NYC Half Marathon 16/45 and "Treadmilling" because of a Little Blizzard

Distance: 5.02; Time: 42'38''; Pace: 8'29'' min/mi; Average BPM: 148 (but I spend 11 minutes in peak zone); Steps: 6, 414

I guess that this will be a photoless post because my Image capture does not want to sync with my iPhone. It is always something with these devices. 

Today's training charge consisted of the following:

• 0.5 mi warm up (I did 0.25mi)
• Three intervals of 1 mi fast and 0.5 mi easy
• 0.5 mi cool down (I did 0.25)

Unfortunately, NYC somewhat is still under snow so that means I had to do yet another treadmill run. Today's run has been the second treadmill run in 4 days so I am getting a little bored of it. Lucky for me, I cannot wear my contacts for the rest of the week, so I cannot really see anything while I am running. I feel like I do not push myself hard enough on the treadmill (today was a bit different). I think, similar to life, you get on a particular speed, become complacent, and stay at that speed until you are done. During my 2 mile interval, I did try to play around with the speeds to switch up my motivation a bit. I will say that  practicing my breathing techniques probably is the only good thing about running on the treadmill. Oh, maybe the ambient temperature and quick access to your water and towel play a factor too.

*I wonder if there will be a towel boy/girl on the Half marathon course?*

Since I cannot post any photo to this thing this will be a quick post. Plus, I am very busy writing  job applications. I just needed a quick time out from reading my CV for the 100, 000th time. 

Slightly Injured/ Elliptical Training

Distance, 3.17mi; Time, 40 min; pace, 12'36'' min/mi; Ave BPM, 139; Steps, 5,716

Woke up Tuesday morning with intense pain in my right eye, fluid dripping out of my eye, high sensitivity to light, and reddish color in the eye. So, I am thinking "Crap, you have pink eye". Spent most of the next day on the phone trying to find someone to see me to get some drops for this thing. Long story short. I do not have pink eye. Actually, I have iritis/uveitis, which is increased inflammation to the iris that is caused by blunt trauma or disease (e.g. Lupus or thyroid malfunctions). Perhaps, I hit my head and I did not remember. I really hope that this issue is not a result of a disease.  Long story short again, no contact lenses until further notice.

This throws a little bit of a wrench in my training plan because I really hate running (or anything besides watching tv or reading) with my eyeglass because they always slip off. Plus, I have a strong prescription so I actually need corrective lenses to see. I have this crazy fear that if I go running that I would lose my glasses and will not be able to find my way back home. I know that this is completely crazy, because sometimes I do my day-to-day activities with my glasses on.

Yesterday, I could not (actually did not want to) run. To keep up my cardio training, I did some elliptical intervals. I think this week was kind of a bust in regards to my training program. Also, it does not help that a "big" blizzard is hitting the Northeast this weekend.  I guess that I will pick where I left off next week.If there is not too much snow on the ground.

NYC HALF MARATHON TRAINING RUN 13 OUT OF 45

Distance: 4.51; Time: 39:51; Pace: 8:51 (slow warm up included), Ave BPM: 145; Number of steps: 6, 116

Like people know, interval training is very important to any type of raining (running, cycling, swimming) program. My sub 2-hour (but we want to do better than that right?) half marathon plan incorporates one interval run out of the weekly three runs. Luckily for me, I live near Saratoga Park in Brooklyn and it has a loop that is a little under 0.25 miles (the closest thing to a track). It is great because most of my running trackers (Runtadtic and my Fitbit surge) only measures 0.5 mi intervals.

However, this week had been kind of cold and I do not run in temperatures lest than 30F (I do not like to wear multiple layers of clothing to run), so I had to do my interval training on a treadmill. *Insert frownie face here* The following shows my intervals:

• 0.5 mi warm up
• 0.25 mi fast and 0.25 recovery 8 times
• 0.5 cool down
• Where any speed above 8.0 and between 6.0-6.5 were considered "fast" and "recovery", respectively.

Although treadmill running is not a perfect replacement for running (we will not get into the reasons here), I did enjoy doing my intervals and I do feel that I am getting faster. However, we shall see about my speed in the next race.

*Reminder: Register for another race.