marathon training Archives - Page 45 of 53

ashleyd / July 30, 2011

NYRR Queens Half Marathon Recap

I can’t really complain about anything right now.

In the last 36 hours I’ve run a half marathon, explored Manhattan’s waterways by sail boat, and taken a helicopter and hot air balloon ride. I just realized, typing all that, that they were all done with Theodora. 🙂

After a relaxing Friday rest day morning, I spent a few hours at work before enjoying Summer Friday and leaving around 3pm.

Don’t worry, even though I was only at the office for 6 hours I ate 2 meals while there and have the pictures to prove it. 🙂

That sandwich was bigger than I expected. Therefore, I took 3/4 of the chicken off and shared with a co-worker. However, the mix of cucumber, sprouts, hummus, tomatoes, and lettuce were amazing!

A few months ago, Bo and I both saw a Groupon for a 2 hour sailing trip on the Hudson River though Hudson River Community Sailing. We took out a J24 with an instructor, unlike in Miami when Bo captained the boat.

We had a blast but definitely felt bad for the one random girl there on her own. The 3 of us were talking the whole entire time in between shifts steering and tacking. The breeze on the water kept the heat and humidity at bay.

The views put the city in a whole new perspective.

After all the fresh air and adventures, I was ready for dinner and bed! If you live in New York City, Bocca Roman is delicious, amazing Italian food AND they are on Seamless Web!

This morning, I woke up at 5:30 to run my 12th half marathon! While I hadn’t planned in advance to run the Queens Half Marathon when I found out multiple friends were running it and I came across a bib, I couldn’t resist. I’d never been to Corona Park before and was excited to experience a new area of Queens and spend time with Rebecca, Theodora, Melissa, and Shannon.

I knew it was going to be hot so I went with as few layers as possible!

I met Rebecca at 23rd and 3rd to hail a cab out to Corona. We didn’t want to deal with the weekend subway schedule, especially since the Queen subway lines were all messed up due to rail construction.

Upon arriving, the sun was rising along with the heat and humidity. But, the views and monuments were pretty amazing!

We were each treating this as a long training run since most of our schedules had somewhere between 11-13 miles on tap for today. We were all happy that the course was known for being around 75% flat.

Screen shot 2011-07-30 at 4.16.24 PM.png

It was also 75% shade free, but we didn’t know those details in advance.Oops!

Our plan was go out slow and steady and enjoy the sights. The race was scheduled to begin at 7am, which is late compared to when we normally begin long summer runs.

Unfortunately, we didn’t cross the start line until 7:20. It was already over 80 degrees and quite humid when we started which I knew would be tough on me as I have a bad history with hot half marathons (Brooklyn 2009, More Half 2009, and Brooklyn 2010).

I started with Theodora and Rebecca, chatting away happily while we kept a consistent pace around 10:05 and taking in the sights. I was able to hang with the ladies for the first 3 miles and then ran with Melissa for the next mile. By mile 5 I knew I needed to do this race on my own if I was going to finish. I am not as fast as Theodora and Rebecca and trying to hang with them isn’t a good idea at this point in my training. My coach told me to aim for an 11 minute pace today. Oops, clearly I didn’t listen. In turn, my last few miles were pretty ugly, including a run walk mix. The whole issue was made worse by the fact that I had to use the bathroom really badly around mile 10.5. I had to RUN backwards to the porta potties which only added to my time and mileage. By the time I finished going to the bathroom running again was pretty challenging. It was similar to the 18 mile tune up run with Theodora.

Mile 1 10:10

Mile 2 10:07

Mile 3 10:09

Mile 4 10:42

Mile 5 10:25

Mile 6 10:28

Mile 7 10:56

Mile 8 10:54

Mile 9 11:12

Mile 10 11:25

Mile 11 12:43 (Bathroom issues)

Mile 12 12:42 (Bathroom issues)

Mile 13- 13.5 11:11 pace

Notice the crazy tan lines I developed during today’s 2.5 hour run. Clearly the sun was out in full force!

Was it a PR or my best training run? Heck no but it was a great training run which forced me to face the reality that I need to train at my current pace right now and continue building my speed base versus trying for a trifecta: heat, mileage jump, and speed jump.

I’m very happy to have my long run done and have spent the rest of the day recovering with a whole wheat everything bagel, epsom salt bath, manicure & pedicure, and hair cut.

How has your weekend been?

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ashleyd / July 27, 2011

Marathons+Moderation: Guest Post #10

Hi guys! I’m Theodora, and I blog over at Losing Weight in the City about how I maintain my 50-pound weight loss without sacrificing any of my fun, single girl in NYC lifestyle. I’ve loved reading Ashley’s Marathons and Moderations series and am happy to contribute to it.

