Recipe for a shitty run

Ingredients:

• Running gear
• Assholes

Step one: Put on running gear. Head outside.

Step two: Asshole at the end of your block says “Ooh, you can stop working out, you don’t need to.”

Step three: Give asshole the finger, for making unwarranted comments about your body, and for making the assumption that women work out for the SOLE PURPOSE of being more attractive to men in general, and him in particular.

Step four: Be mad about it for the rest of the run.

Uggggh. There were more comments throughout the run but they were under peoples breath and not directed AT ME. Keep your words to yourself. This is why I need headphones for running, so I can’t hear what the idiots have to say.

street harrassment

running

recipe

feminism

But also…

monsoon thunderstorm means no running. Or at least no running outside.

Treadmill trudge it is?

Motivation (or mother nature’s sabotage?)

I was going to go to Yogurtland for the best self-serve frozen yogurt (now that Yogurtland is in NYC I don’t have to pretend that 16 Handles is as good. It’s just not.) But it’s monsooning outside, and today my hair looks the best it’s ever looked. Pretty much ever, in my life.

So quinoa taco salad it is!

and probably also more iced coffee

Looking forward: summer fitness plans.

I’m trying to think more than a month ahead with my post-Brooklyn Half plans.

Last summer I gave up running cold turkey, in favor of half-hearted attempts at weight lifting and riding my no-gears bicycle around my impossibly hilly neighborhood. I guess I did a few bouts of treadmill intervals, but at most once every other week. I think one nice day in July I ran about 3 miles outside because it wasn’t 100 degrees so I wanted to celebrate.

I have 3 short-ish races coming up in June. First the mini 10k (which, after the BK half, I have a tentative interest in PRing). A few days later, I have the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge, which is the totally normal race distance of 5.6k. But work is paying for it and giving me a tshirt, so cool. Then at the end of the month is the LGBT 5-miler in Central Park. So obviously I can’t stop running altogether.

June goal: 3-mile run twice a week, Sunday 5-6 miler.

July/August goal: treadmill intervals 3x/week, one 3-4 mile outdoor run once a week. If there’s a nice 70-ish day, take an easy run outside if I’m free.

My summer goals are based around the fact that I know I hate running outside in the heat. But I also love running in the fall, so I want to put in more effort to keep my miniscule “base.”

I also intend to focus more on strength training- I think I’m going to jump back into New Rules of Lifting for Women, but skip the sloooow phase 1. I do well with a plan, but I fell out of this routine around phase 5 or 6. I’ll hop back onboard and really try to dedicate effort to making my workouts  shorter and more intense. Also, I’d like to ride my bike more.

In general, I feel a sense of balance in my life (aside from the nights I drink too much or weeks I eat too much junk) and I don’t want to focus on “weight loss” per se, but I do know that I hold most of my weight in my thighs so if I want my shorts to fit comfortably I should put a little effort into burning some far and gaining some muscle.

workout

goals

summer

Brooklyn Half: the stats

That first estimated finish- if only! I know I can’t hold the same pace for 13 miles than I can for 3, but damn it would’ve been cool to take another 5 minutes off my time! Maybe next time.

Proud moment #1: My average pace per mile barely changed between 10k and the end. Obviously it varied within that, but it didn’t just gradually get significantly slower.

Proud moment #2: Almost half an hour faster than this same race last year, which was my last half.

Proud moment #3: My pace per mile was 1 second faster than my 10k in April. So in a little over a month, I could run more than twice as far, faster than I could then.

Proud moment #4: This goes completely against comparing myself to others, but it’s more that I use my obscenely fast friends as a reference point. My last half was 2:46:29. My friend from work’s last half was 1:41:something. This one, I was only about 10 minutes slower than her. I know it’s because she was pacing a friend, but closing that gap does make me feel pretty awesome even if I know it’s stupid.

So, I may not have made my goal time. And maybe it stung a little seeing my average pace and realizing that if I’d gone 6 seconds faster per mile I could’ve made it. Maybe if I’d held my pace better through the park I’d have made it. Maybe if I’d run with music I could’ve picked it up more on Ocean Parkway. Maybe if I’d picked it up more in the beginning I would’ve burned out sooner.

I can’t answer any of those questions without a time machine, so all I can do is be proud of the times that I pushed myself, and the fact that I walked less than I’ve walked in any other half marathon. As usual, I spent about an hour thinking about how I’d like to never do this again, but within seconds of finishing I was already thinking about the next one.

half marathon

Brooklyn Half Marathon

race