Is this still a running blog? ;)

It has been such a long absence, which would suggest that I have not been running too much these days. At the beginning of 2021, I had such high hopes of running 2021 miles this year. HA! I will be lucky if I run 202 miles. Although running 2021 miles this year is about 5.5ish miles per day, I should have factored in our cold winters in the northeast when coming up with this plan.  

According to my Run 2021 miles in 2021 challenge (NYCRUNS), I’m at 137.6 miles. However, I’m supposed to be at 396 miles at Day #72. Looks like I have a lot of distance to make up over the next 293 days. Since spring looks like it is here to stay, it is time to get my butt in gear with this running challenge.

I’m not sure of the last time I ran more than 3 miles continuously so I know that it is going to be hard to get back on that running horse. I have a tendency to have an “F it” attitude when it comes to running or getting back into shape. For example:

I’ll start running; realize that I’m not running at the level before a hiatus/injury; get frustrated; go on another hiatus; and the cycle repeats. Going into next week, I’m going to mentally prepare myself for thinking that I will be a complete struggle over the next few months. To prevent frustration this time around, I plan to employ The Galloway Run Walk Run method (Link: ***).

A few principles: continuous muscle use will lead to quicker fatigue; quicker recovery; regulation of core body temperature; run-walk-run is interval training  

Let’s hope that using this method will keep me motivated to drop my pandemic pounds or COVID chunk.

I was a little sadden to see a Facebook Memories post from two years ago.

This picture was taken after I finished the NYC Half Marathon in 2019. Since I was returning from a serious back injury, I was pretty shocked and pleased that I ran the half marathon with a time of 2:11. Although this time was way off from my previous time of 1:45 in 2018, I was still so happy to finish this half marathon in under 2.5 hours. Yay Me. Besides the NYC Marathon, the NYC Half Marathon is one of my favorite NYC-based races. Why? Times Square is closed to automobiles only two times a year: 1) New Year’s Eve (obviously) and 2) the NYC Half Marathon. No wonder this race is $150+ bucks. Actually, I think the race in 2017 was a new course where runners started in Prospect Park (Brooklyn); ran across the Manhattan Bridge; along FDR; through Times Square; and ended in Central Park.  

Speaking of Facebook Memories, it has been a little disheartening to see some of my old posts from last year. More specifically NYC’s Lantern Half Marathon.

Around this time, I was training to run Madrid’s Marathon. I must have been doing a long run hence running an additional 4 miles after the half marathon. I think this was right before in-person races (and everything else) was pretty much shut down. Now, that I’m talking about marathons, I have to see what’s happening with NYC Marathon this year. Also, I need to see when our Iberia Air flight vouchers will expire.  

We’re Gonna Pump You Up

Since I have been neglecting my running goals over the last few months (err year), I figure that I could start lifting weights at my local New York Sports Club [NYSC]. You know, something is better than nothing. Unfortunately, doing this is somewhat problematic because working out in a mask SUCKS. I’ll keep it real and admit that I sweat (a lot), and my mask becomes soaking wet after 15 – 20 minutes of working out. I purchased these “special” masks that are used by athletes, but I guess that my overactive sweat glands were too much for them. I reached out to some folks, the ones who have been posting selfies at the gym, for some recommendations, and it seems like these mask cartridges are the way to go. Fingers crossed.

One other hiccup

My NYSC is probably one of the most raggedy NYSC locations in town. All of the weights and machines look like they are from the 90s (err the 80s). This does not include the fact that most of the cardio machines are constantly “being serviced”. Why are you a member of this gym? You might ask. This particular gym is about equidistant from work and home. There was another (slightly) nicer one closer to my apt, but it shut down during the pandemic.

*Back to my rant.*

Between social distancing and the limited number of equipment (mainly free weights), it’s been tough to do any type of supersets at my NYSC. I think, for now, I will focus on machine weights and not even deal with the free weights section at NYSC. Also, I plan to move my lunch hour from 3 pm to 1 pm so I can work out when there are not as many people around.  

All righty, I guess that’s it for now 

No, wait. My action plan of things to accomplish this week.

-Set up and FOLLOW a sleep schedule.

-Devise a walk-run-walk plan for the week and put it into my calendar.

-Figure out what I’m doing with intermittent fasting. I guess this means setting up and FOLLOWING an eating schedule especially if I’m planning to lift around 1 pm.

-Check out what’s going on with in-person races.

-OH, very important, buy a new pair of running shoes. There’s a hole in one of my shoes.

Social Media Time

CLICK TO FIND ME ON INSTAGRAM
CLICK TO FIND ME ON STRAVA
CLICK TO FIND ME ON TWITTER

Let’s get it started, MMXXI

I guess that it’s that time of year for everyone to mention their New Year’s resolutions for 2021.

Losing some weight 

It is no secret that my waistline, belly, hips, and everything else have expanded during this pandemic. I cannot entirely blame the pandemic, because I have not been too happy with my physical appearance for the past few years. My first weight loss goal is to get under 200 pounds. According to my Lose It food logging app, I can drop down to 190 pounds by May, which would be a nice birthday gift to myself. I plan to reduce caloric intake and restart intermittent fasting. The latter activity worked wonders for me when I did it for the first time a couple of years ago. It did help that I wanted to drop a few pounds before visiting Cancún for a birthday getaway. Actually, thinking about it . . . I started intermittent fasting for Lent and decided to keep it going until the summer.

