Running filled Weekend

Happy Labor Day! Hopefully everyone had a enjoyable and relaxing holiday weekend! I packed the weekend full of running! I have to say it all seemed like a good idea at the time 5 weeks ago...

First up Saturday the first 20 mile training run of this cycle. I was tired, more so than usual, and took the run slow, as it should be done. It was tough, mentally and physically, but luckily the 2nd 10 miles seemed a little better than the first 10. Plus, Jacob met me on the path for the last 2 so that was a nice boost at the end. Saturday's 20 brought my weekly total to 55 miles last week! That is the highest weekly mileage I have ever done!!! Such an awesome feeling to get through that mileage and keep up my regular life :)

Sunday was a rest day at our friends house. We had ourselves a nice little Labor Day cookout. I wasn't that sore from Saturday (yay!) which was a relief because I had myself the Oak Brook half marathon bright and early Monday morning! Although because of the cookout and eating at a random time I didn't have the best pre-race fueling and was starving by the time we returned home. It could have been a lot worse.

I decided to run this half as Pftiz calls for a race later in the week. However, we have tickets to the BMW golf championship next weekend and I couldn't make the Chicago half fit in the schedule along with the tournament. I had my concerns running a half 2 days after a 20 mile training run but just decided to alter my race plan. Instead of racing all out I thought I would take it marathon race pace or slower for the first 5 miles, pick it up slightly the 2nd 4 miles, and race the last 4 miles. It didn't quite happen that way but whatever. I really suck at pacing myself...

The course was a mixture of streets but mostly bike path and crushed gravel paths. The first 3 miles were a cluster (as they usually are). It seemed a bit worse since there was a huge bottleneck as we merged from highway running to onto a bike path through the preserves. The path could fit 3 across and only in some parts. So I was either stuck behind someone or I had a lot of quick passing when the bushes and trees thinned then trying to find race pace again. It was a tough start. Thankfully it started to thin by mile 4. Between 3-4 there was a wooden bridge over a creek that was swaying back and forth as all the runners crossed; it seriously felt like it was going down! My legs felt funny after that bridge and a second around mile 5.5. Then there were the hills that I was so not prepared to run. Ouch! Who knew Oak Brook, IL had mad hills... not me! Luckily I wasn't expecting much from this race other than to get used to "racing" while tired.

Here are my mile splits according to garmy:

mile 1: 9:26

mile 2: 9:06

mile 3: 9:17

mile 4: 9:03

mile 5: 8:56

mile 6: 8:37 - Ridiculous hill at the beginning of 6 that I surged. We were told at 6.5 "It's all downhill from here"

mile 7: 8:57 - crazy hills! Downhill my ass (hurts!)

mile 8: 9:14 - even worse hills and steep declines (quad shredders)

mile 9: 8:53

mile 10: 8:49

mile 11: 8:44

mile 12: 8:38

mile 13: 8:27

last .1 - 7:24

action shot! Jacob caught me right before the finish. and yeah, I just chicked 3 guys!

No PR today but that's okay. I am really happy with my 1:56 (and change) run with minimal soreness. I passed a lot of people the last 5 miles of the race and that felt great! Also, the last half I ran was 2 1/2 years ago, on a flat, fast course with temps in the 50's. Tough to beat younger, flat (with a nice tailwind), and no humidity! In the past I never would have been able to follow up such 50+ mileage week with a sub-2 hour half marathon. I'm really proud and happy with how it all turned out today.

cheers!

The race wouldn't be complete without the post race brew in hand :) It's five o'clock somewhere, right?

Most Important Meal of the Day

Breakfast - the most important meal of your day. Today I woke up late and quickly got caught up in work e-mails. No one has been grocery shopping in awhile so there weren't a lot of choices this morning so I skipped. FAIL! Of course I made this awesome decision the day I had 12 miles to run with 7 miles at a 15K to half marathon pace. Yeah, not too smart. By the time I left for the run I had only fueled with some Jimmy Johns for lunch. Again, big fail... so not enough! By mile 4 I was wiped out and running on empty with 8 miles left to go. My legs felt like cement block by mile 8 at which point I decided maybe it wouldn't be wise to do the 7 tempo miles. But I'm stubborn and finished it out best as I could.

I've been taking this training for granted because it is an intimidating schedule that I have been nailing. I've felt strong and had thoughts of PR's dancing in my head. Today I made rookie mistakes that will not get me those PRs :) With approximately 5 weeks to marathon day I need to step it up and be smarter!

