May 2016 – East Coast Appetite

When I realized back in March that I maybe was really sort of mostly healed and could run again, I signed up for this race, hoping for redemption from the 2015 version. That day was a sweaty slog through 6.2 miles of humidity and strong sun (historical weather site says 75 and 71% humidity). This Saturday was luckily 68 degrees with 70% humidity. I was unprepared for the sun (time to start running with a visor?) but the temperature felt pleasant overall.

The view of Bethesda Terrace was very different than last week’s pouring rain and features many adorable off-leash dogs.

I arrived early (around an hour before the start) and got my on-demand bib very quick. I spent my last $3 cash on a blue Gatorade from a cart then checked my bag and ran into some friends and teammates. I forgot how big this race was and how far the start was from the race village. I headed to the corrals 16 minutes before the start and luckily met up with and spotted many similarly paced teammates. We had a nice little pod of 5 that started together and got called out by the announcer.

The first 5K went really well but I remember this also being the strongest part last year before I fell apart in the second half.

I eschewed water the first few miles which was probably unwise, but I really had to pee and was feeling quite hydrated already thanks to the first half of that blue Gatorade (blue is the only flavor I like, but either the regular or the frosty blue will do).

My first mile was slow as planned and I was very proud of my second and third miles because they still felt pretty loose and easy. My tangents were getting worse each mile from the tangents and running around people in the crowd so I tried to remind myself there would likely be an extra 0.2 total.

Screen Shot 2016-05-19 at 9.42.52 PM — My splits make a W shape but the grade-adjusted tell more of a story

The fourth mile is where the semi-struggle began. I knew I couldn’t hang on to my breezy lower 9:00 paces and there were lots of sunny spots, so I slowed my roll. I grabbed some water at each of the last 3 water stations and managed to dump some on the top of my head in the worst of the sun. After the Mile 5 marker, I knew I could push the pace a bit more and try to enjoy the rolling hills. Crowds increased on the South side of the park but it was mainly confused tourists hoping to cross the road. I sprinted in the last 0.2 in part because I saw a teammate and wanted to reel her in.

Happily reunited with teammates after collecting our medals

Overall, this UAE 10K went much better than last year’s where I had my worst 10K ever. I like this distance and am hoping to whittle down my PR for the Mini 10K next month. More reporting on my workouts (McMillan’s and otherwise) to come.

I’m going to be out of town this weekend and have the biggest Brooklyn Half FOMO. To everyone racing (and to those cheering), have so much fun! I hope to get in next year but might also volunteer for a guaranteed spot in 2018 (it feels so weird to type out dates that far in advance. Let’s figure out when I’m running this darn marathon first).

Now that I’m in better physical health and running semi-regularly again and racing, I feel very energized about the next few months of running. Jazzed, even. But I’m trying not to get ahead of myself, knowing that I need to prioritize preventing re-injury and trying to make it to the start of mid-July marathon training for NYCM, much less that November 6th actual date. I ran (haha) an analysis via my data on Strava and MapMyRun (which I used for a few years before getting my Garmin 220 in June 2015) to see what my highest weekly and monthly mileage is historically. I knew that my mileage never got as high as it should have been for any of my half marathons in 2015 due to both injury and falling off my training plans. I have a tendency to cut long runs short and skip that 3rd or 4th run of the week, even when uninjured. I also don’t document my cross-training particularly well digitally, but all those ClassPass spin sessions and strength at Blink lives on in my paper planners, Google Calendar, and vaguely in my memory. All of the apps are interconnected in that Garmin uploads to Strava and Strava uploads to MapMyRun and MyFitnessPal. I’m going to try to increase the inputting of my spin sessions going forward since FlyWheel tells you how many miles you biked.

For my paper planner, I bought a couple sets of these running and barbell stickers from FayeCreates’ Etsy. This is the only decoration my planner (a $15 one from Sugar Paper’s Target collection, I might add) receives. But it’s so satisfying to see an array of pastel running stick figures and weights fill up my calendar, especially now that I’m running more frequently. This is also where I let you all know that I’m fascinated by planner communities, having once been part of (but never posting to) the LiveJournal community for organizers and sometimes browsing the YouTube planner gurus.

The general update is that I DNS the Run As One 4 Miler.I was coming off a very busy week and hadn’t slept well that Friday night (the night before the night before the race is a crucial sleep night, right?) and was dogsitting Elle’s pup Bandit and just wasn’t feeling it. Had much more fun sleeping in and doing a brief run on my way to Smorgasburg with some runner friends in Prospect Park. I got to eat my beloved Outer Borough again, try some fries with duck confit on top, and sample a few flavors of Ooey Gooey Butter Cake. Still on my must-try list are Big Mozz’s mozzerella sticks, Jianbing, and Wowfulls. I think I can skip the rainbow cake, but let me know if it’s any good.

I did, however, end up completing the Japan Run on Sunday, May 8th. The skies opened up and poured down rain as I was picking up my bib at 7:15AM. A bunch of us hung out under the Bethesda Terrace and I ran into a PPTC Teammate then checked my bag and hid in the Meet Hello Kitty tent. Sadly, Hello Kitty didn’t appear until after the race and I wasn’t feeling very photogenic.

They let up for the first couple miles of the race, then began pouring again during the final mile. My third mile had been slower than I planned and I knew I was no longer in the running for a PR (had been feeling hopeful after the first 2 miles but my fitness just isn’t there yet). I had to remove my glasses and put them in my jacket pocket because they became too foggy and streaky for me to see. I managed not to run into any fellow racers since my vision isn’t too bad, and had a great sprint finish. NYRR and MarathonFoto did not capture any pictures of me (probably for the best). There was a guy running with his long hair down and in only a leopard-print Speedo who passed me on the third mile. I had hoped to be in some of his pictures but didn’t make it.

My next race is the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K. I had originally wanted this to be a PR attempt, but I think I’m going to instead shoot for the Mini 10K on June 11th instead. That’ll give me enough time to increase my long, slow runs and also try some of the mile repeat 10K workouts from McMillan. I’ll be gambling with the weather but am hoping to be out there more often in heat and humidity in the next month anyway. I feel like my barre and strength classes and spin are helping me get stronger (I kind of love forearm plank pushups now?), so we will see.

Month: May 2016

UAE Healthy Kidney 10K Recap

Training and General Update Post and brief Japan Day Run race recap