Can’t get my training log action together this season. Let’s roll into Chicago with one more double log!

Week of 9/18-9/25

Monday: 8 miles on my lunch break, from downtown across the pedestrian bridge to Indiana and back. Easy miles, 63 minutes/141AHR.

Tuesday: 10 miles on the treadmill with 5 miles around marathon pace. Felt easy until the last two miles — I kept dialing up the pace. With Chicago looming, Coach reminded me “to not be surprised if this feels harder than you want it to.” I was happy with it. 74 minutes/147AHR.

Wednesday: Warm, muggy, early. 5 miles, 42 minutes/137AHR. Feeling Tuesday a little bit, and head of a half on Saturday, I took it easy. Started to realize I had a cold. Taught Pilates after work.

Thursday: 4 miles on the treadmill, 2 miles outside with striders in 1000000º heat. WTF => Where’s the fall???? Ugh. Awful. So hot. Taught Pilates after. Definitely have a cold.

Friday: Easy 4 miles in the morning. Headed up to the Mill Race Marathon, about 90 minutes away, in the afternoon. Mr. Chic and I were both racing the half on Saturday. Dinner at Upland Brewery, early to bed, lots of cough medicine. Easy expo and a cute little downtown.

Mr. Chic & me. Photo accurately reflects feelings.

Saturday: Up early to race. They had a shuttle running continuously from our side of town to downtown, which was great. Gear check was easy and we headed out for a short warm-up run. It was 67º with a dewpoint of 66º. OUCH. FML. WTF. (Can I write the rest of this race report with acronyms?) Coach had given me instructions to really adjust for the weather and to really race for position more than time.

Lined up at the start, I didn’t see any of the speedsters who had run in recent years, so that was reassuring. This race paid cash for top 5, so I was hoping to land in there somewhere.

Split the first mile too fast, then settled in. My original goal for this race, had fall actually arrived, was 6:30-6:40. Instead I figured I’d go more MP, 6:45-6:50. Guys. It was brutal. I’ve actually never ran a “flagged” race in anything other than green. This one started at yellow and went to red sometime around when we finished. It was like running in warm soup. I had Mr. Chic with me until 8 or so and then I started to pull away, and by that I mean fade less. I split 7:02 at mile 10 and got angry, but Coach had told me if the positions were set, to just sit back. I started working on catching a girl up ahead, but she turned for the marathon (bless you) at 12. Officially I ran 1:30:51, although I had it at 13.24 on my Garmin FWIW. (And by that I mean, to make me feel better.) It was good for 3rd place by gun time, I think, and 4th place by chip. Mr. Chic was about a minute behind and looked like he had gone for a swim.

We shuffled a 1.55 mile cool down to round out the day’s mileage, changed clothes, took the shuttle back, showered, and headed home.

Sunday: 3 miles like Tin Man, 25 minutes/133AHR.

Totals: 52 miles run, 2 hours Pilates.

Week of 9/25-10/1

When Coach and I added Mill Race to my schedule, he told me it was fine to race a half two weeks before Chicago as long as I knew I’d feel crappy the first cut-down week. Well, who ever feels good during taper, anyway? I decided to make it even more fun by having a massive chest cold and being on my period.

Monday: 6.5 miles in the morning, 54 minutes/139AHR, Morgan for the first 1k. Jasyoga “High Mileage Reset” in the evening and then I felt like a million bucks.

Tuesday: No real speedwork this week, just easy to moderate on workout days. Hit the treadmill — still damn hot out — with a friend. 8 miles, 62 minutes/145AHR. Dialed it up as I went along, HR stayed surprisingly low.

Wednesday: 6.5 miles with a friend, 51 minutes/142AHR. Coffee after! Taught Pilates in the evening.

Thursday: 8 miles moderate in the afternoon, 60 minutes/151AHR. Felt good. I only cough when I stop running. Taught Pilates after.

Friday: 4 miles easy with friend & her baby, 32 minutes/135AHR.

Saturday: 12 miles with 8 miles “blind” marathon goal pace. The idea is to run what you think marathon pace feels like and see how close you were to GP when it’s over. This is a good check-in to see if either your goal is way outta wack and to fine-tune your internal pacer. Morgan ran the first 1k with me. This was a little bumpy. After the first 4, I started coughing and had to stop a couple of times just to cough. I was close to pace but with way more breaks than I wanted. But considering the cold and the race last weekend, I’m good with it. Averaged 6:58 for the 8. Last year I averaged 6:55 and my max HR was quite a bit higher, and my last 2 miles were faster this year than last year. Oh and I had to go early this year because I taught two Pilates classes back-to-back after.

Sunday: Easy 4 miles because TAPER, first 1k with Morgan. 32 minutes/140AHR. Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini Wheats on the porch after.

Totals: 49 miles run (dammit just saw that), 4.5 hours Pilates/Jasyoga.