My NYC Marathon Training Journal 2.0! Comments welcome.

[kim3339]

Hey everybody! I did this in '13 when I ran to help keep me on track w/ my schedule and it helped so giving it a go again this year.

A little bit about me ~ I live in San Jose, CA, just finished 1/2 #28 and NYC will be marathon #3. My race schedule this year has been heavy, but now that NYC training is going on the only this scheduled is DL in Sept. I may add the San Francisco 1/2 next weekend and the RnR San Jose 10k for corral placement in rD races. Outside of running, I'm a huge baseball and college football fan and have a 7 month old white lab, Nola, that keeps me busy. And of course Disney!! Only 2 more trips to DL this year ~ next month for a quick weekend and then race weekend in Sept and then my AP runs out.

I did NY in '13 and the race was incredible and one of the best/most memorable days of my life. If you get a chance to run it, you should. While the race was awesome, my run was horrible. I had a problem w/ my foot pretty much from the start and had to walk the whole thing. And not only that, b/c it took so long to finish, it was late and the temp dropped and guess who got hypothermia. So this year is all about redemption. My realistic goal is 5:15 and my dream goal is to break 5:00. I know people say NY can be a hard course b/c of the bridges and undulation the last couple of miles but I've run a lot in San Francisco and those hills so I think I could do it. I hope I can do it. I also have incentive, b/c my dad is running it as well. I am nowhere near as fast as him (he's done Boston 5 times) but knowing that he's already done and back at the hotel makes me want to get as fast and in best shape as I can. Not that he won't be ready but if he isn't and I finish near his time...

My training plan is 16 weeks and that is today! It didn't start off great this morning, I was supposed to do 4, but I woke up w/ a really bad migrane and bouncing on the road was not in the cards. But today is not a total bust as I have pilates tonight after work. I worked out my plan that has me running 5 days a week (M/T/W/F/Sat) and I'm at the gym M/T/W/Sun w/ Thursday as a complete day of rest. At the gym, depending on the length of the run, I'll do 30 min cardio ~ not hard just to get the muscles moving and strength training and also if I miss a run I'll still be doing something. 2 days upper body and 2 days lower. While training is starting out and lighter, I'm also doing some PiYo, not a lot or following the schedule that came w/ the DVDs just what I feel like.

The one thing that I really need to be on top of this time is stretching; I'm just really bad about that. Not just stretching my legs, but my feet too. After NY, my foot was off and I didn't think much of it, I thought it was turning into Plantar Fasciitis until the fascia actually tore early last year. It took forever to heal and I'm finally at 100%, still not wearing cute shoes (more out of fear than pain), but back to 100%.

The plan for the journal is like I mentioned above, to keep me on track and honest w/ my schedule. Each day, after workouts I'll post how everything went for the day and if any of you lovely disers follow along and comment chat back and forth w/ you.

This week's schedule ~
Tues ~ 5 miles Tempo Run/ Gym ~ Bike and Upper Body
Wed ~ 9 miles/Gym ~ Elliptical and Lower Body
Fri ~ 4 miles
Sat ~ 12 miles
Sun ~ Gym ~ Bike and Upper Body

 

[kim3339]

Today wasn't pretty. We did a lot of leg stuff in Pilates last night and I woke up w/ sore legs and screaming hip flexors. I got my run in, but no tempo running just regular running. On the upside, the miles were done. So the new plan is to do some fartleks tomorrow on my longer run and those are fun in the streets b/c you can play around w/ the distances.

The good part is that in just the short period of running and gym everyday since last Fri, I can already tell I'm starting to get back to where I was pre-injury. And that helps especially knowing that I'm now on my schedule mentally I'm back too versus just saying it's okay to skip this run there's always tomorrow.

The one thing I need to play w/ and figure out now is my appetite. I've never really had problems during training before, but Sun (when I just went to the gym no running) and this morning after my run I have been starving all day, I can't get full. Today might have been b/c I just had a shake when I got home from class last night and b/c of the time of the class no real dinner, so I'll have to see how it goes.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I just want to say how jealous that I am that you got in this year (I didn't ).

Good luck in your training.

 

[kim3339]

I just want to say how jealous that I am that you got in this year (I didn't ).

Good luck in your training.

Thanks! Sorry you didn't get in! But have hope! I lucked out in '13 only b/c I was in the lotto when they were doing the guaranteed entry. I tried last year and didn't get in, but my dad did. I told him if he deferred to this year, I'd do it no matter what. I was lucky and got picked, but was not expecting it at all.

