Chi Weekend Recap

Back from an awesome weekend in Chitown. Had a fun time seeing friends and family, and got to continue on with the birthday celebrations :) Friday, flew into O’Hare in the late afternoon to some pretty nasty rainy conditions up north. Met up with Anne and her boyfriend Ben for a nice dinner at an Italian place in the South Loop, then just hung out the rest of the night. Saturday morning, woke up early to meet with the New Balance running group. Weather started out in the lower 60’s, but warmed up a little as the morning went on. Ran with John, who planned on doing 15, and we headed south on Lakeshore for our loop. Tons of people on the trail, probably from marathon training, but is always awesome to have so many people around. Felt ok the first few miles, but stomach started to act up a little and I didn’t feel too great. Probably didn’t help that I ate nothing in the morning and was still recovering from a cold. Looked for a bathroom close to our turnaround, but couldn’t find anything so just sucked it up and kept going. Sun came out for a bit, and started to feel like last year’s marathon – HOT. Pace wasn’t too fast, but legs were starting to die out. Last few miles, we started to pick it up, but fortunately the clouds moved in and it got windy so cooled down a bit. Looped back to the store, where John had to run to feed the parking meter – decided my legs were toast, and called it a day. Total mileage: 11 miles – splits were: will update later, average was 7:53.

Got back to Anne’s where she prepared an awesome breakfast for us, then took a nice nap. Headed downtown to meet up with a couple friends and watch the Illini game, then headed out to my Chicago birthday dinner with some childhood buddies. Enjoyed a great night, and was sad to go early the next morning but I’ll be back in 10 days for the marathon :) In the evening, got in some mileage, but not what I wanted. Felt pretty tired from the busy weekend, and didn’t get started until pretty late unfortunately. Did a loop around town – weather was cool, but felt a little humid to me somehow. Legs just weren’t there and had trouble keeping any sort of decent pace. Stopped at Pat and Crystal’s to say hi, but could never get it going after I left their house. Cramped the entire workout and felt dehydrated, but might have been from my crappy cold. Cut the workout short, and decided to just cut my losses and end the bad running week. Total mileage: ~5 miles – splits were: 8:00, 7:18, 7:13, 7:29, 7:31.

A crappy way to end a crappy week, and I vowed to get a good night’s rest and have a much better and aggressive Monday. Got in 28 miles last week (BLAH!!!!), and missed more days last week than I had all of September! Woke up on Monday to some pretty chilly weather – temps had dropped about 10 degrees, and was pretty windy – perfect fall weather! Got back from work, decided to get in some good mileage today since I was feeling better. Did a quick out and back, legs felt good and just was happy to be in cooler weather, albeit pretty windy. When it gets windy, my body tends to push a little more, so I was paying attention to my Garmin quite a bit this run. Cramped a ton the first 2 miles – not from hard pace, but from lack of hydration since I didn’t really drink much of anything all day. Finally got into a pretty good rhythm after I worked out the cramps, and cruised home. Had to slow down at many points since I was getting carried away on pace – felt slightly winded, but more from the wind. Pretty happy with the results, and felt 180% better from the last couple runs. This run felt very easy for once! Total mileage: 4 miles – splits were: 6:48, 6:52, 6:58, 6:54.

Waited 20 minutes for Pat and Crystal to get back, went over to their house and finished my workout with them. We did our scheduled 4, and felt great. Good to have Pat back on our runs, and he demonstrated he still has a pretty vicious kick at the end. Total mileage: 4 miles – splits varied, but we averaged 9:19 miles. So got in 8 miles today, and legs felt pretty rejuvenated from the easy last week. More excited that the weather is cooperating all of a sudden, and thinking we are going to have some spectacular running weather in a couple weekends!

Amar, Mark, and I rooting on the Illini

Chicago Bound!

Headed up to Chicago after work today to see some friends and family, and continue on with the birthday festivities :) This has been a fun week, especially with the low mileages and enjoying the taper, but also battling a pretty nasty cold as well. Really quick - Chicagomarathon.com posted the elite athlete bios for the elite runners competing - take a look! Also, a quick interview with Edward Norton and his NYC Marathon training with the Maasai warriors. Finally, a scientific look at the benefits of Vitamin D in athletes - does it affect athletes? It definitely looks so! Thought of before just to aid primarily in bone development, Vitamin D also functions in cell metabolism, muscle fiber growth, and the correct functioning of the immune system. So load up on salmon, tuna, yogurt, and breakfast cereals!

