Random Running Playlist Challenge

I am one of those folks who needs music to complete any and all of my runs. For example, if my phone has only 10% battery juice, I will have to charge the phone for 30 - 45 min to ensure that I will have music during my run. I’ve failed miserably with trying to run “naked”; that is running without any electrical devices (e.g. an Apple Watch or my iPhone).

For this challenge, I put my Long Run Playlist #2 on shuffle and, for the 1st ten songs that came up, I’ll provide a few thoughts about the song or artist.

Andrea Bocelli ft. Laura Pausini - Dare to Live (Vivere)

Aside from being a huge Laura Pausini fan, I’m not really too sure how this song made it into my music library.

La Quinta Estación - Busco Tu Piel

I pretty much love everything this group does. Actually, I take that back. I pretty much loved everything from this group when Natalia Jiménez was the lead singer. However, she did/does have a tendency to over scream at times.

Ike & Tina Turner - Shake a Tail Feather

No words needed.

Lady Gaga - Just Dance

Just a great song, in general, to get up and get going.

Laura Branigan - Gloria

Since I was born in the 80s, a lot of the music from that era holds a special place in my heart. Random fact: Two months ago, I learned that this is a remake from an Italian version. The Italian version also has made it into my music library.

Michel Montano - Waiting on the Stage

I “discovered” this artist during one of my Zumba classes back in the day. Pretty all of his songs have addicting beats that make you want to push harder.

David Guetta & Sia - Titanium

Aside from “Breathe Me”, I am not too familiar with Sia’s work. However, this is a pretty inspirational song with a catchy beat . . . thanks to David Guetta.

Destiny’s Child - Lose My Breath

Any song that incorporates a drumline gets an A+ for my running list.

J. Perry - Boujé

Another artist that I discovered from Zumba.

Bomba Estéreo - Internaciones

Another song/group that I learned about during Zumba. I’m not really sure why I like the song, but I just do.

Zumba Talk

Since I mentioned the influence of Zumba on my running playlist, I figure that I would mention why Zumba has come up a bit in this list of songs. A few years back, I had a lower back injury that pretty much prevented me from doing any physical activity for fitness. The funny thing is that I injured my back while during Shaun T’s Insanity workout DVDs. As I was healing, my doctor gave me the ok to do low impact exercises, and Zumba was one of the things that my doc recommended. Not to toot my own horn, I was a bit surprised that I was good at it after attending my first class. Even the instructor said that I picked up the moves pretty fast as a first-timer. I don’t know. I just made sense. If we are going to do a move two times facing the left, we’re probably going to do it again facing the right. It seemed pretty logical. At one point, I was attending Zumba classes three times a week and would only go to classes taught by specific instructors.

What a blah 2020 for my running goals

It has been a while since my last post; but honestly, there is not much to talk about. I think that my last post, back in March, was right before this pandemic thing really hit; and yep, we are still in the pandemic. Like most folks, I’m completely over it.

Running Plans

I had such high hopes for running this year.

• Run Madrid’s marathon

• Run NYC’s marathon - Technically, NYRR has not canceled the marathon, but I do not think that it’s gonna happen especially with predictions of a second wave of COVID-19 infections expected to occur during the fall months.

• Run a half marathon every month for 2020.

What has happened

Central Park outer loop (6ish mile)

Once we went into official lockdown, meaning that I started working from home, I had a wonderful idea to run six miles a day, and running one outer loop in Central Park seemed simple enough.

I guess my raggedy old bones were not down with this plan. Shortly after beginning this routine , my lower back injury started to flare up, and I began experiencing a dull pain in the lower part of my left shin. I low key think that I may have ANOTHER stress fracture, but that’s another complaint for another day.

Perhaps, the “aggressive” elevation profile of Central Park has contributed to my leg pain.

Although I started off strong with this daily routine, I pretty much lost all motivation to continue with this plan. For the month of April, my physical “activity” was reduced to walking to and from the bedroom, living room/office, and refrigerator. It looks like my belly and waistline are showing the effects of my reduced motivation for any physical activity, and I think that I have gained about 6-7 pounds (at least) during this pandemic. Hey, I cannot/should not blame this pandemic for everything. I mean, the pandemic did not make me have ice cream for breakfast or down a bottle (errrrr 1.5 bottles) of wine.

Also, the pandemic did not make me order Insomnia Cookies.

I have a few plans in place to get back into my running groove.

• Do at least 60 minutes of cardio a day; hopefully, this will be my Central Park loop.

• Try to incorporate more fitness bursts during my workday. I would like to do 15 minutes of stretching and planks/situps/pushups/squats/etc. every 1.5 hours. I probably should put this activity on my work calendar right now. Eh, I do it later. ;)

• Intermittent fasting (16hrs) during the week.

