Week 6 Marathon Training – and Where the Heck I Have Been

I'm here!

I’ve spent the last few weeks enjoying the beautiful August weather we’ve been having. The sun has been out and I haven't been to work on a Friday in weeks. Work has also been crazy busy, so play time + work time = no blog time. I’m back! I hope.

The last few weeks have been REALLY great. I feel like I spent part of the spring and the hot days in July focusing on the negative. But with beautiful 70/80 degree weather and lots of little trips planned, I think I'm back to focusing on the positive.

Do you want a recap in photos? Those are my favorite.

Summer Streets! One of my favorite running weekends of the year. I had a great 9 Mile run down Park Avenue.

Another long run spent over the Williamsburg Bridge. It was hot and sweaty, but I was finally able to run up the Williamsburg Bridge without feeling like I was going to collapse. Gettin’ that hill stamina.

After Keith took the bar (!!!) we spent plenty of time celebrating him being able to bar hop again.

With busy weekends, busy work days, and training, I've been been seriously neglecting my kitchen. But Keith did manage to teach me how to make an awesome kale dish. Just oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice in a pan. So good.

I went to Cape Cod to visit my good friend from college, Jaime. I managed to get plenty of time in at the beach, plus drink PLENTY with my amazing gal pal.

I also had my 25^th birthday (EEEEP) at a german beer hall in Williamsburg. General debauchery ensued.

There was sister time (!!!)  plus a creeper.

(Keith's bro)

Arm wrestling time.

Bossy time.

All in all, a pretty good August. I also got a fair amount of running in. Which brings me to…

Week 6 Marathon Training!

Monday: 5 Miles (Easy)

Nothing to write home about – 5 easy miles after work.

Tuesday: 5 Miles – w/ 3 @ Marathon Pace

This is typically my “speedwork” day. It's definitely not true speedwork, but I try to pick up the pace after a warm-up mile. Sometimes I go faster than marathon pace, sometimes slower. It depends. I’m not really worried about it.

Wednesday: Rest (I got my hair did)

Thursday: 4 Miles (Easy)

I was SO TIRED this day. It took literally everything in my being to get out of bed. But I knew I had to because it was my birthday weekend, and I knew I wouldn’t want to exercise at all. So I cut it a mile short.

Friday: 12 Miles – Long Run

This was an interesting run. I was at home, which thankfully always makes for better runs since I’m looking at something other than concrete and trash. Keith did the first 4 miles with me, my dad biked a few miles with me, and then I was on my own. When Keith and I started out, we realized how freaking humid it was. By the time my dad was biking with me, my legs felt like lead and I was really hot. Then by the time I was on my own, I actually felt great. My pace REALLY slowed when I was with my dad, but I was able to pick it up and finish strong.

I ran by my elementary school I went to in Kindergarten/1^st grade. It is so TINY. It smelled the same too – like PB&Js and band-aids. I remembered when my kindergarten teacher completely disheveled our classroom on St. Patty's Day and blamed it on leprechauns. I remember sitting under a tree during recess drinking capri sun and eating doritos. Running past it put me in a really good mood.

I did lots of little loops around my neighborhood, passing no fewer than 4 cornfields. By the end of the run, my body was tired, but I felt like I could have kept on going.

This is in Jersey, I swear.

Overall, I feel really good about marathon training. My long runs have been going well, which is key. I haven’t been pushing the pace at all, but I do try to pick up speed in the last few miles to get my legs used to going fast when they’re tired. My runs during the week have been okay, but I’m finding it more and more challenging to fit them in the morning before work. I thought I could hold off becoming hermit Kate for awhile, but once weekday runs become 7-8 miles long, I may have to crawl into my shell during the week.

Short n sweet recap, but I felt like I needed to check-in. I’m heading up to Portland, ME this weekend with Keith for a beer fest, seafood, and the beach. More updates soon…

Until then, happy running!

Week 2 - NYC Marathon Training

Living in NYC, you see a lot of crazy. I’m hyper-sensitive to other people in the summertime, because the subways and streets seem even more crowded than usual. I’ve observed a few things recently that annoy me and I would like to get them off my chest.

