Where Does The Time Go? A Recap of the last 2 Weeks!

As promised, here is my update via bullet points.

• I ran 16 miles two weekends ago. It was rough. Really rough. Wilson and I started out together, but he was only planning to run 12 miles. Being an idiot, I forgot to bring my keys with me and didn't realize it until we were over a mile into the run. In an ideal world, I could just buzz my apartment when I got home, and Wilson would let me in . . . but our buzzer is broken. Thus, the only option really was to stop back into the apartment when Wilson finished up at the 12-mile mark, grab my keys, and head back out again to finish up the final 4 miles. This? Was torture. But I got 'er done. Right around a 10:00/mile pace.



• My parents, older sister, brother-in-law and 3 1/2 year-old niece were in town for the week leading up to Memorial Day, and my younger sister and I both took three heavenly days off from work to hang out with them and play tourist for a bit while they were here. Despite the (sort of annoying) fact that the fam isn't so into planning ahead (it wouldn't be quite so annoying but for the fact that they were all staying on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a 45+ minute subway ride away from my BK apartment). Anyway, we had a lot of fun, ate a lot, drank a lot, and walked about 15 billion miles while they were here. Despite a missed key run (speed intervals), I DID get a helluva lot of cross-training in.
  
  
• While the fam was here, I managed to squeeze in an 18-mile long run . . . or well, a 17.5-miler, as it turns out. I accidentally stopped my garmin at some point in the run and forgot to restart it, so all tracking abilities were out the window. It wasn't until later that night that I mapped my run out, and realized I had fallen a half-mile short. Whoopsies! I averaged just under 10:00/mile for the run, and picked up some sexy tan lines, despite the fact that it was mostly overcast out. Oh, and can I just mention that humidity is a b*tch? It was only in the high-sixties during the run, but you could cut the air with a knife, it was so thick. Yuck. I followed the run with an ice bath, a quick shower, chocolate cake (my mom's 60th birthday cake!) and a full day of sight-seeing. It was all EXHAUSTING. And then my parents and I babysat my niece while my sisters and bro-in-law went out to dinner. Um, let's just say that if high-schoolers had to babysit my niece for a night, there would probably be far fewer teen pregnancies. As much as I love little Iris, she helped me to realize that I am SO not ready to have kids anytime soon!
  
  
• As much as I loved getting to hang out with the fam, and especially enjoyed getting to see the city through a 3 1/2 year-old's eyes, I am a bit relieved that life (in particular, my diet and training) are back to normal! My stomach hurt throughout the entire time they were here, thanks to all of the crap food we ate and all of the beer and wine we drank (I must be healthier than I thought, because my tummy was seriously FREAKED)!
  

• Last week, despite the short work-week, work was SERIOUSLY a b*tch. I was forced to skip my tempo run, much to my dismay. But it was probably a blessing in disguise, considering I had a half-marathon to run this weekend. I DID get a killer 10 x 400m (at a 7:30/mile pace) workout in (it was blissful) and some decent cross-training as well.
  
  
• I ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon (part of the NYRR Grand Prix series, which consists of a half-marathon in each of the five boroughs) this past weekend. I had planned on taking it nice and easy from the get-go, considering I only had 10-miles on the schedule, and the race was conveniently sandwiched between last weekend's 18-mile (eh, 17.5-mile) long run and next weekend's 20-mile long run. I planned to start out at around a 10:00/mile pace and see what happened from there. I started the run out feeling GREAT . . . I was maintaining around a 9:45 - 9:50 pace, and was struggling to keep my pace that slow. I felt like I was in slow motion! Somewhere around 8.5-miles, though, everything went downhill. I was suddenly insanely fatigued and was getting some pretty crazy chills. The heat had risen to somewhere around 70 degrees by that time, and I have a SERIOUS sensitivity to the heat, as a result of having suffered from heat illness on multiple occasions during my childhood. I knew I could probably push through it, considering there were only 4.5 miles left . . . but I also knew (again, just like with Long Branch), that I might be jeopardizing my health and Seattle Marathon performance by pushing it. Thus, I slowed to a walk for a while. I walked on and off for the remainder of the race, trying my best to just enjoy the experience. I'm a little bummed that I went so quickly from feeling AWESOME to feeling like crap, but oh well. One of these days, I swear I'm going to train for a half-marathon without any other race on the horizon, and I'm just going to go all out! By far the best part of the race was that it finished on the boardwalk in Coney Island! Wilson and I met up after the race (he finished in 1:50:xx, scoring himself a nice, new PR), hung out on the beach for a while, stuffed our faces with Nathan's hot dogs and fries (yum), and then finally boarded the F-train back home to Brooklyn Heights. Despite my problem with the heat and issues with some of the aid stations, it was a GREAT day. I'll definitely be running this race again next year (hopefully without another race overshadowing it!)

Alright, I think we are officially caught up now! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!