Funny thing happened today…I set out to the gym on my lunch break to tackle a 5 mile hill workout and from the first step I knew it wasn’t happening.
new carpet in the ladies’ locker room!
My legs felt like lead and I felt like the treadmill was lying to me as an 11 minute mile pace felt so hard to maintain. I was SO mad at myself! I wanted to just go back down to the locker room, change and head back to work. But I decided that I’d at least try running with minimal incline (.5) so that I could get the miles in. I am not lying when I tell you that I literally looked down at the “distance completed” screen so many times that I don’t think I ever went so far as a tenth of a mile without a glance.
3 boring miles. The trend lately seems to be my love of my training is on the decline (mental note: TAKE A BREAK!). When I finished the 3 miles I decided to walk slowly to cool down and check my phone for some distraction. That’s when I saw this on Twitter and just had to reply.
It completely changed my view of the failure. So much so that I turned that walk into a slightly faster walk….and then I raised the incline up to 8 and continued to walk….and then??? I started to RUN at that incline. I covered about a half mile of hill intervals!!!!
I ended up with 4.5 miles total (instead of the scheduled 5) and of course only half a mile of hill running, but that’s better than nothing, and better than just 3 flat miles. I was drenched by the time I finished. But better than that, my negative view of the workout came full circle and I walked out of the gym with a smile on my face. I came back to the office to feast on my healthy lunch.
pop chips, salad, egg, avocado and grapefruit
So that’s how you take a failure to succeed and turn it into a successful failure!
Question: Have you ever not wanted to work out and gone anyway only to leave with a smile on your face?
Yep, I had to start yet one more post about my gripe with the wind (I don’t beat dead horses and I don’t beat living horses because I’m humane).
OK so a little recap about how today went.
IT WAS WINDY!
And now I’ll delve a little deeper…
At 4:30am the alarm went off. I got up but this guy didn’t budge.
I got dressed, took a selfie in my messy kitchen and was on the road by 5:30am.
when your number is 20725 you know it’s gonna be a big race (over 20,000 runners big!)
I parked the car midway between the start and the finish of the NYC Half and was up and running by 6:25am. Caught this shot of the Empire State Building decked out in Green for St. Patricks Day.
Empire State Building as seen from 22nd and 7th
The plan was to run 2.5 miles before meeting my friends near the start. Well, the Garmin lost satelite because of some scaffolding so I wasn’t sure until I got home how far I actually went. I mapped it out on Runkeeper and it turns out I covered exactly 2.5! I’m guessing my pace was around 10:30-11 minute miles).
Joined my peeps (although we missed Cindy!) at 58th and 6th…JD, Lisa, Gary and Roger
Once the group met up we entered Central Park and headed to our corals. It was actually a full 1/2 mile (10 city blocks) to get to the corals! It was really crowded and we had to go through some metal detectors which I have to say was not my favorite part of the day. But it’s just part of the new normal.
Roger had his customary Sausage McMuffin and a Mountain Dew for his pre-race fuel! Gotta love it!
One last photo op before we all parted ways.
My goal for the race was to stay as close to 10:40 min miles as possible. Somehow I managed to finish in 2:15:25 which meant I ran 10:20 miles. Sweet!
But it was rough. I was cold the entire time, Central Park hills never get any easier and the wind was insane! (I think I might have touched on that already) I almost lost my hat on 3 occasions.
The race gave me a good feel though for how I want to attack my marathon next month. I walked through water stops (I think I hit 5 or 6 stops) and still maintained that 10:20 pace. My entire left side is a mess. I’m sure it’s all connected so i really nead to focus on my form and stretching and foam rolling. I felt tighness in my left glute, hamstring, and ankle. Oh, and my neck started to spasm a bit. It was definitely a combination of being cold and tense. Also, the visor on my baseball cap came down so low that I think I tilted my head back a little just to see.
I really wanted to zone out, listen to my music and just enjoy the miles but that just didn’t happen. There were glimmers here and there when I got in a groove and had a smile on my face. But even as I ran through Times Square I was just not feeling it.
Some fun sights:
Back of a guy’s shirt that simply said “Always look on the bright side of life”. I needed to see that. Our lives are not one sided. We might have one side that isn’t so bright at the moment but we should focus on the brighter side.
Seeing separate spectators dressed as a gorilla and a banana. I wanted to tell the gorilla that the banana was only 3 blocks away. I wish I took pictures! I also spotted Waldo (with a sign that said “you found me”)
When I crossed the finish line I knew I had only covered 15.5 miles and needed to continue running to 18.
yay done! Sort of….
