Wineglass Marathon 2018: The Taper Crazies

In the last two weeks leading up to the wineglass marathon, I experienced all the standard signs of taper crazies.

On Monday I started the week strong with a core video, and after work finally got my butt to LA fitness to sign up for a membership - I opted to not do Excel swim this session, as I am getting married in late October and was worried about my schedule getting too crazy ( I was right, the wedding is now just over a week away, and I am completely going insane), so I needed to set up a membership at LA fitness so that I could still swim somewhere, and not loose all of the work I had put in over the last year.

Tuesday of that week was 9/11, a day every year that weighs heavy on my heart. I grew up in NY, and have police in my family, so I am always just very grateful that all of my people came home that day. I pulled on my NYPD running singlet from the marathon last year, and headed out the door to run with Kasey. I didn’t realize that it was raining until I had already locked the front door, and had to double back to grab a hat.

When Kasey and I found each other, she let me know that she needed to be home by 6:40, a tad earlier than usual, as she had to make her own lunch that morning - her younger siblings were off from school, so her mom was sleeping in.

We managed to make it a whole mile before Kasey signaled for a pause, and let me know that she was dying. I reminded her that she is always dying when we run, and she questioned if it will be this bad in the winter…. At least then we won’t be living in a constant state of humidity. I reminded her that she also complains that she is dying in winter, the complaint just shifts to her saying that the cold air hurts her lungs.

Once Kasey’s leg of the run was over, a swiped a water bottle from her house before continuing on. I stuck to the loop near my parent’s house until I hit four miles, and then started heading home. The roads were slippery as I made my way back, and almost wiped out while in a cross walk, when I made contact with the painted white stripes.

Despite the cooler temps, I was still drenched in sweat when I got home. I threw my legs up the wall, and recovered there for a few. Then I ate breakfast with the cats - oatmeal for me at cat food for them, since I was laying next to them on the floor anyway.

Wednesday morning I did not want to drag myself out of bed, and when Dens alarm went off before mine I was utterly confused by the unfamiliar sound. In my sleepy state, I nearly stepped on the cat as I got out of bed. As I got ready to go, Dad texted me that his rear brake was seized on his bike, and I felt like the universe was telling me to go back to bed - but Kasey was on the road, and waiting for me to meet her.

I usually don’t run with headphones on, but I needed them to get moving that morning. I put on a mellow playlist, and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. I reminded myself that the first two miles always suck. Just as I found Kasey and she reminded me that she was once again dying, I got a text from Dad that read

“Bike Fixed. Cat escaped. Cat recovered”

I assumed this meant that he would be meeting us at some point.

I also assumed that Max was the escapee.

We kept running until Kasey had to take a moment to stop because she couldn’t breathe, and of course Dad rolled up on us when we were walking. While the weather was a bit cooler than it had recently been, the humidity was still at almost 100%. Once Kasey was done with her run, I picked up my pace, and changed to some faster paced music, and just pushed myself to get through that morning run. A total of 7 miles complete.

After a bit of a late night as a result of my brother’s birthday on Thursday night, I had a little bit of a groggy wakeup, but managed to drag myself to a treadmill at the gym. I had about a 45 minute window to run in, so I decided to do some faster intervals. I did intervals of 60s hard (7:50) then two minutes of recovery (9:45). I sweat like it was 120 degrees in that gym, but I did manage to get in a 5 mile run.

I had one last “Long” run before the marathon, and that was the 15.5 mile run that I did that weekend. It was hot out, but manageable, and Den agreed to bike along with me. The sun beat down on the bike path, and I could feel its impact on my body as I moved. I wore headphones again on this run, this time streaming a podcast to keep me company. By the end of the run Den and I both had a little more color than we began with, his a little more red than mine.

The following week I reached the stage of tapering where I felt sick all the time, and when I got on a treadmill on Tuesday morning I had to call it quits after 2 miles, I just felt like crap. When I got home I took my temperature, and was indeed running a fever. Splendid. So, I put myself back to bed, and spent the day recovering, hoping that this little bug would pass. I took Wednesday off from running as well, just to be safe.

Thursday I brought myself back to the treadmill, intent on getting in a progressive run. I still wasn’t feeling great, but I really needed the reassurance that I would be able to run this marathon. So, I set the treadmill, and I kept my pace. When it felt hard and I wanted to quit, I upped the speed. It was tough, I was tougher. Five progressive miles complete. I can do hard things.

