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.

One City (Half) Marathon Training Wk “6"

PLANNED MILES: RUN AS YOU FEEL WEEK

COMPLETED MILES: ???

We're getting there!!! Finally, this half marathon is next week. Since nothing really interesting has happened during this training week, I guess that I'll do random thoughts about running and fitness.

RUNNING

-While the One City Half Marathon is less than a week away, I have to Gob (from Arrested Development) myself:

Why? Bib pick-up is on Friday, and I have to arrive at the parking site by 6 am to catch the shuttle to the start line. That’s not an issue, but Newport News is about 45 minutes away (and 33 miles) from where I live. Basically, I have to make TWO Newport-VA Beach round trips in the span of two days. Forget free parking, could I also get a gas voucher? Hey, these are the things we do to get a tech shirt and a medal. 😉 Regarding race day, I wonder if I should stay with a family member who lives a little close to Newport News.

-At this point, it’s kind of “it is what it is.” I’m pretty much going to do this run as a run-as-you-feel half marathon.

-Since my local rec center is closed until March 1st, I had the opportunity to check out a couple of other Virginia Beach rec centers. I’ll say VB Parks & Rec overall has done a great job with its rec centers because they definitely have improved since I was a youngin’ living in the Old Dominion state.

-One LOL during one of my rec center experiences. Um, why the hell is the stretching area in front of two single-user restrooms?

I don’t know who was more embarrassed: 1. me, who was engaged in multiple weird and awkward yoga poses, or 2. the people going in and out of the restroom? Maybe I was more embarrassed because I would assume the regulars are used to it. 😉 Oh, I gotta give the rec centers mad props (do people still use that term?) for having free lockers.

Again, when I was a youngin, I remember pissing off my parents by realizing that I had to put something in or take something out of a locker AFTER closing. Back in the day, the lockers were 25 cents (and you had to use quarters) every time you locked it.

-Danza Kuduro probably is one of my favorite go-to songs when starting a cardio (eg running, spinning) workout.

-During my self-directed spin workout, I had the opportunity to hear different versions of "Gloria" in three different languages (English, Italian - the original, and Spanish). It's kind of funny because my 6hr playlist was on shuffle, but it played all three versions within a 45 min workout.

Long Run Chronicles:

Eh, nothing to report here.

INTERMITTENT FASTING:

No major updates. However, I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to my weigh-in on the 1st

TRAINING PLAN:

Goals for the week:

-You know what? No goals this week. 😉

-I lied. Investigate some spring half marathons. Since we are traveling to Spain in April, I want to shoot for another half marathon in May. Actually, I should double to check to see if there will be any races of interest held during our visit. Unfortunately, I already checked,  and Rock n Roll Madrid occurs the week after our trip.

Long Run Playlist:

I think my playlist for my upcoming half marathon (errrr, I mean half marathons) is ready. Actually, I take that back because I would like to add a few Broadway musical tunes to this playlist. It seems as if taking things back is a theme for this week’s training update.

One City (Half) Marathon Training Wk “5"

PLANNED MILES: 17

COMPLETED MILES: 12

Another week, another fun running journey.

I saw this meme on Twitter and chuckled. It reminded me of the 1st time I went for a run during my graduate years. That run pretty much happened because I wanted to run away from my experiments and some of my coworkers. To be frank, it was either go for a run or catch a case.

RUNNING

Over the past couple of weeks/months, I have mentioned my desire to find alternative places to do my training and long runs just for a little variety because I typically run in two places: the rec center or Mt. Trashmore Park.

During Sunday’s run, it hit me. Mt. Trashmore probably is one of the best places for me to run for a couple of reasons.

• It’s super close – about 3 miles from my house.

• The park allows one to have a range of running workouts. I don’t think that I’ve had the same long run since moving to the area. You have so many combinations of routes with various levels of difficulty. For example, you can simply run the perimeter of the park for a pretty easy terrain or you can incorporate one or both of the park’s hills (“mountains”). Eek, speaking of combinations (and I guess permutations) reminds me of those stupid formulas from middle/high school math: nPr (premutation) and nCr (combination). You know I never really “understood” those things until graduate school. I only understood those in graduate school because I had a part-time job as an SAT tutor, so I really had to learn them to teach the youth.

While I’m not saying it is the absolute best place to run, it works for me. One con of doing training runs at Mt. Trashmore: the birds will use your car as a toilet when you park near Lake Trashmore. Normally, I don’t get too upset with a little bird poop. However, in this case, I was annoyed because I just washed and waxed the car a few days ago.

Perhaps, this was karma getting back at me for complaining about my weird poop schedule before this week’s long run.

Now that I’m a few weeks away from one of my two March half-marathons, I’m at the point where I just want to get them over with. That said, I’m still enjoying my training runs now that I’m running a half instead of a full in March. For instance, I did not run as many hill intervals as I would have liked to on Wednesday, but I really enjoyed the workout.

