Kelly, where have you been for the last 5 weeks?

Remember that time I said weekly blog posts were coming back?

Yeah, me too.

I wrote out a whole post for week two, but it just felt like a lot of complaining – my asthma flared up again that week, and it just put a big old negative vibe over how I felt about the whole training cycle at that point. I try to share the ups and the downs of training, but there’s a difference between a “down” and a long winded complaint about not being able to breathe.

And then there’s the whole laptop issue – as in mine decided, after five plus years of loyal service, to throw up a blue screen of death. Cool computer, cool. I guess I really should have invested in that external hard drive, considering the amount of turmoil my heart was in at the idea of losing years of photos.

After Dennis and Tommy both deemed the computer situation too precarious for them to be comfortable trying to risk it (both feared death at my hands if the photos were lost), I called in backup: My co-worker and friend, Ben, who has basically been my computer lifeline for the last 8 years. And after a bit of what I assume was wizardry, he managed to pull the contents of my hard drive off the computer, and onto a newly-purchased external drive – hallelujah! I then had to sort through the contents of the drive, and make sure that everything I needed was there, before he could wipe the computer and restore it to proper functioning.

That seemingly little task, checking the files, I somehow managed to avoid for weeks – it was one of those little things that nags at the back of your mind, but you somehow forget until you’re passing out or half way through a long run, and have no means of getting it done at that exact moment.

Me and My co-worker turned friend Desi, at the planet fitness where we do our strength training. 

Me and My co-worker turned friend Desi, at the planet fitness where we do our strength training. 

So, laptop-less, the blog sat stagnant for the last month. Now that Dennis and I are living together, I did have his desktop as an option (which is where this post is coming to you from), but it somehow doesn’t feel the same as my laptop, which I have written all my other posts on. I suppose I am just somehow sentimental about the computer that helped me put my thoughts out there to the world.

Now, lets get to the good stuff – the running!

The good news is, after week two of training the ability to breathe returned to me, and I finally found a combo of allergy meds that work well enough to make me a functional human again. Instead of going through all of the runs and workouts that I have done over the last month, I’m going to talk about my training schedule, and some of my favorite sessions that I have gotten in so far during this training cycle, and update you about some of my running friends!

This time around, the heavier hitting weeks have me logging about 40 miles, with 3-5 cross training sessions weekly. My ideal week, where I hit every workout that I would like to, looks something like this:

Monday: AM- Swim, PM - yoga

Tuesday: AM- run (easy), PM – Strength training

Wednesday: AM – Run (quality, speed work or tempo)

Thursday: AM- run (easy), PM – Strength training

Friday: AM- Swim

Saturday: Optional run – easy if recovery feels necessary, quality if I have the strength

Sunday: Long Run, with a possibility of yoga if the energy is available

As I have gotten deeper into the training cycle, I have started to shift the “Quality” run days to Tuesday/Thursday mornings, rather than Wednesday/Saturday, as it makes me feel more prepared going into my long run. The last time I tried to do any sort of quality work on a Saturday, I felt drained on Sunday, and it impacted my long run for sure. I have also tried to get to yoga twice a week, when possible.

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July came in as my second highest mileage month ever, at 158.6 miles. Second only to April of 2017, when I was training for the Long Island marathon, which was the first week of May 2017. I also added more bike mileage, and kept on swimming.

