2019 NYC Marathon Training: Weeks 13-15 of 17

I have been dragging my heels getting the last of these training posts up! Wait, is this why my heels have been sore? I’ll knock out these last training posts so I can finally get to my marathon recap, which is already long overdue. I swear it will be done by Christmas. No, Christmas Eve.

Once again, for the sake of being a completist, I will write out my workouts and link to anything I can. This schedule is not what I would recommend at all for marathon training, but it was all I could do given the situation. I really, really wanted to run this marathon.

WEEK 13: September 30 – October 6

Monday: Fitness Blender: Squats & Deadlifts
Love this lower body workout.

Tuesday: EZ (3.21 miles @ 9:45 pace)
I ran this hesitantly at first but felt minimal heel pain. I kept it short on purpose.

Wednesday: Intervals (7 miles total w/ 3 x 1600 @ MP)
The last time I would run with the Harriers this season. I ran with two new people and felt pretty good. My heels didn’t bother me much, so it worked out. I thought maybe it was fading and I’d be better soon.

Thursday: Fitness Blender: Get Strong
Day off from running and upper body workout.

Friday: Tempo (6.75 miles total w/ 5.5M @ MP)
This was the run that changed everything. At first, my heels felt… okay. Not perfect, and the right one was slightly worse. I ran with plantar fasciitis inserts. This meant my arches were slamming against the raised supports of the inserts the whole time. This wasn’t comfortable and now I feel foolish, like I shouldn’t have run with them. So much of this period of training was guesswork. I got through five miles of this otherwise decent marathon pace tempo run and then my right foot started aching like crazy. I had to stop and limp over a mile home from the Hudson River path. I knew I was fucked.

Saturday: Fitness Blender: Ultimate Butt & Thigh Workout
Still limping. I was supposed to run Grete’s Great Gallop today. I hadn’t even planned on racing it – I was going to jog it with a friend doing her first 10K. I was so bummed. I did strength training instead.

Sunday: Walked/jogged stairs (30 min.)
It occurred to me that going up and down stairs didn’t involve my heels at all so I decided to run up and down a long set of stairs in Morningside Park today. I probably should have just taken the day off but I felt desperate to “keep up” with my training. I was supposed to have done a long run today. I could feel my marathon plans slipping away.

WEEK 13 MILEAGE: 16.96

 

WEEK 14: October 7 – October 13

Monday: Yoga with Adriene: Wind Down Yoga
I needed a day off, which meant an easy yoga day. (All the yoga I do is super easy. I still cannot do a headstand nor do I even want to.)

Tuesday: Fitness Blender: Upper Body Bored Easily
Still too sore to run and my calves were sore from all the stairs.

Wednesday: AlterG Treadmill (30 min. / 2.44 miles) /// Deep water running class (45 min.)
My first time on the AlterG! (Pic above is from this workout.) I was excited to be on it. The mileage on the AlterG is approximate – it’s what my Garmin says but who knows. I mostly went by time. I was at 70% body weight so it felt like I was flying. It felt good to run again, even if it wasn’t real running.

Thursday: Elliptical (30 min.)
I signed up to become a member of the NYC Recreation Centers so I could have an easy and affordable place to swim, as I knew I’d be doing some of that soon. Today I just tried out the elliptical machine. It was cool to move my body, but honestly, I hate the elliptical. I hate being stationary. I like moving forward. I did it anyway. I tried to keep it interesting by getting faster as I went.

Friday: AlterG Treadmill (30 min. / 2.58 miles)
Another half hour on the AlterG. Still fun, but I really missed actual running.

Saturday: Freestyle swimming class (45 min.)
This was my first of six classes in freestyle swimming and I really enjoyed it. I’ll probably write more about this class in a blog post. I knew how to swim in terms of treading water but I wanted to learn how to properly swim so I could, you know, swim and not feel like an idiot.

Sunday: EZ run/walk (11.35 miles @ 14:55 pace)
I wanted time on my feet today, whether that meant jogging or walking. So I did a little of both on Central Park’s soft bridle path. My heels were still sore. I tried running a mile or two and then walking for a few minutes, and doing that for about three hours. I still don’t know if this was a smart thing to do. Sometimes I wish I had a coach.

WEEK 14 MILEAGE: 16.37

 

WEEK 15: October 14 – October 20

Monday: Yoga with Adriene: Runners Yoga
Day off. This is a good yoga routine for stretching the hips and glutes.

Tuesday: AlterG Treadmill (48 min. / 4 miles) /// Deep water running class (45 min.)
At this point, the AlterG was losing its luster. I missed running. Still, I was on there for 48 minutes. And I took my first Deep Water Running class. This was so much fun and a great workout! Again, I think I’ll write more about swimming in another blog post.

