Marathon Training (Weeks 5-6)

The half of my goal distance training continues. I ran 5 miles (with Tom, Heather and Nikita) last Saturday, then this past weekend, did 6 miles (alone) and 4 miles (with Tom and Robyn). I also went stand-up paddleboarding, which was a full-body workout and loads of fun!

Tom tried hard to get me to go to the gym during the week but I felt really exhausted and had no energy after work. Hopefully we got enough rest this weekend (no 3am karaoke nights) so I will have more energy and motivation to check my runs off my training list.

Also on my mind is wedding planning. Holy costs out the wazoo! My #1 item was the photographer and I'm 99% on the way to booking her, and she's amazing and sweet. We changed our date for her, which may seem crazy but we hadn't booked a venue or committed to that date so we felt flexible.

We've also been trying to clean and organize our tiny 1 bedroom apartment, looking for new avenues of storage. We've thrown some boxes under the futon and contemplated getting a underneath the bed storage, but all our funds are being scrimped and saved toward the wedding so what we have now will have to do.

Marathon Training (Weeks 1-4)

Sooo I should be running 12-26 miles per week. Hah. Not happening. I was kind of depressed about Tom being stuck in England for 3 weeks and was a bit busy with work and celebrating engagements with friends, so I barely ran.

I've probably been running 3-5 miles each Saturday with Heather/Tom and essentially running 0 throughout the week. Tom and I did about 3 miles last night around the Reservoir at sunset. There is a portion on the UES area that is closed for construction and I think I ate at least one bug.

I keep saying I will run 8/10/12 miles but ending up with 4/5 miles...but something is better than nothing right? The weather is getting cooler already, which helps.

Hopefully I will wake up bright and early tomorrow and actually run 10 miles.

But our weekends have been pretty packed. Tomorrow is an Ikea trip to get a shoe rack and some new desk chairs (I hate the big black unwieldy ones). Sunday we are trying stand-up paddleboarding for the first time before summer is officially over! Hope it doesn't rain...

Mental Game

My Brooklyn Half and Queens 10K times were more than 2 minutes over my goal time.  While at the time of racing, it felt like a physical impediment, I think my mental game could have gotten me at goal or closer to goal.  Also, it's strange how I can run a 10K faster during a half marathon than at a 10K.  Another mental issue, because it seems so short in comparison to the full 13.1, but when running a 10K, 6.2 seems long enough to be daunting.

I think one important issue is that I need start more slowly.  I think I hit a mini-wall at Mile 2 of the 10K and Mile 8 of the Half.  I should address this by doing progression runs, which I find absolutely difficult to do.  I'm the positive split queen!  But this also failed to help at the NYC Half, where I started very conservatively (but that may have been due to the cold temperature and thawing out enough to pick up the pace).

It's also discouraging that I'm so slow.  My pace seems stuck, for better and for worse.  I can't imagine running an 8-minute mile, but I also can't imagine running a half marathon in slower than a 10-something pace.  But maybe it's because I choose comfort and familiarity over speed.  When I was running 10-minute miles, it felt safe and comfortable and ensured that I'd be injury-free.  Going at 9:20ish hurt my legs and lungs.  And when I ran the Jingle Bell Jog at that pace, I crashed right before the finisher's chute and jogged to the finish.  It's so hard to strike the right balance of having enough energy for a kick and fast finish and putting everything out there on the course and not having too much energy left over.  I know I should try to finish my longer runs with a sprint to work on this.  I'm also trying to be more mindful of running slow runs slowly and fast runs fast.

Pace seems so relative though.  When I only run at 5.2 on the treadmill, that seems difficult.  But when I start at 5.7, 5.2 is so easy.  And running at 7.2 makes 5.7 a breeze.  I think I gain confidence knowing I can hang onto faster paces, but starting slow just keeps me going slower.  But the opposite seems true at a race.  Starting fast depletes my energy.

I also think I've been wary of speedwork because after the 800m repeats, my legs felt dead for days.  But there are other factors that may have contributed to this--lack of sleep, not fueling properly, and running outside in heat and humidity.  I was so slow that Tom walked uphill faster than I was jogging, and I couldn't pick up the pace.

Sometimes I just want to go back to running at whatever speed and not caring about my race times or PRing.  Running was simpler and I was happier.  But then I want to see what my potential is, how fast I can get, whether I can run a 5K in under 30 minutes, a10K in under an hour, a half in under 2 hours, a marathon in under 4.5 hours.

And despite my only goal for the marathon being simply to finish, I hold onto the hope that I will finish between 4:29 and 5:00.

Mindy-K Training: Week 3 (9.28 miles)

Does it even really count as training if I skip all the tempo runs and intervals and do one easy run and one race? Does it even deserve a separate blog post? Oh well, it's getting one.

Monday: rest (worked late)
Tuesday: 3 miles on a treadmill with Heather (after drinking a beer, so suuuuper slow and it was supposed to be 4 miles)
Wednesday: rest (Yankees game! + food poisoning >.<)
Thursday: rest (date night with Tom at a wine and cheese bar and attempts to settle my stomach)
Friday: rest (dinner at Rare in Chelsea, then Alex's house party)
Saturday: whitewater rafting from 7:30am to 7:00pm (then Ippudo then sleep)
Sunday: Queens 10K (then dim sum, then a barbeque and the USA-Portugal game in New Roc)

Leemo's gone now, so maybe this week will be less socializing and more running. I may revert to last week's plan because the intervals sound fun!

Queens 10K Race Recap

I "tapered" the week leading up to the race, which meant I was too lazy to actually run the tempo run I had scheduled this week and only did a slow 3 miles on the treadmill. I also went whitewater rafting the day before the race, which must have exhausted me more than I realized.

