Fred Lebow Half Marathon Training: Week 6

This week is the race – and the recovery.

The week started off with the Fred Lebow Half Marathon. It went well enough. Not a PR or a spectacular performance – but a strong performance on a hilly course nonetheless.

The main focus for the week, though, is recovery. I’m dropping my mileage to 60 miles – including Sunday’s race – from the usual 70. And I won’t have any other serious workouts throughout the week. Just easy running.

The goal is to rest up this week and feel primed to start training for the two more important races of the spring – the United NYC Half Marathon and the Jersey City Marathon.

The Plan for the Week

Sunday is race day, and the remainder of the week will be easy runs adding up to 60 miles. If I feel good at the end of the week, I’ll also work in some strides on Thursday or Friday. But I’ll play that by ear.

Here’s the daily breakdown:

  • Sunday: Race Day! 15 miles with warm up
  • Monday: 6 miles easy
  • Tuesday: 5 miles treadmill AM, 5 miles treadmill PM
  • Wednesday: 6 miles easy
  • Thursday: 5.5 miles treadmill AM, 3.5 miles treadmill PM
  • Friday: 8 miles easy, strides
  • Saturday: 6 miles easy

And here’s how things twent.

Sunday: Race Day in Central Park

Sunday, I ran the Fred Lebow Half Marathon in Central Park. You can read the full race report here.

I jogged down to the starting area, and warmed up with just shy of 2 miles. The race itself went pretty well.

I went in with a lofty goal of 1:25, and I quickly decided that was unlikely. At the halfway point, I threw in the towel on that goal and hoped to hold on for a 1:27 or 1:28 finish.

The first time around, the hills weren’t too bad. Harlem Hill slowed me down a little, but I quickly caught my breath. Cat Hill was just a bump in the road.

But the second loop was tougher. Harlem Hill took a little more out of me, and it took longer to regain my footing. And just as I was getting back up to speed, Cat Hill tried to knock me back down.

I picked up the pace a bit in the last few miles, but the final trip up Harlem Hill proved too much. I finished in 1:28:48 – a minute shy of a PR, but still a respectable effort given the tough nature of the course.

Afterwards, I walked back to the hotel and enjoyed a nice nap. Then I hit up the Seinfeld Diner for lunch, walked back to our hotel, and drove home before taking a second nap.

Nothing like a good nap after a tough race.

Monday: Recovery Jog Around the Reservoir

Monday morning, I slept in a little bit before heading outside for a recovery jog. The weather was relatively nice – warm temperatures compared to the frigid ones of last week.

Despite the warmer weather, the reservoir was still frozen over. A group of geese huddled around the tiny bit of water that was exposed in the middle.

The first couple miles were tight and slow. I loosened up a bit in the last lap, but I didn’t speed up much. My legs were definitely a little beat up, and six miles hasn’t felt this long in a while. Glanced at my watch and saw ~8:50/mi on my watch towards the end.

Nothing out of the ordinary for a day after a race, though.

Tuesday: Treadmill Doubles

I kept it inside on the treadmill on Tuesday.

Did an easy five miles on the treadmill in the morning. Another easy five miles in the treadmill in the evening. Everything felt pretty good. Kept the pace reigned in, but my legs felt a little more loose than the previous day.

My heart rate was a little high, though. Not sure if that was an effort thing – or if it was just warm down in the basement.

Wednesday: Back Outside

I had an early morning Zoom on Wednesday, then I needed to head down to the office. So I woke up early and went outside for an easy six miles around the reservoir.

You can tell it’s getting warmer. Although the reservoir was still frozen over, the snow that had been on top was gone. It had all melted and then refrozen into the ice sheet. The geese were still huddled up in the middle.

The run felt much better than Monday. I didn’t feel beat up, and the miles ticked by more easily. I felt like I was going faster in the last couple of miles … but they were still just 8:50. Oh well.

Thursday: The Treadmill Again

I woke up Thursday and I was about to head outside. And as I reached into my drawer for running clothes, I looked down at my watch to see what the temperature was. 25F?!?

