The Big 20!

9/16/13-Fleet Feet fun run

I headed out to Fleet Feet for the Pint Night fun run. The fun run would last between three and six miles depending on the distance people wanted to run. My marathon plan called for a five mile run so I went with the five mile group. Asics also had some reps there and people could try on a variety of shoes they had. I wanted to try out a neutral pair of shoes, so I went with the Gel-Lyte33 2.

Night time view of the lakefront on the fun run

The guy in the red in the picture led the five mile group run and he went out pretty fast. I tried my best to keep up with him, but I just could not. It felt good to push it a little and try to catch him; it felt like a little bit of speed work. I ended up losing the group and creating my own five mile run.

Asics Gel-Lyte33 2

The shoes felt pretty great. When I put them on before the run, I felt pretty weird in them. My feet were really close to the ground and I did not know how'd I feel about that (6" heel drop), considering at the time I run in the GTS 13's by Brooks. However, they ended up feeling good. They are also very lightweight. I probably would not run a marathon in these, but I think they would be good for mid-week runs during training.

Once I got done stretching and rolling out (and making a few purchases-more on that later), I headed to Benchmark with a few others who did the fun run. Depending on my work schedule, Pint Night fun runs are definitely something that I would do again. I enjoyed hanging out with other runners and fun run leaders while watching the Monday Night Football game. I tried not to have too much fun because I knew I would have to get a run in with my high schoolers.


9/19/13-Hazel run

Before I headed to Benchmark, I made a few purchases. The first purchase, actual running shorts.

Brooks Men's Essential 2 in 1 7" Short

I went the Brooks Men's Essential 2-in-1 7"shorts. Running shorts have always been something I avoided since I started running. They always looked too short and pulling off that look is something that I did think I could do. I settled on the Brooks partly because I know the brand, but also because they were recommended to me.

They got their first test during a six mile run with some of the cross country kids. It took a while to it being short, but I felt good in them. I never felt uncomfortable and I love the compression portion of the shorts. If someone asked me to recommend a pair or shorts, these are the one I would suggest to them first.

The actual run felt really good. We pushed it pretty good and kept it around a 7:33 pace. It could have been an even faster pace, but the head XC coach did not want to push them too hard. It is a good thing he led the workout, because I probably would have pushed them harder. We all did an ice bath after the run and I felt confident about my 20 miler!

9/20/13-20 Miler

And it's time for new shoes(has been for a while)

SaltSticks Capsules were the other purchase I made. I purchased them specifically for my 20-mile run and breaking through the wall during the marathon. One of the things I learned as a salty sweater is that I lose more salt than others. This may seem more like common sense, but this is just another lesson I have learned as a runner.

If the 20-miler were going to happen, it would have to happen after work. I had a weekend full of activities and would not really have time to run. While getting ready for work, I packed eight capsules in a bag because I did not know how much of them I would need; I planned on taking one every 30 minutes. Fast forward to finishing hours later, it would be time for the run.

The only mistake I really made is drinking a naked juice before the run. It would definitely come back to haunt me later. The first seven and half miles of the run went really well;this is when my stomach stopped thinking the run would be going well. It forced me to take a unwanted mini pit stop. Back to my regularly scheduled run.

Despite the humidity, I felt great during the rest of the run. I ended up taking six capsules during my run and I felt they really helped. I carried a water bottle with me (which I did not really care for) because I figured there would be very little water fountains to take the capsules. My legs felt great during the run and I never felt too fatigued.

I looked at the splits after my run and felt really good about them. There were only two splits I did not care for were the one with my stop and mile 16. I have to have the confidence that things will get better during race and I will hit my goal. When I got done analyzing my run, I walked around for quite sometime, stretched and ate two clif bars (White Chocolate Macadamia nut might be the best clif bar I have ever had). It is easy to just want to sit down after a long run, but that is not a good idea; keep your legs moving!

With the 20-mile run complete, I feel ready for the marathon. The picture above also shows that I am ready for some new shoes. It is probably a crazy idea to switch now, but the shoes are long overdue for a change. I am not sure what I will purchase, but it will probably be in the Brooks family of shoes.

9/21/13

I am including the day after the run because I learned a very valuable lesson. It is very important to drink lots of water after an extremely long run. I felt like I had, had enough, but I woke up feeling nauseous and dizzy. I talked to a few runners and they concluded I had been dehydrated. Normally I do a really good job of staying hydrated; my body felt otherwise. I drank a lot more water on Saturday and felt better about six hours after I woke up.