It seems like an easy enough plan. However, I already know that running with a buff over my nose and mouth is going to be a pain because it feels like a mild version of waterboarding. If I can stay consistent with low key suffocating during these runs, my VO2max should get better, which may improve my running. #winning I guess this pandemic is good for something.

Volume Oxygen max (VO2max) pretty much is the max rate of oxygen consumption during strenuous activity. Great long-distance runners tend to have higher VO2max capabilities.

Oh yeah. Out of boredom, I did dye my hair a few weeks ago.

Let’s see how the upcoming weeks will go.

Race Report: The Lantern Run Half Marathon

Date: March 07; 8:30 am

Distance: 13.1 mi / 21.2 km

Place: Hudson River Park, Pier 45, Manhattan, NYBeach 116th street, Rockaway Beach, Queens, NY

Weather:  36 F

Finishers: ???  

Official time / pace: ???

Still going strong with my 2020's resolution to run a half marathon every month. We'll see how long this lasts with the spread of the coronavirus. 

This half marathon was pretty chill. From The Lantern Run's website: 

We’ve stripped the excess of larger races to focus on just the run itself for participants looking to receive a recorded time while improving their run.

For these races, entry is capped at 25 participants. I think there were only seven folks who ran the half in my wave. For the March 07 half, I believe there were four waves - 8:30 am, 10 am, 11:30 am, and 2 pm. Of course, all the later ones were full, so I went with the 8:30 am "wave". Since the races (they also have a 5K and 10K) are super small, the organizers send your race crap to you before the race, which was super convenient. 

I really loved the shirt's message, especially in light of all of this coronavirus stuff. It did feel a bit weird receiving my finisher's medal before running the race. 

The race itself was very low key; it felt more like a long run with a running group than an actual race. We met the 'folks in neon shirts' on the pier, the guys explained the route, and we were off. After starting, I do not think that I saw anyone else again until the finish.

Since no one was wearing bibs or the finisher shirts, everyone (at least to me) just blended into the normal weekend runners. The "course" was pretty simple - 4 loops of running from Pier 45 to Pier 26, then north to W12 Street, then south to Piers 46 and 45.

Since this was supposed to be a long run Saturday, I ran another 4 miles after the half-marathon. 

I pretty much ran this "race" just to finish. I did not go into it having a real goal, probably because I knew that I was going to add additional miles to this one. Although the temperatures were in the mid 30s, which is not too bad, it was SO windy . . . especially on the piers. At a few points, I felt like the gusts of wind were going to blow me into the Hudson River. Seriously, those headwinds were no joke. 

I think that I'm becoming a fan of these half marathon courses with multiple loops. They allow me to compartmentalize the run better - a half marathon feels shorter when you think of it as a bit more than four 5Ks. Honestly, I hadn't realized that I completed two of the four loops until I looked at my watch. I was like oh wow, I've already run 6.97 miles. Sh*t, I'm almost done. For me, anything past the halfway mark is 'almost done'. For this race, I really wasn't focusing on time and pretty much told myself that I would run to the music. I played Shakia's Donde Estan Los Ladrones album and Laura Pausini's Hazte Sentir and Primavera Anticipada albums.

After listening to those 2.5 albums (I only listened to three or four songs of the Primavera Anticipada album), I was pretty much done and did not feel too fatigued. Then, I was like my half-a**ed marathon training is paying off. I guess training during the winter for a spring marathon has a lot to do with this feeling because I do not train very well in 85F+ weather. Although I ran four extra miles after the half, I felt like I could have gone another 2 miles. I pretty much stopped because I was getting a bit hungry and was about to pass one of my favorite dive diners in Hell's Kitchen. 

What’s a running post without a poop story? After finishing the half and embarking on my 4 four additional miles. At mile 15, I really felt like I needed to poop, and it felt like a 'juicy' poop. I randomly found a restroom somewhere in Chelsa Piers. Like most folks, I cannot stand public restrooms. I get into the restroom, sanitized the seat with plenty of soap and water, put a stack of toilet paper on the seat, and went to business. The huge dump that I thought I was going to take was nothing more than a loud fart. All that work sanitizing for nothing. But then again, one should not trust a fart after 5K, right?

Next Half Marathon (subject to this damn coronavirus): NYCRUNS Queens Half Marathon, Saturday, April 4. 

Race Report: Valentines Day Half Marathon

Date: February 14; 10:00 am

Distance: 13.1 mi / 21.2 km

Place: Beach 116th street, Rockaway Beach, Queens, NY

Weather:  19 F

Finishers: 69  

Offical time / pace: 2:11 / 10:01min/mi

As some may know, I made a New Year's resolution to run a half marathon every month during 2020. We have half marathon 2 out of 12 now completed. Yay me. I'm proud of myself for finishing because boy this was a cold one. 

