RnR Washington DC Half: Training Wk 0

Preface

Ok! Enough of this pity party with these “road to recovery” posts. 😉 The die has been cast, and I have officially registered for Run Rock n Roll Washington D.C. Half Marathon (RnR D.C. Half).

General Workouts:

Although my RNR DC training plan is supposed to begin on Dec. 24, I figured why not start now? What do I have to lose . . . aside from a little weight. As expected, it’s been a bit of a struggle getting out to run since I have not trained since August. I guess everyone has to start somewhere. Right now, I primarily have been doing 3-4 miles treadmill and easy runs. For this upcoming half marathon, I’d like to run it in 2:30 (or less). Thanks to Runner’s World online training pace calculator (link: ***), I now have some times that I would like to shoot for while training.

So far, I have been nailing the time range for my easy runs, but it’s time to start doing more challenging training run (e.g., tempo, VO2-max, and speed form runs).

I’ll admit that it has been a bit difficult to initiate my outdoor runs because it’s getting colder and darker out. During the month of December, I will have a little bit of motivation to fit in some outdoor runs because it’s that time of the year for Runchat’s annual holiday scavenger hunt.

Although there are 12 items in this hunt, I’m going to see how many times I can complete the list. Speaking of December challenges, I have a few more.

Plankmas:

A group on Twitter does monthly plank challenges, so I have a new challenge for December.

For this challenge, I plan to add a minute to each day’s challenge. I’m not starting from scratch because I participated in this challenge during October and November. Well, I kind of half assed October. Maybe I will break the 2.5 min time point this time around because I kind of stalled at 2.5 mins by the end of November.

Closing my Apple Watch rings:

Right now, my daily rings are set at standing 12 times (blue), exercising for 30 min (green), and burning 1350 calories (red). For this challenge, I would like to close all of my rings at least 20 times this month.

2023 km in 2023:

A BIG HA HA because it’s quite clear that I will not complete 2023 km in 2023. I guess that leaves 2024 km in 2024. 😉

Marathon Lotteries:

Looks like there will not be a Berlin Marathon for me in 2024.

I gotta say that I was a bit disappointed when I first opened the email because this is the 4th year in a row where I have been unsuccessful in the lottery. Not to be a bit of a hater, but it’s a bit frustrating seeing folks in my various social media running groups letting everyone know this is their 3+ time gaining entry into a World Major via a lottery. Bah humbug. Not to be a sore loser or a hater, but I don’t think folks should not be allowed to enter a World Majors marathon lottery if they have gained entry 3+ times in five or so year period. Well, it is what it is . . . I guess that I’ll receive my ‘thanks but no thanks’ for Chicago’s Marathon lottery in a couple of weeks.

Let’s not be so negative. If I’m not selected for Chicago’s marathon, I guess it will give me an opportunity to pursue Richmond’s marathon, which has been labeled as ‘America’s Friendliest Marathon’. The other day I was listening to the Marathon Training Academy’s podcast about finding community in running, and the panel sold me on this marathon.

Although the panel’s topic was a bit lame i.e., a bunch of advice that tends to work for a few people. However, the panel enthusiasm for this marathon was so inspirational. Ok, maybe they were so positive and inspirational about the Richmond Marathon because the panel did the podcast from the marathon. Also, I think Richmond Marathon is a sponsor of the Marathon Training Academy podcast.

Goals for the week:

I guess these will be goals for next week since this week is almost over. 😉

-Keep on keeping on. 😉

-Update my running playlist. It seems as if Eurovision has taken over a lot of my running (and general) playlists. I’m only saying this because 70% of my Spotify Wrapped 2023 playlist were songs from Eurovision.

-Get back to proper eating habits (e.g., intermittent fasting). For some reason, this has been REALLY hard for me.

RnR Washington DC Half: Training Wk -3

Preface

Ok! Enough of this pity party with these “road to recovery” posts. 😉 The die has been cast, and I have officially registered for Run Rock n Roll Washington D.C. Half Marathon (RnR D.C. Half).

Eh, ain’t nothing really going on but the rent. Overall, I think I had a good week in terms of working out. Working out is the easy part, but managing my food intake is where things get a little tricky. Actually, let me correct that: managing my LATE-NIGHT food intake is where things get a little tricky. There’s something so comforting about eating god awful food after 9 pm.

