NYC Marathon Training Wk 6

August 8, 2022

Planned Miles: 23

Completed Miles: 20

Looks like we have less than 90 days until NYC Marathon 2022.

Overall this week was pretty nice. I will say that I appreciated having to run only 9 miles for this week's long run. Now, I think that I'm getting used to the extreme heat and humidity. Actually, I'll take this back because I do not think the heat was THAT bad this week.

I did something new this week . . . I managed to meet up with the folks from the November Project to do a HIIT workout with them.

Overall, I found the group to be nice and welcoming. Let's just say if I work out with them once a week, I will not have to worry about doing too much hill work training for NYC Marathon. For the workout, there were four HIIT workout stations set up. While your partner does the station's workout, you run down and up one of Mt Trashmore's many hills. Upon returning to the top, you roll a die - rolling 1-4 tells you which workout station, and rolling 5-6 means you have to do a 100 m or 200 m sprint. During this time, your partner is running down and up the hill. Then the cycle continues for about another 40 or so minutes. It was nice getting out there and meeting some new folks in the area. Interestingly, one of my classmates from high school is a member. I guess this person technically would not count as a new person, but we really did not hang out while we were in high school. I'm looking forward to going this week.

One of my concerns going forward with the November Project:

For my NYC M training plan, my speed/hill work (when I do them) occurs on Wednesday, which is when the November Project meets. I have to figure out where to move my speed/hill workout days. If possible, I would like to give myself at least a day to recover between speed/hill workout and November Project days. I guess this could work IF I do my long runs on Saturday and do my speedwork on Mondays. However, my last 3-4 long runs have been completed on Sundays due to crappy planning on my part. The November Project does have workouts on Fridays, but those workouts are a bit further away. The Wednesday workouts are held at Mt. Trashmmore, which is about 4 miles away from my house.

Aside from running, I’m still going strong with my daily yoga and swimming laps 2 times a week.

Long Run Chronicles:

For this week’s long run, I was granted a reprieve because my long run was only 9 miles. For this run, I checked out a new route and took a visit to Lake Stumpy.

I more than likely will not run to Lake Stumpy unless I drive there. Why? I have forgotten that many roads here do not have sidewalks or decent shoulders. This run was a bit scary because I was not sure if the passing cars could see me before or after the many curves on the road.

One cool thing about this run was running a nice ~3-mile trail. Well, the loop in the park was ~1.5 miles, but I ran it twice before running back to the house.

While the trail was ok, running it gave me a chance to slow down a bit and focus on my body and nature (I guess). I had to slow down because there were a lot of exposed tree roots, and I did not want to twist an ankle.

My Apple Watch is still not uploading my correct starting and ending points, but I’m not going to let it get me down as long as the distance is fine.

A small reward:

After my run, the hubby and I took a dip at Little Island, Sandbridge. I guess I had more of the dip because the water was a bit too chilly for him.

I have a feeling this will be our go-to beach because it is a bit more secluded compared to Va Beach’s Oceanfront. It was the perfect beach environment for me because there were not 15+ member families with huge beach tents playing loud a** music.

Quick rant: Perhaps, this is me being a cranky old man. But sometimes, I feel like folks bring TOO MANY things to the beach. It’s almost like they have to bring everything they own to the beach. As kids, I remember we were allowed to bring only 1-3 beach toys with us so we were trained at an early age to travel lightly when going to the beach. For me, I’m perfectly fine with going to the beach with a beach towel and an (optional) umbrella. Eh, different strokes for different folks.

NYC Marathon 2022 Training Plan:

Image from Hal Higdon Training (Link ***)

Goals for the week:

-Start focusing on nutrition and eating a bit better. For this goal, I have restarted Beachbody’s 21-day Fix.

-Find a couple of August and early September races.

Long Run Playlist:

NYC Marathon Training Wk 5

August 2, 2022

Planned Miles: 26

Completed Miles: 15

Before getting into the recap, I'm going to give myself a hand for making it through July. As always, with a new month, I'll quickly check in to see how I'm progressing with my run 2022 km in 2022.

While I made some progress, I'm a little bummed that I did not run as many miles as I wanted to in July. However, I will not beat myself up too much over this because it was a bit difficult fitting in miles while moving and setting ourselves up in our new state of Virginia. However, I think that I have developed some sort of groove going forward.