After work, was driving home and literally drove by my running store so stopped in to check out the merchandise since I had a gift card to spend. Tried on some of the Brooks racing flats, but my feet are just too wide for them so I don't think it is possible to wear them - perhaps I will email Brooks to see if they are available wide, but didn't see anything on the website. Bought a pair of shorts and a night running hat (has a blinky LED light on the strap and the hat itself is totally neon yellow), so was happy with those purchases. Also, went a little nuts on the Brooks pro website today ordering up some apparel so I can proudly display my sponsors this fall/winter :)

Last night, was feeling like crap but due to the impromptu day off from being sick I decided to try to combine the missed workout into the scheduled hills. It had rained all day, but stopped in the evening leaving it a little humid and overcast, but cool as well. Crystal was tired from a long day and texted me to bail on me, so I tried to guilt trip her thinking she might show up later. Jogged 2.5 up to the Meridian Hill (or mountain), and prepared for repeats. First one was rough - hadn't done hills in a while, and my fast twitch muscles were definitely in shock. Felt better after the second one, and was jogging back down the hill when I saw who I thought was Crystal jogging towards me wearing a red nike singlet - same body type, haircut, running motion. So I cat call her and made stupid noises, but realized soon it wasn't her! But she was very cute, and definitely wanted to catch her on the next rep just to take another look ;) Went out way too fast, caught her at the end - couldn't gasp for air hard enough, and I'm sure I made quite the favorable impression. Last few, worked hard but was definitely completely depleted. Legs were slightly cramping, and I felt really dehydrated probably from being sick. Jogged home, probably went too hard because I got the entire workout in in like an hour which is way too fast, and legs were just done. Stretched profusely after the workout, blah! Total mileage: ~7 miles - didn't wear a watch, but hit 5K effort or a little faster on all the reps except for the 3rd rep which I went kamikaze trying to catch that girl (~sub 1:20).

Stayed up way too late last night - Tim came back from Barcelona, so he came over after landing and we ended up b.s.ing all night. Pretty tired and hacking up furballs - took some medicine, so hopefully I feel better for the quick weekend ahead. Will run with the New Balance group tomorrow morning, then some workout when I get back to try to get in 30+ miles this week.

Birthday Weekend Recap

Many apologies for the belated blog update! But in my defense, was a busy, busy weekend and work has been brutal this week! First, let’s start with last weekend’s major racing weekend. Congrats to Geb for his victory in the Berlin Marathon, his 4^th consecutive win! He was on world record pace through 32 kilometers, but faltered in the unusualyl hot conditions. Regardless, impressive victory and he continues to exude dominance in the marathon. Next, congratulations to Ryan Hall in his victory at the Philadelphia ½ Marathon on Sunday! He is on schedule for an amazing race in NYC, and held off a good charge by some quality opponents. Finally, Martin Lel continued his comeback with a victory this weekend at the Bupa Great North Run. Impressive to hit sub 60 minutes in the half marathon, one of his faster runs ever. He will be running NYC again, and hoping for a 3^rd victory in the Big Apple.

Last weekend was crazy busy, but fun! Tim was in town headed to Barcelona with his parents for vacation, so we took the opportunity to celebrate my birthday early on Friday night. Headed over to Laurie’s Place with Pat, Crystal, and Stacy, and proceeded to drink many, many, many, many Blue Moon pitchers. Met up with my buddy Ryan who was in town, awesome to see him! Woke up on Saturday morning unable to stand let along execute our scheduled 10 mile pace run, so postponed to later that evening. Not a good start for our final major training weekend! Later that evening, pulled Crystal out on the trails for the workout. Weather was humid, but cool because the sun was going down. Decided to do out and back on the Troy loop, and felt ok starting out. Wasn’t sure we were going to actually get pace work in because we felt like garbage, but quickly got into a good rhythm. First few miles felt pretty good, and felt like we were jogging. I let Crystal take the lead and she was pushing the pace, but I didn’t say much other than point out when we were hitting sub 7 minute pace. Coming back, still felt amazing and the miles were passing by pretty quick. Last 2 miles, Crystal was struggling a bit, but we were maintaining our splits. Fell off the final mile, but I pushed the last half to get us back on track. Workout felt amazingly easy, I was on cloud nine afterwards. Total mileage: 10 miles – splits were: 7:18, 7:08, 7:04, 7:11, 6:59, 7:07, 7:08, 7:05, 7:05, 7:13.

Pleased that almost every pace run I hit was under marathon pace (this one was 7:08 average), and felt so good despite being massively hungover :) Stretched, went home and got to bed a couple hours later to get ready for our final 20 miler in the morning. Woke up to yet another heavy rainfall, and wondered if Mother Nature really had it in for us? Steady rain, both of us were kind of tired from doing our 10 mile pace roughly 12 hours earlier, and we got going with our typical long run route. First few miles went by slowly, and we were definitely going at a leisurely pace to get going. Hit the long Meridian Hill, and like the previous 20 milers the miles went by pretty quickly. Felt ok, GUed around mile 8 and was having no problems. Decided we were going to go an extra mile out and get in 22 for the day, so ended up way out in the university where we had never been before. Turning around, hit a long uphill grade and legs started to get sort of tired. Around mile 12, legs started to get really heavy and wondered if I was going to be able to finish this run. Really tried to suck it up since I knew we had a lot of downhill miles coming up. Rain was falling pretty hard at this point, but was sort of therapeutic and made our minds focus on the crappy rain instead of our tired selves. Hit the downhill stretch, felt better and squished away the next 5 miles. Splits were getting faster with the downhill as I had thought. Got back to final 3 mile uphill stretch, saw a lone runner about 100-200 yards ahead of us with this obnoxiously bright orange shirt and told Crystal we were catching this guy much to her chagrin. Picked it up slightly, but obediently followed the guy. Didn’t seem to be catching up much, and with about a mile and a half left thought it would probably be impossible without going suicidal the last stretch which wasn’t really in the cards seeing we had run 20+ miles already. All of a sudden, we were making up ground pretty quickly, and he was definitely not too far ahead. Got to the last ½ mile and we were within striking distance when he heard our footsteps and looked back a few times. He picked up the pace (bastard), but so did we. Caught him as we finished (well right behind him – another 10 seconds and we would have passed him), and was definitely pretty beat having hit 6:30ish pace the last ½ mile. Ecstatic that our final major training run was over, hello taper! Total mileage: 22 miles – splits were: 8:55, 8:53, 8:55, 9:02, 9:11, 9:11, 8:58, 8:57, 8:57, 9:12, 9:01, 9:04, 9:10, 8:53, 8:44, 8:40, 8:33, 8:37, 8:23, 8:19, 7:58, 7:27.

