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Training Plan the Week of March 7th

Posted on March 7, 2011
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Often times, I do a really BAD job of living in New York City. I do things like cook dinner at home and watch movies on netflix and go shopping at Banana Republic. Things that I could do in any city in the country – and probably a good number of cities outside the country too.

But every once in a while, I do my zip code proud. This past weekend was one such weekend. I went to Pommes Frites, McSorley’s and saw Bon Jovi at the Garden in one of the luxury suites. Heck, I even went shopping in SoHo and had brunch.

This past weekend it also rained all day Sunday and so I never got to make my long run. I know that I am supposed to run in any and all conditions because “you never know what race day will be like.” But I just couldn’t convince myself to do it. It didn’t hurt that I had Bon Jovi tickets which were going to keep me up late and afternoon plans on Sunday, making the window for running very narrow.

Do I feel guilty? No. But I have to make up for this missed long run somehow.

The point of the long runs is to practice running for a prolonged period. It’s about being on your feet, more than speed or mileage – especially for novice runners. So this week, I’m just going to increase my weekly mileage by the missed mileage, and I’ll keep my long run at the same length as last weeks long run.

Here’s this weeks training plan:

Monday: 7 miles, pilates or yoga
Tuesday: 4 x 1200 (3/4 mile) at 10K pace, with 1/4 mile cool-down between each, 6 x 200 (1/8th mile) at 5K pace
Wednesday: 5 miles and strength
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: Spinning or rest
Saturday: 12 miles
Sunday: 6 miles or spinning or elliptical

What do you do when you miss a run? Do you miss runs for rain or bad weather?

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Half Marathon Training Plan

Posted on February 22, 2011
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Boys.

You’ve got to love what that testosterone makes them do.

Every so often, during marathon training I would meet a boy and he would tell me that he could run a marathon. That’s not such a strange thing to say if you regularly run fifteen miles every weekend or are a professional soccer player.

But those boys…they just can’t ever say something sensible and rational.

I’m not talking about runners. I mean your average boy. The ones who will paint their bare chests and stand in forty-degree temperatures for an entire football game.


I know of two boys, one who joined a sixteen mile long run despite never running double-digit mileage before, and another who ran the New York Marathon on a six-mile-a-day habit.

In case you haven’t noticed, I am not a boy and I like my knees, so when I decide to run a half-marathon, I have to train for it.

In the past, my half-marathon plans have involved running about 3.5-5 miles three-four times a week before work with one long run on the weekend. For the first half, the long runs started at six miles and maxed out at eleven miles. The second half-marathon topped out at fourteen, and for the third, I was training for the marathon and was at the sixteen mile long run point.

Now that I’ve got a few races under my belt, I’m ready for a challenge. I’ve adopted my plan from Runner’s World. It’s a blend of their intermediate and advanced plans. I’ve made a significant number of changes to both schedules and I have added in cross-training and strength work.

Don’t get confused. I am NOT an advanced runner, but I have found that I can race a half-marathon much more successfully if I actually run slightly further than the race distance. I would not recommend that a new runner tries to run greater than the race distance without consulting a coach or trainer.

My general plan works like this:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Speed workout, typically a few longer distance sprints at race pace or 10K or 5k pace. There are no 100 meter dashes in this plan.
Wednesday: Spin and strength train or run easy for one hour.
Thursday: A tempo workout, usually a mid-level distance at race pace.
Friday: Spinning and strength
Saturday: Long run, starting at 7 miles and ramping up to 14 miles.
Sunday: Spin or mid-distance run, but if I’m in a lot of pain from Saturday or I just had too much fun on Saturday or I just want to spend all day shopping in Soho, then it’s a rest day. (I’m not trying to break any world records here.)

Here’s this week’s schedule:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 3 x 1 mile @ 10K pace, with 400 yds cool down between each mile
Wednesday: 5 miles easy or Spinning
Thursday: 6 miles, with some little uphill sprints and bursts
Friday: My very favorite spinning class!
Saturday: 12 miles (I’m already a few weeks into my training, hence the high weekend mileage)
Sunday: Spinning or 5 miles.