I started the race around 9:14-paced runners, which meant absolutely no weaving and dodging in the first mile. But it also meant that the runners I started with were much faster than my legs were capable of running that day.  I held on for the first mile, but immediately, my calf began cramping on the outer sides.  I skipped the first water station but went to all but the last after that.  I hung onto goal pace (sub-9:34) for the second mile, but with my leg hurting, I decided to ease off of goal pace and run comfortably because I didn't want to risk an injury and felt my training hadn't adequately prepared me to meet my goal.

The course was described as fast and flat, but it turns out that with all my hill training in Central Park, fast and flat may have contributed to my calves cramping, as I was using only certain muscles in my legs that I didn't always use for extended periods of time.  For miles 3-5, I just kept running and told myself not to walk at the very least.  I also hated the course, because we ran next to the highway and I felt like I was inhaling car exhaust.  It was rather disheartening to see so many people pass me, but I kept running, even if it was slow.  It also felt very humid and outside of the shade, it was getting HOT! I definitely perked up once we entered Corona Park again, because I was looking forward to seeing the giant globe and finishing.

Before we got to the globe, there was an out-and-back section, which was motivating to see the other runners coming back.  But it was also difficult to wonder when the turnaround point would come!  One girl kept huffing as she ran and she was annoying so I sped up so I wouldn't have to listen to her.  Once we turned into the park, I sped up more, excited at the prospect of finishing (and that globe!).  Once we hit the globe, I knew we were so close to the finish, so I sped up to probably a 9-minute mile (my Garmin only shows average pace and not instantaneous pace, so I only saw that my average pace dropped to about 9:24).

When I got to the finisher's chute, I began sprinting and passing up other runners.  I spotted Tom near the finish line, so I kicked it up into top speed and finished (too) strong.  I think I had way too much gas in the tank at the finish, and I should have run faster in miles 4-5.

Where did my neck go? Tom said I look like Kim Jong Il.

 

Flyin!

See yaaaa!

Tom got some great action shots!

I'm disappointed that I gave up so easily mentally.  I blame going out too fast and maybe rafting the day before. I'm not sure I'll try the 10K distance again, and I definitely won't be running the Queens 10K again.  I just really did not like the course.

My official time was 1:02:54, but I did overrun the course, and my Garmin said I ran 6.28 miles.  Even though I didn't meet my A goal, I met my B goal of PRing, which isn't a bad thing!

Afterwards, we ate dim sum in Flushing, then went to New Rochelle to have a barbecue and pool party.

Goals for Queens 10K

Sub-1:00.  My official PR is 1:05:55 while hungover at the Healthy Kidney 10K (a 10 second PR is still a PR...right?).  During the Brooklyn Half, while holding onto Jenny's pace, I ran the 10K of the Half in 1:00:21.  Soooo close but it doesn't really count anyway, right?

According to the McMillan Running Calculator, based on my half-marathon time, I should be able to run a 10K in 59 minutes.

I just have to make sure all my miles are 9:34 or faster.  Sometimes I can't tell if 6.2 miles is daunting or doable.  It's only 2 more miles than a 4-miler, but maybe that extra 0.2 is just too much for me to handle mentally.  I know this sounds ridiculous even as I'm typing it, but I tell myself as I'm running that a 10K=6 miles, so not finishing at mile 6 is a bit of an unpleasant realization.

I did run 3 miles last night at a sluggish pace and felt very slow and tired.  Maybe it's because it was at the end of the day. We'll see how Sunday goes!

Oakley 10K Race Recap

I somehow conned Joyce into signing up for the 10K even though she hated running.  She panicked a bit until I told her 10K is 6 miles, not 10 miles.  We trained together a few times and she even started to enjoy running!  We stopped by Lululemon after one run and bought matching skirts to wear to the race.  I even bought a neon pink top to match even though I'm usually a pink-hater.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to try for a PR (my last one was while hungover so I probably could beat that) or pace Joyce in her first 10K.  Given that I had not really trained all week (and had drank and eaten too much) and I have a 10K the next week, I decided to go at an easy pace.  However, in the heat and humidity, even a slower pace was really hard.  Our main goal: get cute race pictures in our matching pink + skirt combo!

We made it to the start just in time and started running along Central Park West.  I tried to stay on the right side the entire time, keeping an eye out for race photographers.  There were some speedwalkers we passed...at first.  Later in the race, they passed us right back up. -_-

I felt like the water stations should have been at every mile, but after mile 1, we didn't get one until the 5K/halfway point.  Running in the shade felt amazing and energized us (especially downhill), but running in the sun was TOUGH!  We were both super sweaty.  Harlem Hills worried me but we trucked up them like pros.  I was thankful we were going clockwise in the park, as we were hitting most of the big hills as downhills.

Coming down on the East Side of the park, I spotted a race photographer and we smiled and waved madly.  Then it occurred to me that I was flapping my bingo wings and the picture may not end up very flattering.  I pointed out bodies of water to motivate Joyce.  We walked through all the water stations to catch our breath and hydrate.

I told Joyce we'd speed up for the last mile, even if it was just slightly.  I tried hitting 10-minute miles, but Joyce sped up to an 11-minute mile.  At 800m, I told her only half a mile left! She replied, that long??  We eventually made it up the West Side of the Park and spotted the finish line.  I looked for Leemo, but he missed us and we missed him.

We took a lot of pictures and somehow ran into Alyssa!  We called Leemo afterward to meet us at the Smith for brunch, where I ate delicious biscuits and gravy with 3 poached eggs.  My stomach was a little unsettled before kayaking, but it calmed down enough to have an enjoyable kayaking experience in the beautiful Five Islands Park in New Rochelle.  I'm SO glad we didn't opt for free kayking in the Hudson.  There's probably a reason it's free...no one wants to touch that filthy water.