 

[kim3339]

Runs and workouts so far are done and went well this week. This week turned so busy after lunch on Tues, it's been crazy and now it's Friday and it's dead. Today was interesting only b/c as soon as I walked out the door all you could smell is garlic. I'm about 30 miles north of Gilroy and they have this huge Garlic Festival next weekend so I think they're getting ready for it. But it wasn't as tormenting as Friday run smells usually are; I live a block away from a popular doughnut shop and Fridays are they big days usually so that's what I get tempting me.

My appetite has evened out, I think I just need to stay on top of eating more protein in the morning as soon as I come back from my runs. It's like my stretching after runs... I always forget to eat. Now that I think I have that figured out, my next tackling job is less soda. I got really good last summer and wasn't drinking any, but I fell off the wagon and have been drinking it lately. I just like the carbonation of it, it's not the caffeine I get caffeine free, it really is the bubbles. I tried sparkling water, but it has a weird taste to me.

Tomorrow is long run day. Haven't figured out if I want to play w/ some speed worked in there or strides at the end of it so we'll see.

 

[kim3339]

Long run done this morning. It went really well, not only a negative split run by almost 3 minutes, but my fastest mile was my last. Everything gelled really well, body felt strong, head was in a good place, just a really good run. I tried out the power bar wafers, but those didn't work so well. I liked the ease of breaking off little pieces as I went along, but the chewy-ness of the spread didn't work well. The flavor was good, it was just the spread. I remembered to stretch and eat post run and legs are okay; a little sore, but manageable. The one not so fun part of the run was my running belt. I accidentally left it out on Wed and when I came home from work, puppy not only got ahold of it, she chewed through 2 plastic parts that hold the bottles. When I went to order a new one, they were out of stock and won't have them in until 7/30. I had to use my old one, but it's a little stretched out so it was bouncy. Not so much a problem at the end of the run when there wasn't water left, but starting out when the bottles were full wasn't ideal.

And I am so in love w/ long runs on Sat and do not know why I have waited until now to switch it from Sun! When I'm in training, I tend to dwell on the long run and it screws up the whole weekend. I think part of it is b/c my dad is so strong he can go on a 10 miler w/o working out for months and still be faster than me at my peak; he can skip a long run here or there and still be fine. Me on the other hand, I hate missing any runs, b/c for me, more mentally than physically, I feel less prepared and worry about missing it. The other part is that I tend to be a little OCD and have to have pasta 2 nights before and chicken and baked potato the night before my long runs. But doing the long run Sat not only frees up Sat to go out w/ friends if I want to, I'm not really dwelling on the long run Sat morning. If I do, it's on Fri and I'm at work so something distracts me as soon as I think about it. The last 2 weekends I've done the Sat morning thing and I feel so less stressed than in the past.

Tomorrow is gym day and upper body, rest up the legs a little bit.

 

[kim3339]

Schedule this week is a little off b/c I'm still debating about a race on Sun. Time's running out, I know, but I figure if it's open at the expo I'll run, if not I'll run at home. 13 miles is 13 miles, just free, w/o crowds and I get to wake up a little later at home.

So here's the schedule for the week ~
Tues ~ 4 miles/gym ~ bike and lower body
Wed ~ 7 miles/gym ~ elliptical and upper body
Thur ~ 4 miles w/ 3x800s speed work/gym ~ bike and lower body
Fri ~ gym or Piyo/Long Stretch Session
Sun ~ 13.1 miles

 

[LSUlakes]

Looks like you are off to a good start. Is your running plan something you put together yourself or with the help of someone, or a book/online source? How's the weather in your part of the world? I could not imagine training for a marathon during the summer in South Louisiana. Our low this morning was ~77 ish with ~90% RH. 28 Half marathons is a impressive number! I am also a big fan on college baseball and football! It won't be long before the season starts. Which team/teams do you follow?
Hope your 4 miler went well today and good luck with the remainder of the week.

 

[kim3339]

Looks like you are off to a good start. Is your running plan something you put together yourself or with the help of someone, or a book/online source? How's the weather in your part of the world? I could not imagine training for a marathon during the summer in South Louisiana. Our low this morning was ~77 ish with ~90% RH. 28 Half marathons is a impressive number! I am also a big fan on college baseball and football! It won't be long before the season starts. Which team/teams do you follow?
Hope your 4 miler went well today and good luck with the remainder of the week.

