Runners Spit A Lot

Yesterday on my way home from work, I decided that I would stop into City Sports because they always have pretty good stuff on their clearance rack, and I was hoping that I could score some good long-sleeved running tops. I also signed up for their mailing (by e-mail) list, so I also had a 15% off coupon for any one regularly priced item. I ended up finding two long-sleeved tops that were both originally $60 each, but on sale for $20 each and a pair of shorts on clearance for $15. Granted, I know I didn't need the shorts for winter, but for $15 it was too hard to pass up!
This was my shopping booty:


While I was walking home from work yesterday, I was walking home in a wintery mix of snow and rain. Not too fun. It also made me a little bit nervous about this morning's race and what the weather conditions would be like. I knew it would be cold - the coldest morning so far this winter, I think - but I also wasn't quite sure how that would go for me. When I woke up this morning, I got up in plenty of time to get dressed, eat and get all organized before the race and to ride the subway up to pick up my race number and chip. Instead of taking the subway, I decided to just take a cab. I know it seems like I wimped out a little bit, and I sort of feel like I did, but I was also okay with that. I really didn't want to end up standing outside for any longer than I had to in the cold.

The temperature was 33 degrees and according to the internet, felt much colder (about 10 degrees), although I didn't think it felt that much colder. I ended up wearing: a tank top, a long sleeved shirt, my new purple long-sleeved shirt, running tights, shorts, my Terrier bike vest, gloves and my Westchester Triathlon running hat. The bike vest was fantastic for the pockets! I took some Muscle Milk to have before the race in one of our new collapsible water bottles, so the back pockets of the vest were perfect for holding the bottle while I was running.

I took a cab up to 89th Street and picked up my number and timing chip and it was about 7:10 by that point. I was supposed to be meeting the other Terriers at 7:30. Since I had some time to kill before that and all I had to do was stand outside, I figured I might as well just jog for a few minutes to keep myself a little bit warm. I ran for about 10 minutes and then went back to the meeting spot. People started arriving shortly after that as well as Coach Robert, who led us through some drills in order to warm up before the race.

We started with some push-up drills. We went into plank position and then did some stretches by bringing one foot up next to our hand. We'd then go back to plank and do a couple of push-ups. Then we did some really short stride drills - high knees with claps underneath the knee, marching, stretching our quads, and one really horrible one to open up your hips. That drill called for you to bring your knee up and then swing it out to the side of your body and then put it down on the ground. Every time I did that, I could just hear my hips clicking and cracking. It really wasn't my favorite and I was glad that it was a short drill. After the drills, we ran up to the start of the race.

Holy cow! That was not what I was expecting! I was expecting a few hundred people ... not thousands of people! This is what greeted me:

To be fair, I've seen other NYRR races in the past and they've never had anywhere near this many people participating. I was floored as to how many people were there. I lined up in my corral (near the back, with the other slow people), and waited for the race to start. I did cool down a little bit while waiting, but it wasn't too bad and they started the race pretty much on time, so that was nice. I have to say that I never got nervous while I was waiting for the race to start. That told me a couple of things: (1) that I was really taking this seriously as a race and (2) that I had absolutely no doubts that I could complete this. Me waiting in the corral:

I have never done a running race before and certainly not one with 8,000+ people participating, so I had no idea what to expect. The first mile was definitely the worst because people were really bunched up and there was a lot of jostling for position. There were also a lot of faster runners coming up from the back because they had gotten there late. Also, one of the most surprising things to me was all the noises that people were making. I must have heard 1,000 people hock up loogies and spit them out. I had no idea that runners were such big spitters! And then, all throughout the race, I saw people spitting all over the place. Gross!

The start of the race was at 102nd Street, which meant that we had to tackle the Harlem Hill almost right away. I thought that would be good because it would make the rest of the race seem pretty easy in comparison. Truthfully, the hill really wasn't that hard. I don't know if part of that was the fact that I was mostly being carried along in a sea of people or what, but it really wasn't bad at all. I reached mile marker #1 at 10:10. I was hoping to average about 10 minute miles, but I also really wasn't wanting to push myself too much. After all, I only signed up for the race to motivate myself to keep my running miles up at a decent place, not to win anything. I figured that anything under 1:05:00 I'd be happy with although I was hoping to beat my Standalone Time from a week ago.

