Chicago

I have finished packing for Chicago. After I pick up my son from school we are hitting the highway for a quick ride to the other side of lake Michigan for my first Chicago marathon and the final event of my 2012 running season. It has been a wonderful year filled with many early mornings, hours of countless miles, track workouts, blisteringly hot temperatures, humidity, snow, ice, a close call with a head injury, and a strong desire to transform myself into a marathoner. Marathon training will change you. Being a runner changes who you are, being a marathoner changes what you are. After a year of almost 3000 miles on the roads in preparation for one 26.2 mile race, I am more than I was last October. I have shed a skin or two, and am a beast warrior who has no fear of the final battle of 2012. I know I sound cheesy making it sound like there has been a war going on for the last 52 weeks or so, but I have battled many demons on the road to Chicago, and I am proud to say I have won. On Sunday I will take the first step towards my goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon as a masters runner. I knew going into this year that qualifying for Boston would be a long term goal hashed out over a couple of well thought out and executed training cycles. I turn 40 1 year and 7 days from the 2012 Chicago Marathon. This 7 day extra window enables me to squeeze in one more Chicago marathon in 2013 as a 39 year old and hit my goal in 2014. I feel that by the fall of my 40th year I will have given myself enough time to get myself into the best shape of my life and truly be competitive again. I love to take the long, slow and difficult path in life. Sunday, I will lay down my first time trial and re adjust my goals from there. Victory is sweet when you are stronger than your demons think you are. As for a prediction. I am if all things go as planned and my body holds itself together for one more run planning on a 3:18 finish time. This would put me in the top 2000 or so and make me very happy. To be honest anything under 3:20 will make me happy. Endurance is something that is built up over time. Time is something I have to give. One of the reasons I love this sport so much is that you get out of it what you put into it. I am ready to give it my all.

Just Go For It

I am injured but will not give up. 26.2 miles to go until I can successfully end this season. Come on body.. One more run, one more please.

Injured

After all of this training I am not looking for any excuse for a poor performance on Sunday. I did everything right. I have been healthy for an entire year and now I have a hamstring thing. I have 3 days to stretch and stretch and stretch and try to work this thing out a little bit. Last night I warmed up and ran at marathon pace and found that my left leg would not cooperate. I am going to the line on Sunday no matter what. I am going to hit my pace and see if I loosen up as I warm up. If not, I will try to remember that things like this happen and that while marathon training you walk a thin line between being healthy and being injured everyday. For some reason my body has decided that it wanted to go on the other side of the line. Not happy at all. I keep on telling myself that all I need is to run 26.2 miles and then I can rest for a month. A month. I hope my body is listening. Okay Chicago, we will have to see.

40s

Weather predictions for Sunday are looking pretty good. Anything under 55 degrees is perfect for me and we are going to get weather in the 40s. How amazing is that? All summer we training in record heat, and to get a break on race day is a true blessing. Finishing up this taper and getting ready to roll. My race plan will be to start off for the first 10 miles at a pace 5 seconds under my planned finish time. 10 miles @ mp pace and then try my best to negative split with the last 10k. The final 3 miles of Chicago is one long straight away and I am looking forward to letting my legs run for one last aggressive 5k. If all goes well the 100,000 cheering Chicago folk will give me the boost I need to get it done. I have done the work, now its time to let myself run my race.

Running out of Legs

Yesterday I ran what would be my final training run of this marathon cycle. An easy 2 mile warm up followed by a 3 miles at mp down to half marathon pace and then down near 10k pace. I cooled down with a couple of easy miles and that was about all she wrote. It was a dress rehearsal of sorts with me wearing my Chicago gear and racing flats. My adios II are some stiff shoes, and I hope they open up a bit on the 26 mile run. I have had no problems with the adios Is in the past, and hope that these things don't cause any problems. The last thing I need is a foot problem on Sunday. With 7 days to go I am going to be on a strict warm up cool down stretch workout plan for the next couple of days. I start carbo loading on Wednesday night and hopefully by then all this little aches and pains will have disappeared. If not, well.. You know it is marathon training after all. I am looking forward to healing myself for the remained of October. Its been a really long year with no real rest outside of a week here and a week there. I am sure my body will benefit from a good long 3 week reverse taper. Anyhoo. 7 days to go.

The Test

On October 7th I take my first step towards my goal of being a competitive masters runner. I know I will never be an elite master, or even a sub elite master at this point, but if all things continue the way they have been progressing I will definitely be competitive on the local level and perhaps even as a regional age grouper. Turning 40 in a year and two weeks affords me another year of training as a non masters runner and another attempt at the Chicago marathon next year, one week before my 40th birthday. When I decided to take on the marathon, I knew that there was no other distance that My training this year has been flawless. My two minor injuries came when I should have been paying better attention to my body and I have learned a valuable lesson from this. As I wrap up my first real season of training in 20 years (I started getting back into shape 3 years ago) I have a huge feeling of accomplishment and an even greater feeling of hope for the future. On October 7th my goal time is within my reach, but I recognize that 26.2 miles is still a great challenge. I am not putting myself out there to leave everything on the streets of Chicago this year, but to grow from the experience and work towards my greater goal. I know that endurance is something built over the years, and that the marathon will humble you if you do not treat it with respect.

11 days

Getting a little nervous. Mystery hamstring issue lingering, 3x1000 meters tonight @ around 6:02 -6:13 pace to shake things out a little bit. This will be my last track session. I will run a warm up mp thing later on in the week, but this is my last real track wo before Chicago. I hope and pray that I will regain 100 percent of my strength in my leg before the start. Marathoning is not something you go into feeling only 90 percent ready. Aggg 2 mile warm up felt pretty good. Ran with some quick guy who pushed the pace on me during the 2nd mile which was fine.. The track workout felt pretty good. I have so much energy right now. 2 mile cool down nice and slow. Everything loosened up nicely. I going to take off tomorrow, do some yoga and stretching go for an easy long run on Saturday and that is pretty much it. About 600 miles of marathon specific work in the the last couple of months.