Kasey forced me to get up Friday morning and run with her. Something that I really should have been planning to do regardless of whether or not I had company, but Kasey had an early shift at work so she kept me accountable. Our commitment was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise, one of my favorite parts of running as the weather cools down. It was even cool enough this morning that I broke out a long sleeve shirt, albeit a little prematurely.

Saturday was crazy busy, and I didn’t manage to get a run in until nightfall. To get myself moving, I tried a Nike Run club guided run for the first time. I really enjoyed the audio queues, and this will definitely be a tool that I break out again when I am lacking motivation, and have a million excuses to not get out.

Sunday I committed to getting in my last double digit run before the race, and headed out solo for it. I took my music with me this time, and just plugged away mile by mile, making a pit stop for some water and a quick cat cuddle. It was a good run though, and got me out my my own head. I recommitted to just wanting to enjoy my runs for me, and to try to put a little less pressure on myself for the time being at least. I am already stressed out enough in life ( I am getting married in the end of October, changed jobs in April, and moved in May. Its been a big year.), and right now I need running to be something that helps me to de-stress, rather than something that is something with big impossible goals. Days of running being the big goals will return, but now is not the time.

Once the 10-miler was done, I only planned doing 2 more runs that week. I take my taper seriously, and having been sick so frequently, I really wanted to take it easy. One easy treadmill run, about three miles long, short and simple, and then one morning bike/run with Dad. The final pep talk before the race. Running is hard, but I am strong. Ready for race day, mentally and physically.

My only goals? Finish the race, and fall back in love with the Marathon.

Wineglass Marathon 2018: Week 9

Total mileage: 16.5

See that total mileage at the top of this post? If that’s not an indication that something went wrong this week, I don’t know what would be. But lets start with the good, before I move onto the bad….

After feeling successful about the previous day’s 19.5 mile long run, I was ready to face this week head on! I had the mileage on my side, and was feeling strong after hitting 40 miles a few weeks in a row. Yeah, the long run had been finished on the treadmill, but I didn’t let a thunder storm get in my way, so I was pleased with myself.

Jen was still in town on Monday night and needed to do a 3.5 mi run to keep up with her 10k training, so we decided to head to Eisenhower park to participate in the Nassau County Police Department Memorial 5k. Coming from a family of Cops, causes like this are near and dear to my heart.

After work I stopped at home to change, and then met Jen at the park, where she had already filled out our registrations and was waiting for me to arrive. Luckily, they still had our shirt sizes even though we were registering day-of. We waited by the starting area, Jen running through her prescribed PT exercises pre-run. The national anthem began, and we were off, into the park. This was Jen’s second race post-IT band injury, so she was wary as the mileage began. I don’t get to run with Jen all too often, so I was happy to stick with her as we made our way through the park.

It was a humid night, with a chance of thunder storms on the radar. We got lucky though, with only a few drizzles throughout the race, with no thunder threatening the full distance being completed. The first mile came in at 10 mins even, and we could hear the NCPD academy recruits running to a cadence as we ran a loop onto the next part of the course. I was impressed with their ability to sing while running in this humidity.

Mile 2 included water stations, and we took a quick walk break to get some fluids in. We were both struggling a little with the weather, and I had a nagging pain in my ankle. I usually take the day after long runs off, but I figured an easy paced 5k would be ok. My ankle continued to disagree. The second mile came in at 10:51, and we headed into a tree filled area of the park for the third and final mile. As we grew closer to the finish line, we were both drenched in sweat. Turns out summer is a less-than-ideal time to run – who knew?!

Approaching the finish line we picked up the pace, and completed the distance in 32:27, with an average pace of 10:23. We collected some cool towels they had near the finish, and then completed another .4 miles so that Jen would be able to get her full run distance in. Once that was done we checked out the post-race BBQ that was going on. They had a ton of food options available, but we both agreed that the humid run had made us a little nauseous and agreed to head to my parent’s house to hang out for a bit, rather than staying at the park for longer.