The idea pretty much was to run the span of the highest point of the big "mountain" for about 45 minutes and do a recovery jog around the perimeter of the "mountain". Unfortunately, I had to alternate between running and walking the hills. Hopefully, I will get to the point where I can do this training run for at least 30 minutes without having to walk.

Long Run Chronicles:

This week’s 10-mile long run went pretty well. For this weekend’s long run, I ran several laps around the park and followed each lap with a big hill.

Now, that I'm getting decent and consistent distance under my belt, I think that it's time to crank it up a little. Actually, I'll take that back. Let me focus on running the whole stretch, then cranking up the speed. For now, I'm still alternating between running and walking for my long runs. Typically, I will run 0.75 miles and walk for 0.25 miles. While I know it is perfectly acceptable to walk during a long run, perhaps, I can work on running the 0.75 miles a bit faster.

What an interesting coincidence: During one of my walk cycles, I noticed that Tamta's Replay was playing while I hit 8.08 miles.

It’s “funny” because the singer says something like: I know you miss the taste, and my heart beats like an 808. You need my love on replay, replay, replay, replay, replay.

Hey, I didn’t say that it’s a lyrical masterpiece. ;)

INTERMITTENT FASTING:

Since IFing is going well, I'm gonna start integrating Beachbody's 21-day Fix (at least during the weekdays) for my feedings. For this plan, the daily number of food containers for the various food groups is calculated by using your weight, basal metabolic rate, workout calorie burn, calorie deficit (if you want to lose weight).

I’ve tried doing this a few times in the past, but it never really worked out because:

• I don’t think I was as dedicated and motivated to do it. Hey, we were in the pandemic when I first considered this program, and you don’t really notice weight gain while you are working from home in sweatpants.

• I found that I was still hungry with the portion amounts. Since I now am satiated with less food thanks to IFing, perhaps, it will not be as difficult to stick to the daily container amounts as in the past.

• It takes quite a bit of meal planning.

TRAINING PLAN:

Goals for the week:

-Increase the intensity of my non-easy runs.

-Nightly stretching and foam rolling. I know this has been up here for a while, but I’m still not consistently doing this. I’ve changed the time of my alarms so I’ll do these earlier in the evening rather than an hour before going to sleep.

Long Run Playlist:

I think my playlist for my upcoming half marathon (errrr, I mean half marathons) is ready. Actually, I take that back because I would like to add a few Broadway musical tunes to this playlist. It seems as if taking things back is a theme for this week’s training update.

One City (Half) Marathon Training Wk “4"

PLANNED MILES: 15

COMPLETED MILES: 17

First, happy Superbowl Monday . . . if you celebrate. I was celebrating with the Puppy Bowl.

RUNNING

Now, that we are less than one month away from my upcoming half marathon, I think it’s time to turn up the training. Let me take that back, I’m not planning to dial up my training for this particular half marathon. I think it’s time to start pushing myself for my general running health. While I have been doing the majority of my training runs, I will admit that I have not been putting in a full effort. Well, I’ll also take that back. This week, I did a mile-repeat workout, and I was a bit surprised with how fast I ran the mile intervals. So, I think it’s time to rip off the bandaid and start pushing myself in my training runs that are not easy runs and long runs.

INTERMITTENT FASTING Long Run Chronicles:

Since moving (back) to the area, I have been looking for a new spot for my long runs, which I still have not found. I’ll take that back, I have received great suggestions, but I’ve been too ‘lazy’ to act on those suggestions. While I have done all of my long runs at Mt. Trashmore, I think that I stick to this park because:

• It’s close to my house.

• It’s familiar.

• I’m not tired of it yet.

Regarding the third bullet: Although the park is the same, I don’t think that I’m bored with it because I can switch up my runs in the park. For instance, I can just run a bunch of big loops, or make my run a bit difficult by incorporating the big and small “mountains”. During this weekend’s long run, I alternated between running the perimeter (or near perimeter) of the park and running the perimeter with adding the big or small “mountains”.

The plan for this weekend’s run was to run 9-11 miles. Normally, when I have a range as an option, I usually go for the shortest distance. However, I was like let’s push it to the max and run 11 miles by the time I hit 7 miles. BUUUUUUT, somewhere around mile 8, I took a nasty fall and decided to end the run at 9.5 miles. No worries, I did not injure myself . . . except for my ego.

INTERMITTENT FASTING:

IF’ing is going very well. I’m now at the point where I’m getting fuller with less food. Hopefully, I will begin to see some of these beneficial effects on my wonderful bathroom scare.

TRAINING PLAN:

Goals for the week:

-Increase the intensity of my non-easy runs.

-Nightly stretching and foam rolling. I know this has been up here for a while, but I’m still not consistently doing this. I’ve changed the time of my alarms so I’ll do these earlier in the evening rather than an hour before going to sleep.

Long Run Playlist:

I think my playlist for my upcoming half marathon (errrr, I mean half marathons) is ready. Actually, I take that back because I would like to add a few Broadway musical tunes to this playlist. It seems as if taking things back is a theme for this week’s training update.