undoing my work at the gym), I  hear the conductor say that the J train is not going to Manhattan after Hewes Street. Then at Hewes Street I see the MTA signs. 

The annoying thing is that I usually keep up with the service changes but this one caught me by surprise. However, I was able to make it to brunch even with the extensive delay of taking the J train shuttle bus. 

Ok back to doing work and I hope my running mojo will return this week. 

Cross Training

Like we all probably know, cross training is just as important as actually running in meeting your goals (no matter the sport). For my cross training (or weight lifting) days, I have been using the Full Fitness app. It is a great app for the following reasons:

1. It is free!!!
2. It has sports specific (e.g. Runner's Workout, Swimmer's Workout, Basketball Conditioning Workout) and goal specific (e.g. abdominal defining, arm workout, glutes defining programs)
3. One can add and remove his/her own exercises to create a specific program. 

Here are some examples from the Runner's workout that I have been using for my NYC Half Marathon training. Side note: I think that I am going to start alternating between the Runner's workout and the Glute Defining program. I am getting a little board with the Runner's Workout and it is good to shake things up for your muscles.