General Workouts:

This past week, I managed to log in five workouts at the gym. It’s kind of cool because I’m getting to the point where I’m like: Kwame, let’s do one more set, let’s run/stair climb for 5 – 10 more minutes. I’ll say that this rarely happens with strength training at the gym because I become easily frustrated with the 50 million other folks working out around me. Have I ever mentioned that I’m an only child who frequently suffers from only child syndrome? 😉

Now, that I’ve been strength training for about two weeks with no major back issues, I think it’s time to slightly increase the intensity of my strength workouts. Although I have been doing random strength training workouts, I’m gonna dedicate some time to find a couple of strength training workouts that focus on on running.

Boy did I catch a good episode of Marathon Training Academy (episode: Don’t Fear Change, Master It!). This episode really hit home for me because for a lot of athletes (professionals and regular folks) tend to base their identity on their sport of choice. When an injury happens, it can lead to depression. Because of my back injury, I did experience some slight depression because I could not run. The podcast recommended diversifying your physical interests. Ok, so this isn’t anything new, but it was nice to hear it again. Since I could not run (or pretty much do anything physically) during my recovery, I did consider volunteering for a local running organizations, but my lazy a** just couldn’t get it together. Every year, I tell myself to find some new interests besides running, brunching, Eurovisioning, cocktailing, and watching reality TV. Hey, I have started reading more so that’s something. Perhaps, 2024 will be the year that I actually find something else to do.

Around this time last year, Apple Maps typically would recommend directions to Plaza Azteca (a Mexican restaurant where I would celebrate Margarita Martes/Margarita Tuesdays) and The Waffle House.

The other day, I tried out my new gym routine . . . well my new commuting to the gym routine. To commute home during my in-office days, I have to take two buses. To help convince myself to go to the gym right after work (as some know, post-work workouts are tough for me), I change into my gym clothes before leaving work and take the bus to Silver Spring. The problem: Upon arriving to the bus stop in Silver Spring, I would say f*ck the gym and take the next bus home. The main reason for doing this: I would lose my workout motivation because the bus commute from work to Silver Spring can be anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes. Now, I’ve found another Planet Fitness near work, which is a 10-minute bus ride from from work.

Goals for the week:

-Start doing some outdoor runs.

-Input my RnR DC half marathon training plan into my fitness calendar.

-Get back to proper eating habits (e.g., intermittent fasting)

RnR Washington DC Half: Training Wk -4

Preface

Ok! Enough of this pity party with these “road to recovery” posts. 😉 The die has been cast, and I have officially registered for Run Rock n Roll Washington D.C. Half Marathon (RnR D.C. Half).

As most know, the NYC Marathon happened a couple of weeks ago, and I think watching the marathon on TV was my main inspiration to sign up for this (or any) half marathon.

This was my first time ever watching the NYC Marathon…from the comfort of my sofa. It’s kind of funny because I’ve completed this marathon a bunch of times, but I never thought to actually watch it. Since my NYC Marathon wave typically would start around 10 – 10:30 am (or 11:30 in 2021), the professional athletes would finish the marathon before we even started ours. Actually, watching the live stream while waiting to start probably would not have been a good idea because I would have killed my phone’s battery before starting the marathon. Y’all know that I need music to run. 😉 Speaking of streaming, I started to watch the live stream on ABC7’s website. Since we do not have real cable, I could not watch it on any of the cable sports channels (e.g., ESPN 1, 2, or 100,000). Fortunately, our VPN subscription and the RTVE (a public TV network in Spain) app came to my rescue. Also, I could practice my Spanish comprehension while watching the marathon.

After watching the marathon and later in the day, I felt the need to register for SOMETHING. Since the hubby, our NYC guests, and I were talking about the marathon while watching it, all of my social media accounts constantly displayed ads and posts throughout the day about registering for full and half marathons. The RnR D.C. Half caught my eye because:

• it will give me a chance to run a big race in DC. Remember, I was supposed to run the Marine Corp Marathon last month.

• it is far enough in the future where I can fully recover from my back injury and train for the half.

• it will give me a (hopefully) achievable goal to work towards.

I hope this plan will work out. I’m think that I will spend the next four weeks (hence the -4 wk in the title) recovering & getting a pre-training base together and spend 14 weeks training for the half marathon.

