NYCM Training: IT'S ALMOST HERE!!! aka Week 17 of 18

Holy moly! I'll have run the NYC Marathon by this time NEXT WEEK!!! With any luck, I'll have also stretched, taken an ice bath, showered, downed a beer or two (accompanied by loads of food, DUH), and hopefully have kept both of my legs intact following the marathon. I'm really hoping to be able to walk down the stairs with minimal pain after just one day instead of last time's two days...

But first! Week two of tapering, aka week 17 in the training:

• Monday: sick day
• Tuesday: 4 mile run
• Wednesday: sick day
• Thursday: 5 mile run
• Friday: rest
• Saturday: 3 mile run
• Sunday: 8 mile run

Total mileage: 20. Pas mal, as the French would say. I'm quite all right with it considering I was sick. As I mentioned in my last post, as fun as Boston was, it decided to give me a lovely cold as a souvenir. Really, Boston, the 2011 HOCR shirt was enough, but thanks for being so considerate! Ugh. Needless to say, I felt quite awful for a number of days this week, but I wasn't hacking up a lung (the cold seemed to just stay up in my head, which was very nice of it) so I kept running. I'd planned on running four times a week instead of five during the taper when my leg started acting up, and with a cold on top of it, it all kind of seemed to work out. 

The weekday runs were unexciting and were all done on a treadmill -- not ideal! I went home to Alexandria, Va., for the weekend, and while Saturday's run was also done on a treadmill, the day was made more exciting by a Halloween party my friends Lani and J threw in Northern Virginia. Naturally, I dressed up as a pirate:

I'm MARRRRRgaret!

I've never been a pirate for Halloween. As my brother Tom remarked, "Amazing that this costume took 20 some years to figure out." True. I actually figured it out in May when I was on my annual girlfriends trip with Lani and Emily, and they suggested it! Clearly, I am not the most creative when it comes to costumes, which is why I leave it to my friends to help me out. I'm not usually one to love Halloween, but having a costume that I liked did make it more fun!

Sunday I had my last long run of training. It snowed on Saturday in Alexandria, so I was a little worried about the weather for the weekend. But Sunday was absolutely beautiful -- and ideal for a marathon! Let's hope NYC gets the message and delivers perfect race conditions on Sunday!

I planned on taking this run easy and getting in a few miles at race pace, but I felt way too good and ended up having a pretty speedy run:

• Mile 1 - 9:15
• Mile 2 - 9:07
• Mile 3 - 8:50
• Mile 4 - 8:41
• Mile 5 - 8:31
• Mile 6 - 8:38
• Mile 7 - 8:40
• Mile 8 - 8:57

Total time: 

1:10:39, for an average of 8:50/mile. AWESOME.

The views weren't too bad either:

Falllll foliage!

Pretty colors

Seriously, how gorgeous?!

It's kind of funny, almost all of my 8-mile runs have been in the 1:10-1:11 range during this marathon training. Which is good, of course, but also kind of frustrating -- am I just running at a comfortable pace? Should I be pushing myself more? This close to the marathon, pushing myself definitely NOT a very smart idea, but it's giving me something to think about next time around -- I think I can improve, and could spend some more time on speed rather than running along on what's comfortable.

ANYWAY! Last week of training! Big plans? Nope! Tomorrow I'm taking it easy, Tuesday I've got a deep tissue massage session, Wednesday is girls night with college friends, and Thursday is the NY Flyers pasta party! I've never attended a pre-race pasta party, but BART YASSO is going to be at this one and I think it's going to be worth it just for that! (However, I had a dream that he canceled at the last minute and was replaced by some "famous" coxswain...this is what happens when two sports collide!) Oh, and the pasta. Duh. Carbo-loading is KEY in the last taper week. 

So, goals for the week:

1. Sleep. Get lots and lots of sleep. Rest as much as possible.
2. Hydrate. Drink loads of water, keep taking Emergen-C, etc.
3. Eat well. Complex carbohydrates are important, but so are fruits, veggies, etc. I'm going to try to eat realllly well this week!
4. Stay positive. Corny as it sounds, I plan on visualizing the race as much as I can. And filling my week with fun (but not too rowdy!) events and activities. 
5. Did I mention sleep?

A little more about staying positive -- on my run on Sunday I thought a lot about the marathon. I kind of took the 8 mile run as a mini-practice for the race -- I tried to keep my face relaxed (i.e. no squinting) when I ran in the sun; I reminded myself to keep my shoulders back and loose; I reminded myself to ease into the pace and start out a bit more relaxed in my pace; I reminded myself of how good it is to just RUN and how much I love it. 

Notice a pattern with any of these reminders? There's no use of negative words -- slow, don't, shouldn't, etc. Something I learned as a coxswain was to reduce the amount of negative words in what I say because the rowers won't hear the "don't"; they'll hear the "dip your hands at the catch". So instead of saying "DON'T start out too fast," I'm going to tell myself "DO start at a more relaxed pace." See what I'm doing there? Tricky, tricky!

With that, I should probably follow my own advice and hit the hay. I might even pop in with a midweek post to keep my mind occupied and not filled with nerves. 

If you have any awesome race mantras, I'd love to hear them!

Here's to the very last week of training for the New York City Marathon!

One of those days...

