Marathon training man, it’s tough. I’ll focus on the long runs because those are the real weekend buzzkill. Once you get in the rhythm of them, they aren’t so bad, but when you first introduce 14+ mile runs it is so exhausting.
First of all, you need to keep your Friday night meals clean and easy on the stomach. Here’s what I had Friday night:
[grilled chicken salad with avocado. not pictured: a pile of sweet potato fries, those count as clean, right?]
This Saturday was my first really long run and given the recent summer heat, running 15 miles means getting up early before the heat truly set in. On Saturday my alarm went off at 6:45am, miz. I planned to tag along to Noa’s TNT workout so I couldn’t hit snooze too many times. If I didn’t get those 15 in early there was no way it was going to happen.
For 3 Saturday’s in August NYC runs Summer Streets where Park Ave is shut down to cars from 72nd street to the Brooklyn Bridge with activities and water along the way. When I trained for the NYC Marathon in 2013, Summer Streets was my first 17 mile run and with those fond memories, I was looking forward to doing it again.
I met with TNT at 7:30am in Central Park, we ran over to Park Ave, down to the Brooklyn Bridge to the end of the path then turned around to head North back to Central Park. That brought us to about 13 and I did some more mileage around the UWS to hit 15. I ran with a 9 minute group and enjoyed the company and push to keep pace.
I did TNT for the NYC Tri a few years back and as amazing as my experience was, I didn’t see the appeal for marathon training (running is much more straight forward than a tri) but I totally get it now. I was motivated to get up, stick with a group and had good conversation along the way. If you’re looking for a training group and want to make new running friends with similar goals, definitely look into Team in Training in your area.
I didn’t feel my best on the run but I did feel good. I got home, stretched and downed some watermelon juice.
Later I went grocery shopping then made MM cook me this breakfast [insert heart eye emoji].
[2 eggs, spinach, onion and smoked salmon]
Then we grabbed Ollie and made a stop at Juice Press for a freebie. Every Saturday go running, post your photo to Instagram with #willrunforjuice and tag JuicePress for a free juice 9am-noon. Make sure you post your photo 30 minutes before you get there.
And I didn’t stop there…I forgot how much marathon training affects your appetite. After some mid-day snacking (plantain chips + guac) MM and I stopped by The Mermaid Inn to take advantage of their 5-7 happy hour (hit this up, it’s awesome).
[$1 oysters, $7 champs, you get the picture]
[and they give you complimentary pudding so how could I say no to that?]
And then a few hours later…
Ok so after recapping my run and the food I ate after, it is clear to me I need to figure out my post-long run meals. The hunger got to me and I gave in, and gave in, and gave in. But moving forward let’s see if I can be a bit more controlled (although I do not regret these eats!).
And there you have it, I survived my first long run of 2015 marathon training. Much more to come as my training continues!
