Weekly Recap: 3 Weeks Until the New York City Marathon

Three weeks until the New York City Marathon; it’s so close!

I’m linking up as always with Jess from Jess Runs ATL. Details below, join us!

I’m also joining HoHo Runs/Mississippi Piddlin, who host similar link-ups. Check them out!

I generally am a morning runner, but I really struggled this week getting up before work. I think part of it was that my normal morning running buddy Christie was in recovery mode after racing the Chicago Marathon, so I was on my own. It is also dark and much cooler now; it was a struggle finding motivation!

Here’s how training went this past week:

Monday: Ran after work; I had my coach’s notorious 15-10-10-5 workout. 1 mile to warm-up, 15 minutes at 10k pace, 5 minute recovery jog, 10 minutes at 5k pace, 5 minute recovery, 10 minutes again at 5k pace, 5 minute recovery, 5 minutes as fast as you can/all you have left! Then 1 mile cool-down. I missed part of the warm-up on my Garmin but this was 9 miles total. It was SO dark by the time I finished.  9 miles total at an 8:40 min/mile. Long tough workout, as always!

Tuesday:  [solidcore] class before work. (Okay, so I guess I did get up this day, but not to run, just for strength), 6 miles after work with my friend Lindsey at a 9 min/mile pace.

Wednesday: 7 miles after work with Dustin and Matilda at an 8:45 min/mile pace, followed up by a glass or two of my new favorite flavor of Nuun! Thursday: After 3 days of running after work, I finally got up before work. I was totally geeked out in everything Boston colors to try to muster the motivation. I had 800m repeats on the schedule- 2 mile warm-up, 6x800m repeats with a 2 minute recovery (I walked/slow jogged), 2 mile cool-down. 8 miles total at a 8:55 min/mile average.

So dark in the mornings now; good thing I have this head lamp.  It was expensive, but it’s totally the best. Rechargeable battery too.

Friday:  7.6 miles with Matilda before work at a 9 min/mile average. She was not into the post-run sweaty selfie. That evening, I went to my sister’s in Eden Prairie; my younger sister was also visiting with her little guy, so we did an early birthday celebration there- pizza, wine, cupcakes, and family! Saturday: My last 20 miler before NYC!

The plan was 12 miles easy, then 5 miles at goal marathon pace, followed by 3 more easy. I ran 10 with my run club, 7 alone, and then picked up Matilda for 3 more. I was glad I was able to exercise her as part of my long run, as shortly after we finished it started to rain and pretty much rained all afternoon/evening. I took a lovely post-20 mile nap…this lady enjoyed our lounging as well! It had started out as such a gorgeous fall day; perfect weather for a 20 miler.

In fact, it was also my 36th birthday. How else would one celebrate other than running 20 miles, right?

…Though I was too tired to retake this picture even after I realized I was giving an “0-2” rather than a 2-0! Dustin was actually in Washington D.C. until Saturday evening for a conference, but after he returned, we had some birthday ramen at Zen Box Izakaya.

Nothing too wild to celebrate as Dustin had his 20 miler the next morning (though ramen is great for runners!) Sunday: I had another 10 miles on my schedule Sunday (right after a 20 the day before- eeks!)

I ran 5 with Matilda the vizsla, stopped back to check results of the Columbus marathon, and then 5 more alone. Another gorgeous fall day in Minneapolis! I checked results of Columbus as an athlete I coach was racing the marathon. Unfortunately the weather was hot (so many hot marathons lately!) It was a ‘red flag’ situation in Columbus, but my athlete still held it together and set a 35-ish minute PR! So exciting.

Columbus may have been a relatively smaller marathon, but they had an awesome tracking app for your phone. It gave each athlete’s elapsed chip time and then it would estimate exactly what mile they would be at if they were keeping the same average pace from the last chip timing mat. It was probably one of the most accurate and sophisticated tracking apps I’ve seen, even better than most of the world majors! Go Columbus 🙂

Sunday night, we had dinner at Young Joni to keep the birthday celebrations going.

Have you been? SO good. It’s hard to get a reservation there but definitely worth the hassle. Delicious.

I ended my meal with the mini-ice cream cone trio! I kept joking around about how all I wanted for my birthday was an alpaca…And I got one! Sort of. 🙂 Summary: 68 miles of running, 1 [solidcore] class. This was my last big week of training. Next week my long run is still 16 miles, but it’s still the start of the taper. (My coach is more of a 2 week taper guy, but overall mileage still seems to be decreasing.)

Goals?
Though I put in a lot of miles and my training went okay, I don’t think I’m in PR shape for NYC. I’d love get another BQ (sub-3:40) but I’d be happy with anything in the 3:40’s, especially if I am able run with a smile on my face and enjoy the experience (like I did at London– I had such a great time at that one!)

Since we are running the Arkansas marathon in December (I won a VIP entry and hotel stay at the RRCA convention last March), my coach thinks a 3:45 is a good goal for New York and then I’ll shoot for a PR at the Arkansas marathon.

So my plan is to ENJOY the New York City marathon! After all this is my last of the 6th World Majors! (Curious about the World Majors? Read this post!)

Chicago, Berlin, Tokyo, London, Boston and now New York!

Surprisingly, there really aren’t that many 6 Star finishers yet in the world, so it will be an exciting medal to receive.

Just need to stay healthy and run strong in 3 more weeks.

Corrals for NYC:
Dustin and I did receive our corral placements earlier this week. I’m in the green corral, wave 1. He’s in the blue corral, wave 1. It sounds like we should both be on top of the bridge. I heard that if you’re on bottom, you have to be careful not to get peed on from the runners above…is this true?? Eew!

Social Meet-up!
And don’t forget, if you’ll be in NYC for the marathon, join Jess and me for a meet-up at Starbucks/Central Park on Saturday at 10 am. Hope to see you there!