long run Archives - Page 11 of 23 - My Healthy, Happier Life

If I could run the marathon next Sunday I’d be a really happy girl. After today’s 20 miler I have the confidence and training that makes me so excited for November 4th. The past 24 hours have been pretty perfect!

Yesterday I had my first client meeting in my new role and it just reaffirmed how excited I am for the challenge. Sure it’s not going to be all roses but it’s going to be challenging and e-commerce amazes me. It is so interesting and changing so quickly! I had the chance to rock my new JCrew School Boy blazer which I bought during their 25% off sale!

After work I headed to Eataly to pick up the ingredients for our pre-long run dinner, linguini with clams. An evening cooking and relaxing together is the perfect way for Bo and I to finish a long week.

We were both in bed by 10pm in preparation for this morning’s long run. I had 20 miles on the schedule while Bo was striving for 22 to give him the confidence he wanted for his first marathon. Earlier in the week I sent an email to a few of my favorite runners who share my pace to see if anyone would want to join me for 20 miles bright and early Saturday morning. Luckily, Leticia, Kristin, Meghan, and Marcial (my co-worker) were all game!

I mapped out a 20 mile course which would start near Union Square for those people coming from Queens and Brooklyn while also including hills in the last 6 miles in order to best replicate the actual marathon. You can see the actual course by clicking here.

We met at 7am and left from Union Square ready for a great run. From the very first mile everything just felt right. The weather was nice and brisk, the conversation was steady, our legs felt light and strong, everyone had fuel, and the scenery was beautiful.

We only stopped a twice before reaching the park, once for a quick 30 second stretch and next to refill our water bottles. The entire time we were keeping around a 10:55-11:10 pace, just clicking away the miles. Crossing town was a pain but by the time we reached the park we had another friendly face join the group as Tracy, a blog reader visiting from out of town, ran with us for the last 9 miles!

We enjoyed one loop of the resevoir before conquering the west rolling hills in the park and then Harlem Hill. This was a perfect way to push our legs and body, just like we’ll be challenged in the marathon during the second half. It wasn’t easy and I actually took Harlem Hill too fast, hitting a 10:20 pace which left me on empty for the last mile. But, overall this 20 miler which was blessed with negative splits for the second half, was pretty amazing. I learned that I have to carry more fuel, especially for the last 8 miles and that with a positive outlook and inspirational friends, 20 miles can feel like a piece of cake. I think you can tell from our faces that this run rocked!

Kristin and I toasted our successful 20 miler with our first Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season! I had mine made with skim milk and just 2 pumps of syrup. Kristin was right! This was a delicious way to celebrate taper time!

Did you run this weekend? Are you preparing for a Fall marathon? How’s it going?

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Cheers to an awesome long weekend! This has been the long weekend Bo and I needed. We were able to spend the weekend getting a TON done around the house, spend time with friends and family, spend hours in the kitchen, log multiple workouts, while still getting at least 8 hours of sleep each night! Yup, that’s a pretty great weekend if you ask me!

I still can’t believe we both had today off from work for Columbus Day. I know I have it off due to the fact that my office doesn’t get Good Friday off as a holiday. Oh well, a long weekend in the middle of October and marathon training is much appreciated!

I spent today down in New Jersey visiting my cousin Meredith and her husband Rich. They have an adorable baby girl, Sedona, who is almost 7 months old and gets cuter every time I see her.

I mean really does life get any cuter than this? I just want to squeeze her cheeks and hold her all day long. I’ll tell you one thing, I wish I was blessed with musical skills. Listening to Meredith sing to her daughter is the most relaxing thing, especially when it’s her own Sedona rendition of Cecilia by Simon & Garfunkel. Bless my future children who have to hear my singing voice. Or maybe it’s just a good time to start thinking about voice lessons?

Yesterday meanwhile was a relaxing day of sleeping in, baking, shopping at Eataly, cooking, and catching up with Theodora and Meg who joined us for a holiday weekend four course dinner along with wine and Five Year Engagement.

Our Fall inspired meal:

Fall spinach salad with blue cheese, toasted pecans, poached pears, and a homemade dijon balsamic dressing.

Parmesan lemon Brussels sprouts with browned leaks

Braised Rabbit served atop Butternut Squash Ravioli

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread

So delicious!

Luckily, all of this delicious food was right in the middle of a workout filled weekend!

Friday: speedy 3 mile run along the East River with Theodora

Saturday: TOTAL SWEAT FEST!

12 miles at 10:40 pace with Marcial, my amazing co-worker

TRX Clinic with Reebok NYC and some local Fitfluential ambassadors including Christine, Jill, Kristine, Katelyn, and Alfonso! I’m going to do a more thorough post later in the week including more pictures, moves we learned and a video but it was great to hang out with these awesome fitness rockstars for a quick sweat between my long run and yoga!

Yoga for Runners Workshop with Kristin McGee and Equinox: I can’t say enough amazing things about this event! There were over 30 readers who came out for an hour yoga class at the 19th Street Equinox which stretched our legs in ways we never knew possible. She taught us a few new moves while also adjusting us throughout the session! I’m so excited that there will be another Yoga for Runners workshop offered on October 20th since there was such a great response to this first event! The sign up will be part of tomorrow’s post! The SVELTE protein drinks she supplied at the end of class were a perfect way to refuel after all the day’s activities! So delicious!

Monday: 5 miles along the East River at a 9:23 pace thanks to the cool weather and fresh legs

Like I said, it was a packed weekend!

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Redemption has never felt so wonderful.

