nyc marathon training

2022 NYC Marathon Training Update

/ Jess / Leave a comment

Leave it to me to announce that I’m running the 2022 NYC Marathon for Arts in the Armed Forces and then disappear for 4 months. How about an update on my training?? In a nutshell: it’s still going!

Back in June I was happily chugging along through the first few weeks of training, incorporating lots of new things into my plan to be more successful on this go-round. I ran the NYRR Pride Run in Central Park and added miles after the race for that weekend’s long run. I prioritized rest and recovery, with regular epsom salt baths, and strength trained regularly with a focus on improving my form and gait, piling on the miles each week.

I had built up to 20 miles when it happened on July 9th: I pulled my calf during my 8 mile run.

I was upset; this was the same calf pull that I dealt with back in November of 2020 and ended up not running because of for a few months. I didn’t have a few months this time. The doubts over being able to take on 26.2 in NYC in November started to creep in, but my coach talked me off the ledge. So I took a night off to drink a whole bottle of wine and throw myself a little pity party (zero stars, would not recommend), then I refocused on doing what I could do for the next two weeks: stretching, massage, and lots and LOTS of walking.

I was finally ready to roll when I cut my hand badly while cleaning up a broken picture frame and needed a bunch of stitches that then sidelined me for another week.

I also sweat right through the paper and fainted on the table when they stitched me up lol

I was finally able to pull it together and started building back up about halfway through August. But when I started running again, I was basically starting from scratch.

See, the day I pulled my calf, I also pinched something in the opposite knee. Leaning on the right leg to save my left ended up putting wayyy too much pressure on that knee joint and I was unable to straighten the right leg or do any single-leg work because of the weakness and pain. Add to that what I had learned before the injury – which is that I had not been properly engaging my quads, while walking and running – and I needed a lot of help.

The bruises from foam rolling and massage were just a nice bonus

With three runs each week and one run on the weekend, my coach and a physical therapist helped me hone in on how to fix these issues while safely building up my mileage and I slowly… sloooowwwwwlyyyyy…. have built myself back up to more than 20 miles a week, and just finished a 14-miler successfully this past weekend!

Mind you, I had to rip my sneakers off immediately after I finished which is why I am in flip flops here lol

Race day is now 40 days away, and I am… alive and putting one foot in front of the other. If I could measure my race day confidence using the Britney Spears scale, I was at “Hit Me Baby, One More Time” in my last post: fresh-faced, hopeful, still in one piece. Now? I’m somewhere around the post-#FreeBritney era: bruised mentally and physically, sharing some mildly unhinged stuff on social media, but dammit I am happy and hopeful about simply SURVIVING.

Now, recovery and training is nearly a full time job. I seriously underestimated just how much baseline work I needed to do to get my body ready for this level of work! I also realized just how much I took my body for granted before – or rather, how little I actually used my body, and how much more I’m capable of when I focus on my health and making the most of each and every muscle I have.

Every day I do rehab and prehab exercises that build up my knees and strengthen my calves and quads along with the rest of my body. When that’s done I’ll run or rest as prescribed, then stretch and foam roll all the aches and pains out before bed, and and the following day I feel another few notches stronger. Today, for example, was the first day I was able to walk down a flight of stairs without any pinching pain in my right leg because I can feel that I’m fully engaging my quads instead of placing all of the pressure on my knee joint.

So you came here for a quick update and got a lot more than that. But I’m glad you’re coming along for the journey and hope you’ll stick around to see where this all takes me on November 6th as I run the 2022 NYC Marathon as a charity partner with Arts in the Armed Forces (AITAF).

AITAF honors and enriches the lives of the US military community by offering powerful shared experiences in theater and film. As a longtime AITAF donor and runner, getting to run the NYC Marathon again – this time for AITAF – is a once in a lifetime opportunity to support a cause that means so much to me by doing what I love. If you haven’t yet donated and have the means to do so, I’d love it if you could help me reach my new fundraising goal for Arts in the Armed Forces!

