[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!
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
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!
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!
Sunday, July 29, 2012
High praise for "recovery week."
If only the next 10 weeks were so easy.
After last week—a combined 29 miles that included a half marathon distance—this week was a breeze: A mere 21 miles. Five miles Monday, fours on Wednesday and Thursday, and then....
"What's your Saturday run?" people who read this blog and others who know what we're up to would ask.
"Just an eight miler," we would respond, with a more than a little bit of disbelief in our voices. A few weeks ago, eight miles seemed like a mighty goal. And now, here we were, with a bit of hubris in our hearts, thinking "Eight miles. P'shaw. That's nothing."
In case you're thinking we've become some Daedalus/Icarus cautionary tale ... no. Just also know that eight miles isn't "no big deal."
We woke at 4:30 yesterday, ate some breakfast, got dressed, readied our fuel belts and drove over to our home base for these long runs, FFC South Loop.
In the past, we'd head out on Roosevelt Road (over the last hill we'll run in October *immediately* preceding the finish line) and onto the Lakefront Path, through and past the Museum Campus and south toward the U of C, Hyde Park, Promontory Point and all that.
But! They changed things up on us this week. While we still started off at the Museum Campus, this time we ran a loop between the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum, around Soldier Field, down Solidarity Drive and around the Adler Planetarium, around the back of the Shedd, and then north (here's a convenient map). Continuing on the Lakefront Path where it is—and we can't stress this enough—ridiculously crowded.
Still: New route! So exciting!
Following Lake Shore Drive, we ran past Grant Park (where set-up is well underway for Lollapalooza starting Friday) and Buckingham Fountain. Past the Columbia Yacht Club. And onward toward the relatively new Chicago Riverwalk: Under Lake Shore Drive, Columbus Drive, Michigan Avenue (DuSable Bridge) and Wabash Avenue, to Chicago's Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza, our turn around point.
We had fantastic weather. And though we each had our own minor-but-not physical discomforts to deal with, we were glad to have such a "short" run. The mileage starts to get silly pretty quickly from here.
A quick note on fundraising: We remain blown away by the support we—and by extension, Bright Pink—have received from so many. We're really close to our fundraising goal, but are happy to surpass it, too! If you (or someone you know) would like to make a donation to Bright Pink on our behalf, find our fundraising page here. Thanks!
After last week—a combined 29 miles that included a half marathon distance—this week was a breeze: A mere 21 miles. Five miles Monday, fours on Wednesday and Thursday, and then....
"What's your Saturday run?" people who read this blog and others who know what we're up to would ask.
"Just an eight miler," we would respond, with a more than a little bit of disbelief in our voices. A few weeks ago, eight miles seemed like a mighty goal. And now, here we were, with a bit of hubris in our hearts, thinking "Eight miles. P'shaw. That's nothing."
In case you're thinking we've become some Daedalus/Icarus cautionary tale ... no. Just also know that eight miles isn't "no big deal."
We woke at 4:30 yesterday, ate some breakfast, got dressed, readied our fuel belts and drove over to our home base for these long runs, FFC South Loop.
In the past, we'd head out on Roosevelt Road (over the last hill we'll run in October *immediately* preceding the finish line) and onto the Lakefront Path, through and past the Museum Campus and south toward the U of C, Hyde Park, Promontory Point and all that.
But! They changed things up on us this week. While we still started off at the Museum Campus, this time we ran a loop between the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum, around Soldier Field, down Solidarity Drive and around the Adler Planetarium, around the back of the Shedd, and then north (here's a convenient map). Continuing on the Lakefront Path where it is—and we can't stress this enough—ridiculously crowded.
Still: New route! So exciting!
Following Lake Shore Drive, we ran past Grant Park (where set-up is well underway for Lollapalooza starting Friday) and Buckingham Fountain. Past the Columbia Yacht Club. And onward toward the relatively new Chicago Riverwalk: Under Lake Shore Drive, Columbus Drive, Michigan Avenue (DuSable Bridge) and Wabash Avenue, to Chicago's Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza, our turn around point.
We had fantastic weather. And though we each had our own minor-but-not physical discomforts to deal with, we were glad to have such a "short" run. The mileage starts to get silly pretty quickly from here.
A quick note on fundraising: We remain blown away by the support we—and by extension, Bright Pink—have received from so many. We're really close to our fundraising goal, but are happy to surpass it, too! If you (or someone you know) would like to make a donation to Bright Pink on our behalf, find our fundraising page here. Thanks!
Sunday, July 22, 2012
One Hundred Thirty.
Thankfully, we have an extremely prescriptive training program to follow. For the uninitiated, here's what it looked like this past week....Monday: Six mile tempo run, which included a one mile "warm up" at an easy pace, four miles at a "pushing it a bit" pace, and then a one mile "warm down" at the initial easy pace.
Tuesday: Cross training. Basically, any exercise but running. Joy hit the elliptical trainer. Ross did some core/balance work. Both of us foam rolled our achy muscles.
Wednesday: Four miles, "easy" pace.
