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