Overall, I think this week went fine for the most part. Yes, it has been tough dealing with the heat and humidity of southern Virginia, but I'm getting it together, which is great because we have less than 100 days until NYC Marathon Sunday.

Since I have been complaining about the heat and humidity, I decided to do something about it and joined my local rec center that's a few miles from my house.

Man oh man does this place bring back so many memories from my pre-teen years. While the rec center does not have all the amenities that a fancy (or near-fancy) gym might have, it has all of the basics needed. All I need is a treadmill so I can escape the heat and do some of my runs indoors. Oh, also, the rec center has an indoor track. However, I'm not sure if I will use it because 8 laps equal 1 mile, and I know that I will lose count if I have to do anything more than 3 miles. ;)

Running aside, I have incorporated swimming laps into my groove, and I will say that it was nice doing something different physically. Perhaps, in the near future, I might take some swimming lessons so I can relearn how to PROPERLY swim the four strokes and do flip turns. Also, I'm very much intrigued with checking out some of the Zumba classes at the rec center. For those that have been following this thing, I became a fan of Zumba as a means of recovery after a lower back injury. Random thought: I hope that I'm not the only one under 50 (or only male) in the class. ;)

Long Run Chronicles:

This week's long run was 12 miles, but it was such as struggle. Unfortunately, I started the run a bit late at 8 am (instead of 6 am), which threw me off a little bit.

For my pacing, I have been following the times above that I obtained from Runner's World calculator. We'll just ignore the 1st Quarter Running Goals title. According to my chart, my long-run pace should be 11:31 - 12:55 min/mi, which is manageable. For my recent long runs, I walk about 1/10th of a mile after completing each mile. Even with walking it out, my pace falls around 11:55. So a couple of things:

Am I running too fast?
Am I taking it too easy on myself with the 1/10th of a mile recovery? I'm doing the recovery because I still do not think that I've fully acclimated to the heat and humidity here. Then again, does anyone really acclimate to the heat and humidity?

For the most part, the long run went well until the halfway mark. Here's an example of my mental state.

For future long runs, I need to do a little research in the area and find a park with more shade. I'm usually fine running through neighborhoods, but things go a little left once I reach Mt. Trashmore. While it is a beautiful park, there is not a lot of shade . . . at least for me.

Tech annoyance:

While I'm not gonna let technology break me, I would be lying if I did not admit Apple Watch and/or Strava have been annoying.

Going forward, I think that I'm doing to take a quick trip to the beach after my long runs. BUUUUT, I will not get tacos during these post-run beach excursions because I really need to drop a few pounds.

For whatever reason, Apple Watch is not recording the complete routes that I have been running. For instance, I did start and end at the points indicated on this map. Also, I think something is going on with how my Apple Watch has been syncing with Strava. For instance, my Apple Watch recorded ~12 miles while Strava recorded ~8 miles. I know my Apple Watch's distance is correct (or near correct) because I mapped out a similar route on the Strava app.

Etcetera:

I've added daily yoga and Core de Force (an MMA cardio workout) to this week's activities. Maybe, I'm doing do d*mn much.

From a recent yoga workout.

Um Faith, letting go of the stress and chaos is a lot easier than it sounds. ;)

NYC Marathon 2022 Training Plan:

Goals for the week:

-Keep on keeping on.

NYC Marathon Training Wk 4

July 25, 2022

Planned Miles: 26

Completed Miles: 15

I did not quite meet my goals for this training week, BUT I did move from NY to VA last weekend so I can cut myself some slack. While I ran only 15 of my 26 miles for the week, I did my 11-mile long run at least. Aren’t long runs the most important part of marathon training? ;)

I gotta say this is going to be my toughest NYC Marathon training season. My training plan is not super difficult, but it is going to take some time to acclimate to this VA heat and humidity.

Some weather stats for the beginning of my long run, which I started at 5:10 am on Sunday.