Really pleased that we hit the weekend workouts against pretty much all the odds – massively hungover, little rest time, and crappy weather conditions. If we can do that, I think we are in really good shape. Hit a whopping 60 miles last week, pretty high for this training segment, and killed pretty much every run. Got in a 3 hour run as we wanted to (actually 3:13 run), and nailed all our marathon speed work (Yasso 800’s, long pace run). Feeling pretty good about these last few months, but definitely happy that marathon taper has arrived! Monday, worked really late, didn’t get in much mileage but probably a good thing because my legs were pretty much smoked. Am doing volunteer work all week at a golf course in St. Albans (far, far away), and literally ran around all day so I got in a little cross training to make up for the non run.

Tuesday, my 30^th birthday! Woke up early to get in our scheduled run, only to get texted by Crystal to cancel it. Not a big deal, my bed was looking amazingly comfortable, so got in an extra hour of sleep. Finished work, went home and cleaned up and waited a little bit for the humidity to settle before heading out for my scheduled run. Was going to do 8, but with dinner plans decided to cut it to a harder 6 and just pick up the miles later this week. Weather was hot and humid, but sort of cooled down as the run progressed. Felt ok the first couple miles, and definitely felt like I was working at the turnaround. Legs were cramping a bit, and was dehydrated from literally running around all day at work. Last 2 miles, was just wanting to get this over with so picked it up and just flew home. Was tired, but was happy to get in a solid birthday run. Total mileage: 6 miles – splits were: 7:20, 7:12, 7:23, 7:14, 6:55, 6:25.

Went out with a few friends to dinner, then to Erato (local wine bar) for some drinks. Enjoyed a nice, relaxing evening, and truly had a great 30^th birthday :) Thank you to all that helped me celebrate this occasion! Today, wasn’t feeling too particularly hot and starting to come down with what appears to be a cold, so decided to scrap the easy run and will attempt to get in early tomorrow if I feel better. Headed to Chi this weekend (to continue with the birthday festivities), so will try to get in some Lakeshore miles as well as scout out the marathon course!

Birthday Shots!

Drinks at Erato

Yasso 800's

One more article about Sunday's Berlin Marathon. Geb's training segment sounded amazing, but weather look HOT (forecasted 79 - yikes!). Also, now that I am Brooks sponsored, am wanting to pass along the good word and for anyone interested in picking up Brooks equivalents of the current non-Brooks shoes that you wear, here is a cool chart that displays shoe equivalencies:

Last night, went out to the track to do our scheduled Yasso 800's. For those not familiar with the concept, you take your goal marathon time and basically convert it to minutes and seconds instead of hours and minutes, and do reps based on that. So my marathon goal of 3 hours and 10 minutes translates into reps of 3 minutes and 10 seconds - 10 of those with no longer than 3 minutes and 10 second breaks in between. Weather was sunny and high 70's, but with the days getting shorter it cooled down pretty quickly. Nice cool breeze, so was pretty comfortable doing the workout. Got up to the track, legs were sore especially my groin, and did some dynamic stretching to get loosened up and fire up those fast twitch muscles. Did 1/2 mile warmup with Crystal, and started the workout. First few reps were pretty easy - usually do 800 reps in 2:45-2:55, so was going 15 seconds slower. We jogged a slow quarter in between all the reps to keep the legs going. Crystal and I were alternating the inside lap every rep, so was making the time go by faster. She was apparently feeling pretty good, because she was blazing way ahead of me on her lead laps but I tried to maintain 3:10 pace for fear of fatigue later in the workout. The reps flew by, never felt uncomfortable and before we knew it we were almost done. Last couple, I knew we were in the home stretch so picked it up just to make the workout a little more challenging. Final rep, legs were a little tired but still fine, and coasted in. Quick cooldown, nice evening to get in a good track workout. Total mileage: 8 miles - splits were: 3:13 (my fault on letting up too early), 3:08, 3:07, 3:09, 3:09, 3:10, 3:08, 2:59, 2:54, 2:50.

