Richmond Marathon – Page 2 – East Coast Appetite

Week 6 of Richmond Marathon Training, 8/28 – 9/3

September 7, 2017April 9, 2019Posted in Colorado, Race Recaps, Richmond Marathon, Running, TrainingTagged 7K, Broncos 7K, Colorado, distance running, Marathon Training, Richmond Marathon, Running, Training4 Comments

So this was supposed to be a build-up week of 36 Sunday-Saturday miles, but I hit over that last week. Due to this and my vacation at altitude, I decided to make it a cutback week. I know, 6 weeks into the program and I’m being a real renegade here.

8/28: Unplanned rest day. I was feeling beat up physically from such a tough but awesome Saturday, especially with shorter miles Friday (my usual rest day) and Sunday.

8/29: 5 easy miles @ 10:52 pace on the treadmill at the gym. It was raining all afternoon and evening and I was just not feeling a soggy run after traipsing around Flushing and my neighborhood in the rain. My feet were already wet and cold.

8/30: 2 miles with the beer running group. We were taking photos to be part of the leader’s Airbnb Experiences, so after the staging of the photos and then drinking a beer, I was out of time to get a loop of the park in before my fantasy football draft. This is my 6th season playing and I’m trying to score some winnings here. So I ran home.

8/31: Flight to Denver and lots of walking around. Got some cool new hiking tights at REI, ate some delicious food, and tried a ton of local brews.

9/1: Rocky Mountain National Park tour

9/2: 13+ mile long run with Kate who was in town and planned out a beautiful route through 3 of the city’s parks: City Park, Cheesman Park, and Washington Park. We started before 6:30am so it was nice to be done by 9am and escape some of the heat. Apparently NYC was cool and rainy over much of Labor Day weekend, but Denver was 90+.

I had lunch at Biker Jim’s Gourmet Hot Dogs, where I got to try both reindeer and bison hot dogs. And some fried macaroni and cheese bites. And some prickly pear soda. After 13.25 miles, I was hungry.

9/3: Broncos 7K with/thanks to Laura. She had put a code on her site for this race and I realized that the race totally worked for my schedule, so we got in touch to meet up after. I ended up in the B Corral based on my proposed 10K time (I had no hopes of replacing my 8:00 5K time from last week but was shooting for high 8’s). I ran 2.5 miles from my hotel to the start, then we were off…uphill.

As you can see, I took it slow then hoped to pick up the pace in the later miles. This was day 4 at altitude, so I was more confident that my lungs wouldn’t explode but still a bit worried. The finish along the tunnel was really cool, too! We bopped around the expo after to grab some swag. The line to meet Denver Broncos players was very long, so that was skippable since I don’t currently have any of their players on my fantasy team.

Then off to Evergreen for a wedding with the best food ever. 6 different mini desserts, a make your own Smores bar, and a 20 pound peach and huckleberry pie.

Total: 27.5 Mon-Sun miles plus some light hiking. No altitude sickness, though!

Week 5 of Richmond Marathon Training, 8/21-8/27

August 30, 2017August 29, 2017Posted in Race Recaps, Richmond Marathon, Running, TrainingTagged 5K, marathon, Marathon Training, Races, Richmond Marathon, Running, Training2 Comments

Freudian slip on my original post last week when I called it “Week 4 of NYC Marathon Training”. Whoops! Obviously I ran NYC last year and did the NYRR 9+1 this year for entry to the 2018 NYC Marathon, but this year the plan is to run Richmond.

8/21: RunCommutes are back! 6.4 miles home from work with my usual Lululemon ‘Run From Work’ backpack, very lightly filled. I missed my usual turn and cut through Commodore Barry Park and Fort Greene Parks.

8/22: Rest day

8/23: Loop around the park, walk to the bar, then run home from the bar. 6ish miles total.

8/24: Rest day

8/25: 4 easy treadmill miles in the AM. This is the first Friday I’ve run since May? June?

8/26: The most productive running day of my life. 1 mile warm up, then setting a new 5K PR at the Percy Sutton Harlem 5K, then running almost 10 miles through Central Park, down the West Side, and almost to the Governor’s Island ferry (but had to stop at the ATM first).

Screen Shot 2017-08-28 at 8.24.33 PM — Proud of my splits

I grabbed my stuff, decided to forego the free tshirt, and strapped on my new backpack (Gregory Maya 16) then headed out with a friend from my beer drinking running group.

