Thursday, August 16, 2012

The road to 26.2 - 7 miles


I wonder if I'll ever get over long run anxiety.  Any run longer than five miles makes me nervous and anxious. Last Saturday was a cut back week so my "long" run was only seven miles.  I was still nervous.  Friday night I stopped by a sporting goods store and bought some more Gu Chomps and I can't even tell you how delicious the watermelon chomps were the next day.  I could eat them as a snack.
Summer Streets is happening right now, which is awesome.  Three Saturdays this month they shut down about five miles of Park Avenue and it's open for runners, bikers, roller bladers, etc.  There are tons of pit stops along the way with different activities like a rock climbing wall, ziplining (I really felt like stopping to do this) and bike rentals, all free.  There's also water stations along the way.  It's very well organized.
Laura had suggested I incorporate Summer Streets into my long runs but I completely forgot the first week.  Thankfully Brenda reminded me so I could take advantage last weekend (and will this weekend as well.)  I decided I would take the train down to the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, run that, which ends right at the bottom of Summer Streets, and run all the way up to 72nd to the east side of Central Park, and then cross over to go home.  What a pain it was to wait for a train so early on a Saturday morning.  From the time I left my apartment, waited for a train, and then schlepped to Brooklyn, it had been forty minutes.  I thought to myself, Seriously?  You're about to run home from a place it just took you forty minutes to get to???  I think the commute was actually more painful than the run.
I felt like I was going pretty slow, and, I was, however in typical fashion the second half of my run went much faster than my first and I finished in just over an hour and ten minutes.  I just found out, however, that I should be running at a much slower pace during my long runs, than my weekly runs.  On one hand, that makes me feel a little better when I feel like I'm going so slow, on the other hand, I don't want to lower my 10 min/mile average goal because then it makes the run longer...
It was definitely cool to run up Park Avenue.  When I was in lower Manhattan I just felt like I was in a race or something, but it was especially cool when I got into midtown, since it's always so busy.  It was neat to run around Grand Central and finish up at the park.  I thought mileage wise I'd have to run all the way home but I hit my seven mile mark just as I got to the park.  I let myself walk home so I could have a cool down, and it was really nice to walk through the park in places I'm normally running.  I also realized how much bigger the park seems when you're walking vs running.
This weekend my mileage goes up to twelve and from now on until the week before the marathon, my Saturday runs will be double digits.  It seems freaking crazy.  And it seems freaking crazy that I'm running twelve miles and nine weeks from now, when I run twelve again on a Saturday, it will seem short.
I have to mention my socks in the above photo.  I've always run with regular socks, however was given a Nike giftcard after running my half marathon.  It was fun to shop around the store and look at buying things I otherwise wouldn't if it was my own money.  I hate spending money on running clothes/gear, for some reason.  I decided to try out these socks, and I LOVE them.  I wear them for every long run, and I will definitely be buying more.

2 comments:

DebiHope54@gmail.com said...

I wonder why you are having runner anxiety when you aren't racing yet?? Do you think your blood sugar is okay?

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