QUICK POINTS:
Long Run #whatever
Cardio Recover
Musical Tastes
1. Long Run #whatever
As I continue to go the distance with my training for the Montreal Marathon in September (ACK!!!), I am beginning to explore more parts of my wonderful city via foot, because my distance is getting longer. I think going forward, I would like to run through a different part of the city for my long runs . . . granted that there is Crunch Fitness nearby, so I can stretch, shower, and change after the run.
Since I had to work last weekend, I decided to do my long run near Cornell's medical campus and in the Yorkville portion of the Upper East Side. During the weekend, I had to do a Western blot and I had a two-hour transfer, which gave me plenty of time to complete a 10 mile (actually 9.3 miles) run through the Upper East Side and on Randall's Island.
After reading a couple of books, online articles, and random blogs, I decided do the long run at a slightly slower pace than which I am accustomed. Many sources say that one should do the long training run at a 1 - 1.5 minutes below your projected marathon pace, so that you do not burn out from training. This plan especially is important if you are doing speed work during the week, which I am . . . sometimes.
The run was pretty fun, since I ran slower than my normal time. I started the run around 6pm when the sun was setting and it was kind of cool running in the evening; however, running in the dark was not as fun. Not fun because it was a little hard to see potholes and uneven pavement in the street. I had a couple of close calls of almost falling.
The route
Some pictures from the run - mostly of the East River and Randall's Island.
2. Cardio Recovery
My training guide (as well as other resources) recommend doing a low intensity, non running cardio recovery workout a day after the long training run . . . if your legs and body are up to it. Since I could not motivate myself to do a non running cardio workout on my own, I decided to check out a Zumba class (it's much easier to have someone tell you what to do when you lack motivation). I never attended a Zumba class before but I know the they were quite the rage a few years ago. I went and had an absolute BLAST. Not to toot my own horn, I think that I did better (or was on par) with many of the regular attendees. Even the instructor, Fabian, said that I did a good job and that I should come back. He could have been lying about the good job part; but hey, I will take a compliment when I can get one. I will say that his music selections were awesome, because many of his songs were non-reggaeton latin songs (I really cannot stand reggaeton).
The cool thing about this class was that it was low intensity, BUT I burned quite a bit of calories in the 60 minutes of the class.
I think that I will incorporate this Zumba class into my weekly training regime . . . if I can get my act together on Sundays before 11am.
3. Musical Selections
A big part of my running experience involves music; however, I am getting to the point where I am bored with much of my music that is on my iPhone. I am using a free subscription to Spotify to get some musical inspiration . . . of course I would have to buy the songs from iTunes if I like them. Do not get me wrong, it is not like I hate ALL of my music, I am just getting a little tired some of the more popular songs that are in constant rotation from my iTunes library. One would think with over 1500 MP3s on my iPhone that I would have enough musical selections to keep me inspired. I guess this is another case of "the paradox of choice: where more is less".
Also, for my song of the run (seen below), I found that I am becoming a fan of show tunes during my long runs.
Song of the run.
Many show tunes have a rapid "marching-type" cadence that matches the pace that I would like to run. I am thinking that for the marathon that I may run a portion of the marathon to a complete musical. A Broadway (or an Off-Broadway) musical typically is about 2 to 2.5 hours long, so I can complete half of the marathon without worrying about song selection and then complete the rest of the marathon with more up tempo/up beat song of my choosing. We'll see how this plan will go.