July 9th: bridge and tunnel...minus the tunnel
For those of you who know me less than a year ago I wouldn't even come to Brooklyn let alone live there. I was one of those New Yorkers who only left the island to go to the airport. Well I'm one to admit when I'm wrong and I was very short sided on this one, there's a lot of fun to be had in BK! For example if I didn't live in Brooklyn I probably would never wake up in the morning and decide to run across the Brooklyn Bridge and back as I did last Friday.
I had the day off, but of course being the Corporate blackberry addicted type A personality that I am, I spent a good portion of my morning answering emails. My best friend Joy and her daughter Addyson, my Goddaughter (that's Addyson and I at Coney Island), were visiting from Atlanta and would arrive at my apartment at 11am. The window of time for me to make this run was closing. But I figured it won't take me more than 20 minutes to run across the bridge and back (the approximate distance is 2 miles).
Finally around 9:45 I was out the door feeling good and ready for my scenic run. As I ran down Tillary street I realized that I was running in pass out weather, it was hot as ----- outside(those of you who know me know that this is one of my favorite phrases). Anyway I was keeping a good pace as I ran onto the bridge AND I had my trusty iPhone 4 to take pictures of my journey. I snapped a shot as I entered the bridge (eh hem look to the right please). Then I noticed something, I started feeling really tired like it was taking a lot of effort to put one foot in front of the other. I was even starting to lean forward a little bit. Then I thought wait a minute I know this feeling, I'm on a hill!
If you ever look at long shots of the Brooklyn Bridge you'll notice that there's a slight ark to it. Let me tell you what that translates into for a runner, one long hill. Do I need to reiterate how I feel about hills...ok if you insist, they are the devil! I manged to make it to the top of the bridge / hill and took a breather to take the next shot (eyes left people) with my highly sophisticated iPhone 4 :-) Ok that's the last time I'm going to mention my iPhone I promise! Real quick side note, did you know that there are vendors on the Brooklyn Bridge selling art and bottled water? Well you know now.
For those of you who know me less than a year ago I wouldn't even come to Brooklyn let alone live there. I was one of those New Yorkers who only left the island to go to the airport. Well I'm one to admit when I'm wrong and I was very short sided on this one, there's a lot of fun to be had in BK! For example if I didn't live in Brooklyn I probably would never wake up in the morning and decide to run across the Brooklyn Bridge and back as I did last Friday.
I had the day off, but of course being the Corporate blackberry addicted type A personality that I am, I spent a good portion of my morning answering emails. My best friend Joy and her daughter Addyson, my Goddaughter (that's Addyson and I at Coney Island), were visiting from Atlanta and would arrive at my apartment at 11am. The window of time for me to make this run was closing. But I figured it won't take me more than 20 minutes to run across the bridge and back (the approximate distance is 2 miles).
Finally around 9:45 I was out the door feeling good and ready for my scenic run. As I ran down Tillary street I realized that I was running in pass out weather, it was hot as ----- outside(those of you who know me know that this is one of my favorite phrases). Anyway I was keeping a good pace as I ran onto the bridge AND I had my trusty iPhone 4 to take pictures of my journey. I snapped a shot as I entered the bridge (eh hem look to the right please). Then I noticed something, I started feeling really tired like it was taking a lot of effort to put one foot in front of the other. I was even starting to lean forward a little bit. Then I thought wait a minute I know this feeling, I'm on a hill!
If you ever look at long shots of the Brooklyn Bridge you'll notice that there's a slight ark to it. Let me tell you what that translates into for a runner, one long hill. Do I need to reiterate how I feel about hills...ok if you insist, they are the devil! I manged to make it to the top of the bridge / hill and took a breather to take the next shot (eyes left people) with my highly sophisticated iPhone 4 :-) Ok that's the last time I'm going to mention my iPhone I promise! Real quick side note, did you know that there are vendors on the Brooklyn Bridge selling art and bottled water? Well you know now.
Anyway back to running, as I continued on my run I had a thought that messed me up, I've never really traveled over a bridge on foot. Don't ask me why but I stopped and looked down, I could see the water through the wood panels. All that was stopping me from plummeting to me death was a little piece of wood. Suffice to say this inspired me to run faster. Luckily running the remainder of the bridge was down hill and before I knew it I was back on the island!...well at least for a moment until I had to climb the hill back to BK.
