Week 3: Conquering 3 Miles...Well No Quite

June 19th: The Outer Loop

After recovering from the Corporate Challenge on Wednesday I headed to my group training session (GTS) bright and early Saturday morning in Prospect Park. I got there early, around 8:15, and relaxed in the park while waiting for the rest of the team. From the beginning of our season, the coaches have gone on and on about how hot it will be training during the summer and the importance of staying hydrated...blah, blah, blah. Well this all became very real for me in week 3.

The beginner runners did the outer loop of Prospect Park, which is approximately 3.3 miles ( http://www.prospectpark.org/media/file/distance_maprev2.pdf ). Around 8:45 after some announcements and our mission moment we began our runs.

We started out on the shady side of the park. I was feeling good, catching a breeze, and chatting with my mentor. This was a much better start than Wednesday. Then we came out of the trees and the hit the sun, it all went south from here. I guess I thought well it's 9 in the morning the sun won't be that strong but I was wrong! I felt like I was slowly but surely melting away, I could feel the sweat dripping down my neck and I wasn't even running that fast. Suddenly it became much harder to keep up with the group. I looked over to my mentor and another runner and they're just chatting it up as if we were not being baked alive, while running no less. Another light bulb went off, those coaches were right it's hot out here! I should have brought some water with me. I was then forced to do something I haven't done since elementary school, use a public water fountain (gross!).

After my water break I continued on my run and of course hit a hill. In case you already haven't picked up on this, hills (in my opinion) are the absolute worst! Did I also mention that I chose to run a marathon in the hilliest city in America? I clearly didn't think this through. Anyway back to the story, the coaches were camped out throughout the park to monitor eveyones process. A group of them were at the bottom of the hill, so to save face I ran up the hill until I was out of they're sight and then walked the rest of the way. Shameful, I know. But you'll be happy to know I finished my loop strong. I know for a fact I didn't run the full 3.3 miles, but I walked a lot less than I did during the Corporate Challenge which is progress in my mind.

What Did I Learn About Running That Day
1) Hydrating is key when running in the sun. Taking a swig of gatorade before your run is not going to cut it

2) Real runners are ready to brave the elements and extreme weather, I was not!

3) I need to figure out a way to run up hills because they're everywhere!

Stepping Up My Gear Game

Last week you heard me complain about blisters, and my sub par headphones so I decided that it was time to break down and buy some real running gear. There is a Jack Rabbit (http://jackrabbitsports.com/) not too far from Prospect Park so I decided to go there after GTS to buy some new gear. I just want to make a side comment, I don't understand these people who feel "refreshed" and "energized" after running because I just feel plain tired. I mention this because despite being exhausted after my training I walked over to Jack Rabbit, and even a 15 minute walk was tiring after doing the outer loop in the heat.

I went in and talked to the guy about my blister issue and he suggested that I get socks made with wicking fabric. The wicking absorbs sweat and keeps it away from the skin which helps alleviate friction and decrease the development of blisters (http://walking.about.com/od/weather/a/rain3.htm). The best wicking socks are Therlos (http://www.thorlo.com/wicking-socks.php) but they'll set you back $10-$15 a pair. Being the recessionista I am I decided to get another, less expensive, brand of wicking socks and buy a "2nd Skin Blister" kit for extra insurance. The 2nd skin kit is something you can put on under your socks to help prevent pressure / friction blisters. I also was talked into buy body glide, which prevent chaffing. I have not experienced chaffing yet but eventually I will according the guy in Jack Rabbit.

After running in the heat I also realized the importance of wearing light fabrics. The long and the short of all this is that cotton is the enemy for runners. I weighs you down when you sweat and rubs up against in an uncomfortable way. So I bought some drift fit material tops. Finally, I bought some headphones that wrapped around my ear. I felt confident that I had resolved all of my week two issues from a gear perspective, and walked away knowing that this would not the last time that I was going to have to drop money on running gear.

What Did I Learn About Running That Day
1) The right gear is key for you to feel comfortable when you run
2) Cotton is the enemy, if you're running in it stop and make a change immediately
3) Be careful because you can go broke shopping in a running store. Just get in get what you need and get out as fast as possible. Don't browse because they'll get you!

