Here We Go Again...

So tomorrow is the Chicago Triathlon and I am super excited. My training has been very consistent over the past several weeks, and I even managed to get three swimming lessons in and an open water swim last weekend. I am actually feeling MUCH more relaxed than I normally do before races, although I have to admit I had forgotten all of the logistics involved in doing a triathlon. I am putting all my stuff together tonight and still need to figure out exactly when and how I am going to head downtown for the race.

I am also really confident I can throw a really fast race down. The swim is a bit of a wildcard (I am guessing it will be somewhere in the 15-16 minute range), but I feel really locked in on the bike and run. Plus I will be debuting my super deep aero front wheel, so even if I don't RIDE fast I will at least LOOK fast. As for the run, I am definitely shooting for a sub-7:00 pace 5K, which based off of my brick workouts should be realistic. One thing I can say for certain is I am not leaving ANYTHING on the course tomorrow!

Back In The Water

This afternoon I took a private swim lesson at my local YWCA. It has been so long since I swam—just putting on my swim jammers and goggles (the latter of which were a pair I bought a couple of years ago and had never actually worn) felt super weird. My instructor is a long-time competitive swimmer and coach, including at our local high school. She was super friendly and encouraging, and the fact she has done many triathlons provided me with additional comfort.

We primarily worked on making my stroke more relaxed—I honestly did not realize how much tension there was in it. She also said that I was swimming fast—which was the LAST thing I expected to hear. I am already feeling better about the swim portion of my triathlon at the end of the month. I definitely plan on taking another couple of lessons with her before the Chicago Triathlon. Now I just need to figure out how/when to get some yards in...

Update

I have now been running for the past several weeks 100% injury-free, which has been a wonderful feeling. I am typically running six days a week and riding twice a week, including one ride into the office (14.5 miles) and one longer weekend ride (20-30 miles) with a 5K run afterwards. Today I rode a little over 20 miles at 18.8 MPH and then ran 7:07 pace for the 5K, which was my fastest post-bike run of the summer. 

With the Chicago Triathlon just over a month away I am probably going to take a few swim lessons just to get my stroke back. I strongly considered just muscling my way through the half mile swim, but I do not think it is a great idea to have my first swim in over two years be the actual race. I am still looking to add another sprint triathlon or 5K to my race schedule. I was planning to a duathlon in Naperville next weekend but by the time I finally decided to do it the race was sold out. That's it for now...

All The Way Back

So after what felt like forever getting over my leg issues I have been back to 100% for the past several weeks. I have consistently been running 5-6 days a week as well as riding a day or two as I prepare for the Chicago Triathlon in late August. I also did a 5K a few weeks ago in 20:20, which was slower than what I was hoping for but understandable given the fact I did not have a chance to do much speed work before the race.

Now that my legs are feeling much better I have ramped up the speed work and feel like I am already starting to see results, including 7:10 and 7:09 pace 5K runs as part of brick workouts the past two weeks. I am considering adding a duathlon in early August to my race schedule and may squeeze one more 5K in as well. More than anything it just feels nice to have all the injuries behind me (at least for now) and be able to train the way I want to from day to day.

Feeling Groovy

So after six days off from running my left knee is feeling A LOT better. I have been pretty good about icing it and taking ibuprofen on a fairly regular basis, and I am also wearing a compression knee brace (except when I am running). Wednesday I ran three miles easy on the treadmill, followed by five miles on Thursday and Friday (including my first untimed run in years). After doing the elliptical yesterday I ran eight miles this morning and aside from a little discomfort when I stepped up onto a curb my knee felt perfectly fine. It also appears that I really have not lost any fitness, which is nice. I do not have any races on the calendar right now but I am starting to at least think about it...

Hurt Again...

So as I mentioned in my last post my left knee has felt really balky for the past several weeks, basically since I moronically placed custom orthotics in my running shoes that are already designed to prevent overpronation. I managed to keep running through the discomfort until this past Thursday, when the pain was simply too much to continue to bear. I made an emergency appointment with my physical therapist, which was yesterday. The appointment went well: she does not think there is any structural damage, and after she worked on my knee it felt SIGNIFICANTLY better.

She wants me to take a few more days off before I start running again and had a couple of other recommendations, but quite honestly I was just really happy to hear there is no major damage. The good news is I currently do not have any races on the schedule so this is as good of a time as any to take a break. The key thing will be truly easing back into running next week and not pushing things too hard too soon, which I feel is typically my challenge.

Just Shuffling Along: 2022 Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle Race Report

Usually heading into at race there are two things I know with certainty: (1) what my target is for the race; and (2) a reasonable expectation of what I am capable of. Going into today's Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle I knew neither. While my fitness level was fairly decent, my left knee has continued to be balky for the past few weeks, preventing me from doing any significant speedwork. In addition, I could not completely rule out the possibility the shooting pain that had led me to abandon a couple of runs a few weeks ago would not return mid-race. I actually considered just skipping the race, but given the fact my last several runs have been relatively pain free (including six last week), I decided to go for it.