Rock n Roll Race Series Rant:

Everytime, I say that I’m never going to register for another RnR race series, I end up registering for one. The topic of this rant…registration for RnR D.C. Half was $109. Could someone tell me why the processing fee was TWENTY dollars?!!! Seriously, how much processing is required to charge folks close to 20% of a race fee. I think that this rant might be a bit of projection because we recently booked tickets for our Mexican tropical christmas getaway, and the taxes were more than the actual base fare. Maybe this always has been a thing, and my cheap a** is just noticing now. Fortunately, I received a $10 discount for the RnR D.C. Half because of my Active.com subscription (another subscription that I thought I had already canceled).

LOL after posting my race registration confirmation on social media, someone brought up the fact that RnR typically has race discounts around the holidays. Damn me and impulsively registering for races.

1. Take the bus from work (Bethesda) to the gym (Silver Spring) ~40-60 minutes

2. Workout

3. Take another bus from the gym to home ~20-30 minutes

Training plan:

Right now, I do not have a training plan per se. I’m just going to continue doing my 2-3x week easy treadmill runs. Actually, I think that I can throw in an outdoor run or two because the fall folliage in this area is so beautiful, and I love the smell of the crisp fall air.

Additionally, I plan to keep up with my daily stretching and strength training. In other words, I’m just playing it by ear…for now.

LOL. Even Siri & Apple Maps have recognized the dedication to my early morning workouts. Now, Apple Maps automatically suggests directions to the gym when I get into the car.

Around this time last year, Apple Maps typically would recommend directions to Plaza Azteca (a Mexican restaurant where I would celebrate Margarita Martes/Margarita Tuesdays) and The Waffle House.

The other day, I tried out my new gym routine . . . well my new commuting to the gym routine. To commute home during my in-office days, I have to take two buses. To help convince myself to go to the gym right after work (as some know, post-work workouts are tough for me), I change into my gym clothes before leaving work and take the bus to Silver Spring. The problem: Upon arriving to the bus stop in Silver Spring, I would say f*ck the gym and take the next bus home. The main reason for doing this: I would lose my workout motivation because the bus commute from work to Silver Spring can be anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes. Now, I’ve found another Planet Fitness near work, which is a 10-minute bus ride from from work.

Although this gym is a little bit out of the way (in terms of my overall commute) from work, this plan works well because I need to take only ONE bus home . . . and that bus pretty much drops me off in front of our apt complex. The only (slight) issue: I have to coordinate my departure because I have a 10-minute walk from the gym to the bus stop. So if I miss a bus or arrive too early, I’ll have to wait 30-40 minutes for the next the next bus during off-peak hours.

So far, my plan is going “well” because I already scored a Yelp Dukedom for the Planet Fitness in Rockville…even though I’ve checked in only two times.

Goals for the week:

-Iron out a base running plan.

-Get back to proper eating habits (e.g., intermittent fasting). Last week, I kind of lost some steam because we had guests visit, so proper eating habits went out of the window. Even though they left on Sunday, I still have been eating crappy food as “recovery”

-Find some sort of core workout plan similar to the one I found for my lower back stretches from Coach Sofia Fitness (Link: ***).

Mistakes I’ve Made Running Full & Half Marathons

HALF (NO PUN) ASS TRAINING

NYC Marathon (Nov. 2017)

I also have this issue with full-marathon training. At the beginning of every training cycle, I’m so overcome with putting 13.1 miles in my running book. However, about halfway through my training plan, I start losing interest because of several factors – not meeting time goals, the weather, injuries, life getting in the way, a full moon, etc. What typically happens: I’ll take 1-2 weeks off to find my ‘why”, but it becomes difficult to get back into the groove. Actually, I don’t mind taking skipping a couple of weekday training runs, but I lose my steam once I start missing my long runs or shaving miles off of them.

PROCRASTINATION THE DAY BEFORE RACE DAY

I am getting better at this one

NYC Marathon (Nov. ???)

After a few struggles with race day logistics, I realized that I’m one of those people that needs to prepare EVERYTHING the night before. Normally, I would lay out the main things that I would need for the race (e.g. clothes and shoes). For additional odds and ends, I would say to myself: Oh, you can grab those things (e.g. your hat, gloves, calf sleeves, etc) right before leaving. What happens the next day? I cannot find what the hell I need so I start tearing up my drawers, looking for said item(s), and stressing the f*ck out. Now, EVERYTHING is prepared by 5 pm (at the latest). By everything, I mean clothes, breakfast, and even putting the coffee in the moka pot. Since moving to VA, I really had to nip this procrastination in the bud because race day logistics now involve driving to the race and finding parking.