Several times recently, I’ve seen people get on an elevator, walk to the back of it, and then just as the door is about to close say, “Can you press 4?” Even if you’re distracted, what is the first thing you do when you walk into an elevator? Do you not to immediately press the button of what floor you’re going to? Are these people just lazy? You should be in control of your own schedule. I am not going to be at your disposal in every other transportation mode you take throughout the day. Riding an elevator should be the easiest part of your day.

Also, I find it really annoying when people ask me the address for a place. JUST. GOOGLE. IT. I don’t understand. Not only will you have a better sense of where the address is if you look it up, but it will also avoid all follow-up questions that are likely to ensue (What is it on the corner of? How do I get there?). Maybe people just really trust my judgment, or they are old school and don’t automatically go to Google for their everyday questions. Either way, trust me when I say that asking for the address of a place is a waste of both of our times. (Please note that this anger brews almost entirely at work. Mom and Dad, still feel free to ask me for an address anytime you like. You are both the exception to this rule because you are very sweet and nice).

LOOK AT ALL THIS INFO GOOGLE GIVES YOU.

Sorry to unload all that on you first thing. It’s just that the NYC summer heat can cause irrational behavior that I am very sensitive to. And I am perhaps a victim of.

On a high note, Week 2 was a good week!

Monday: 3 Miles

I did a slow, easy run after work. My joints have been a little achey, I think from going to running 4 days a week. My body is still adjusting to marathon training, so I’m taking it nice and easy.

Tuesday: 2 Miles

I was supposed to do 4, but cut it short because my muscles were still achey. I took the less is more approach because it is so early in training, and figured I would make up the miles later in the week.

Wednesday: Rest

I watched a lot of Orange is the new Black and knitted.

Thursday: 3 Miles

I did these miles in the gym – I started off with 10 minutes of the stair stepper to warm up, and then switched to the treadmill. It was great to get a true warm-up in, because my muscles were ready to go by the time I got on the treadmill.

Friday: Rest

I went home for the weekend, and got some shopping and TLC in on Friday. Can I just express my immense love for malls in the suburbs? I do a lot of my shopping online now, because I just can’t stand the lines and crowds at stores in the city. But I went to the mall by my house and I had so much room to peruse! No lines for the waiting room, no one bumping into me in the sales section. It was just me and my credit card.

Needed approval from my sister that this was cute.

My mall got fancy with an Apple store while I've been in NYC.
And I only see two people. So nice.

Which is real?

Saturday: 7 Miles

I was out the door early for 7 miles on my favorite path at home. It was so peaceful, and I smiled the entire way. My dad joined me with his bike for the last half, which always makes the run go by in a flash.

My happy place.

This is my absolute favorite place to run. I used to play soccer here as a kid, and I usually climb and jump over the fence, and run diagonally across the field. It almost takes me back to soccer and Capri Suns.

I went to the beach after the run, which I had been looking forward to all summer. I got some freckles, read my book, and got a healthy dosage of jersey shore trash crazies.

Sunday: 2 Miles

I made up those miles! I told you I would. Slow and steady.

I got back to Brooklyn mid-day, went for my quick run, got some groceries, and then went gang-busters in my apartment. I have a few storage bins that I keep random “essentials” in (Christmas decorations, my Spanglish DVD). I’ve been meaning to go through them, as well as re-arrange my bookshelf. There were far too many books on my shelf, but I think “cool” bookshelves are supposed to have a mix of books you haven’t read and cool trinkets.

It was a success! I went through all my books and made some tough decisions. I put aside a bunch to donate, kept the ones I want to read on my bookshelf, and placed the rest back in a bin (I just can’t part with all of the books I read in college. They make me feel scholarly). I cleaned and re-arranged my bookshelf, my crowning jewel in my apartment.

Do you see all my trinkets?

All in all, a pretty perfect weekend. My legs were definitely sore Sunday afternoon, but I’ve rarely done 5 days of running in one week during training. I’m continuing to take my own advice of taking my increasing my mileage and pace slowly, and I'm really looking forward to each run. 

Excite & Fright

There has been some crazy weather up in the NYC.