After the race my ankle continued to feel iffy, and of course I couldn’t find my ankle brace Monday night. So on Tuesday I focused on strength training, trying to give my body a break from running. In the morning I did a quick “Beach Body on Demand” workout, and then after work headed to the Gym with Desi, as is the usual Tuesday plan. I took Wednesday completely off, and thankfully a new ankle brace came in the mail that day. A few months ago I dealt with tendonitis that lead to the need for an ankle brace, so at least it was easy to get a new one, as I knew what I was looking for.

Did you know, Kasey “hates” running even more in the summer than she does the rest of the year?

On Thursday Kasey was planning on getting some morning miles in so I planned to meet up with her and figured if my ankle really hurt I would stop. Thankfully, I felt good when I started moving and was able to get in some excellent mileage. Kasey and I got in two miles together before she needed to get ready for work, and then I did an additional 5 miles solo, for a solid 7 mile morning. I started the run with no pressure on my pace, to give myself time to warm-up, and then gradually picked it up, enough that my last 4 miles were at a sub-9 min/mi, and the average pace came in at a 9:12. I felt strong at the end of this run and was glad that skipping some mileage had me feeling better. I figured I could run a little extra on Friday or Saturday to bring the mileage back up.

Thursday night meant, as usual, strength training at planet fitness. This time focused on arms and core. We spent a little more than an hour working through our routine and completed the whole thing without incidence.

I figured on Friday night I would get a few miles in after work before meeting Jen at a beach concert. Of course, I should have just done these miles in the morning. I wound up getting caught at work late, which meant no time for miles before the show.

Den, Desi, and I met up with Jen and her fiancé, Will, at the beach and learned that it wasn’t a concert on the sand like I had expected, but was a concert in an open air bar that was surrounded by sandy beach. I had worn flip flops, something that is fairly out of character for me, thinking my shoes would be full of sand if I attempted to wear sneakers. We found a spot to hang out on the roof of the bar, and had a good time hanging out and catching up. Eventually Jen and I were in need of drink refills, and we headed over to the bar for some refills. As we waited by the bar a waitress rushed by, and in her hasty almost-run, landed on my foot. She apologized quickly and moved on, I assured her it was no big deal, just an accident. My toe hurt, but it was no big, right?

We continued on with our night, eventually joined by my friend Chris, and we all sung our hearts out to classic rock tunes when we made our way to the dance floor. Even Dennis, who usually hates the bar scene, managed to have a good time. It wasn’t until we left the bar and begin the trek back to the car that I realized, WOW, my foot REALLY hurts! I wrote it off as a lot of time on my feet in unfamiliar shoes, and headed to bed when I got home without putting anymore thought to it.

The next morning when I woke up, the first thing that my body called my attention to was the throbbing pain in my foot. Examining my toes, I discovered that I had a bruise that wrapped around my pinky toe and swelling to accompany it.

Well, that’s not a good sign. I had to head to a meeting with the florist that Den and I are using for the wedding, so further evaluation would have to wait until after that. Weight on the foot? Not fun. After the meeting I iced my foot, and proceed to spend most of Saturday planted on the couch, trying to keep off my feet as much as possible. I had a 10k planned for the next day and was seriously questioning if that was in the cards for me. Needless to say, no makeup miles were possible on Saturday.

Sunday morning rolled around, and Desi was at my house bright and early. The Whisper Run 10k, which we were registered for that morning, was meant to be her first 10k ever. My original plan was to race the 10k, and then run another 8 miles to complete that weekends 14 mile long run.

I had pulled out my biggest pair of running shoes, half a size larger than the other pairs, and re-laced it in a way that the internet told me would take pressure off the toes. The course for the race was a repeat of a 5k loop, so I figured if I was in an unbearable amount of pain, I could manage walking at least one 5k loop. Putting the shoe on was painful, but I really felt ok once it was on my foot. We headed to Eisenhower park for the second time this week and picked up our Bibs and shirts. We had just enough time to use the bathroom before we had to line up and get moving.

