I did not win the battle against my bed Monday morning. Or Tuesday morning for that matter. That’s a motivational way to start a blog post about marathon training, right?
We had a bit of a heat wave in New York during week 4 of marathon training, with the kind of humidity that makes you want to puke even on an easy run. Frankly, when I am lucky enough to have access to treadmills with fans or air conditioning in the vicinity, I am always going to choose the treadmill over the soupy, humid, outside.
Despite not running Monday morning, I did get my miles in Monday night. After work I headed right to my parents’ house so that I could multi-task, and get a run in on their treadmill (which is admittedly nicer than mine) and do a load of laundry. Even though Dennis and I have been in our house since January, and we physically have a washing machine, it is STILL not hooked up thanks to a drawn out battle with the seller, who was supposed to connect it before closing, and is still refusing to release escrow money since the task was not complete.
Once the laundry was going, I put together a nice stack of classes on the peloton tread.
When I was scrolling through run classes, I was seriously considering re-taking the RENT or Hamilton classes, but opted for a 45 minute “Broadway” class. Who do I need to petition to get a Little Shop of Horrors class series?
Even though it was an easy run day, I generally followed the instructors queues on when we were using an incline or picking up the pace a bit, I just made sure my average pace stayed within my goal range, and that my heart rate wasn’t going crazy for large chunks of time.
When I finished my run I stretched it all out, and then had some yummy pasta that my Dad had made for dinner. They laundry took longer than expected, so I stuck around and hung out with my family while I waited for it to finish.
The battle Tuesday morning was more of a mental one than anything else. After an anxious night of sleep I just felt crappy when my alarm went off. I went so far as to look at the weather, as I usually do as soon as I wake up to run, and with I saw it was hot and humid, it solidified my desire to stay in bed. Some mornings are just like that.
I dragged all day at work. It felt like my brain was in a fog, and I just couldn’t quite catch a groove. When I finally got home, I just wanted to lay down and be done with my day. But marathon training beckoned, and I at least had to try to answer the call. I changed into running clothes, and proceeded to spend the better part of the following hour not running. When Den started to cook dinner, I became aware that the time I had to dilly dally was limited, and made my way onto the treadmill. I put on some TV, and got moving. Predictably, I almost immediately felt better than I had all day.
The workout on tap was a set of six 800 m repeats, with a goal pace of 7:50. I warmed up for a mile, and then hopped off the treadmill for some dynamic stretches, which I am trying really hard to be better about actually doing. When I hopped back on the treadmill I did five twenty second strides, and then made my way into my repeats, which were just under 4 minutes each. Ever since my disastrous track morning during week 2 of training, I dread interval day each week… but honestly, I was almost enjoying it by the time I made it into the last repeats. There were moments I wanted to quit, but I made it through all 6 repeats, and even stuck to doing a cool down mile. I was really pleased with myself for getting this run done.
Since Wednesdays are my official “off” day according to this training plan, I usually sleep in and then head to my parents’ house after work to get in some strength training. But this week I did something exciting: I got back in the pool! I did get up early enough to squeeze in a 10 minute leg strength class before work, which isn’t much – but the class I selected turned out to be 10 minutes of weighted forward and reverse lunges. My legs were screaming by the end of it!
Pre-covid my pool time varied from three times a week to twice a month, depending on how much motivation I had (read as: depending on how many people I could rope into agreeing to swim with me in a given span of time). My friend Ken, who I met through the merrick bicycles tri team, has often kept me accountable with getting in the pool, but the last time we swam together was in March of 2020, pre-pandemic. This was also the last time I was in the pool.
We agreed to meet up at one of the outdoor public pools in our town and were slightly thwarted when I got to our first choice only to learn it was closed because they had to clean it after someone puked in the pool. Gross.
Luckily, our second choice was only 5 minutes away, and I got there to find it open, and with a 25 yard lane available, yay! I was really excited to swim again but was nervous that I would have lost all of my ability. But thankfully, it was just as blissful as I remember it to be. There is just something about mindless laps of the pool that really puts me in a good mood – I kind of find it meditative. Is there such a thing as a swimmers high?
Ken’s family had come to swim as well as we did our laps, and it was so cute that his wife and sons were there to cheer him on, even for weeknight laps. After 1,500 yards I called it a night, not wanting to overdo it my first time back in the pool.
If you are inclined to read more about multi-sport triathalon training, check out Ken’s blog at https://www.givinitatri.com/ - he is training for an Iron Man right now!