At the end of June, I did a big thing (for me) – my first ever open water swim! Excel, the masters swim program that I participate in, offers weekly open water workouts, and as I was able to borrow a wetsuit from one of the coaches I committed to joining one of the first sessions. I was super nervous when I arrived – growing up on long island I have been swimming in the ocean my whole life, but more in a “run at the waves!” sort of swimming. This felt more serious, and exponentially harder. But the had two people watching out for us as we swam, one in a kayak and one on a paddle board. When the whole group had arrived we waded in the water and began the swim, which was an out and back towards a tiny island with the last lap being different than the first three, such that we would swim parallel to the shore. Despite the wetsuit the water was cold, and I felt panic in my chest as I started swimming. It was a very different feeling than swimming in a pool, where I am used to being able to see the bottom. All I could see when my face went into the water at the bay was murky and non-specific. I paused to float and take a few deep breaths. Then practiced some positive self talk, reminding myself that I COULD do this, and then adopted the policy of just closing my eyes when my face was in the water, which worked much better than I had expected it to. Fourty-five minutes later I was back on the shore, and on top of the world. I felt so accomplished at completing my first open water swim, and even committed to buying a wetsuit that night. It was harder mentally than it was physically, and today I am still not 100% comfortable in open water, but it was the first step in the right direction.

Dad also hit a big milestone in June – He participated in the “great american cycle challenge,” where he pledged to bike 200 miles and raise $500 to fight kids’ cancer. By the end of the month he had logged over 300 miles, and raised more than $600 (thanks to the donations of the Family, Friends, and the ever generous members of the Merrick Bicycles Tri team!).

On the fourth of July, my family once again took on the role of “one those families that run on holidays,” as Kevin, Ryan, Kasey and I ran the bellmore strider’s fourth of July 4-miler. Kasey even broke her rule of “no runs longer than 3 miles,” which she established after her second half marathon back in April, and completed the full distance. My brother Kevin, while not a runner, is in generally good shape and recently had to be timed running 1.5 miles as a part of a physical exam, so he was ready for this race. When Kev, Ryan and I ran this race in 2016, Kevin finished with an average pace of 7:40, something I am still a little bitter about to this day (mainly because I wish I could run that fast for any stretch of time). His goal for this year was to beat that time, and my goal was to keep up with him for as long as possible. How long did I last? Just over one mile. How fast was that mile? 7:18. A near- puke pace for me. As Kevin disappeared to the distance, I mentally shook my fist at him, whishing I had that speed, but maybe a little bit enjoying the knowledge that he would slow down too – he usually doesn’t run more than 2 miles, so his pacing isn’t very practiced. He was still super speedy, finishing with an average pace of 7:30/mi. When I came through the finish line he was cheering on the side lines, so that made up a little bit for him kicking my butt. My average pace wound up being an 8:12, just a little faster than my 10k PR pace… so maybe I can dream of a new PR on the horizon. Kasey and Ryan stuck together for the whole race, and rolled through the finish a few minutes later, followed soon after by my friend Desi, who was running her first race ever. All in all, it was a fun day, as the race was followed by kayaking with Dennis and friends, and then a BBQ.

In July, the most challenging week to get workouts in was the week that I spent a float on the Norwegian Escape with my extended paternal family. There was a gym on the ship, but it was often a struggle to get myself onto the treadmill when there was so much to do, so much to eat, so many books I could be reading while relaxing. Thankfully, Kasey and I were sharing a room, and together we made getting to the gym a priority. I got in a total of 4 runs that week, some of which even had an awesome view of Bermuda while we were docked. Although, the amount of food that I ate may have cancelled out some of the effectiveness of those miles. It was certainly easier to run while the ship was docked, as when the boat was moving the rocking made the narrow treadmills somewhat hazardous to run on. The ship did have a small outdoor “jogging deck,” but it was near a pool (so the floor was always slippery) and it was right near the exit of a restaurant, so there was always heavy foot traffic. Plus, it took 8 laps of the small track to get to a mile, a prospect that was less than appealing. We had a great vacation, visiting beaches, caves, and zoos while in Bermuda, and spending lots of time relaxing while on the ship.

While I had managed to keep my weekday mileage close to where it needed to be during the cruise, I had too much to do the day we got off the ship, and time slipped away from me without ever getting my long run in. But the following weekend I rallied and managed to get longer distances done on both Saturday and Sunday, so I felt a little better about missing the mileage. One of my friends on the Tri Team, Tara, was looking for a running buddy for an early morning Saturday long run. Tara kept me company for so many of my winter long runs leading up to my first marathon in 2017 and it had been far too long since we last trained together, so I quickly agreed to meet up with her. She had 12 miles on her schedule, and my plan told me I needed a 16 mile long run for the weekend. I lied to myself and said that I would totally do the extra four once we finished the 12 together – spoiler alert: I have poor time management skills related to running, and I indeed, did not run the additional 4 miles.