Stretched for a while afterwards, hit the driving range with my buddy Nick and got a late night meal at Applebees. Just a perfect night to be outside, and so excited that fall is right around the corner (on my birthday actually!!!). Yasso 800's are said to be a good marathon indicator and I hope that is true, because we pretty much killed that workout. Legs feel ok this morning, but groin feels like garbage. Am pretty happy that we have a day off tonight, and looking forward to hanging out with Tim who is in town! Heavy weekend running with the 10 mile pace tomorrow and last 20 miler on Sunday. Then the glorious taper weeks begin :) And on a side note, this is my final weekend in my 20's, so will have to live it up as much as possible!

Thursday

Quick tidbits on the upcoming Berlin Marathon this weekend. This article previews the spectacular duel that is going to take place between Haile Gebreselassie and Duncan Kibet. Both runners have the two fastest marathon times ever, and on a flat course who knows what is going to happen?! Next article talks about Duncan Kibet's personal goals for this race. Finally, this is a cool little article from the Running Times talking about marathon workouts that will help you dial in your goal pace. We hit most of these workouts on our training block, so feeling pretty good about things right now!

Last night, got in my recovery run after work. Weather was mid 80's, but windy so helped with the heat. With the marathon so close and the weather not turning fall-like yet, I am a little paranoid that the weather in Chi will be similar to the last 2 years, so definitely want to get in some workouts to acclimate myself to the warmer weather since we have had a pretty mild summer so far. Did out and back on the trails, brought my Garmin just curious to see what my "easy pace" was since I rarely time myself on recovery runs. Started out pretty creaky and legs felt tired and tight. Loosened up eventually on the first mile - on the last quarter of my first mile, ran through a swarm of gnats which was absolutely disgusting. I HATE swarms of anything, and swallowed about 10-15 gnats and had another 50-60 stuck on my body and eyeballs through that stretch. Got on the trail, got into a great rhythm and running felt so effortless. Made the turnaround, totally felt like I was jogging and never had to breathe hard. Completely opposite feeling from the day before where 8:30's felt like 7:30's - I barely broke a sweat on this run. Braced myself for the gnat swarm, which I got through, and cruised home. Total mileage: 5 miles: splits were: 7:50, 7:51, 7:49, 7:53, 7:51.

Stretching and corework afterwards. Was happy to have consistent splits, and a little shocked to see sub 8 minute splits, but was happy. Had dinner at Pat and Crystal's afterwards - she made olive creamed stuffed chicken breasts, which were magnificent!!!! Ping pong and Top Chef afterwards, very relaxing evening! Tonight, our planned Yasso 800's, so hopefully goes smooth!

Quick update

A few articles I found this morning: entrants for the Chicago Marathon and New York Marathon. Exited to see some great competition in Chicago in the form of Irina Mititenko, who is a 2-time London Marathon winner and NYC is shaping up to be an absolutely AMAZING field with former winners Martin Lel and Hendrick Ramaala participating. Also, here is the latest blog entry from Ryan Hall talking about his upcoming ING Philadelphia Distance Run, and NYC preparation.

Yesterday, ended up getting a couple workouts in. Worked until 10:30 p.m. on Monday night, and was pretty exhausted and opted for a beer instead of the scheduled recovery run. Crashed at my buddy's house in St. Louis, and woke up early to get in some mileage. He lives in the University City Loop, which is a cool area that borders Forest Park and Washington University. Was drizzling in the morning, ran down a few major streets and did a small loop around the surrounding areas. Was a little hilly, and my legs were sore from the race so didn't go too hard. Fun to run in a different area - wish I would have had more time to explore. Total mileage: ~3 miles - splits were in the 8-9 minute range.

In the late afternoon, got home, took a quick hour power nap, then was coerced by Crystal to get my butt over there for our scheduled run. Weather was cloudy and humid - maybe mid to high 70's? Was pretty groggy starting out and a little sore - Pat joined us for a few miles on his comeback trail, so was fun to have him out there and he was pushing us too! Did out and back on the flatter part of the trail - was shaded so that was awesome, but bugs were EVERYWHERE! Not much to really discuss, went pretty easy starting out, made the turn around and felt ok. Stomach was starting to act up so wasn't feeling too hot. Pace was smooth, but felt like we were going a lot faster. Loosened up a lot by the end, wasn't too hard of a run and was happy to get it done. Total mileage: 10 miles - splits were: 9:13, 9:19, 8:38, 8:32, 8:32, 8:28, 8:35, 8:31, 8:22, 8:14.

So the week is going ok so far. Recovery run tonight, then we changed our workout on Thursday to do Yasso 800's, which are 10X800 on the track where our splits will be 3:10, rest time is 3:10. This popular workout was designed by Bart Yasso, and is a good marathon indicator and workout so we'll see how it goes. Friday, offday and Tim will be in town so will be a good night I'm sure :) Saturday, 10 mile pace, then Sunday 3 hour run. Just trying to make it through this last hard week, really starting to feel the mental and physical effects of this hard training segment but the end is in sight!!!!

