Week 15: BRB, Just Running 20 Miles
Week 15: October 7 - October 13, 2019
I was now less than a month out from the NYC Marathon and despite the small wins on my race days, I was getting increasingly nervous by the day. The program called for 58 miles for the week, and I was wondering how that would be possible between my busy work schedule and some personal matters that were stressing me out. This week called for:
Monday: 6 miles easy
Tuesday: 1.5 mile warmup, 6 x 800m @ 10k pace w/ 400m jog, 1.5 mile cooldown
Wednesday: Rest/Crosstrain
Thursday: 1.5 mile warmup, 3 miles, 2 miles, 3 miles @ goal MP w/ 0.5 mile jog, 1.5 mile cooldown
Friday: 6 miles easy
Saturday: 10 miles easy
Sunday: 16 miles long (Staten Island Half Marathon Day)
All my stress caught up to me, so I was very run down on Sunday and Monday and barely survived training my clients, so I was not going to bother with the prescribed 6 miles, no matter how slow they were allowed to be.
I still wasn’t feeling great on Tuesday, but because I didn’t run for two days straight I made the effort to head up to the Weehawken track for some 800m work for 7.5 miles, and although it took effort, the splits were right on the 10k pace training target.
I lifted on Wednesday and had a bunch of clients, which forced me to eat a heavy gnocchi meal late that night (the art of carb-loading).
Since the training program only wanted me to run up to 16 miles in one go before the big day, I was too nervous that it wasn’t enough. I knew I could do 18 miles based on the race about a month before, but in order to give my confidence a boost, I decided to aim for 20 miles on Thursday when I didn’t have anyone scheduled. Luckily I managed to get a good night’s sleep and procrastinated a bit in the morning, so I had a late start to the run.
I had my coffee, an orange, a Honey Stinger waffle, and some nuun as fuel before my journey. I wore compression socks (with a mermaid print, of course) and went on my way up the hills of Union City to the cliffs of West New York, past Guttenberg, and kept going along JFK Boulevard and discovered a little park where I was able to run around the duck pond as a turning point. I followed JFK back until I got to Weehawken again and headed to the river and ran north, pausing briefly at the Weehawken track to refill my water bottles, then continued on all the way to Port Imperial and back along the waterfront to complete 20 miles at Pier A in Hoboken, sprinting the last quarter mile just to have given it my all.
I was tempted to keep going; I would have gone north again and then looped around Hoboken in order to get that last 6.2 miles that would complete a full marathon. I had to hold myself back and save that victory for the real day, but I was so happy to know that I will be able to do it, and hopefully within the 4-hour parameters I set for myself. I was also proud of the pace; I took my time and still averaged a 9:23 pace throughout, so on race day when I am in the pack I will be able to shave off a couple of minutes from pure adrenaline. I didn’t need the Honey Stinger gel until Mile 16, which I took as a good sign since I want it to help me to speed up just when needed. I felt my hips and knees get a bit tight in the last few miles, but as soon as I got home I put my legs on the wall and took an Epsom salt bath, then relaxed for the rest of the day with plenty of chocolate milk.
Friday was a rest day from running, but I stacked up my clients so that I could have Saturday off to see my niece and nephew and have fresh legs for Sunday’s Staten Island Half. My performance on that 13.1 will be on the next Race Recap.
Although I only ran 3 days of Week 15, I made them all count: one speed day while sick, one mileage PR, and one 13.1 PR, so I count it as a win.
If I didn't record the 20-miler, did it even happen???