NYCM Week #3: In which my mileage = The answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything

I was asked after posting last week's blog what my time goal for the marathon, and at this point, I'm not entirely sure. According to the McMillan Calculator, based on my 1:52:28 half marathon, the best marathon time I could get is a 3:56:41 (9:02mm pace). However, this assumes that my mileage is significantly higher, and that most first timers should take that and add 20 minutes. 

This brings me to a 4:15 marathon, which is a 9:44 minute pace. My current easy pace is approximately in this range, so I feel that this is an achievable goal. However, I haven't done any 20 milers, and my indicator half in October will also be an indicator of how things are going, so I'll wait before then to make any definite decisions. 

Monday

Scheduled Rest Day

This past week started off very nicely. I usually run in the mornings, but on Monday night, I went to see Bring it On the musical, and after that it was hard for me to fall asleep, so I postponed my workout until Tuesday night...

Tuesday

Tempo Run - 8 miles with 3 @ 15K - HM pace

Note: This was an 8 mile run. A lot of the time, my Garmin
doesn't receive a signal until I run the 1/2 mile to Central Park

I was a bit worried about how this would go. The first couple of miles felt sluggish, but once my garmin beeped at the 2 mile marker, I just sucked it up and started to get faster. I did my three miles of speedwork around the track, and happily, I managed to stay within a few seconds of 15K pace. 

It was my first time going over a two mile tempo run, so I was very pleased with how it went. I'm sure that once I take the longer tempo runs to the hillier portions of Central Park, my paces won't be as great, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there

Wednesday

Medium Long Run.....or not

I was supposed to get my medium long run in that evening since my speed workout was the night before and I didn't want to put those runs less than 12 hours apart. However, my stomach had been having issues that day. In addition, I was playing clarinet for my friend's rock band the next night, and was concerned about making sure that I could play the music. So when my parents invited me out to a quick bite after I printed my music at their apt, I decided to shift some days around this week. 

Thursday

Medium Long Run - attempt #2

I woke up early Thursday morning and ran the ten miles that I was supposed to run on Wednesday. I was happy to see that I averaged about 10mm (probably slightly faster since the last half mile was run in city streets and probably really not that slow). Waking up before 5:30am is no laughing matter, but it got done. 

Once again, the first 1/2 mile wasn't captured by the Garmin

Friday

Short & Easy Run

This is usually a scheduled rest day, but because I didn't run Wednesday, I had to move Thursday's run to Friday. I was supposed to do 4 miles, but I got out of the house later than intended. Also, it was very humid out, so after 3 miles, I called it a day. I figured that making up a mile on Sunday wouldn't be a major deal (spoiler alert - it wasn't)

Saturday

Long Run - Summer Streets

On three Saturdays in August, New York City has an annual tradition of closing down one of the major avenues for several miles, from 72nd Street all the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge. Pedestrians take over the streets from 7am - 1pm, and there are a few different rest stops with fun activities to do along the way. 

I live about a mile north of the start, so I decided to run down there, all the way to the bottom, and then decide where to go from there. Since the bottom of Summer Streets connected straight into the Brooklyn Bridge, I decided to add mileage and run across it. 

After getting to the Brooklyn side of the bridge, I looked at a map of Brooklyn and debated running towards Prospect Park, but ultimately decided that I didn't want to take a train home after I finished running, so I turned around and ran back the way I came. Once I ran all the way back up to the end of summer streets, I opted to take a detour into Central Park and run up the West drive so that I would get enough mileage in. It ended up being the right decision and I hit 15 miles just as I was about to leave the park on the East Side. 

I really liked that Summer Streets had several stations in which I could fill up my water bottle. I thought that the flow of traffic was handled nicely by the volunteers, and I never felt that things were too crowded. Granted, I went early, so I don't know if this changed later on in the day. 

This fifteen miler was harder than LTR #1 for a couple of reasons, even though I started running pretty much at the exact same time. It was much warmer this week than last week, so it was much more difficult to keep a steady pace. Also, I ran with friends last week, and this week, I was unable to find a running buddy. However, it was my first time running over the half marathon distance on my own, and achieving it was a very important mental milestone for me. 