Desi and I started the race together, but quickly settled into our own paces. It was humid again, but bearable. My foot felt better running than it had walking, and I pushed the pace a bit. I just focused on the mile I was in and found lot of on course support from members of the Merrick Bicycles Tri team, some volunteering and others running with me. When the first loop was complete I headed into the second one feeling strong, focused on the upbeat music I had playing on my headphones. One more loop. I was starting to become a little more aware of my foot, but it still felt ok. My watch was closing in on mile 6, and the course was closing in on the finish line – from looking at my watch while I was running through the area of the park that has more trees I know that my pace was off, so I’m going to chalk the short race distance up to the watch, rather than to a short course. As I approached the finish line, another member of the Tri Team, Andrea, shouted “you better not let me cross that finish line before you!” and it was just the motivation I needed to push a little harder in those last moments. I crossed the finish line and kept moving for a minute, mainly to avoid puking.

I chatted with some of other members of the tri team as I waited for Desi to finish, and when the results were posted I learned that I had managed first place in my age group – I was particularly excited by this, as I had gotten first place AG at this race in 2017 and was hoping to manage it again this year. We hung around for the awards ceremony, and several members of the MBTT had placed in their age groups, woo hoo!

Once the awards ceremony was over, I evaluated how my foot was feeling. Walking sucked way more than running and my foot was screaming about being confined to a shoe. I was happy with my 10k results, and decided not to head out for another 8 miles to complete that 14-mile long run, for fear that this was anything more than a broken toe. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and recovering… and kicking myself a little for deciding to wear flip-flops out on Friday night. What was I thinking?!

In the grand scheme of things, a broken toe isn’t much, but I was afraid that it would be more than a toe. After struggling through the last 5 miles of the NYC marathon last fall, and then having to sit out the Disney marathon in January, I found myself fearful that this would have an impact on the wineglass marathon. Was 2018 just a year that I was not meant to run a full? This was the question that repeated in a loop, as I wallowed in my swollen foot.

Wineglass Marathon 2018: Week 7

Weekly Mileage: 43.3 miles

As we entered August, I was losing the summer battle of humidity, and turning to the treadmill for so much of my weekly mileage. I got outside a few times this week, but used the treadmill for most of my quality miles.

Since Mike and I plan to run the Walt Disney World half together in January, we have discussed at length our need to run together more, that way we get used to running together and can easily accommodate each other’s running style. We live less than two miles away from each other, so in theory this is an easy task to accomplish. But factor in wildly varying schedules, and regular runs together turn into the occasional NYRR race together that we schedule months in advance.

But on this particular Monday night the stars aligned, and we were both free so we decided to meet up for a 5ish mile run and a Yoga class. As we looped through the streets of the neighborhood, I couldn’t help but wonder if Mike was secretly running for congress or something, as it felt like once a block someone was shouting “Hi Mike!” Despite the humidity, we found a comfortable pace and chatted about race plans, goals, and life in general until the time approached to head for yoga. We were booked for an 8:00 class, AKA Vanessa’s hard class, and we made it there right on time. It was a challenging practice, but I was feeling so good by the time we made it to savasana…. And then my Abs felt not so good for the following three days, as Vanessa had given them quite the workout in class. I even texted Mike to see if he was on the same page, and we agreed that it was a good soreness at least.

Since Monday is usually an off day for me, I kept the Tuesday morning mileage short. Dad joined me on his bike for a little more than three miles, that wound up being slower than I had hoped. A combination of the air and lacking a rest day, I tried not to beat myself up about the pace too much – rest days are important. Work ran late on Tuesday so the usual strength training session got called off, and I headed to swim instead. The pool was in a long course configuration and we were doing repeats that were of higher distances, so I eventually wound up with flippers on. It was a good workout, but I was exhausted by the end of the session, and decided to do my Wednesday run at night instead of in the morning, and luckily Mike was free again, and we made plans to meet up at the gym.

In the spirit of me having poor time management skills, Wednesday night did not go exactly to plan. Dennis and I had to go pick out suits for the groomsmen, so we headed to the stores with the best man and my brother, and the process was painless enough, but took longer than anticipated. I had agreed to run a mile with Tommy, who is getting back into his running routine of the one mile loop near my parent’s house, so after shopping was done we headed out together. Once we had completed the loop, I headed to planet fitness, where Mike was waiting for me. We hopped on the treadmills, and got to work. I had a threshold run to complete, where my goal was to complete two sets of 2 miles at an 8:14 pace, with a 2 minute jog between sets. Knowing that last week I had a workout that was a four mile repeat at this pace, I wasn’t too worried about hitting this goal. Once we for the treadmills moving and the warmup mile was done, I popped on my headphones and with the help of some fast paced music, got through the miles, with only a slight struggle. I felt accomplished hitting the prescribed paces. Mike, I am still impressed that you kept a sweatshirt on for the duration of that run. Planet fitness felt like a fiery inferno and I’m pretty sure that I sweat out at least 16 oz of water, so Kudos to you man, and your tolerance that I do not possess.

