Morning Run via Pictures

Today I decided to upload pictures from one of my morning runs earlier this week. Enjoy!

Scott enjoying a nice 6:30 am run (he hates running in the morning...haha)

The sun rising over Lake Michigan at 6:30 am

{ I promise it wasn't this dark while I was running. The picture just happened to turn out a little dark. }

This is the view I have when I run the lake shore path. Not too bad! You can also see that the path isn't very wide. Can't runners, bikers and walkers coexist on the same path?!

On a side note, the half-marathon is only 2 days away!!! = )

Week 7 Summary

It's a good thing I decided to do my long run on Sunday instead of Saturday this week. I woke up on Saturday to thunder and lighting--a clear sign that running was out of the question. Luckily for me, I decided to wait until Scott got back into town so we could do our long run together. It really stinks when you get into the mindset of doing a run and then mother nature gets in your way. The weather on Saturday eventually cleared up, but it was a HOT one!!

As for my run this morning, I can sum it up in three words: gorgeous, motivating and painful.

Gorgeous

I walked out of my condo at 7:15 am this morning to stretch for the run. I was overjoyed when I realized that the air was a bit crisp. It wasn't hot by any means and in fact, it was a perfect combination of chilly and warm. If I had to guess, the weather was in the upper 60s or lower 70s. It was overcast when I first started running and then mid-way it turned out to be pretty foggy. The waves on Lake Michigan were pretty big and they were slightly crashing on the lower path. The wind picked up a little bit and created a light mist along the lake shore running path. This was heavenly! At no point during my run did I ever feel hot or overheated. I can only hope that the half-marathon next week and the full marathon are similar to today's weather. Ha, if I was only that lucky.

Motivating

Today I ran 12 miles. I was just 1.1 miles short of running an official half-marathon, BUT I am running the Chicago Rock-n-Roll Half-Marathon on August 1st! According to my training plan, I am right on target to run 13 miles next week, so it works out quite perfectly. While I was running, I kept telling myself that if I could finish the run today, the race next week shouldn't be a problem. It must have worked because I had enough energy to run (okay, jog) the entire 12 miles. I didn't stop to walk at all. Yay! I attribute my awesome energy level to the delicious and carb-filled dinner I ate the night before, as well as the new energy fruit snacks I ate along the run. I forgot to take a picture of my new energy snack before I ate them, so I'll post a picture and all the details of them later this week (I have to buy more)!!!

I really didn't get tired until the last mile of my run today, but even so, I finished strong. I think I'm just really excited to get into race mode.

Painful

As you can see from my picture, I ended up icing my knees after my run. If there is one thing that is going to hurt my chances of finishing the marathon, it's going to be my knees. They started to kill me around mile 5, which is unusual for me. My knees haven't really been too much of a problem in the past, but today was an exception. They didn't stop hurting, so I iced them as soon as I got home. 12 hours later (as I type this blog), they hurt even more. Perhaps I'm experiencing "August Injuries" a bit early? I have 't ran this many miles in about a year, so I have a feeling my body is just reacting to the increased mileage. I have a doctor's appointment to get a full physical on Tuesday and I'm going to discuss marathon training and my knees with my doctor. I definitely want to be proactive about my body and nip potential injuries in the butt before they become a real problem.

All in all, it was a great run and I'm super pumped for the half-marathon next week! Bring it!

This and That

There are quite a few things that I feel the need to blog about. And they are....

Death by Running Group Stampede

It's a miracle I survive a Saturday long run. Why? The running clubs/groups of Chicago travel in packs from 6 to 30 people and take over the lake shore running path. I'm not kidding. I always run on the far right side of the path because I know I'm a slow runner. I try to be courteous to the advanced runners and stay out of their way - as much as I can. One running group (which shall remain nameless) literally ran me off the path into the grass last Saturday. Apparently I was getting in the way of their pacing group. If doesn't stop there. The running groups are everywhere. They come from every direction every 10 minutes. They are literally, everywhere! The more elite running groups CRUISE past me. There's nothing like a group of runners with their Garmin GPS watches and vintage Chicago Marathon shirts cruising by me thinking, "Oh, isn't she cute? She thinks she's going to run the marathon." Well, they may not actually think that, but that's what runs through my head when they fly by me. Meh. The goal is to finish - end of story.

