Week 21: I’m blinded by the lights

a love/hate relationship with abel

I’m training to run the TCS NYC Marathon this year! This newsletter is a weekly recap of the highs and lows of training, and my best efforts to stay mentally and physically healthy through it. This is week 21/36. 

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When my family and I went on a hiking trip in Nepal last year (sorry to friends who are tired of hearing about this), we were a bunch of untrained, stumbling noobs. While our guides and porters, Nepali trekking experts with a mastery of the terrain and altitude, would hike ahead with heavy packs on their backs, we would be left behind gasping for breath.

Frustrated and in awe, my brother and I decided one day to follow in their footsteps, literally, placing our feet exactly as they did. And after half an hour of somehow keeping up, our rookie mistake was obvious. While we tried taking massive steps, stepping over huge rocks and up steep hills, they were expertly winding their way with tiny footsteps around every obstacle.

It feels so counterintuitive—walking more, and taking more steps doesn’t sound energy efficient, but there was proof: For the first time, my heart rate wasn’t on overdrive and I wasn’t wheezing. Four tiny easy steps instead of one giant, effortful one was the way to go.

There’s probably some earnest, life advice in this somewhere. Huge, ambitious goals require many small, manageable steps, etc. etc. What I’m actually trying to get to here is that it looks like, unfortunately, Blinding Lights by The Weeknd is my marathon training song.

My PT pointed out during a gait analysis a couple weeks ago that I tend to take huge bouncy leaps instead of small controlled steps on my runs—obviously not energy efficient, as I’ve learned, and also way heavier on the impact on my ankles and joints. She recommended that I try to keep my runs at a strict, high 170 bpm cadence, and I haven’t found any song with quite the same driving beat as Blinding Lights. 

My playlist right now is only five songs long which means that I run through it quickly and have to listen to it on loop, so I’m desperately seeking additions and recommendations to the list. Please. I can hear it in my sleep.    

How I’ve Been Training:

• Monday: 3.75 miles run/walk (great)

• Tuesday: Upper body + Cycle (have i mentioned i h8 cycle)

• Wednesday: 2.02 miles run/walk + 2 miles run/walk (sweaty)

• Thursday: Cycle (this class was ok)

• Friday: PT + 4.48 miles run/walk (stormy)

• Saturday: Nothing

Miles run: 12 miles

favorite run of the week! three loops of the reservoir!

What I’ve Been Eating:

We did a ketchup taste test at work which meant the full toddler lunch time diet: french fries, chicken nuggets, and cut up turkey hot dogs eaten over the course of two days until I felt sick. An exceptional meal with a friend at Barbuto: springy focaccia, anchovy butter–stuffed squash blossoms, a mustardy calamari salad, buttery gnocchi, a beautiful roast chicken doused in olive oil and herbs, and a sour cherry clafoutis with a perfect little scoop of vanilla gelato. 

I made some zingy peach salsa and ate it spooned onto avocado toast, and over some pan-seared salmon. Breakfast banana-and-berry smoothies. I got a couple ears of corn and zucchini from that farmstand in my neighborhood and turned it into this lemony, buttery pasta, sort of inspired by this Melissa Clark recipe but with a lot of riffs. 

there’s an unconscionable amount of butter in this

A few chipwiches, of course. A chicken kathi roll and mango lassi from Roti Roll. Everything bagels and scallion cream cheese from Pop Up Bagels. A good latte and an abysmal chocolate chip muffin from Peaky Barista. Salmon poke bowls. Slices of pizza, and a surprising number of mango madness Snapples picked up from the corner store. 

What I’ve Been Reading:

It’s been a slow week for anything new—still working through Hula, and I started reading the play Make Believe by Bess Wohl. It was supposed to be a speedy subway read, but the cursed 1 train is always so packed and so hot, I haven’t even managed to get it out of my backpack on any commute.