4/17: Rest and recuperation after my half marathon the day before. I slumped home after work then did my taxes. I should have foamed rolled while doing them.

4/18: Cafe Boulud with a friend. We saw Chef Boulud making the rounds to the VIP tables and I had a lovely conversation with the sommelier about young reds and fish pairings. Every dish was amazing. I had gone to Bar Boulud after the NYC Marathon and stuffed myself with oysters, cheese, and terrine. Cafe Boulud was a step above.

4/19: PureBarre in the AM and restorative yoga in the PM. I really wanted to get a few miles done in the evening but my left Achilles tendon was a bit tender. It started drizzling as I left yoga (which got out late), so that was even more impetus to skip. I’ve never done two classes in a day before, but this was the last day in my ClassPass cycle. I took my membership back down to 1 a month because 5 will be too much while I’m trying to increase the volume of my mileage more into the 20’s.

4/20: Speed Training, Week 2. I ran a hair over 2 miles to get to the meeting spot, another 2 mile warmup, then 3 1-mile repeats around tempo pace (8:54, 9:03, 8:39). My splits were super uneven because I took the second one too easy in the first 800, but my third was closer to my 5K pace. Then I jogged up the hill to get to a pizza party.

4/21: Rest day, as my Fridays almost always are.

4/22: I slept in past 8am (a first for many weekends) then had to hustle to bake Funfetti cookies for a baby shower, so I missed my opportunity for a shakeout run.

4/23: NYRR Run As One 4 Miler in Central Park. I DNS this race last year and haven’t raced a 4 Miler since the Japan Day Run almost a year ago (thanks to DNS Al Gordon in February), so I was pretty sure it was time for a 4-mile PR. My friend Jay who is normally in the E corral ahead of me generously offered to pace me. I didn’t have enough time to do a warm-up mile, so my first mile was really slow. I was hoping to get it at 9 but it was pretty congested going up Cat Hill. I let loose on the 2nd mile, then tried to rein it in just a bit on the 3rd mile. Then Jay helped me go all out on the 4th mile. For the last 800, I saw sub-7 on my watch. Very exciting stuff!

Afterward, I waited for my friend who’s training for the Buffalo Marathon and we ran an extra 4 miles.

Total: 16.9 miles plus yoga and barre.