We agreed to meet at the Bethpage state park parking lot at 6:15, but in my infinite lack of navigation abilities, I picked the wrong parking lot on google maps. This lead to a slightly later than planned start, but by 6:30 we were on the road. Tara had a prescribed pace of 9:30-10 min/mi, which was right where I wanted to be as well. We headed north on the path, deciding that was the hillier direction to travel in, and ran all the way to the northern end, having to do a few loops of the last quarter mile to ensure that we wouldn’t be running loops around the parking lot. We chatted throughout the run, and Tara let me rant about anything and everything, but mostly about how much I hate wedding planning. Before I knew it the 12 miles were over, and I did not have enough time to get in any extra distance, because I had made plans to go bike riding at jones beach with some co-workers.

Biking?! Yes, you read that right. After two years of running with the Tri Team, I am now in possession of an actual road bike! Remember the friend that I mentioned before, who saved my computer, Ben? Well he recently upgraded his road bike, and he offered me a loan of his old one, as we are about the same height. I happily accepted his offer and am so excited to add more biking into my weekly routine.

Dennis and I loaded the new road bike into my car, and the drove around the neighborhood picking up bikes for the ride – first one at my parent’s house for my friend Desi to ride, and then his bike from his parent’s house for him to use. We met another co-worker at the bike path and were ready to ride after some quick adjustments. As we hit the path, I did not realize just how different a road bike would feel from the mountain bikes that I had rode my whole life, and wow. Why did I wait so long to try a bike like this! We rode a total of 17 miles, encountering a fierce head wind from miles 6-10. But when the wind was at our backs, it felt like I was flying!

When Sunday came around, I had all but decided 12 miles of running + 17 miles of biking was good enough for a long run. I slept in Sunday morning and was feeling great, considering all the mileage that I had logged the day before. After a lazy morning that included standard Sunday chores, I was starting to worry that the 12 miles I had logged the day before just wasn’t enough. I consulted my running schedule – the following weekend had a 14 mile long run. So if I ran 14 this weekend and 16 next, I could be be guilt free. I sat on this for a while, until I got a text from Kasey, asking if I was still planning on doing a long run that day – she wanted to get outside, and offered to come along on her bike. And thus, a plan was devised. I would run the 2 miles from my apartment to her house, and then we would do the 1.1 mile loop near my parents house until I was satisfied with the distance. When we got on the road we started chatting, and the miles slipped away. We stopped at my parents a few times to refill the water bottles with water and ice, and on the last stop I may have even stolen an orange. Once I finished the loop that meant 12 miles was complete, Kasey and I parted ways and I headed back to the apartment, in search of food and rest. It wasn’t as fast as the day before, but I had gotten the mileage done and was happy for it.

The last weekend in July I carved out the time for a 16 mile long run, and got through it with the help of Dennis and my college roommate, Minal. She was in town for the weekend, and the two of them agreed to bike along with me as I ran on Sunday morning. Since the sun was bright, we opted for the Bethpage trail again, since there is a good amount of cloud coverage. There were laughs, there were hills, there were songs sang, and then it was done. A 16-miler that was gone in the blink of the eye, even if I did get a little grumpy around mile 14, where for a moment it felt never ending. My solution when I felt like I was dragging? To race myself for mile 15, and to my own astonishment I actually managed to pull off an 8:23 pace that far into a long run. The sweet victory was rewarded with scones at Robinsons, our favorite not-so-local tea shop – it’s a 40 minute drive but so worth it.

 

Now that I have regaled you with tales of my long runs, lets take a moment to touch upon upcoming race plans!