After finishing my Wednesday run late, I decided to continue this week’s trend of night time running on Thursday, to not squeeze too many miles into a short period. So, after work Desi and I headed to the gym, about 50 minutes on the treadmill. My training plan says that my “easy” pace should be around a 9:17, which I firmly believe is a lie, but I decided to set the treadmill to approximately that pace and stuck there for the five-mile run. We then got in a core workout and a short arm circuit before calling it a night.

Then it was at last Friday. I actually dragged my butt out of bed this morning and made it to swim, where there was a lighter crew than usual. We started the workout with 4 sets of 100m repeats, that alternated in varying orders between “fast” and “slow” 25 m segments. I was, invariably, the last person done every round. Once we got the tough stuff out of the way, we changed gears to longer reps, and at the end of the workouts I had gotten in over 2,000 m at a slightly faster pace than usual.

Mike and I broke an adult friendship record on Saturday and saw each other for the third time this week (we went to school together from 3-12th grade, so this didn’t used to be a particularly difficult feat). We met up at the gym around 9 am to get some miles in on the treadmill before heading to a yoga class. Guys, this run was ROUGH. My intention was to warm up and then start the workout with 800 m repeats at a 7:35 pace, then after three rounds run for 20 minutes at a 9:04 pace before doing it all again. Mike opted to do the same style of workout, but adjusting the paces to be more his speed. I made it through the warm up and the first set of 800 m repeats, but when I hit the 9:04 portion of the run, I just could not get my heart rate down – even though that is a pace that I hit pretty regularly, my heart rate was sitting at about 190, where it had been for the 7:35 repeats, and refusing to come down unless I was walking. Knowing that I had a long run to get through the next day, I opted to cut the run at 4 miles. We headed to a slow flow yoga class from there, and it took the better part of the hour before I was feeling better. Sometimes, all you need is a good yoga class.

The long run this week was a doozy. It was the first time this year that I was planning to run 18 miles, so while I knew I had accomplished this mileage before, it was still an intimidating task. Dad agreed to accompany me for the journey, and picked the Cedar Creek to Jones Beach path as the path of the day. I got to his house a little after 7:30, and by 8:00 we were parked near Jones Beach Theatre and headed towards cedar creek. The first few miles felt good, all ringing in within a 9-something pace, but then I felt myself slowing down, as the sun rose in the sky, and the heat and humidity intensified. I took a gu at mile 4, hoping that I was just feeling a little fatigued. We hit cedar creek right around the 5 mile mark, and began the trot back to jones beach, where my feelings about this run rapidly declined, and I started to feel like I need a sip of water every quarter mile. This path has little to no shade, and by mile 8 I was starting to feel like an egg that was being fried. Drinking water was now making me nauseous, and when I took a second Gu it was everything I could do not to throw it back up. When we reached the car again at mile 10, I stopped at the bathroom at the beach, and was seriously tempted to lay down on the floor to feel the fan for a moment. I felt beyond overheated, and tried to cool myself down by splashing some water on my face. I was light headed, but the time out of the sun improved my conditions considerably. It was like as soon as I went inside I was questioning if it could really be THAT bad out there, where I had just been dreaming of an Icee on the beach boardwalk. When I came out of the bathroom I discussed the options with Dad, and ultimately decided to move the run onto a treadmill. Eighteen miles would have been a huge mental struggle on a treadmill, but I could do 8. I really wanted to just get them done outside, but the remainder of the path had even less shade than the portion that we had been on, and didn’t want to risk my health because of my stubbornness.

