Fitness

Marathon Training

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Hey guys! Long time, no see! I’ve been literally running away from my followers for the past few months. But honestly, I couldn’t even see you in my wake because of all the sweat in my eyes, so whatever.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about because you voraciously jumped into this blog post without reading the title… I’M TRAINING FOR A MARATHON! And I broke the very first cardinal rule of training: TELL EVERYONE YOU ARE RUNNING A MARATHON. There, I said it! It’s true! New York Road Runners already has hundreds of my dollars, they have many hard hours of my work, and they have quite a few blisters on my feet. Ok, they don’t have the blisters, I do.

I feel like every time I write a blog post, I start by apologizing for not writing more often. I am not apologizing anymore! I have been BUSY! If you’ve been following along for a while, I ran 9 races last year so that I could qualify for the NYC Marathon this year. It’s a long road to running the 26.2 miles through 5 boroughs of New York. Maybe they make the process so long so the race itself seems short. I literally just had that epiphany while typing this. I think that’s what Oprah calls an “A-HA Moment.”

Anyway, I took you guys through my journey 3 races at a time last year, with the first 3, then the next 3, the volunteering (+1), then I think I gave up on blogging about it because I got very involved in a new hobby – hair braiding. Although I ran 9 races last year, the longest distance I ran in one single race was a 10K, or 6.2 miles. I do not know how that qualifies me to run 26.2, but I set out to figure it out.

Back in 2017, which seems like ages ago, I ran one half marathon. I remember when I finished that race, someone said to me, “what’s next? A marathon???” And I remember saying “Hell no, I am not psycho.” And it’s true! I am not someone who enjoys running, and therefore, running more than 26 miles seemed like idiocy to me.

However, a small part of me always wanted to run the NYC Marathon. Ok, a big part of me. I have loved the 1st Sunday in November ever since I moved to New York. I love the vibe of all of New York’s citizens heading to the streets to cheer for complete strangers. Us New Yorkers, we get a bad rap. It’s really not fair. We are nice people! We are also BUSY people. We don’t have time to hold doors or walk slowly. But on the first Sunday of November, we have time. Time to cheer for our neighbors, our countrymen, and visitors from across the world who fly to our city and spend astronomical amounts of money on hotel rooms. Time to drink beer at 9 am so we are toasty when the pro runners speed by mile 17 at 11 am. Time to make scrappy signs to show our support for runners’ dedication and training (or AMAZING signs in my case). I LOVE being a part of the crowd. But I also had a strong yearning to be in the street, not on the sideline. To high five everyone and to cross the quiet, no spectator zone on the Queensborough Bridge and hit the “Wall of Sound” on 1st Avenue. I tried to enter the lottery many times to run the race, but I officially committed in 2018 by running the 9 races, volunteering at one, and earning my 2019 race entry.

Unfortunately, I hit a roadblock. Right before my 9th race in 2018, I sprained my ankle for the FOURTH time. I knew that if I was going to train for the full marathon, I needed to take some time off. So I took a full 6 months off from running. I did a lot of Spinning, I did a lot of swimming, a lot of ankle exercises, and I bided my time. Then in May, I started running again. First with short distances, then slowly adding up to a mile, 2 miles, etc.

Back in 2017 when I ran my half marathon, I told you guys how I prepared for my training runs by double tying my shoes, filling my water bottle and braiding my hair (OMG guys… foreshadowing??). And I will say, some of those things have remained the same. Most days I do not leave the house without my #FastBraids for a run. But some things have changed. For one – THE CHAFE LIFE IS REAL. I promise not to give you many details here, but I will say I have some weird scars, like a straight-line rug burn across my chest, redness on the inside of my upper arms, etc. I have tried all of the things: glides, lotions, cremes… I give up. Also, I no longer eat eggs before my runs. I eat nothing. If it’s more than 8 miles, I have a Gu. And definitely do not drink coffee. Coffee is a strict no-no when bathrooms are not guaranteed. As I once said in my own marathon sign, I leave the bacon and coffee to the spectators.