While I usually like to approach everything in moderation, including moderation, training for a marathon makes this difficult.

I mean, seriously. Try going out for a night of drinks the night before you’re going to run 20 miles. Or after you’ve run 20 miles. Neither are particularly fun.

This picture was obviously not taken before or after 20 miles.

But as a single girl living in NYC, my social life (and alcohol) are things I refuse to give up during marathon training. But in order to not die while running, some moderation and making your training social is definitely needed. Here’s how I do it.

Happy Hour. Happy hour is my best friend during marathon training. If I don’t have a run planned for the next morning (and sometimes even if I do), you can usually find me at happy hour. It is much easier to recover from a drink or two and run six miles than it is to recover from a drink or two and run twenty. Plus, I can still get into bed early after happy hour and get plenty of sleep.

Sunday Funday. Really, finding different times to be social is the secret to my not going crazy during marathon training. If I’ve stayed in on Friday night and Saturday night because of my running schedule, I’m usually raring to go on Sundays. Sunday brunch or a Sunday Funday is a great way to feel like I’m not missing out on fun just because I don’t want to go out on a Friday or Saturday night.

Train with Friends. I don’t know if I would have been able to get through training for the Chicago Marathon last year without Ashley. We did most of our long runs together, chatting for hours and hours as we covered miles and miles. It helped me to think of marathon training as something fun and social, rather than something taking me away from my social life.

Don’t Miss Important Events. Unless you’re getting paid to run, it’s really not worth skipping important events to work in a long run. You can move around your schedule and find time to get your run in. I promise. Missing something important to get your run in will just make you resent running. I know it’s not always fun, but nursing a drink, or even (gasp!) drinking water beats missing out.

Embrace Step-Back Weeks. When you’re running 18 or 20 miles, a step-back week with a long run of 13 miles scheduled seems like a short run. (Because marathon training is crazy.) So, while I still don’t advocate going out and getting drunk the night before a 13-miler, go ahead and embrace it. Stay out a little later. Enjoy yourself.

One Glass is Probably Okay. This totally depends on the person, but I’ve found that, for me, I can handle a glass of wine the night before a long run without becoming too dehydrated. In fact, the night before my first 15-miler, I was way too nervous and one little glass of wine totally took the edge off.

Overdoing It Once in a While Won’t Hurt. A week before my marathon, I had a very late night. While I probably *shouldn’t* have done that so close to the marathon, I don’t think it hurt me much in the long run.

Plan Something Fun for After the Marathon. Or lots of something funs. Ashley and I got to know Fun Theodora and Fun Ashley very well once we finished our marathons. For me, crossing the finish line was well worth the months of sacrifice, but having lots of Fun Ashley and Fun Theodora nights after our marathons made us appreciate our free nights (as weird as they were at first) more than we ever had before.

So, while it does take quite a bit of sacrifice to train for and run a marathon, I think it’s totally possible to achieve moderation and keep an active social life.

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ashleyd / July 24, 2011

NYCM Training Week 2 Recap: Running with Purpose

Week two of New York City Marathon training is officially complete. It was a hot week which meant there were many sweat filled workouts but overall, the week went well. While I was nervous how my legs would respond to the increased mileage this week; it felt great to finally hurdle the 20 mile mark this week and finish feeling strong. IMG_3344 (612x612)

As a recap, here is what my week looked like in terms of workouts:

Monday: 5 mile tempo run
Tuesday: An AM personal training session focused on legs and arms and a PM yoga session
Wednesday: 3 mile speed workout
Thursday: An AM personal training session focused on arms, back, and abs
Friday: After 7 straight days of exercise, I enjoyed every second of this complete rest day.
Saturday: A sweltering 9.75 mile run
Sunday: 4 mile recovery run on the treadmill

This week I learned to focus on the purpose of each run before I begin. This helps me plan the run in my head mentally and envision success. For example, Sunday recovery runs are all about having fun. Some weeks I may run them with a friend at a leisurely pace while most Sundays I’ll run at a relaxing pace on the treadmill while watching Real Housewives. The toughest runs for me right now are the Monday tempo runs. They will increase in distance as training season progresses and I think it’s really important that they are a solid start to the week. For this reason, my goal is to switch them up each week. Last week’s run was done on a treadmill but this week’s run will be outside. In fact, I may even include a bridge just to keep things interesting.

If you’re interested in following my runs closer, I’m logging every run and workout on dailymile during marathon training.

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