TOO MANY PRE-RACE CELEBRATIONS

I’m getting better at this

Rock N Roll Madrid Half Marathon (Oct. 2021)

On several occasions, I have been known to hang out late on a Saturday or Sunday before a half or full marathon. Prime example: Rock n Roll Madrid Half Marathon. Out of the gate, I changed my registration from a full to a half marathon. The night before the race, I told myself that I would let the hubby hang out with his friends, and I would return to the Airbnb by 9:30 pm at the latest. So what happened? Yeah, I was drinking gin-tonicas with my husband and his friends until about 3:30 am for a race that started at 8 am. Let’s just say that I was still a bit drunk when starting the race, at least the organizers started the race about an hour late. That half was a struggle, and there was some vomit involved around mile 6 or 7. BUT, I powered through and finished…barely.

I take back the downgrading from the full to the half. If memory serves me correctly, I originally registered for the full marathon (scheduled in April), but it was canceled because of the pandemic. The organizers rescheduled the full/half for Oct, which fortunately coincided with our trip. Since I was running NYC Marathon in November, I was like there is NO way in hell I’m running TWO full marathons within 30 days.

LOL something similar happened with my 1st NYC Marathon experience. Normally, folks are super scared before their 1st marathon. What was I doing the night before? Having bud lights (you know, for hydration) in Hell’s Kitchen. In this case, I wasn’t too bad because I was home by 10 pm.

LOWERING MY STANDARDS (AKA THINKING LESS OF MYSELF)

Rock n Roll Va Beach Half Marathon (May 2021)

Since my running fitness has gone downhill over the past few months . . . years, I have fallen into a cycle of running a half or full marathon just to finish instead of having some sort of time goal. Sometimes, this causes me to go into a race thinking what’s the point. Followed by placing myself in slower corrals where I will not feel the need to really keep up.

succumbing to Too many distractions while running

I've gotten better with this one.

NYC Half Marathon (Mar 2014)

For quite a few races, I would fall into the trap of taking a bunch of pictures during the race. While this should not significantly affect my time, I think it does because it throws me off of my grove. Recently, I have limited myself to taking 1-3 pictures while I run. Come to think about it, snapping photos probably contributed to me not meeting my 1:45 time goal for the NYC Half back in the day (above pic). The first time running the NYC Half, the entire race was in Manhattan (now, you start in Brooklyn and finish in Manhattan). If memory serves me correctly for my 1st NYC Half, we ran 6 miles in Central Park, through Times Square, down Westside Hwy, and finished in Battery Park. Since I had to wait in line to poop during the first 6 miles, I figured that I would not make my 1:45 goal. So, I took a bunch of pictures and probably spent anywhere from 60-90 seconds just to get the “perfect” selfie in Times Square (and it still didn’t come out great). The NYC Half is one of two times a year that Times Square is closed to motor vehicles (the other is New Year’s Eve), so of course it was a perfect reason to get that “perfect” selfie. So what was my official time? It was somewhere around 1:48. Even with waiting in a porta-potty line to take a poop during the race, I might have hit my 1:45 goal IF I didn’t BS with taking a bunch of pictures. Since I lived in NYC for at least 12 years at that point, it’s not like I was taking pictures of things that I have not seen a million times before.

Not experimenting

Norfolk Harbor Half Marathon (Nov. 2022)

No, I am not referring to trying new things on race day, I’m talking about not trying new things while training. To this day, I have yet to try any Nunn or Honey Stinger products. I’m the type of person who is like if it ain’t broke then don’t try to fix it. However, I probably should change my mindset to if it ain’t broke, why not try something to make it better.

NOT RUNNING FOR CHARITY

Brooklyn Half Marathon (Apr. 2022)

Ok, I don’t think this is a mistake per se, but it’s something that I have always brushed off doing. Perhaps, running for a charity would really help me stay focused and run for a reason outside of a time goal (or running just to finish). In terms of focus, several charities tend to have group runs and coaches that can help runners meet their goals. I guess my main issue with running for charity is feeling like I’m begging people for money to run.