June 24: the Wall Street Run

I slacked off again this week and missed my Tuesday night GTS. Listen, those Tuesday trainings are a stretch after working all day. I'll figure it out eventually. After surviving the world's worst date Wednesday night and accepting the fact that I was not going to get my iPhone 4 on Thursday, I thought a 5K run will do me some good. I was already registered for the American Heat Associations Wall Street Run so the timing was perfect (Here's the race route http://www.nyrr.org/races/2009/pdf/aha_wallst_map.pdf) . However, I was not thrilled that it was 94 degrees outside. Running a race in that kind of heart had dreadful written all over it.

I made two big mistakes on Thursday: 1) despite my experience the following week, I didn't carry water with me during the race. 2) I have a serious caffeine addiction and had my regular 3:30pm coffee that day...terrible idea! I'm not going to get into the details of my journey during that race, but know that it involved me darting into a hole in the wall sushi restaurant at one point and an elongated stay at the water station. Also I have never sweat more in my life, running in the kind of heat was just miserable. I was really scared I was going to pass out at certain times.

BUT there were some high points of the race: No blisters, headphones stayed in places, and there were some very small hills along the race course and I managed to run all of them! I didn't run the full 3 miles but I walked less that I did the following Saturday in the park, which is progress, and I ran some baby hills! I did not conquer 3 miles this week but I have the eye of the tiger and I'll get there.

What Did I Learn About Running That Day

1) Drinking coffee before a race is a horrible idea, even if it's three hours before the race

2) I can't rely on the water stations to stay hydrated, I need to carry my own water bottle

3) Sorry I don't have a number three, I learned two big lessons that day and that was enough

Week 2: Corporate Challenge

Well in week two I started slacking..BUT you'll be happy to know I finished strong. I skipped my Saturday training session for a yoga retreat upstate. In case you didn't already know yoga and pilates is much harder than it looks. I was equally as sore after completing three yoga / pilates classes over course of two days as I was after my first run.

Tuesday I skipped training because I had not zero energy bars and was counting down the minutes until I left work. BUT on Wednesday, I participated in the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge. This was a 3.5 mile run in Central Park. I know last week I talked about how much I hate running in Central Park, but I've come to realize that if you're a runner living in New York City it is a necessary evil (yes I said the largest patch of greenery in NYC can be evil).

Long story short every company, non profit, university, etc. has a team in the Corporate Challenge, this is obvious by the sea of different color T-shits. By the way, I must say that Amex had the best T-shirt out there. I ran into some colleagues when I arrived and we made our way from the Amex tent to the start. There was a sea of people waiting to begin the race so it took a while to get to the actually starting line. When we did I put on my iPod and I was off!



For the first mile I was feeling great and felt like I had a good pace! It got a little dicey after that. Central Park is deceptively hilly so even a short race can be difficult. Shortly after the mile one marker I felt like I was going to pass out, I even had to stop and walk a couple of times. At a certain point I thought, surely I've missed the mile 2 marker there is no way one mile can be this long...But I was wrong, about two minutes later I crossed the mile 2 marker.


At this point I felt like I had run 10 miles and of course like Murphy's Law, the mile 2 marker was at the bottom on a hill, I was developing a blister on my left foot and my headphones kept sliding out of my ears. So feeling defeated I just stopped and started walking. For the first time since I set out on this journey, I thought to myself, how the hell are you going to get through a marathon if you can't even run 2 miles!?! It was like a light bulb went off for the first time...running a marathon is hard AND more importantly training for a marathon is hard! I was so blinded by the "eye of the tiger" in taking this on that I never thought about the process to get to the finish line.


After a brief moment of self loathing I thought the race is in October Marlena, you have some time to get it together. So half way into mile 2 I turned on my power song of the week (Lady Gaga - Telephone) and started running again. Before I knew it I crossed the mile 3 marker and then the finish line! What a relief I was done. Patience is not my strong point, but I realized that to go from zero to 26.2 you have to have a lot of it!



What Did I learn About Running That Day?

1) Just like Rome, marathon runners are not built in a day slow and steady really does win the race
2) I need some better sock that prevent blisters
3) It's hard to listen to a power song when your headphones keep slipping our of your ears so I'll need to upgrade

The First Week of My Journey

Why Am I Doing This?

