I Heart NY

I absolutely LOVE Summer Streets and look forward to it every year. Such a simple concept...close down Park Avenue from East 72nd Street to Chambers Street to anything but bike and foot traffic from 7am-1pm. I'm sure it's not so simple to pull off, but it is really one of the coolest things.



Unfortunately because I seem to have a penchant for sleeping in on Saturdays now, I have missed most of Summer Streets. This weekend was going to be my last chance to participate, so Bill and I made sure we got out there to run.

This year it seemed to be more popular and crowded than ever. It seems like a lot of businesses along the way were offering cool perks too. At several places you could wait in line for a free bike and helmet rental. At another place you could get a free roller blade rental. Whole Foods sponsored a "Picnic in the Streets" where you could get free ice cream and a bunch of the gyms were doing free workouts on the side streets. There was also a lot of fun stuff for kids, like face painting and crafts. It was so crowded with bikers and runners that at sometimes it was a bit frustrating. But at the same time, I love that it is so popular. It just emphasized to me (again) what an active city New York is, and how big of a deal running and biking are here.

I know I say it every year, but there is nothing like running under the New York Central Building on the Park Avenue Viaduct. It is amazing to drive under in a cab at night, but even cooler to run.

The run? It was a little rough. Bill and I realized that I really HAVE to do a long warmup and some stretching before attempting my run/walks now. Otherwise my calves tighten up on the outside and the pain is almost unbearable. I didn't do said warmup/stretching, so there was a lot of stopping and stretching in those first couple of miles or so. So I made the goal to reach Union Square (around 16th Street) and then hit Chipotle for lunch. At first I thought that was a wimpy goal, but as I kept running and my calves felt so tight I was thinking maybe it was an ambitious goal.

So Bill made me stretch on the side again, which actually helped.

I revised the goal to make it to the END of Union Square (like to 14th Street). There was a real bottleneck here with bikers and runners sharing a single road lane of traffic. Some (tourist?) girls who looked like they were maybe just very confused and were walking the WRONG WAY walked right in front of me, and to avoid running smack into them I jumped up onto the curb to bypass them, then jumped right back onto the street and SNAP ! twisted my ankle. Uh oh. Ow ow ow ow ow.

I was so mad at myself. I know that I can't do crazy things like jump up and off of curbs anymore. My joints are just too loose right now. So stupid! Argh! I was cursing myself as I walked around on the curb and rolled it around. (Bill said not to be so hard on myself...after all my choices were a twisted ankle or running hard and belly first into the two girls running into me. Seeing as that I am so pregnant, I guess I made the wiser choice.) And it seemed like after a few ankle rolls the pain was pretty much completely gone. In fact, I felt so good that I wanted to continue to the end.

We were now on Lafayette (Park Ave turns into Lafayette somewhere around the East Village) and I was really enjoying myself. In fact, I looked down at my watch and noticed that I had logged over 4 miles!!! A new record! The last time I did anything more than 2.5 miles consecutively was the last week of June...that's right...my half marathon before the third trimester!

I was really pumped now! So we ran all the way down to Foley Square, (okay, after seeing my friends Gina and Michael across the street on bikes and running over to talk to them for quite a bit). 5 miles! 5 miles! Hurrah! NOW I didn't feel so stupid for signing up for that race on September 11th :)

TNT Reunion!

Last night I got to go to an "Alumni" practice in the park with Team in Training. I think that this was mostly to get us to sign up for the next season, but knowing that I will not be doing that until NEXT fall season I just used it as an excuse to see my old friends/coaches and get a workout in.

Luckily there was a separate workout for us alums. I guess they realized that we wouldn't be in the same shape as the regulars at practice. It consisted of a lower loop of the park, nice and easy (1.7 miles) and then some running drills.

I was so glad that people were taking "nice and easy" seriously. Knowing that I haven't really run more than 3 minutes solid without a walk break since the beginning of my third trimester, I just stayed towards the back of the pack. My goal was to do the whole 1.7 miles without stopping, but I didn't know how I would feel.

Let's just say I could definitely feel soreness in my legs due to my loosening ligaments. Yowsa. I DID, however, make it 1.5 miles into the workout without stopping. And then I walked for a bit before finishing at Bethesda fountain with the rest of the team. I was proud of myself because I kept up with the back of the pack (one of the alums told me that the only reason she ran fast as she did was because I was right behind her the whole time and she knew I was in my 8th month of pregnancy). And even after walking, I was only like 20 feet behind the last person all the way to the end.

I felt good breathingwise and body tempwise but my legs were SO SORE. Kind of like they were in the first two miles of my last half marathon. (Guess its all of that relaxin  causing my ligaments to stretch again.) So instead of joining the team for the calisthenic part of the cross-training (which I shouldn't be doing at this point anyway) I stood close by at the tree and streeeeeeeeeeeeeetched. That pretty much fixed everything (and I'm still not sore today!). I was able to join the rest of the alums for things like walking squats and squat twists, which I could still do with the best of them.