Hydrate properly!

Busy!

Between coaching(middle school football and some XC) and working, my energy has been lacking lately. Lately I have just been coming home and not wanting to do anything. I feel bad about that because I really want to keep this blog updated and current. Here is a brief summary of my last two training weeks.

Weeks 13

The last two weeks have been kind of interesting. Being busy forces you to find time times to fit your runs in. I sometimes stress about it, but I need to remember I will be fine as long as I actually get the runs in.

Week 13 went very well. It made me a little nervous because it featured a long run of 19 miles. Since I run at odd times, I knew I would be running the whole thing by myself. However, I am getting ahead of myself. I got in three great five mile runs during and it got me pumped up about the long run. My best run happened on September 5, 2013. I have no idea why I ran so hard and so fast, but I pushed myself really hard during the run and felt great. Due the busy week, I had a dilemma; get up early on Saturday before work and run 19 or do my long before the first Bears game!

I decided against running on 19 on Saturday and decided to do a short five mile run (it went great!). Now that I had gotten my run and worked, I rushed down to Lincoln Park to meet a few friends for Cultivate Fest.

My concert buddies, Vicki and Molly.

Walk the Moon!

The Mowgli's, Dale Earnardt Jr. Jr., Youngblood Hawke and Best Friends also played. I had a great time and will definitely come back next year if I can. My allergies sent me home early Saturday night and I took that as a sign that I would need to do my long run on Sunday.

Unfortunately, I did not wake up feeling too much better on Sunday. I wanted to get up early and do my run before the Bears game at noon. The allergies or head cold caused me to get going around 11:30 or so. I decided it would be ok to miss part of the Bears game to go for a run; this is how I know I have become a crazy runner.

Minus the humidity, I have no complaints about the run.

View from Medal of Honor Park

Despite how tired my legs felt at certain points toward the latter half of the run, I pushed hard and finished my last mile at a 7:40 pace. The run ended up taking me between 2:38:11 and and 2:38:20 ( I stopped the two gps apps I used at different times). It turned out to be a great Sunday. I got my run, watched football and the Bears won.

Week 14

Probably the weirdest training week out of all them so far. It is weird because, I only kept track of one run. I normally am pretty obsessed with keeping track, but I either forget or just did not bring my phone with me. Here is how the week went:

9/9/13- Did a short loop with the XC kids. We think it ended up being around three miles, but none of us were really sure. That three mile felt pretty hard in the 93 degree temps we had last Monday.

9/10/13-Way too hot do any kind of physical activity. I could have gotten a run in, but decided against it.

9/11/13-Hardest workout of the week by far! The top XC kids and I did a 1.7 mile warm-up and then did 6x800s! The top kid on the team ended up doing somewhere around 3:08's the whole time, while the rest us did somewhere between 3:10 and 3:13. So hard during the run, but I felt great afterwards and thanked the kids for pushing me to keep working hard.

9/12/13- My shin splints re-appeared (but on my left shin this time) and I did not run. I iced and worked a football game late that night.

9/13/13-Rest day. The started off well because I won Sublime With Rome Tickets at Concord Music Theatre;really nice venue

Sublime With Rome

9/14/13-My birthday! I went for a nice 12 miler at a park near my place.  My dad took me out for my birthday and I got this sundae at iHop. They sang to me when they brought it out and I felt pretty embarrassed. That is all I have today. The big 20 miler is this weekend! I will be sure to let people know how it goes. 

It's been a while (again)

All of my various activities are keeping me busy. And I like that! The only thing that I do not like that it is doing, is the fact that it is keeping from updating my blog. I had a busy and fun week during week 12 of training. I hope you enjoy the post.

August 26, 2013

This happened to be an unexpected run. I went down to the Fleet Feet Sports South loop opening to attempt to get a gift card and ended up working the fun run, as an employee! I interview with Fleet Feet about three weeks ago and got hired. I have not officially started with them, but I am excited to get going.

On my first official night as an employee, I got assigned to work the 10:00 pace group with another employee. We did an four mile easy run at that pace and I got a chance to talk to some people in the group. I did my best to encourage one runner who looked like they had just decided to get into running recently. The runner really impressed me with the fact that they did not give up. They were really tired by the end of the run, but they run/walked the four miles. I always tell people to set small goals when they start running. Once those goals are achieved, set a different set of goals.

