Training Update: Marathon Madrid Wk. 1

Alrighty, here we go. Time to train for another marathon and this one will be in Madrid.

Before I begin, I guess that I'm officially registered for NYC's Marathon, which will be held on Sunday, Nov. 1st. It looks like there will be no Halloween festivities for me this year. Man. Back in 2005, if you told me that I would pay over 200 bucks to run a marathon, I would have looked at you like you had ten heads. My how things have changed.

Although this was the first week of training for Madrid's marathon, I have not 100% decided on a marathon training plan. I'm pretty much going to take bits and pieces from multiple training plans. Some from Hanson's Method, Hal Higgons, and Front Runners of NY. Like most of my marathon training plans, we all know that this plan more than likely will go to sh*t by week 8 or 9. Why do I set myself up for failure? ;)

General Training Crap

-This is probably a stupid idea, but I completed my first week of 16:8 intermittent fasting (IF). It seems a bit weird to do IF while training for a marathon, but I really need to lose some weight. It's simple physics or mechanics; smaller things tend to move faster. My big a** needs to move faster. 

Tuesday was a bit of a fail because the office catered lunch from Dinosaur BBQ. I'll be damned if I will turn down free BBQ. Oh, Dino BBQ's creamed corn is SOOOOO amazing. 

Monday: Strength Training and 3.25mi

Tuesday: Strength Training

Wednesday: x-train

Thursday: Speedwork (Morning) + Zumba (Evening)

Since I obviously would to get faster at some point in my life, I definitely will need to incorporate more speed (and hill) work during this training regimen. Yeah, I'll probably never return to my 8:30min/mi half marathon pace status from seven or eight years ago, but I can always try.

For my speed workout, I wanted to run twelve 0.25mi hard intervals with 0.25mi easy recovery. I was kind of excited to do this workout because I found a portion of Central Park that has a 0.25mi circular dirt path.

However, I think that I was too excited because I did not notice how cold (25F) it was on Thursday morning until I started to run the intervals. After running about 4 of these intervals, my fingers were quite cold, and I had to run to the nearest New York Sports Club. After the run, I jogged to the gym to stretch, but my fingers were still feeling weird for 30 minutes after the run. So I learned an important lesson from this workout - WEAR GLOVES FOR ANY OUTDOOR WORKOUTS BELOW 30F. Actually, I don't even know where my running gloves are. 

Since I did not do as much as I wanted to on the "track", I decided to hit up a Zumba class, which I've been missing. Since joining New York Sports Club, I have not attended a Zumba class since January. I think that I attended my last Zumba a week before Christmas.

The Zumba class was just oooookay. I'm not sure if this was because I'm not used to this instructor's method of teaching . . . aka the spazztastic method. I probably will not make this class a weakly thing. One of my biggest pet peeves with Zumba is when the instructor does not have his/her playlist together. We should not have to stop after every song so you can find the next song. 

Friday: HIIT and Stretching

Saturday: Long run (10.5mi)

The plan was to run 12 miles, but my strugglin' a** was a bit tired. I think that I had one too many of gin tonics at one of my favorite Spanish restaurants (Tomiño Taberna Gallega) the night before. See, I'm already screwing up my marathon training. 

I guess old habits are hard to break

For this long run, I wanted to try a completely different route so I ran from Harlem to Fort Lee, NJ.

My run was just ok, but I probably put in about 70% effort on this run. I really was not feeling this run. It was one of those runs where you look at your GPS tracker and you are like: Wait! I've only completed 2 miles. I thought that I was at mile 4 or 5. After mile 2, I knew that the run was going to be a bit of a struggle. Going forward, there will be no hanging out on Friday nights . . . Well, very minimal hanging out on Fridays.

Oh one cool thing about the run: I found $10 bucks during the run. Dollar, dollar bills, y'all.

Upcoming Race: Rockapulcorun V-Day Half Marathon (Feb. 15)

According to the email that the organizer sent, it looks like there will be a brunch after the race. I wonder if there will be unlimited mimosas? ;)

we will be at Rogers Pub from 8:30 am on. Number pick up and race day reg. Then a nice Brunch after the Half. Sign up and our full calendar at www.rockapulcorun.com

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Random Thursday: Half Marathon Wishlist Part I

I'm trying to run a half marathon for each month for 2020 as part of a new year's resolution, which means that I'll probably break it by March. Here's a list of the ones (January to August) that I am interested in running. Although I love NYRR-sponsored races, I'm trying to wean myself off of those races and explore different places on the east coast. Because of a weekly Sunday commitment until May, most of the races will have to be held on Saturday and within close proximity of NYC. I guess that I need to save some coins for travel and race registration.

Most of these half marathons are listed on Halfmarathons.net. If you have any interesting ones that are in the northeast, make a suggestion in the comment box.

January:

1/18: Fred Lebow Half Marathon, New York, NY

February: (slim pickings)

2/2: Go Hard or Go Home Half Marathon, Brooklyn, NY

2/15: V-Day Half Marathon and Brunch, Brooklyn, NY

March:

3/28: Rock n Roll Half Marathon, Washington DC

April:

May not happen since I'm running Madrid's full marathon

4/4: Dismal Swamp Stop Half Marathon, Chesapeake, VA

4/4: NYC Queens Half, Queens, NY

May:

5/16: Martha's Vineyard Half, Martha's Vineyard, MA

5/16: Rock n Roll Half, Atlantic City, NJ

June:

I wonder if I should do a special half since I am turning 40 in June.