Biggest snowflakes EVER.

Not that I’m complaining – I love snow. I love early dismissals from work, and I love having an excuse to wear my Bean Boots. And it has been keeping me from running outside, which is probably a good thing.

Me and my beer at 4PM on Friday.

The last time I ran was last Sunday before the Superbowl, and I did just about 3 miles. I did some walk/running that my physical therapist recommends when I’m coming back from an injury, but I knew that I was going to be hurting when I got back to my apartment. I did some icing, but I could feel my knee pain coming through again. SO ANNOYING.

I think I’ve been a good patient, and very good to my knee. I’ve been doing a lot of strength training and cross-training, and not going very fast when I occasionally run. But my IT band is being as stubborn as a mule. So I am taking yet another hiatus from running. I’m not happy about it.

Plus, it doesn’t help that I got a semi-scary email from one of my future coaches in Team in Training (EEP!!!). He had some general beginner’s tips about what we should be doing before actual training starts in March. One of them being “DO NOT SHOW UP INJURED TO THE FIRST PRACTICE OR ELSE WE WILL MOCK YOU.” Not quite that scary, but that’s how I read it. It makes sense – now is the time that we should just be preparing our bodies for the next five months of training, which includes both work and rest.

The header to one of my training emails! EXCITING!

So I’m taking a full two weeks off from running, and trying to get in as much cross-training as I can. I also went to see my favorite Physical Therapist today (Dr. Ngo is back from maternity leave! Please don’t have any more babies, I missed you too much).

The other semi-scary part of the training e-mail told us to get in some biking and swimming before the kick-off. I’m not all that concerned about the biking part. I usually get to one spin class per week, and do some biking on another day as well. The swimming part, however, has been interesting.

I checked out the Greenpoint YMCA Pool last weekend, ready to doggy paddle with my swimcap, goggles, and newly purchased one-piece swimsuit from Jack Rabbit Sports. I don’t know what I was expecting. The building of the YMCA isn’t exactly huge, but in my mind I thought they had an Olympic-sized clean, beautiful pool hidden inside. Reality: It was about 40 feet long, with three lanes.

I’m also accustomed to relatively-nice locker rooms at NYSC. Sure, I can barely wrap the towels they provide around one leg, but at least they have towels. Plus, the single bottle in YMCA showers labeled “Hair and Body Wash” scares me a little. Call me a snob, but I wash my hair and body with different suds. 

So I don’t think I’m going to join that pool. I’ve been doing some extensive research on other pools in the city, and I’m thinking of switching gyms and joining NY Health & Racquet. Several of their locations have pools, and maybe I’ll even dabble in some racquetball one day. I’m going to try a one-week membership, and if I like it, it will be a sad goodbye to NYSC.

Sads.

On the bike front, I brought my “mountain bike” from home back to Brooklyn yesterday. It definitely needs a tune-up, but I think it will do O.K. for a little while. I’m preparing myself now for the looks I am sure to get at the hipster bike shop when I bring it in.

On a more fun note, I had an awesome weekend. Keith and I went out with our friends on Friday night and did the only thing you can do when there's a snowstorm: Play drinking games. We played Kings for two rounds, and I was supremely impressed with my ability to remember all of the rules. Highlight of the night was during the "Categories" round - Subject: Movies that the Rock wishes he were in. Endless possibilities!

Keith and I also went home to my parents’ house for an amazing showing of Casablanca at the New Jersey State Theater in New Brunswick. Casablanca is my 2^nd favorite movie, so when my dad told me he bought tickets to a viewing of the movie, where an orchestra would be playing along to the music, I was stoked. I’m pretty sure I was the youngest person there, and Keith the 2^nd youngest. But even though I didn’t have a wheelchair or a walker, I enjoyed my favorite scenes and lines more than I ever have.

I’m looking forward to doing some more biking, swimming, and watching of old movies this week. Here’s looking at you kid.

Tomatoes and Real Life

Disclaimer: I am not going to talk about running in this post outside of this paragraph. I am taking this week off from running to give my body a break, and I am thinking happy, healthy thoughts. So on to real life things!

