Week in Review: March 4th-March 10th
Monday:
Run - 2.91 miles, 34:48 minutes, 11:57 min/mi. I plotted out a nice 3 mile course - around the reservoir, then on the streets for a little bit - but the reservoir was not shoveled and I could not run on that. So I just ran along the streets in the park, which were plowed. This reservoir situation was Cunningham Park (where I used to run in Queens) all over again. SHOVEL/PLOW THE AREAS WHERE PEOPLE RUN! They could have hired high school kids to do it, since school was cancelled for 5” of snow (*insert rant about NYC public schools cancelling school*).
Tuesday:
Run - 4.05 miles, 51:43 minutes, 12:56 min/mi. This was my “course practice” for next week’s half - I took the bus down to Columbus Circle (well, I took the 9th Ave bus, so west of Columbus Circle), then ran down Central Park South and into the park on the east side, then followed the course from there. I kept having to stop and pull up a map on my phone because I do not know the east side of the park at all. Very glad I’ll be following people during the race. But overall, it wasn’t bad. Only about a mile in the park. I then tacked on some distance to get to my planned 4 miles. Overall a decent run.
I had barre3 on my schedule, but I cancelled because I had a few other errands to run and that would have meant a lot of time out of the house. Good thing I cancelled, because I was very behind schedule all morning.
Wednesday:
barre3 - with Jess! I always get a kick out of seeing her wearing a Garmin (most of the instructors wear Apple Watches … but Jess wears a Garmin … she’s actually one of several instructors there who are runners). Really enjoyed this class, even though I wasn’t able to go at as high of a level as I sometimes do.
Thursday:
Run - 6.21 miles, 1:08:00 hours, 10:57 min/mi avg pace. This included 55 minutes at HM Tempo pace (planned pace: 10:20, actual pace: 10:27). The tempo part of this run was amazing, and I mostly felt good, so after this run I started running some pace ideas by Coach ... apparently I'm too ambitious. We'll figure out an exact pacing plan this week once we have a better idea of the weather. But I don't think we're going for a sub-2hr half (but maybe sub-2:25? That could possibly be realistic? Honestly, I'm cool with whatever)
OFFICIALLY IN TAPER TIME!!!
Friday:
Unscheduled rest day.
Had barre3 scheduled, but cancelled because I had life stuff to do. Grocery shopping is stupid, but cooking is kinda fun (even though I'm bad at it).
Saturday:
Scheduled rest day.
Sunday:
Run - 6.20 miles, 1:15:59 hours, 12:15 min/mi. Spring Fling 10K! Mini-Recap Below, but tl;dr … I think 10Ks are cursed for me because it almost always rains. Unimpressed by race organization. But I met my goal and caught my white whale (well, mostly), so I’m happy with it.
Oh, and I was in my apartment less than half an hour after I finished the race, which was cool. Hoping for a similar timeline next week, but I don't think it's as likely.
Upcoming Schedule:
Monday - barre3, probably
Tuesday - 3 mi Easy/LR
Wednesday - barre3
Thursday - 3.1 mi EC (aka NYC Half Virtual 5K), United NYC Half Experience (aka bib pickup)
Friday - barre3 or rest day
Saturday - rest day
Sunday - RACE DAY!!!! United Airlines NYC Half. Tracking info coming later!
Mini-Race Recap: NYCRUNS Spring Fling 10K
I registered for this one last week because I just wanted to do something a little more low-key. My last few races have been … off-plan. To say the least. It has been a long time since I set a plan for a race and was able to stick to that plan. Most recently, it was every single race going off-plan at marathon weekend - having to take coughing breaks during the 5K, doing intervals during the 10K instead of continuous because I was so sick, and changing around my intervals during the marathon because of the heat. Before that it was switching to intervals at both Manhattan 7 Mile and Bronx 10 Mile, which were both supposed to be continuous runs. So I just wanted a low-key opportunity to set up a plan for the race and stick to it. I figured it would help me feel a little better going into next week’s half.
Plan for the race was about EC or slower - goal pace of 12:00-12:30, all continuous.
Forecasts called for rain on race morning which made me not happy, but was also par for the course with me and 10Ks (January’s 10K was my first one with no rain). Race morning comes … and lo and behold, it is raining. So I wore my rain jacket over my race outfit and grabbed my umbrella. The race started a little over a mile from my apartment, so I decided to take the bus up.