Many year ago when I was sitting in my 7th grade history class my teacher told us the story of a Greek soldier named Pheidippides (feel free to wiki this) who fought in the Battle of Marathon. Pheidippides was the messenger who ran from Marathon to Athens to spread the good news of the battle. When he arrived in Athens he yelled “Nike!” (or victory) and then dropped dead.

I learned two things that day 1) contrary to popular belief Nike does not mean “just do it.” 2) Pheidippides run is the reasons that Marathons are 26.2 miles. For some reason this story always stuck with me. Well it finally became relevant in my life 15+ years later as I have decided to run a marathon! That’s right on October 17th I’m running (ironically) in the Nike Women’s marathon in San Francisco!

I have a strong feeling that Pheidippides died on the spot at the end of his marathon because he did not train properly before hand. To ensure that I don’t face the same fate I’m participating in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Societies (LLS) Team and Training Program (TNT). I have to raise $3,900 for LLS to participate in the race. TNT is a great program, and hopefully with the help of my coaches and mentors I will be able to yell “Nike” at the end of the race in good health.

The reason I'm doing this is pretty straight forward: I always wanted to run a marathon. I'm 29 and it seemed like a nice challenging pre 30 goal. Yeah I was serious about the straight forward part.

Now, I’m a woman that doesn’t even run for the bus let alone 26.2 miles! So I thought it would be interesting to share the experience of a non runner who woke up one day and decided to run a marathon. I will share with you all the highs and lows of my training. Hopefully I’ll entertain the non runners and maybe the runners will be entertained and provide me with some training tips. I also hope you all will feel compelled to donate to the cause, you can visit the links below.

You can subscribe to my blog or I can send it to you on a weekly basis (but hopefully you’ll find it so fascinating that you’ll subscribe!)

So let’s get down to it!

June 5, 2010

This was the official kick off to the TNT season, our first official training session. The TNT program is broken out into different teams. I’m on the Brooklyn team because I live in BK. But my friend Nicaila, who I signed up with, is on the Manhattan team because she lives in the Bronx. Nicaila seemed a little nervous about the first practice so for moral support I left the tranquility of Brooklyn and headed to Central Park to kick off the season with her.

Let me set the scene: One I am NOT a morning person, so this journey to Central Park from Brooklyn early on a Saturday morning was already a stretch. Two, (and only true New Yorkers will appreciate this) the damn A train was running local! So now I’m literally running late. I get to Central Park and encounter a sea of people doing a charity walk. I get swept into the crowd but finally find the TNT group.

After a rev up talk and a mission moment (I’ll explain in another post) from our coaches we were broken out by race and shortly after we started running. It was a little difficult to run around all of the walkers and I made a note to self about the heat. It was so hot and I couldn’t help but wonder if I was getting a jacked up sports bra tan while I was running. All in all they kept it light for the first training session. We did the lower loop of central park and some light stretching after. While I didn’t clock the run I doubt that it was more than 2 miles.

What Did I Learn About Running That Day?

1) If you live in Brooklyn and want to go running in central park on a Saturday morning DO NOT trust the A train!
2) Saturday morning is probably the worst time to run in Central Park because it’s so crowded
3) When running in the summer, if you want to avoid jacked up tan lines, the earlier you run the better!

June 8, 2010

Through TNT we train as a team Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings. So after a tiring day at work I dragged myself to Prospect Park for our training session. The upside? I was at least back to the tranquility of Brooklyn. Side note a year ago I lived in Harlem and rarely left the island of Manhattan. The thought of going to the outer boroughs was exhausting, so it’s kinda funny to me that I love Brooklyn so much now.

The Tuesday training sessions are more technical, we work on strength training, technique, etc. Yesterday we took a short jog to the interior of the park and then did some strength training. The strength training was NOT easy: lunges, squats, planks, leg lifts. I was thinking to myself are they serious right now!?! But they were and guess who felt like they had rubber legs on the way home?...that would be me. Oh did I mention that they had me on the grass doing ab work!?! Even though we weren’t running I was spent by the end of training.

What Did I Learn About Running That Day?

1) Strength training is just as important as running because it helps prevent injuries but it also tires you out just as much as running
2) While I love Prospect Park…I do not like laying on the grass to do ab work
3) Nothing about this process is going to be easy

That’s it for this week, tune in next week folks!