If you are looking for a beginner’s plan, here are the two I recommend. Hal Higdon’s and Running.About.com. I like the Running World’s beginner plan as well, but if you are new to running, speed work can be daunting. And completely unnecessary. No one I know, did any track work for their first half; however, if you ran cross country or track than maybe you would like the challenge.

Do you follow a cookie-cutter training plan or make your own?

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NYC Half Marathons

Posted on February 9, 2011
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Last year, I made a major mistake at the Brooklyn Half-Marathon: I forgot to sign-up. It gets worse too. I didn’t realize it until the day before the race.

UH OH.

Wow, was I embarrassed.

Boy, was I majorly disappointed that I couldn’t run thirteen point one miles in Brooklyn.

I even tried to buy a bib (illegally) on Craig’s List. Turns out a lot of people want run half marathons in Brooklyn.

So I consoled myself with some red wine, macaroni and cheese and a cupcake. Hey, when life gives you lemons, make a big comfort meal of carbs and cheese and wash it down with vino.

Lesson learned. Check race registration confirmation. Check it again. Email the race organizers to double check.

Of course, there’s always next year right? Nope. The 2011 Brooklyn Half Marathon is May 21st, which is five days after I get home from a ten day trip in Espana.

I guess there’s always 2012.

But I still wanted to make sure that I got a New York half marathon in this spring. There are a lot of great half marathons across the country, like Chicago and Boston, but I didn’t want the stress of travelling. The only stress I’m looking for is the stress that comes from running thirteen point one miles, fast.

I did some research and came up with a few halfs in the area. Here’s what I considered. To even get in the running, the race had to be easily accessible from my apartment in the Upper East Side, so I limited it to races within the five boroughs only.

More Half Marathon: I ultimately nixed this one because it’s two loops in Central Park, which is where I run daily. Plus Central Park is very hilly and not exactly good for PR’s.

NYC Half Marathon: This race
is closed and the only way to get guaranteed entry is by raising over one thousand dollars for charity. It’s a big ticket race and I seriously considered it, but the uncertainty of March weather in NY and the chore of raising money during my busy season at work ultimately deterred me.

13.1 New York: This is the one I decided to go with. The entrance fee is manageable – eighty-eight dollars. The course is pretty flat and it’s not an out and back, but it’s almost a loop course. But at least it’s not a loop that I run weekly.

There are some good races right outside of New York City too, like the Unite Half Marathon and the Long Island Half, but these are outside of the city and would require hotels and cars, or else a huge commute the day of the race.

Unfortunately, if you are a looking for a race in the NYC area, all the races I mentioned are closed except for the 13.1 New York and the NYC Half if you are willing to raise money for charity. Even Brooklyn closed in a few days.

But the good news is that the NYRR will be hosting the Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, and Grete’s Great Gallop later on in the year. So if you are looking for a NYC half, all is not lost.

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Made in Detroit

Posted on February 8, 2011
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This blog is about many things but as the name of this blog suggests, it’s mostly about me running in New York City.

The city where dreams are made. The city that never sleeps. The city that makes you when it can’t break you. The city. New York is where I live and I shamelessly adore it. It’s not always easy living here. Often times, I feel like the score is NY: 50, Amanda: 5. This city kicks my ass more often then I like to admit.

And yet, despite all of this, I put my rain boots on, curse out the city in a tone the suggests pride, annoyance and wonder all at once, and keep on going. Yep, it’s my city, warts and all.But as much as New York is the city of my moment, I am no New Yorker.

If you don’t live here, I might seem like one to you with my black clothing and intimate knowledge of subway trains, but in New York City I am just another one of the city’s many imports.