Carl Allegretti - Fundraiser Extraordinaire

Carl is also raising money for Children's Memorial Hospital through the marathon charity program. He is the all-time top fundraiser for Children's. The marathon is just under three months away and he has already raised $60,172.00. Seriously. He spoke at the kick-off party last week about why he is running for Children's and offered some motivation to all the other runners. Did I mention that Carl has already run 62ish marathons in his day? He hasn't ran in quite a few years and said this will be the last one. Regardless, I can't believe he has raised over $60,000. I worry about being able to raise the $600 minimum. I'll stop here because I will be writing an entire blogpost about my fundraising efforts (or lack thereof) very soon.

Rock & Roll Half-Marathon

It's hard to believe, but I'm running the Rock & Roll Chicago Half-Marathon in 12 days. I signed up for this last year and now it's here! What's unique about this particular race is that at every mile marker, there is a different band playing live music. I'm debating about wearing my iPod during the race, but I think I'll ditch it and soak up the live music instead. I really want to embrace the nature of the race. I ran my first half-marathon last year and unfortunately, I didn't have a cheering crowd. One of my students at the time did come out to cheer for me and I really can't explain how much that meant to me. Just the few seconds I was able to see him cheering for me gave me the energy to keep on running.

If you aren't doing anything on Sunday, August 1st, it would really mean a lot to me to have you come out and cheer me on (handmade signs are welcomed)! The race starts at 6:30 am, but my starting corral probably won't start until 6:45 am. I'm guessing that I'll finish at around 2 hours and 45 minutes. My goal is to beat my time from last year (2 hours, 48 minutes and 03 seconds).

Click here to look at the course map

Click here for general info about the race

There is a post party in Grant Park featuring the band Five for Fighting and it's free. If you're interested in coming out to the race, let me know! I would love to see some familiar faces along the route!

You can also sign up for a text messaging system that will send you a text when I cross certain points of the course. This will give you a good indication as to where I am at along the route, so you're not just waiting for me to run past.

To sign up, click this link and select Rock & Roll Chicago - 2010. You will also have to type in my name.

Here are some pictures I "borrowed" from a few Facebook friends...examples of GREAT cheering groups!

Week 6 Summary

Week 6 was a crazy week!

Unfortunately, I had back-to-back student orientation sessions at work which called for early mornings and late evenings. In short, I didn't do any weekday runs because of the chaotic schedule. BUT, I did commit to the Saturday long run of 7 miles. I was expecting for the run to be difficult because I had slacked on my weekday runs. I wasn't tired while running, but the heat was outrageous! I ran with my water bottle and stopped at the Fleet Feet hydration station located at North Avenue Beach to fill up on Gatorade. No matter how much I drank, it wasn't enough. The heat was beating down on me and made it difficult to finish... but I did. I made a promise to myself that I would stay in-tune with my body and when I need to stop to walk, I would. Keeping true to my promise, I walked a portion of my long run, but I'm just glad that I finished the 7 miles. I don't want to be the runner that passes out from the heat and has to have an ambulance come pick them up. Thus, I walk when needed.

I also tried a new energy gel on Saturday. This time I tried the lemon lime flavor and I hate to say it, but the gels taste AWEFUL!! I have made a decision to not use the gels. Seriously, the gag reflex is too much for me to handle. They taste chalky and the flavor doesn't cut through the nasty taste of the "gel". I'm going to make a pit stop at Fleet Feet this week to pick up some Chompers (fruit snack type power tablets) to use next week. Hopefully these work out well for me. I'm just happy I'm trying out the different power-up options out there before my upcoming races.

What was really exciting about this past week was the Children's Memorial Marathon Team (CMMT) kick-off party! It was held on Thursday at a bar called The Apartment (located on Lincoln Ave. right by the hospital). I picked up my official race shirt that I'm supposed to wear during the marathon. They also gave away an inspirational dvd about CMMT. I plan on watching it this week (look for a review soon).

