scoopsontherun

Whew, I got through that 14 mile run. I knew it was going to be doozy when I checked the weather and saw that it was going to 71 degrees and 90 percent humidity. Oh, and let’s not forget the three loops of Central Park.

My first two loops were pretty good. I purposely went out a little bit slower given the weather conditions and thought I ran these very smart and well. Things started to break down during the third loop. A number of things started to make this challenging from a mystery pebble in my shoe, weird ankle pain for one mile, and the most painful last three miles of this run.

At the end of it all I ended up with chafing for the first time all summer and a mild singlet sunburn. But…I finished with a 17 minute PR.

KA-POW!!

Post-run recovery is going well but why oh why do stairs have to be so painful, especially when walking down them? To get to the subway; walk down stairs. To get off my train platform; walk down stairs. To get to my laundry room; walk down stairs. To get out of my house; walk down stairs. Stairs are a product of the devil. Just like how the devil put that Crumbs bake shop near my office and then made sure my office would be moving into that very building. This is the work of the devil. But stairs are more evil.

You know you have been feeling pretty good about your running when 1) you are looking forward to running 18 miles and 2) when you tell someone you are “only” running 18 miles.

For so long I was feeling really down about my running and wondering when I was going to get my mojo back. Now that it’s back I’m a bit giddy about every run and I especially look forward to my long runs. For a moment I was even rethinking my plan to make this year’s marathon my last one for a bit.

WHAT!

We’ll see. I’ve still got this 18 mile long run and then my 20 mile long run coming up with 14 and 12 mile runs mixed in and well then there is that actual 26.2 long run.

But right now I’ll just enjoy my temporary (I hope) insanity and keep taking my vitamins.

Last weekend’s long run may have been filled with duh moments but this week’s 15 mile long run proofed to be even better.

I did a similar route along the Hudson headed downtown and turned around at my halfway point in front of the old Fulton Fish Market. I kept may pace steady, followed my nutrition and even through in some small hills around Chelsea and Battery Park.

As you approach the Wall Street area of this run you can either go straight into the more populated areas of the business district or stay along the river/harbor edge. Not wanting to see the World Trade Center construction site I stayed along the river/harbor edge and was glad I did. If you don’t run this area often you can forget about all the little treasures that this route has. All of these little park and garden areas really do make you forget that just one block over it is all concrete and tall buildings.

9/11 Memorial Flags lined up throughout Battery Park.

As I headed into Battery Park I saw the memorial flags lined up throughout the park. There is one flag for every life lost on September 11 and on each flag the stripe has the names of the victims. While all of us know we lost so many on that day, the flags really make it more tangible.

My early timing of this run meant that many of the tourists were not yet out and about so that gave me a chance to run deep into the park and really enjoy it and the same came be said for the South Street Seaport area. New Yorkers really do need some tourist free days so that we can enjoy our city.

Back to the running bit. On my way back up north someone asked if he could run with me and for some strange reason I said yes. Dr. Ram is from Pittsburgh and visiting his daughter who lives on West 101st Street. He helped keep a nice steady pace and even got me some nice negative splits. When we parted ways I was able to keep my focus for the remainder of my run which involved a nice steady rain for about 30 minutes.

I was doing so well that when I hit 13.1 miles I noticed that my time was better than my past three half marathons. That gave me an amazing boost to finish my last two miles strong and with a bit of a smile on my face.

When I got home and synced my Garmin I compared it to last year’s 15 mile run and saw that I completed this one 11 minutes faster. Holy crap, I am doing better! I remember a stretch of last year’s run shortly after the 11 mile mark when I just couldn’t run. This year, I never had that problem. Two weeks of good long runs solidifies that I am headed in the direction.

Next weekend I have the FITNESS® Mind, Body + Spirit Games four mile run in Central Park. As soon as I finish that I’ll add on an additional 12 miles so that I can get my 16 miles in for the weekend. I can’t wait!

Now that I’m finally excited about my marathon, I am now excited about my new gear and other stuff that I got for my marathon training and running in general. Being the nerd that I am some of this gear prep started at Christmas time with some additions to my Amazon wish list. My mother looked and some of this stuff and basically said, WTF. But being the good mother she is, she hooked me up.

The long run specific items on the list were FuelBelt pouches that I could add to the FuelBelt I already had. I loved my FuelBelt but the one pouch it came with was not sufficient to hold gels, phone, keys, money and other items like tampons. My new pimped out FuelBelt is perfect! I can hold all of the above and still  have room for a few other things and it doesn’t feel heavier at all. I got to try it out in earnest on my last three long runs and it has made me happy.

What has made me and my girls even happier is my new Zensah sports bra. If you have been brave enough to follow my blog over the years you’ll know that I have written about sports bra and boobs in detail. In short, bounce is not good and a good sports bra prevents the bounce. I had read a product review from someone else who fell in love with the Zensah. I also have their calf compression sleeves and like how those feel so I gave this a try. I am now in sports bra heaven. The girls are safely secured, there is no bounce and no chafing. The one downside for my more well endowed friends is that the largest size only fits those who wear 34ABC – 36AB bras. I don’t have a problem paying 36 bucks for them since I pay more for my every day bras.

My love for Gu has also been well documented but there is a certain bit of excitement when your 24 pack supply arrives. I prefer the tri-berry and vanilla bean flavors. For storage I use one of the wooden boxes that my Dancing Deer cookies came in. The wood box is nice looking and makes feel less guilty about eating all those awesome cookies in the first place.

Finally I have to give a shout out to Stop ‘n Shop for their 10 for 10 sales. This has provided me endless cans of tomato puree, diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes, and yogurt. The 10 for 10 deal has also provided me with the large bottles of Gatorade and Cliff bars. Thankfully I have a large pantry and if anyone needs any variety of canned tomatoes, I’m your gal.

Finally, I feel excited about this marathon!

Ever since I began training for this year’s NYC Marathon I have had problems feeling excited about it. That’s not exactly how you should feel as you are devoting hours and hours to training. You can’t do 26.2 miles and be half-hearted about it.

For most of this summer I have been more excited about running a half marathon at the end of January instead of this marathon. Again, that’s not a good thing. While, I’ve some good long runs the thought about deferring this year’s marathon was front and center. This is not something to think about while slogging through a long run during the month of August.

Shortly after my duh moment. Lady Liberty on a cloudy and hazy morning.

Then it all clicked. I wish I could say there was one ah-ha moment, but it came in spurts. Sometimes you need it to happen spurts as that is when you tend to pay more attention. Saturday’s 10 mile long run started out as most of my long runs have with me thinking about deferring again. It wasn’t until somewhere between miles four and five that the first light bulb went off. I stopped at a water fountain and looked up to see a couple run by at a very nice easy pace. I thought they looked so comfortable and that it looked like they were running the pace I was supposed to be running. I took off behind them and matched their pace and my duh moment hit me. Yes, they were running the pace I was supposed to be running, the pace I had not been running for the first half of my run. I had been running faster than I should have and no wonder I was having a hard time finishing these runs. I made sure to keep this pace for the rest of my run and finished so well and felt good at the end.

When I got home and plugged in my Garmin I was still doubting my success and feeling that I have been running slower than last year. This was when I realized there is a reason to keep running logs. I looked back at last year’s runs and noticed I have been doing better. Holy crap, there has been improvement!

This is what I needed to figure out. There will be no deferrals this year as I now have firm plans for my future training runs and the marathon. I’m sticking with my plan as it is working. I’ve figured out the nutrition during the run that works for me and I can now see myself enjoying this marathon more than last year.

Bring it on NYC!