What Did I learn About Running That Day
1) I guess I've been training long enough now that I can detect a slight incline by a change in my stride
2) If you're running over a bridge don't look down
3) I'll be traveling to Manhattan the old fashion way from now on, by subway or bus
July 10th: 6 Miles...Really?
So the game plan for our Saturday morning training was to do a 6 mile run from Prospect Park to the Promenade in BK Heights (that's my neighborhood!) and back to the park. So essentially we were going to run from the park to my apartment and back. Let me give you some perspective on how far that is, to get to training from my apartment I walk 10 minutes to the F train at Jay Street, take it 5 stops to 7th Avenue and then walk another three blocks to the Park. If this still isn't registering with you click this link to view the map of our route.
Once we got to the park, the coaches had a long talk with us about nutrition. What we should eat before our run, hydrating, and replenishing ourselves throughout our runs. Before our long run we're suppose to eat something carb heavy like a bagel with peanut butter. This is the first time we were running a long distance as a group. The general rule of running long distances is that you should drink 6-8 ounces of fluids every 20 minutes and take in 100 calories after 45-60 minutes and then 100 calories every 30 minutes. You're probably wondering how do we take in calories while we run. Well someone, who's probably rich now, developed these little packets of gel that basically supply you with the nutrients you need to keep running. Each pack contains just about 100 calories. PowerBar sponsors TNT (who knew!) and apparently supply a lot of free gel packs to us, so the coaches gave us some before our run.
For starters ask me what I ate before training, half a banana...didn't want to catch a cramp and all, real smart (that's called sarcasim folks). But I was hydrating all morning and was ready to go. One thing I'll say about this process is it makes you very competitive with yourself. You feel like you wnat to do better than you did on the last run. However, for some reason I seem to get nervous before a run and running in a group for 6 miles did not easy my anxiety. Luckily I found one of my team mates who had the same fears so we partnered up. I grabbed one of the gel packs and we were off.
Mistake number one: all that hydrating caught up to me, 10 minutes into the run I had to go to the bathroom, so did my running buddy so we took a detour looking for restaurants that would let us use the rest room....I know real classy. We continued on our run at what I thought was a great pace for beginners. It was so humid it felt like I was putting out so much effort to even run on level ground. So shortly before we hit the promenade (about 4 miles and and hour into our run) we decided to take the gel packs...it all went south from there.
Mistake number two: since all I had to eat that morning was half a banana I was essentially running on an empty stomach. Running on an empty stomach in extreme heat and eating a gel like substance for the first time under such conditions are all bad ideas. At first everything was fine, the gel didn't even taste so bad (I had strawberry banana flavor in case you were wondering). But about 15 minutes after I took it, I started to feel real bad. My body was not down with the gel packs at all, I felt terrible! We were just leaving BK Heights and moving into Cobble Hill, but I knew I was not going to make it. So instead of running back to the park I stopped and walked home.
My 6 mile run turned in to a 4.5 mile run. I think I made the right decision because it would have been the worst to get sick on some random street in Brooklyn. But I was disappointed in myself, I really wanted to complete my run. I feel like I gave up in a way, maybe I could have kept going. This is where the mind and body thing comes into play. My mind wanted me to keep going, I had the eye of the tiger, but my body just couldn't keep up. This was a good lesson on getting to know what I need to sustain myself through this training and the marathon. But don't worry I still have the eye of the tiger, I just need to eat a bigger breakfast next time!
What Did I Learn About Running That Day
1) Skipping breakfast isn't an option, and you can't worry about carbs when you eat a meal before you run
2) I have to try out different gel packs and sports drinks to see what agrees with me and what doesn't so I have the perfect combination for race day
3) I will always listen to my body, because it doesn't lie!
July 13: Bootcamp
This is pretty self explanatory. For our Tuesday night training, we had Jasmine Graham, a TNT certified coach and owner of Pace 4 Success, come in and do a bootcamp session with us. I already knew this was going to be a hard, so I mentally prepared myself for the pain...butI still came unprepared. Jasmine's workout is crazy. That is the heardest I've ever sweat in my life. BUT it was a great workout and I wouldn't mind doing it again. Just so you have an idea of how crazy the work out was check out the before and after pics below. The after pic is by far the worst picture I've ever taken in my life (the before one isn't so hot either) and I thought twice about posting it, but I'm committed to giving you all the inside track on my training.