Last weekend (I know it’s almost already a new weekend, but it was a good weekend and I have lots of fun photos of it so just go with it), I went home for my cousin’s wedding reception. As I was packing and getting ready to hit the road Friday evening, I noticed something that made me jump for joy.

You are so little and green and cute.

My tomato plant is actually growing tomatoes!!!!

I’ve begun to think I am cursed with a “black” thumb. Keith gave me an aloe plant for Christmas, which died within about two weeks. And my dad gave me a flower plot, which almost grew, but never produced any flowers.

So when I got a tomato plant earlier this summer, I made it my mission to turn my black thumb green. I urge them every day to grow faster so I can eat them.

We headed to beautiful New Jersey, and enjoyed all the amenities that going home brings.

Grass! Trees! Clean air!

Yummy Treats!

Saturday was spent going to J.Crew to get my fill on outlet store prices, followed by a lobster lunch that I did not partake in. I just can’t handle eating something that was crawling in my parents sink a moment before. So I ate a hot dog instead.

Papa Wyman is too cute.

As we were getting ready for the wedding reception, I was trying to convince myself that I could in fact make it look like I had just been to the hair salon. But after one beer and many bobby pins, camera-ready I was not.

I brought in my personal hair wiz, Kelly, to see if she could do what I was picturing in my head. In about 30 seconds, she put a gorgeous braid in my hair and tied it back into a bun. I went from hot mess to bunhead in an instant.

Hair Stylist Extraordinaire.

The wedding reception was at Triumph Brewery in New Hope, PA – perfect for a bunch of Irish folks like us. We drank yummy beers, caught up with some cousins, and threw in a couple dance moves when the mood was right. There also may or may not have been a Taco Bell pit stop on the way home…

I woke up on Sunday morning to the smell of bacon cooking. Since I won’t be home on my actual birthday, we had a mini early celebration. Birthday brunches are a serious business in the Wyman house, so I requested my favorite selection of mimosas, bacon, pancakes, and omelets.

Note the birthday tablecloth!

It was a relaxing break from the city heat, and I got plenty of face time with my awesome fam.

This evening, I’m off to my beloved Boston for the weekend! I will probably still have the same big smile on my face when I get home Sunday night.

Good Food, Good (and bad) TV

Today’s Workout: 5 miles, easy

Health Check: I feel awesome! But I need to add more veggies, and subtract greasy food from this week’s diet.

I headed home to the lovely state of New Jersey on Thursday evening. I had been looking forward to going home - the summertime, while kind to my social calendar, is unkind to my wallet. A few home cooked meals and some uninterrupted sleep was just what I needed.

My mom made an amazing meal Thursday night – pork chops and Spanish rice. It must have caused a food coma, since I began watching a movie with my family and fell asleep… at 9:45. Perfection (we were also watching Dante’s Peak, which I loved as a kid. But 13-year-old Kate did not, as it turns out, have Oscar-winning film taste).

Whatever. I still love this movie.

I skipped my run on Friday per Dr. Ngo’s orders, and was happy to take the day off. My knee was feeling loads better, and I’m not one to turn down time on the couch with my fam.

On Saturday morning, my dad and I hit the pavement to find unwavering humidity in the air. Papa Wyman was my amazing pit crew, as he biked next to me and handed me my water bottle at every mile. I took several walk breaks to minimize some of the impact on my knee, but overall felt great. I was scheduled to do 9 miles, and ran the first 7 with my dad, so the first hour or so flew by. I was solo on the last two miles, which seemed to drag on with intense heat. Anyone else ready for fall?

I started out intentionally slow, and picked up the pace in the middle. It started to get really hot by the end, so I slowed down a bit. I tried to speed up during mile 9, and even though I felt like I was going at an 8:00 pace, the heat fooled me once again.

I got the royal treatment after my hot run – I was allowed to stretch in my parents’ living room in the cool AC in my sweaty, sweaty clothes, almost immediately washed and dried aforementioned sweaty, sweaty clothes, and found an English muffin breakfast sandwich waiting for me right after my amazing shower. This is why I love doing my long runs at home.

They are too cute!

