Chicago Marathon Training Log – Weeks 12 & 13

Let’s talk training! I have just entered my taper for the race so that means I just finished my last two big weeks of training. Here’s how it went.

Week 12
75 Miles
8 Runs
2 Quality Workouts

Coming off the Chicago Half Marathon disaster, I was ready to move on and get back to work.

Monday: 7 recovery miles.

Tuesday: Feeling better now but still keeping it easy. 8 miles.

Wednesday: Back to work. The workout was a 9 mile run with 7 at a descending  tempo pace. It was warm and sticky. I was happy with the run. Tempo mile 1 – 6:15. Tempo mile 7 – 5:55. Descending the entire time. Good effort.
Second run – Easy 5 in the afternoon.
Total miles 14

Thursday: Easy 9.

Friday: Man Date/Run Date with Sean. 10 miles. Easy.

Saturday: Big run. I had to start super early  because we had a full day of activity planned, including Lindsey running a half with some friends, brunch and a birthday party.
The Run: 21 miles with the last 7 @ MRP or faster.
Ran the first 14 around 6:40-6:42 pace or so. Then on the last 7 is where the fun started. Here is the breakdown.
15 – 6:11
16 – 6:09
17 – 6:09
18 – 5:57
19 – 6:05
20 – 6:05
21 – 6:09
Over the last 7 miles I sipped on my flask of Hammer Gel. Nothing prior though during the 14. It is crazy how much difference the weather makes. Crazy. Happy with the run and where I think the fitness is at for Chicago.

Sunday: Recovery 6 with the family.

Overall, Week 12 was a good week.

Week 13
78 miles
6 runs
2 Quality Workouts 
1 Vacation

The last big week. Time to work. Here is the recap.

Monday: Originally I had a tempo run scheduled but following Saturday’s long run I was not ready for it mentally or physically. I mean I could have struggled through the workout but that would have set my week back. I had two other workouts that I wanted to nail. I am a firm believer in accumulated fatigue and not waiting till you feel good for every workout but even that is a judgement call and a balancing act. The right play, for me, was to not do the workout and just run easy.
Ran 11 Easy.

Tuesday: 12 easy

Wednesday:  3x3miles Descending pace through out each set and overall. Goal was to feel in control. Happy with the results coming off the hard long run and no rest days.
1 mile warm up 
3 x 3 miles – 
1: 18:18 time: 6:06 pace 
2: 18:02 time: 6:01 pace 
3: 17:47 time: 5:56 pace 
1 mile cool down

Saturday:  9 mile easy run with Lindsey in Tiburon, CA. We had wanted to drive to Stinson Beach and do a trail run but we got short on time as we had a bunch of things going on, like eating and drinking on vacation. So we randomly found this park that had a nice 6.5 mile loop to run. We got absolutely poured on for about an hour of the run. The locals said it had not rained in 6 months. Awesome! Once you get wet though, you can’t get more wet. It was a fun run and it was going to be the sight of my long run tomorrow. 

This is us before we got soaked. Lindsey wanted to take a selfie. Whatevs. Sunday: This is it. The last real long hard effort before the race. The run called for 22 miles Steady State. Who wants to see my all splits? Ok, good. Here they are below. Overall, really happy with the run. The loop had a decent amount of small elevation changes to keep things fresh throughout. Oh and apparently, it had incredible view of the Bay, downtown San Fran, and the Golden Gate Bridge. None of this was apparent to Lindsey or I on Saturday as it poured. It was probably one of the mos scenic runs I had ever been on. Here are the splits  1 – 6:36  2 – 6:33  3 – 6:32  4 – 6:35  5 – 6:42  6 – 6:37  7 – 6:35  8 – 6:29  9 – 6:33  10 – 6:44  11 – 6:41  12 – 6:35  13 – 6:41  14 – 6:39  15 – 6:40  16 – 6:38  17 – 6:30  18 – 6:43  19 – 6:40  20 – 6:38  21 – 6:37  22 – 6:43  Total – 2:25:42  Average – 6:37  Min – 6:29  Max – 6:44 The Bay at the sunrise. You can see foggy San Fran in the distance. Incredible views. Wave Sayonara photo shoot post run. Obviously.  Overall, another solid week in the books. We’ll find out in three Sunday’s if the work was right.  I think it was….I feel good about things. I have entered taper mode now. Tapering is always weird…but it is needed. Doing my best to reduce the volume and intensity a bit and resting up. Two taper weeks and then its race week! Questions: Lots of big races coming up…what do you have planned? Running Chicago? How long do you taper for? Two weeks? Three Weeks?