Ran and my class

Beth: I ran to my workout class and back today. According to Pimp My Run the loop was 2.79. I really liked the running/class combo. Plus I saved $16 in taxi money. :) Hope to do it again tomorrow. I'm going out to dinner with Chris and Jen tonight -- Lucy Latin Kitchen.

My shins are a little tender.

MiniMarathon

Beth: The mini marathon was the hardest thing I've ever done -- both mentally and physically. I got really neverous after saying bye to Bobby and Marcy. I worried that I under trained andthat the police would have to pull me off the course. It took about 7 minutes to get to the start line. I kept pace with pace setter holding the 2:30 sign. Everything was comfortable until I hit Lake Shore Drive around mile 6. I saw the people who were running at the 1:30 pace run by me so I knew I had AT LEAST another hour on LSD to get back to that point. Things got worse at mile 10. I had to walk for ten minutes and a lot of people that I passed were now passing me. I spent mile the last two or so miles running for a few minutes then walking for one until I saw the finsih line. It felt awesome to run across the finish line. Totally loved it and felt great. Would totally do it again. My time was 02:43:46 and I came in 8996th place.

My thighs hurt a little until Tuesday. My shins still hurt a little.

run

Bob: ran 4.5 miles at lunch. legs felt a bit tired still from half marathon. ran at lower heart rate 137 bm average (11:45 min/ mile). I have been reading about lower heart rate traing. Dave Scott's article makes a lot of sense. I think when I was running in high school, my progess was limited because I was running my training runs at too high a heart rate.

Will try the lower heart rate training for 3~4 weeks --> keeping HR below 150 bpm. Then will up the effort to alternating between 145 bpm runs one day and 160 bpm runs the other day.

This should compliment the chirunning, but so much data monitoring doesnt seem very chi....

Marcy: ran short loop with add on (3.2 miles) pushing sadie. legs still tired from race as well.

Chicago Half Marathon - Bob's experience

Bob: time 1h 40'10" - average pace = 7:38 min/ mile. Overall place 538 out of over 10,000 finishers. On this day, given the temperature, I don't think I could have run faster. Wanted to break 1h 40', but fell a bit short.

From the Garmin 305 split times were as follows:

mile 1: 8:06
mile 2: 7:46
mile 3: 7:35
mile 4: 7:30
mile 5: 7:36
mile 6: 7:30
mile 7: 7:30
mile 8: 7:30
mile 9: 7:31
mile 10: 7:27
mile 11: 7:25
mile 12: 7:34
mile 13: 7:25
mile .24 (GPS error?) 1:36 (6:47 pace)

First half split was 51:00
Second half split was 49:10

Running negative splits felt great. The flat course made it easy to be consistent. They say the race begins at 10 miles - so true: I stuck to my strategy early on, but could not pick up the pace enough in the final miles to get under 1h40'. Chiruning focus really helped - mostly focused cadence, posture, and lean. When I was tired towards the end, I focused on relaxing legs and arms and leaning.

Looking at my splits, mile 12 being 10 seconds slower is an indication that I was feeling a bit tired - and I was pushing myself at that point to maintian pace. Don't get me wrong, for my first 1/2 marathon I am quite happy with my time. While both Marcy and myself have had harder days ski touring, this was pretty tough. Cant wait to start training for the next one.

Chicago Half Marathon - Marcy's experience

Marcy: It was a pretty crazy experience. I went across the starting line and pushed back the emotion from my sister Julie not being able to be there with us due to her injury. So many people but not what I would say a "rush" to ride on for the first few miles just "we are finally here, let's go for it." The weather was as good as we could possibly have hoped for but my body still fought what little heat there was - about 73 at the start and 78 at the finish. I held my 8:00 minute/mile pace through mile 11 and then mile 12 and 13 I had to back off. It was the first time in my life that I felt like one of those little signs on the treadmill "if you are experiencing tingling, blurry vision, naseau etc. etc. STOP" BUT there was no stopping. My finish time was 1:47:17. 2 minutes off my goal, my finishing place was 1072 out of about 10,000 finishers. I could not have run faster. Had the heat actually been a Chicago Summer day I would have struggled immensely.