14 miles even for the morning (I think) though my watch died at 9.3 and my running buddy forgot to restart his after we paused and we lost 0.3 then we stopped it before I had to SPRINT to the ferry, blue Gatorade in hand. I found my friends and we rented a 5-person surrey to ride around the island. Even after a big lunch and afternoon coffee, I was exhausted but somehow rallied to make it outside again later for frosé and beer with friends.

8/27: 3 recovery miles in Brooklyn Bridge Park after walking 2 miles to donate my bicycle in DUMBO.

Total: 33 miles! My Sunday-Saturday total was 36.6 out of a recommended 34 miles.

Week 4 of Richmond Marathon Training, 8/14 – 8/20

August 22, 2017August 23, 2017Posted in ClassPass, Food, Richmond Marathon, Running, TrainingTagged Marathon Training, NYRR Virtual Trainer, Running, Training, Yelp Elite3 Comments

This was supposed to be a cutback week to 28 miles from last week’s buildup, but as I mentioned, I got sick last week and missed a day. So I decided to shoot for 5 days of running this week regardless and call it a building week. But then I only got 4 in.

8/14: 5.6 treadmill miles at Mile High Run Club’s The Distance class. I had a really great class even though it was a different instructor than usual. I tried to play around with the paces and not worry about overall miles covered. I struggled to get it under 7:00 minute mile on the final sprint but mainly was cruising along at faster than usual speeds.

8/15: After 3 days of running in a row, I was glad to have a rest day. I went to a Yelp Elite Event at the new Brooklyn location of Jane and it was amazing. Great cocktails, oysters, and the best fried cauliflower I’ve ever had (so, er, that makes it the best cauliflower I’ve ever had). Go figure, it’s listed on the menu as Amazing Cauliflower.

36470197491_d1032652dd_z — House Cocktail for the evening

36470197301_d2c1633f2f_z — Amazing Cauliflower

36470196891_a1d7aa000f_o — Definitely talking about Game of Thrones

8/16: 2 miles warm up, 3.1 miles attempting but failing to hit goal half marathon pace/current 10K pace during the final Al Goldstein Summer Speed Series 5K in Prospect Park.

8/17: AM climbing at Brooklyn Boulders. I’m not belay certified there yet, so this was just bouldering. I managed a V1 but have a lot of work to go to get back to where I was at my rock climbing peak last year.

8/18: I was hoping to get in a few AM miles but there were relentless thunderstorms all morning and again at night. On the plus side, I had an amazing food day all over Brooklyn.

Avocado toast and a chai latte at Cocoa Grinder in Bay Ridge for breakfast

Lamb and more lamb at Yemen Cafe in Bay Ridge for lunch

House-made pasta (gnudi for me) and burrata/prosciutto at Aurora for dinner

8/19: 11.23 miles long run with the group to Summer Streets.

8/20: 6.4 miles including 2 track miles @ 5K pace, plus 2.3 miles warm up and 2 miles cool down back home. It was sunny but a lot cooler than Saturday, so I’m glad this worked out.

Total: 28.4 miles out of a prescribed 27. Actually for real getting into the 30’s next week, eek.

Week 3 of Richmond Marathon Training, 8/7-8/13

August 16, 2017June 13, 2018Posted in Richmond Marathon, Training1 Comment

This was supposed to be a pretty big build-up in miles to 32 which is almost where I was at my peak last year. But I succumbed to a cold on Wednesday and didn’t get a 5th run in.

8/7: The Distance at Mile High Run Club. I started a little late and only got 5.2 miles in (usually do 5.4-5.6) but figured the stretching and foam-rolling component after was more important than that extra bit.

8/8: Full Body at RowHouse Chelsea with my friend Tanya. I used to go to RowHouse fairly often when I first started with ClassPas and during my big injuries of winter 2015 but hadn’t been in ages. The row portion was great, but the squats (and planks and maybe the backward lunges) damn near killed me.

8/9: Sick day. I knew running would make my congestion and sore throat worse, so I hunkered down at home. I felt a bit better at night and kept my ticket to see The Sisters of Comedy show at Caroline’s on Broadway. My friend grabbed Chik-Fil-A nuggets for dinner.

