What’s next?

So a week after the marathon and the question bumbling around is – what’s next?

For me the answer seems to be – semi-retirement.

I have no big plans for the moment except to enjoy some variety in my workouts since I’m not going to be running all the time (or ever) anymore.  It will be nice to hit the weights again.  It will be nice to not battling the food monster 16 mile runs brings on.  It’ll be nice to go for bike rides before winter sets in or maybe even roller blade.  I might try a warrior dash or some other type of organized event next year, but for now, no plans.

I also plan to semi-retire this blog.  I’ve been incredibly busy and this blog has been on auto-pilot for a year or so.  The weekly weigh-ins aren’t keeping me focused.  I’ve shared my ups and downs without much hiding, it’s just not been motivational to me to avoid bad behavior like this week with a bit of post marathon binge.  I’ll still be tracking on Lose It! and RunKeeper (5 years to make the loss permanent research seems to say), but I won’t be posting very much anymore.  It has turned into one more point of time pressure than I need right now and I don’t feel like I’m adding a lot right now.

That said, I won’t be shutting it down.  I did something here maybe someone else can learn from.  I’ll drop by to say hello once in a while.  (And I still get tons of hits on my Olive Garden Venetian Chicken review, can’t deprive the world of that!)

So off to the gym!

 

 

Advertisement

T-0: Race Recap

Two years of training and we’re finally done!

Final Time was 4:16.

Not the sub-4 hour I was hoping for, but I knew early on it wasn’t likely and I knew for sure by the half.  15 minutes slower than my Long Island marathon pace.

The difficulties were several:

• Calves and thighs were still a little sore from the get-go from the last long runs I did a few weeks ago, wasn’t a good starting sign.  They really hurt by half way and the calves are still killing me.
• Wow, this entire race is up-hill.  The climb on NYC is more than double the LI marathon, and about 3.5 the climb of my last training runs.  It’s not until around 21 that you get some regular downhill.  See the above point.
• I was 5 minutes off my last time by the half.  By mile 15 for the 59th Street Bridge, I wasn’t running up-hill on the steep ones anymore.  That’s when I knew for sure it wasn’t happening.
• People, people, people everywhere.  I am still waiting for finisher demographics but I heard 50,000 people ran this year.  They were constantly blocking you, knocking you, cutting you off etc.  Some of the streets and water stations were quite tight.  There were times I would have liked to go faster but couldn’t.
• Also bystanders dashing across the road in front of you to get to other side – multiple times.
• Work craziness meant I didn’t train as hard speed or stamina wise.  It showed.  I was so spent by the 20s, I was more than half walking them.  I couldn’t even muster up a job for the final 2.  It wasn’t until the 400 meter sign came up that I could find the will to run again.

That said, so far it looks like I still came in better than top half and still with a half decent time.  I completed a tough tough goal.  I didn’t take in a lot of scenery (I’ve lived here most of my life and while we went through places I wasn’t familiar with, it was all NYC).  The volunteers were awesome, and the cheerers were awesome too.  Very few dead spots.  I slapped a lot of kids’ hands yesterday (and a fair few adults’).

NYC Marathon Prep

Metric	Last Week	In Total
Mileage Run:	7.14 miles	455.02 miles
Longest Run:	3.61 miles	18.55 miles
Longest Run Time:	0:35:00 hh:mm:ss	2:50:01 hh:mm:ss
Longest Run Pace:	9:42 min/mile	9:22 min/mile

LI Marathon Prep

Metric	Last Week	In Total
Mileage Run:	6.72 miles	411.86 miles
Longest Run:	3.61 miles	18.55 miles
Longest Run Time:	0:32:46 hh:mm:ss	2:49:45 hh:mm:ss
Longest Run Pace:	9:05 min/mile	9:09 min/mile

T-1: Race Week

So I did my final walk before the big day tomorrow.  Just over 450 miles for this training session, missed one short run.  Not bad.

I definitely feel like I was more prepared last year.  Training started in a heat wave and ended in a cold snap.  Tomorrow’s temps range from high 30’s to 50F.

I also had a mega project going on the entire time at work and didn’t get a heck of a lot of sleep.  I know the training was not as good as it could be and stamina was a concern during the long runs.  Optimistically, I can hope the extra toughness from work will make tomorrow seem like a breeze, but I’m equally worried it stunted the training.

We’ll see tomorrow!  Got to get up at 4AM to a 10AM start.

NYC Marathon Prep

Metric	Last Week	In Total
Mileage Run:	7.14 miles	455.02 miles
Longest Run:	3.61 miles	18.55 miles
Longest Run Time:	0:35:00 hh:mm:ss	2:50:01 hh:mm:ss
Longest Run Pace:	9:42 min/mile	9:22 min/mile

LI Marathon Prep

Metric	Last Week	In Total
Mileage Run:	6.72 miles	411.86 miles
Longest Run:	3.61 miles	18.55 miles
Longest Run Time:	0:32:46 hh:mm:ss	2:49:45 hh:mm:ss
Longest Run Pace:	9:05 min/mile	9:09 min/mile