Back to Marathon Training: Week 7 of 22

I was planning to do my sprint training today while there was still sunlight outside. But a business meeting went on for longer than expected and I missed the light. Well, when it's dark by 5, it's hard not to miss sunlight on a weekday. It was colder than last Sunday (30F, -1C), but I guess I've been doing well with the winter gear and layering.

I forgot to take a picture of my starting point near my home, next time.

It was the first time I had to keep the sprint pace (7:18min/mile / 04:32min/km) for 3 minutes but I guess I did it very well, a little bit higher than that though.

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My tempo run was right on target, although I had to climb parts of Amsterdan Avenue. On my way back I went through Riverside Park and there wasn't anybody around, it was as if NYC had been evacuated.

I felt a bit of pain on my left leg and will have to keep an eye on it before my long run this Sunday.

This picture is from the place I finished my run, at the Intrepid Museum.

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Sunday began with lots of rain and it took me a lot of time to get out of bed, feeling demotivation by the fact that I wouldn't be able to run. Then I noticed my left calf was really sore. Not sure what happened, I could've had cramps during the night.

Then a good thought: pain and rain, I should postpone the long run. But now the rain has stopped, I looked at my window and saw people running. It's been hard to resist, but I think I should wait until tomorrow afternoon, my calf will probably be back to normal and I will be able to run in balance. We usually don't notice, but when a side of the body is hurt we unconsciously compensate and end up hurting the other side because of the unbalanced movement.

I feel bad right now, because all I want is to go running.

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I think it's the first time I do a long run on a Monday and I am very glad I did it. I almost gave up on mile 4 because I wasn't running smoothly, I felt heavier than normal and my left calf was giving me signs that something was wrong. But then it happened: it started to snow! Very lightly, but enough to cover my shoulders for a while. It was thrilling and I kept running.

I slowed down the pace and most of the time I kept it at PMP+45 which was my goal but ended up slowing down more at the end because I was afraid I could hurt myself. Hopefully nothing has happened.

The view of Midtown Manhattan from the east side was fantastic.

I learned something from this run: whenever you're not finishing the run close to your home or to a train station you should be very careful. I stopped at Grand Central and couldn't get a cab, stayed in the cold for more than 10min and almost freezed, seriously, I couldn't feel several fingers of my right hand. Desperately I decided to run home. So, in the end I ran 1.5 miles more. I decided I should read more about effects of cold in situations like that.

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Parameters:

	min/km	min/mi
10k pace	0:05:00	0:08:03
PMP	0:05:27	0:08:46	finish 10k	0:50:00
			finish marathon	3:49:58
Run Type	plus/minus	min/km	min/mi	explanation
Sprints	0:00:45	0:04:32	0:07:18	10k pace minus 45s per mi
Tempo	0:00:20	0:05:12	0:08:23	10k pace plus 20s per mi
PMP+15	0:00:15	0:05:36	0:09:01	long run slower pace
PMP+20	0:00:20	0:05:39	0:09:06	long run slower pace
PMP+30	0:00:30	0:05:46	0:09:16	long run slower pace
PMP+45	0:00:45	0:05:55	0:09:31	long run slower pace
PMP+60	0:01:00	0:06:04	0:09:46	long run slower pace