I took the plunge and bought NYRR’s Virtual Trainer. I was already planning to use Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 as well as my running club’s marathon training schedule and weekly speedwork, but I really like having something so customizable. After inputting my recent race times from this spring and my current amount of running AND the fact that I’ve had a soft tissue injury in the last year (sigh), the trainer spit out a time goal for NYCM of 4:37-4:45. I’m not going to lie, my original time goal was sub-4:30, but I think this makes a lot of sense given all of those confounding factors. I’d only been running 3 days a week (plus spin and barre) this spring and am still very cautious of getting injured again. The great thing is that I update my paces and distances and times into the virtual trainer and it will update my goal.
Monday 7/18: Off day and I mean really off. I drove to DC (well, Northern Virginia) and popped by. Pacers Running to peruse hand-held water bottles. I ended up buying a new Camelback water bottle for my gym/class workouts (my favorite one from the Nike Womens Half has some mildew) and a Virginia is for Runners shirt. (Our old tourism state motto was Virginia is for Lovers). Then I took a long bus ride back to NYC and had most of a slice of Artichoke’s pepperoni pizza for dinner. Off day, y’all.
Tuesday 7/19: I skipped the 6am speed workout with the team but did 3 miles total with some soccer field laps for speed solo. Easy and breezy and way less hot and humid than my Sunday run. As the first official workout of training, I was very pleased, though I should have made it closer to 4 or 5.
Wednesday 7/20: 4.4 miles with part of a park loop. Not too hot at all despite it being closer to 9am (weird work schedule some days).
Thursday 7/21: Accidental off day. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Friday 7/22: HIIT workout with Gabby at the Propel Lab. For almost an hour, we cycled through different bodyweight exercises and cardio plus some 250m repeats on the Erg. Fortunately, they supplied us all Propel electrolyte water and a sweat towel. After collapsing on our mats, we headed downstairs for a nice breakfast, complete with smoothies and a braid bar. I’m so glad the nice folks at Propel let the bloggers bring a friend! I had glute and ab DOMS the rest of the weekend. The swag bag is the perfect gym bag, too.
Saturday 7/23: 8 mile long run solo. It was hot, so I took it very slow and steady. I stopped a lot at water fountains and didn’t pause my watch so most of the miles were around 11:00 min mile. I did take a stretch break (ahh, the DOMS!) by the lake for a hot second.
Sunday 7/24: 4.5 mile run for food. We were on city streets and it was pretty sunny, so I reached new levels of face sweat with my visor on. Had a watermelon slushie, jian bing, a couple crab soup dumplings, and a mango smoothie after.
Total miles: 20 (out of 22 recommended by virtual trainer).
East Coast Appetite 
Jealous of all the delicious food you had on Sunday. Wish I could have joined you guys.
I’m definitely down for another trip to Fei Long! Or a long run to Flushing for New World Mall Food Court…
Oh, New World Mall Food Court! I haven’t been there in ages. I used to go to Flushing more often when I lived in Astoria.
Yay, training updates! That’s so nice that the NYRR trainer actually factors in your injury history along with your current mileage.
Never say never about sub-4:30, esp. if you run a decent half as a predictor in training. With a 2:09 half PR before my first full, I expected around 4:30 and ran 4:27. I didn’t have a Garmin then, but I figured HM time + 10ish minutes was maybe a reasonable guestimate of how long it would take me. I just wore a cheap Target stopwatch and only remember looking at it at the halfway point and at mile 20.
Also, I’m already starting to get some real FOMO about not cheering for you in person!
I’m trying to take it sloowwww as recommended and get most of the miles in then adjust my expectations closer to race day/just make it to the starting line. always love to hear about your progress! and hopefully doing some of 12 miles with me in Chitown will help tamp down your FOMO.