On Saturday, I finally took the plunge and joined Planet Fitness. Yes, I am now the proud member of two different gyms. I've talked about PF before, and it basically was what I was expecting. There's a "core room" that has an ab coaster, a crunch machine, a couple of incline benches and a leg-lift apparatus. They have two Bosu balls, but no half-Bosu balls, and no mats to do floor exercises. Their free-weight section looks pretty good on dumbbells -- the guy said they go up to 70 pounds, which is enough for me. But there are no kettlebells, and the barbells are small and not designed for big lifts. The weight machines are adequate, though they took a little getting used to. The leg press goes up only to 290 -- I maxed that for 3 sets of 12 reps, so I'm going to have to do single-leg if I use it again.
But what they do have in abundance is treadmills. And since I'm looking at a minimum of another month and a half of too-cold temps, and the likelihood of plenty more rainy and snowy days, I need access to treadmills. Going to PF will shave about 20 minutes off my round trip to the gym -- that's an extra two miles I can do every time I go. I'll stick with Work Out World for general fitness, which for now means cross-training once a week. And after the marathon, I'll re-evaluate -- it'll depend on what my post-race goals are.
As I've been mentioning, Sunday was the long training run organized by the NJ Marathon people. Make sure you click their link at the right and check them out. Usually, I run alone (or with my four-legged running partner), so running with a group was a new experience for me. I wasn't sure what to expect, and frankly, I kept thinking that I was going to look like a fraud, a phony, next to all these "real" runners.
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| Would have been a great shot if my finger weren't in the way! |
To set it up, we started at Pier Village in Long Branch, ran south along the boardwalk and then Ocean Avenue till close to the Deal town line, then doubled back and went north all the way into Monmouth Beach. The last leg took us along the old Ocean Avenue and past Seven Presidents Park before wending its way back to the north end of the boardwalk.
As the groups went out, I really started to think that I was kind of a fraud. They staggered things so that the 7:00-8:00 minute milers went first, then 8:00-9:00, then 9:00-10:00 (that's me), and so on. I was in a group of about seven people, including a guy on one of those cool competition wheelchairs. We took off, and within 30 seconds, I was at the back of the pack. And I'm thinking, crap, I'm out of my league here.
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| My stepdad spent part of his childhood in this house. |
But then a weird thing happened: I caught up to them and, one by one, started going past them. By the time we were about 1.75 into the run, I and one other guy were at the front of our group. (This worked out, as I managed to mess up MapMyRun and didn't have a GPS to go by.) There was a drink table set up at about 4.5, and a couple of women behind us rolled in just as I was finishing my Gatorade. From there, I took off.
Now, I know long runs are supposed to be slower than race pace. But I was nowhere near VO2 max -- I could easily talk if I needed to. So I wasn't afraid of the pace at all. By the time we turned back south toward home, it was just me and the one other guy 10 yards behind me. Then, as we got to the last turn onto the boardwalk, that guy -- and one about 30 yards ahead who was apparently in the previous, faster group -- cut the corner, while I ran all the way down into it.
It's just a training run, right? They're just cheating themselves, right? Yeah, no -- that one got under my skin. At heart, I guess I'm just a pretty competitive person, and I just wasn't going to let someone finish ahead of me simply because he'd cut a corner. Not even in a training run. I was feeling good, so I turned on the jets and blew past him, and past that guy from the earlier group. Again, MapMyRun did me a dirty this morning, but the final mile was definitely a negative split -- I'd bet in the 8:30 range.
When it was all done, 1:32:30 for a 9:15 pace. (Thank you guy with GPS watch who cut the corner.) And I wasn't really all that tired -- I was good for a few more miles, easy. So now I'm starting to really think about what my goals should be. I've never gone farther than 13.1, and the last mile was a serious struggle when I did. So I don't want to delude myself into thinking that I can go sub-9:00s for 26.2. But at this point, I think my fitness is ahead of where I'd need to be to finish in the neighborhood of 4 hours. So maybe I can really do a sub-4:00 in my first marathon. Or maybe I'll bonk at 20 and wind up with a 4:30. I really don't know, but I will be thinking about it a lot more, and paying attention to my longs a lot more closely.
I definitely want to thank the New Jersey Marathon for organizing the run, and the Sneaker Factory shop in Pier Village for opening the store before 8:00 a.m. for all of us nuts, and then having cocoa and other goodies available afterward. It was great to be able to be around other runner folks for a bit, One woman is doing the Triple T triathalon series. The woman running the store has done some ultras -- she said she's gone up to 38 miles. And a bunch of us were able to discuss the pros and cons of treadmill vs. outdoor running.
Higdon prescribes a shorter long run next week, so I will probably take that advice for now. Tomorrow is a rest day, then Tuesday is 3 or 4 miles (and it might be nice enough to go outside). Wednesday is a pace 6, Thursday is another 3 or 4, and Saturday maybe I'll dial back to 7.5 or 8. Thursday could be a good day for interval work.
Total miles since starting the blog: 231.2
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