NYCM: Six Weeks To Go

This was certainly not my best week but it also wasn't my worst. I planned on hitting around 40 miles but fell a little short no thanks to a nasty eye infection during the second half of the week. Still got the important stuff done though

Monday

I had every intention of running on Monday but when the time to lace up my shoes came around I just didn't want to. Luckily I was able to drag myself to a nice hard yoga class that had me dripping sweat within the first 10 minutes. I'm thinking of using this Monday night yoga class as one of my strength workouts for the week since the majority of the class is pretty hard. My shoulders and triceps were still sore on Thursday morning.

55 min yoga

Tuesday

I moved Monday's workout to Tuesday morning to kick off my already super long day. This run signaled the impending return of fall running weather. It was a bit chilly out, with temps in the upper 40's, but it actually felt really nice. As for the run itself, it went pretty well too. 2 mile warm up, 3 miles [45 sec on, 75 sec off], 2 mile warm down. I have a bit of trouble getting my legs to turn over fast in the morning but I'm working on it.

After class I met up with the swim club but left after only 30 minutes because I felt really shaky. Not sure what was going on but since I don't need to be swimming anymore I didn't hesitate to cut it short.

7.01 miles, 8:39 avg

1600 yd swim

Wednesday

I had one of those mornings where you desperately plead with yourself to just skip the workout and go back to bed. I stayed in bed for ~20 minutes after my alarm trying to justify pushing off the workout until the evening but knew that just wasn't a good idea. Dragged my butt out of bed and am darn glad I did.

This was a new to me track workout, as it was not intended to be a super hard all out one.

15 min warm up, 2x 1 mile @ 8:45, 2x 1 mile @ 8:30, 2x 1 mile @ 8:00, 15 min warm down

8:40, 8:51 / 8:28, 8:25 / 8:01, 7:54

I was pleasantly surprised how comfortable this workout felt, especially those last two miles. I could tell I was working but in no way was I overexerting myself. I felt really strong the whole workout and for the first time confident that this abbreviated marathon training cycle just might work out.

9 miles, 8:35 avg

Thursday

The day when everything went downhill. I had to make an emergency trip back home to Pennsylvania because I was my left eye was in a lot of pain and I could barely open it. The verdict: viral conjunctivitis, which means no wearing contacts for a week. If you wear contacts you know how much this sucks.

Had every intention of going to the Lululemon run club again but between trying to go to class, going back to Pennsylvania and being at the eye doctor all evening a run just didn't happen.

rest

Friday

I don't have an excuse for Friday's rest day other than I just had no motivation. 

rest

Saturday

I wanted to make up for missing my runs of Thursday and Friday but was nervous about attempting to do my long run in my glasses. I settled for an hour of running with 30 minutes of tempo thrown in so I wouldn't feel so bad about missing two runs. In the end I'm glad I only ran for an hour since running with my glasses had me on the verge of getting sick a few times. The only positive thing about this run is I held a decent pace.

7.12 miles, 8:26 avg

Sunday

I was able to put my contacts in to do this run and honestly I think if I had to do it with my glasses I probably would have skipped it. I normally do my long runs on a gravel trail right by my house that is nice and flat but I wanted to get some hills in since the NYC Marathon isn't exactly flat. I ran in downtown York and always chose the hilliest street.

It may not have been my fastest run but it was definitely a good one. I didn't worry about pace at all but focused more on running strong the whole time. And the change of scenery made for a very enjoyable run.

12.1 miles, 9:00 avg

35.22 miles

6 hrs 12 min