What Did I learn About Running That Day
1) I guess I've been training long enough now that I can detect a slight incline by a change in my stride
2) If you're running over a bridge don't look down
3) I'll be traveling to Manhattan the old fashion way from now on, by subway or bus
July 10th: 6 Miles...Really?
So the game plan for our Saturday morning training was to do a 6 mile run from Prospect Park to the Promenade in BK Heights (that's my neighborhood!) and back to the park. So essentially we were going to run from the park to my apartment and back. Let me give you some perspective on how far that is, to get to training from my apartment I walk 10 minutes to the F train at Jay Street, take it 5 stops to 7th Avenue and then walk another three blocks to the Park. If this still isn't registering with you click this link to view the map of our route.
Once we got to the park, the coaches had a long talk with us about nutrition. What we should eat before our run, hydrating, and replenishing ourselves throughout our runs. Before our long run we're suppose to eat something carb heavy like a bagel with peanut butter. This is the first time we were running a long distance as a group. The general rule of running long distances is that you should drink 6-8 ounces of fluids every 20 minutes and take in 100 calories after 45-60 minutes and then 100 calories every 30 minutes. You're probably wondering how do we take in calories while we run. Well someone, who's probably rich now, developed these little packets of gel that basically supply you with the nutrients you need to keep running. Each pack contains just about 100 calories. PowerBar sponsors TNT (who knew!) and apparently supply a lot of free gel packs to us, so the coaches gave us some before our run.
For starters ask me what I ate before training, half a banana...didn't want to catch a cramp and all, real smart (that's called sarcasim folks). But I was hydrating all morning and was ready to go. One thing I'll say about this process is it makes you very competitive with yourself. You feel like you wnat to do better than you did on the last run. However, for some reason I seem to get nervous before a run and running in a group for 6 miles did not easy my anxiety. Luckily I found one of my team mates who had the same fears so we partnered up. I grabbed one of the gel packs and we were off.
Mistake number one: all that hydrating caught up to me, 10 minutes into the run I had to go to the bathroom, so did my running buddy so we took a detour looking for restaurants that would let us use the rest room....I know real classy. We continued on our run at what I thought was a great pace for beginners. It was so humid it felt like I was putting out so much effort to even run on level ground. So shortly before we hit the promenade (about 4 miles and and hour into our run) we decided to take the gel packs...it all went south from there.
Mistake number two: since all I had to eat that morning was half a banana I was essentially running on an empty stomach. Running on an empty stomach in extreme heat and eating a gel like substance for the first time under such conditions are all bad ideas. At first everything was fine, the gel didn't even taste so bad (I had strawberry banana flavor in case you were wondering). But about 15 minutes after I took it, I started to feel real bad. My body was not down with the gel packs at all, I felt terrible! We were just leaving BK Heights and moving into Cobble Hill, but I knew I was not going to make it. So instead of running back to the park I stopped and walked home.
My 6 mile run turned in to a 4.5 mile run. I think I made the right decision because it would have been the worst to get sick on some random street in Brooklyn. But I was disappointed in myself, I really wanted to complete my run. I feel like I gave up in a way, maybe I could have kept going. This is where the mind and body thing comes into play. My mind wanted me to keep going, I had the eye of the tiger, but my body just couldn't keep up. This was a good lesson on getting to know what I need to sustain myself through this training and the marathon. But don't worry I still have the eye of the tiger, I just need to eat a bigger breakfast next time!
What Did I Learn About Running That Day
1) Skipping breakfast isn't an option, and you can't worry about carbs when you eat a meal before you run
2) I have to try out different gel packs and sports drinks to see what agrees with me and what doesn't so I have the perfect combination for race day
3) I will always listen to my body, because it doesn't lie!
July 13: Bootcamp
This is pretty self explanatory. For our Tuesday night training, we had Jasmine Graham, a TNT certified coach and owner of Pace 4 Success, come in and do a bootcamp session with us. I already knew this was going to be a hard, so I mentally prepared myself for the pain...butI still came unprepared. Jasmine's workout is crazy. That is the heardest I've ever sweat in my life. BUT it was a great workout and I wouldn't mind doing it again. Just so you have an idea of how crazy the work out was check out the before and after pics below. The after pic is by far the worst picture I've ever taken in my life (the before one isn't so hot either) and I thought twice about posting it, but I'm committed to giving you all the inside track on my training.
What Did Learn About Running That Day...Not a damn thing I was too busy sweating!
Tune In Next Week Folks!
Tune In Next Week Folks!
No comments:
Post a Comment