Rest weeks rock
Today was only a ten miler. This is the second of three (I think) scheduled rest weeks in my training program. It was so nice, not to mention easy, today since I knew that I only had to go ten miles. It was nice and cool out too. I checked the forecast last night and knew that it was supposed to be just a little cooler, so I gave myself the luxury of an extra half hour of sleep this morning. So I got started around six thirty instead of six o'clock this morning. The first half of the run was pretty foggy, but as the sun started to come up a little it cleared out some. It remained cloudy for the rest of the run though.
There were a lot of people out taking advantage of the cooler weather today. I counted over thirty other runners. Quite a few of these runners were cross county boys from one of the local high schools. There coaches have them run the Fleet Feet long run a couple of Saturdays every month, and the coaches (who look entirely too young to be teachers) ride along behind the team on their mountain bikes. Usually I can't hang with these teenage boys, but this morning I was able to.
I was a little ahead of them to begin with on the out and back course. I passed them as I was heading back and they were heading out ( somewhere around the 5.5 mile mark), and then about another mile down the road they start to pass me on the way back. Today, only one teenage boy managed to pass me on the way back, and I managed to pass two of his teammates who hadn't done the full five miles out. This was a pretty big ego boast for me.
My total time for the run today was 92 minutes, which translates into a 9:12/mile pace. Now, if I can only pick up a little more speed on my training course over the next nine or ten weeks...I should be in a pretty good position to meet my goal at Chicago. I'm hoping I'll be aided by the almost flat (so I've been told) marathon course. I'm really looking forward to the Lewis and Clark 1/2 marathon in five weeks, as it's mainly flat and should give me a pretty good idea of how I'll finish in Chicago.
Good luck to everyone running the CDC this weekend!
1 comment:
Nice run.
And yes Chicago is essentially flat - there is a little hill in china town and another right at the end of the course before you make your last turn. But, they are both smaller than the hill in Forest Park by the Science Center.
The only bad thing about the course is the fact it is all concrete - poor knees. And, the bridges - there are rugs on the outside of them but they are always crowded. That's it.
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