August 27, 2013

What a hot day! I had something to do early in the morning at my school, so it really worked out that I could run early in the day instead of the afternoon. I got off to another slow start at the beginning of this run. This time it included the first two miles.

I had been a little sore from working out with the volleyball team and the school's sports performance coach. I do not think it had much to do with my slow start though. Things started to feel good by the third mile and the run ended very well. Miles two through five were run at an 8:01, 8:18 and 7:24 pace.   That is a big difference, but I am glad that I could finish run strong. Even if I am not happy with a time, it  always feels good to end a run strong and gives me confidence for the next run.

August 28, 2013

The midweek eight mile has been nice lately because my school is about eight miles from my place and I can just run there. I had some fun on this run with an unknown runner who ran part of the same course I did. She definite had no idea that she pushed me to run a little quicker. It ended up being one of my better runs in a while.

I still felt sore from Monday's workout but my legs kept chugging along. Somewhere along mile two of my run, I saw a woman up ahead turn on to the same block I would be running on. I had no idea how long she had been running or how long she would be running, but I waned to pass her and pick-up the pace on my run. I ended up doing both and felt good about it. On a few occasions, I would look back to see where she had been and I would think, "Oh no, she is catching up." I kept running hard so she would not pass me.

The mysterious woman disappeared somewhere around four of my run(I think). I wish I could thanked her for encouraging me on my run without even noticing. Other than the stretch between miles four and five (which seem to be a common slow zones from my run when I run this way), the rest of the run went great. I ended with negative splits on the last three miles of the run. I got some interesting news when I got done with my run.

August 29, 2013

I got asked to run with the cross country team when I could. This made me laugh a little because I never would have ever expected to run with/coach a cross country team. Nevertheless, I looked forward to the chance to run with some of our better kids. The only thing that made me nervous is that this would be my fourth consecutive day of running.

We were assigned to do a five mile loop that would lead us back to the school. It had also been interesting to run in a group because I am so use to running by myself. This run would challenge the notion hat running is not a team sport. My group stayed together and kept a very solid pace during the run.

The length of the run actually ended up being somewhere around 4.8 miles (I got the extra .2 miles in). We stretched, did 50 push-ups and foam rolled after we were done running. They also did an ice bath! I decided at the recommendation of fellow blogger, Emily.

Trying to enjoy my first ice bath

The first couple of minutes are really tough. Once those two minutes are over, you stop thinking about how cold it is. I also suggest not moving because it makes the water even colder. My legs felt great afterwards and I would do it again. My legs would be ready for long run Sunday.

September 1, 2013

The athletic director a my school asked me if I had a long run planned for the weekend and I mentioned my 13 mile run. I almost said, "just 13 miles." It is crazy to think that I said almost said just 13 miles out loud. I guess subconsciously I think 13 is an easy run now. Yikes.

Maybe that thinking helped my confidence on Sunday because my run went very well. I stayed around an eight minute mile the whole time. I ended up running the majority of this run on the lakefront path. I generally do not like the lakefront path, but I decided I did not want to stop too much on my run.

Even though I did not want to stop too much, I had to stop once because I got nervous about my breathing just before mile seven. My chest hurt for some reason, my breathing did not feel well, so I stopped and walked for about a minute. I had to remember that getting to the race on October 13 is the long-term goal of this run; time should not be a factor. Despite stopping for that time period, this ended up being my one of my better runs since the Rock 'N' Roll Half-Marathon. I had a strong finish and ended up having a great rest of the day.

Brief preview of this week

My hamstrings have been a little sore. It has not stopped my running but they have just been annoying. Depending on how I am feeling tomorrow, I may update this post during a long ride to and from our football game. That is all from me today.

Keep working hard

Post Altitude Week

Sorry to not have posted in a while. I have started coaching and helping out at my school. Between that and running, I have not had too much energy to post. I am loving being busy though. It means less thinking.

In the last blog post I mentioned I went to Denver and got a few runs in. Hearing about training a altitude made me wonder about the effects it would have on my running when I ventured back to Chicago. I wondered how the week would go with the soreness I felt from my 17-miler in Denver. Surprisingly enough, my four runs went pretty well.

August 18, 2013

This is probably the most excited I have ever been for a five mile run. I thought I would run like the wind and get this run over asap. That did not immediately happen. My sore legs prevented me from getting out of the gates as quickly as I would have liked. Once the first mile ended, things went really smooth. I ended up with an eight minute mile average. It felt really nice to breathe again on a run. That is where I really noticed the difference. I probably could have and should have pushed it a little harder on this run to test my limits. On to the next one.