I toyed with the idea of running with my face completed covered. ;)

One can clearly see that this was a super small marathon, which had a different type of vibe compared to the regular races that I run with the New York Road Runners. Also, it was very low key; the runners met at a bar, headed over to the boardwalk, and the organizer (after explaining the prizes) was like AND, GO!

The racing “pack”.

Getting there was a complete sh*t show. A subway ride that's supposed to take about 1.5 hrs ended up being a little over 2 hours. 

• I almost missed the start. 

• I had to pee for the last 40 minutes of the subway ride. I'm so lucky that there are restrooms in the subway station in the Rockaways. 

Internal Race Goals:

• Run 2 miles of fartleks

• Run at least one mile at a sub 9:45 min/mi pace

Miles 1 - 4 

The beginning of the half marathon versus 0.5 miles into the half marathon.

For this portion of the half, I was more or less trying to get my act together. Since I arrived at the bar after all the folks were escorted to the start, I had to stop for a little bit to get my music going, put things in the correct pockets (I'm very particular which pockets hold which things), and have a quick stretch session. 

During the third mile, I felt a weird burning sensation in my right hand. This has happened once before while running an outdoor track workout in 18 F weather. It was kind of concerning because this happened only in my right hand. I actually feared that I would not be able to finish the race because of this. I was not wearing gloves the first time this happened a couple of weeks ago. Learning from my previous mistake, I wore TWO pairs of gloves and an athletic sweatshirt with sleeves covering my hands.  I rubbed my fingers together like I was trying to get some money, and that seemed to work.

Yay. I would not get a DNF . . . at least not for this reason. But . . . yeah, I need to figure out what's going on with the circulation in my right hand. 

Miles 5 - 8

Since the course was two loops around a section of the boardwalk and my hand issue was behind me, I really got into my groove.  I managed to do my two-mile fartleks during this portion of the race and started to catch up to and overtake some folks. 

Miles 9 - 13.1

Maybe I was getting tired or maybe I was hungry, but I slowed up during Miles 8 and 9. Not really sure what happened. Perhaps, I was saving myself for the final push or maybe I was distracted by taking pictures or getting the right music going. At least during Mile 10, I managed to push hard and ran that mile in 9'30''. I have it in me to run faster; I just have to push myself (and maybe do more speed work) in my training sessions. At mile 11, I really wanted to catch up with one more person because I think she was running and walking. During this point, I noticed that someone was passing me (more on this below) so I wanted to give myself one last push to stay with him. Well . . . that did not happen until mile 13 with a 9'21'' mile. Although I did not catch the two people (I finished about 10 seconds behind them), I was glad that I was able to make myself push twice in the last third of a half marathon. 

All in all, I had a nice race experience. And, I finished this one about 8 minutes faster than the Fred Lebow Half in January. The improvement was not super exciting for me because the Fred Lebow Half is a bit hilly, and this half marathon was very flat. 

Postrace Stuff: 

There was a little post-race celebration. Registration included a small brunch and a free drink at Rogers Irish Tavern.

I ended hanging out at the bar for about 2 hours drinking and chatting with some other finishers and folks who live on the Rockaways.

Ok, I do not mean to sound like a hater, but I'm going to hate a little bit. 

Although I cannot prove this, I think a couple of people cut the course. Since the course was two loops B116th street -> B120th street -> B57 street -> B120th, you could see other runners to and from B120th and B57th.

Ok, there were several people who were far behind me after the first loop, and I know they did not pass me during the second loop. Could someone explain how these few folks arrived at bar WITH medals before I did? It's not like this race really had course marshalls. There were trash cans at B120th and B57 streets, which indicated where we had to turn. I take that back because there was someone at B57th street for the first loop, but he was not there during my second loop. Ok, I don't mind if folks cut the course. I was a bit annoyed because there wasn't much food left at the bar when I arrived at the post-race brunch. I take my feedings VERY seriously. The brunch was self serve so the faster runners (or the course cutters) had first dibs. Eh, such is life . . . I guess.

After signing up for this race, I was a bit annoyed because there was not much information about the race itself, e.g. the course, the fluid stations (if any), or what the brunch actually included. Now that I have experienced my first Rockapulco-organized race and know what to expect, I would definitely run another one. The organizers have several races during the year, and the end of summer half (8/29/2020) looks kind of interesting. Plus, I could go swimming at the beach after the half . . . or drink at the bar. Wait? Running a half marathon in NYC, adjacent to a beach, with NO shade, in late August might literally be hell on Earth. 

At least the trip back home was not super intense. I guess it was not super intense because I did not have to be anywhere at a specific time. I even took my first trip on the NYC ferry back to Manhattan and met up with a friend to have a couple of drinks on the UES . . . I was "primed" (my way of saying buzzed or semi-drunk) and wanted to keep the "celebration' going with a nice whiskey and chocolate pairing.

The Jeffery NYC