10 days to go

I seem to keep coming up with new ways to hurt myself. Yesterday I went bowling with PIMCO, who was in town to recruit second years at my school. On my first roll I roll an emphatic strike, but my enthusiasm go the better of me as I tweaked something in my left glute as I lunged forward. I had to bowl standing straight up the rest of the night and didn't break 100.

The good news is this is only a minor set back and I was able to get a comfortable 7 miles in today. This week's mileage should be somewhere between 40-45 with a day off (alternating 6-7 mile runs so far this week). I'm definitely feeling fresh, and this bronchitis is slowly going away. I stress slowly because I every time I've run this week I've coughed up a funny-colored mucas for a about half the run. At least I'm coughing less and feeling better.

Race for the Cure

As business school has picked up, the blogs have fallen off, but have no fear readers (Mom), I'm back with exactly two weeks to go until the marathon, and will be posting more frequently until then. Unfortunately, I came down with a chest cold last week, forcing me to take a couple days off, but still managed to squeeze in a 15-miler last Sunday and hopefully 10-12 today. Most runs post-half marathon were easy 7-9 milers at a slow-ish pace. Not much worth writing about. My weight has also stabilized around 192-195 depending on the day, which is light enough, but would have been nice to be about 10 lbs lighter. I've been eating pretty healthy and out a lot less.

I had circled the Chicago Komen Race for the Cure 10k a month ago but wasn't sure about competing, since it is so close to the marathon, and I was sick last week. I was feeling better Friday night, so I decided to give it a go Saturday morning. Additionally, we had our "Fall Frolic" Friday night, where all the cohorts competed against each other in Dodgeball, Volleyball and Basketball. Needless to say, we won our first couple events so it got a little competitive, and by the end of the night my glutes and hamstrings were as tight as rubber bands. Still, I got home at 11 pm and managed to stretch and ice down before bed, and woke up feeling pretty good. I also had a chance to debut my Nike Lunar Racers, which will be my marathon shoe in two weeks (they felt great!).

There weren't too many people up front during the race so I took it out at a comfortable 5:39 first mile - close to marathon pace, then eased faster over the next five. The course wrapped around Grant Park, then headed down to South Columbus, right under my building on to the Lakeshore bike bath, then down to Soldier Field and back to Grant Park. I carried between 5:29-5:37 throughout the rest of the race, and felt great, tight hamstrings and all. I ended up winning the race by about 3 minutes and it felt like a Sunday jog, so that's great news headed into the marathon. Not sure I can go THAT fast for 26 miles, but I think 5:40's are probably doable.

Also received my marathon number - 69 so start making signs!!

Chicago Dress Rehearsal

Definitely didn't log 83 miles this week. Didn't even come close. We were shipped off to Wisconsin for three days for orientation in the middle of the week so I used the trip as a chance to take a day off and rest up for my half marathon this weekend. Pretty much ran 7-8 miles the rest of the week and then logged 16 today with warm-up and cool-down.

Today, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get set for the Chicago Half Marathon. I was hoping to use this as a dress rehearsal for the Marathon in 4 weeks and didn't really plan on over-exerting myself. I arrived in Jackson Park around 6 a.m. and went over to the Fleet Feet tent to meet the guys and maybe find some new running partners. I also introduced myself to Mark, who is in charge of the Elite Team, and Mark let me stash my gear with his guys.

The plan today was to go out in 5:40 and maintain that pace for 6 miles, then accelerate depending on how I felt. The race did not go as planned. I went out the first mile faster than intended, a crowd pleasing 5:20. I knew I was going too fast, and kept telling myself to slow down, but I just couldn't. The next three miles calmed down to the high 5:20's, but that was still too fast. Toward the end of mile 4, we turned onto Lakeshore Drive, and I was in 10th place, not really sure what to make of my fast pace. My first 5k passed ini 16:52, then I hit 10k in 33:31 (16:39). I passed a few guys while heading north on Lakeshore and at the turn, I had moved up into 7th. I was still telling myself to slow down and settle into 5:30's, but it just didn't happen. I lost 10 seconds when I stopped to adjust my sock, because I was developing blisters on my right heel when my sweaty sock slipped down. Fortunately, it only cost me 10 seconds, and since I stopped on a downhill (planned) it was easy to get back on pace. Even with the stop, that mile was still 5:27. I came through 15k in 50:11 (16:40).

Someone in front of me dropped out around mile 10, so all of a sudden I was in 6th and closing in on 5th. Once I got my radar lock on the guy in 5th (probably 100 yards back at the time), I stopped thinking about pace and just zeroed in on him. It took about 1.5 miles to reel him in, but I caught up during mile 12 and briefly passed him. We hit 20k in 1:06:37 (16:26). Unfortunately, I got my first bit of fatigue during mile 13 and he pulled away from me over the last 1/2 mile. Still, I finished in a solid 1:10:45, a 5:23 average, good for 6th place!

