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Week 10 – Tempos, Injuries, Heart Rate Monitor, Ramping Up

Week 1-9: 181.97 miles – 25:35:21 (8:26/mile)
Week 10: 31.78 miles – 4:30:08 (8:30/mile) | Last run: 14.47 miles – 1:56:09 (8:02/mile) @ Avg. HR = 162

It has been both an amazing and frustrating marathon training season the past 10 weeks + the 10 pre-training weeks. On the one hand, I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve been in since I picked up running consistently again in my mid-20’s. On the other hand, I’ve been plagued with various running injuries that just won’t seem to go away. Shortly after my first entry, I had slight bout of tendonitis which went away after about 10 days of rest. However then I got hit with bursitis in my left foot and a potential knee injury, either way, I’m hoping that in the next few weeks everything holds up okay since I’m ramping up to averaging 32 miles a week for the next 5 weeks before tapering begins.

I bought the Garmin Heart Rate Monitor strap a few weeks ago and have been using it for all my runs and it’s pretty cool to use. I read Peter Pfitzinger’s Advanced Marathoning book while I was in Iceland a few weeks ago and I’ve been following the heart rate table as best as I can for my 4 runs: Recovery, Aerobic, Tempo, Long Run. It’s definitely interesting to see how my heart responds to the different temperatures and paces that I run at. I must admit that running 11 minute miles on Recovery runs when I’m used to running 7 to 8 minute miles on normal runs isn’t pleasant but I’m standing by this Heart Rate Monitor training regimen.

Overall, while it has definitely been a frustrating season with these nagging injuries, I must admit I haven’t enjoyed running more than I am enjoying it now. I love running in the early morning and the city of Chicago is just an amazing city to run in. I’m also starting to get into biking and I’m definitely thinking about doing a triathlon in the near future. I think this winter I’m going to start swimming and maybe do my first tri sometime next year.

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First Training Entry – Week 1 – 10 miler along the lakefront

Base Miles (10 weeks): 135.25 miles – 18:47:19 (8:20/mile)
Week 1: 23.56 miles – 3:08:56 (8:00/mile) | Last run: 10.02 miles – 1:21:57 (8:10/mile)

I’ve been training for the past 2.5 months and have gotten in about 135 base miles before week 1 of an 18 week training program that mixes Hal Higdon’s Intermediate Marathon training program with World Vision’s training program. Today was the last day of Week 1’s training and I ran with Team World Vision on a 10-mile long run. The weather was amazing and everyone was in high spirits since we finally got some reprieve from the scorching Midwest heat that we’ve been experiencing for several weeks now.

Having been training at about a 7:45 to 8:15/mile pace for my standard runs prior to my long-run I figured I would do around an 8:30 to 8:45/mile pace. That wasn’t the case, at all. In fact, the weather was perfect, 73 degrees or so with a cool lake breeze and I felt really good throughout the entire run. I ended up doing 10 miles at an average pace of 8:10/mile going at what I thought was a pretty easy pace (60-70%). It was a solid run for everyone and there was a great sense of running camaraderie.

The route was nice too, since having just moved to Chicago just a little over 2 months ago, I haven’t had the opportunity to try out too many routes yet. We ran to Navy Pier and then looped back and went 3 miles west of Castaways to the “Totem Pole” and back. It was pretty breezy and the waves were making some big splashes along the path which was fun and amusing.

Days like this remind me why I run and go through a pretty regimented training program in the summer to get ready for a Marathon. I love how you can run and explore different parts of Chicago and when the weather is nice, it just makes everything better! 17 More Weeks to go!

I'm in New York Marathon 2012

Chicago Summer Running