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!!!!