How is it possible I made it this far without once mentioning the Olympics? I’m not quite sure, but I'm about to change that.

I'm placing all my bets on you, Gabs.

MVP of the Opening Ceremony in pink

I watched the majority of the Opening Ceremony, and realized that I really need to work on my world geography (not quite sure about that pastoral/bedtime bit, but I do love that Kenneth Branagh was an MC of sorts). I also caught a fair amount of swimming, gymnastics, archery, table tennis, volleyball, and fencing. Gymanstics still remains the fave, and fencing is really boring. I don’t know how it works, and I can never tell who stabbed who first.

After Keith and I spent much of the afternoon watching the Olympics on Sunday, we headed over to a new cute diner in Williamsburg called Blue Collar. People have been drawing comparisons to In-N-Out Burger, which Keith and I tried in California, and I can understand why. It’s a no-frills counter-service restaurant, that has about 10 menu items, but everything is delicious and cheap. The cheeseburger was so good that I didn’t even need to eat it with ketchup (perhaps the second time that has ever happened in my life).

Mmmm...

To walk off our burgers, we decided to head over to the ferry dock in Greenpoint where you can catch a good look at the East River and Manhattan. We were lucky to see a storm that was brewing over the city, and obviously did some instagraming.

It was a good little weekend, and now I have my third week of marathon training to look forward to. It’s a “step-back” week, so nothing crazy to write home about – but I will be doing my first official “hill” training this week (and considering I’ve been running the flatlands of Greenpoint recently, it should make things interesting).

Here’s to a week of Olympic watching, and making dents in my couch. You're more than welcome to join me.

My Second Home

I moved to New York City two years ago this week. I was wide-eyed from the tall buildings, abundance of outdoor bars and restaurants, and the hipsters who seemed to fill said bars and restaurants every hour of the day. I was looking forward to starting my life as a big girl, all grown-up, in the city that never sleeps.

But before I moved to the big city, where some of the glitter has rubbed off and reality has set in, I lived in the wonderful city of Boston.

The finish line of the Boston Marathon!

I suppose the grass is always greener – but when Keith and I visited some friends in Beantown this past weekend, I suddenly forgot the reasons why I left such an amazing place.

It’s so clean! It’s so quaint! The north shore is so close! LOOK AT ALL OF THE RUNNERS!

Boston Marathon 2011!
I think that is Ryan Hall, but don't take my word for it.

We got in late Friday night, and had a couple drinks with our good friends, Anna and Steve. We plotted out our Saturday activities, which ended up being a perfect day.

First stop, the beach.

We drove up to Ipswich, and took our towels and sunscreen to Crane Beach. It was a bit overcast, but it was kind of nice not to sweat profusely as I usually do at the beach. Also, we did cartwheels and handstands on the sand bar.

Next stop, Russel Orchards.

Anna and Steve took us to this cute little orchard/farm just a few minutes away from the beach. There were lots of animals and farm-like smells to keep us entertained, and we picked lots of blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.

Blueberries! So yums.

When we got back from the beach, Anna and I went for a 5ish-mile run (obviously).

SO excited.

After having eaten lots of berries, some cider donuts, and basically drinking no water all day, our stomachs were a little rumbly. But we let our runners high take us through a run in beautiful Brookline. Anna is also an avid runner, and is one of the first people who encouraged me to run a marathon. The miles flew by as we talked about everything from running form to upcoming races. <3

Forgot the Garmin! Quickly downloaded the MapMyRun app which worked just as well.

While I adore my little nook in Brooklyn, it was refreshing to go back to a city that I truly love. As Keith and I were heading out, we passed the Charles River, and I pictured myself going for an evening run on the esplanade. I still have plenty of things I want to do and experience while I’m in New York, but I think my heart (and my running sneakers) want me to come back to Boston someday.

UAE Healthy Kidney 10K Race Recap

Let me preface this post by saying that I really hope the ING New York City Marathon is as life-changing as everyone says it is. It was absolutely my own choice to do the guaranteed entry 9+1 program, but it has become... exhausting (9+1 program breakdown: Run 9 New York Road Races + Volunteer for 1 race in a calendar year = Guaranteed Entry into the following year’s NYC Marathon). In theory, running nine races does not seem like a whole lot, but in practice, it truly is.

