Forgive me if there are a few funny tenses here as I'm pretty tired and I wrote this by merging my dailymile log with some brief reflections/clarifications.
9/23 Monday
Twelve - 1:30 at an easy pace
Ran into Matt Blume, Doug Maisey, Adam Palumbo, Will Fischer, and Ben Reifenberg running south. Turned around at Fullerton then ran Blume home on my way back to Lincoln Square with Ben.
My right quad was a wreck thanks to not being able to recover well after my 20 miler yesterday. Got a tiny bit of work done on my left tibia & the quad which felt good (Aligned was at Fleet Feet Sports - Lincoln Square for the Fun Run).
9/24 Tuesday
Easy - 1:03 at an easy pace
Went out in my Hokas as I was tired of feeling beat up. Iced and rolled my right quad and left tibia. Tried to go as easy as possible because my legs were feeling crappy and I needed to get in my second to last big workout in sooner rather than later.
9/25 Wednesday
Penultimate Key Workout - 1:09:59 for 12.12 (5:46 min/mile) + 4 miles W/U & C/D
While most of the time I try to share my workouts in duration/time as explained here. I feel like this is a pretty good indicator of the quality of workout needed to run in the low 2:30s so it might be helpful to actually share the details for someone interested in seeing what it might take to get to that level.
I'm pretty proud of doing this one solo even though it was on the shorter end of what I had wanted to run. When I set my PR, I started thinking I'd do 12 miles and ended up doing 15 miles at 5:45 pace.
1.5 mile splits - 8:53, 48, 29, 44, 41, 44, 49, 47, 47. I was thinking about going one more 1.5 mile straight, but decided against it as I was just trying to run a fast half marathon (to be fair, I also wanted to practice pushing through fatigue). I think I'm glad I kept it to 12, my right quad doesn't feel quite normal yet though my left tibia is feeling decent now.
Ran home just in time to register for the Park Ridge Charity Classic 5k online. They say strike when the iron is hot. Usually when I'm in good marathon shape I'll be in decent 5k shape. Since I hadn't really raced 5k since I ran a disappointing 16:23 5000m at the NCC Dr. Keeler Invite I decided to give it a go.
9/26 Thursday
Watchless Run - Measured to be just over 13 miles at an easy to moderate pace
Went without a watch! It was so freeing. Wow, definitely longer than I intended. I thought I was only running 12. Oh well. Tibia and right quad still acting funny. Ate a ton of food after, still catching up after Wednesday's run.
This run was a clear indicator that it was probably a good idea to cut the key workout at 12 miles.
9/27 Friday
Horner Park Loops - 10 minutes easy then 56 minutes easy
Ran 1.5 mile then spend 10+ minutes talking to Coach Gordon, Coach Nebrida, and Dan Carlson about the NCP XC season. My left shin was hurting. It loosened up as I tried to turn early for home. Decided I could keep running; ran 3 big loops on the dirt around Horner Park. Things loosened up a bit. Continued icing and the use of compression socks during the day/while sleeping.
9/28 Saturday
Park Ridge Charity Classic 5k - 15:50 (5:06 min/mile) for 6th place + 5 miles W/U & C/D
Still dealing with some shin pain. The quad finally felt good after yesterday's crazy slow, soft run.
Read the Race Review.
9/29 Sunday
Chicago Marathon Course Run - 2:29 at an easy pace
Last long run of the cycle. I first did this run with Mark Wehrman before my first Chicago Marathon. This was tougher than I thought it would be without hydration. Ran with Braulio Benitez, Kyle Larson, Scott Laumann, Evan Rosendahl, and Dan Carlson. It was a great relaxed run and made for a pretty cool looking GPS image:
Check out our funny detour around mile 11.5 I totally misled the group
What workouts and runs do you use as marathon benchmarks?
BONUS: From where did I poach this week's blog title?
I give up. Where does this title come from??
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