August 19, 2013

Very up and down here. If there had been any week where I should have tested my limits, it should have been last week. I have noticed that my runs lately are starting off really slow. I know that I have mentioned that I am a runner that tends to get stronger as they go, but I would like to come out stronger and get a little more consistent. The first five miles went like this: 9:22, 8:51, 8:12, 8:16 and 9:11! The 9:11 split probably came from being stopped at a couple lights, but still, I did not like seeing that number. The one positive that came out of this run is that I felt strong enough to finish strong. I know the goal is the marathon, but I probably should pick it up.

August 20, 2013

Another slow start to one of my runs! Despite that, this is the best run I had during the week. My legs did not feel too sore and I felt great. Nothing really bad to say about this run. I did look at my gps and quietly yell out, "There is no way I ran this time." I need to be happy with some of these times. I am lucky to have made it to this point of marathon training healthy. With that in mind, I still had my longest run of the week go; an 18-miler!

August 24

I typically prefer to get my longer runs in on Sunday. I do this because (and I may have mentioned this before) most races are actually on Sunday. Since I had to work some on Sunday and I had nothing else to do on Saturday afternoon, Saturday would be the day for this run. Once I got done lounging around the house, I finally put on my shoes and left the house.

I kept the first half of his run around the nine minute mile mark. This time the slow start is by design. I needed to make sure that I had the legs to finish the rest of the run strong. This is probably where I truly felt the Denver effect. I felt like I could have run the marathon that day.

According to my gps, I ran the first half of the run at 1:20:29. I felt very happy about this because my legs felt great and his is where I picked things up. Minus a couple of hiccups, the second half went great. I ended up running the second half about four minutes quicker than the first nine miles. I am still learning a lot about running, but I think I have become a much smarter runner over the past three years. Hopefully my body will be ready and willing over the next few weeks. There are some challenging runs coming up.

Thanks for reading. Once I get my schedule down pat, more post will come. I may even start doing these from my phone right after I get done running.

Keep working hard!

Running in Denver

This post will not be completely about running in Denver, but I will talk a lot about that. I wanted to have fun in Denver, but I also did not want to completely neglect my running. Since I had three full days in Denver, I altered my running schedule to get two runs in out there. I definitely had an interesting week of training.

August 13, 2003

This is the best run I have had in a really long time. Everything just seemed to come together for this one. When I started running I started a little slow, but once the second mile happened, my body felt super light. The last three miles were negative splits and I am always happy when that happens. Maybe the cupcakes I got promised made me run faster.

When I got to my friend Jenny's, I had a couple of really good cupcakes she made and relaxed. We had an unexpected Los Angeles theme night when we decided to watch a couple of 30 for 30's; the Raiders doc Ice Cube produced and The Marinovich project. They are both very good and I would suggest them. Shortly after that, I headed home to get some sleep.

August 15, 2003

Normally I run Tuesday-Thursday and then Saturday or Sunday. This week, knowing that I would be in Denver for the weekend, I decided not to do my mid-week long run before work and altered my scheduled. Running twice in Denver seemed ambitious, but I like to challenge myself while running. The extra day seemed to help my running.

I had another run with mostly negative splits (my split went up six seconds between miles five and sex).  This is another run where I felt really strong. I am excited to say I finished the last mile with a pace of 6:54.  I felt like I could run forever. Maybe my body will be nice to me and feel that way on the day of the marathon. When I got done running, I hung out at work for a bit and then headed home because I would have to pack clothes for the trip eventually.

August 16

Flying into Denver

I left my place around 3 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight from O'Hare. I know that sounds extremely early, but traveling with drama seems to be thing. The flight went surprisingly really smooth. That could also be because I think I slept through most of it. Once I got to Denver, I ran into my college friend Vicky and her friend Mo. They rented a car and we headed to Boulder.

                                        

         Mountains! Driving to Boulder

We had breakfast at this great place called Snooze. It is very touristy, but it is also very good and the portions are large;I had a huge tasty burrito. We split up after that and while they went for a hike, my friend Miranda and I walked around Boulder for a bit. A hike would have been fun, but my legs were really sore for some reason.

Boulder

Miranda took me to Nederland, Co after walking around boulder and we had a few drinks on the patio of a place called Wild Mountain Smokehouse & Brewery. We had great service and good beer. The weather could not have been better. It is definitely a great way to spend part of a Friday afternoon. We headed to her place after that.