Here's the tempo run portion digits...

8:39

8:36

8:33

9:08 (slowed to take shot bloks) - Fail

8:49 - Fail

8:34

9:00 - Fail - gave up at the beginning then decided to finish out strong

After my not so fabulous run I went for dinner at Soldier Field. Yeah I seriously had a stellar diet today! For Jacob's anniversary gift I found Bears vs. Brownies pre-season tickets (1st anniversary is paper after all!) I've never been to game there and after 12 years living in the city and he hasn't been since the stadium was re-done.

It was a fun night and I can't wait to go again. Hopefully it won't take another 12 years ;)

stinks and shopping

Monday had me traveling to Texas so before the flight I decided to run one of my scheduled 12 mile runs for the week. Technically the first 12 miles of the week should have been done Tuesday but Monday was a cool day in the city I didn't want to try to figure out where to run in the Texas heat or that long on a treadmill.


The run turned into a gag fest. First, the lake had kicked up some nasty seaweed and other miscellaneous junk and it was sitting on the concrete baking. Then, the pick-up and clean-up of port-o-potties remaining from the volleyball tournament was happening. I had to pass the truck twice. Finally, mix that with the city garbage truck pick-up of the extra garbage bins that were at the beach for the tournament as well. Yeah I nearly lost my shot bloks and water by mile 6.5! Nasty! After that I ended up finishing the 12 miles under 2 hours.

Since I was playing switcharoo with the schedule Tuesday I opted for 6 mile recovery run with 6x100 repeats on the treadmill. I was all excited when I finished up early on site which meant arriving at the next hotel early and hitting up the mill before the 5pm rush. On the drive to San Antonio I saw the signs for an outlet mall I've seen every other time. I told myself I wouldn't stop because I didn't have much room in the suitcase. Then I convinced myself I would stop and see if they had a Nike outlet as I love the Nike outlet but I wouldn't go anywhere else. Hahahaha. 2 hours later I walked out of that mall with a couple extra bags. And... I hit up Coach outlet hard. I had to pay to have the items shipped home. It's not all for me though I found great deals on some excellent birthday and Christmas gifts. Just doing my part to stimulate the economy :) So after all that I didn't arrive at the hotel until 5 pm. After some room key issues I finally made it down to the full workout room. Luckily there was 1 treadmill open! 6 miles felt long on the 'mill but the pick-ups helped pass the middle miles a little faster.

One more day in Texas then home for the long weekend! Let's hope I start September off right by having my flight take off on time. Every trip home in August end up delayed 3+ hours. That is a trend I do not want to continue!

Almost Easy

alternate title for this post:

Holy Hills

Chicago is not the only windy city

Today Pfitz wanted 15 miles with 12 at race pace. Of course it dictates this must be done after 12 on Thursday, and 6 "recovery" miles with 6 x 100 strides on Friday. After arriving in central Illinois Friday night I was one tired puppy and was in bed by 10:30 (which is very early for me!) Then I slept all the way until 9 am this morning. Wow. I haven't slept like that in a long time. So by the time I got myself dressed and fed then got my husband moving to take me to the path it was 10 am. You would like I would have problems with the heat and humidity leaving that late. Well the calendar may show the end of the August but it feels more like October out there today.

Going into this run I had a lot of excuses planned if it didn't go well. Just before getting here last night I realized I forgot my water belt - doh! Luckily there is a running store in Peoria that I had been once before and the in-laws were willing to drive a bit out of the way to go there before going to dinner Friday night. Unfortunately I picked up the wrong size and had some issues early in the run when the bottles were full. Then I have the joy of being a girl happening this week (too much info?) which makes long runs just oh so enjoyable. Next up, the hills. Chicago is flat as a pancake, central Illinois is not. Finally at the turnaround I faced crazy obnoxious wind for my remaining 7 1/2 miles. No wonder the first 7 felt so easy! Despite all my planned excuses I hit or bettered race pace with the exception of miles 4, 8, and 12 where I slowed to take my shot bloks and GU gushers! The only miles I really struggled were 2, a warm-up mile, and 13, the last race pace mile where I just wanted to be done. Most miles I had to slow myself down b/c I was running my 1/2 marathon race pace, not marathon. The legs felt great even as I got tired toward the end. This run was a huge confidence booster. Lately I've really doubted my goal for Chicago and was extremely doubtful that I would even be able to maintain it for 12 miles on this run. But I nailed it and I am ecstatic!