My Longest Run Ever!

/ Jess / 12 Comments

This weekend, I hit a huge milestone not just in my NYC Marathon training, but in my running career: I finally broke my half marathon “curse” and ran 14 miles, my longest distance ever!

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Let’s rewind and talk about how it went down.

Going into this past weekend, I knew I had 13 miles on the schedule, but I decided to go 13.5 to break through the 13.1 stigma. With the past few weeks of hip flexor and piriformis rehab I’ve been doing with my chiropractor, on top of strength training I’m doing 2-3x a week, I was ready to run my longest run ever.

Having learned from past mistakes, I prepped for this run like I would a race: I hydrated well, laid off dairy and cheese, and upped my carbs the few days before the run. And the day before, I stayed active and walked my 10,000 steps on a visit to the local “zoo”, but didn’t overdo it.

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goats and horses being friends ❤

I had my plain pasta with simple marinara sauce and grilled chicken and my one glass of wine for my pre-run dinner.

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I even treated myself to some popcorn at the movies that night (PS – go see Logan Lucky, it was hysterical!)

The morning of, I had decided to stick to the treadmill because of an iffy stomach (thanks, IBS) and headed out to the Y. Because this was going to be a half marathon, I decided to try something different and brought some pretzels in addition to my usual chocolate Honey Stinger gels. This turned out to be a fantastic idea that I’m going to be using in all of my long runs going forward!

Miles 1-5 were a breeze, thanks to a random assortment of new music and some idle mind wandering. I took 60-second walk breaks at miles 2 and 4 (with a gel at 4), then stopped the treadmill at mile 5 to stretch for a few seconds and refill my water bottle before starting again for miles 5-8. My average pace was in the 11:45 range, which was right on target to keep me from re-injuring my hip but staying confident and comfortable.

I checked my Instagram during one walk break and saw that my friends Tiffanie and Carlos had both rocked their awesome long runs (of 14 and 20 miles, respectively!) ALSO on treadmills, and decided then and there that I was going for the full 14 too. It was time to do big, scary things!

So I walked again at miles 6 and 7, then stopped the treadmill at 8 when I felt some burning on the arch of my right foot that I didn’t want to turn into a big honking blister. So I stopped, took my sock off and applied some anti-chafe gel, popped 3-4 pretzels, watered up and started once more for miles 8-11. My goal was to finish this 4 mile chunk with just about a 5k left, to mentally make it easier to handle. This strategy worked – and the pretzels worked so well as fuel that I didn’t need to take my second gel until my final stop at mile 11!

I switched from music to YouTube videos in the last few chunks, and let me tell you – video as a distraction is fanTAStic. I learned this in earnest last week when I had to do my long run of 9 miles on the treadmill after work on Monday and watched Moana on Netflix for the first time. I was shocked to see how easy it was to run while watching a movie I’d never seen before, especially one as entertaining as Moana. Although it’s hard to run while crying (damn that stingray spirit guide and soaring musical score)! For this long run, however, I opted for some more physically inspiring videos: here are some of my favorites.

Anyway, I rounded out the run with the final 3 miles and felt strong straight through til the final mile, where I cranked up the intensity to finish strong. By the time I finished though, I was so sweat-soaked that I had no moisture left for the happy tears I wanted to shed!

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I was shocked to see my average pace hovered near my best Half Marathon PR pace – although I stopped my watch for those treadmill refreshes, I probably only added about 5-6 minutes to my time total, which I’ll take.

All in all this was a huge confidence boosting run for me. I mean, I KNOW I’m running the NYC Marathon in November. But in the back of my mind, that teeny tiny little sesame seed of doubt lay dormant: you’ve never run more than 13.1 miles. You’ve tried this before and failed. You’ll fail again.

With yesterday’s strong performance, I proved to myself that I WON’T fail again; that I’m stronger both mentally and physically this time, and that I’m ready to take on the rest of my training and rock all 26.2 of those miles on November 5th.