TCS NYC MARATHON TRAINING WEEK 4 - Getting IT DONE

Word on the street is that we have a little less than 16 weeks until the TCS NYC Marathon. Woo hoo  . . . I think. For the most part, this week of training went well - this week was a low mileage week. I have been doing well with my three run per week training plan. But I think after this week, I will increase my runs to four times a week.

Monday: 

Planned: 5mi | Actual: 0mi

I received some bad news, so I opted out of my run for the day.

Tuesday: 

Planned: Zumba and Weight Lifting | Actual: 3.2 miles, Zumba (45min), and Static Stretching.

I tried to do Monday's run at the gym, but it was hard to get to the gym with enough time to do the 5 mile run and the Zumba class (Damn you, MTA). So, I just did 3.2 miles on the treadmill and the Zumba class. As normal, Zumba class was excellent and I had a blast.

Wednesday: 

Planned: Strength Training | Actual: Did it

I have not lifted for quite a while, and it felt great to finally pump some iron. Although I love this Crunch gym for my Zumba class, the weight room kind of sucks, because it is so small. For this workout, I did a 30 minute chest workout, which included: bench presses, dumbbell flies, barbell bent-over rows, dumbbell shoulder presses, biceps curls, and cable triceps pulldowns. The workout called for calf raises and squats. I decided not to do those, because I was going to do interval work the next day, and I did not want to overwork my lower body.

I was really glad to incorporate this training into this week's workout, and I hope to continue in the future.

Thursday: 

Planned: 6K Ladder Intervals | Actual: 6K Ladder Intervals

I remember doing these types of ladders back in my high school track days with a love/hate relationship. For this workout, I ran consecutive intervals of 800m, 400m, 200m, 100m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m with a 100-200m recovery jog/walk and repeated these three more times.

The workout was a little tough, because I think that I ran too fast for the earlier "rungs" of the ladders. Although it has been so annoyingly hot over the past few weeks, the rain during this workout made it very pleasant and manageable.

Since I have been really stressed at work, I go on a couple of 10-15 minute walks during the day. On one of my walks, I found a track (at Wingate Park) a few blocks away from work. SCORE!!!

The track is not an official track, because 5 laps, rather than 4 laps, is equal to a mile. But hey, at least it's something.

*Random Trivia: This park honors George Wingate - one of the cofounders of the NRA. Now, I feel kind of conflicted about using this track.*

Earlier, I had mentioned that I decided to start attending the Brooklyn chapter of the NY Front Runners for it's Thursdays interval workouts. The group was planning to do 1 mile speed intervals and I did not think that I was ready for that, so I opted for a solo workout.

After the interval training, I did some body-weight training using the bleachers.

Friday:

Planned: Strength training |Actual: DRANKS

I was supposed to do strength training and static stretching, but I decided to meet up with a friend, whom I have not seen for while, and grab some drinks. Since I live AND work in Brooklyn, I really like to seize any social opportunities to go into Manhattan.

 

Plus, how can one turn down a prosecco happy hour until 7pm at Bar Veloce - East Village? This is where the evening kind of went nuts. My friend and I went to a happy hour that the Front Runners hosted on the LES (Bedlam), then we got margaritas at a Mexican place (Fonda), then some more drinks someplace else (The Wren). Although we had quite a few beverages during the evening, I was not "that" drunk because I managed to take the subway (not an Uber or cab) home. Also, I managed not to fall asleep on the subway and get urinated on. Believe it or not, this happened to a woman on my subway line last week. *Ok, I'm getting off topic. This is supposed to be a running blog.*

Saturday: 

Planned: 5mi | Actual: 0mi

Man, I was so hungover when I woke up at 6 AM to do my run. I pretty much stayed at home all day and did absolutely nothing but watch "The Office" (pre season 4) and Bad Santa 2. However, it did feel nice to have a lazy Saturday, so I did not feel too upset about not running. 

Sunday:

Planned: Strength Training | Actual: 5mi and Strength Training

Since I was a buster on Saturday, I decided to do my run with strength training. For my strength training, I focused on arms and I had a pretty good workout.

 

*Perhaps one day, my arms will look like the models in above gallery ;) * The workout was good and I felt kind of healthy . . . Then, I blew it by getting Indian food and having 4 beers at a local bar. In my defense, the beers were Bud Lights and the beverages were 2-4-1.

I dropped by the NYRR Run Center to pick up my race materials for tomorrow's Brooklyn F-U-N run (or whatever the hell it is called). I do have to say that I love the NYRR Run Center's location. Even though it is located on the West side, at least is near midtown and accessible by multiple subway lines. Unfortunately for me, the A, C, B, D, 2, and 3 trains were not going uptown, so the place was not really convent for me on that day. ;)

My top songs for the week.

