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!

Trying to Get There

QUICK POINTS:

1. Long Run #whatever

2. Cardio Recover

3. 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. 

Race and Reading Recap

No photos in this update because my iPhone is acting weird and the screen is unresponsive. 

QUICK POINTS

1. NYRR's Achilles Hope and Possibility 4 Mile

2. "Four Months to a Four-hour Marathon"

3. Upcoming training week

1. NYRR's Achilles Hope and Possibility 4 Mile

Usually, when I sign up for a race, I go to the race, run, and leave. Most of the time, I rarely know what the race is sponsoring or supporting unless it is explicitly mentioned in the race's name or on the free T-shirt. For this race I decided to stay for the post race festivities, because I wanted to win something in the raffle and I thought that my birthday luck would help out . . . it did not. 

I was very please to learn that this race is to support various types of people (and runners)  will different disabilities. From the NYRR's website. 

The Achilles Hope & Possibility (4M), now in its 14th year, is the signature race for Achilles International, a non-profit organization that provides running and other athletic opportunities to people with disabilities. 

It was very inspiring to see "handiablied" persons (many of whom are wounded vets) running or being pushed along the course for four miles. I felt really good about participating in this even, even though I did not know what it supported. 

My race was kind of nice, but I hate when I think that I received a personal best only to miss it by a few seconds. According to my fitbit, I edged out a personal best, but the NYRR official results proved otherwise. 

• Mile 1: Started out pretty slow because the field was so packed.  

• Mile 2: I was really feeling my groove and made up some time that I had lost  during the first mile. Plus the second mile of the course is very flat and 90% of it is shaded. 

• Miles 3 and 4: The west side hills of Central Park will be the death of me. I felt slower but I thought that I was running faster because I tried to incorporate fartleks during the 3rd and 4th miles. Although I am sprinting during my fartleks, I think that I may be slowing down too much for my recovery. I say this, because my Mile 3 split was about the same time as my first mile. Within the last mile, I did sprint for the last 400 meters but that split was pretty much the same as my time for Mile 2 (around 7:15). Although I enjoyed the cause of the race, I was a little disappointed in my performance. But, hey there are more races to come right?

verall stats:

• Net time: 30:42

• Pace per mile: 7:41

• Age graded time: 30:03

• Age graded %: 56.7% (early in the day, my AG% was 70.1%)

 2. "Four Months to a Four-hour Marathon"

I do think think that I have EVER read a book about about running, aside from fitness random articles. I e-checked out "Four Months to a Four-hour Marathon" by Dave Kuehls. I was thinking that this book would be more about a person's journal to break a four-hour marathon, rather than a training guide. I will admit that I pretty much randomly checked it out. That being said, I did pick up some extra training tips that will prepare me for Montreal in September. 

It was a quick and easy read; I think that I finished it in an 1.5 hour subway commute. Of course, I skipped a few chapters. For example, I skipped the chapter regarding dressing for the cold, because I am training in the SUMMER. Also, a lot of the book consists of various training plans which I kind of blew through because I am somewhat content with my current training plan. I will say that Kuehls explained several concepts that are necessary in marathon training. Some of these explained concepts included:

• Why tempo runs are important and must be done once a week. 

• Why long runs should be completed at a slower pace than you want for your marathon. I actually have been going about this the wrong way. Meaning, I have been trying to do my long-run to match what time I want to clear for the main event. Although I think that his pacing for the long runs may be TOO slow, but the general concept makes sense. 

• The importance of track runs in your training plan. 

All in all this was a nice one-size-fits all type of book, which would best be used by someone who i just starting out in the sport. I am willing to bet that after running for a year or more, a person already knows what clothes to wear based on the weather, what to eat, when to drink water, etc. I think that I will give the book a once over again just to see if I want to add some of his training suggestions into my current training plan. 

3. Upcoming training week

The training continues: 

Tuesday: Fast Finish Run: 4.5 miles easy + 0.5 miles hard

Wednesday: Foundation Run: 4 miles easy

Thursday: Cross Training

Friday: Fartlek Run: 5 miles easy with eight 15'' hard sprints

Saturday: Cross Training

Sunday: Foundation Run: 8 miles. 

See you on the streets