Chicago Marathon Training: Week 12

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Going into this week I knew I would have a lot on my plate- Dennis and I would be leaving for vacation on Friday, and I still needed to get everything in order to go out of town, on top of getting in some miles and all of my usual life responsibilities. 

After a lot of mileage for the last two weeks, I was planning on cutting back a little bit during week 12. I was going to be running the SeaWheeze half marathon at the end of the week, and wanted to be rested enough that I could race, to test where my fitness is at. 

I had totaled 27 miles over the weekend, so a run was not happening Monday morning - instead I was registered to run the Nassau County Police Department Memorial 5k on Monday night. I was planning to run this race with my cousin Ryan, but he wasn’t feeling great. So instead I texted Mike, and got lucky because his plans had fallen through, so he was able to run with me instead!

There was a big crowd at the race, which wasn’t surprising since the weather was good and it was great cause. Mike and I both come from police families, so we were happy to be a part of this race. Initially we planned to just take it easy, but when we found Tara, one of my MBTT teammates, in the starting lineup and she asked if I would help her keep a pace around 8:45, I couldn’t resist. Keep an eye out, as I’ll be posting a race recap soon to talk about this fun night. 

Tuesday I once again had night running plans- I was really happy that I didn’t have to run in the morning, because my legs were SORE when I woke up that morning. I guess all of the miles and a race were catching up to me. 

The plan for Tuesday? My local running store, runners edge, was hosting a meatball run. You may wonder what a meatball run is - there is a restaurant called “the meatball place” right down the block from the running shop, so they occasionally do events with them. In this case, the event was sponsored by onCloud, and if you tried a pair of their shoes during a group run, you got a voucher for a meatball slider and a beer (or in my case, a cider- the voucher lets you get any drink that’s on tap). 

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Mike and I met up at the shop, since we were both coming from work. We were able to get a pair of shoes to sample, and I liked how wide the toe box was on these shoes. The group run would be a total of 4 miles, out and back, with the turn around point being the horse stables that we would eventually reach. The group headed out all together, but thinned out into groups of different paces as the run progressed. Some of the run was over loose gravel which was a little bit of rough footing, and Mike and I complained to each other about our sore legs. We kept trudging forward though, dealing with the humidity as best we could. 

Once we hit the stables we turned around, glad to be away from the smell of horses. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t spot any horses as we ran by though. On the trip back to the shop it started drizzling a little, and we were both relieved when the run was over - why had four miles felt so hard!?

But, our work was rewarded with food and drink. I went for a steakhouse meatball slider with gravy and Mike got a Greek lamb meatball slider. To drink, Mike got a beer, and I got a rosè angry orchard, since that was the cider that had on tap. We chatted with other local runners as we enjoyed our drinks. It was nice to meet other members of the running community, and I hope to participate in more of these events in the future. 

Guys, I really intended to run on Wednesday, but the day just got away from me. It was thunder storming when I woke up, and I just could not talk myself into getting on the treadmill that morning. So instead I worked on prepping for vacation, and figured that I would slip in a few miles after work. But after a full day on my feet - I had been working on machining a new fixture at work, which is its own kind of exhausting for the last week or so, that needs to be done before we leave on vacation - I was pooped. I had an appointment to get my nails done with Mom after work, and then we were going to visit a family member in the hospital after. So, as bedtime approached on Wednesday I realized that I had failed to prioritize getting in my run, which occasionally happens. But honestly, the things that I got done felt more important. 

Plus, I was locked in to running Thursday morning - Kasey was finally returning to morning running with me! She had been on summer break from school after completing her bachelors degree in the spring, and was starting Law School this week! Can you tell that I’m proud of my smarty pants cousin??

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Kasey and I agreed to leave for our runs around 6:30, and we would run towards each other and meet somewhere in the middle. Dad was originally going to bike along with us, but decided to head to the beach later in the day instead. 

I was glad that Kasey agreed to meet me, since my motivation was lacking. But I laced up and got outside, and found her a mile into my run. This was a momentus morning, as it was the first time that we were running together since she started law school! Chatting was minimal, but that was largely my fault, as I was feeling so exhausted. But I trudged along, getting in a total of five miles. It wasn’t a lot, but it was something. I couldn’t believe how exhausted I was this week, but I suppose I had been very busy in my life outside of marathon training. 

Thursday night was a whirlwind of heading out to dinner with his family to celebrate his moms birthday, and then it was full frenzied packing. I had packed most of my clothes, but really nothing beyond that. So I ran around like a crazy person after dinner, packing and running up to the shops to pick up last minute necessities. By the time I was all packed and ready to go, it was after midnight. We had an 8 am flight the next morning, and it was out a Newark, which meant it would be a bit of a hike getting there, so we had a pre-5 am wake up time. 

When I wore up on Friday I was groggy all the way down to my bones, but I was glad that we were finally heading on this trip- we had been planning it for over two years! 

The only other running that I did this week? The seawheeze half marathon! I missed my half PR by 18 seconds, but had a great time. Keep an eye on the blog in the coming weeks for a race recap video of my experience at the expo and running the half.