Thursday: Four miles of speed work—best accomplished on a "dread" mill. One mile "warm up" followed by four 800 meter speedy-ish runs with a three-minute break after each blast and then a one mile "warm down."
Friday: Our favorite day of the week. REST DAY.
Saturday: Well, our long runs have moved up an hour—from 7 a.m. to 6 a.m. This means a 4:30 wake-up so we can have something to eat and time to digest it. And then a 13 mile run.
Total for the week? 27 miles. Just a bit less than what we'll run in one day on October 7th.
And, since you're probably not keeping score at home, on Saturday we ran 10% of our total training mileage up 'til now.
That's right: 130 miles. In seven weeks.
Thankfully, this week is a recovery week. Shorter mileage. Hopefully more sleep. A lot more rest, relatively speaking. We still have a 21 mile week, so it's not as if we'll be loafing, exactly. Though this is certainly on the to-do list.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
One louder.
"Did we ever do a blog post this week?"
"Um ... we started one? But we never finished it."
"Maybe we could just tell people that we're too tired to write it."
Anyway....
This past Saturday's run went to 11.
And thanks to some early morning heat and some ... well, we'll charitably call it "seasonal" ... humidity, it felt a little bit like swimming. But we got it done. Eleven miles. Only two and a half more of those, roughly, and we'd be done with a marathon.
But who's counting?
Okay. Fine. We are.
The fuel belts were loaded up with 74 ounces of water and 8 GUs/Clif Shots. In an attempt to make sure we finished the entire run, we went out pretty slowly—a 12:30 mile. But it didn't really help in Ross's case, since he bonked somewhere around mile 6, walking intermittently in miles 8, 9, 10 and 11. And while Joy doesn't love the heat, she's happy to have the mileage done. We finished up in about 2:25, which is slightly faster than our slowest-ever half marathon time (2:59 and change).
Speaking of half marathons, that's our distance this Saturday: 13.1 miles. We're expecting more uncooperative (hot, humid) weather, so that'll be sweet!
Sometime soon, we'll have an announcement about a fundraiser that's going to be super-duper fun if you happen to be in Chicago on September 22. More to come....
"Um ... we started one? But we never finished it."
"Maybe we could just tell people that we're too tired to write it."
Anyway....
This past Saturday's run went to 11.
And thanks to some early morning heat and some ... well, we'll charitably call it "seasonal" ... humidity, it felt a little bit like swimming. But we got it done. Eleven miles. Only two and a half more of those, roughly, and we'd be done with a marathon.
But who's counting?
Okay. Fine. We are.
The fuel belts were loaded up with 74 ounces of water and 8 GUs/Clif Shots. In an attempt to make sure we finished the entire run, we went out pretty slowly—a 12:30 mile. But it didn't really help in Ross's case, since he bonked somewhere around mile 6, walking intermittently in miles 8, 9, 10 and 11. And while Joy doesn't love the heat, she's happy to have the mileage done. We finished up in about 2:25, which is slightly faster than our slowest-ever half marathon time (2:59 and change).
Speaking of half marathons, that's our distance this Saturday: 13.1 miles. We're expecting more uncooperative (hot, humid) weather, so that'll be sweet!
Sometime soon, we'll have an announcement about a fundraiser that's going to be super-duper fun if you happen to be in Chicago on September 22. More to come....
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
10 and then some.
What's up, good people?
Last week, we had the good fortune of visiting the fair city of Boston for a visit and a lovely summer wedding at the Crane Castle. Other than visits from these guys and these guys, it was a delightful trip. (Which, of course, included a trip to Richardson's Ice Cream.)
With the wedding scheduled for Friday evening, Joy had the brilliant idea to change up our schedule, switching our "long" 10 mile run to Thursday. So off we went to Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, a 13 minute drive from where Ross grew up (though he had, remarkably, never been there), and what turned out to be its 3.2 mile loop.
[Note: After poking around on the interwebs, two things come to our attention. (1) No one seems to know what "Quannapowitt" means. The lake appears to be named for James Rumney Marsh Quannapowitt who then took the surname "Wiser," which leads some to believe Lake Quannapowitt translates to "Lake Wiser," though there is nothing to indicate this is true. (2) "Rumney Marsh" is what became Chelsea. So even the freaking lake we ran around three times is from Chelsea—just like seemingly everyone over a certain age we run into whenever we're in town. Matter of fact, Ross calls Chelsea "The Old Country," for this reason. It should also be noted that we DO NOT feel wiser having run around the lake a little bit more than three times.]
The temps helped us out since Wakefield wasn't nearly as hot or humid as Chicago. Thank goodness. Even if it was a bit breezy, it'd be difficult to complain.
We kicked it off not really knowing where we were supposed to go. From the church to the playground and around the lake on the dirt path? Not so much. Through the parking lot to the sidewalk? Um...apparently? Maybe? So many questions....
