I survived the first four weeks of marathon training – including two peak weeks at 85 miles, a twenty mile long run, and two 18 milers. My reward? A quick mile race on Sunday followed by a week of relative rest and relaxation. I worked a down week into the schedule here to give myself … Read more
This week, it gets real. Not only do I need to hit peak mileage – 85 miles – again. But I also have my first 20 mile long run. Even though it’s not much farther than the 16 mile long runs I do every week, something about it just feels qualitatively different. It’s both anxiety … Read more
Another week is in the books, and I’m a week closer to the Chicago Marathon. The race is quickly approaching. This was the third week of my official training block – and the first one at peak mileage (85 miles). It was also another solid(ish) long run and a good Wednesday workout. Although the weather … Read more
With last week’s cross country 5k out of the way, I’m now fully focused on the upcoming Chicago Marathon. I sketched out my plan here, but this week is the first week that I’ll be attempting a real, solid long run. Since I ran Jersey City in the spring, I’ve just been doing simple 16 … Read more
Sunday marked twelve weeks until the Chicago Marathon – which means that this was the first ‘official’ week of my twelve week training cycle. I’ve maintained consistently high mileage since I ran Jersey City in the spring, so I don’t need a longer build up than this. Twelve weeks should be enough time to slightly … Read more
Now that my summer of racing is (mostly) behind me, it’s time to transition to focusing fully on the Chicago Marathon. Sunday, July 21 marks twelve weeks until the race – Sunday, October 13. Given the fact that I’ve maintained high mileage (~70 miles per week) and a strong base of long runs (16+ miles … Read more
This was supposed to be another racing week – with a XC race on Tuesday and a mile race on Saturday. The mile race ended up getting postponed due to a forecast of heavy lightning in the area. And the XC race was quite hot and humid, resulting in a less than stellar performance on … Read more
This week was an in between week – no races. The Sunset Classic 5 Miler is behind me, and the Big Bang Mile isn’t until next week. So the focus this week is on training. I’ll get in a workout Wednesday and Friday. I’m also going to have an opportunity to spend some more time … Read more
This week was another busy racing week. I had a cross country race on Tuesday followed by the Sunset Classic 5 Mile on Thursday. Scroll down to Thursday for a mini race report from the 5 mile race. After last week’s heat wave, I had hoped for some better weather this week. And we did … Read more
At the beginning of the week, the weather was nice. But since then, the Northeast has been slammed by a heat wave that the media has dubbed the ‘heat dome.’ It’s the nature of marathon training through the summer that you have to suffer through some hot days. At first, it wasn’t too bad. But … Read more