Weekend Update/Lewis and Clark 1/2 Marathon Race Recap

Hope everyone had a nice relaxing weekend! Haven’t had much time to look around for any good running news, but saw this tidbit that Paula Radcliffe will be running the World Half Marathon Championships right before NYC presumably as a test run to see if she is ready to go. Sounds like everyone is getting ready for an exciting fall marathon season, including myself, so let’s get right into it:

First, received an email on Friday from Steve DeKoker of Brooks Running accepting me into the Brooks ID Program, so I am now partially sponsored by Brooks Running!!! Basically, I am now “contractly obligated” to wear Brooks apparel/shoes exclusively, and have to do my best to promote their wonderful product to the running community through racing and local events, as well as participate in Brooks events when available. Pretty exciting stuff, and kind of cool since my running group is already sponsored by Brooks so have a little bit of a head start on apparel and shoes which I will now get in a nice discount :)

Wed, felt like crap early so we pushed back the run till late. Legs were soooo tight and sore, ended up doing a whooping 2 and calling it a night. Was a little humid outside but breeze certainly helped. Wanted to take it easy with the upcoming race, so did corework and massive stretching afterwards.

Friday morning, woke up to do a tempo run (we switched Thursday and Friday days off), walked about 50 feet before turning around and going to bed! Was soooo tired, and just decided to do later on after work. Kind of regretted the decision later, as it was hot and humid (mid 80’s) when I got home. The purpose of this workout was a short simulation run for the half marathon coming up and just a basic speed workout since we hadn’t had too many of these lately. Legs were ok – definitely felt better after a day and a half rest, so went at it. Because of time constraints with dinner later, skipped the warmup (ugh). First mile, was very tight, kind of felt weird moving at tempo for some reason. Hills were sort of grueling, and sun was a bit of a factor. Got on the trail, got into a better rhythm but was definitely hot. Coming back on the last mile, lower back was starting to hurt, was laboring a bit and didn’t feel too hot in general so slowed it down a little. Cooled down a mile coming home, was happy to have that over with. Total mileage: 4 miles – splits were: 6:34, 6:39, 6:48.

Had a nice dinner with Pat and Crystal afterwards (Crystal made healthy homemade pizza, which I was happy to contribute to by picking up Greek Kessari Cheese for the recipe!), watched Spirit of the Marathon again for motivation coming into the race and last hard training week. Saturday morning, woke up bright and early for a quick 2 mile run on the trails. Was cool outside, did a quick out and back at a slow recovery pace. Nothing crazy to note, Crystal was the recipient this time of running through a spider web on the trail then had the unhappy web owner spider crawling all over her shoulder. We saw Bambi’s 4 brothers and sisters as well. Nice, easy, quick run – happy to get it out of the way. Afterwards, went to Forest Park to volunteer with my running group who was hosting the Forest Park Cross Country Festival, which hosted a ton of high schools competing in various cross country races throughout the day. I was stationed at the awards tent, and gave out awards to the winners of the open race. We sat in a shaded tent at the finish, so I seriously had the best of all worlds – got to give out medals to the award winners, and watch all the exciting finishes to the races. Cool part of the morning – got to meet Brian Sell, fellow Brooks teammate and 2008 U.S. Olympian, and talk to him for a few minutes – AWESOME!!! Laid low the rest of the day – watched football, hung out with various friends. Tried to get myself geared up for tomorrow's race.

Race Morning

Woke up bright and early, ate a bowl of Cheerios, and headed over to Pat and Crystal’s. Was pretty tired, but excited to race this morning. We had discussed our race strategy of running a little faster than marathon pace then getting a couple in later, but I had a feeling that Crystal was feeling good (based on recent training runs), and we were going to go faster than planned so I tried to get mentally prepared for it.

Got to the race parking lot, which was in Verizon Ampitheatre, a venue that hosts concerts in the area. Parked, got changed really quick and walked towards the start. Weather was cool, but the sun hadn’t come up yet and was forecasted to be in the mid to high 70’s which was going to be warm for this type of race. Ran into a few friends, actually ran into my buddy Mike who was running, so he jumped in our group and decided to run with us for a bit.

At the Start

We lined up at the start, which was set up with minute per mile markers (faster up front), so we went to the 6 minute marker which was strangely uninhabited. Usually, everyone is in such a panic to lineup as close to the start as possible that it is seriously a crazy mob! And typically in that mob you have a lot of inexperienced, slower runners that have no business being in a fast corral and usually cause unnecessary log jams early. But we lined up with maybe 50 other people around us and had a TON of room. 4,500 runners, and we were going to start with NO problems – start of a good day, perhaps?