So three-plus laps of this:
And this:
And this:
Not too shabby of a day. And a great series of views. Mostly. Though we were the worse for wear once we hit the Colonel James Hartshorne House (since 1681, and apparently, available for parties) for the fifth time—four times running past it; the fifth time, after having turned around to walk back to the church/car/chauffeur:
Just happy to be done with 10. Which we followed up with four miles of speed work on Saturday and a six mile tempo run Sunday. We took Monday off and today—Tuesday—is a cross training day. Then more mileage as we get back on schedule. Good thing the week's off to a good start!
We're also off to a good start in the fundraising department, thanks to a dedicated band of contributors. If you know of any female persons aged 18 to 45, please remind them to take an active role in monitoring their breast and ovarian health. Thanks for your support!
Last week, we had the good fortune of visiting the fair city of Boston for a visit and a lovely summer wedding at the Crane Castle. Other than visits from these guys and these guys, it was a delightful trip. (Which, of course, included a trip to Richardson's Ice Cream.)
With the wedding scheduled for Friday evening, Joy had the brilliant idea to change up our schedule, switching our "long" 10 mile run to Thursday. So off we went to Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, a 13 minute drive from where Ross grew up (though he had, remarkably, never been there), and what turned out to be its 3.2 mile loop.
[Note: After poking around on the interwebs, two things come to our attention. (1) No one seems to know what "Quannapowitt" means. The lake appears to be named for James Rumney Marsh Quannapowitt who then took the surname "Wiser," which leads some to believe Lake Quannapowitt translates to "Lake Wiser," though there is nothing to indicate this is true. (2) "Rumney Marsh" is what became Chelsea. So even the freaking lake we ran around three times is from Chelsea—just like seemingly everyone over a certain age we run into whenever we're in town. Matter of fact, Ross calls Chelsea "The Old Country," for this reason. It should also be noted that we DO NOT feel wiser having run around the lake a little bit more than three times.]
The temps helped us out since Wakefield wasn't nearly as hot or humid as Chicago. Thank goodness. Even if it was a bit breezy, it'd be difficult to complain.
We kicked it off not really knowing where we were supposed to go. From the church to the playground and around the lake on the dirt path? Not so much. Through the parking lot to the sidewalk? Um...apparently? Maybe? So many questions....
So three-plus laps of this:
And this:
And this:
Not too shabby of a day. And a great series of views. Mostly. Though we were the worse for wear once we hit the Colonel James Hartshorne House (since 1681, and apparently, available for parties) for the fifth time—four times running past it; the fifth time, after having turned around to walk back to the church/car/chauffeur:
Just happy to be done with 10. Which we followed up with four miles of speed work on Saturday and a six mile tempo run Sunday. We took Monday off and today—Tuesday—is a cross training day. Then more mileage as we get back on schedule. Good thing the week's off to a good start!
We're also off to a good start in the fundraising department, thanks to a dedicated band of contributors. If you know of any female persons aged 18 to 45, please remind them to take an active role in monitoring their breast and ovarian health. Thanks for your support!
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Eight Is Great. Or something.
Great-ish.
Meaning we both completed 8 miles of running. No stopping. No walking. In some pretty toasty temperatures.
We used our (new in Joy's case) utility belts—which were carrying water, GU, Chomps, tissues and a cell phone to get us through the humidity.
Here's a photo of the "before" shot at 7:16 a.m.:
Sure. Let's be all smily and stuff. No biggie. 8 miles. When we consulted this guy, we got the expected stock response of "Outlook Good." Even though the heat, humidity, rude cyclists (seriously, how hard is it to say "on the left" when you're going 35 miles an hour and don't *really* want to kill a pedestrian?) and uneven pavement around Mile 13 on the Lakefront Path had other ideas.
Still, we made it. And here's photographic evidence from awhile later:
It's not easy to tell how fresh and fabulous we are. But count on it. We feel great. And we smell greater. Just another Saturday at Chicago's lakefront.Next week, a bigger challenge: 10 miles on the Saturday after a Friday night wedding in a foreign locale where the air conditioning is scarce but the ice cream is freaking amazing. Oh, and speaking of ice cream? The place that we discussed here is opening this week. Huzzah!
Meaning we both completed 8 miles of running. No stopping. No walking. In some pretty toasty temperatures.
We used our (new in Joy's case) utility belts—which were carrying water, GU, Chomps, tissues and a cell phone to get us through the humidity.
Here's a photo of the "before" shot at 7:16 a.m.:
Sure. Let's be all smily and stuff. No biggie. 8 miles. When we consulted this guy, we got the expected stock response of "Outlook Good." Even though the heat, humidity, rude cyclists (seriously, how hard is it to say "on the left" when you're going 35 miles an hour and don't *really* want to kill a pedestrian?) and uneven pavement around Mile 13 on the Lakefront Path had other ideas.
Still, we made it. And here's photographic evidence from awhile later:
It's not easy to tell how fresh and fabulous we are. But count on it. We feel great. And we smell greater. Just another Saturday at Chicago's lakefront.Next week, a bigger challenge: 10 miles on the Saturday after a Friday night wedding in a foreign locale where the air conditioning is scarce but the ice cream is freaking amazing. Oh, and speaking of ice cream? The place that we discussed here is opening this week. Huzzah!
Thanks for reading. And Happy Birthday, America!
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