View from Wild Mountain

 
I relaxed for a little bit while we watched Orange is the New black. When we got done watching that, despite my sore legs, I decided it would be run time! I definitely had been nervous because I did not know how I would react to the altitude. Sloan's lake would be my destination for the run.

So many Geese!

One lap around the lake is around 3.1m. I read a lot about running at altitude and tried to run slower than I normally do. That did not seem to challenging at the time, but once I got started, I could feel the difference immediately. Here we go.

People enjoying a nice day on the lake

My breathing felt shallower than normal during the run. I never felt like I had to stop, but I would take and deep breath feel like I did not take any air in. I probably could have pushed it some, but decided it would be best to keep a similar pace. Four miles is usually a short run, but this is probably the most challenging four miles I completed.

I stopped to take a few pictures
 

I ended up with a time of 32:16. That felt really good because I never felt particular great during the run. When I got done running, I made sure I drank a lot of water and got a good meal in afterwards. My next decision would be when or if I would complete my long run. Saturday would be a really long day, so if I did it any day, it would have to be Sunday.

August 17, 2003

Anyone who reads this blog knows I am a huge music fan. I just wanted to throw up a quick picture of one of my friends bands I saw at Chipotle Cultivate Festival.

Cold War Kids

Blitzen Trapper and Allen Stone were also really good. The Chicago Cultivate fest is on September 7 and I hope I can make it.

August 18

I woke up on Sunday morning and decided that I would feel really bad if I skipped my long run. Multiple people recommended that I run at Washington Park. I hatched out a plan to run to Washington Park from my friends place and once again had to pump myself up for a run. I hoped I would not get lost.

The beginning of the run started pretty slowly because I could no find the street I needed to get my run started. Once I discovered that one street turned in to another, things went pretty smoothly from there.

I got stopped by a train a couple of times on the run

One piece of advice I would give to runners running in a new place is to be very careful with google maps directions. I never use to take that warning seriously about there possibly not being sidewalks, but I encountered that a few times during my run to the park.  I never felt like I would be in danger, but it important to be safe. Back to the regular scheduled blog.

One of the things that made me nervous is that I forgot the Cliff Bar I bought in Denver for the run. I figured I would be ok without it for a while. Once I got to Washington Park, the plan had been to run three laps and some change to complete my 17-miler. My legs were starting to get really tired when I reached the park.

When I got the park, I had about nine miles to go. It could be that I am unfamiliar with the park, but I could not find any water fountains. A hot day, dry climate and no fuel can make for a disastrous run.
My friend Miranda showed up around mile 12 of my run and I got my Cliff Bar from her when I got to 13.1. The Cliff Bar and water she gave me reenergized me. I no longer felt the last four miles would be the death of me.

The last four miles were not easy but I pushed myself to get it done. I drank lots of water and stretched pretty throughly after I finished. It is not the first time I have completed a 17-mile run, but it is probably one of the most satisfying, difficult runs I have ever done. Whoo!

It will be interesting to see if I notice any benefits of running at altitude this week. We will not know until I try. That is all I have for now. I hope this has been an enjoyable post.

Keep working hard!

What came on during my run

I figured I would throw up a quick blog while I wait to take off from Denver. I had a pretty great weekend and will talk about it more in detail tomorrow.

Here is what helped me get through my 17-miler today(in order):

The Killers-On Top

Royal teeth- for keeps

The hush sound-sweet tangerine 

Walk the moon-I can lift a car

Fitz and the tantrums-L.O.V

Matt and Kim-good for great

Royal teeth-wild 

Walk the moon-quesadilla 

Fall out boy-dead on arrival

Walk the moon-drunk in the woods

The Mowgli's-slowly,slowly

Fall out boy-rat a tat

The hush sound-crawling towards the sun

Walk the moon-tight rope

Vampire Weekend-A-punk

Jordan Knight-give it to you 

Walk the moon-tete-a-tete

Fun.-take your time coming home

Walk the moon-next in line

Donnis-gone 

Lucky boys confusion-3 to 10

Sleigh Bells-riot rhythm 

Walk the moon-Anna Sun

Vampire weekend-California English 

Foster the People-pumped up kicks

Fun.-be calm

The mowgli's-San Francisco 

Fitz and the Tantrums-don't gotta work it out

The hush sound-don't wake me up

Fall out boy-Saturday

Ke$ha ft Andre 3000-get sleazy

Too Short-blow the whistle

The mowgli's-carry you will

The killers-smile like you mean it

The killers-Sam's town

Vampire Weekend-Run

Vampire Weekend-Diplomat's son

Fall out Boy-Phoenix 

Walk the moon-fixin

Lucky boys confusion-breaking rules

The hush sound-where we went wrong 

Foster the people-Houdini 

The mowgli's-The great divide 

Rain is a good thing

I had quite the exhausting week after coming back from St. Paul. It could that be that a certain someone had too much fun on the trip (me) or that something is up with my body. No matter what the cause is, I had a somewhat up and down week of training last week. Hopefully this week will be different. Lets take a look back at last week.

