Tuesday, October 8th - ~6.5 miles. Ran the GO! Halloween 10K course with Crystal and Tim. Nice evening to run, and was really hobbling starting out. We met downtown at 14th and Market (close to Union Station), then headed on Market on the old St. Pat's course up that nasty hill. Looped back on Olive and headed towards the Riverfront, where we ran down a huge hill and turned onto a pretty flat road for a couple miles. Scenary on the Riverfront was nice, and finally felt loose and comfortable, and could open up a little more. Headed south, then turned back into downtown to finish out. Very fast course but has some tricky parts - Crystal should kill it on Sunday. Ended up pretty quick overall after a slow start (16 min first 2 miles) - 7:37 pace overall.
Wednesday, October 9th - 7 miles. Ran after work with Megan, tacked on some extra at the end. Nice that the weather is starting to turn very cool in the evenings, but sad it get dark so early now.
Thursday, October 10th - 6 miles (1 up, 4 x 1 mile, 1 down) - track work with Tim and Devin. Back was still bothering me, and decided to help pace Tim through his mile repeats at desired 6:30 pace. Loosened up on my warmup (at the middle school track), and took pacing duties and had fun with it. Tim was struggling but hung on tight and finished strong, and I was blasting out the splits like it was nobody's business. I wish all speedwork would feel this good. 6:28, 6:27, 6:25, 6:23 were our splits.
Friday, October 11th - 0! Travel day to Chicago. Got up late afternoon and missed my small window to get onto Lakeshore. Blah. Ate one of the top 5 dinners I have ever had in Chicago at a Mexican Restaurant called Mexique in west town. Mexican cuisine is not my favorite, but the flavors on the food were absolutely amazing! Ordered multiple desserts, something we have never done before!
Saturday, October 12th - 10 miles. Met Colby and Gabe for a couple miles out on Lakeshore. It was pretty warm outside in the morning, and felt some concern for tomorrow (late cold front washed that all away). Met up with those guys off Lakeshore and Monroe, not too far away from Grant's Park and the start of the marathon. We ran back north on Lakeshore before they turned around, but both looked to be excited and ready for the big race. Caught up with Megan and hung out on the beach for a little bit before heading back.
Sunday, October 13th - 0! Felt like complete garbage in the morning after a late night out, but stumbled outside to watch the Chicago Marathon! What a thrill to watch one of my favorite races up close and personal! Elites passed by quickly, then started the lookout for Colby who was dressed up in Illini orange. Spotted him and he looked great, before catching Gabe and Larry and a few other runners I knew that were running. Ran inside to watch the elites finish on tv (Chicago Marathon coverage is SUPERB on tv in Chi, go figure) and track all of my friends. Watched Dennis Kimetto set a new Chicago course record, and narrowly miss out on a world record, then saw Colby finish in a mind blowing 2:48:47 PR time! Larry finished sub 3, then everyone else I was tracking eventually finished out. What a great day for running, and very inspirational for myself as well! Congrats to everybody on a great race!
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| Lakeshore pitstop |
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| Go Colby and Gabe! |
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| Ritz battling |
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| Fenley and I cheering |
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| Colby at the 15K mark |
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| Post race celebration |
Monday, October 14th - ~5.5 miles. Ran with Colby after work. Yes, the Colby who had just ran 2:48 at Chicago a day earlier. I stopped by his house to watch the baseball game, and intended on easy mileage solo around his neighborhood but he got the itch to run an easy cooldown with me instead of just sitting around waiting for me to get done. So we ran around his area and ended up in downtown Collinsville before heading back. A lot hillier than I thought, and we picked it up towards the end. Very stiff starting out, but eventually loosened up and felt pretty solid at the end. 5.3 miles in 40 minutes - 7:32 pace.
Tuesday, October 15th - 4 miles
Wednesday, October 16th - 4 miles
Thursday, October 17th - ~7.5 miles. Track work with Crystal and Tim at SLU. She had just flown back from a week in Dallas, and recruited/forced me to join in her fartlek circuit workout. So the fartlek was jog around the track, then run into the grass and up the hill (~100-150 meters) at 5K effort or faster and jog around the perimeter and back on the track to complete the lap, then one lap with the 2nd straightaway at hard effort. And we did this 6 times. Fun, challenging, different type of workout with all sorts of things to keep your mind occupied. This was definitely different for me, and the turnover workout was very nice albeit 2 up/2 down. Splits were: 4:27, 4:28, 4:25, 4:14, 4:08, 3:56 (25:41 total)
Friday, October 18th - 9 miles. Ran with Jon and Crystal after work. We intended on doing out and back on the trails, but it was so dark that we decided to hop on the roads over off 157 close to SIUE and took the roads back. The roads might have been a mistake at that time, since it was pretty dark and traffic was heavy on a small shoulder. So we kept picking up the pace, and my "recovery run" turned into a rather quick run instead. Lost my cool a little since we were running so hard, and inadvertantly picked it up. Running angry is easier than running tired. I don't have splits, but we started at 7:50's and got down to 7:03 last mile so was moving towards the end. High 7:20's average pace. My legs were poo starting out (very sore from Thursday's workout), and poo finishing up.
Saturday, October 19th - 6.5 miles + strides. Ran with Crystal and Colby early in the morning. Ran to the track, then did some strides before heading back. We hit the trail, then ran on Goshen before looping around Ebbets Field before the track. Not surprisingly, my recovery day wasn't really recovery, but didn't feel bad either. Was a good 2-3 steps behind Crystal and Colby on the strides - ridic. ~7:30 avg. pace
Sunday, October 20th - 12 miles. Ran with Timmy in the late morning on a windy, coolish day. Sunny as hell, and we hit Troy loop on the trail out and back. IT bands were really tight, and my stride was very much a shuffle. Hence, ended up running pretty flat footed and my back was throbbing by the end. Started out at low 8's, ended up slowing down a little but finished out. One cool observation on this run - Runwell, a local running store that just opened up, had laid out a water station on the trail. Very nice touch
Monday, October 21st - 5 miles. Back was in agony, and stubbornly attempted to do some easy mileage because it was so nice outside. Went out 2.5 miles towards Glen Carbon at low 8 minute pace, but on the way back had to take a few walk breaks because pain was shooting down my legs. Not pretty at all.
Tuesday, October 22nd - 0! Rain, and couldn't physically run let alone walk. Finally sucked it up, and went to Dr. Frye's office to check it out. My right pelvic bone was rotated inward, and a few of my lower vertebrate were off kilter so he realigned me and applied from kinesio tape. Good news - immediate pain was gone - was really sore, but that was about it. Bad news - no running for a few days. Weekend golf trip + recovery = no running.
Wednesday, October 23rd - I heard no running, but didn't hear anything about biking. So headed out to the trails to meet up with Crystal and Colby, who had their workout which I helped paced. 10 minutes at half marathon pace (5:58-5:59), 10 minutes tempo. Both of them killed it on the trails (~5:53 average pace total), and after warmup and cooldown got in roughly 8 miles on the bike. It was pretty chilly towards the end and started to rain. My back was stiff as hell and a little sore, but manageable.
Well, there isn't much to say at this point. Back became a HUGE problem the last few weeks, and suffered through some bad weeks of running. More catchup to come on part 2, which details the last couple crazy weekends!
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