NYC Marathon Training Week 8

I'm a couple days late with my check-in, but my brain was barely working the past few days. Last week was rough. I did more cross-training, but not enough running. I've been burnt out from the Tax-Free Weekend and the work that has been going on. This is how my week looked.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 5 miles

Wednesday: 1 hour Full body workout with 5 lb weights

Thursday: 4.07 miles on track

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 4 miles

Sunday: Rest

I was suppose to do 12 miles on Saturday and could barely get through 4. I remember feeling beyond frustrated and annoyed. I thought maybe that I could make up a few miles on Sunday, but I had worked almost a 12 hour day. I'm moving on from last week and gave myself Monday and Tuesday of this week off to relax and try to get all the anger and frustration out of my system from the past couple of weeks. There are better things to worry about right?

I've hit the 40% goal of my fundraising as well. (Well it should be more, but it seems there was a flub in the system the end of last week. That should be fixed shortly.) So as of right now at 10:49 am I have hit  $1,400! I want to hit the $1,500 mark by September 1. I think we can do it. If you can donate you can do so here.

Runner's World Food Pyramid

I saw this earlier on Facebook. I laughed. It is totally true. I'm awful at my nutrition in general. There's a good chance that when I finish a race I don't eat right away. I want to be better, but I just can't figure it out. Someday I'll get it down.

Just A Thought For Tuesday

This was in my email for the Zooma Run Cape Cod. We're a little more than a month out now and this seems fitting. 

Week 7 & Tax Free

Tax Free weekend definitely took a toll on my training this week.

I had worked 6 of the 7 days this week. My day off was actually the Bobby Doyle Summer Classic last Sunday. My body was feeling tired for sure. I didn't do anything outside of running this week except my normal duties at work. (That counts still right!?!)  I went to the track after work on Thursday for some "speed work". I played around with different intervals to get me through so I guess it was more of a fartlek training than anything else. It took about 2.5-3 miles to really get into it properly. I did a 10 mile run after work yesterday and it took a toll. Both of my knees were giving me attitude during the run at some point which made me more frustrated than anything else. I pushed through it though. Much better than the run I did on Tuesday for sure. I just could not get into that run to save my life.  Like I said last week was kind of rough.

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 2 miles
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 5 miles at the track for speed work
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 10 miles

This week will be another hard one with the work schedule, but it should be better than last week.

I'm making my way to half of my fundraising goal. How does money donated to Boston Children's Hospital help? Look at this fun image to see some ways that you're donation helps!

If you want to make a difference too you can do so here.

Weekly Recap 8/4-8/10 & Race Recap

First let's look at this past week.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 17 minutes of yoga

Wednesday: 4.04 miles

Thursday: 30 minutes of yoga

Friday: 4 miles

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Bobby Doyle Summer Classic (5.05 miles), Walk 2 miles

This week kind of sucked. I tried to do some yoga on Tuesday to break away from life for an hour, but I barely got through 17 minutes. I couldn't shake the crappy mood I was in. I should have had a longer run, but I didn't want to overdo it with a race on Sunday. Plus with tax-free weekend coming up I know I'm going to be tired. This will definitely be a long week and hard to keep up my runs during. I'm just taking this one day at a time. I know that life gets in the way sometimes and that will have to be okay.

On Sunday I participated in the Bobby Doyle Summer Classic. I've never been to Narragansett, RI before, so this gave me an opportunity to see the town. I picked up my bib there about 20 minutes to the start of the race. I also received a pint glass which was given out to the first 100 registered runners (I think). I didn't think that I was one of them, but I did receive one. This was a 5 mile run so ideally I wanted to be done before an hour. And I should have. I've been having some GI issues before runs lately and can't figure out what is going on. I haven't changed anything that I've been eating or anything like that so who knows. At around 3.5 miles I started to feel sick. I couldn't wait to be finished with the run, but knew it was only 1.5 miles until I was done and could go be sick in a bathroom. (Yes a real bathroom! The school was open to register, get your bibs, and use real bathrooms!) I lasted a mile before I did get sick. That added a few minutes to my time. I did finish in 1:00:18. I got my medal and a cup of water before using the bathroom one more time. I didn't take any post-race snacks or anything. I did bring a few things with me and had them in the car for the ride home. Overall I really enjoyed this race. There are very fast people out there and I can't imagine running that fast for a block forget miles. All the volunteers were very nice and always shouted out a great job. (Or in my case "I like your tattoo".)

Now I just have to get through tax free than I can focus on the Zooma Half next month.

I'm still raising money for Boston Children's Hospital too. If you can donate you can do so here. Any amount can help and goes directly to the hospital. Plus we all love tax write-offs!

A Challenge and an Update!

Let me start with a recap of my week, then we'll get into my runs today.

Monday: 4 mile run, 20 min yoga

Tuesday: 15 min legs with 3 lb weights, 1 hour yoga

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 4.13 miles

Friday: 15 min of core, .5 mile walk, dancing 

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 17.2 mile run

On Friday night I went to into Boston to see Katy Perry. This is my 3rd time seeing her, so I was obviously excited to see her again. There have been lots of reviews for the Prismatic Tour and I haven't seen one bad word about the show. She plays her hits and some stuff off the new album. There were different sections of the show, each with their own theme. You couldn't get bored watching it with so many set and costume changes. I think the Cat-oure section was my favorite. If you know Katy Perry, you know she loves cats and always incorporates them into her show.

The Hyper Neon section was great too. It had a 90s vibe and she wore a green wig. This is when she played her single "Birthday" and balloons fell all over the audience. They chose a fan from the audience to go up on stage if their birthday was in the month that the show was. 

Fan brought up for "Birthday".

She got carried by balloons as well.  

She ended with "Firework" which is always amazing to see. And yes, there were fireworks.

Today I got up early and drove up to Rockport, MA for the Triple Threat Challenge. At 9 am I started with 1 mile run. I was back for about 10 minutes before the 5k started at 9:20. I had 15 minutes before the start of the half at 10:15. This left me with no time to use the bathroom (the lines were a little long with such a short time in between runs). My right knee started giving me a little issue during the 5k so I used some BioFreeze on it while I waited for the start of the half. My legs were definitely feeling it at this point. I hadn't trained for this long of a run as of now so I knew it wasn't going to be perfect. The course had hills, which I was expecting. Just after the turn around point in Gloucester, there was a hill from hell. I swear it was so steep I was angry. At one point during the run I had to tell myself to stop being so hard on myself and just do my best. I was just tired and in pain. Luckily I pulled myself out of it. It was hard for me to find a good interval to run at, so I had to keep changing the pace. I was actually surprised with my finish time for the half. Here's the results:

1 Mile: 9:47

5k: 34:56

Half: 2:45:36

Total: 3:28:04

The race was really good. I enjoyed the views along the way. 

 The volunteers along the course were wonderful. Everyone was happy and cheered us along. We may have not had as much support from spectators, but there were a lot of people who came out from their homes to cheer us on which was nice. Considering I was there all day I did notice that before I finished that the sponsors were already packed up and leaving. This was kind of disappointing that people in the back of the pack didn't receive all the same things that the faster runners did. The course was still open for a least 30 more minutes if not more when I finished. There has been a lot of people speaking out about how slower runners miss out on things. This was the first time that I have personally experienced it.






CJ goes in to get surgery on his ear again tomorrow. As of today I've raised $1,235 for Children's Hospital. All money raised goes directly to the hospital to help kids like CJ. If you would like to donate you can do so here.