Remember last year when I bonked during the New York City Marathon, having gone out too fast? After that experience I knew I never wanted to experience that feeling of failure again. While I know it is still an achievement to finish a marathon, at any pace, seeing my dreams of breaking five slip between my fingers because of my own stupid decisions, didn’t feel good. I walked more parts of the marathon than I want to remember including 2 bridges, Pulaski and Queensborough.

For the past few months, I’ve worked with Gia and Lauren on multiple aspects of running, both mental and physical. After increasing my mileage each week, pushing through workouts that I would have bagged on last year, enjoying late night conversations with Bo who is training for his first marathon, finding strength and support in my co-workers who push me through each midweek run, working to balance my muscles so I’m less quad dominant and my glutes actually work, and finally having the faith in myself that I can master 26.2 miles; today almost 11 months later I was able to run over both of these bridges. Oh yes, there were definitely tears in my eyes.

So now that I’ve given you a bit of a preview and drowned you in sappiness, let me give you a full review of today’s NY Flyers 3 Bridges Run!

The NY Flyers 3 Bridge Run which has taken place for years, allows runners from all across the metro area to enjoy a pacer led 20 mile run through three different boroughs in New York, some of which includes the actual marathon course.

They offer the organized run 2 separate times, once in September and once in October. For $10 you receive a pacer, 3 water and fuel stations, a 20% discount at Jack Rabbit Sports afterwards, and an awesome group of men and women with whom to run and gain expertise.

Since I chose to run in the 11 minute pace group this morning, hoping to hang towards the front so I could keep closer to a 10:45 pace, I arrived at Jack Rabbit UES at 6:20 in time for the 6:30 start time. We left exactly on time, led by one female pacer, surrounded by 20 other runners of all ages. Luckily I wasn’t flying solo during today’s run. Meghann, with whom I ran 16 miles with a few weeks ago during our trek to the George Washington Bridge, and her friend Libby kept me company during the run together. Unfortunately, within two miles we quickly realized that our pacer, while very nice and kind, was a speed demon. As we all moaned and vented in the back of the group, which was going at about a 10:20 pace, we decided that we’d make our own pace group. All donned in red we ended up being the unofficial 10:45 pace group, talking with our fellow runners about our marathon experiences.

Before we knew it, we reached the first aid station at mile 8 as we were crossing across the lower Manhattan towards the Brooklyn Bridge.

The aid station had tons of water, Gatorade, fuel, and people cheering us on. We spent about a minute or 2 at each aid station, depending on the pace of the group. The pacer did do a great job making sure not to leave anyone behind. We didn’t leave an aid station until any stragglers had arrived and had a chance to chug down some fuel.

From the first station we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, where we saw the lovely Gia and Jes who were looking speedy in the 9 minute pace group. Even though there was zero shade and running a bridge is never a lot of fun, it was over before we realized it since our group was having a blast. As we progressed into Brooklyn, I decided that it’d be fun to let the ladies tell me all about Brooklyn since they both live there. This too helped the miles go by quickly. All the while, keeping a pace under 11 minute miles, except for the bridge.

As you can tell from this picture, taken at the next aid station at mile 12, we were all smiles. The 10:45 pace group was having a blast!

We headed off from this aid station knowing that the next one we’d see would be the one at Mile 16, right before the Queensborough Bridge. We also knew that we’d tackle another bridge, Pulaski Bridge, during these miles. Our positive attitude and constant conversation made the miles between 12 and 16 made us feel stronger than ever as you can tell from our paces. We dropped down to a 10:30 and we were able to keep a 10:40 over the bridge, enjoying the view of Manhattan.

We made it to the fuel stop at mile 16 all smiles, ready to conquer the bridge. We didn’t even have an interest in stretching or getting more water. We were all feeling strong and excited to cross into Manhattan, especially since he mileage lined up perfectly with the marathon. As soon as we entered through the gate of the pedestrian bridge path I felt an insane rush of excitement. I told the girls I’d see them on the other side and pushed. I loved every second of the bridge. Sure, it was long and the construction’s exposed gates made it quite arduous today, but the fact that I could keep an 11:30 over the bridge at mile 17 gave me happy tears. My legs were tired but were able to push through, my heart was bursting with happiness, and mentally I felt stronger than I ever have before at mile 17 of a long run. Running this bridge with co-workers a few times this training session meant that my legs knew what to expect.

From the bridge the rest of the run was a bit of a blur and pretty annoying since the NY Flyers course had us cross the city on 59th street to the Park which meant dodging cars until we reached the Park. From there we ran into the Park, up Cat Hill which was hell at mile 19, and then out the Engineer’s Gate back to Jack Rabbit. The final mile was definitely hard as hell but I felt like I could run further if needed, especially if the crowds were cheering and I had more fuel. After stomaching 3 Gus at mile 4.5, 9, and 13.5 I couldn’t stomach the thought of a 4th Gu packet by mile 17.5. I felt the difference during those last few miles for sure.

But, this 20 miler was done and done as we crossed the threshold of Jack Rabbit sports at Mile 20! My Garmin is missing the first half mile since I didn’t pick up satellites until we were in the Park. NY Flyers, you all are amazing! This was a perfectly organized training run and really the only thing better would have been a more experienced pacer. But everything else outweighed that one flaw.

Done and done! Luckily Bo’s pace group (9:30) finished just a few minutes after us due to the start times. He rocked out a new PDR today with Theodora’s support and was all smiles. One cab ride home downtown and a shopping cart full of ice, we were happy campers.