So I ran the Illinois Marathon in April and am now wrapping up the books for my training for Chicago. Woo. I am starting to get excited, nervous and even a bit worried. Weather so far (yes, its early) looks good, although it may rain. Oh yeah, and Saturday has 37 mph winds forecast. Fingers crossed that whatever front is moving through does not linger.I have no idea what to expect with this race. My training was somewhat all over the board and my races this summer have not been very impressive. No where near PRs. But that doesn't necessarily mean a marathon PR is out, right? I don't know. I did log 8 high mileage, high quality weeks.
Plan for now is to rest up as much as possible, get in some quality and get my head in the game. Depending on how I feel come race morning, I will either go after the PR, or start out around a 3:30 pace.
Here is a recap of the last 18 weeks:
1: 42 miles (mileage cut a little short due to flu)
2: 41.2 (cut mileage b/c adding in Cap Mile speedwork was hard on the body)
3: 52 (bumping it up a little, but still under planned mileage)
4: 41.3 (very sore piriformis/hammies)
5: 40
6: 31.8 (decided to scale back to heal up legs before Cap Mile)
7: 22.6 with way below average Capitol Mile (6:12)
8: 51 (time to crank back up)(22:26 5K)
9: 60 with bust of 10K
10: 63
11: 70 (heavy week w/6 @ tempo and 20 miler at 8:40 pace in hot temps)
12: 45 with half mary (1:38:51)(goal was sub 1:40, but this is still a good 2 mins off PR).
13: 70 (with another quality 21 miler)
14: 63
15: 70
16: 42 with 10K 46:01 (PR- 44:11)
17: 37 with 5K 21:59
18: race week - results TBD.
Ended up logging four 20 (or 20+) mile runs in the heavy 8 weeks.
Any suggestions on race day given this crazy training is greatly appreciated.....
Off to run an easy run in cold, cold rain!
3 comments:
Go for the PR... I suggest you start 10 seconds slower for the first five miles, and slowly speed up to pace by eight, gaining five seconds here and there... more if you're feeling it. Best of luck. Weather looks good, rain or no rain.
THANKS Quinto Sol! That is Exactly what I was thinking. And then today, I said, no, go for it. Thanks for the words of wisdom!
I'm right there with you! Although my training seemed great until the "taper" or whatever the heck it was and now here I am on Marathon Take Two Eve Eve and not sure what the heck to do with an unplanned 4 week "taper" and a DNF two weeks ago! Stuff happens, I guess :)
For all intents and purposes I should be in pr shape, but my brain is very very gun shy about attempting it. At this point I'd be happy to be within 10 minutes of my pr! UGH. Oh well. What are we going to do?
As for you, I think you can pr too. You have a solid base of training and lots of experience now to work from. Plus Chicago is FAST with the flatter than flat course and INCREDIBLE crowd support! Add in good weather and (dare I say) it's a sure bet! GOOD LUCK! I can't wait to check the results when I get home!
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