The excitement is building! I’m less than 4 weeks from my turn to run the NYC Marathon! Unfortunately, last week was not a good one for training. My wife and boy have been battling colds the past few weeks. By Monday night, I could feel it coming on.

After taking Tuesday off in order to gain a little extra rest, I made it out for a 3 mile run on Wednesday. I wasn’t feeling 100%. So, I decided to take this run easy. I used run 30, walk 90 seconds intervals for the entire run.

As you can see, my times were slow. Part of that is the intervals I chose, part is the battling the oncoming cold part. Also, this was one of the coolest temps I’ve trained in this cycle. So, that played a small role as well. The slow times did leave me feeling okay at the end of the run. That was the plan.

One thing I still need to learn is that I need to take advantage of the opportunities as they come up. Now that I have a child, this is a lesson that is even more important to learn. After all, sometimes the window of opportunity to get certain things done is small. Case in point is my planned weekend 23 mile run.

After largely keeping my cold under control for the week, I had initially planned a 23 mile run on Saturday. Well, when I got to looking at the weather forecast, I saw that Saturday was going to be much warmer than Sunday. So, I decided to not take advantage of the opportunity to get my 23 miles in BEFORE this cold hit me full force. That was a big mistake.

All day Saturday, I could feel things getting worse. I went to bed earlier than normal on Saturday night. I hoped that I could fend this thing off until after my run. I was wrong. At around 1:30am Sunday morning, this cold hit me pretty hard. I felt miserable. I had taken some daytime cold medicine before bed and it had worn off. So, tired as I was and sick as I was, I tried to calculate how much time had passed to see if I could take another dose. I got up and took another dose of medicine. However, I was still up until at least 2:30am. When the alarm went off two hours later, I tried to see if I could will myself out the door. By 5:15am, I gave up and went back to bed. So, no 23 miler this weekend.

That also means I won’t get a 26 mile training run on this cycle. For me, that’s the saddest part of this missed run. I was already on a tight schedule to get that 26 mile run in before the NYC Marathon. However, I now have 3 weekends to get long runs in before the marathon. I have no desire to run 23 miles and 26 miles on back to back weeks (with only 1 week to recover before race week). So, my current plan is to run 23 miles this Sunday. Then, head into taper time with a 6 and a 7 mile run for the last two weekends.

I am pleased to announce that, after much deliberation, I will be attending a performance of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway while I’m in the NYC! Last week, I had mentioned that I was trying to decide between a Broadway show or the New York Knicks. Thanks to those of you who commented. I really appreciated your words! As I thought about it, I realized that I did want to see a show more than the Knicks. As I looked at my options and talked it over with my wife, we decided that I could and will see Phantom of the Opera. I know I had thought about Lion King. However, the pricing for Phantom works better with my budget and it’s a show my wife has already seen. So, she won’t have to be jealous that I’m getting to see a show she hasn’t seen. Plus, now that I’ve made the decision (and purchased my ticket), Phantom seems like a really good fit for this trip. After all, I love Phantom. I’ve seen this show more than any other Broadway show. The first time I saw it, I got to see Michael Crawford (the original Phantom). So, to see it on Broadway is really cool to me. To top it off, the theater that Phantom plays at is also close to my hotel. So, it’s all good!

The 2017 NYC Marathon is getting closer and closer. The excitement is definitely building. Hopefully, in the next day or two, I’ll receive my email from the New York Road Runners with the waivers, bib number, and my start information. I can’t wait to see that. I anticipate I’ll be in one of the last corrals. What I don’t know is if I’ll be running on the top or bottom part of the Verrizano Bridge to start the race. My plans for the trip are almost finished. There’s a few more things I need to finish and I’ll be good to go. This trip is going to be legendary! I’m hoping to get another blog post or two up this week to start sharing my plans. It’s been a fun process to get to where I’m at right now. While it’s hard to cut out some fun things because they just don’t fit in with others, I’m going to be glad to have my plans worked out in advance. That way, I can focus on all the fun things I will get to do and not worry about the ones I won’t. The ultimate goal of any race-cation is to get to the finish line of the race you’re travelling to run. Everything else, is gravy.

I can’t wait for race day!