The new Chrysler 200 commercial featuring Eminem debuted during the Super Bowl on Sunday, and it was, in a word, awesome. The whole time it was on, I kept on squealing, OMG, that’s Detroit! That’s Hart Plaza! That’s Joe Louis’s arm! That’s the Spirit of Detroit! The beat to Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ building, as I swelled with pride…for the city that I no longer live in.

How can I feel proud of something and want to lay claim to a place from which I left five years ago? A bigger insult couldn’t exist than writing a blog about the very city I ran to, a clear snub to the city I left behind.

The truth is that I didn’t leave Detroit because I didn’t like it. I didn’t run away to New York because of some Sex and the City fantasy or because of the economy. I left because I wanted to find a new path for myself on my own. I always had my sights set on leaving.

In the sixth grade, we were asked to predict where we would be in fifteen years and then read the prediction aloud. I bet a lot of my fellow sixth graders don’t remember that day, but I do. They all announced varying dreams of professional sports careers, six figure cars, houses with double digit rooms, and more than a few had a kid or two figured in already. Everyone except me. You know what I said? Fifteen years ago I thought that I would be living in Paris studying art right now.

Oh how silly and idyllic I was once upon a time.

So I didn’t really get it right, but living in New York City, accountant by day, blogger by night isn’t that far off when I really think about it.

And Detroit? Well, that’s part of my life tapestry. I create networks through Wolverines. It’s an icebreaker too, as almost everyone I know has asked me at one point if I live on eight mile (no, thirteen mile). And when it gets cold in New York, I have to act tough because I’m from Detroit, which is like Antartica to people here. I notice when the cabs are American made cars, and when they aren’t. And I love the fall in NY – not because the heat finally breaks and everyone comes back from the beach – but because it’s college football time. Oh yeah, that’s all because I was made in Detroit.

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Forget all your cares and go, downtown

Posted on February 6, 2011
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Today marks my first double digit run of the year. I’m not going to play any games today or try any new tricks. Just a nice flat run down memory lane. All I’ve got with me on my run today is some water on my fuel belt, money, Metro Card, my keys, and my music.Just me, the sun, the songs and the wind.
Here’s the route I’m taking and a few adaptations depending on where you start below.


This ten miler is best for those who live on the 4/5/6 line. Just pick a starting point on the 4/5/6 between 59th and 110th, then run to 5th avenue. If you are starting below my starting point at 85th Street, for every two blocks lower you start, cut across the park 1 block sooner. So if you start at 65th Street, then cut across the park at 100th Street.

If you live on the West Side, then tack on an extra 3 miles by running over the Brooklyn Bridge and that back on the Manhattan.

The ending point is the Brooklyn Bridge stop, so you can take just about any subway train you want home. Or you can grab a nice open faced sandwich or a delicous pastry at Le Pain Quotidien on Warren Street.

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Lucky Number Seven

Posted on January 15, 2011
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Central Park 3.73 Mile Jog

Posted on January 11, 2011
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Here’s a run that takes you by Bethesda Fountain, the mall, and around the bottom of the reservoir.

Today it was only 22 degrees during my run and my legs were starting to tingle because I didn’t wear my extra thick tights so I had to turn around early instead of completing the small loop. Oh well, lesson learned! Under 25 degrees, I have to bust out the thick tights. (In case you are wondering, my thin tights are from Nike and feel like spandex and the thick ones are from Hind and feel like thin fleece.)

Happy Tuesday! Raw Recipe to come later on in the week!

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Ready, Set, Go

Posted on November 18, 2010
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As anyone who has ever spent months upons months preparing for one big day, a few miniscule moments of life, knows, when the countdown can be kept in hours, rather than days, mixed feelings abound.

From food choices to my social calendar, for the last five months everything has been organized around a training regime. It started out as a chore. A chore whose results I desired, but whose tasks I did not enjoy nor really mind. It was simply a part of my life to be tolerated, much like brushing my teeth. But over time, toleration turned into adoration.

