So much has happened since my last post…
- I didn’t end up running for the following three days after my last post about being in a funk… which I guess is fine, I mentally justified it by convincing myself I need a break.
- A couple of friends (and their adorable baby), Josh and I walked/ran the NY Giants 5K on Sunday (a week ago today). They are big Giants fans, me more so for the run, but I did get to see Eli Manning’s locker when we went to pick up our bib and shirt the day before. I was also pretty psyched to see some of my teammates in a NYRR run in NJ!
- We had our first official team practice on Tuesday night! Crazy, right? It feels like I never stopped training but until I got to practice, I didn’t realize how much I missed being around our team. We really have some awesome teammates and I am really looking forward to getting to know the newer team members over the next couple of months. Our Tuesday practice was the first of our reservoir loop tempo runs (we will be doing these each month of training). We ran two loops (1.55 miles each) with a short break in between. The goal was to be as consistent as possible. I started off fast — my first loop was around 13:50 (8:43 per mile) and my second was 14:19 (9:11 per mile). Hopefully, I will learn my lesson to start slower!
- I also received my first donation for this year’s marathon! Well, technically Josh and I donated and I received some matching gift funds from last year’s fundraising, but I received my first official donation on Tuesday! Thank you, Nicki Brooks! You rock! It was a no-brainer to rejoin the Alzheimer’s Association, NYC Chapter team again this year. I couldn’t imagine it any other way. Our team’s journey was not complete last year and hopefully we will leave our mark on NYC streets on November 3, 2013. I started blogging for the first time ever last year to document and share my journey to 26.2 in NYC and memories of my grandmother, since then my blogging has taken a different turn. I encourage you (only if you want to, of course!) to visit my page about my run in memory of my grandmother and my fundraising page.
- Tuesday was a big day, huh? Also on Tuesday, I talked a little with Coach Brian about my running funk… which I am thinking is more mental than physical. Coach B encouraged me to take two weeks off from running to hopefully overcome my burnout. I am definitely thinking about it still, but I am just afraid that two weeks off will make it that much harder to come back in the middle of July, when the mileage will be higher and the weather will be more scorching hot than it has been so far.
- So instead of running (per our training schedule) on Wednesday, I went to a spin mixer class (this was my attempt at taking a break). Well, I did run to the class, but it was only a mile away, so I don’t count that as running. This was the first ever spin class for me and the instructor welcomed me warmly! She helped me adjust the bike and positioned me in the room so I can learn from people in front. The class was great – it was hard, but an awesome workout. I am a big fan of classes that make me sweat a ton and this one definitely did so. In the middle of class, the instructor would call up two people at a time to the front of the room to work on some core exercises (lunges, kettle ball work, medicine ball, etc). I found these to be a nice break from sitting on the bike the whole time.
- My butt hurt on Thursday… from spin class, hopefully I will get used to it. We also had our second official team practice on Thursday. More of my teammates from last year were at this practice and it was so great running with them again. The run on Thursday felt much better than any run I had in a while. I guess the big difference was the pacing and running with people at my similar pace. A couple of us chatted with Coach Glen (one of our new coaches) after the practice and he was talking about the right pace for each type of practice (long runs, speed work, tempo runs, etc) based on a most recent race time. Coach Glen calculated my long run pace based on my NJ Marathon time… and man, have I been running too fast! This is probably something I should focus on this season.
- I went to barre class on Friday. I know Friday is supposed to be a day off, but I justified it by saying I didn’t run on Wednesday, so it’s okay. Like my warped logic to convince myself it is okay to work out on a day I shouldn’t?
- In honor of working out on an off day, I didn’t do anything Saturday. Well, I did stuff, just not real exercise stuff. We received all of our new furniture on Friday, remember my post about shopping too much and not enough running? With the delivery of our new items, there was a lot of work reorganizing, moving, cleaning, and throwing away old pieces. My body definitely ached from all of this, but I am happy to say that our apartment is coming together! All of the items we ordered with the exception of the media console did not require assembly.
- I cannot take credit for the assembly of the media console… I helped for a very short time and then met two friends for brunch at Jane, which by the way was an amazing brunch! I really should have taken pictures of our food… next time. The three of us are on a foodie brunch tour around NYC. Our goal is to try to make it to all of the top brunch places in NYC. We’ve been to a couple… Kingswood, DBGB, and Prune, now Jane too. I am responsible for picking the next place, which may give me an opportunity to find a credible list online and use that as our source! 🙂
- And finally, today, I ran in the Achilles Hope & Possibility 5-mile race in Central Park. This was my first 5-miler two years ago and I remember not knowing where I was at all in the park when I was running. It is crazy to think that now, I know Central Park almost like the back of my hand. The race didn’t go well… I ran from Port Authority up to the park and my watch GPS signal was off (maybe because of the tall buildings around 42nd Street area?), I was already drenched with sweat by the time I got to baggage drop to meet up with my teammates, and then on the race, the first three miles actually felt pretty good despite having to dodge a little, but then I fell apart on the last two. If I had my heart rate monitor on today, it probably would have registered in at over 180 bpm. I was feeling the heat, humidity, and my brain was shutting down. I don’t walk on races; it’s a big a pet peeve of mine, not for anyone else, but for me. The last time I remember walking during a race was the Miami Marathon, but that was 26.2 miles and this was a 5 mile race.
Needless to say, after my performance on today’s run, it really got me thinking more about this break. I haven’t fully committed yet to taking a full two weeks off, but I am contemplating a way to take it easier. I am one of those people who feels the need to give 125% all the time, and it is really making it hard on me when I don’t run as fast as I expect myself to or run as many days as I think I should. I am really hoping over the next couple of weeks, I will find a way to turn my brain off and try to just have fun when I am out there. I need to remind myself of why I am even running this race and how excited I was to be on this journey last year.
Any words of wisdom will be greatly appreciated!