The event had a great buffet of food and an open bar. Thank you to one of CMMT's official sponsors for making the event happen: Baird Warner. It was a great event and I met other runners and listened to their stories. I sat with 2 ladies who are teachers at a north side school. They are running in honor of one of their 5 year old students who passed away. Each lady has run at least 2 marathons. I also sat by a man who is about to turn 40 and decided to run a marathon to prove he could do it. This will be his first marathon, and like me, figured if he's going to commit to training, he might as well do it for a charity. (more on this later)

I am honored to wear the CMMT shirt during the marathon, but it's a little on the short side. I prefer my running shirts to sit on my hips and to be somewhat loose. Oh well. The big white strip you see above the Marathon Team logo is for me to write my name. Runners are encouraged to write their names on their shirts because crowd members will cheer for you by name. = ) Yay!

Next Saturday is a 12 mile run. Goodness gracious!

Week 5 Summary

I am almost one-third of the way done with training, as the marathon is just under 3 months away.

My short runs last week were a little rough because I was coming off a week of non-training (remember, I was on vacation in Florida). I figured out that I would not be in Chicago on Saturday for my long run because I was going to Washington, D.C. for a wedding (Friday-Sunday). I told my supervisor that I wanted to do my 10 mile long run on Friday morning, before work because I was going to be out of town on Saturday. She let me come in late to work on Friday (at 10 am) so I could run my 10 miles that morning. I'm so happy she understands what kind of time and personal commitment it is to train for a marathon.

Alright, let's get to the main event: the long run. Overall, it was fantastic. I changed things up a bit this time. First, I ran with a strap-on water bottle so I didn't have to stop at water fountains. It was really nice to hydrate without having to wait for the next water fountain along the lakeshore path. I also drank a full glass of water right before I went to bed on Thursday night. Second, I started to carbo-load two days prior to my run. I think this made a HUGE difference in my energy level. Third, I used an energy gel mid-way through my run. I want to learn what flavor my body reacts well to. At just $1.20 each, I purchased three different flavors: orange burst, lemon sublime, and espresso love.

I tried the orange burst flavor last week and it wasn't pretty. The gag reflex against the flavor was enough to make me never want to use orange burst again. End of story. This week I will be trying out lemon sublime. I have a feeling this flavor will be much better! Hopefully it works out because I would like to know what flavor I will using for the Rock & Roll Half-Marathon on August 1st.

I was really impressed with how well I did on my long run. I continued to run along the lake, but this time I actually ran over the Chicago River just along lower Lake Shore Drive. It was the most amazing feeling to cross the river because this is the farthest I've ran during training. I thought I ran 5 miles, so I turned around to head home and finish up the second 5 mile (for a total of 10 miles). Unfortunately, when I got home and mapped out the route I ran on Google Maps, I discovered I only ran 9.2 miles. I was pretty frustrated because I was felt really good and I could have ran another 0.8 miles to complete 10. Oh, well. I rocked out the 9.2 miles. My endurance level felt fairly strong... an obvious good sign of conditioning. I just wish I would have iced my knees once I got home because they were sore later on that day. Now I know for next time.

Mileage Tracker:

Monday - 3 miles

Tuesday - 5 miles

Wednesday - 3 miles

Friday - 9.2 miles

TOTAL: 20.2 miles

Weeks 3 & 4

Clearly, I've been behind on my blogging.

Scott and I went to Florida for 10 days and the trip overlapped with weeks three and four of training. All I have to say is running in Florida during the month of July is not a good idea. I tried to run a quick 3 miles one morning and the heat kicked my butt. I had to stop and walk the last half because the heat stole all of my energy. I carried a water bottle with me, but it didn't seem to help. After this horrendous run, I was scared to run later on in the week. In fact, I didn't run until about 5 days later. This time, I ran right on the beach along the Gulf of Mexico (oil-free). The weather was great! It was warm, but not hot. There was a light breeze off the water and the view wasn't too shabby either. All in all, I would say it was a good run. Scott and I visited a local running store a few miles from where we were staying and I have to say, it was quite disappointing. They did not have a very large selection of running clothes and the entire experience felt very impersonal. I feel so spoiled by all the awesome running stores we have here in Chicago (such as Fleet Feet). Us Chicagoans have it lucky and we should count our blessings.

Though my training took a significant step-back during vacation, I hit the pavement hard this morning. Now that vacation is over, I'm getting back on schedule with life. I can't believe I'm already in week five of training.

Two things I will be blogging about in the very near future: fundraising efforts (or lack thereof) and the half-marathon I'm running in less than a month (that I seemed to have forgotten about...oops!).