The logical assumption is that running thirty plus miles a week has flooded my body with so many endorphins that it was just a hangover from the “runner’s high.” Perhaps that is part of the answer, but the real cause of this love affair with running is this blog. Finally putting pen to paper (ehh, fingers to computer) and expressing all the crazy thoughts that come to me when running, turned out to be the x-factor in this marathon training plan. Just as much as I have enjoyed conquering each mile, I have loved sharing my experience.

But all good things must come to an end, and the marathon is right around the corner. After the marathon, I will post once more to recap the marathon and then I will plan on signing off until next marathon training season. But before I head out to Philadelphia for the experience of a lifetime, I wanted to share (once more) my favorite blog posts and the story of my blogging/running experience. Read through them once more and then lace up your shoes, and do something that you always wanted to do but never thought you could do.

Here’s my first real blog post: Waking Up and Working Out. It’s by no means the best one, but it’s my first and thus that makes it special.

I had written Central Park Jogger long before I actually typed it out. Central Park brings so many runners together and those runners put all of my excuses out of business. If they can do it, so can I.

Mid-summer I changed jobs, and this inspired a story about quitting a run. Quitters is one of the first times I tried to draw a parallel between life and running. It’s right around this post that I finally found my blogging voice and started to love the blogging as much as the running.

Is it hot in here or what? represents my second foray into drawing a parallel between life and running. This time I tried to show how running through the second hottest summer in New York helped me reconnect with my sixteen year old self. Corny? Maybe, but then again the heat makes me do crazy things.

By the end of September, my love affair with marathon training was in full swing and this post was my attempt at trying to get others to drink the Kool-aid. For the love of the run might be my favorite.

October brought some pre-marathon anxiety and worry, but these were quickly resolved when I volunteered to help at NYRR’s Grete’s Great Gallop Half Marathon and then I shared my story in Plus One, Minus One Wall.

And now, I’m off to Philadelphia to run twenty-six point two miles.

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It’s just 12 miles

Posted on November 6, 2010
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My taper started last weekend, but this week’s training, though significantly less than the week before, is still pretty intense by non-marathon training standards. But after today’s twelve miler, my training takes a significant dive into nothingness and then finally culminating with the Philadelphia Marathon on November 21.

I will miss these long runs and all the crazy rituals that go with them. What’s to miss about spending a Friday night in and a Saturday morning exercising for hours and hours? Oh plenty.


There is the friday morning bagel, the West Side Green Way, the Brooklyn Bridge, and new music just to start. And then there’s the feeling that something real was accomplished.

Speaking of New Music, here’s what I downloaded for my run today. Some of it is happy and some is a bit more melancholic – reflecting perfectly my feelings about the end of the long run.

What’s My Name? (Featuring Drake) by Rihanna & Drake

Cry When You Get Older by Robyn

Gone Too Far by Dragonette

Back to the Crib (Featuring Chris Brown) by Juelz Santana

Nantes by Beirut

Furr by Blitzen Trapper

Your Ex-Lover is Dead by Stars

Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe by Okkervil River

Fake Empire by National

Take Me to the Riot by Stars

Happy Saturday!

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I’m basically screwed

Posted on November 5, 2010
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As with many things in life, I’ve kept this qualifying for the NY Marathon to the 11th hour. There were plans, of course, to have qualified by now, but running a race every weekend – even if I don’t even try to race them, is hard, and I missed two of them.

So now I’m staring down the last two months of 2010 and I have to run three more races with the New York Road Runners. Unfortunately for me, there are only 5 more races this year that I can run and I need to run three of them.

One starts in two hours but its pouring outside and I may have to sit in the rain for an hour because I need to pick up my bib by 7 a.m. and the race doesn’t start until 8 a.m.

One is a 9.2 mile race one week before Christmas. I’m not sure I want to run 9 miles in twenty degree temperatures.

And one more is at midnight on New Years Eve. I have never been awake in my entire life at midnight and felt like a nice jog. So you can imagine how much this race is calling to me.

As you can see I have options AND excuses.

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