Next big race is the Wineglass marathon, but if you have made it this far into the post, you probably already know that. I’ll be running that race solo, with a goal of coming closer to the 4 hour mark.

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After that I have three RunDisney weekends on the schedule. First up is the two course challenge, as a part of the food and wine half marathon weekend. Dennis and I will be on our honeymoon in Disney that week, and since we were going to be there anyway, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get a race in. I’ll be racing the 10k solo, and then running the half with my cousin Kristen, who lives in Florida not too far from Disney.

Then in January it will be marathon time again, and I will be heading to Florida with Jennie and my long time friend Mike. Mike has done a handfill of NYRR weekly races with me, and will be taking on his first half marathon that weekend! I will be doing the Goofy challenge, so after we run the half together I will be (hopefully) completing my 5th marathon the following day. Lots of celebratory snacks and park adventures will be had.

Sidenote: Jen is back in commission guys. After a long battle with ITB syndrome, her PT has cleared her to start running again, and along with her fiancé Will she has started to up her weekly mileage again. The marathon weekend falls on the weekend of her birthday, so I should probably start a formal petition for her to come and join in on the running fun, right?

Anyway, since I had such a good time with my parents during the princess half weekend in 2018, we have decided to repeat the trip in 2018, and Kasey’s family (which is headed by my Dad’s sister, my Aunt Karen and her husband, my Uncle Tom) have decided to join in on the fun this year! Mom, Aunt Karen and Hallie all agreed to participate in the 5k with me, but with Kasey’s new found “no more than three miles” rule, in conjunction with her dismay for the 3 am wakeups that she experienced during the star wars half marathon, I was convinced she would be sitting this weekend out and laughing at us from the sidelines as we took bus naps. But I am happy to report that she has signed on not only for the 5k, but for the main event, the DISNEY PRINCESS HALF MARATHON!!!!

My running buddy is back guys! Kasey, I am so glad that I will have you joining me in the misery of long runs, and I look forward to listening to you as you pretend to hate running. But don’t worry, we know the truth….. Plus, like you said – we will be having the good Disney eats guilt free, all trip.

So, that pretty much gets you up to date. As of today, I am feeling strong with my training. Hopefully you have made it to the end of this long-winded post, and it makes up a little bit for the weeks of radio silence. I will be back here soon, to talk more about the races that have been going on this year, and the progression of my training. So until next time, Happy Running!

Wineglass Marathon 2018: Week 1

Total Mileage: 33.8

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As I begin this new marathon training cycle, I feel like I have to start by saying I am sorry for every time I complained about the cold weather on my winter runs…. As I run into the summer, I miss the days of being layered up, back when there was no humidity. These days I am happiest when the weather blesses me with a light breeze and breathable air.

I often take Monday as a recovery day, either resting completely or doing a yoga class, and after a weekend full of travel I opted to take it as a complete rest day. Not the strongest start to a training plan, but rest is an important part of training, and I need to take care of myself if I want to make it through this whole training cycle injury free. Plus, the travel was so worth it – I had gone to Atlanta to be a part of my cousin Jen’s surprise engagement!

When Dad and I met up for a Run/Ride on Tuesday morning, my training mileage officially began. I recently moved out of my parent’s house, but the move only took me one town over so we can still meet up for our morning miles. When I stepped outside the morning chill was nice enough that I pulled on a long sleeve running top for the beginning of the run, which I eventually removed once I warmed up. We got in 6 miles, with some little hills throughout the run. I mean, its still the south shore of Long Island, but it’s more hills than my usual route near my parent’s house has. Dad loves to pick a route that makes me run in circles around the hills, directing me to turn one way or the other as we reach the end of a block.

After work on Tuesday I headed to planet fitness with a few co-workers to get in some strength training. We focused on arm and core workouts, with a routine that took us a little over an hour. We have been going to the gym together for about two months now, getting there twice a week after work. It has been really great to have the structure of going right from work to the gym, and having a workout partner makes it so that I can’t bail just because I am feeling a little tired after work – an excuse that I often find myself using when I rely on my own motivation to do strength training.