Once I got to the race, it seemed better organized than my last NYCRUNS race (which, granted, was over a year ago). I was able to grab my bib quickly, then I chilled until about 15 minutes before the race, when I changed (I ended up wearing my rain jacket and just taking off the layer I had underneath … it had a hood and my other layer wasn’t overly waterproof) and dumped my bag in the bag check area for bib numbers ending in 4/5 (last time I did a NYCRUNS race, the bags were not separated by bib number). I went to the start line, and instead of just having people line up wherever, they had corrals divided by anticipated pace (still self-seeded, but actual corrals). I went to the 12:00 and up corral, which was the last corral, and waited for the start.
Once we started, there were a lot of people and a lot of puddles, so I had to walk at points. I wasn’t feeling great, and I was very unhappy about the weather, so I just kept it easy and kept going. There were a lot of turns on the course, and I only really knew where I was going because I followed other runners. No signage and not that much guidance from volunteers. But okay. Nothing too exciting about this course. Eventually we made it to the path where I do a lot of my runs, but we were north of me, where I don’t go as often (we actually turned around right by where I usually get on the path).
Interlude: This race had a 5K and 10K. The two races start together, and after 3.1 miles, the 5K people go through the finish chute and the 10K people go off to the side of the finish and keep going for another loop.
Shortly after the three mile marker, I saw the finish line ahead and considered going through and asking them if they could change me to the 5K retroactively (the rain was bothering me a lot), but I just kept going. Until I had no idea where to go. Because there were no other runners in sight, no volunteers telling me where to go, and I didn’t remember if we kept going straight or turned at a certain point. I saw one other guy who looked like he might still be running, so I just followed him. Thankfully, I soon realized I was in the right place. But there were a few points where I didn’t know where to go, and while mostly there were volunteers there, there were one or two points where there weren’t. This race is not overly friendly to middle- to back-of-the-pack 10K runners. The lack of guidance on the route kinda made me take away all of the mental brownie points I had given them for the organized start area.
Anyway … I eventually made it to the finish. Official time was
1:15:52. Pace was 12:14 min/mi, exactly where I wanted to be. I did walk at a few points, but it was mostly water stops, course crowding, and wardrobe issues, not “I feel like I need to walk now.” So I’m counting it as a continuous run. Which makes this my new longest race distance run continuously, and my first continuous race since my 4 miler in April. YAY!!! I had really started to doubt whether I’d ever be able to race more than a 5K continuously … this renewed my faith. I’m still going to do mostly run/walk, but now I know that a continuous 10K is an option for me. I finally caught my white whale (I’m probably using that expression wrong). And I also feel much better about sticking to plan next week, now that I know it's actually possible for me to set a race plan and stick to it.
Post-race… I didn’t see a reason to stick around after the finish, so I grabbed my bag, grabbed an apple, and walked out of the park. There was a bus as soon as I got out of the park, so I just hopped on that, and I was in my apartment and no longer wearing all of my wet clothing less than half an hour after the race ended.
The end.
Cold Brew Update:
I went with the container/strainers method. I was using different coffee than usual so I played with my water/coffee ratio, which was a mistake, but overall the method is working okay. I had some of the cold brew yesterday. Drinking hot today, but I'm sure I'll go through the cold brew eventually.
Sunglasses Update:
Still haven't bought. Right now it's between the goodr Breakfast Run to Tiffany's and the Polarspex ones that
@run.minnie.miles posted. Will probably wait and see if I get a good JackRabbit coupon soon, and if I don't get one by early April, I'll buy the Polarspex. Maybe.
Shoe Update:
Sorry for the huge picture, but I stole it from New Balance. That is the Fresh Foam Zante Pursuit United Airlines NYC Half Edition. As you may remember, I wear the Zante (currently on the v3) as my short run and tempo shoe. I've been interested in trying the Zante Pursuit since it came out, but I only have about 100 miles on my current Zantes, and since I wear them primarily for shorter runs (although I'm currently trying to stretch them out to 6-7 miles), they don't accumulate mileage as quickly as some of my other shoes. But ... it says New York all over it! And that font! And the Chrysler building! I love these shoes ... but I don't need them at the moment and I don't really need to be spending money on things I don't need. Sigh.