I meant to write this blog about my actual running training, but as I was free-flow writing, I realized that it is a very boring topic to a majority of people. I have learned, over the past few months, that people’s eyes glaze over once I start talking about my training. I will just leave you with a few bullet points about my actual training:

  • I’m loosely following Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 Training Schedule
  • Even though I am in shape from teaching fitness classes, I still considered myself a novice 1 because I never ran a marathon before! Also, I am recovering from a recurring injury.
  • No, I did not buy the Higdon program because I am cheap. I just copied a photo from google images and put it in my own Excel spreadsheet.
  • Yes, I put it in my bullet journal.
  • Yes, I’m still bullet journaling even though I know I told you I quit.
  • Due to my ankle injuries, I did a lot of research and many people recommended the Galloway Method – basically doing running and walking intervals.
  • I have done a majority of my training this way – running for 5 minutes and walking for 1 minute. I use an app on my phone called “Interval Timer” which beeps very annoyingly at me. This has helped both with reducing injury and mentally breaking a 3 hour run into manageable time chunks.
  • I have realized that I sweat a LOT. I already knew this, but it’s very important when running. I now always bring supplements with me on long runs, specifically Clif Bloks (the extra sodium ones – margarita flavored!)
  • They actually taste like lemon lime Gatorade, but margarita makes it sound WAY more fun.
  • I also have a Gu with 25 mg of caffeine in it before I start a long run. This helps for energy and is a substitute for my lack of coffee.
  • No, I am still not enjoying training.

As my last bullet point said, you may be wondering if I officially like running. The answer is no. I do not. I enjoy being outside, but in the summer, it is HOT. Too hot. Too hot to walk, nonetheless run many miles. Also, Fall is my favorite season and it now has this huge black cloud of the marathon hanging over it. Also, no drinking on Halloween. Also, no drinking many weekend nights during college football games due to long runs the next morning. So no, I am not thrilled with the training, but I AM excited to finally take part in something amazing here in NYC. I’m all about the bucket list items, and since I’ve already been in the Macy’s Parade, this seemed like the next logical (illogical?) step.

Most likely, I will continue to write in my blog about Marathon Training, because it’s the biggest thing going on in my life, and it’s MY BLOG, SO BITE ME! I hope to make it semi-entertaining. And interactive. So here I will ask for your participation: What should I write on my shirt for the Marathon? Just “EMILY”? Should I put “Braid in Manhattan” on the back? Should I put it in Duck Tape? Fancy Duck Tape? Should I order fun, sparkly, iron-on letters from Etsy and commit to “ruining” a nice lululemon shirt? I did that for my half marathon and I do not regret it. Let me know in the comments!

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Big City Living, Long Legs and other Personal Problems

Sprained in the City

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I am 3 weeks post-ankle-sprain, and I am hoping to run my FINAL race of the 9+1 this Saturday. It has been a very long road to recovery, and I have not passed the proverbial finish line yet. Recovering from an injury in New York City has its own set of unique obstacles, just like being Sick in the City. Specifically, it’s an issue because we are required to be on our feet walking everywhere we go. Accordingly, it is more difficult to recover, and more difficult to live a normal life. I compiled a short list of my gimp-difficulties below.

  • STAIRS. Y’all, I never realized how many stairs I do in a day. Ok, I guess I did realize because my fitbit tells me, but it’s a LOT!! This particular injury made it relatively feasible to go UP stairs, but nearly impossible to go DOWN. I dare you to attempt taking the stairs down to the subway by slowly walking down each stair with both feet, and holding onto the railing, in rush hour. I have heard some nasty comments in my 8 years in New York, but nothing like when you get in the way of a person trying to run for the subway. Particularly when you appear to be a young, healthy person.
  • STANDING. There is a lot of standing. Especially when waiting for the subway. As you probably know from either the news, or personal experience, or my multiple blogs complaining about the MTA, the trains in New York are in unusually terrible shape, and it is common to wait 10-12 minutes for a train, especially at night. When standing is difficult, and the subway walls are covered in all sorts of bodily fluids, it becomes necessary to balance on one leg for long periods of time. Great balance work, but also V annoying.
  • SUBWAY BALANCING. This is an offshoot of the previous bullet point, but it is not common for a person to give up their seat for a seemingly healthy young person. Therefore, you must stand, or in my case, balance on one leg. I have found a few tricks for this, like for example, facing the direction the train is going, instead of sideways. My forward-backward balance is better on one leg. Also, I’m always ready to lose my balance a few times. I’m ready to receive more ugly looks and comments directed at my gimp self. #ShitHappens #ShittyPeopleHappen #NewYorkProblems
  • HEAT! This week has cooled down a bit, but last week’s triple-digit temperatures did NOT help my healing. The hotter it was, the more my ankle swelled and became more uncomfortable. No amount of icing helps when you leave your apartment and enter the almighty depths of Hades, right outside your front door.
  • RUNNING. I know what you’re thinking: “Why are you running if your ankle is busted?” I’m not talking about running for exercise, I’m talking about running out of necessity. Again, I didn’t realize how often I did this until I was unable to. There’s the quick “oh shit, I’m in the crosswalk and a cab is going to run me over if I don’t shuffle faster” run, or there’s the “I’m going to miss the bus that is one block away and then I’ll have to wait 20 more minutes” run. There is a lot of mandatory running.