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The first swim of the week was on Wednesday morning, since I was too exhausted to get there on Monday. This called for a 5:30 AM wakeup, and a half-asleep trek to the aquatic center. The pool was set up in a long course configuration, which means that the lanes are set to 50 m per lap. Usually I dread long course configuration, as I find it more challenging, but I really hit a groove with it during this workout. Feeling good after the swim, I decided to ask the head coach, Lisa, about the open water swims that the team has now that the weather is nicer. When I told her that I had never done an open water swim, she insisted that I try one, and even offered to loan me her wetsuit. Well, that was exactly the motivation that I needed to bite the bullet, and agreed that I would attend one the following Wednesday night. Dad had taken his bike to the park, so he rode by as swim ended for a quick selfie. 

On Wednesday night, I flowed right from one workout into another. I headed into the neighborhood around work with my co-worker, making sure to run by the school that Dad works security at to say hello – just a quick fly by as we continued into some hills. To avoid busy roads, we eventually dipped into an area that was more residential, but equally hilly. My morning runs typically are about 12 ft of elevation. This run? 218 ft of elevation gain. Once we finished a three mile loop, we parted ways and I headed to the next event of the night: A Merrick Bicycles Tri Team track workout.

MBTT track night are lead by the team coach, Jackie, and she always has a challenging workout ready for us. Being a generally competitive person, I really push myself at these workouts, as I am always chasing after a faster runner. She kept us doing 5k and 10k pace repeats varying in distance, with a body weight exercise waiting for us between laps. Once my legs had been thoroughly thrashed by these repeats, she revealed the last workout of the night would be full on sprints, between the goal posts at the center of the track. By the time we were done, I was exhausted in the best pace, and super pleased with my moving pace – an average of 7:44 min/miles over the 5 miles we had logged.

While I was super pleased with myself on Wednesday night, my legs were dead when it came time to roll out of bed for my Thursday morning run with Dad. I may have overdone it just a little the day before with a swim and 8 miles of running – more than half of those being quality miles, but I was willing to pay the piper, in the form of a slightly torturous morning run. I only made it through 3 miles, each one progressively slower, before I declared that it was time for breakfast, and thus the run needed to come to an end before I passed out as a result of fatigue… yes, on a three-mile run. It was just one of those days.

But a slow run and sore legs didn’t keep me from heading to they gym after work. It was Thursday and I had a commitment to fulfill with my accountability buddies. We did a quick core routing consisting of hanging leg raises and dynamic movements like jumping squats, followed by a dumbbell arm circuit.

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The night was not yet over – the last activity of the day was a spin class with Jennie! We met up for a class at iSpin studio, and got in a great hour of spin.

Now, as I was going through all of these activities, did I feel like I was overdoing it? No. I felt like I was socializing and enjoying time with my friends, all while getting my workouts in. Looking back at it though, I feel like I was bound to hit the ground after putting in so much so fast – sometimes I forget that I’m not in peak condition at present, and workout as though I am at the pinnacle of marathon season, pushing through 20-milers on the weekend. As I write it all down though, I want a little bit to shake week one Kelly and tell her to chill – but being me, I of course pushed on, the calm before the storm.

Finally, it was Friday. The end of the week, and one more early morning between me and the weekend (not that I would get to sleep in on the weekend, but that’s a whole other can of worms). I groggily made my way to swim again, and was rewarded with a short course pool configuration. After a handful of various distance laps, we switched over to kicking drills to bring us through the second half of class. As we neared the end of the session Lisa arrived, with a wet-suit in tow for me to borrow. She had me try to get it on, but as I was soaking wet and had never worn a wetsuit before, I was less than successful. I put the wet-suit back onto its hanger after the two of us spent a few minutes struggling, and hoped that it would be less difficult next time.

