Coach Knows Best

I hope everyone had a wonderful Bastille Day yesterday! We ended up posing for this picture at Almond, while searching for perfect sangria after a celebratory dinner at Dos Caminos in honor of Meg and Lauren, below on the left, finishing NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute and finding an apartment in NYC!

I was in an especially celebratory mood last night since my second long run of marathon training was a great success!

As you know, Gia is coaching me this year for the New York City Marathon and after last week’s run I learned a valuable lesson. If I’m going to employ a coach because she is the expert, then I really need to listen to her.

Gia and I had a few pep talks during the week from which I put together a Friday checklist in preparation for Saturday’s long run.

• Where my compression sleeves all day Friday.
• Do some deep hip stretches Friday to help relieve the tightness.
• Drink plenty of water all day Friday.
• Don’t go out Friday night.
• Drink a container of plain coconut water Friday evening.
• Don’t eat too much or too heavy a carb rich dinner on Friday night.
• Make sure that I have my CamelBak cleaned and filled with ice cold water for Saturday.
• Buy Cliff Shot Blocks that I like so I’ll actually take them during my run.
• Use my Garmin heavily for the run to ensure I’m keeping the pace slow.

It sounds like a lot and probably overkill for a 12 miler, considering that I’ll have far longer runs in the next few months, but the goal is for me to start getting accustomed to preparing and respecting the mileage. I can’t treat every run the same and therefore my long runs need to help Gia and I figure out what my marathon pace can be on November 4th without hitting the wall and bonking.

I woke up at 5:15 so I could eat breakfast and let the food settle some before my run. I also chugged a glass of ice cold NUUN after reading the research regarding the affects of ice water on athletes.

I left the house at 6 to log 1.5 miles on my own before meeting up with Kristin at 6:15. I know, I know, I was supposed to run by myself yesterday. But, when I saw her tweet asking if anyone would be running near Gramercy at 6:15 around a 10:30 pace I thought it was fate!

It was really nice running with a new friends and time flew by since we had plenty to talk about including, but not limited to marathon training. She actually got into New York City this year via the lottery! I am also more and more intrigued by the Gap Athletic workout line after she raved about her cute tank.

We ran 3 miles together across town and North on the West Side Highway until reaching Riverside Park.

I took these two pictures when I paused to hug her goodbye as she headed back downtown towards her husband and refueled with 2 Shot Blocks since I’d already done 4.5 miles and thought it was best to get fuel in me early.

I didn’t want to get stuck on the West Side Highway and don’t know the higher section well enough to know when I can cut East. Therefore, I cut over at the entrance to Riverside Park and headed towards Columbus Circle, weaving around to add some extra mileage.

 

I entered at Columbus Circle and then did the bottom loop before heading towards the race corrals for the NYRR Race for Central Park with my friend Katie. I was thrilled to introduce Katie to her first NYRR race!

When I stopped at 8 miles I reviewed my mile splits so far and was happy to find that I was right on target, if not a tad faster than planned.

Mile 1 10:19
Mile 2 10:24
Mile 3 10:26
Mile 4 10:23
Mile 5 10:55 (1/2 uphill)
Mile 5 10:40
Mile 6 10:49
Mile 7 10:20
Mile 8 10:15

I told Katie that she should run her own race and enjoy the experience as I knew my legs weren’t going to love the stop and start. I expected my pace to drop for the last 4 miles but made it my goal to just finish and get the 9+1 credit and log the mileage.

The race itself wasn’t that interesting other than that I saw many friendly faces during and after the race including Sara, Stephanie, Meghan, and Ali! The park was alive with runners both in the race and completing their own runs.

The last miles were definitely tough and I hit a bit of a wall around 10.5 but I pushed through knowing I just wanted to be done. The race was packed yesterday which helped spread some much needed energy and luckily there were plenty of restrooms, one of which I finally had to use towards the end.

Mile 9 10:19
Mile 10 9:56 (caught up in the fun of the race)
Mile 11 12:20 (bathroom stop)
Mile 12 10:33

My goal wasn’t to PR this race, just to finish it and conquer some hills on tired legs. Running 12 miles at a slower pace (10:39) than I’ve kept in ages was definitely tough but the fact that I didn’t hit a full wall and was able to keep going and push through, even in the heat and humidity, reaffirmed for me that Gia is on to something!

Week 2 of marathon training was an official success!