 August 6, 2013

It sounds weird to say I had an up and down week because I had no complaints with any of my times. I saw some quote this week that said something like, no matter how tired I am, I always find the energy to run (I tried finding it so I could attribute it to that person); that's how I felt on Tuesday. It took me pretty much all day to get motivated for a simple four mile run.

 My body felt lethargic and did not want to leave the house. Eventually, things got going. My body started to feel somewhat alive around 9:47 p.m. The first mile did not go so well; 9:06 split. Suddenly after that, things really got going and I kicked into gear. I managed to get three straight negative splits and finished the last mile with a 6:49 split. Do not ask me where that came from, but it felt great. Things looked promising for the week.

 August 7, 2013

 The mid-week long run can be a difficult one for all runners. It is difficult because it is a slightly longer difference and you have to find a time to do it. My work hours have always been odd, so it can be especially difficult for me. Last week, I worked from 5-9 p.m. and had to find a time to run and get over lethargic-ness.

 I managed to keep my splits between 7:41 and 8:32. My legs were really tired, but I had just had to keep lying to myself and say they were ok. The one thing that made me happy about the run is that I could finish my last half-mile really strong. Having enough energy to have a strong finish is important to me and is a way to implement speed work for me (I really need to get on that). I am not sure why I sweated so much, but that felt good. I even had enough energy to do a short 10-minute full body workout. Even though I did not work too late, I did not know how my legs would react the next day. 

August 8, 2013

Back down to the four mile. The day went by lazily again before I decided to do anything. There were a lot of things that I probably could have done, but just did not have the energy for(noticing a theme for last week). I am not even sure what happened during the day but I did not go running until much later. Eventually, I ran to my friend Jenny's house.

This might have been my best run of the week. The splits were 8:27,8:24, 8:07 and 7:04. These splits are fine for the short runs, but I know that I should find a more consistent pace for the marathon. Again, I will not complain about the splits, because I am happy with them. Despite having good times during the week, the up and down nature of how my body felt, along with the fact that I had to work over 10 hours on Saturday, made me nervous for my long run. 

August 11, 2013

Work got done around 3:45 a.m. I did not get home and into my bed until around 4:15. I think I woke up around 9:30 or so the next day. I went back to sleep for a bit and then just stayed in bed for a very long time. There were thoughts of skipping he 13.1-mile run, but skipping would have made me feel bad. 5:00 p.m. came, I made a half pb & J for fuel and decided it would be now or never.

The sky did not look promising as I walked outside of my place. I said, "please do not rain on me during my long run."Windy City Running Girl and I must have started running around the same time because it started raining around mile three for me. Not sure of what to do at that point, I just kept going.

 It really started to come down and people must have looked at me like a crazy person. I did not want to stop and look at the radar so I just hoped it would stop at some point; it never really stopped. It came, it went, it came, it went. Each time it started raining, it rained a good amount. The best decision I made all day is to wear my Chicago Rock 'N' ROll half-marathon shirt. There is not a time at any point during my long run that I felt like I gained an extra five pounds because of a shirt sticking to me. It surprised me to see how many people were out running once the lakefront path became a part of my run (I wanted to high-five people, but I am not sure they would have liked that).

The first few miles were a little slower because of some stops and I tried to figure out what had been wrong with my phone. I got on to the lakefront path around mile six and started to feel great. It could have been the crazy amount of water I drank at work on Saturday. It could have been that my legs just started to feel great. It just made me happy that things were going well at the halfway point of my run. It is by far the best my body had felt all week. I knew I had been running hard, but it did not feel like a pace that had been too fast for me. Partial thanks go out to the guy who went by me around mile 10.5. He helped push me to finish the run strong.

Upcoming week

Who knows how the week will go, but it should be interesting. I have a trip to Denver on Friday morning and will try to get some runs in out there. Any tips for running out there? That's all for me today.