Getting into a Groove

For some strange reason, Madonna’s “Into the Groove” has been in my head for the past few days . . . hence the title of today’s entry.

Some new kicks:

I have finally purchased some new running shoes, which was a bit of a struggle. Here’s the shoe story of my life. I went to a local Jack Rabbit store to purchase a pair of kicks. The salesperson was so excited (maybe it was a slow day in the store) to show me all of the new models of shoes from New Balance. After telling him the specifications of my big and wide feet, he pretty much told me that the store had only 3 options for me. From my personal experience, once you go past a size 10.5 (if the place offers half sizes past 10), running shoes options dwindle to about 50%. Then, that percentage goes down even further if you need a wide shoe. In addition to the reduced number of options, the potential running shoes tend to have the most ugly arrangement of colors.

I went with these Brooks Ghost 13 because the other option of shoes was butt ugly.

With this purchase, I feel a bit like a traitor because I have been wearing New Balance running shoes for the past decade. You know, it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I took them out for a test run (errrr, drive) on a treadmill, and they seem to be ok. All is not lost because a colleague told me about Joe’s New Balance Outlet (Link: ***), which carries larger-sized running shoes. Also, I was told that they carry wide shoes up to EEEEE.

Running recap:

Even before purchasing my new kicks, I have been running about 3 - 4 times a week. Yay me! It has been a slow climb because I’m pretty much doing Galloway’s Run-Walk-Run method. With this method, I have been mostly alternating between running 400 m (or 800 m) and walking 200 m. Although I’m moving slowly, I do realize that Rome was not built in a day. Also, I am pretty happy that I’m back to running full loops in Central Park (~6mi). Hopefully, in the upcoming weeks, I can transition to more continuous running.

Over the past few months, it has been really hard to jumpstart my motivation for running. Yes, a part of this was due to my lack of interest in running outside during winter. But, I also think my low motivation was caused by not having anything to train for. I have realized that doing virtual challenges does not work for me because there is nothing like an in-person race to really get you into competition mode. While this “competition” is more with myself (or the “stopwatch”), it’s easier to push myself when I have someone running the same race.

The plan is to use the next couple of months to get in some sort of pre-marathon training shape to start training for TCS NYC Marathon. Isn’t so strange that I feel like I have to get into shape BEFORE training for a marathon? While we do not know if NYC’s marathon will happen on the first Sunday in November, it could not hurt to train for it. If this year’s marathon is canceled (again), I do not think that I will be too disappointed. Perhaps, I can settle with running a smaller full or half-marathon if the NYC Marathon is canceled. Let’s see where the next few months will take me.

Getting social:

A while ago, I wrote a post where I discussed how difficult it has been for me to integrate into my two running groups. Over the weekend, I "gave" my LGBTQ+ group another shot and volunteered to participate in the group's cheer zone for folks who were either racing or doing their long run in Central Park. I gotta say that I had a nice time cheering for my fellow runners (I guess technically they would be my teammates). Maybe I will start participating in some of the group's weekly fun runs.

Plans for the week:

-Clean/organize my running drawers. I have two full drawers dedicated to my running clothes, but the drawers are a complete mess. It’s beyond time to toss out the running clothes that I never wear. Oh, I have accumulated so many running clothes because many races give your a technical “finisher” shirt.

-Start executing a sleeping plan. I need to start getting to bed and actually going to sleep earlier so I can start my runs earlier in the morning.

-Plan to run a couple of New York Road Runner or NYCRuns sponsored races in April.

Find me on social media:

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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

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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.