8/10: 4 miles on the treadmill at night after a work event @ a 10:30 pace. Then I set my baseline for an upcoming Push-up Challenge at work. I was able to do 18 unbroken (no rests) push-ups on my knees. I think my no-knees number would not have topped 5. I’m excited to build this up in the coming weeks.

8/11: Planned rest day. I was tempted to do the Fireworks Group Run to Coney Island but was still pretty sick, so stayed in and watched Sicario.

8/12: 10 miles to Summer Streets and maybe my favorite PPTC group run ever. I ran around 0.8 miles on the way to the meeting point at the park but my watch hadn’t caught a signal yet, so I ignored it in favor of a solid 10 with the group. We kept a fairly steady 10:30-11:00 pace, though Garmin and Strava freaked out with all the tall buildings as usual. So I did 10 miles in 1:48:52, not 10.6.

8/13: As mentioned earlier, Sundays are the first day of the week on NYRR Virtual Trainer (they said they can’t change this for a Saturday goal race, but the end of my week on Strava/in my mind. So I’m planning to keep them as a 6-8 mile recovery run after Saturday Long Runs, but I’m sure I’ll have to switch a few.

This was a surprise 8 miles for me. The route included both Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges again plus the mile to GAP. I think it would only be 5-6 miles if I ran straight from home. But I was feeling good and knew I could push through to a full 8.

Total: 28 miles (actually less because Strava gave me extra bits but then I had a watchless 0.8 miles on Saturday so actually more.)

Richmond Marathon Training Week 2, 7/31 – 8/6

August 10, 2017August 9, 2017Posted in NYC, Race Recaps, Richmond Marathon, Running, Tennis, TrainingTagged 5 Miler, NYRR Virtual Trainer, Races, Richmond Marathon, Running, Tennis, Training6 Comments

Holy crap, it’s August!

7/31: Cross-training with tennis. More drills (I think my backhand is getting pretty good), more time to work on my atrocious serve. I’m nowhere near being ready to play against anyone, but am hoping that with more time, lessons, drills, and practice, that I could actually play next year.

8/1: I was heading to NYRR Open Run but decided to see if the new Park Slope Blink Fitness location was open and lo and behold, it was. And there were treadmills available. I did 4 easy miles while watching Teen Jeoaprdy! and quietly shouting out the answers.

8/2: Unexpected rest day because the Al Goldstein Summer Speed Series 5K #6 was canceled due to thunderstorms. My friends and I got delivery from Emily (their Emily pizza is in my top 5), stuffed croissants from Union Fare, and some fruit pies from Petee’s Pie Company.

8/3: Surprise mid-week 9 mile long run. I got out of a work training at NYU Langone Hospital early, so I put all my stuff into a locker at a Blink location (going to the gym twice in a week?!) then headed out along the East River. I was feeling good and the weather was perfect, so I knew I wanted to run more than 6 miles. I figured that since it would be likely raining on Saturday before/during/after Team Champs, I may as well get the miles in so I wouldn’t have to worry about adding extra on.

My favorite water fountain and seal fountain sculptures in the LES

I turned around at 4.5 miles exactly in between the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge. Strava was being weird and generous and gave me an extra 0.2, but the wild loops around the piers to get extra miles in are all me. The 8:42’s are not quite right. I also had to do a lot of weird mini loops at the end of the East River path near 40th St. I’m hoping to do the East side from 59th St. up soon, but am happy to skip the 40’s and 50’s because there is no path.

8/4: Rest day. I thought about doing a few miles at the gym after work but picked up my bib then made it out to the grocery store and that was it. Had Burger Garage for lunch and was full for a long time. Burgers, sweet potato fries, and cookies & cream milkshakes aren’t really conducive to working out.

8/5: Team Champs 5 Miler in Central Park.

Due to severe thunderstorms in the morning (I woke up early to the sound of thunderclaps and rain on my air conditioner), the men’s race was pushed to 8am and the women’s to 8:45am. I did a solo 1 mile warmup after cheering for the guys near the start. It was pretty humid, as is normal in August, so 1 mile felt sufficient, though I had hoped for two.

20621031_10214338156588179_5534766248926305585_n — Where’s Waldo at the start?

I tried to pace myself just a bit faster than my 10K pace from June at the Queens 10K

20615827_10105383344182024_5269106451971279035_o — Having a great final mile

I had a miserable 4th mile and stopped for water at each stop, then caught up to my teammate LP. She had her earbuds in so we didn’t really speak, but we sped up for the final mile and the part past our teammates together. I got a wave of nausea at the 4.85 mark, but managed to hold off.