Wednesday: EZ (5.51 miles @ 10:58 pace) /// Deep water running class (45 min.)
So desperate to run. My heels were still a little sore but I tried landing more on my forefeet, something you can’t really force. I kept it slow. Ugh.

Thursday: Fitness Blender: Kelli’s Upper Body Superset /// Deep water running class (45 min.)
Upper body and another class in the pool.

Friday: Fitness Blender: Build a Booty
I couldn’t run. I just worked out my legs.

Saturday: Freestyle swimming class (45 min.)
Second freestyle swim class.

Sunday: Long run (13.51 miles @ 9:52 pace)
Here was my last real chance to do a long run. I tried. My heels – mostly my right, still – were sore. Running did not feel good. I ran anyway. I just fought through it. I wasn’t sure how long I’d go. By the time I was in mile 11 or 12, my gait had changed so I was landing differently on each foot and I just had to stop. What a goddamn disaster this training had become. (Pic above is from this day where I tried to find a reason to smile. I was wearing new shoes, which I loved, so there was that.)

WEEK 15 MILEAGE: 23.03

The last two weeks of training to come. SOON.

Grimace and Bear It: 2019 Great Cow Harbor 10K Race Recap

Hooo boy it’s been twelve years since I ran this race I’m about to recap! Wait, no… hold on… it’s been eight weeks. That’s it? It feels like twelve years. Weird.

I’ve apologized for being behind on this blog. I hope everyone knows how sorry I am by now. The funny thing is, once I start writing I LOVE it and I’m like, why did I not want to write? I love to write! What’s my problem? Still trying to figure that one out but I’ll be sure to update everyone once I do!

Anyway, let’s get to this favorite race of mine: The Great Cow Harbor 10 Kilometer Run in my lovely childhood hometown of Northport, Long Island.

2019 NYC Marathon Training: Weeks 10-12 of 17

Updating this blog really shot all the way down on my list of priorities these past couple of months. I didn’t intend it to. I started feeling discouraged with my training and usually felt like I had more important things to worry about than writing. Also, maybe not writing was a way to avoid having to face my discouragments. This was probably the opposite of how I should have (and how I wish I had) handled it, which would have been to embrace the situation and face my fears head on.

As a young Canadian named Alanis once said, you live, you learn.

Just Beat It: 2019 5th Avenue Mile Race Recap

The 2019 New Balance 5th Avenue Mile happened so long ago, but that is my theme this fall: Better late than never. It’s a solid theme and I’ve been very consistent with it.

I ran this race last year so when it came time to sign up for 2019 NYRR races, I figured I’d run it again. Not that I trained for it; I’d spent the summer marathon training, not mile training. The only recent fast mile I’d run was another mile race: June’s Northport Downhill Mile, where I ran a PR of 6:35. Although that race had no starting mat and a wonky start, so I don’t know if I should even count that as an official time.

I know 6:35 is pure easy jogging pace for some folk, but please know that I am a middle-aged lady who moves her legs for fun, and that’s probably as good as it’s going to get for me these days. As someone who ran 5Ks in her 20s at a 9:30 pace, I’m not apologizing.

2019 NYC Marathon Training: Week 9 of 17

Week 9! I’m cranking all of these out way too late, but better late than never? I guess?

I have been following the 17-week marathon training plan of my awesome running club the New York Harriers, but I’m choosing my mileage based on how I feel, as well as my own strength training. Beginning in week 11, much of the plan will be thrown out the window. I’m really behind with updating this blog.

Week 9 was one of my last good weeks. It culminated with the 5th Avenue Mile on Sunday where I ran a course PR. I’ll write that short race recap next.

2019 NYC Marathon Training: Week 8 of 17

This entire training plan for the 2019 TCS NYC Marathon has not gone as expected and I have thrown so much of it out the window in the past few weeks. To be honest, I’ve run the gamut of emotions lately – some of it truly disheartening and painful – which is, I think, the main reason why I haven’t felt the desire to stay on top of my weekly training posts. But I’m a completist, damn it, so here I am.

This post will cover week 8 in my training for the 2019 NYC Marathon. It was a solid week, a good week, and my highest mileage week in the plan thus far.

The Big Chase: 2019 Percy Sutton 5K Race Recap

The 2019 Percy Sutton 5K happened over a month ago but it might as well have been six years ago based on what has transpired in the past several weeks. Time is strange. What is time? Does it exist outside our minds? Did the Percy Sutton 5K even happen? And if it did, will it happen again after the universe has been destroyed, the Big Bang happens for the 14th trillion time, and we experience life as we know it all over again?

I’ll begin by telling you that the day I ran the 2019 Percy Sutton 5K was a very good day. I had a good race. It was a lovely morning. I felt on top of the world.

I’ve been struggling to regain that feeling lately, which is partly why the race feels like it happened so long ago.