(Less Than) 4 Weeks Out: A Marathon Weekend Running Update
I was gonna write and post this when I was exactly 4 weeks out, but life. So here's a #laterpost (it's like a #latergram, but not on instagram). It's got some random information about my plans for the races and for training in general, but if you want specific other info that, ask. There may be some info I'm not comfortable giving out, but some of the stuff I don't mention here is just stuff I'm forgetting to mention.
Races
5K
The Plan: Try to continuous run the whole thing, minus character/picture stops (see below for why that might be an issue). Time goal is under an hour, but I don't care if I reach that goal or not.
The Costume: No idea. None at all. Shoes will be Peachy Keen, but that's not gonna lead me anywhere (except maybe Dumbo because gray shoes, but I left my 2016 Dumbo skirt at the house and I don't think I'll be back before the trip, so no dice on that one). I'll probably just end up wearing my colorblock skirt and whatever shirt I grab out of my closet.
Dumbo 2016 ... aka what I'm not doing for this race
The Character Plan: All of the characters. No exceptions, no matter how long the line. Even if someone is out there impersonating Johnny Depp, I stop (and possibly make a comment about Grindlewald).
10K
The Plan: If Thursday's 5K goes well, then I'll try continuous again. If not, then it'll probably be some sort of intervals. No time goal on this one.
The Costume: Ariel - Raw Threads Mermaid Shirt, Black Skirt, Guava Lava
The Character Plan: Preferably all of them. Plan is to start by stopping for all characters, but keep an eye on my pace. If I end up slower than that 16:00/mi pace, then I need to evaluate each stop and see if it's worth it (I can still stop because I will have a cushion, but I may not be able to stop at everything). I'm hoping I can stop for all the characters, but we'll see.
Marathon
The Plan: Easy/LR intervals. Based on the pace I've been running lately, running without stops would have me finishing in 5:30-6:00. Which means I get 1-1.5 hours for characters. Not ideal, but it is what it is.
The Costume: Minnie Mouse! Polka Dot Skirt, Raw Threads "Run Like Minnie Mouse" streets V, and black shirt on top. The minnie mouse shirt will mostly be hidden, but if I ditch the top layer, you'll see it. (Plan is to test drive the outfit on my upcoming 15 miler to make sure it's okay. I just ordered the shirt, so I may have to sub out my mermaid shirt if it doesn't come in time, but hopefully I'll be fine. I just want to test it because while I've worn a RT hoodie for a half, I haven't worn the streets V for anything that long (that I remember at least), so I want to just try it out. I'm sure it will be fine since I run in Raw Threads fairly regularly in all weather.)
The Character Plan: I really don't know. I told my friend earlier this week that I think I'm going to get swept in a character line because I will stop for all the characters. I know I probably won't stop for the pirates, but other than that ... I dunno. I gotta figure something out, because I've never done a rD race without stopping for all the characters before and even if I have "criteria" for which characters I want to stop for, I can't imagine myself following that on race day. Sigh.
The Remaining Training (Ha! I Rhymed!)
Back in September/October, Coach DopeyBadger made me an incredible training plan. It had everything I wanted - variety, distances, and a manageable amount of running. It was divided into Phase One and Phase Two, with my 16-miler as the midpoint. For the most part, I was able to stick to the plan in Phase One, and mostly I enjoyed it.
But then ... the slump hit. Long story short, running became something I hated to do. At first ... I couldn't run continuous anymore. Then I found myself switching a lot of my tempo runs to easy intervals. So I asked Coach if I could do the rest of the plan all at Easy/LR. He said it's not ideal, but if that's what was gonna get me through the plan, that's what I should do. But still, things were hard. I started cutting runs short. Then yesterday I skipped a run. And I wasn't quite sure I felt bad about it. Then ... this morning happened.
I woke up this morning, and I wanted to run. Instead of heading over to Central Park, I decided to risk pissing off pedestrians, cars, and my GPS watch by running down Broadway (spoiler alert: I pissed off at least two of those three). I didn't just stick to Broadway (and ended up running back up a different avenue), and I just really enjoyed this more than running in the park.
After this run, I came to a realization: it's time for me to switch up my training.
For the rest of training, I'm going a little less structured. Tuesdays and Thursdays I will plan to run. The distance/time will be something I decide morning of. I plan to do all my runs at easy pace. If I wake up on Tuesday and don't feel like running, then I have to run Wednesday. If I wake up Wednesday and decide I want to run, then I can run Wednesday (same for Monday). If I ran Tuesday and Wednesday and wake up not wanting to run Thursday, I can skip Thursday.
To put it more simply ... if I wake up and want to run, I run. If not, not. But ... I do have to run at least twice during the week.
Sundays I will try the originally planned long run duration, but I'll allow myself to adjust up or down a mile based on how I feel and how much I ran during the week. (Also ... this coming Sunday I'm doing something that might be a very bad idea - current plan is run ~4 miles to barre3, do a barre3 class, and then run ~4 miles home. If it's raining, I may subway to barre3 and just try to find a way to get in 8 miles on the run home, just because I don't want to go into class wet)
I'm also going to try to vary up my routes - maybe hit Central Park once or twice, but mostly run the streets and/or head over to the Hudson River Greenway if it's not too cold out. Maybe even run through the park over to the east side? We'll see what happens.
(Next week is a bit of an exception to this just because of my schedule, but I'm still hoping I can do at least 15-16 miles during the week in a manageable way and then do 15 on Sunday, as planned)
I don't know if this kind of training will help me. I'm hoping it doesn't hurt me, though I know that might be a possibility. But I also know that I may not be able to stick to a more structured training plan, and I think I can get through the next month being flexible like this. I hope I'm right.
This is short because I wanted to get it posted today. I'll try to come back at some point before the end of the month to share some info about the parks part of the trip.