But the BEST part was talking to all of my teammates who are training for fall marathons. It was SO GOOD to see them again! And all of the coaches ran over and gave me big hugs. I have to say, it didn't hurt that all of them thought I looked great/not-as-pregnant-as-I-am and were amazed that I was running. I was especially excited to see Coach Christine because I have been reading all of her articles about pregnancy and running on about.com. (She is one of their running experts.)

We all went out to a bar in our stinky running clothes afterwards, and I devoured a gigantic cheeseburger with fries as if I had run 10 miles instead of 1.7 :)

Running Ptttttt

I have not had the best relationship with running this past week.

On my Tuesday night run with Bill (same boring course, same low-mileage, same 3 minute run 2 minute walk) I felt like I was ridiculously slow. I THINK it might have been because I felt like Bill was continuously 3 steps ahead of me (which he was for most of the run). But when I checked my time at the end of the run, I really was only 1 minute off of where I normally am. And that's 1 minute for the whole thing, not pacingwise.

I am just really tired of feeling slow. I see other girls running in the park and I want to hit them. Especially when they are wearing cute little shorts and tight fitting tanks. Me, on the other hand? Well, my options at this point are my baggiest shorts from Target, which aren't even running shorts but those generic type "sports" shorts made out of thick synthetic material and any of my longer running shirts which are tight and I can't keep over my belly OR one of Bill's shirts which look ridiculously boxy and male on me. Not attractive. Oh and did I mention that on top of this I am a total sweat bucket during my runs? At this point I am not going to invest in maternity running wear because I have less than 8 weeks to go. So I guess I will stick with my two options and just begrudge the other girls in the park.

And don't even talk to me about my weekend run. Or should I say "the run that never happened"?

I pretty much didn't want to go. Besides I had twelve million other things I needed us to do this weekend (crazy nesting syndrome) so a run was just going to take up precious time that I felt I didn't have. Bill and I even mapped out our distance so that we could run to the park, around the loop and to Home Depot so that we weren't wasting any time. Well, the run to the park sucked. And then I about had a mental breakdown about how much I hated running and felt like there was too much to do to be running right now. I was reminded that it is never good to do a workout when you feel like that, so we revised the plan to just walking to Home Depot. I guess we got some of the mileage in at least. And sadly enough, my legs totally felt it like I had actually run a lot of mileage when I woke up this morning.

I know, I know. Quit running, right? I put in a good effort and if it's not going well I should quit.

But that's not it. I still don't hate running. I just want to go back to the days where I was jauntily sweeping around the park loops at a good pace (without walking) in a cute outfit with some fun running friends, getting excited about my fall marathon coming up. I miss pushing myself to where sometime I felt like I was going to puke, and getting PRs, and (believe it or not) doing hard hillwork sessions. I know I will get back to this again (Bill keeps reminding me that this is why we got a good running stroller) but I am frustrated that it is not now.

I was invited to a TNT alumni run tomorrow, which I am pretty excited about. If nothing else it will be nice to see everyone again. I don't know how much of the actual run I will be able to keep up with, but we'll see.

Lots of Energy

I don't know where all of this energy is coming from...definitely not from sleep because a full night of uninterrupted sleep is something I haven't had in a long time. Perhaps it is the two iron pills I am taking a day to combat my anemia. At any rate, I am NOT complaining.

I finally feel back on track with my workouts. I am not saying that I am doing amazing things on these workouts, just that the frequency of these workouts is more what I wanted them to be.

For example, Monday I went on a run with Bill, Tuesday I did my prenatal resistance band DVD and Wednesday I even got some weight training in! Tonight I plan on another run with Bill, another DVD on Friday and then Saturday we are planning on a nice, long run. (Long being like 5 miles, which will probably take forever).

I just can't figure out my runs lately though, and I've pretty much given up on trying to do this. I mean, last week I was hardly working out at all and I felt GREAT on my little run. This week it was a bit rougher. I stuck to my intervals (3 minutes run and 2 minutes walk) but it was a lot harder. I do still feel like I'm running up and down instead of forward. It's kind of crazy. At least last time I didn't have any crazy back pain afterwards.

I really really want to sign up for another NYRR race, probably the Fitness Magazine 4-miler. But I don't know. I would be 36 weeks by then, so it's probably not a good idea :) I don't really want to go into labor in Central Park. Unfortunately, August races are few and far between (I'm not really up for any more half marathons :) , so I think my racing career might be put on hold.

Bill thinks that when I do get back into racing next year that I will be crazy. I think he's right. I told him I'm going to come back from a practice run and be like "BILL! I was hitting 6:45 miles! For 5 miles!" and then the next week I'm going to be like "I don't understand...why can't I go any faster than 10 minute miles! For 2 miles?"