Total mileage planned: 40
Total mileage complete: 45.8
This race is getting real. It's so close that I'm getting emails from the New York Road Runners like every other day reminding me of just how soon it is. This week I even registered for the NYPD Running club bus to get to the start village, and it kind of reminded me that this race that I've been training for over the last few months will be behind me in the blink of an eye.
Why am I going with the NYPD Running club you may wonder - the tri team that I run with, Merrick Bicycles Tri Team, has a few members who have done this race before and are opting to take this bus to the start village. Since they know more about this race than I do I feel like it will put me a little more at ease race morning to be traveling with them. Plus, since my Dad is a retired NYPD Detective, I was eligible to sign up for the club.
Week 14 started off with a somewhat unplanned rest day. I was planning to go rock climbing with my coworkers at the end of the day like I did a few weeks ago, but the closer it got to 5, the more burnt out I felt. So, when my friend Emily texted me asking if I wanted to get rainy weather sushi, I signed on to a new plan for the night that included all you could eat sushi and a trip to target. I had a great time and felt like I was really able to recharge rather than further exhausting myself, and I headed to bed as soon as I got home so I would be ready to run Tuesday morning.
Me in my VERY REFLECTIVE brooks jacket - this is what it looks like when you take a photo with flash, its a flat gray jacket when not lit up
Dad came out on bike with Kasey and I for Tuesday morning's run. It was a little windy, and way less humid that it had been recently. We got through the miles easily enough, and the run was over in what felt like half a second. Sadly, I had to skip swim Tuesday night. I had to go to a wedding showcase at the venue that we have booked. Mom and I sampled a bunch of food, and when Dennis got there we talked to some photographers and checked out invitations.... this whole "wedding" this is starting to feel real!
Wednesday was the last night of Merrick Bicycles Tri Team track workouts until next spring! While I am bummed that they're over for the year, I was really excited that Kasey agreed to come along to the last session. It was a much bigger turn out than the prior week, and it was great to get to see all of the athletes that ran Ironman races over the last few months. I find the hard work that they put in and the feats that they achieve so inspiring! We had a three lap warm-up to start the night, which went into 4 x 400m at a 5k pace. The "rest" between each lap was a body weight workout - first burpees, then hand release pushups, and then squats. Once we had gotten through the 400s, we split up into teams of 3-4 and alternated between partner workouts and running laps. At the end of the night we posed for one final team pic, and headed home. Kasey only looked like she wanted to punch me in the face once for talking her into coming, and thats a win in my book. Hopefully I will be able to get her to come again in the spring.
Thursday morning Kasey and I headed out for our run, and it was business as usual until around mile three, when a car slowed down to yell at us for not wearing reflective enough clothing.... while we were running on the sidewalk.... while I was wearing the most reflective jacket I own, and a neon orange hat. I feel like it's safe to assume that the guy does not understand how reflective clothing works - you know, it has to be hit by light to be reflective and all. It was a frustrating interaction, and made me feel really unsafe when the man continued to shout at us about it regardless of the fact that I told him I was wearing a reflective jacket and started to run away. Honestly, no matter what a stranger in a car is shouting at me when I run it makes me uncomfortable, even if they had good intentions in their own head. So maybe drivers should just consider leaving runners alone, especially when they are running safely and even staying off of the road.
Swim was fun on Thursday night, it was mostly a drill night. We worked on our backstroke technique, and the coach, Lisa, even had us balance cups of water on our head as we swam to make sure that we weren't moving our head too much. The class ended with some difficult sprints, where we were instructed to swim all out for 50m, with three minutes between each sprint to rest.
On Friday morning Dad and I headed to the track. I had a about 9 mile workout on the schedule, and it went really well. The plan was for mile repeats, a workout that I find very intimidating. I started out with a 2 mile warm-up around the neighborhood, so when I got to the track it was time to pick up the pace. My training plan said that I needed to do 4-5 miles at a 7:50 to 8:00 minute pace with 800 m of recovery between each, and I planned to do 4 so that I could get the workout done in a reasonable amount of time before work. The weather was beautiful and perfect for fall running, and I managed to finish the repeats in paces of 7:48, 7:45, 7:39 and 7:46. Then it was just an easy run home, and my weekly track workout was done.
Saturday was meant to be a rest day, but Jennie asked me if I would do her weekend run with her. So I agreed to join her for 4 miles, and my college roommate Minal was staying over, so she came with us as well. It was rainy out, so we pulled on some windbreakers and got to it. It was an easy run for me, and Jennie did a great job keeping her mile splits even. Dad tried to catch us on his bike, but wound up finding us just as we were about to get back to the house. It was nice to get to run with these ladies, as its not too often the three of us are all in the same place. The rest of Saturday was spent relaxing and hanging out with Dennis. I was feeling a little under the weather and running a low fever, so I made sure to hydrate a ton and take it easy in hopes that I would be okay to do my final long run before NY the following day.
Thankfully, on Sunday I woke up with no fever, feeling a ton better. So, I snacked on an English muffin while I waited for Kasey to pick me up. We were heading to Jones Beach to run that day, and her car was more easily equipped with a bike rack than mine. The weather for the run was okay, a little bit overcast and humid, but I will take that any day that I am running over direct sunlight and high temps. As we headed for the beach there was more traffic than we expected, considering it was a overcast day in October - but that was explained when we got to the beach and learned that there was a VERY crowded "Race for the cure" event going on.
Kasey and I headed to one of the less crowded parking lots, and started running towards the boardwalk. When we got there we were faced with a wall of people, but had to go through the boardwalk to get to the bike path. After a slow mile spent weaving through the crowds we made it to the bike path, and finally had all the space we could want to get moving. Once we hit three miles we turned back towards the car, and braved the boardwalk once more. When we got back to the car I added some Skratch to my waterbottle, and Kasey grabbed her bike and we were off once more, this time heading to Cedar Creek park. We managed to get to the bike path by going through the parking lots at the beach, so that we could avoid trying to get a bike through the crowds - this turned out to be a much easier approach. We got to the bike path and started heading from the beach to the park, but at mile 9 we got to the drawbridge to discover that it was open! There were a few other runners and some bikers waiting, so we waited in hopes that the drawbridge would go up quickly, but after a few minutes we decided to turn around and double back until the bridge went down. Once we saw the cars start moving next to the bike path we turned around again and resumed our journey to cedar creek park. Kasey and I chatted as we travelled along the path, but as we approached the park and mile 14, I was starting to feel like I was burning out quick - in part because I was SO thirsty, despite drinking skratch as I ran. When we finally arrived at the park I got a waterbottle from Kasey's backpack, and switched back to water. From past experience I should really know that I am better off just sticking to water and Gu, but am perpetually curious about new products. While I like Skratch as a pre and post-run hydration tool, I think I am committing to sticking to just water during my runs from here on out. I also noticed that I was getting much saltier than I usually do during my long runs, but I'm not sure what that was about. We headed back towards the beach and the car again, and dropped Kasey's bike off at mile 18. With two miles to go she was going to finish out the 20-miler with me. The walk that was going on had pretty much ended, so we were able to do the last 2 miles on the boardwalk, out and back. Despite feeling tired I decided to sprint back to the car once we hit 20 miles, and it felt awesome. I am so grateful that Kasey stuck with me the whole time.
This 20-miler felt much better than the two I did for my previous marathon training cycles. I feel like my fitness base has grown as I continue to run. I'm happy I managed to run the whole distance, and finish feeling good. With just a few weeks between this run and the marathon I am feeling confident about NYC.
Check back next week for week 15 of training! With just a few weeks until NYC we will be in the single digit countdown soon.