Thanks! I combined a few training plans this time. I took the 2 intermediate plans from Hal Higdon using the middle of the week distances from intermediate 2 and the weekend runs from intermediate 1. I also used the speed work that he had in advance 1 to add as 1 weekday run, b/c there isn't any on the intermediate plans. Weather out here is good, I couldn't even imagine training during the summer in LA. I would have to become friends w/ a treadmill. Usually mornings are low 60s, day highs are in the 80s and sometimes some coastal fog in the mornings. No humidity definitely helps. My baseball team is the Giants and college fb are the Tigers. My college didn't have a team and went to New Orleans to check out grad school and fell in love w/ the city so I adopted them, that was... 15 years ago.

 

[kim3339]

Switched up distances today. I woke up at 3:30 and was so tired I turned off the alarm. Did my speed work and it was okay. I wish it was faster, but felt a little tightness in my foot so I didn't want to push it too hard especially this early. Putting KT tape on it tomorrow and rolling it before bed tonight.

 

[LSUlakes]

Thanks! I combined a few training plans this time. I took the 2 intermediate plans from Hal Higdon using the middle of the week distances from intermediate 2 and the weekend runs from intermediate 1. I also used the speed work that he had in advance 1 to add as 1 weekday run, b/c there isn't any on the intermediate plans. Weather out here is good, I couldn't even imagine training during the summer in LA. I would have to become friends w/ a treadmill. Usually mornings are low 60s, day highs are in the 80s and sometimes some coastal fog in the mornings. No humidity definitely helps. My baseball team is the Giants and college fb are the Tigers. My college didn't have a team and went to New Orleans to check out grad school and fell in love w/ the city so I adopted them, that was... 15 years ago.

Being that you spent time down here you know exactly how much fun summer is. Glad you follow the Tigers, hope we find a QB soon.
For your foot try freezing a bottle of water and rolling your foot on it. If it gets really bad you can do this process at work a few times a day which will get some interesting conversations going. Hope the foot feels better soon.

 

[kim3339]

Being that you spent time down here you know exactly how much fun summer is. Glad you follow the Tigers, hope we find a QB soon.

Oh my gosh yes! A QB is a big hole. I get that they're more defensive than offensive, but we still need to score. Can't wait to see what Fournette does this year, really excited to see him w/ the ball.

 

[kim3339]

Ended up doing the gym instead of PiYo this morning, way too much energy for PiYo. Not there too long, b/c I didn't want to do weights on the off chance I can register for the race on Sun. I got on the bike for 30 min and did HIIT w/ 1 min on and 2 min off, wish I went further distance-wise, but that's probably b/c they had on the Tour de France and compared to those guys I was nowhere close in speed or distance. I am however a little tight in the quads, but that's a good thing b/c I know I worked it this morning. Tonight after work is my rolling and stretching session which is always so much fun.

Have a good weekend to those following this and I'll let you know tomorrow if I'm racing Sun.

 

[kim3339]

No race, it was sold out. That's okay, I kinda felt it would be b/c it was close Fri afternoon and I was able to run at home. The run went well yesterday; no playing w/ any kind of mid mile speed work just long, easy and slow which is nice sometimes.

It was also a really good thing that I was at home for the race b/c Nola had an allergic reaction to something yesterday. It was either a bee sting (she's discovered them and loves chasing them) or the new shampoo that I used on her. I'm leaning towards the shampoo b/c I'm pretty sure she caught a bee last weekend and nothing happened, and yesterday she slowly just starting getting bumps all over like hives and started biting all over and wouldn't stop. So lucky me got to take her to the emergency vet, but even more luck was when they gave her the Benadryl shot she got better really fast and it was expensive like I thought it might be. She's all better now, but this morning when she woke up before I left anytime she would bite I'd get freaked out.

My workouts for this week are ~
Tues ~ 3 miles & Tink registration
Wed ~ 7 miles tempo/gym ~ 30 min elliptical/lower body
Thur ~ 4 miles/gym 30 min bike/upper body
Sat ~ 14 miles (might play around w/ speed)
Sun ~ 30 min bike/lower body

 

[LSUlakes]

No race, it was sold out. That's okay, I kinda felt it would be b/c it was close Fri afternoon and I was able to run at home. The run went well yesterday; no playing w/ any kind of mid mile speed work just long, easy and slow which is nice sometimes.

