taper!

Tapering! The best part of training. Now that I've completed my last long run, it's time to cut back on the mileage and reap the benefits of recovery. It is so hard to imagine tacking on an extra 6 miles to my long run, but in reality, we have all the strength we need to run a full marathon (well, after training. Our coaches are smart). Here's a nice quote from Runner's World: "Your legs get you through the first 10 miles. Your mind gets you through the next 10 miles. Your heart gets you to the finish line." - So true. Training for a marathon is not only a huge accomplishment, but also a huge time commitment. Anyone can run a marathon without training (and feel the pain during and afterwards)- but a training program will really make you confident about your run. Plus, Team in Training is such an amazing, close group; I would recommend it to everyone.

Our email from Coach Ramon about our workout tonight:

The workout: Warm up from Bethesda down the east side to 59th st and 7th avenue entrance of the park. From there
start you 1st of 3 pick ups:

1st : 59th & 7th to West 90th street. RECOVER to 102nd street
2nd West 102nd to110th (bottom of Harlem hill) TURN AROUND and back to West 102nd Street RECOVER to West 90th street.
3rd : West 90th to Bethesda.

How to run the workout: 3 pick ups 3 paces.

1st : This is a long pick up. Run this at your marathon goal time(if you have one) or about 75% effort if you don't
2nd: Push this part of it. You have 2 uphills (specially designed for SF participants). Run Hard up and down both sets.
You want to be pretty tired by the time you get back to 102nd street. This should be done at 80+% effort.
3rd: Run for your life. This is about 1.2 miles to Bethesda. But this is a fast part of the park as it is mostly downhill. Do not be shy,
push. This is the part where you work on your turnover once your legs are tired. This should be done at aroudn 85+% .

Goal of the workout: Once more we are working on our discipline, on our pacing and our fitness.
You need to have the discipline to hold back on the first and longest part of the workout, eventually put some effort and work thru some controlable discomfort during the 2nd pickup and then be brave to deal with real discomfort on the last one...
If you find yourself not being able to pick up the pace or effort on the 3rd pickup, it tells me you went too hard on the first 2.
If you did learn from it, if you didn't do the same on race day !

The exciting part, is that this is our last hard workout until race day! Until then, I am rewarding myself with intense core fusion classes and long city walks :-)



Last night, I tried a great new vegan place on the Upper West Side called "Peacefood." I ran downtown (literally) from my class at school(my class was from 6-9pm!) and stopped in for some dessert. I got a blueberry cream biscuit and chocolate chip cookie. All vegan. I am excited to try some of the more savory dishes, because I was very impressed with the desserts! I especially love its proximity to areas I frequent often :-)

Treats (and streets) of the summer!

Some food news!

On Wednesday night, a few of my friends and I went to Dinosaur BBQ (it may seem this is the only place we frequent. In reality, we can only handle it once a month or so).

I tried to vary my choices a little bit this time. After waiting over an hour and a half for a table for 6, we were ready to eat. I opted for the ultimate BLT (a regular BLT with fried green tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes. incredible. and a TON of bacon) with 2 sides. For my 2 sides, I got the soup of the day (potato corn chowder) and the vegetable of the day (a green bean salad with a balsamic vinaigrette-very refreshing). I was feeling adventurous for sure! I don't think I've ever enjoyed a meal more (especially after waiting 2 hours for it! and after consuming a Dogfish Head Raison D'etre at 8%...)

We then headed down to George Keeley's, a beer bar on 83rd and Amsterdam. What's cool about Keeley's is they give you free popcorn (!!!!) and you can bring dogs. We didn't have a dog with us, but that's still pretty cool. Also, the beer is awesome. All in all, a successful evening for food and drink, even though my tummy was very full by the end of it.

I've also forgotten how much I love bubble tea. A friend gave me a recommendation for this Chinese/Japanese Restaurant on 72nd and Amsterdam called "Ivy's Cafe." I researched it further, and apparently it has quite the reputation for having some of the best bubble tea in NYC. I tried the "taro" flavor yesterday. I didn't even know what a taro is (some kind of root? I'll describe the flavor as "purple." Kind of tasted like rice pudding. mmm!). Anyway, the tea was fantastic and I had to restrain myself from going today after my long run (I don't want to be known as bubble tea girl). Some other flavors that were recommended to me were coconut and almond. I can't wait to try those also!


My Long run today:

Instead of running the monotonous central park loop over and over again, we ran on Park Ave! For three Saturdays from 7AM to 1PM starting today, traffic is closed on Park Ave up to 72nd st for a program called "Summer Streets." Team in Training had the honor of kicking off the celebration and being the first to run! Mayor Bloomberg was supposed to run with us, but inevitably his bed seemed more inviting at 7:30 in the morning. The route was from the base of City Hall to 72nd st. and back. You could add or subtract distance based on how much mileage you wanted to cover. Those of us running the NYC half marathon next Sunday has a dilemma- should we taper and only do eight miles (the coach's recommendation for those running the half) or go all out with the 15 miles Ramon recommended for the advanced group? Tapering is important before an endurance event because it gives the body time to rest and absorb the work you have already done. The NYC half marathon is many TNTers' main event of the season. If I really wanted to race and put all my effort of the season into it, I would definitely taper. However, my main goal is to rock it in San Francisco for the marathon in October. So I compromised....kind of. I had made up my mind to run to 72nd and back (9 miles) and if I had a lot of energy, I would keep going. Because I had made the decision to run a short(ish) distance, I didn't take my GUs (nutrition runners should consume during long runs). I ended up running 13.5 miles (to 72nd and back and then back up to 72nd). I was weak, dehydrated and dizzy from the lack of nutrition and water on the way (I had carried one waterbottle, but it wasn't enough. And there weren't many waterstops). Other than that, I had a great time! I never make it to that part of the city and was excited to explore a completely different world than the one I frequent. For most of the run I ran with my running buddy Nicole. We even got to pass her wedding venue! (68th and Park)

She turned around at 24th st. on our 2nd lap and I kept running uptown, with the intention of getting on the next subway I saw. Unfortunately (and fortunately) I met up with 2 other TNTers who wanted to go all the way to 72nd.

Overachievers.

So I felt like I had to accompany them all the way to the end, even though I felt like crap. BUT I did get that sense of accomplishment in :-) It ended up being a 13.5 mile run. Waking up at 5AM followed by a 13.5 mile run followed by a visit from my mother and work from 1 - 10:30 = a lonnngg day.

Hopefully my taper for the rest of the week will go better. I think Ramon would call what I ran today "misbehaving."