Thursday Blah

Wow, Paula’s withdrawing from the World Championships this weekend! I guess not a total shock, but she is clearly not ready in her mind to go out and dominate so sitting it out. Maybe she’ll defer to Chicago and come give Deena a run for the title? Most likely she will be back in New York – I don’t blame her, since she is the 2 time defending champion. Also, here is a cool little article about Nate Jenkins who is pretty much your everyday runner, albeit elite. He basically coaches himself, and posts a blog on the runningtimes website detailing his training progress. Really cool to see an elite runner’s workout day in and day out, and have studied pretty diligently to get some good workouts for myself. He is running this weekend in Berlin – best of luck to him!

Yesterday after work, went out for a easy 5 miles with Crystal. Was hot and humid (mid 80’s), sunny but breezy so cooled it down a little. Hit the trails headed towards Glen Carbon, which is pretty shaded so made it that much cooler. Both of us were tired from a lot of recent running, so went slloooowww. Hit an ok rhythm, never felt too uncomfortable, and enjoyed the day. Don’t mind running in crappy hot humidity when we are running in shade and slow. Total mileage: 5 miles – splits averaged 8:37.

Tonight, scheduled tempo run, I think my legs will be up for it. We’ll probably hit 4 at pace with a few miles warmup and cooldown. Briefly talked strategy for the upcoming Lewis and Clark ½ Marathon which will serve as prep for the Chicago Marathon. This race will not be run all out, as I think that will potentially do more damage running kamikaze for a great time, so looking more conservative in the low 1:30’s which should be really comfortable. The point is basically to run a long pace run (a little faster), get a little race experience with a decent crowd, and just enjoy a good workout.

Lastly, here is my designed kit for Chicago. I know Tim will love it ;) My affiliation with Nike is coming to an end with our recent contract disputes, so Chicago will be my last major race where I will feel obligated to wear Nike Apparel. After the STL ½ Marathon fiasco in April, Shane brought up a good point that I wasn’t wearing my Sunday Tiger Red, so have designed my race outfit with that in mind. This may change depending on weather conditions that day – sunny and hot, will need to get a new singlet and obviously no arm warmers!