 

Goals for the upcoming week

  1. Register for more NYRR races, so I can repeat 9+1 entry for 2018's TCS NYC Marathon.
  2. Finally, decide if I'm going to run Montreal's Half Marathon.
  3. Try not to get sh*t faced on Friday night so I can do my Saturday long run.

Marathon Training Week 4 - Flow

The general attitude for this week is FLOW.  The past week kind of flowed by and I think that I’m getting a little better compared to last week.

Monday (5.5 miles):

This was a simple treadmill run with nothing to interesting to report.

Treadmill selfie. Normally, I do not compliment myself but I do have to say that I'm getting some nice arm definition. 

Treadmill selfie. Normally, I do not compliment myself but I do have to say that I'm getting some nice arm definition. 

 

Tuesday (0 miles): Happy Fourth of July!!!

Although I did not do anything related to my training plan. I did go to the Yankees/Blue Jays game, which felt like a damn workout. For one, it is a long commute from Bed Stuy to the Bronx. Two, it was hot as hell. It was so hot out that I felt like I was melting. By the fifth inning, I was done and watched the game from the comfort of the Hard Rock Cafe in Yankee Stadium with a couple of refreshing margaritas.

Wednesday:

Nada. A very long work day and there was no time to do anything related to running, except rest. I did enjoy a wonder sushi dinner with someone special at Akaru sushi in Bushwick, Brooklyn. 

Sushi for two.

Sushi for two.

 

Thursday:

Nada again. I was having a couple of crappy days at work and I just wanted to jump into bed, watch crappy TV, and  sleep.

Friday:

I wanted to do some strength training, because I have been kind of lacking with this type of training over the past few weeks, so I hit up the Crunch Fitness near work. Sounds good, right? I did not lift a single weight because the weights area was way too packed. Instead, I found a new Zumba class that was AMAZING – the music & dance moves were mostly latin based and the instructor was very good. Since I made my decision to attend the class at the last minute, I was stuck in the back of the room. I hate being in the back of the room (for any class), because I like to see the moves performed by an instructor rather than the students in the class.

 

Unfortunately . . . this class was the instructor’s last class at this particular Crunch gym.

I auto-shazamed the class, so I could add some more tunes to my iPhone.

Saturday (10 miles):

My weekly long run, which was an in and out run: Bed Stuy –> Williamsburg –> Williamsburg Bridge –> Lower East Side –> Lower East Side Park.

I do not know why the Runtastic app has only 8 miles here. 

I do not know why the Runtastic app has only 8 miles here. 

 

One good thing about my increasing distances is that I will begin to explore more routes during my long runs. Actually, this run was quite nice. Here are a couple of things that made it nice:

  • My pace was faster than last week’s long run and the distance was longer.
  • Via the Williamsburg Bridge, I incorporated hills in the middle and towards the end of the run.
  • I think that I'm getting more acclimated to running in hot weather. 

The interesting thing about this long run is that I ran a little better on the second half of the run. The negative split shows that I am becoming a stronger runner; hopefully, this trend will continue. Since I started my run around 8am, there were not many people out running but on the way back there were more folks. Perhaps, I was more competitive with the second half, because I was “racing” with other people (at least in my head). I’m still am not at the place where I want to be in this training but I’m just going with the flow.

Post run, I hit up Crunch Fitness to stretch (and recuperate) for about 40 minutes. Every time I go to this particular Crunch Fitness in Bushwick, I always have to fight the urge visit the IHoP that is next door to the gym. I am glad to say that I was successful in fighting off my urge for a stack of pancakes. Yay me.

An IHoP next to a gym. What could go wrong?

An IHoP next to a gym. What could go wrong?

Some tunes that got me through the run.

Goals for the upcoming week:

  1. Follow the D*mn training schedule, dude.
  2. Begin to add Fartleks to longer runs.
  3. Decide if I want to run the Montreal Half-Marathon again. I probably will register for it; hopefully, no injuries or work-related things will come up. 

Marathon Training Week 3 - "Getting There"

I think this is the week that I have finally gotten into the grove of my training program. The attitude for this training weeks is - GETTING THERE

Monday (5.5 miles):

I did a nice 5.5 mile in and out run across the Manhattan Bridge. For some reason of all the bridges (Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, 59th Street Bridge, and Robert Kennedy Bridge) that crosses the East River, the Manhattan Bridge is my favorite.  I do not know exactly why? Maybe because you get nice scenic, iconic views of Manhattan and Brooklyn with a bit of an incline challenge. Random, the East River technically is not a river in the pure sense, it's actually a tidal strait because it changes directions throughout the day.

