13.1 Miles in Photos.

This week was a recovery week, which included massages on our Sunday rest day.

They didn't take. And we were sore anyway. Recovery shmecovery.

And somehow, the whole notion that running 28 miles in a week—instead of last week's 33—doesn't feel like much of a recovery, either. Especially when, for 13 miles, the sun is a blistering, broiling ball that Satan himself hurled directly from the bowels of Hell up into the Heavens to rain down its inglorious, fiery evil.

Okay, maybe that's going a bit overboard, but it was hot.

We started at the usual spot—the corner of Roosevelt and Michigan Avenues—and proceeded north along the Lakefront Path, up to Lincoln Park, and then back.

Although it was nice to have some new scenery...

Did we mention it was hot?

So here are some photos taken while running. They're not awesome—bouncy-bouncy-bounce and all—but they do the trick.

The beginning, at about 6:20. The sun cresting over Lake Michigan (battling with the headlights). "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning," and all that jazz.

Soldier Field off to the right as we sort-of-pass the Field Museum. 

We took a left just before the Shedd Aquarium and ran north past the sunrise. 

Hey, look! It's the Sears Tower! (No WAY are we going to call it by it's new name—The Abraham the Goldfish Tower.) 

One of MANY signs we passed today. We started at about the 8.5 mile sign, turned around where there weren't any signs, and then it's like they're trying to trick you—the signs on the way back are clocking the southbound route, so suddenly you see a sign for 4.5 miles even though you know in your heart (and your hamstrings) that you haven't run backwards. And that you've run further than the signs are telling you. Example, we passed two 7 mile and 11 mile signs. Neither of them was right as far as clocking our mileage. Too much math for our taste.

It's so early, even Buckingham Fountain is still asleep. 

We're too tired to look up the name of this harbor. But it is one. 

Oak Street Beach. The 1.5 mile part of the run (3 miles total) where there is absolutely ZERO shade. And look—there aren't even any Trixies out yet adding to their paid-for tans! (Although there was a garbage truck that nearly made us gag from the overwhelming stench. Coincidence?)

We ran past the Zoo, but not through it. Thankfully. The Zoo is REALLY hilly. We turned around at Belmont Ave. If you know the city, we started at 1200 south and turned around at 3200 north. That works out to 88 blocks, which is *only* 11 miles if you're driving it. (Eight blocks to a mile, out-of-towners.) But thanks to the zig-zagging of the path,  especially around Navy Pier and North Avenue, it works out to the appointed mileage. 

Statue of Grant in Lincoln Park. Neither Grant nor Lincoln are buried here. 

Running toward shade. And downtown. Through the south end of Lincoln Park.

Just past the North Avenue Beach House and heading back toward Oak Street. 

Blazing sunshine over the lake just past Oak Street Beach.

Looking back at North Avenue across the lake. The stand of trees in the distance is the only shade until Ohio Street to the south. Gross.

Turning the corner near Chicago Avenue with Navy Pier in the distance. Lots of triathletes in their wetsuits swimming the lake training for their races.

It must be after 9—Buckingham Fountain is finally awake.

It was our last recovery week until we "taper" two weeks before the race. Our mileage for the next three weeks: 35, 37, 39.5. This week, we run 8 Monday, 6 Wednesday, 5 Thursday, and 16 Saturday with a cross-training day on Tuesday. Should be super fun!

Week 11: The Air & Water Run

[Note: To listen to an abstract of this post in "song" form, click this link.]

This week's schedule called for seven "tempo" miles on Monday, cross training on Tuesday (Ross's cross training consisted of an hour of what he likes to call "lie downs" in bed, while Joy went to the gym and rode the bike for a little while), five "easy" miles on Wednesday and six "speed" miles on Thursday. And then 15 miles Saturday.

Fifteen.

Miles.

With each long run, Joy surpasses her longest-ever. It's fun.

Did we mention the 15 miles yet? We did? Well, we'll mention it just a couple of more times in this post. Promise.

This week happens to coincide with Chicago's Air & Water Show, a little display of (a) patriotism, (b) war-making, (c) Spandex limits-testing, or (d) public drunkenness, for about 2 million people willing to brave the ridiculous crowds, non-existent parking and ... well ... ridiculous crowds. No. Really.

So, thankfully, our early 6:30 start was just early enough to beat everyone but the earliest early birds to the Lakefront. We ran from the Museum Campus, past Buckingham Fountain and under Lake Shore Drive, past Oak Street Beach (about where one of Ross's old Wirestone colleagues, Phil Paris, yelled "hello" in passing with his running group), and up to the North Avenue Beach House (which was closed, "but you can use the porta-potties over there," said the testy security man).

Then we turned around and headed back, getting a great view of Navy Pier and the Hancock Center, and onto our usual route, south through the Museum Campus, around the back of Shedd Aquarium, past Soldier Field and McCormick Center, the new 31st Street Beach House and the Lakefront Skatepark.

A little further, and we turned around again to head for home base, the FFC South Loop. Thankfully, we got away from downtown before the "air" part of the Air & Water Show. NO ONE goes for the Water part. Apparently, boats are boring?

Anyway, week's over. We get a slight reprieve this week since it's a "recovery" week—our last recovery week before we taper before the race. Last week totalled out to 33.5 miles. This upcoming week is "only" 28.1, with all the weekday runs one mile shorter, and a long run of 13.1, or half marathon distance. WAY better than 15 miles! Easy peasy!

25° Makes All the Difference

So. We missed you last week.

Why?

It's a good question.

We ran our 12 miler. It was hot. Humid. Gross. Seriously. It was gross. In the upper 80s when we started at around 6 a.m. And it only got worse once the few clouds burned off and there was nothing but sun.

To give you a better sense of what it was like to run last week, Ross weighed in beforehand. Throughout the run, he drank about 70 ounces of fluids and "ate" five gels (another 5+ ounces of fuel) and returned from the 12 miles trek down 3.5 pounds. (Seriously. That's a freaking watermelon.)

So in addition to feeling like we were shells of ourselves after last week's run, Ross still had Lollapalooza to attend, Joy had her 20th high school reunion, and then both of us had a date with Coldplay later in the week.

This week? Different story.

Perfect weather. We started out our 14 mile run in the low 60s. Nice lake breeze. Sunshine, but Sol wasn't all obnoxious about it. Low humidity. Just perfect.

Remember a couple of paragraphs ago where it says something about 75 ounces of stuff just to keep from frying? This week's tally was less than 40 ounces of fluid and two gels (again, this is for Ross).

To illustrate what a difference 25° makes, here's something that caught our attention: Last week, we "ran" 12 miles in about 2 hours and 48 minutes.

This week? Different story. (Sorry if that's repetitive.) 14 miles in about 2:38. We ran the whole time. And Joy's relieved to have her longest run ever in the books—until next week's 15 miler, that is.

In case you're as bad at math as Ross is, that's two miles further, ten minutes faster.

We're 55% done with our training now that we've just completed week 10 of our 18 week schedule. It's hard to believe that something that was eight months away when we first signed up is now less than two months away.

Meanwhile, we're about 99.5% to our fundraising goal, and are so grateful for the support of so many of you. (Of course, even once we reach our goal, we'd like to blow it away, so feel free to pledge some cash on our behalf if that's something you'd like to do!) Thanks!