8/6: 7 easy miles including a park loop in my PureFlows. This is the longest run I’ve worn them for because I’m hoping to make them my speed shoes for 5K/10K at most, but things felt pretty good in them.

Total: 26.7 miles. It’s only 0.6 miles less than last week, but I know it was supposed to be a few miles more (and that last week was supposed to be a few miles fewer). Next week (week 3) is supposed to be the first above 30.

Week 1 of Richmond Marathon Training 7/24-7/30

August 4, 2017August 3, 2017Posted in Richmond Marathon, Running, TrainingTagged marathon, nyrr, NYRR Open Run, NYRR Virtual Trainer, Richmond Marathon, Tennis, Training2 Comments

Yeah, y’all read that right. I’m now 80% sure that I’m going to try to run a marathon this fall. This % has ranged from 10% back in January all the way up to where it is now. It’s been a wild ride mentally. I was still 50-50 on the issue back in early July but then I repurchased the NYRR Virtual Trainer on a whim on the 12th after playing around with the inputs on the 11th. I was on a Conservative plan last year for the New York City Marathon but wanted something with higher mileage this time around since I’m not coming off of injury and had a pretty solid spring racing season with a decent base of summer miles (and hit some time goals). I’m now on the Moderate 16-week plan which will have me running more consistently into the 30’s and up to the low 40 mpw. This would be a 10-20% increase from last year’s training for the NYC Marathon.

The Virtual Trainer begins its weeks on Sundays but I’ve been mentally starting mine on Mondays, so I’m going to keep up that convention here on the blog. That should also help couch weeks like this past one where I did my previous week’s long run on Saturday but the current week’s had been on a Sunday.

On with the mileage!

7/24: Tennis clinic then on to a Filipino kamayan feast seen below from Ugly Kitchen for J’s birthday. Then we went to Snowdays and I split the Made in Taiwan for dessert. They were out of grass jelly so I got Captain Crunch cereal on it instead (along with mochi and a condensed milk drizzle all on a base of green tea snow cream). It was perfect! No pictures because I ate it all too fast.

7/25: 2 mile to Open Run, then 3.1 at increasing tempo pace. I got to run with NYRR President Peter Ciaccia for a good chunk of it and we talked about some NYRR races. I was a little starstruck but he was very friendly and chill.

20264799_10155520946232641_5443176211184613842_n — This is what happens when I wear the Ghosts and try for speed

7/26: 4 easy miles in Prospect Park later at night after trying out sushiritos and sushi nachos from Sushirito on 23rd Street with E early on (pictured below). Sylvan Esso was playing at the Bandshell and there was also a showing of The Sandlot so it was cool to have some ambiant noise and more people around.

7/27: NYRR R-U-N 5K in Central Park and a 2 mile warmup. The humidity crept back up after a lovely Tuesday and Wednesday, so I was alsresdt getting very warm and sweaty during my warm-up. I tried to take the first mile easy but not too easy which ended up being an 8:05 pace. This is faster than my PR pace, so whoops. The second mile felt rough and I had to slow down. I regret not getting water after the first mile marker but managed to grab some after the second. By that point, Cat Hill had already happened and my breathing wasn’t great. My final half mile was at a great pace but the rest was a struggle.

They gave out popsicles after and I was all about that. My final time was 25:35, which is a 2-second PR. I’ll take it, considering the weather and that my 25:37 previous PR from June 7th was in conditions 20 degrees cooler and less humid. I’m probably not done with this distance yet for this year.

7/28: Rest day but I managed to have Chipotle for lunch and Shake Shack for dinner with a lot of rosé in between.

7/29: 4.7 miles around noon due to feeling the effects of the previous night’s drinks and 11pm Shackburger and Concrete. I was so glad that I went out at all and felt much better afterward, thanks in part to some extra blue Gatorade laying around the fridge. Then I hightailed it to Long Island City to meet up with out-of-town friends to try some beer at local breweries.

7/30: 8.3 miles over the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge with Chaya. I didn’t get a smoothie after so I’m already off from my goal of doing that after each marathon training long run. My plan called for 8 but we just hit so many lights that I was growing annoyed trying to add another 0.2 to make it more even.

Total mileage: 27.4 miles and some tennis (plan called for 26 miles).