 The run was pretty fun and it did not feel too intense, because I forgot my Fitbit for the day. There was a different mental aspect for this run, because I ran after work. Normally, I like to run early in the morning, so I can get it out of the way for the day (plus, I never know when I will be invited to a random Happy Hour after work). I'm trying to run at different times of the day, so I can get use to variety.

 

Tuesday:

I finally made it back to one of my favorite Zumba class. I think that I added a couple of blisters to my feet, because I went out a little too hard. I will say that it was nice returning to this class after a 4 week hiatus. Also, I was kind of happy that I still remembered many of a dance moves and sequences.

Wednesday:

Absolutely nothing. I've been having a rough time at work. When I get anxious, I do not sleep, so I got absolutely no sleep from Tuesday to Wednesday. However, I did enjoy a BK Whopper Jr. ;)

Thursday (7 miles):

Speed work!!! One of my training goals was to get more involved in the running community. The Brooklyn section of the FRNY has a Fun Run on Tuesdays and interval training runs on Thursdays in Prospect Park. This workout was nice and tough.

 

A one mile warm up, followed by six intervals of 800 m hard sprints followed by 800 m cool downs. I was a little disappointed that I had to walk for a portion of some of the cool downs. Perhaps, went too fast during the "sprints". Going back to my high school track days, I remember hating 800 m runs because the distance is like long-distance (for track runners) and a sprint. From this training, I realized that my running speed as gone to shit. I kind of knew this from my other runs but there is nothing like speed work to tell you that you have gotten slower :(

There were only 5 of us, counting the coach, and the folks were pretty nice. I was a little disappointed that the coach mentioned doing track work in the Gowanus/Red Hook section of Brooklyn. It's hard enough for me to get to Prospect Park after work but Gowanus/Red Hook may be a "no go" for me. It will be such a pain to get back to Bed-Stuy after the workout. But, we shall see how this plays out in the future.

Since the training is near Prospect Park, I visited the nearest Crunch Fitness and did a good 40 minutes worth of static stretches.

Oh random me: I went to Chipotle for dinner and received a BOGO free coupon. Yea!!!

Friday:

Not a darn thing. I believe that I was super tired and a bit annoyed with life in general. Of if you are in the Chinatown area and want to visit a nice rooftop bar, The Crown at Hotel 50 Bowery is pretty nice. Drinks are a little pricey (typical for most roof-top bars in the city) but the city views at night are AMAZING.

Saturday (7 miles, supposed to be 8 miles):

First real long run . . . for me, since last year. I had planned to run first thing in the morning (to avoid the heat) but I could not get myself up. Ok no problem, because I saw that it was supposed to rain around noon, thus cooling down the city. I grabbed my stuff and headed to the gym. I like starting my long runs at a Crunch Fitness, so I can return, stretch, and take a shower. Yup, no rain in sight . . . until I finished my run. This run was a real struggle because I overheated a couple (no, a bunch) of times during the run and I had to walk :(. Also, I made the mistake of running through Chinatown. Never again!!! Because of the heat, the smell was extremely horrible. I still can taste the outdoor fish markets in my mouth. YUCK. Once I got to the East River, the run was a little more tolerable, because of the shade that the overpass of the FDR provided.

 

This run is the reason for the theme, "getting there". I'm basically trying to regain my endurance and speed. It's gong to be a tough climb but I will get there . . . eventually.

Although I did not deserve it, I treated myself to a couple of tacos from El Luchador (South Street Seaport) after the run. After stretching and cleaning up at the gym, I was really craving a frozen drink. That craving led me to Dallas BBQ in Downtown Brooklyn, which is probably the worse place you can go if you are trying to watch what you eat. I swear, I do not think that restaurant has anything healthy on it's menu . . . Oh wait, I think the water is healthy. I tried on of those Frose drinks, because they were featured on the cover of Time Out NY last week and it seemed like a good idea.

Goals for the upcoming training week.

I had two goals but I have forgotten the other one.

Incorporate this training plan:

  • Mondays: Recovery run
  • Tuesday: Weight lifting and/ Zumba or FRNY Brooklyn Fun Run, if I skip Monday's run
  • Wednesday: Weight lifting/ static stretching stretching or Zumba, if Tuesday's Zumba is skipped
  • Thursday: FRNY Brooklyn Interval training. I may have to do this one alone because the coach was talking about training at a track in Gowanus, Brooklyn and ain't nobody got time for that.
  • Friday: Probably nothing . . . does happy hour count as a workout?
  • Saturday: Long run and static stretching
  • Sunday: Weight lifting and static stretching, if I'm not too pooped from the long run. I feel that as the long run distances increase, Sunday workouts will be skipped.