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about my aggressive 5 races in 5 weekends schedule, and I have knocked down four of them. That’s four 5:30-6:00AM weekend wakeups, four banana and peanut butter English muffin sandwiches, and four playlists with One Direction's timeless song. It’s a good thing I’m a gal who knows how to get a lot of sleep.

Saturday morning was the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park. I came pretty close to bailing, but I realized I would just be delaying the inevitable. Postponing Saturday’s race would mean another $20 down the drain and an early morning wakeup sometime later in the year. So I got up, quite begrudgingly.

Queensboro Bridge, you ain't so bad

The weather was beautiful – which meant I had a lot more runners and bikers around to keep things interesting. My legs felt great as I maintained an easy pace, and as usual, I was happy that I decided to wake my cranky self up after all.

Nice 'n easy.

I made it to Central Park with about 4 ½ miles under my belt. I caught up with my favorite fellow 9+1ers, and then made my way to my corral. The race had a $25,000 prize for the first finisher, and the Men’s 2012 Olympic Marathon Team ran the race! No wonder mad peeps turned up.

Typical pre-race pic
Trying to include all 7,918 of us

I noticed I was a little thirsty by the time I got to Central Park, but I shook it off and figured I could gulp some water on the course. In hindsight, I should have picked up a Gatorade to carry with me. It would have been my BFF during the race’s miserable course.

The 10k was a clockwise tour of Central Park’s outer loop. The four-mile course I’m accustomed to in the Park has rolling hills, but it’s nothing a pair of semi-tired legs can’t handle. The 6.2-mile course, however, is a whole other animal.

The hills in the first few miles felt like mountains. The downhills and flat parts of the course didn’t help me recover, nor did they feel easy. I went through the first three miles feeling pretty bad and incredibly thirsty.

By Mile 4, I was really tired. I saw people around me walking up the hills, which was super encouraging… I was hoping to reach my stretch goal of a sub-8:00 pace, but at this point in the race, I told myself to ease the heck up. I knew it was a lofty goal, and one perhaps I could make if I didn’t run 4 ½ miles before the race. But I reminded myself that not every race is supposed to be record-breaking, so I dialed it back and just did the best I could.

Finally by Mile 5, I kept telling myself that I only had two miles left. I used every technique in my repertoire to keep me going – everything from telling myself how well this race would prepare me for the Brooklyn Half, to concentrating on my form. It. Felt. So. Hard.

I quickened my pace in the last mile, because I figured the faster I ran, the faster it would be over. I knew I was spent when I wasn’t able to sprint the last 200M like I normally do. But I went as fast as my tired little legs would take me.

I knew I gave it my all when I nearly collapsed at the finish line (a tad dramatic), and I ended up being really happy with my average pace. For my first 10K race, I gave myself a pat on the back. And rewarded myself with a really yummy nap later on.

After a nice, long shower, I headed home to NJ for Mother’s day. I spent the afternoon running errands with my Dad in Central Jersey suburbia, which is SO much more enjoyable than running errands in the city. You only truly begin to realize how many people live in New York when you’re waiting in line at Duane Reade.

Fresh, inexpensive fruits and veggies.
How I miss you.

My family spent Mother’s Day lounging, and I spent 95% of my time on my parents’ back patio. It was perfect weather again, so I took in as much greenery and fresh air as I could.

Love the toe shot.

This Saturday will be race 5 of 5 in my crazy and stupid spring series – the Brooklyn Half-Marathon. I’m feeling pretty good about the race overall – I know I have put in the training, and this week’s runs will be all about keeping up fitness and not worrying about pace. I know for a fact I will be more successful than last year’s race (if I don’t keel over from dehydration, I will consider it a victory).

I’m hoping to run it in 1:51:00 as my stretch goal – which would be an 8:30 pace. Would I like to go faster? Sure. Will I beat myself up if I don’t make it? No. I have put in the time – and now all I can do is think good thoughts and carbo-load (the latter of which I’m really skilled at). 


I’m hoping that this is an omen of good things to come: