The general attitude for this week is FLOW. The past week kind of flowed by and I think that I’m getting a little better compared to last week.
Monday (5.5 miles):
This was a simple treadmill run with nothing to interesting to report.
Treadmill selfie. Normally, I do not compliment myself but I do have to say that I'm getting some nice arm definition.
Tuesday (0 miles): Happy Fourth of July!!!
Although I did not do anything related to my training plan. I did go to the Yankees/Blue Jays game, which felt like a damn workout. For one, it is a long commute from Bed Stuy to the Bronx. Two, it was hot as hell. It was so hot out that I felt like I was melting. By the fifth inning, I was done and watched the game from the comfort of the Hard Rock Cafe in Yankee Stadium with a couple of refreshing margaritas.
Wednesday:
Nada. A very long work day and there was no time to do anything related to running, except rest. I did enjoy a wonder sushi dinner with someone special at Akaru sushi in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Sushi for two.
Thursday:
Nada again. I was having a couple of crappy days at work and I just wanted to jump into bed, watch crappy TV, and sleep.
Friday:
I wanted to do some strength training, because I have been kind of lacking with this type of training over the past few weeks, so I hit up the Crunch Fitness near work. Sounds good, right? I did not lift a single weight because the weights area was way too packed. Instead, I found a new Zumba class that was AMAZING – the music & dance moves were mostly latin based and the instructor was very good. Since I made my decision to attend the class at the last minute, I was stuck in the back of the room. I hate being in the back of the room (for any class), because I like to see the moves performed by an instructor rather than the students in the class.
Unfortunately . . . this class was the instructor’s last class at this particular Crunch gym.
I auto-shazamed the class, so I could add some more tunes to my iPhone.
Saturday (10 miles):
My weekly long run, which was an in and out run: Bed Stuy –> Williamsburg –> Williamsburg Bridge –> Lower East Side –> Lower East Side Park.
I do not know why the Runtastic app has only 8 miles here.
One good thing about my increasing distances is that I will begin to explore more routes during my long runs. Actually, this run was quite nice. Here are a couple of things that made it nice:
- My pace was faster than last week’s long run and the distance was longer.
- Via the Williamsburg Bridge, I incorporated hills in the middle and towards the end of the run.
- I think that I'm getting more acclimated to running in hot weather.
The interesting thing about this long run is that I ran a little better on the second half of the run. The negative split shows that I am becoming a stronger runner; hopefully, this trend will continue. Since I started my run around 8am, there were not many people out running but on the way back there were more folks. Perhaps, I was more competitive with the second half, because I was “racing” with other people (at least in my head). I’m still am not at the place where I want to be in this training but I’m just going with the flow.
Post run, I hit up Crunch Fitness to stretch (and recuperate) for about 40 minutes. Every time I go to this particular Crunch Fitness in Bushwick, I always have to fight the urge visit the IHoP that is next door to the gym. I am glad to say that I was successful in fighting off my urge for a stack of pancakes. Yay me.
An IHoP next to a gym. What could go wrong?
Some tunes that got me through the run.
Goals for the upcoming week:
- Follow the D*mn training schedule, dude.
- Begin to add Fartleks to longer runs.
- Decide if I want to run the Montreal Half-Marathon again. I probably will register for it; hopefully, no injuries or work-related things will come up.
