Rogue 20

My long runs lately have been very bi-polar. Either they are great and I feel encouraged, or the last 5-6 miles are a struggle and I wonder how I'll ever get through 26.2 on November 6th. I had originally planned to run the Bronx Half Marathon, and maybe even try and push it a little bit and put in a race effort. Well, as I'm sure you've all heard, not only did NY feel the aftershock of an earthquake in Virginia earlier this week, but had a hurricane this weekend too! With the race being canceled, I knew I had to run my 18 miles. And the way it worked out, I was alone, and dreading it. It didn't help either that I was super stressed about impending hurricane and only got about 6 hours sleep.

I had planned an all Brooklyn route that had a few options, depending on how I felt. Here's the route I ended up taking.

I broke up my 18 miles into 3 chunks, the first 6 miles, the middle 6, and finishing the last 6 strong. I was also focused on taking my 3 gels every 4.5-5.5 miles. The first 6 were pretty uneventful, I felt pretty good the first 3-4, but started to feel the effects of my light breakfast so I took my first gel. The middle 6 were mostly in Prospect Park, which is also when I started listening to music. Man, no matter how many times I go up Zoo Hill, it seems to always get me, especially at mile 12! I tried to use all my hill techniques, but still need to work on running hills on tired legs. I felt really strong heading down Ocean Parkway for my final miles. My legs were a bit tired, but I was so happy that I was feeling good, so I thought maybe I'd tack on an extra mile or two to make it a nice round 20 for the weekend. Of course, a few minutes later I started getting this stabbing lower stomach pain. It took me a minute to realize, gee, maybe your hydration belt is a little too tight?! By the time the pain subsided I was probably at mile 17 or so, and decided just to go home and call it a day. It also didn't help that as I was a block away from home   it just started to downpour. I was a little disappointed that I stopped at 18, but who am I kidding, that's what was on my training schedule!

Fast forward to a shower and putting on some nice dry clothes, I went to map out my route for the day so I could upload it to Dailymile.com. Now, as you probably have noticed, I keep saying I ran 18 miles, but when I mapped out my route, it mapped out to EXACTLY 20. I'm not quite sure how my Garmin "lost" 2 miles, I noticed the mapping was pretty spot on with my Garmin until around the time I got to Prospect Park.

Regardless of the reason, I'm going with the map on this one. So I guess I ran my first 20 miler of the year!

Marathon Pace

Last nights workout was fairly simple. A warm up mile, and then five at marathon pace. Although I am slightly embarrassed to admit this, I will say it with pride. Last year I ran the Philly marathon at an 11:00 pace. A lot of that was because of stopping/walking towards the end, but right now, I'm not sure I can run that pace. I know I am no longer a 4:50 marathoner.

So when this workout came up on the training plan I was really excited. Except for the fact I had no idea what my "marathon pace" was. I found the Squatch on gchat and asked him what he thought I should be running. 9:45? 9:30? He was satisfied that this was a good starting place, though he thought I could run the marathon faster. (Not entirely a surprise) This puts me in place to be a 4:09 - 4:15 marathoner, which if I can be honest, makes me want to pee my running shorts in excitement. I don't want to get cocky or over confident, but just the thought that I can/could/will run a 4:15 marathon gives me all the motivation I need to bust my ass during every single workout. Of course my goals will likely change a million and one times between now and November 6th, but this is my starting place.

So how did the workout go? Well, first off, the day before I had participated in a special workout called "Warrior Wednesdays"....which is basically an hour of squats, lunges, step ups, push ups, tricep dips, and various core exercises. Needless to say I was very sore. As if that wasn't enough, I had been dealing with some calf cramps/spasms Tuesday night that had left me feeling very sore and tight.

So, how did the workout go? Well, let's just say despite the fact that my legs felt like absolute crappity crap, I hit my numbers exactly. 9:42/9:39/9:40/9:44/9:32. One good workout doesn't mean much more than one bad one at this point, but it was nice to finish the workout knowing I am exactly where I need to be.

Ask me!

Okay, as I'm sure you guys can tell I've been in a bit of a blogging rut lately. Although I really want to be updating this at least twice a week...I've been feeling like I don't have much to talk about. So, this is where you, my beloved readers, come in!


I've noticed a lot of people find this blog by googling phrases like,


"best hotel to stay for philadelphia marathon" 
I stayed at the Philadelphia Sofitel and it was great! Close to the start, and they gave you marathon key cards that you kept as souvenirs. 
or


"is the philadelphia marathon a hard race to accomplish"
Well, I think running 26.2 is not easy by nature, but I don't think the course was hard, per say. The last half is pretty flat.
or 


"full marathon i feel like giving up"
No! Please don't do that! You'll never get your medal and that mylar blanket!!


And my personal favorite:
"dont feel ready for half marathong" (sic)
 To which all I can say is, trust in your training my friend.


So, now I asking you, dear readers, what do you want to ask me? The questions can really be about almost anything, I'm curious to see what you all want to know!

Breaking the 13.1 Barrier...one year later

Believe it or not, this run was something I had been looking forward to for at least a month---my first 14 mile run of my NYCM training. To me mentally this just signifies the fact that I am training myself for something big. And although this wasn't a great run, I ended it feeling very strong, and that was definitely more encouraging than worrying about my pace.

Firstly, I must thank my stomach. I've never considered myself to have an overly sensitive stomach, though too much dairy (or fried food since I don't eat it often) tends to make it unhappy, I feel like I can eat pretty much anything. My long run routes tend to focus on where I'll end, and more importantly, what can I get to eat there? So I decided to run up Ocean Parkway, to Prospect Park and do two loops. I knew by the time I ran to Bagel Delight I'd be done. I was really craving some chocolate milk in my last mile of this run, and I was praying that they had some sort of low fat chocolate milk, or really, anything but Yoohoo. To my surprise, they had ONE container of Horizon low fat chocolate milk left. I ordered myself a wheat everything bagel with egg whites, turkey bacon, and a slice of swiss cheese (plus a small iced coffee!) I couldn't even wait to pay, I ripped open the chocolate milk and drank it like the happiest 3 year old ever. Seriously. So good, I wished they another one. But yes, thank you stomach for letting me eat all this post run and not making me have an embarrassing situation on the F train!

When I got home I immediately thought to look at my blog post from my first 14 mile run from last year.
Here's the link if you're interested: 14 Miles August 2010 Kind of funny that I was disappointed I didn't have a more epic write up last year, last year I was disappointed the run wasn't more epic.

My friend Allen said something that made me laugh in regards to my run today. I mentioned I felt like it took 10 miles for my legs to warm up, and I was kind of frustrated. He said " If it takes 10 miles to warmup, that means you have only 16.2 miles to race! :-D" 


I like his thinking!