At this point, I honestly can’t remember the last time I got to sleep in on a Saturday. I think it has been at least three months, and this Saturday would not be my day of reprieve. I like to start my training cycles off with a race, so that I can see where I am, and have something to compare to over as I put more work into my training. So, this Saturday I was heading to Flushing Meadows Corona park with Dad to participate in the New York Road Runner’s Queens 10k. I ran this race in 2017 as well, and was hoping to beat my time from last year. I got to my parent’s house around 6 am, and Dad and I got on the road to head to queens. We were at the park by 7, and headed to race day central to pick up my bib. We had gotten there early enough that it was easy to find parking, and Dad broke out his foldable bike so he could explore the park while I was running. Once I had my bib I took plenty of time to stretch out, feeling a little bit stiff from the week’s activities. At 8:30 I headed into my corral, and took a few minutes to make a race playlist on Spotify – not something I usually do, but I felt like I would need the extra push, remembering how hard this race has been for me the previous year. The announcers started to release the runners, I quickly took a GU, and we were off! Dad managed to find me at four points on the course, even if I did only see him three times – part of why I usually don’t wear headphones while races, it makes it tough to find m:y people! I felt good starting this race, and settled into a fast-for-me pace, logging the first mile at a 8:20 pace. I was wearing a new pair of sunglasses – Goodr ones – and I was having a lot of trouble with my peripheral vision. The glasses were so reflective, that I was second guessing every time I tried to weave through runners, and I reminded myself that this is why people say “nothing new on race day.”

I pushed on, being careful in the field of runners as I brought my pace closer to an 8:00 min/mi. Ideally I wanted to be at an average of 8:14 or better, as that would allow me to PR the race. I was able to hang on to the pace through mile 4, but at some point as I put one foot in front of the other, telling myself “DON’T STOP,” I realized that I was starting to get light headed, and that my arm was going a little but numb, so I allowed myself to back off the pace a little, and pulled into the next water stop to grab a drink. While my goal pace quickly slipped away, I was still moving forward, and managing to keep my pace below a 9:00 min/mi. By the time we were circling around the Unisphere I was so ready to be crossing the finish line, but I tried to smile as Dad grabbed a pic of me running by. Then the final descent through the park, the finish line in sight, and a final push to get through the end of the race. I crossed the finish line, slowing to a walk, keeping moving through the finishers chute, collecting my medal and recovery bag – which I immediately opened to get at the Gatorade.

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Now that the race was done, I went and collected my t-shirt and then found a shady spot to wait for Dad, who arrived a few minutes later. From there we headed to the car and made our way home. My average pace for the race wound up being an 8:25 min/mi, which was faster than the year before, even if it wasn’t quite a PR.

I had one run left for week one after the Queens 10k – the first long run of this cycle. Sunday was Father’s day, so naturally Dad and I made plans to go on an outing together. I had 10 miles on my schedule, and we headed to Bethpage state park to get the miles in. We stuck to a three mile loop of the trail that was half paved path and half in the woods, so it was nice to have some variation on the run. Plus, the part of the path that was in the woods was so serene that I looked forward to getting back to it every time I was on the pavement. It was a nice day, but I was grateful that most of the trail was in the shade, since every time I stepped into the sun I could feel the temperature rise and the air get thicker. As the miles went on my legs got heavier, reminding me of just how much I had asked from them throughout the week, slowing down a little as the run progressed. But honestly, I didn’t even mind the pace – I was just so happy to be starting this journey again. As I reached the end of the final loop Dad reminded me (several times) to pick up my feet more, find my stride. At long last, we came back to the car and packed up, heading home for the rest of the father’s day festivities, which for my family meant heading to Forrest Hills Stadium to see Roger Daultry perform The Who’s Tommy. It was a late night, full of less-than-healthy food choices, but I had such a great time taking it all in with my family.

Oh, and since this week was fathers day, I want to leave you with the following photos: My dad running the Long Island Half around 1989, and me running it in 2018.