 Getting my running mojo back.

 Although I have been running during this pandemic, the lack of racing has really reduced my efforts during my daily runs. For the most part, I’m walking quite a bit during these runs. For example, I’ll cycle between running and walk 0.5 miles for a 6-mile run. This definitely has to change in 2021. My major running resolution is to run a half marathon every month during 2021. This was one of my resolutions for 2020; however, the pandemic caused the cancelation of pretty much all in-person races. In my defense, I did run half marathons from January to March in 2020. I would like to get my running fitness back to where I can (decently) run a half marathon at a moment’s notice. It would be awesome to get back to 1:45 half marathons, but I will take anything under 2:10 . . . for now. Although there have been limited in-person races, my plan is to run the route for the New York Road Runners’ (NYRR) Fred Lebow Half Marathon.

The idea is to run my own half marathon during the last weekend of each month. Since I’m running the same route, it will be easier to measure my progress.

I did mention that I was a bit hesitant signing up for more virtual running challenges. I guess that I lied because I signed up for NYC Runs 2021 Challenge.

For this challenge, challenge seekers decide how many miles they will run during 2021. For my goal, I plan to run 2021 miles, which seems like a nice number for the year 2021 (oh sorry, MMXXI). That’s about 5.5 miles per day for the year. This may be a bit of a lofty goal because my 2020 Strava stats said that I ran 1010 miles, so I will attempt to double this in 2021.

Engaging more with the running community

My primary reason for setting up an Instagram account was to engage with more runners around the world. Unfortunately, my Insta has pretty much been a potpourri of a bunch of random things. To be perfectly honest, I’m not really sure about how to go about engaging more with runners through social media. Perhaps, Instagramming just is not my thing.

Reading more

I make this resolution every year, but I really want to read at least one running-related book per month. I read a few books last year, but I’m not really sure why or when or why I fell off. The couple from the Marathon Training Academy has a nice list of books that I can get started with (https://www.marathontrainingacademy.com/my-book-list).

Let’s see how 2021 will go.

NYC "Marathon" Monday

Even though TCS NYC Marathon 2020 was canceled because of this d*mn pandemic, I decide to celebrate (or commiserate) it by running the last 13.1 miles of the NYC Marathon's route.

Last half of NYC Marathon’s route

I know that many folks participated in NYRR's Virtual Marathon, but I just do not have the emotional fortitude to run 26.2 miles alone. I gotta say more power to those folks. Although it was nice to do my own thing for my half/fake marathon, it was kind of depressing and very eerie to run the (last part) of the marathon's route without the large crowds, the signs with funny running puns (e.g. chafe the dream), the medals, the bands, the blue line marathon marker, and the folks handing out beers around Mile 17.

"Marathon" 2020

Marathon 2018

GETTING IT ON - PULASKI BRIDGE, BROOKLYN, NY

Although the last half of the NYC Marathon takes you through Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Manhattan again, the Brooklyn part for me was pretty much the beginning of the Pulaski Bridge. Getting to this section of Brooklyn was a bit of a challenge because I was supposed to take three trains - the 2/3 to the 7, to the G. Keep in mind that the G train on normal days is quite a struggle, so one can imagine how much of a struggle the G train would be on an early Sunday morning. Actually, a lot of the struggle getting to my starting point was caused by me. I was so invested in my book, "The Years that Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us", that I missed my connecting stop.

Overall, I had a nice little run around NYC. Since I started around 8 am (the plan was to start at 6:45/7 am), there were not too many issues with automobile traffic. Phew. Also, the mid-40F temperature was perfect running weather for me. Fortunately for me, I finished before the rain started. Although there were no major crowds, which made the streets feel desolate, there were a few random people along the route that were clapping and cheering while running (no pun) their early Sunday morning errands. Also, other folks were running the marathon route so it was nice to feel like I was not the only nut doing this.

I will say that this running my fake marathon has inspired me to get back on track (no pun, again) with my physical training. Also, it made me realize that I have been babying myself during my regular runs. Normally, I'll run a mile and walk 0.25 miles and do that for 6-7 miles, so I definitely need to start pushing myself during my daily runs.

Somewhere in Manhattan

Crossing the Willis Avenue Bridge (Manhattan -> the Bronx)

No crowds in my Harlem neighborhood

I will say that Central Park is absolutely beautiful in the fall, especially now that the leaves are changing colors.

There was some sort of finish line in Central Park near the official finish line. I guess this was for the runners that ran the virtual NYC Marathon.

“Finish line” in Central Park

Although it did not feel the same crossing the multi-colored finish line and having the chance to see your name on the large jumbotron, it was a nice gesture for virtual finishers. And, I took my shot.

Hopefully, things will get back to normal pretty soon (although I know they won't) so we can have a marathon next year. I wonder if NYRR is going to make next year's marathon even larger than the normal 50K running field. I ask because I imagine that many folks, including myself, who were supposed to run this year's marathon will want to run in 2021. The same goes for the folks, including myself, who were supposed to run last year's marathon. I guess time will tell.