It was also a really good thing that I was at home for the race b/c Nola had an allergic reaction to something yesterday. It was either a bee sting (she's discovered them and loves chasing them) or the new shampoo that I used on her. I'm leaning towards the shampoo b/c I'm pretty sure she caught a bee last weekend and nothing happened, and yesterday she slowly just starting getting bumps all over like hives and started biting all over and wouldn't stop. So lucky me got to take her to the emergency vet, but even more luck was when they gave her the Benadryl shot she got better really fast and it was expensive like I thought it might be. She's all better now, but this morning when she woke up before I left anytime she would bite I'd get freaked out.

My workouts for this week are ~
Tues ~ 3 miles & Tink registration
Wed ~ 7 miles tempo/gym ~ 30 min elliptical/lower body
Thur ~ 4 miles/gym 30 min bike/upper body
Sat ~ 14 miles (might play around w/ speed)
Sun ~ 30 min bike/lower body

Sorry the race was sold out. Glad to hear the dog (?) is doing well. Good luck with your workouts for the week.

 

[kim3339]

Sorry the race was sold out. Glad to hear the dog (?) is doing well. Good luck with your workouts for the week.

Yeah, she's my puppy. She's a 7 1/2 month white lab who still thinks she's small enough to be a lap day and walk all over me.

 

[kim3339]

I've been bad this week I know and not posted; I promise I'll do better next week. But workouts and runs have gone well this week. Less than 100 days and exactly 3 months from tomorrow until race day!!

Some developments on the race schedule front... signed up for the RnR San Jose 10k. It's a cut back week and I figure I'd just switch days. I'm not a fan of the course b/c I work along part of it and drive it everyday so it'd be like going to work on Sun. But, the medal is really cool and it's a flat and fast course and it'd give me a really good time for corral placements for rD races.

I also signed up for the Giants Race 1/2. I was on the fence about it b/c it's $115 which I thought was a little high for a non-rD race, but I'm at 28 1/2s right now so DL would be #29 and I figured w/ the 10th anniversary of the race and 60th of the parks what better way to celebrate a personal milestone as well so DL will be #30. The upside, it's in San Francisco which is always a beautiful place to run. It's along the Embarcadero so it's completely flat except for 1 little hill that while a little on the steep side, although not as steep as some I've run up there, is really short and we run out along the water passing Alcatraz and out to the Golden Gate Bridge. Not across the bridge, but I'm doing a 1/2 after NY and get to go across it so it's okay. We get some really nice swag too. Not only do we finish on the field, but the shirt is designed to look like a jersey, the medal is shaped like the World Series ring complete w/ a hole on the bottom to wear like a ginormous ring but we also get a Hunter Pence bobblehead. Oh! And free beer after. Not too shabby.

 

[kim3339]

So today's run went. I cut it short a couple of miles, b/c I couldn't take anything in. My stomach felt full like when you eat too much so even taking in water or Powerade was a struggle. Aside from no fuel, if I got an ounce of Powerade I'd be surprised and I still had a little water left in my 10oz bottle all the others were still full. Afterwards hasn't been much fun either, I feel like I ran the full already. My quads are really sore, and my whole body aches, I can just imagine what tomorrow will be like. I guess the one upside is that I was able to go as far as I did w/o anything, and I did go out and get miles in, but it was just a bad run. I know every run isn't going to be a good run, but I have such hopes for this race I want every run to go well.

Now on to work on my outfits for DDD! Oh I forgot to mention about upcoming races, signed up for Tink too so I have the 5k and PDC ready to go. It's the 5th, so hopefully it'll be big. Gotta keep my Perfect Pixie status up!

 

[kim3339]

Today is a rest day, yay!! Legs were okay on Sunday, could've been better but could've been worse too. I got to the gym and hopped on the bike a bit, nothing crazy just to get the lactic acid out.

This week is a little DDD practice so I have 2 tomorrow, 4 on Thur and 15 on Fri. Hitting the gym tomorrow, but not sure about Thur yet. 1st biggish run of the schedule and don't want to overload to early, but if I do go, it'll be upper body. No running or gym on Sat or Sun b/c it's DL time! Just a quick weekend trip down and back crack of dawn Mon morning. I wish it was longer, but it's enough time to get more pictures of the decorations and hopefully catch the fireworks from the Castle and Hub, and the new WOC. I figure if I can get those 3 in, I won't have to worry DDD weekend when I should be in bed sleeping. I probably should run Sun, but I figure I'll be walking around a ton and have the walk from the hotel to the parks so I'm good. And I get back early enough Mon morning that I can get a short run in, just no gym.

 

[LSUlakes]

Good luck on the 15 miler and enjoy your trip this weekend.