Somewhere between Miles 1 & 2, I saw a guy sitting on a rock in the park. It looked like it could have been Drew, but it also didn't quite look like him. He was wearing a hat I didn't recognize and the sun shining off his coat made it look grey instead of black. But, as I was running past, I realized that it was in fact him and I yelled out and he snapped a quick picture:

As you can see, it's not really any wonder he didn't see me. I can barely see me! He said he couldn't believe how many people there were and that once he realized how many people were participating that he was wishing a little bit that he had signed up to run with me. I tried to tell him that a month ago, too bad he didn't!

At some point between Mile 2 & 3, I realized that my heart rate was pretty high, especially compared to what it's been when I've been running recently, and I tried to slow down a little bit, but that didn't have much effect, so I took a 30 second walking break as an attempt to try to get it lowered. I don't really think it helped my heart slow down, but mentally it made me feel like I tried, so that was probably what really mattered. When I got to Mile 3, there were a bunch of spectators standing there cheering that we'd made it half-way already! Even though it had taken me 30 minutes to get there, it definitely felt like it was really fast. I ran Mile 2 and 3 in 10 minutes each.

Mile 3 was right at the 72nd Street Transverse and I did briefly wonder what would happen if I just ran across and headed north, cutting off the bottom loop of the Park. I didn't really seriously consider it, I was mostly more just curious what would happen. Would the volunteers stop me? Of course, I just kept running the actual path in the park. Somewhere during Mile 4, the hip opening drills that we had done this morning came back to haunt me. My hips were not happy. I decided in the interest of personal safety that I should take another quick walk break and start again and see how they felt. I took another 30 second walking break and started running again. It was a little bit better and I realized that I could tough it out for another two miles. I was still doing really well on my 10 minute/mile pace, so I was hoping to keep it up for the end of the race too.

Pretty soon I was back to 90th Street and the point where I had met the other Terriers this morning. From that point on, I just kept telling myself that I had already run the rest of the distance once today and I was just re-tracing my steps from earlier. When I reached the mile marker for Mile 6, Drew was standing there. I gave him a fist-bump and kept running strong for the last 0.20 miles to the finish.

My official time was 1:02:12, which is a 10:01 pace. I am thrilled with that pace! Granted, my heart rate was out of control, but I felt okay during the race. I think that if I hadn't been worried about my heart rate and not taken that first 30 second walking break, I would have made it for 10:00 miles, but I'm 100% satisfied with this result, especially since all I really wanted to do was keep myself motivated to keep running.

After I was done with the race, I grabbed a cup of water and a bagel and met up with Drew. They were handing out t-shirts before the race, but I didn't get one because I didn't want to have to either (A) carry it with me or (B) check my t-shirt with the baggage people. I tried to see if I could get one after the fact, but they had packed them up already, so we just headed for the subway home. When we got home, Drew made us brunch and then I settled in for a nap!

Drew was planning on going to the gymnasium this afternoon and in order to keep up with my weight training, I really needed to go too and finish up Week 9's plan, which was legs. Oof. I'm not sure that it was the smartest idea I've ever had to go to the gym with him and do my leg lifting after running a 10K, but I figure it's not the dumbest idea I've ever had either. The lifts are still Pyramid Ups (meaning you add weight and decrease the reps each set) and with Drew's help I definitely lifted above my normal comfort zone.

This was the workout:

Barbell Squats: 1 set of 12 reps @ 45 lbs / 1 set of 12 reps @ 65 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 95 lbs
Leg Press: 1 set of 12 reps @ 135 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 180 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 225 lbs
Leg Extension: 1 set of 12 reps @ 70 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 85 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 100 lbs
Crunches (with weight): 1 set of 20 reps @ 25 lbs / 1 set of 15 reps @ 25 lbs / 1 set of 20 reps @ 25 lbs

I've definitely never done weights that heavy before for any of the lifts. I really owe it all to Drew for pushing me more than I would have pushed myself. He definitely helped me by standing by me and the fact that he was there and I knew he would be able to help me if I couldn't do it myself helped me mentally. I wanted to make sure he didn't have to help me, but I was glad that he was there. The crunches with weight are the first time I've actually done them. All I can really say is that if you're wearing a white shirt while doing it, it's dirty. It also made it harder to do the crunches. Next time I'll try bumping up the weight a little bit.

All in all, it was quite the day today. I know I didn't have the best week earlier this week with workouts, but I'm hoping that today made up for some of that.

Running (1oK)
Time: 1:02:12
Distance: 6.20 miles
Pace: 10:01/mile
Calories: 871
Maximum HR: 195
Average HR: 183

Weight Lifting
Time: 49:10
Calories: 277
Maximum HR: 149
Average HR: 115

New Shirt, New Shoes, New Service?