Mile splits for the day were: 5:20, 5:28, 5:27, 5:28, 5:22, 5:20, 5:22, 5:19, 5:27, 5:14, 5:25, 5:17, 5:22. The residual 0.1 time was 50 seconds according to my Garmin, because I couldn't run the shortest tangent since water stops were located on the outside of the course. Still, incredibly pleased with the result. It's a PR by over 2 minutes and I'm very confident headed into the Marathon.

Lastly - 17 miles for the day, 60 miles this week in 6 days of running.

Peak Mileage

This week I ran 83 miles, one of the top 3 highest mileage weeks of my life. Fortunately, I am still feeling pretty good. The highlight of the week has to be the 22 miler from yesterday (2:22). Average pace for the run was 6:30 and my Garmin says I burned over 3500 calories during the run (give or take a few). I woke up not feeling great but managed to gut it out and even practiced taking in a power gel around mile 11. The gel worked great, and after intake, my mile splits dropped from 6:35-6:40 down to 6:20. The last 4-5 miles were all in 6-6:10 pace. I probably should have just kept going and finished a "marathon", but might as well save that for October. I'm really happy with the work put in over the last month given all my travels. School starts on Tuesday so things will get busy, but the hay is now mostly in the barn and I'm still alive to write about it!

35 days to the marathon. Now it's time to sharpen up.

10-Mile Tempo

Today was my first rainy day in Chicago, and even though I went out last night (again) I really wanted to take advantage of it. Aside from really enjoying runs in the rain, it's always good to brave the elements on occasion in case something crazy happens on race day. Still, by the time I left Aqua around 10 a.m. for my run the rain had subsided a bit and I thought maybe I had lucked out. Anyways, the meat of today's run was a 10-mile tempo run (target 5:50 pace) sandwiched between a 2 mile warm-up and 1 mile cool-down. With ini the 10-mile tempo, I wanted a controlled 9 miles, then the last mile at threshold pace.

My warm-up was sluggish and I was a little worried my legs wouldn't wake up in time for the workout. Once I got going I went right into 5:40 ish pace and had to make a concerted effort to slow down. Somehow I ended up keeping this pace for the entire workout and actually negative splitting. Since I was already two miles from home, I ran further south for 4 miles and then flipped. At around mile 2, the skies opened up and I was suddenly running straight into a thunderous downpour and into a headwind, but somehow kept the pace. I just tried to focus on getting to mile 4 then using my tailwind to coast through a few miles. I coasted through 7-8 miles and even dropped it down a bit despite some stomach issues, 9 was a little tough, and then "dropped the hammer" on mile 10, though it wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked. Splits for the run are as follows:

10 mile tempo: 56:15

5:42, 5:43, 5:42, 5:43, 5:40, 5:40, 5:36, 5:35, 5:37, 5:16

Ended on Lakeshore drive near Aqua, and finished with a sluggish 1 mile jog back to my place. All in all, very pleased with the workout, probably won't tempo again until the 1/2 Marathon in 10 days. 38 days until the marathon.

Peak Mileage and long workouts

This should be my highest mileage week leading up to the marathon since school starts next week and we're less than six weeks away. After an easy 9 miles on Monday, I woke up early Tuesday and jogged a slow 6 miles, making sure to keep the pace above 7 minutes per mile (although it was tough). It ended up getting really hot yesterday so I had to delay my road tempo until later in the day.

At around 6:30 pm I headed south on Lakeshore Drive for 3 x 2 miles, with 5 minutes recovery. The goal was to keep a controlled rhythm, slightly faster than race pace, and negative split each rep. I warmed up 2 miles then stretched out a bit before rolling into leg 1. The clocked the first two miles in 10:59 (5:33, 5:26) and went into my five minute jog. By this point it was getting dark and the tempo had cooled to the mid 80's which made the workout a little easier. I hit the 2nd rep in 10:50 (5:25, 5:25). Fortunately this one ended near a bathroom because I wasn't feeling too good. After another five minutes rest I rolled into the last one and tried to lift a little. I finished the workout with a 10:30 (5:18, 5:12). All in all, this workout felt great and I was happy to get through it without too much difficulty. I followed it with a couple more exceptionally good performances at a karaoke bar. 9 miles in the evening, 16 miles for the day.

This morning I went for a ho-hum 10 miles in 68 minutes. Left the Garmin at home as I finally know the markers in my head for each direction. It also rained overnight so the weather was cool in the 70s. So far 35 miles this week in 3 days. I'm looking forward to a 10-mile up-tempo run tomorrow or Friday and then a 20-22 miler this weekend.