I was very happy that my paces were close to consistant. Despite the heat, I only stopped once or twice for non-water filling related reasons, although they were to take in the scenery more than anything else. The view from the Brooklyn Bridge is amazing. 

After that, I ended up taking a nap, and then watching the Olympics the rest of the day. It was too warm out to do much else. 

Sunday

Recovery Run

After setting up my DVR for the women's' marathon, I headed out for my recovery run, and boy, did my legs have no interest in being out there at first. It was at least 95% humidity, and it felt like I was running in a bowl of soup. 

It wasn't until mile 4 or 5 that I really felt like I was getting into my run, and even then, I felt relief that it was almost over. Although my legs didn't feel sore for the rest of the day, they gave a clear signal that they were done for the week. At least I was able to make up the mile that I didn't do on Friday.

Somehow, my recovery runs manage to turn into progression runs, even though I don't consciously try to speed up. 

Week in Review

Overall, I felt that the week went as planned. I didn't enjoy shuffling things around, and would rather not do so again in the future, but I know that it's probably going to happen at some point. I also found that if I scheduled a run for after work, I would feel anxious most of the day, and worry about not completing it, while when I run in the morning, I enjoy it more, and also like the fact that I can relax in the evenings once the day is over. 

I was also happy to see that I achieved a new personal best of 42 miles for the week. Next week, I have my first marathon pace run on the schedule, so we'll see how that goes. Thanks for reading! 

NYCM Training: Week #2

I had meant to write this entry earlier this week, but things have been very busy, and I haven’t had a chance. 

First of all, thanks to everyone who read and commented on last week’s entry. I thought that Jeff brought up a good point in regards to running the day before the marathon. While I do understand where he is coming from, and I will consider it, psychologically, I think that taking the day off will make me feel more rested. It is definitely something to think about though.

Overall, week #2 went very nicely, and I hit a 40 mile week for the first time since the week of May 21^st. I was relieved when I realized that even with speed work, my body seemed to be handling everything pretty well.

Monday

Scheduled Rest Day

Tuesday

Tempo Run

I had 6 miles with 3 miles of 15K – HM pace on the schedule, but after going too fast during last week’s speed session, I decided to try 2 miles again and make sure to get the pacing down before attempting a three mile tempo run. 

Split Split	Hours:Minutes:Seconds Time	Miles Distance	Minutes per Mile Avg Pace
Summary	57:43.9	6.00	9:37
1	10:50.3	1.00	10:51
2	10:13.4	1.00	10:13
3	8:17.3	1.00	8:17
4	8:17.9	1.00	8:18
5	9:57.5	1.00	9:57
6	10:05.4	1.00	10:05
7	:02.1	0.00	7:48

I felt sluggish the first mile, but I doubt I did a 10:51 minute mile. Since I start my run in the middle of the city streets, the signal can be a bit skewed, which affects what my watch says my pace is. As I did my second mile, I was still a bit tired, and wondered if I would be able to speed it up, but as I heard the Garmin beep, I pulled it together and sped up. At this point, I am still doing most of my tempo runs on the reservoir path since they are short enough that 1-2 loops do not feel too repetitive. Thankfully, the paces were much better this time around and I was only a few seconds faster than the recommended 15K pace of 8:23mm. After a couple of easy miles at the end, I stopped running at the 6 mile mark and walked the rest of the way home to cool down.

Wednesday

Medium Long Run

I know that most people would not consider 8 miles to be a medium long run, but for me, it is, especially since during the week, I rarely run more than 5-6 miles. Unfortunately, I forgot to plug in my garmin, and it died on me, so I don’t have my paces. I probably was within the long run pace range, but most likely on the faster side. Still, the eight miles got done, and after the first couple of miles, they felt pretty good.

Thursday

Easy Run

This six mile run felt good the entire time. As usual, my first mile looks much slower due to signal issues. I probably averaged closer to 9:30 than 9:40, but oh well. Everything felt good, and it wasn’t too hot or humid out.  However, when I got home, I realized that I only had 5 miles on the schedule. Whoops!