6/7: Hotlanta Half, Atlanta, GA - This probably will not happen because Atlanta is already hot as hell in March. I hate to imagine how hot it is in freakin June.

6/13: Kraut Half - Philadelphia, PA - "The race is limited to 1,000 runners, so runners thinking of participating are encouraged to sign up early. Following the race, the post-race party will get underway and will feature bratwurst, sauerkraut and German potato pancakes."

July:

7/11: Shoreline Half, Hamlin, NY

7/26: Freedom Fighter Half, Quantico, VA

August

8/16: Tour de Force, Plattsburg, NY - Since Plattsburg is right on the border of Canada, I wonder if I can incorporate a long weekend in Montreal.

8/29: End of Summer Half, Rockaway Park, NY

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TRAINING UPDATE, FRED LEBOW HALF MARATHON

Holy crap! I have really been neglecting this thing because I wrote my last post during the last week in November.

Without going into the week-to-week details of my training for the Fred Lebow Half Marathon, I can give an overview of my ups and downs. Actually, I do not feel like giving an overview right now. Well . . . most of the month of December has been full of downs in terms of training for this thing. Also, the half marathon is a week away so there is no need to go into great detail about each week. Perhaps at a later time, I will retroactively write about my training progress.

For the most part, I stuck to my training plan, which called for 3 - 4 runs per week. Unfortunately, I ran into a couple of injuries in my back and right toe during the month of December. These injuries, along with the holidays, impacted my running speed. :( Going forward with this sport, I really need to come up with some plan to get faster because I’m a bit tired of running 10-minute miles. Rather than focusing on running, my first step (no pun) should be on losing a few pounds. Actually, my first step really should be modifying when and how I eat so I can lose a few pounds. In a perfect world, I would like to lose at least 20 pounds during 2020. Actually (part II), once I hit the post button, I’m going to revisit my food tracking app and schedule intermittent fasting days on my calendar.

Although my half marathon is next week, I probably will be only 30% ready. My longest training run, which I completed the week before Christmas, was 10 miles. Of course, this run occurred before my back and toe injury so I feel like I’m starting from scratch again. Even though I am nowhere near 100% ready for next week’s half, the Fred Lebow Half was supposed to serve as a general baseline for my half marathon fitness. Back in December, I came up with this crazy idea to run a half marathon every month in 2020 . . . unless I am running a full marathon. So far, I have registered for a marathon in Madrid (April) and New York City (November).

Hopefully, I will get back into the habit of updating this blog on a weekly basis.

Race Report: Joe Kleinerman 10K

Date: January 4; 8:00 am 

Distance: 10K

Place: Central Park, NY, NY

Weather: 48 F

Finishers: 5,160 (2,745 Men/2,415 Women) 

Offical time / pace: 1:17 / 12:24min/mi

This race is named in honor of Joe Keinerman, who was one of the founders of the Road Runners Club of America and the New York Road Runners Club. It kind of makes sense that this race typically is the first NYRR race of the year. 

I've finally done it and run my worst race EVER!!!

Since I am still training for the Fred Lebow Half Marathon in a couple of weeks, I decided to make this race a long run. The plan was to run 3 miles before the race, run the 10K race, and follow the race with another 3 miles. Easy breezy, right?

I started the 3-mile pre-race run and noticed a stinging pain in the lower left part of my back. Right then, I knew this was going to be a hot mess of a run. In addition to my back issue, I was having some digestive issues. Before leaving the apt, I had to poop twice. Instead of running three miles to and around Central Park, I decided to do more stretches and walk to the start.

Ok, I'm in my corral (letter I for this racing season) and waiting for the sound of the start gun. Actually, I don't know if NYRR uses a start gun. Within 400 meters of starting, nature called AGAIN. Damnit, if I did not have to take ANOTHER dump. That's three poops within 1.5 hours. The weird thing is poop wasn't "liquidity" so I ruled out diarrhea. Oh, portapotties are gross. 

During the first mile, my stomach was not feeling too hot at all and I was belching . . . a lot. After passing the first fluid station (a little past Mile 1), I had to stop and puke. Just great, I have breakfast coming out of one end and the previous night's dinner coming out of the other end. 

I still tried to power through, but then my back really started to hurt. At this point, I pretty much was over the race and almost requested an Uber to take my puking, vomiting, injured a** home. 

Side note: There is something about the end of December and the beginning of January that makes my back injury flare-up. Maybe it's being a couch potato during my Christmas staycations. 



Back to the race, which I probably should have taken a DNF. As I started to approach Mile 2, once again, I had ANOTHER urge to poop. Portapotties that have been used by most of the race field are the things that nightmares are made of. At that point, I decided to jog 0.5 miles and walk 0.25 miles until the finish. I mean, there was no point pushing myself in my current state. 

For the most part, that plan was going ok. Another runner that saw me puke earlier gave me props for fighting through the race. I mean, she looked like she was fighting through her race too. The other runner may have given me a pep talk a bit too soon because I puked AGAIN around Mile 4. Maybe the second puke was due to reliving what I saw in the portapotty and smelling old horse poop on the road. This section of Central Park is often populated with horse carriages. Although there were no horsey carriages on the road, the smell always lingers. Maybe it's the horse oppression that made me sick. 

After all of that, I finally made it to the finish. Although I felt like crap and did feel like I finished a race, I'm glad that powered through . . . to the best of my ability. 

Hey, at least temperature was pretty mild for the beginning of January in NYC. 

I guess there is nowhere I can go but up from here. I just gotta keep moving forward for the rest of the 2020 race season. 

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