Race Report

Gun goes off, here we go! Was cruising pretty early, and was monitoring my Garmin to not go too crazy with pace. We were all cruising, felt really easy and going pretty quick. First mile flew by pretty fast, and quicker than I wanted so tried to slow it down a little the second mile. Felt good, picked it up slightly the third mile as we started to weave around the course a bit. Sun was starting to peek out a lot more, was getting nervous about the later miles and having to battle potential weather problems. [Miles 1-3 Splits: 6:34, 6:45, 6:41]

Right after the 3^rd mile, you actually horseshoe back so we got to see a ton of the runners that were behind us. Pretty fun because everyone is just cheering for everybody, and was good motivation to keep going strong. Picked it up slightly, ran into another buddy so ran with him for a little bit, talked with Crystal a little and realized my worst fears were confirmed that she was gunning for a PR, thus changing my mindset of a simple training run into becoming a pacer for her. Felt kind of tired, but ok for the most part. Was thinking of the major hill I saw on the course map coming up later, so was trying to save a bit for that. Next couple miles flew by, finally started to hit the hill and we passed a few people on it. Hill was long and not too terribly steep, but was tired from it. Saw Pat on the top of the hill which was a huge confidence boost, surged on the downhill. [Miles 4-6 Splits: 6:38, 6:38, 6:38]

Coming down, relaxed my stride but looked forward to see Mt. Everest coming up – UGH! Looong, steep hill which was actually a bridge over a river, and I knew Crystal’s hill tactics were “attack”, so mentally prepared for that. Passed a couple more runners, spectators let us know that Crystal was the 6^th or 7^th female at that point. Was nice to finally reach the top and get my legs back to “regular, tired” mode instead of “climbing up a hill – burning” mode. Hit the downhill hard, saw a GU station so grabbed one and took it down. Was getting pretty hot at this point, so figured I would need it for later. Turned onto a road, and ran on that for a couple miles. Was a slight incline, running right into a stiff breeze. Felt better after the GU, told Crystal to work off me and jumped ahead of her so she could draft off me. At this point, one of our teammates had caught back up to us and were working off us as well. Kind of got carried away with pace a bit later on as I started to gap them but slowed down when Crystal called me out. Turned right onto another road surrounded by cornfield which we ran up a hill into the sun, into the wind. There was a pack of runners about 100 yards ahead, but they were too far ahead for us to be working off them. Was tired at this point, but helped to be running in a group. [Miles 7-9 Splits: 6:42, 6:44, 6:44]

Finally got to some flatter ground, was weaving on some roads headed back to downtown St. Charles where the finish was. Sun was out in full force, so was definitely sweating bullets at this point and couldn’t hit the water/sports drink stops fast enough. Felt tired, but was pushing my mind to focus and keep pace. Right around mile 11, could feel us slowing down a little which helped regain some juice and mentally prepare for the last couple miles. Still working with our teammate, but she pulled ahead with another guy on the 12^th mile which left Crystal and I. At this point, just wanted to get to that last mile where I knew I would be 100% fine. Crystal was struggling, mainly because there weren’t many water stops towards the end of the race, but we kept pushing along. Hit downtown, saw the finish line coming up so was ready to have a strong finish. Felt pretty decent at this point, pumped a bit from the crowd cheering so started to ham it up a bit. Got to the last 100-200 yards, saw she was going to be fine, then just took off for a little kick to end the race. [Miles 10-13.1 Splits: 6:40, 6:46, 6:49]. Final time: 1:28:24

RESULTS

Peter Kim M29

Clock Time 1:28:24

Chip Time 1:28:32

Overall Place 55/4481
Gender Place 47/?
Division Place 11/230

Pace 6:45/Mile

Final Thoughts

Pretty ecstatic to run sub 1:29, and was a good race on a day I wasn’t feeling 100%. Battled through a lot of tiredness, but finished strong. Pretty sure the course was a little long, but not too concerned about it. Crystal finished 8 seconds behind in a tremendous minute and a half PR, and we found out later she won her age group!!! Congratulations Crystal!!! Hung out a little bit after the race and talked to a few friends. Found out Mike PRed and ran sub 1:30, so really happy for him too! Went home, got in a quick 2 mile cooldown, stretched and enjoyed a post race beer and pretty much rested the rest of the day :)

So was a good running week – 34 miles, and a great race. Happy to see I haven’t lost much speed, and am starting to really trust the training program. Ready to jump into our last hard training weeks before taper time!!!

Brian Sell and I

Coming up the first of 2 hills

Down the home stretch!

Me with the big Age Group winners

Rapid-turbo Catchup!

Happy Labor Day weekend everybody! Hope you all had a nice, relaxing weekend, and were able to get in a few runs! Fell behind on my running log and running around like a madman, so here we go with a long recap:

Thursday evening, Crystal and I went over to a local subdivision to do our scheduled hill workout. Weather was ok – kind of warm, but later in the day, so wasn’t too bad. The hill we picked was a monster, and we were in for a tough workout. Both of us had commented earlier that our legs were starting to feel the wear and tear of the aggressive training cycle, so I think we were pretty tired coming in. Didn’t wear a Garmin, and the sidewalk we were running on was wide enough for 1 person so I led the reps. Parked our car a little bit away, jogged roughly 1/3 of a mile to the hill. First one, didn’t really have a good idea of pace, apparently went off way too fast because after about a minute I had already lost Crystal. She claimed I was trying to kill her (a pretty consistent accusation), but quite honestly didn’t know what was going on with speed. Slowed it down the next couple reps, finally found our stride. Legs were worn out by the 5^th rep, but battled through the last two reps. Last rep, changed direction and ran towards the car and surprisingly the worst rep, as the hill we ran on was almost like a “progressive rolling hills” hill. Cooled down back at the house. Total mileage: ~4 miles – splits were pretty consistent, all around 1:35, give or take a couple seconds.