Split	Hours:Minutes:Seconds Time	Miles Distance	Minutes per Mile Avg Pace
Summary	58:09.6	6.01	9:41
1	10:32.7	1.00	10:32
2	9:30.4	1.00	9:30
3	9:22.1	1.00	9:22
4	9:28.6	1.00	9:28
5	9:41.5	1.00	9:42
6	9:32.1	1.00	9:32
7	:02.2	0.01	7:13

Friday

Scheduled Rest Day

Saturday

Long Run

Split Split Hours:Minutes:Seconds Time Miles Distance Minutes per Mile Avg Pace Summary 2:32:19.7 15.19 10:02 1 10:19.4 1.00 10:19 2 9:59.9 1.00 10:00 3 10:05.7 1.00 10:06 4 9:55.2 1.00 9:55 5 10:11.9 1.00 10:12 6 9:55.0 1.00 9:55 7 10:37.1 1.00 10:37 8 9:51.0 1.00 9:51 9 10:07.0 1.00 10:07 10 10:19.2 1.00 10:19 11 9:51.7 1.00 9:52 12 9:46.8 1.00 9:46 13 9:55.6 1.00 9:56 14 9:51.1 1.00 9:51 15 9:51.5 1.00 9:52 16 1:41.6 0.19 9:01

Since I had a 14 mile run scheduled that day, I signed up for NYRR’s Long Training Run, which took place in Central Park. One of the local running clubs provided pace leaders for every half minute interval from 7:30-11mm. Even though both 9:30 and 10mm were in my long run range, I decided to be cautious and join the 10mm group.

I ended up in the same group as Wallis and two of her friends from her running club, Rachel and Rich. I found out that it was Rachel’s first attempt at the 16 mile distance. While I was originally going to do 14, I realized that based on how many miles were in each loop, the 15 mile mark was the closest one to my apartment, so I decided to go for it.

Our pace group started out a little slow, but eventually we evened out to almost exactly 10mm on average. We had a very enthusiastic sub-group within our ranks – there was a group of people from Odessey House who were very enthusiastic, to say the least. Although I was annoyed by all of the noise at first, I eventually warmed up to it. In the first loop, there was a chant every mile saying how many miles there were left assuming that people were running the full 20 miles. There were plenty of water stations, and there were power gels and food being served in the regrouping area.

After the first loop, I barely had the chance to use the toilet before my group took off again. I was lucky that I didn’t miss their departure. I think that it was around this time that I saw a certain annoying charity group who wears purple all of the time. They decided that it was ok to have large groups of people running in the opposite direction as the training run. I really don’t get their thought process sometimes.

During the third and final loop (for me), I realized that my friends and I had gotten ahead of the pace group. I started to slow down to let the pacers catch up, but then I realized that my new friends weren’t doing the same so I ran back ahead with them. The last few miles went well, and I exited the park and walked home to cool down. My average pace was a 10:02, which considering we had stopped for water several times, was right within my personal pace goals.

Sunday

Recovery Run

Split			Hours:Minutes:Seconds Time	Miles Distance	Minutes per Mile Avg Pace
Summary			50:59.8	5.08	10:03
1			10:16.4	1.00	10:16
2			10:17.9	1.00	10:17
3			10:03.1	1.00	10:03
4			9:53.7	1.00	9:54
5			9:48.4	1.00	9:48
6			:40.3	0.08	8:51

I originally had 6 miles on the schedule, but since I was already on target to run 2 extra miles this week, I decided to do a 5 mile run to make it an even 40 miles (well, technically 40.27). A recovery run is supposed to be a very slow run. However, this happened…

Yea, that ended up being a progression run. My legs felt sluggish at first, but as I kept going, I felt stronger so that accounted for the speed-up. Top of Form

Week in Review

Overall, this week was very successful in terms of both overall mileage, and in terms of understanding the purpose of and adhering to each workout. Hopefully week 3 will go as well! (Spoiler: It’s been an interesting week. More to come later.)

Thanks for reading!