Too hot to run! No Sunday long run for me
Week 3, Day 7 of NYC Marathon Training: Other than a 10-minute Peloton ride, a whole heap of nothing
After Saturday’s eye debacle (I accidentally got sunscreen in my left eye, had a severe reaction, and ended my afternoon with a gauze eyepatch over my eye), I was pretty worn out, both physically and mentally.
So I made an executive decision to stay home Sunday and not do my scheduled 13-mile long run — or any run at all. Instead, I did some much-needed housecleaning and got some rest.
This Substack is documenting the good, bad, and ugly of my 2022 NYC Marathon training. And this has not been a good week in my training, that’s for sure!
The temperature got to 99 degrees on Sunday here on Staten Island. And I just didn’t think it was a good idea to go out for my long run, especially when I was skittish about putting sunscreen on my face again after what happened the day before.
I’m sure I’ll get some blowback over my not being tough enough here. But I have had a lot of not-so-great things happening in my life over the last month, and I didn’t really want to add sunstroke to the list. So sue me.
I did do a 10-minute Peloton bike ride, but that was it for my workout on Sunday, other than the previously mentioned housekeeping.
One thing I’m glad about is that I did not do the Verizon NYC Triathlon this year. Around 1400 people did do the race yesterday, including Peloton instructor Matt Wilpers (who won his age group!), and I don’t know how they could move around in that heat!
Squawker Jon asked what I thought about the Life Time officials making the decision to cut the course so much. (The bike course was cut in half, and the run was changed from 6.2 miles to 2.5 miles. The swim stayed the same.)
After all, I spoke with multiple triathletes when volunteering on Saturday who felt that they could have done the full race, despite the heat.
And I get all that. But the race officials have to deal with getting permits from New York City, and police and EMTs and everything else connected with a big race. So there is pressure there as well.
I do think they need to move this race out of July. Newsflash: it’s hot in July!
I did see that for what might be the first time ever in this triathlon, wetsuits were banned because of the water temperature being nearly 80 degrees. So that was another change the triathletes had to deal with.
The thing is with the Hudson River is that the current will take you along if you are in a wetsuit. Theoretically, you could just float and still finish, like the potato chip bag they always talk about in NYC Triathlon training classes!
Jon and I were wondering if people showed up Sunday morning in their wetsuits, only to be told to change out of them.
Fortunately, everybody seemed to be okay after yesterday’s triathlon, although the New York Post did run a picture of somebody who threw up after the finish line. What a sport!