So, as Dad drove back to the house I rallied the troops. Kasey was already going to the gym anyway, and Emily agreed to come keep me company on the treadmills for a bit. The prospect of this brightened my spirits, and I was ready to keep moving when I got to the gym. I loaded up the treadmills cupholders with my water bottler, inhalers, and running fuel, and accepted that I was just going to be that weirdo at the gym that was eating on the treadmill. You gotta do what you gotta do, right? By the time Emily headed out I was through five miles, and was beginning to bargain with myself, thinking of ways to trade off these final three miles for some other activity. But I reminded myself of the upcoming race, using sport beans as a reward for each mile that I got through. When the treadmill finally rolled into the end of the 8th mile, I was so relieved, and so ready for a nap. I got back to the apartment, took a shower, shoveled some pasta into my face, and promptly passed out. The sun had really done a number on me, and when I woke up an hour later I had a splitting headache. Despite all the water I had drank, I was certainly a little bit dehydrated. I dragged myself out of bed to get more water and food, and the pulled on some compression sleeves before resigning to the couch for the rest of the day. Sometimes I feel lazy when I spend my Sunday relaxing after a long run, but this week it was just so relaxing to hang out with Dennis and watch way too much arrested development, and then head to bed nice and early.

Also accomplished this week: I finally got some more running decorations up in the apartment!

There were moments that I was on the struggle bus, but I still got through my mileage, and for that reason I am happy. I hope that my runs bring me the same sense of accomplishment next week, and that this training continues to stay on track until race day. The next challenge? The 19.5 mile long run that sitting on my schedule for next weekend. Yikes!

On to the next goal: The 2018 Wineglass Marathon

As we progressed further into 2018, I started to get the Marathon itch. After running three in 2017, I was asking myself if I was really going to not run one this year. I had tried to run the Disney Marathon in January, but that dream had been squashed when my asthma flared up at the beginning of the year. Then I tossed around the idea of running the Long Island full, but as the race approached I found myself never really committing to a training plan, and ultimately decided to sign up for the half marathon. I thought, "Maybe this year I will just stick to halfs- work on improving my speed, and then bring the distance up again next year."

But then, a little holiday in the running community known as Marathon Monday happened. For most average runners like myself, the Boston marathon seems like an impossible dream, that only the “fast” runners manage to qualify for. I would be thrilled if I could manage to break the 4 hour mark in a marathon, and for my age the qualifying time is nearly a half hour faster than that. But as I followed the race day on social media, watching as runners braved awful weather and left all they had on the course, I knew that I needed another marathon to work towards, and that same day I found myself online, registering for the 2018 Wineglass marathon.

The Wineglass Marathon takes place on September 30, 2018 in Corning, NY. It is a point-to-point race in upstate NY, near the finger lakes. Being from NY, I have traveled to the area a few times, but I have never done any sort of running there – in fact, the last time I visited the area the focus was much more on wine than on any sort of wineglass marathon. Dennis and I did a little bit of hiking, and then spent a day checking out the local vineyards with some friends that live in Owego. It was a beautiful area, and I am hopeful that come fall it will be a run with some beautiful views.

So, what's my game plan here, and what have I been doing for the last two months, as this blog sat quietly? Well, in looking at my recent training, I have gotten better with cross training, usually logging 2 swims and 2 strength training sessions a week on top of running. I have been averaging about 20 mile weeks, mostly consisting of shorter mileage, as my weekends have been crazy busy for the last two months and not really allowed the time for long runs. The plan going forward is to start bringing my weekly mileage back up to around 35 miles a week, following a training plan from the Runners world “My Run Plan” app. After plugging all of my info into this app and allowing it access to my Strava so it could analyze all of my data, the plan that it spit out claims that I could run a marathon this fall in just under 3 hours and 50 minutes, running 4-5 days a week, with two days of swimming built in as cross training. I don't really believe that at this point that time is possible for me, so the “A” goal that I am setting is to break 4 hours – my current marathon goal is 4:13 and change, so while this is a little ambitious, I feel like it could be possible with the right training and a little bit of luck.

So, starting this Sunday weekly training recaps will be returning to the blog. You'll hear about familiar faces like my Dad and cousin Kasey (who currently is swearing she is never running more than three miles again), and a few new friends that have joined me during this journey. I will also have a few race recaps to post, as this year I have been loading up a little more than usual with shorter distance races. There may even be a few posts about (MAYBE) training for my first Triathalon, if I can manage to scrounge up a bike this summer.

You can follow my newest marathon journey on Instagram and Twitter, using the hashtag #KzrunsWGM, or just by following my account, @gokellyeli. As always, thanks for joining me on this run!