I guess there will be a lot of early morning runs in my immediate future. Also, I guess that Mt. Trashmore Park will be my new 'Central Park' for my training runs. Oh, this reminds me that I should check out the local rec center because I also have a feeling that there will be a lot of treadmill runs in my future. Oh (part II), I hear this rec center has an aqua track too. :)

Some info about Mt. Trashmore

“Mount Trashmore Park, also known simply as Mount Trashmore, is a city park located in Virginia Beach, Virginia which opened in 1974, Mount Trashmore is an example of landfill reuse, as its creation consisted of the conversion of an abandoned landfill into a park. The park spans 165 acres (67 ha) with hills larger than 60 feet (18 m) high and 800 feet (240 m) long. Mount Trashmore Park also has multiple walking trails — a Perimeter Trail that measures 1.95 miles (3.14 km), a Lake Trail that measures 1.45 miles (2.33 km), and a Mountain Trail that measures 1.30 miles (2.09 km). The Lake Trail and the Hill Trail may be combined for a trail measuring 2.75 miles (4.43 km). The park also features two lakes where fishing is permitted. Since its opening in the 1970s, it ranks as the most popular park in Virginia Beach, with attendance of over one million visitors a year”

— Wikipedia

This park always has had a special place in my heart because our high school cross country meets and practices in this park were held in Mt. Trashmore.

A LOL moment regarding this intersection. Back in my high school days, there used to be a diner that 'specialized' in doughnuts. During my senior of high school, our track & field team had only one coach, who did not give two sh*ts about the long-distance runners. Normally, the team would have two coaches - one for short-distance runners and the other for long-distance. While actively coaching the short-distance runners at the track, he would be like run around the neighborhood surrounding the school for an hour or so. One day, someone in the group was like let's just go to the doughnut diner and chill there and run back to practice. I co-signed because I did not have sh*t else to do. ;) Since I had received all of my college acceptances and selected my college, I had developed a severe case of senioritis so I was not terribly concerned with not being the best track athlete that I could be. Let's just say the CHS Crusaders did not do so well in our first 3-4 meets in the men's 1600 and 3200. Eventually, someone told the coach about our shenanigans, and he started driving along our route to make sure we were doing our workout.

How do you reward yourself after struggling through an 11-mile run?

A couple of hours at the beach

Tacos - Mahi Tacos to be exact

Speaking of the beach (Va Beach Oceanfront)

My picture from the RnR Va Beach Half Marathon (Sept 2021) is still the featured shot for the beach's Yelp page. LOL

NYC Marathon 2022 Training Plan:

Goals for the week:

-Return to my Beachbody on Demand program and intermittent fasting.

-Daily stretches

-Try to be in bed by 10 pm and asleep by 11 pm.

-Return to my Core de Force MMA workouts.

NYC Marathon Training Wk 1

July 3, 2022

Planned Miles: 22

Completed Miles: 21

Someone in one of my FB running groups posted this meme. Just as an FYI, I'm the Black dude in the back of the meme. ;) Here's the original picture from which the meme is based.

It's on like Donkey Kong

I think that my first week of NYC Marathon 2022 training went very well. Of course, it went well because the first week is the easiest week. I'll admit that I do not feel so confident coming into this training season, but that's 100% my fault. My fault because I did not put in a lot of groundwork during my pre-marathon training season, so I feel like I'm really starting from scratch. Actually, what are two levels below starting from scratch? For example, my 8.5 mi long was a struggle because I did a 1/10th of a mile recovery walk after each mile. I guess it was not too horrible of an attempt because according to my training goal, I still stayed within my long run time range of 11:31-12:55 min/mi.

Yes, I know these numbers are from the first quarter, which should have been accomplished in March. I'm just a few months behind my 2022 running goals. ;)

I guess y'all are right: waking up earlier is the best way to get the long run out of the way. ;)

You gotta fake it (with the smile) to make it at 6:34 am on a Sunday morning. Technically, I wanted to do my long run on Saturday, but I had a little too much fun hanging out with friends on Friday night (yes, there were shots were involved) and did not rise to the occasion on Saturday morning. While my running plan calls for Sunday long runs, I like planning my long runs for Saturdays. You know, just in case something happens on Saturday (well Friday night) then I have Sunday as a buffer. Come to think about it. Since we'll be moving to VA in a couple of weeks, I do not think that I will have too many issues with missing my Saturday long runs.

I'll say my worst run this week was my Friday easy 3-mile run. It was my worst run for the week because I could not get out to do the run until 12 pm when it was hot as hell.