This morning was a bit of a repeat of yesterday. We slept in again and then headed to the gym for another long session of working out. This probably makes up for the fact that we skipped out on the gym on both Thursday and Friday! Plus, it's just a really great way to start off the week. I know I'm going to have to get into the habit sooner than I'd like of getting in longer workouts, so I figure I might as well squeeze them in whenever I can.

I do need to back up for a minute. Yesterday afternoon Drew and I went to the NYC Marathon Expo in the hopes of scoring some free samples of energy bars, drinks, etc. However, all we did was spend money. There were hardly any free samples, which was pretty much the exact opposite of the NYC Triathlon Expo that we went to over the summer. I guess we now know not to waste our time with the Marathon. So, we left with some new socks for Drew (I got one pair too), running gloves for both of us, two new technical shirts for me, and one free coconut water each. Here's our booty:


I colored in the "M" in Mizuno on my running gloves so that we could tell them apart easily. The gloves were originally $20 and we got them for $5 each. I got both shirts for 50% off, so even though we were hoping for a bunch of free stuff, we still got great deals on the stuff that we did get. I had really been wanting some new running gloves and Drew asked if we really needed fancy ones or if we could just get by with cheap ones. However, reading Brie's blog about her recent run with the cheapie gloves, I think I'm hoping that these will be a bit more breathable and worth the extra couple of bucks.

So, long story short, of course I had to try out one of my new shirts at the gymnasium today! I chose the one on the left. I actually really liked it although the sides are completely see-through, which is sort-of funny to me. Kind of like a sexy workout top!

I also took my bike shoes to the gym with me for the first time today. Obviously the shoes aren't new, but taking them to the gym was a new thing for me. I have been wanting to see for some time if they would clip into the spin bike clips. And they do! That meant that I had to give the computerized spin bike another shot today.

For the new service, I decided to do one of the spin class programs and see how that went. I put in all the relevant data (weight, age, etc.) and started. The only thing I apparently forgot to set was the level. I realized that I was on Level 7 (out of 10). Yesterday when I was messing around I did Level 4, which I thought was a bit of a challenge, so I really wasn't sure I was going to make it through 30 minutes on Level 7.

I did the "Race Day" program, which I actually really liked. There were lots of hills to climb (some seated and some standing). I just pedaled as hard as I could. The one thing that I still don't love about this machine is that when I'm standing it will pick up my heart rate monitor but when I'm seated it must be too far from the sensor, so it doesn't. When I looked at my stats, it looked a bit like I had been shocked by a defibrulator since my heart rate was at zero for quite a while and then would jump up once I was standing.

I will say that I think the shoes actually made it more enjoyable. Wearing the cages over my feet just isn't that great once you've been wearing cycling shoes and I'd 100% recommend wearing these shoes instead. Even though I was a little nervous that I'd forget one of my pairs of shoes at the gym, it's probably worth the worrying.

After the bike, I did some stretching and foam rolling. I tried to roll out my hamstring and I'm still working on foam rolling my shins. It is interesting to me how much easier it is on my shins. It is still not comfortable, but it's not painful like it was before when it made me want to yell out curse words. Then I decided that I would do some more cardio and I hit the elliptical machine.

While I was at the gym today, I was watching the NYC Marathon, which was sort-of inspirational. I decided to do an hour on the elliptical but after about 40 minutes I had really had enough. But I figured if I could watch all of those people on TV running 26.2 miles, I could hang in there for another 20. So, I did. I'm really glad that I did. The thing about working out is that it's not always 100% enjoyable, but I'm always really happy that I got up and did it. Although I do believe in listening to my body, but sometimes when I'm still half alseep, I'm not really recognizing that I'll feel better in the end.

I finished up with some more streching before heading home to start my day. Drew and I had some errands we wanted to run and we also decided to go and get lunch downtown on our way to the errands. I decided that I wanted to wear my heart rate monitor and just see how many calories I burned while not working out. I know that this isn't a perfect test and I do plan on wearing it again on a work day where I'm mostly sitting throughout the day, but I thought this would be a good weekend estimate.

It turns out that I burned 230.4 calories per hour, which I actually think is pretty good, given that I didn't do any cardio. The spike in my heart rate came right at the end of the test period when I was carrying about 20 cans of fruit up the steps from the subway. I'm not going to lie, I definitely slowed down when I reached the top of the steps. I think my legs were a little tired from earlier today! I'm now really curious to see what a regular work day looks like in terms of calorie burning, so stay tuned for that!