But they made us walk for a long time out of the finisher’s area and by the time I got my medal and my “recovery bag” with apple, pretzels, water etc I was cranky and sore and not in the mood to run. I thought I’d start walking back uptown to my car and if I felt better i’d run. Well, I never did run. I walked for 2.5 miles, stopped at Starbucks for breakfast (I was SO hungry. Only ate one bag of sport beans and had a few sips of gatorade during the race) and to defrost.
I waited forever for this caramel macchiatto. The barista said “thank you for your patience”. I was not patient in my inside voices but i held it together
It was so cold and windy and my heat sheet wasn’t staying put:( After breakfast I continued to walk one additional mile until I FINALLY reached my car. So I did cover close to 20 miles but I only ran 15 1/2 ish….Frankly I’m ok with that. I had a great 16 miler 2 weeks ago and I still have a 20 miler to bang out in 2 weeks.
Lesson learned: ALWAYS do extra mileage BEFORE the race.
My splurge for the day. BBQ.
ribs and garlic bread! yes please!
It looks like I’ll actually be able to keep my midweek training on schedule with a 5 mile hill workout on Tuesday. Next race is the Love Run (1/2 marathon) in Philadelphia 2 weeks from today.
Question: Do you prefer big races or small? Or are you equal opportunity? I like both but I think smaller races are just easier logistically. Bigger races build excitement more though.
A second Saturday post because I wanted to throw Mother Nature under the bus. She is apparently having some sort of emotional turmoil (or that could be me) and decided today it should be 60 degrees and sunny but STILL super windy. 22mph sustained with gusts up to 31. I’ve officially decided wind is my least favorite running condition. I’ll take snow and rain first. And how will I remember to dress for temps in the 20s tomorrow? I guess this is Spring and fluctuating temps is to be expected. But it feels good to be a bit melodramatic about the weather =)
i’ve got one unruly purple hair…oh wait that’s the wire from my ear bud.
no ankle pain for the win at least
I could have stayed on the couch watching yoga on the TV all day, so I should be proud that I ran despite the wind making me feel like I couldn’t keep a decent pace at all. Not sure if I’ve clearly explained how I despise the wind.
watching it isn’t so bad. maybe, eventually i’ll try it and maybe i’ll even like it?
and here is what my downward dog was doing while I was watching yoga
And then met up with the girls. We hit the road about 3:30pm and were down in Atlantic City checking into the hotel at about 5:30. We quickly got dressed and headed to dinner. There may or may not have been some pre-game cupcakes and drinks in the room.
The girls! Note to self: Heels are the devil.
We had reservations at Bobby Flay Steak, a steakhouse in the Borgata hotel. In one word I can describe the meal as perfection.
I had filet mignon, a glass of shiraz, and we shared 4 amazing sides. Mashed potatoes, asparagus, cauliflower gratin and sweet potato gratin
the desserts were off the chart! Baked alaska, 7 layer chocolate espresso cake and caramel apple bread pudding with spiced pears
After dinner we dabbled a bit in the casino. I actually had a lovely surprise and won a little over $300. I was so close to winning the progressive amount which was $48,000! But $300 is still nice.
if that 100x Pay was up just a smidge i’d have won $48,000
And then we headed to the club to dance. I don’t dance and clubs aren’t my thing but there was some magical liquid courage involved and wouldn’t ya know I danced and had so much fun!
Somewhere before I passed out cold on the bed still in my dress I took this series of selfies! I think I was happy no?
I woke up in the middle of the night and scared myself when I looked in the mirror
I learned from Gina that she calls this hairstyle the Snork. Genius!
Things returned to normal this morning when I was back in my running gear! Gina and I went out for a quick run to sweat out the small stuff booze. It was 3 miles of good girl chat with some walk breaks. We both were suffering from war wounds of wearing heels the night before. Gina wore her FitBit all weekend and tracked our steps. Between the dancing and the running we’d covered over 10,000 steps! How cool is that?!
I ran on a boardwalk again!
My calves were really tight most probably from wearing heels and while we were running I felt a twinge on the inside of my ankle and my achilles tendon. It got stiffer as the day progressed. Most definitely related to the tight calves. So when I got home I put on compression socks, and iced the ankle.
I’m not exactly sure if this is a minor issue or a major issue but i’m not freaking out just yet. I CANNOT afford to make this any worse with next weekend’s 18 miler on the horizon. Here’s hoping that it’s minor.
I really enjoyed myself this weekend and was able to put all my stress on the shelf for a bit. It’s great to have gal pals to share good times like this with.
I hope everyone had a great weekend. I’m too tired to ask you a question but if you have anything to share with the class please do. =)
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