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!