Computerized Spin Bike
Time: 33:08
Distance: 11.50 miles
Pace: 20.82 MPH
Calories: 393
Maximum HR: 176
Average HR: 163

Elliptical
Time: 1:00:00
Distance: 5.50 miles
Pace: 10:54/mile
Calories: 635
Maximum HR: 170
Average HR: 155

5 Hours Non-Workout Calorie Counting
Time: 5:00:02
Calories: 1152
Average Calories: 230.4/hour
Maximum HR: 153
Average HR: 101

Forgetful Day At The Gym

This morning Drew and I got up and headed off to the gymnasium. Somehow, this is all becoming a bit routine. However, I'm actually really glad that we have each other to push the other to get up and out of bed. This morning I think that Drew wasn't exactly happy to wake up, but once we were walking to the gym, he said that he was glad that he had gotten up and was going. He's going to the World Series games tonight and tomorrow, so I'm not sure if he'll be too tired to go the rest of the week.

He had to leave for work a little bit early today, so we each did our own thing. I did a quick warm-up on the treadmill and then headed to the weight room. My hamstrings are a little bit tight (mainly my left one). I think it's mostly from the leg curls on Monday. Drew said that he'd like to think it was from the deadlifts, but since it's really mostly my left leg that is tight/hurt, he agrees that it's most likely from the leg curls. I thought that made the most sense because I sort-of knew when I was doing it that it was going to be bad the next day. I'm hoping that by tomorrow it'll be back to normal.

This was today's workout:

Leg Extensions: 1 set of 14 reps @ 60 lbs / 2 sets of 12 reps @ 65 lbs
Dumbbell Squats: 1 set of 15 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm) / 2 sets of 12 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 1 set of 12 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 8 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm)
Dumbbell Flys: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 10 lbs (per arm)
Dumbbell Curls: 2 sets of 12 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm)
Crunches: 3 sets of 20 reps

I knew right away that the leg extensions were going to be hard because of the aforementioned hamstring issue. Straightening out my left leg isn't easy at the moment and that made the exercise even more difficult. I think if my legs had been more rested I could have done a heavier weight, but that was all I was capable of today.

The dumbbell squats were actually supposed to be barbell squats, but I felt like I needed Drew's help in order to figure out how to do that and I couldn't find the neck support that I wanted to use, so I just figured that doing dumbbell squats would be similar enough for today.

The rest of the workout was pretty straight forward. The crunches, however, were supposed to be reverse crunches, but I couldn't really find the right kind of bench to use and my legs were so tired I wasn't sure that I could lift them up in the air. In the book it said to do 3 sets of 10 reverse crunches, so I did 3 sets of 20 regular crunches. In my mind, that makes up for it.

After I was done with the weight lifting, I headed over to do some cardio. I realized when I was leaving the weight lifting area that I had somehow lost my sack with my (reading) book and my water bottle. Turns out I left it at the treadmill that I did my warm-up on. I grabbed that and headed to the elliptical machines. I did a 30 minute cross-country workout that really wasn't that hard at all.

After finishing up the elliptical, I headed over to the stretching area. I did some foam rolling on my hamstrings to try and loosen them up a bit. I also did some rolling on my shins. Holy cow, did they feel 100 times better than the first few times that I did this. I guess it's working! After some stretching, I headed home for the day. When I got there, I realized that I left my water bottle on the elliptical machine! I'm usually not so forgetful like that. I'm going to blame the early hour of the morning and perhaps not enough sleep last night. Luckily, I called when I got home and they were going to check on my water bottle so I should be able to pick it up after work. It's not anything special, I just hate to lose things that I actually use.

Weight Lifting
Time: 34:10
Calories: 184
Maximum HR: 143
Average HR: 112

Elliptical
Time: 30:00
Distance: 2.50 miles
Pace:
Calories: 261
Maximum HR: 149
Average HR: 138

Mission Accomplished

This morning I woke up to beeping alarm clocks and Drew saying, "C'mon, we have to get up and meet Eric at the gym." Eric is our friend that Drew just convinced to join our gym and come and work out with us. While getting up to meet someone was a good motivator for us, apparently it wasn't for Eric, because he had some alarm clock trouble and never showed up. Either way, it got us to the gym, so it served its purpose.

I was bound and determined to finish what I started yesterday and do the three miles on the treadmill. I didn't like it one little bit, but I finished it today, which is more than I can say for yesterday. Drew was off in the boy area lifting weights, but according to my plan, I lift on non-consecutive days, so today isn't a lifting day for me. After I was done with the treadmill, I had some time to kill and it was all I could do to get off that thing, so I decided to look around and see what else was available.

