Chicago Marathon Training: Week Four

Week four consisted of more hot and humid running (makes for a strong fall), a thwarted attempt to run in Nikes (fate?), and a really satisfying round of intervals (love, love, love).

Monday

Run: Tempo.

Evening run. Warmed up comfortably; started to drop pace at end of warmup to head into tempo miles. Set Garmin to beep at end of warmup, end of each tempo mile, and cool down. Ran without watching my data. Seems to have gotten the best of me. But the entire run felt fantastic, especially after a relatively stressful day.

Conditions: Overcast – 73F – felt like 73F – 94% humidity

Fuel: Cran-Raspberry UCAN (1 packet)

Shoe: Saucony Kinvara 3

Plan v Actual:

• Plan = 20 min wu; 2 mi @ 8:00-8:10 min/mi; 15 min cd.
• Actual = 6.19 mi – 50:14 – 8:06 min/mi avg pace
• Splits =
  • wu – 2.42 mi – 20:00 – 8:17 min/mi
  • Tempo 1 – 7:38
  • Tempo 2 – 7:36
  • cd – 1.78 mi – 15:00 – 8:26 min/mi

Tuesday

Rest Day. Because of personal schedule, had to switch easy run to Wednesday.

Wednesday

Run: Easy.

Easy run on extreme time crunch meant cutting short, and running faster than plan. But, look at that nice little negative split. (Searching for the silver lining.)

Planned to test run Nike LunaRacers, but seems fate wanted me to stick with Saucony. Caught in massive downpour, Nikes got drenched. So I ran in my Type A5s, which I love. Message received, universe, message received.

Conditions: Sun – 79F – felt like 79F – 89% humidity

Fuel: Cran-Raspberry UCAN (1 packet)

Shoe: Saucony Type A5

Plan v Actual:

• Plan = 50 min easy
• Actual = 5.12 mi – 41:36 – 8:07 min/mi avg pace
• Splits = (1) 8:22; (2) 8:18; (3) 8:10; (4) 8:05; (5) 7:46; (6) 7:46 for .12 mi

Thursday

Run: 8 x 200m Intervals.

Ran this around 1pm, on the flat near Engineer’s Gate. Great for 200m intervals.
Hot, humid, but this run was AMAZING. Really starting to dig interval workouts, when once I used to despise them. Go figure.

Conditions: Sun/clouds – 82F – felt like 89F – 70% humidity

Fuel: Cran-raspberry UCAN (1 packet)

Shoe: Saucony Type A5

Plan v Actual:

• Plan = 20 min wu; 8 x 200m @ :45-:50 (1:00 min walking RI); 15 min cd
• Actual = 5.79 mi – 49:02 – 8:28 min/mi avg pace
• Splits =
  • wu – 2.45 mi – 20:01 – 8:09 min/mi
  • (1) – 200m – :44.3 – 6:10 min/mi
  • (2) – 200m – :44.2 – 6:09 min/mi
  • (3) – 200m – :43.4 – 6:02 min/mi
  • (4) – 200m – :44.7 – 6:12 min/mi
  • (5) – 200m – :45.8 – 6:22 min/mi
  • (6) – 200m – :43.6 – 6:04 min/mi
  • (7) – 200m – :43.1 – 6:00 min/mi
  • (8) – 200m – :42.0 – 5:50 min/mi
  • cd – 1.85 mi – 15:09 – 8:12 min/mi

Friday

Rest Day.

Saturday

Run: Long.

Even at 8AM the forecast was already 79F. Fortunately, I bumped into Brian’s Run 2 Remember (now: Athletes To End Alzheimer’s) team 4 minutes into my run. The team was about to log a long run for NYC Marathon training, so I joined them. Their company made the hot miles a lot easier to cope with! We ran an “off-the-beaten path” tour of Central Park.

Couldn’t have been more fun! Great company as we wound around the bridle path, park drives, and little concealed paths. We saw monuments, waterfalls, and stopped for some group photos. Never knew there were so many steep, hidden hills in the park (Harlem & Cat Hills get all the press).

Really a lovely way to start the weekend!

Conditions: Sun – 79F – felt like 79F – 79% humidity

Fuel: Vanilla protein-enhanced UCAN (1 packet).

Shoe: Saucony Kinvara 3

Plan v Actual:

• Plan = 1 hr 30 min easy
• Actual = 10.07 mi – 1:27:28 – 8:41 min/mi avg pace
• Splits = (1) 8:43; (2) 8:44; (3) 8:42; (4) 9:08; (5) 8:47; (6) 8:39; (7) 8:41; (8) 8:14; (9) 8:21; (10) 8:49

Sunday

Rest Day.

Weekly Totals

•     3 hrs 48 mins (approx.)
•     27.17 miles running

See all weekly workout recaps here.

LV Runs NYC