It had been relatively warm all week, and this was unexpected. I decided to stay warm on the Peloton. I did 5.5 miles – 50 minutes – in the morning. Felt ok, but again my heart rate and effort seemed a little higher than it should be.

I did some quick stretching and yoga afterwards. Still quite stiff, so I skipped the medicine ball work and weights that I thought about doing. I’ll get back to weight training next week.

In the evening, I planned on doing another 45 minutes or so. I got started, and I just didn’t feel great. My ankles, of all things, felt a little tight. That’s weird. But they loosened up.

But my effort was still higher than usual – with my heart rate drifting into the upper 140’s. Rather than finish things out, I decided to cut it short at 35 minutes – just over 3.5 miles.

Maybe I just need a good night’s sleep.

Friday: A Little Taste of Speed

I woke up on Friday feeling better. It rained overnight, and the weather app on my phone said the rain was done when I finally made my way outside.

The app lied. It was still drizzling. It was in the mid 30’s, so it was a little chilly, but not too bad. The rain did peter out after the first or second lap around the reservoir.

I planned on doing 8 miles – four laps around the reservoir. I wanted to incorporate a little speed to loosen things up, and initially I planned on doing some strides followed by a set of 200s.

As I was warming up, though, I decided on a better way to structure things.I kept the first lap nice and easy. In the second lap, I did a set of five short strides – 30 paces or just under 100m. They were on the slow side, but it felt good to open up my stride.

On the next lap, I did another set of five strides – but this time, I lengthened them to 45 paces. This would be equivalent to around 120-130m. Still a little slow, but feeling better.

In the final lap, I lengthened the strides out to 60 paces – about 150-160m. The running path is marked at each tenth of a mile, and I started each of these strides at one of the mile markers. I could tell I was speeding up over the course of the set, because in the first rep I finished up short of the next mile marker. By the end, I was running through the mile marker and doing slightly over 0.1 miles.

In lieu of a true workout, it was a good way to mix in a little speed but not really tax my body.

Saturday: Easy Miles in Atlantic City

Friday night into Saturday morning, I had a work conference down in Atlantic City. That meant a lot of time in the car in the afternoon and time on my feet in the evening. We also went out to eat a later dinner, with a few drinks.

I got to sleep early enough – ~11PM – but that 5:45AM alarm came quick. When I stumbled out of the casino, my body felt tight. I was staying at Harrah’s, and I looped behind Golden Nugget, along the Marina, down to the boardwalk near Resorts. By the time I got to the boardwalk, though, I was feeling much better.

I turned around at the three mile mark – just before Caesar’s. My pace up to this point had improved to 8:45 in the third lap. On the way back, I ended up splitting 8:46, 8:25, and 8:25. I wasn’t trying to speed up, and my heart rate was nice and low throughout, so I’ll take that as a sign that I’m nicely recovered from Sunday’s race.

The weather also took a weird turn halfway through. It had been warm and rainy over night, and a cold front was moving in. What had been a mild wind early on turned into a strong wind on the way back from the boardwalk. So one of those 8:25’s was dead into a headwind, and my average heart rate for that mile was only 137 (solidly low aerobic).

Reflections and Looking Ahead

This wraps up my quick training block for the Fred Lebow Half Marathon. I didn’t meet the qualifying time for the NYC Marathon (1:25), but that was an unlikely outcome given the hills in Central Park.

But I do have the United NYC Half coming up in March. I’ve got six solid weeks to train for that. Now that I’ve knocked the winter rust off, I think I’m poised to make some gains over the next few weeks.

I don’t have any races planned between now and the half, so I can focus on uninterrupted training. I’ll keep my mileage in the 70-75 range, because I still have the Jersey City Marathon coming up later in April. And I’ll extend my long runs out to 18-20 miles, with some tempo segments worked in around half marathon pace (~6:25/mi). Later in the week, I’m going to do a 5k-style workout – either 1k repeats at the reservoir or 5k effort repeats up and down a moderately hilly road.

My biggest concern was coming out of Fred Lebow and fully recovering. The hills were tough, and they left me a bit more beat up than I expected. But after this morning’s run, I’m feeling pretty good.

Things are looking up for the NYC Half – all systems go.

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