Dreary 12

Thanks to the stormy weather, today was one of those days I just wanted to curl back into the covers and sleep the day away. Plus I was over tired from my 4 1/2 hour delay Weds. night and my sore body from my "light" weight session. Apparently lifting every once in awhile isn't cutting it ;)

When I woke up I was annoyed at the thought of having to run 12 miles in the rain. Doubled then by how sore I was from my long day before. I seriously thought about ditching it. But how do you just ditch a 12 mile run? - that's huge! Even as the rain tapered but the sky remained dreary and I changed into my running clothes I still considered skipping. So I headed out with much trepidation into this...

It was slow going and the legs didn't want to cooperate but as I reached North Beach/Oak St. Beach I saw this...

Yes the AVP Volleyball tourney is in town and I had some yummy eye candy. Even though it was dreary and in the 60's the boys didn't disappoint. YUMMY!

It was slow going but I made it through 12!

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This weekend we are making a trip to visit with the in-laws. It's been awhile since our last visit so we need to go make the rounds. I have a long run that needs to get done and I feel bad taking time away from the short visit but it's gotta happen. Luckily there is a 6.5 mile path that I can do a back and forth run for my 15 mile long run (w/ 12 at race pace - eek!)

WRIGHTSOCK Round 2 - Double Layer

Last week I tested out the remaining 3 double-layer pairs of WRIGHTSOCKs for the WRIGHTSOCK challenge hosted by Runners Lounge. First observation of the double-layer options were that these 3 ran a little larger than the single layer WRIGHTSOCKs. I'm between sizes so my suggestion would be to go down to the lower size if purchasing the double-layer options.

The double-layer options to test:

Running II: A mid weight double layer sock with a snugger fit through the arch. I chose these for a 5 mile recovery run in where it started pouring as soon as I headed out. These bad boys held up like champs. Nice mid range cushioning from start to finish, hugged mid-foot (which I love!), I didn't notice any heaviness/sogginess during the downpour, and no blisters! Maybe it was too short of run to make any final assessments but I was quite happy and will be wearing these again.

Cushioned DLX: The cushioned double-layer are heavier than all the other socks in this packet and seemed to run larger than the other pairs. I chose this pair for a mid-morning 12 mile run; a run that ended up being warmer than expected. My feet were warm but not overly so and these socks were very comfortable. I started to notice some aggravation of the blistered toe calluses towards the last 1/3 of the run but I think it was because I was focusing more on the overall feel from start to finish. I think these will be a nice

Coolmesh: According to the description these are the lightest, most breathable double layer. Light and cool they were but they also were the hardest on my feet. I had worn a pair of these in my last marathon and they ripped my feet into blister city. I was willing to give them another chance as maybe I had worn the wrong size or it was my shoes... something. Well I gave them a shot on a 9 mile tempo run. Yes, they were light but I felt the blistered calluses on both toes start to flare. By the time I was home and stretching the blisters were in full force. After many chances I'll be keeping these socks for the gym and short, short runs only.

Next up final observations after trying all the pairs again!

cool weather training in august

So does my husband know me or what? Yes the pink asic kayano 15's I've been drooling over but didn't want to purchase until it was necessary to switch the shoes were my anniversary gift! I can't wait to take them for a spin!

The weekend running (16 miles + 5 miles) went well thanks to the extremely mild temps we are having. 60's in August!?!? I would have said you were lying if I hadn't been out there myself. Although I don't enjoy sweaters in August it's awesome for training. Definitely spoiled this weekend :)

This week I've had to do some more re-arrangement of the running schedule thanks to the work travel schedule. Old news I know. Monday I was not feeling any sort of speed; my legs were tired from the long weekend! Pftiz called for 10 miles with 5 x 1000 meters (to be done at my 5K pace which for me and this training is 7:55 - 8:05). Weeeellllllll... I kind of didn't convert meters to miles properly and ran the intervals a little long. After the 3rd interval I thought I had nearly reached my puke threshold and really considered stopping there. But I made it through all 5! And did them all between a 7:50 - 7:55 pace! Not sure how I did it but I did. The workout kicked my ass but felt amazing at the same time. Today I had big plans to run 12 miles before my flight. But thanks to sleeping in and my flight leaving earlier than I originally though I settled for 5 recovery miles. My left shin is really bothering me and I'm not feeling the treadmill in Birmingham so Weds is a cross-training day and back at it Thursday in Chicago.