Today was just one of those days. Despite the fact that I knew it would be snowing outside, it was (relatively) easy to get out of bed, but I was sore from total body conditioning on Tuesday and just had a feeling it was going to be one of those days where I wouldn't go very fast. On a speed interval day. Grrreat! (Note the sarcasm.)

It was darker than this when I went outside to head to the gym (no outdoor running today, but I usually treadmill it up during the week), but this was what I found outside my door this morning on my way to work:

 

Quite a sight, eh? Unfortunately, nothing could motivate my legs to move any faster on the treadmill this morning - not even the blizzard I knew would be waiting for me post-gym!

My training plan called for a five-mile speed interval run with a one-mile warm-up, and alternating between one mile at 8:52 pace and half-mile jogs, followed by a one-mile cooldown. Since I was feeling a bit sluggish, I decided to change it up, alternating between a half-mile at 8:52 pace (about 6.8 mph on the treadmill) and a quarter-mile jog (I warmed up, cooled down and did my jogs at 5.5 mph. I tried to do it at 5.8 mph and it was just too quick for me today!).

Since one of my goals during this training is to get outside my comfort zone (more on that in a future post) and push myself a little harder, I figured it was probably a good thing that my legs weren't in the mood to move very fast. It would be a challenge, and it was a challenge I was up for!

The great thing about speed intervals is that they make the time go by really quickly on the treadmill. I had my usual CNN's American Morning on the treadmill's TV, which always does a great job of (a) passing the time and (b) informing me on what's happening in the world, but there's something about varying the speed that helps the time go by even faster. Slow as my legs felt, those 50 minutes flew by and before I knew it I was on my way home!

If you're looking for a way to spice up your workouts, try doing intervals. Not only will they help you pass the time, but they'll help improve your speed, too. For the higher speed, try a pace that's a little bit uncomfortable for you but one that you can sustain for about a half-mile. This is something that I'll be working on a lot during my training for both the half-marathon and the Chicago marathon so you'll be reading more about it!

I know that we all have those days where we feel sluggish and slow (even my superfast marathon-running boss said he's been feeling a bit sluggish lately!), but by showing up at the gym and pushing through that feeling, we might be surprised by what we can accomplish. I know I certainly was today!

A little bit of background...

I have always believed that I was not physically built to run. Believe me, I tried when I was little, and I just couldn't do it. I was a skinny little kid and always found myself out of breath at the end of the mile you had to run in P.E. (though that may have had something to do with living in the desert of Saudi Arabia...). I thought I had asthma and was even told so by a doctor! When I moved to the U.S. at age 14 and our P.E. grade depended on how fast we ran the mile, I opted to walk the mile for a grade since I knew I could not run.

Luckily, before I hit college anyway, my genes were good enough that I could eat whatever I wanted, not do any form of physical activity, and still stay pretty small. In high school when we had to do some activity every season, I did the fall play, the winter musical, and was a coxswain for rowing in the spring (coxswains sit in the back of the boat - we don't row).

In college I rarely went to the gym, and when I did I would go on the elliptical for 30 minutes. I tried the treadmill a few times, but decided it was My Worst Enemy and I would never go on it again.

Fast forward to post-graduate life - I work at a desk job where I'm sitting for 9+ hours a day, I live with a roommate who goes to the gym religiously, and I continue to eat cupcakes and cookies whenever I feel like it! I felt pretty awesome, eating whatever I wanted and not gaining (too much...) weight, but I noticed that I had some trouble areas and got winded walking up the two flights of stairs to my apartment. Like a lot of companies, my company offers a discount at the New York Sports Club. I figured, why not? My dad just told me to MAKE SURE I USE IT!!! and so I decided to try running. My roommate did it, my boss was a marathoner, and another coworker had just started running, so what can I say? I was surrounded by inspiration to give it a go.

My first run? Half a mile at 5.0 mph, which I could barely sustain. Everybody's got to start somewhere though, right? But the pain...ohhh the pain! The leg pain was terrible. Since I must be some sort of masochist (all rowers and runners must be, to some degree), I decided to keep going. Increase the distance, go with what was comfortable, but build up my lungs and just keep running.

Half a mile turned into a mile, which led to two miles, then three, and the realization that hey, I could maybe run a 5k now! So I signed up for one. I ran the George Washington Parkway Memorial 5k in Virginia in 29:24. Not too shabby for a first-timer! I was ecstatic and instantly addicted to the feeling of racing.

My next goal was a half-marathon in September in Queens. I logged onto Runner's World and used their SmartCoach tool to come up with a training schedule for me. I followed it religiously - a mistake, I have to say - putting off social events because I just HAD to do this run the next day. It was an unhealthy entrance into the racing world, but I definitely learned a LOT from that experience. I ended up running the half-marathon in 2:06:38, which I was more than pleased with!

In November I volunteered at the NYC Marathon on the course, handing out Gatorade at mile 20. THAT gave me the marathon bug. This year, I became a member of New York Road Runners and plan on doing the 9+1 program that will give me guaranteed entry into the 2011 NYC Marathon. I do plan on running a marathon in 2010 though - either the Marine Corps Marathon or the Chicago Marathon.

This blog will follow my training for the marathon, races before that, background on my previous experiences, and anything I learn along the way. I hope you enjoy the journey with me...and maybe get some inspiration to run along the way!