Week 32: Oh well, onward

At least i’m not running an ultra

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 32/36 

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Running 26 miles feels close to insurmountable right now, and then I have to be reminded of people who do 110-mile trail runs for fun? This video of a runner narrating his UTMB race through Europe popped up on my FYP and I was mesmerized enough to watch all 10 minutes of it. Absolutely bonkers. The views are stunning. The altitude looks punishing. Running through the night sounds hellish. At some point he starts hallucinating a little bit.

I wrote a couple weeks ago about how setting a mantra or intention for long runs feels hokey and cringe but unfortunately works. My new one, taken from this video when it’s the middle of the night and he’s trudging through cold and fog, is “Oh well, onward.” Didn’t hit the split I wanted on that last mile? Oh well, onward. Started raining? Oh well, onward. Had to slow to a walk so I could choke down a Gu? Oh well, onward.    

Also! My running playlist is now at about an hour of songs at 170–180 bpm. I am always looking for new recommendations so please send them my way 😁A girl can’t run a full marathon on Blinding Lights alone.    

How I’ve Been Training:

• Monday: PT

• Tuesday: 5.13-mile hill repeats

• Wednesday: Strength training

• Thursday: 5.18-mile tempo run

• Friday: Nothing

• Saturday: 16-mile run

Miles run: 26 miles

Hill repeats went great. Tempo run was also good. I’m getting to the point where all of the mid-week runs are blurring together in my head and I can’t even remember when or where I ran. Also, I’ll say it, I’m excited to be done training and to not have every workout weigh so heavily on my mind. I’m tired of sounding like this guy to all my friends. 

i took a cab home after this :/

I did my rainy, misty long run in Central Park this week which at first was fun, then sucked, then, I was fully delirious for (still need to work on fueling properly). Some highlights: a woman also running on the loop came up to me and said that I had “beautiful running form,” which made my day. I almost stomped on an off-leash chihuahua on the reservoir loop (your dog should not be off-leash at noon on a high-traffic pedestrian path!). Also, Central Park was gorgeous and it’s starting to feel like the most romanticized version of New York City-in-the-fall out there.     

What I’ve Been Eating:

My favorite meal of the week: I hosted another cookbook club and my friends and I cooked our way through Keep It Zesty, a Lebanese-American cookbook by Edy Massih. Everyone came through: There was an herby green dip; a spread of veggies, olives, hummus, and pita; muhammara; a roasted squash and couscous salad; a tahini-Caesar salad with lots of feta; za’atar roasted chicken; sparkling lemonade; and salted tahini brownies. 

At work, I led a canned cocktail taste test (spittoons at the ready), drank so many types of chai, and ate so many cakes and treats as we worked through writing and updating our holiday gift guides. My coworkers turned my abundance of chocolate pudding from my saucepan testing, an abundance of whipped cream from whisk testing, and surplus of crumbled Oreos from food processor testing an adorable mud pie.  

Other than that, a diner chicken quesadilla, and I made this white chicken chili for dinner that my brother and I ate while watching The Boy and the Heron. 

Other movies of the week (since for some reason what I’ve been watching has always ended up under “What I’ve Been Eating”): My Big Fat Greek Wedding that I watched while inhaling my smoothie and Chipotle bowl, post-long run, and Saturday Night, that I redeemed my birthday month free drink for at the AMC.  

What I’ve Been Reading:

Still slowly reading Elena Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter. I watched the Netflix movie adaptation at the Paris Theater in 2021, and something about reading it now is giving me nostalgia for when I first moved to NYC.