Week 12 - Back to training, no time to lose ⏱️

Started week 12 still in Cusco, Peru, with the required 5 miles run… mapped based on street art we had seen through the van on the way back from our last expedition! Felt better than during my first run, especially thanks to the downhill start. Had a couple of break to capture the amazing murals, and then on the way back up as we were reaching rush hour and it was safer to wait for the cars to stop…

The second run, on Tuesday, was once back in Princeton, after an overnight flight, so I went in the evening. It’s the first time I was doing my intervals run at this park in the evening: usually I meet only a couple of people, mostly neighborhood inhabitants walking their dogs. On this day, at 5pm, the park was full with soccer training ongoing for little ones, with parents walking along the park, or sitting on the grass with other kids, with laptops on or not. Different view for me! The run was tough as I was slightly tired and had stomach cramps, but I had to complete the workout, and so I did.

On Thursday it all started like a normal morning, it’s the day I was going back to work so I went running earlier, no issues and no more cramps. This was a recovery 5 miler, along the quiet roads next door. After breakfast is when my stomach decided to rebel and this was not fun. So much so that I could not go to work or even work from home. I stayed the whole day in bed, drinking Coca Cola, and skipping gym in the evening. It seemed to work as I was feeling much better on Friday.

So Friday I was running back with the group for a 6 miler at marathon pace, without issue, yay!

And we closed the week’s training on Saturday with a short long run, 12 miles, under the rain but in great company, with Yvette as well as Praveen, Satish and Shravan.

I hope you can see the rain on the picture!

I finished the book, Delphine (A race like no others). It was great, each chapter describing one of the 26 miles, so we know what to look forward to. The part that surprised me most, as I did not know about this, is that at mile 10 we will lose all cheering, music and support, until we leave the Hasidic Jewish area: Rabbis are not supporting the race, that disrupt a weekday for them, that goes against the modesty commandment, where men and women are intermingling while their legs, arms and stomach sometimes are bare! Running is considered a distraction from studying the Torah… so when we cross this area, along Bedford avenue, it will look as if we travelled back to the 19th century, and we can sing to ourselves in the meantime to keep high spirits.

Now I found the NYRR set the pace podcasts, listened to the first 2, still have 1 to catch up on… will tell you more about it next week 🙃

Finally, NYRR shared which gels will be available during the race: SIS Science in Sport Isotonic Energy Gels. I have ordered a few to test, if I like them then I won’t have to carry gels during the run… to be continued…