Basically, it’s super hard to live in a city that never sleeps and never stops running when you’re unable to run. Here’s hoping I don’t fall in another pothole in the near future. Meanwhile, I hope you had stock in CVS because I have purchased at least 4 ankle braces from there. Am I missing anything on this list?

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Big City Living, Long Legs and other Personal Problems

Oops I Sprained It Again

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That’s right, I’m a gimp. Again. Some of you may remember my unfortunate ankle sprains right around the time I began this blog. It coincided (extremely unfortunately) with my very first half marathon. It was approximately 18 months ago. I had been completely free and clear of sprains until now! WAHHH.

You probably assume I was doing some sort of crazy exercise when I sprained it, like jumping on Spiderbands that were suspended from the ceiling or something. But no, I was walking. On my own two feet. And before you ask me the most offensive question, like emoji-bf did when I first told him, NO, I was not on my phone when it happened. My phone was actually in my pocket! This was doubly lucky because I get to tell everyone that “no, I am not careless, I am just clumsy,” and it’s also lucky because I fell completely on the ground and my phone probably would have shattered if I had dropped it.

I was casually walking on my way from work to the subway to go teach two classes at the gym. I looked left and right to cross the street (112th street on the west side), and unfortunately, I was too busy looking for crazy New York drivers to look down at the crazy New York streets. There was a huge pot hole in the crosswalk. I learned a very important lesson: potholes are not just dangerous for cars.

I fell to the ground and 3 people stopped for me, including a dad holding his two little sons’ hands. As I was falling, watching my fitness goals and dreams blow up before me in slow-motion, of course I screamed “SHIT!!!” I looked up to try and hobble out of the street before I was run over by a car, and I spotted the dad and his kids and I apologized for my curse words. The dad kept asking if I was ok and said his kids had heard worse. I’m sure that’s true; it’s New York, they probably heard worse just that morning. I was in a LOT of pain. I felt tears stinging at my eyes but I knew I couldn’t cry in front of these kids. One of them had a cast on his wrist already, so I just hoped my ankle wasn’t broken like him and tried to hop to the sidewalk.

After many rounds of “I swear I’m fine” as I blinked back tears and hopped down the street, I walked into a Famiglia Pizzeria and asked for a bag of ice. I was on my way to the gym, which meant I knew I had a good hour to ice my ankle on the subway. As luck would have it, the only other person in the pizzeria was an NYPD officer. He saw me standing flamingo-style on one leg and he looked down at my ankle. His eyebrows flew up to his hairline as he saw the swollen ankle and he asked if he should call me an ambulance. I adamantly said no (although it would have probably gotten me to the gym faster than the MTA), and then he asked if he could “take a look at my ankle.” I told him no thanks, because the last thing I wanted was a stranger touching it. I could barely touch it myself. He asked me where I was headed, and when I told him “the gym,” he looked at me like I was crazy and decided I was beyond help.

I double wrapped a plastic bag full of ice, hopped down the two flights of stairs to the subway, and iced my ankle all the way to Brooklyn. The hard part, of course, was that I was supposed to then teach two fitness classes. My first class was Spinning, where I sat on the saddle of the bike, and propped my ankle on the handlebars on top of a bag of ice. I barked orders at my class for a full hour on the microphone, while trying to numb my pain. It was the first spin class I ever sat through without breaking a sweat. One of my regulars told me it was one of the hardest classes I ever taught. I guess I’m mean when I’m in excruciating pain.

The next class was supposed to be kickboxing. LOL. Considering I couldn’t even stand, I was definitely not jumping or kicking anything. I set up interval stations around the room and told them what exercises to do, for 1 minute on, 30 seconds off. I finished the classes with 5 minutes of core work on our backs (I could do this!) and then I had to ask for help to get me off the floor. Pretty comical.

Having a sprained ankle in New York comes with a unique set of problems, since I am constantly required to be walking and standing to get around in the city. I am in the middle of compiling a list of Sprankle Problems. Stay tuned. For now, here are a few awesomely gnarly photos of my cankle. Enjoy.

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