For the first time all week, I managed to get myself out of bed early enough to run before work – only to discover that my legs and glutes were DEAD from that teensy little 10 minute leg class that I had done on Wednesday morning. I was supposed to get in my tempo miles, but decided to just go for a few easy miles to get used to running on tired legs, and save the tempo run for Friday.
The weather was hot and humid, and it only got worse as more time passed outside. Ideally, I should have run 6 miles if I wanted to perfectly execute my training plan…. But instead I did 3. I slogged through these miles, listening to a podcast as I weaved around the neighborhood. As soon as I stopped moving at the end of the run, a river of sweat rolled into my eyes. Not sure where that was when I was running, but it was certainly waiting for me to stop moving long enough that I would notice. Before getting ready for work I did a core workout and a stretching class when I got home.
We had lots of thunderstorms on Thursday night, and when I woke up Friday morning it was still a little rainy. I got up early enough to run though and was hopeful that the storms would have broken the humidity and made the weather a little more tolerable. I was hoping to get in my weekly tempo run so I laced up and headed out to run – only to find that I was having a lot of trouble breathing. Even at an easy pace, I was panting. I checked my heart rate, and it was low – so not the culprit. I just could not catch my breath, and after a mile I called it. I returned home and used my inhaler. It helped a little, but I still felt like I was struggling.
It was crappy to feel that lousy after one mile. I felt like I had done something wrong. I spent my day working, and by 5:00 I was feeling normal again. Since the weather had cooled down and the rain had passed, I decided to give the run another go. I needed to head to my aunt and uncles house to help out with booking a vacation, so I figured I would run there, that way I could not easily quit after a mile.
I made sure to use my inhaler before starting, and committed to running a mile long warm-up, where I would not focus on my pace. To my surprise and delight, I felt great when I started running, and when the first mile buzzed on my watch, I was surprised to learn that I had dropped a 9:32? I wasn’t sure where it had come from but decided to at least try to get in my tempo run – the goal of which was 4 miles. I pushed to keep the pace just under 9 minutes, and just after passing the 4th total mile ran by my parents’ house, and made a quick pit stop to grap some water and chat for a minute. I know, I know – not the best idea to take a break during a tempo run… but I did.
After a few minutes, I got back on the road, and squeezed out one more speedy mile, totaling 6 miles for the day, 5 miles for that run, and 4 miles at “tempo” pace. I walked for a few minutes to cool down, and then took care of vacation bookings with my uncle.
The weekend called for two runs, both 8 miles long. It was rainy again on Saturday, and I listened to and watched the rain as I cleaned up the house on Saturday morning. I was figuring I would hop on the treadmill and get my miles in, but it occurred to me that at this point, I am training for races which will happen rain or shine – and it may benefit me to get some rainy miles under my belt.
So I got dressed, put on some body glide (ok, a LOT of body glide), grabbed a hat, and headed outside. I popped on a new episode of the ali on the run show and listened to her and Kara Goucher chat about the Olympic trials, and it was nice to feel like I had company as I made my way through eight very rainy miles. I tried to stay close to the house, just in case the storm got worse, so I looped through the same few blocks as I got more and more soaked by the rain. By the time I was finished my sneakers were soaked through, but there was a big smile on my face. I had forgotten just how much I love rainy runs, where the temperature is just warm enough that the rain feels refreshing. It was such a good feeling.
I got to have some of my best friends over after that, and it wound up being a great Saturday. We played some board games, ate lots of yummy snacks, and just all relaxed together.
Sunday was the 4th of July, and I upheld a 4 year strong tradition: Kayaking with my friend Jimmy. We started in 2018, and every year we have made it a point to head out together onto the water – it is one of my favorite traditions, and I look forward to it every year. This year Dennis joined us, and we headed to Lake Ronkonkoma. When we got there, we were warned by a local on the beach that the lake is cursed – nothing bad came of it, but it was interesting to google after. If you like ghost stories, it was a little bit eerie to read about after! We wound up spending two hours on the water, and we were pooped when we got home.
Den and I grabbed lunch on the way home, and I spent a few hours relaxing before heading out for my run. It was a stark contrast to the rainy run I went on the day before – the sun was high in the sky and it was humid out. I tried to just keep an even pace and get through the second eight mile run of the weekend. At just under two miles I stopped to do some warmup stretches and decided to grab a water bottle.
I opted for a handheld bottle over my hydration vest, because it was just easier to grab quickly – but it was much less comfortable than the vest. I spent the next few miles switching hands constantly but getting closer to the end of the humid miles.
I was very happy when I got to the end of the last mile. It was a humid day, and even though I was tired when I started the run, I was so happy that I had gotten out there and ran anyway. Dennis and I closed out the weekend with celebratory burgers, and a nice night at home.