As luck would have it, the stair mill was available, so I hopped on that. Then I hopped right back down when I dropped my book off ... oops! Once I recovered it, I hopped back on and started climbing stairs. I did intervals on Level 8. That machine makes you so sweaty. The sweat was dripping into my eyes and once on my book (this is probably proof that all library books are a little bit icky, but it definitely was an accident). But, I enjoyed my time on the stair mill, and working out is supposed to be a little bit fun, or at least make you feel good, so I felt like my goal was accomplished there.

After doing the stairs, I headed over to the stretching area to stretch and do some more foam rolling on my shins. I didn't want to cry out in agony quite as much as I did the first time, so that must be a good sign, although it was still pretty painful. I'm hoping if I just stick with this, it'll get better and easier. Plus, it should hopefully make my shins happier with all the running I plan on doing in the next few months!

Treadmill Running
Distance: 3.00 miles
Time: 29:50
Pace: 9:56/mile
Calories: 422
Maximum HR: 192
Average HR: 172

Stair Mill
Distance: 1.77 miles (84 floors)
Time: 20:00
Pace: 11:17/mile (4.2 floors/minute)
Calories: 289
Maximum HR: 177
Average HR: 171

Dueling Alarm Clocks

Yesterday I got all suited up and headed over to the Terrier swim. When I got there, there were only a few people there. That wasn't too surprising as it has seemed like the last few times there haven't been a lot of people attending. The problem? No coach showed up. We all waited for about 15 minutes before giving up. It's a little frustrating to get all ready and then have no coach, but there isn't anything I can do about it.

This morning, Drew and I both set our alarms so that we could get up and go to the gymnasium. Except that we both kept hitting snooze, so our alarms were each going off every 5 minutes or so for quite a while before we both gave up and realized that we weren't going to get up early to go to the gym, so we turned off the alarms and slept in.

Today at work was our flu shot day. While we were waiting for the nurse to come in, the woman said that although your arm might be a little tender from where you get the shot, you can still exercise. I thought that was a bit of a bummer as I was hoping to have an excuse to skip the gym tonight. No such luck.

After work, Drew and I headed to the gym like we had planned this morning. My main purpose for going was to do my weight lifting. Drew took one look at the busy weight room area and said that he felt like punching someone, so I was left to lift all of the heavy things myself. The book said that this week was supposed to be challenging reps and that the last two reps should be really difficult. I bumped up the weights a little bit on some of the sets to try to make it harder. And it was! This is what I did:

Dumbbell Bench Press: 1 set of 15 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 12 reps @ 20 lbs
Lat Pulldown: 1 set of 15 reps @ 60 lbs / 1 set of 12 reps @ 70 lbs
Leg Press: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 110 lbs
Dumbbell Pullovers: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 20 lbs
Barbell Curls: 2 sets of 15 @ 25 lbs
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 1 set of 15 @ 12.5 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 12.5 lbs
Crunches: 2 sets of 15

20 lbs on the Dumbbell Bench Presses wasn't my first choice, but there was a girl on the weight bench next to mine who was hoarding all of the free weights. I would have liked to do 15 or 17.5, but they all were being held hostage underneath her bench. Instead, I just did fewer reps the second set. I guess it all evens out. Also, my arms were dying by the time I got to the Dumbbell Shoulder Presses. They were exhausted during the second set. I could only eek out 10 and even that was a struggle.

After doing the crunches, I thought that maybe I should take Coach Spencer's advice from last week and try out some foam rolling on my shins. Holy cow. It was so painful. I had no idea. I had to grit my teeth to keep going and there were a couple of times where I couldn't even convince myself to roll backwards (after having already rolled forwards). Mostly, it made me want to yell out some really bad words, which I was yelling in my head, but kept to myself.

After the foam rolling, I still needed to do some cardio, even though I would have been happy to avoid it. I have to tell you, running after foam rolling your shins is not the best idea in the world! I tried to stick with it, but it wasn't really happening. I did a combo of walking and running and managed to get 2.5 miles, but then I was done for the day.

I did realize during the disaster of a run that perhaps the reason I don't like the actual shoelaces on my new shoes as much is that perhaps they're not as tight as the Jack-Rabbit laces, which causes my foot to slide around a little bit more than I'm used to. I think I'm going to give up and start using the laces that I like on the shoes, as that seems to be the best plan and then I'll have no reason to complain.

Weight Lifting
Time: 25:37
Calories: 184
Maximum HR: 154
Average HR: 125

Running
Distance: 2.5 miles
Time: 24:45
Pace: 9:54/mile
Calories: 316
Maximum HR: 188
Average HR: 172