Mega Update!
Note: Coffee may be required to read this update
Running
So … I haven’t been doing so much running lately. The race was on May 5th, so … 16 days ago? Something like that? I’ve run maybe 3-4 times. Longest run was today at 7.3 miles, which was kind of out of nowhere (I went out planning on 10K and maybe 7 tomorrow … ended up at 7+ today, so I’ll likely do 6ish tomorrow).
Nothing at tempo. I think that because I don’t have a major race coming up, I’ve been okay playing it by ear, which tends to mean not running much. But I don’t want to sign up for anything major over the summer because baseball comes first. So … sigh.
Right now what I’m kinda thinking is 3 miles, 4.5 miles, and 6 miles during the week (once it really starts to get hot, I may cut that back to 3, 4, 5), with an optional 3-5 miles on Sunday if I don’t have plans. Not sure what days of the week yet.
Next race on the schedule is the 1 for You 1 for Youth 5K on June 5th. Will probably pick up my bib/shoes either Friday or early next week. I’m stupid excited to try the Zante Pursuits (which reminds me … I need to write a separate post about shoes at some point in time).
I haven’t signed up for the 5th Avenue Mile yet (September 9th), but I want to start training as if I am running it, so I’m going to start incorporating that into my plans. I’m thinking of making my 1 mile pace 8:30 (I haven’t done any math on it, so I’m not sure how reasonable that pace is, but if I find it too fast or too slow, I can adjust). Current thought is to do it on my 3 mile runs - 1.5 mi WU + tempo + remaining mileage CD. Tempo will start at 60 seconds at pace, and then I’ll add 30-60 seconds every week. It will start with more CD than WU, but by the end they should be pretty even. I’m hoping I can get up to 7-8 minutes on this plan. Will do my first tempo run either Friday or next week.
May occasionally sub in a class at Mile High Run Club if the weather is too hot to outside run.
Will probably regroup with Coach in late July/early August to start talking about marathon training. I’m thinking 4 weeks of ramping up to higher mileage, followed by an 8-9 week training plan. By then I’ll probably have a better idea about whether or not I’m going to run the 5th Ave Mile, so I’ll know if we need to incorporate that into training.
Oh, and the virtual race addiction continues. I’m currently signed up for the NYRR Virtual Global Running Day 1M in early June and the NYRR Virtual Pride Run 5K in late June.
barre3
As much running as I haven’t been doing, that’s how much barre I have been doing. I’ve been going 2-3 times per week. Mostly 8:30am classes, which I find is a good time for me. I like having the opportunity to take an hour first thing in the morning to focus on myself. I’ve been able to find a good balance between constantly working to improve and respecting my desire to not push myself too hard. I’ve also gotten to the point where I know most of the modifications and can easily figure out when and how to modify (I do a lot of runner’s lunge in crescent lunge if I just don’t think it’s the day for me to get that close to the floor). I’ve been getting much better with the planks too - I’m definitely seeing a lot of improvement. I’m really glad I decided to take a chance on this class, because I think it has had a wonderful physical and mental effect on me.
If/when I do go back to work (see below), I think I may still try to get in a morning class before work at least once a week if I can, and then go back to after work for my other class(es) of the week.
Life
Remember many many pages ago when we were talking about sunglasses? Well, I finally bought another pair of sunglasses! I went with the goodr Breakfast Run To Tiffany’s. I assume that once they come (assuming they fit okay and are comfortable for running) I will have to run to Tiffany’s to take a picture.
As a reminder, this is what the sunglasses look like:
There’s some other life stuff happening too, but I’m not very good at articulating it without sounding ridiculous, so … yeah. Basically, I’m struggling to find the balance between being myself and doing what I need to successfully adapt to my new living situation, and it’s really hard. Sigh.
But I baked snickerdoodles on Friday, so that was good.
Job Search
I’m scaling back on job search stuff for the next week or two to refresh and re-evaluate what I’m looking for. This job search has gone on longer than I expected it to, and I need to make sure that I’m doing everything I can to not be back in this situation again in a year. But I also don't want to be unemployed for another 3 months because I'm being too picky about jobs. So that’s what’s going on.
Baseball
Current baseball game count is 3 - Mets, Yankees, Long Island Ducks. In that order.
Randomly discovered this at Yankee Stadium on our last trip...
The Ducks game was interesting because MLB is using the league they’re in to test some potential rule changes. One of the rules is that there two infielders on both sides of second base at all times (aka no shift), and there were a bunch of singles between first and second, but we’re not sure how much they really use the shift in this league, so we didn’t know if those two things were connected. They also shortened the time between innings, which meant that the between innings shtick started right after the inning ended. Oh, and no mound visits other than for injury or to take out a pitcher. That was interesting. And each pitcher has to pitch to at least 3 batters or the end of an inning. I’m interested to see how many (if any) of these rules come to the majors.
We have a few other interesting games on the schedule for the summer. Current plan is Pawtucket Red Sox in July (for my dad’s birthday) and Phillies in August (for my birthday). My parents are headed up to Syracuse and Binghamton to see the mini-Mets next week, and they’re hoping to see either Seattle or Tacoma (Mariners Triple-A) later this summer. So a lot of new teams (although Binghamton is not new for my parents, and my dad has been to Philly).
And ... that's what I got going on these days.