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.