Friday, day off. Went to dinner with Pat and Crystal at Laurie’s, then a few beers and a spirited battle of ping pong before turning in early. Woke up early Saturday for our 2^nd 20 miler. Weather was raining, so texted Crystal and decided to wait a little bit to see if it would stop. Well, it didn’t, so we decided to suck it up and try to get it in since I was going to the Illini-Mizzou Arch Rivalry football game that afternoon. Stopped raining by the time we started, but within 5 minutes it started to come down again. It never got any better either, as the rain was just falling pretty consistently. Miles were going by pretty easily, and legs felt great. We were pretty much soaked by the 4^th mile, and all I could hear besides the rain falling everywhere was the “squish squish” from my soaked socks and shoes. At mile 5, gave us the option to turn around and try the 20 the next day, but we ultimately decided to finish it out. Felt great at the turnaround, nothing to note other than I splashed Crystal pretty good with a puddle by accident! – lol I swear listening to her curse and yelling at me totally makes my day – LOL Next few miles, the rain started to come down really hard, but were luckily in the shade of many trees so wasn’t too bad. Hit the downhill on the trail, was just coasting at this point. Last 3 miles, I always seem to get into super focus mode because it’s uphill and just want to finish the run without too much discomfort. We kind of picked it up a bit, was flying the last 2 miles at nearly race pace. Felt a little discomfort the last 1.5 miles, but overall great seeing the run was executed with no problems at all in crappy conditions. 2^nd 20 miler was done!!! Total mileage: 20 miles – splits were: 9:01, 8:37, 8:27, 8:28, 8:37, 8:42, 8:25, 8:26, 8:12, 8:23, 8:26, 8:13, 8:11, 8:03, 8:02, 8:02, 7:47, 7:59, 7:26, 7:26.

Went to the Illini game, if you want to call it a game, fun times I suppose, had a little “too much fun” if you know what I mean, crashed out early (more like passed out!). Woke up to Crystal texting me to get my butt over so we could execute our scheduled run, so stumbled over there. Weather was a little muggy and sunny, so wasn’t really feeling too great. Decided to do out and back on the Troy loop. Started out feeling pretty stiff – first mile went ok, but Crystal wanted to slow it down. “Shockingly” (heavy sarcasm here), I look down to see 2^nd mile split 15 seconds faster (what ever happened to slowing it down?!), so figured it was going to be one of those days :/ Started to get in a much better rhythm, and the middle miles flew by. TONS of bikers everywhere, was nice to see a good showing on the trails that day. A couple passed us on bike and remarked that we were running at a pretty fast pace, which was nice to hear – not surprisingly, guess who is suddenly motivated to go faster?! Fast enough to pass a couple biker stragglers on the trail coming home! Last half, picked it up to race pace, then just blazed through the final mile. Felt good, tired, but happy to have that over with. Total mileage: 10 miles – splits were: 7:57, 7:47, 7:30, 7:41, 7:18, 7:25, 7:21, 7:17, 7:14, 7:00.

Week recap – 53 miles, 2-10 mile pace/tempo runs, and a 3/1 20 miler. Whew!!! What a great running week, but probably overdid it a bit! Monday, got our scheduled recovery run out of the way fast. Did GC, SLOW pace – both of us were pretty tired from the aggressive last week. Did GC trails out and back, weather was hot and humid (high 70’s), run went by pretty quickly since Pat joined us for the last 3 miles of it on bike. Nothing much to report, I felt like crap for the first 3.5 miles but got into more of a groove. Pace was decent, nothing too crazy. Total mileage – 5 miles: splits were high 8’s, low 9’s. Stretched, had an impromptu Labor Day BBQ and played some games on Pat and Crystal’s patio! A nice Labor Day weekend, and a TON of running!

Yesterday, was pretty sluggish all evening, and the hot/humid weather didn’t help. Finally got moving by 8ish, did out and back on the roads of G.C. Legs felt like mush and very sore, so just strapped on an IPOD and away I went! Loosened up eventually, run felt relatively easy effort-wise but was certainly feeling some leg soreness. Hit a few stretches where I was trying to avoid traffic, so threw in a couple sprints which didn’t feel too great. Pace felt easy – a little faster than I would have liked but didn’t push it too hard. Total mileage: 6 miles – 48-50 minutes.

Today, scheduled easy day, but considering a day off since we have been running like madmen, and legs just need a break. Race coming up this weekend – just checked the weather forecast this weekend, hot and humid. BLAH!!!!!!!!!

39 more days till the Marathon!

Just for fun, if you go to the Chicago Marathon website, you can design a digital footprint in which if approved, Bank of America will donate $1 to the charity of your choice. Since I am running in honor of Pat through the Diabetes Action Team, I created my own footprint to further help my fundraising which has been virtually obsolete. Also, fun little article about running and economics - relates the economic theory of opportunity cost with running - very true!

Yesterday after work, Crystal and I did our scheduled 10 mile run. Weather was sunny and a little warmer (~75), so we hit the trails for an out and back. Felt pretty good, but as soon as we started the usual soreness/tightness kicked in so took a mile to shake it out. Crystal was in a rather foul mood from a crappy day at work plus was the recipient of a lot of ribbing from Tim and I about a former rival, so she was certainly ready to run more aggressively than usual. Because of an appointment of hers, we were running under a little time constraint so I thought it might be a good idea to get in our pace run earlier with the 20 miler looming this weekend. Also, it was a good opportunity to get in a run at warmer temperatures just in case we have another warm one in Chi this year.

Anyways, we started out moving ok, was stiff the first mile but worked it out. 2nd and 3rd mile, was definitely flying at this point, and looked down at my watch to see sub 7 minutes which was a LOT more faster than originally planned. Said something to Crystal, she pretty much yelled at me saying I was trying to kill her blah blah blah, so I eased up to let Miss Warrior Princess lead the pace since her running aspiration is to be Paula Radcliffe, whose basic running style is to lead and punish the other runners with a ridiculous grinding pace. Go figure, the splits do not lessen up, but both of us were feeling good so kept forging on. Pat at this point caught up to us on bike, so was nice to have him in our little "peloton". Came out of the woods on the trail, decided to go a different route which was pretty flat, and still felt ok. Made the turn around, realized this new "flat" portion actually had a slight grade, which meant it was uphill ALL the way going home - ugh! Next couple miles were ok, but could feel the uphill starting to burn. Last few miles, we ended up slowing down slightly and legs were pretty beat from 4+ miles uphill. Total mileage: 10 miles - splits were: 7:28, 7:03, 6:52, 6:55, 6:54, 6:55, 6:57, 7:03, 7:06, 7:02 (~7:02 average).

Was thrilled to get in pretty much a hybrid pace/tempo run, was a perfect workout for the upcoming Lewis and Clark half marathon next weekend. Having Pat out there helped a ton, as well as having a ton of walkers/bikers on the trail - always easier to run when there are people around. Crystal and I are going to race conservatively, using that race as a 15 mile tempo/pace run so there will be no ridiculous PR pace - just another training run. Will probably hit high 6's, low 7 minute pace - nothing too aggressive.

This morning, woke up bright and early for our scheduled easy run which both of us just wanted to get out of the way. Sun wasn't up yet, probably was in the high 40's, so wore a long sleeve shirt on the run which I hadn't done since probably February. Did an out and back on the flat part of the trail. Nothing to note, both of us were a little sore from the hard 10 yesterday, so we took it easy. Run went by pretty fast, mainly because I was pretty much sleep jogging through all of it! Total mileage: 5 miles - splits were (guessing, didn't wear my Garmin but Crystal called out the splits): 9:12, 8:58, 8:53, 8:48, 8:33.

Walked back towards the house with our normal victory stroll - before we got back, I heard a loud gasp and felt Crystal grab my arm. Pivoted my head to see what appeared to be right out of the movie of Arachnophobia, crawling right for my head. Completely froze, before I could panic my body spring into action and I quickly flicked it off my shoulder. I am absolutely terrified of spiders, and completely repressed that memory on the spot- in fact, Crystal just emailed me to remind me of the emotional drama this morning - lol. Legs are tired after 19 glorious miles this week already, but we basically have a day and a half off since our run is already over! Stretch mucho all day, corework/runners yoga tonight!

Article Tuesday

Have a bunch of articles I have been meaning to post. First, Running Times has some tips on how to deal with summer heat in training. Fortunately, we have had the amazing luck of perfect weather this summer, so hasn't applied much in the Midwest thank God!!!! Next, a great article on Kenenisa Bekele, who is inarguably the greatest distance runner of our generation. He has pretty much taken Haile Gebreselassie's throne, and has won 24 World and Olympic championships - oh by the way, he is a whopping 27 years old. Seriously, if you don't know who this guy is, remember this name - he is rewriting all the record books as we speak, and is targeting the marathon in the near future which is downright scary. Finally, a GREAT article about why it is good to hire a runner. Basically highlights runner's amazing ability at discipline, intensity, ambition, and dedication. I love it, and it's so true :)

Yesterday, went for an easy run with Crystal after work. Weather was gorgeous - sunny, breezy, and 70. Exactly like fall weather, my favorite season! Legs felt tired, groin was sore and still had mobility issues, but easy run wouldn't be too stressful. Did out and back on trail on the flatter portion, first mile was stiff but loosened up fast. Coming back, felt a lot better and we ended up inadvertantly pushing the last night. Total mileage - 4 miles - splits were: didn't have watch, hit 8:28 on the first mile and 7:01 on the last - splits got progressively faster, typical Crystal run :)

Supposed to wake up at 5 a.m for our 10 miler today, but just didn't have it. I think Crystal felt the same, as we nixed the early morning run for an afternoon one after work. Should be ok, legs feel decent and better so should go relatively smoothly.