I arrived in Grant Park about an hour before my wave was supposed to start, giving me plenty of time to warm up, hit the bathroom a couple of times, check my stuff in, stretch, and head to the start line. I was in the first wave after the elite runners and positioned myself toward the middle of my start corral. The first mile felt relatively comfortable, although I was surprised at how slow I was running (according to my Garmin it was 7:03, but I passed the mile marker at least five seconds before). I quickly realized I was once again overstriding and focused on shorter, quicker strides in order to increase my cadence. It worked like a charm and my second mile was 6:44 (having my body warmed up probably helped as well).

The next two miles went by pretty quickly. According to my Garmin they were 5:53 (highly unlikely) and 6:32 (fairly reasonable); at that point I knew I could no longer trust those splits, as there was little correlation between when my watch said I had run a mile and the actual course markers. I felt like I was passing and being passed by runners on a fairly regular basis, which made sense to me given the fact I started with racers fairly close to my ability level. Before I knew it it was time to crest the final hill on Roosevelt Road before turning onto Columbus Drive and heading to the finish line (the last couple of streets are the same route as the Chicago marathon, which is pretty cool). I picked up the pace considerably and overtook several runners in the last few several hundred meters.

I crossed the finish line in 33:34, which placed me 19th in my age group (top 3%) and 715th overall (top 5%). I also beat my time from the only other time I did the race 15 years ago by 1:38. All in all I am happy that I ended up doing the race and with my results, especially considering all of the uncertainty I felt going into it. Thanks for reading!

Just Checking In

Just wanted to quickly check in on my training. I started running again just three days after the marathon and was quickly back to five days a week, albeit shorter distances. I was feeling great and running fast and ending up overdoing it--I was running too fast too often and ended up getting hamstring tendonitis. I went back to physical therapy in late December and was finally discharged late last week. I am back to 100% now and have learned my lesson--it's back to running slow most days of the week, with a weekly speed session and a long run. I am planning to continue concentrating on running until the weather warms up and I can start mixing cycling into my training regimen. As of right now the only race I have scheduled is the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle on March 20th, which I have not done since the late 2000s. I was originally thinking I would shoot for sub-32:00, but given the training setback I will reassess as the race gets closer. That's it for now--thanks for reading!

We Did It!

In 2004 I trained for my first marathon. Originally the goal was just to finish, but as I realized how fit I was it continued to get progressively more ambitious—first to break 4:00, then 3:30, and by the end to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which would have meant 3:10 or better. Well my training was ultimately inadequate and I failed to respect the distance, and after running the first half in 1:35 I hit the wall hard and limped home to a 3:25:52. Ever since then my goal has been to qualify for Boston, and last weekend I finally achieved it at the 2021 Chicago Marathon, my fifth marathon and 17 years after my first.

Going into the race I felt very confident. My training had gone exceedingly well and I was 100% injury free. My only concern was the weather forecast—mid-60s at the start with a forecasted high for the day in the low 80s. That said, I knew there was nothing I could do about it and just focused on controlling what I could control. I arrived in Grant Park about an hour before the race, had a light breakfast, hit the bathroom twice, and headed for the starting line.

I hit the first mile in 7:35, which I could not have been more pleased with. After a quicker than I would have liked second mile I settled in to keeping every mile in the 7:30-7:40 range. I also made sure to hit every water stop, during which I would pour one cup over my head and drink the second. I was surprised by the number of people I was passing throughout the first half of the marathon, including several that were already walking. I guess the first sign the weather conditions were impacting me was when I hit the halfway mark in 1:39:15, my second slowest first half of the marathon split ever. In addition to the heat and humidity, the wind was blowing pretty strongly. That said, given the fact I knew I was as fit as I had ever been, I was still reasonably optimistic.

I continued to focus on banging out 7:30-7:40 miles, which I was able to do pretty consistently until the 30K mark. That is when I had my only major setback of the race. As I toed the starting line I really needed to go the bathroom (I drank a 20-ounce bottle of Gatorade during breakfast, as I was really nervous about getting dehydrated). I was hoping I could hold it until I finished, but it was getting more and more difficult with each passing mile. I finally could not take it anymore and hit a porta potty right after mile 19. Given all of the fluids I had taken in it was not a quick stop by any stretch of the imagination.

Once I got out of the porta potty I was laser focused on not stopping again or walking at all and finishing strong. I was definitely starting to slow down, but was not falling apart. Eventually I started counting down in my head the number of minutes I still had to run based on the mile and kilometer markers, a tactic I employed many times during my training runs. I was still passing a ton of runners, more and more of which were walking or trying to work out cramps by stretching on the side of the road. Before I knew it the final hill approached. The first two times I ran the Chicago Marathon I walked up most of the hill, and had promised my coach I would run up it if it was the last thing I did. I then pushed through the final few hundred meters before crossing the finish line in 3:23:50. I had stopped my watch when I went to the bathroom to keep accurate mile splits, and my bathroom break cost me almost exactly two minutes.

I have to admit that although I had comfortably qualified for Boston I was initially upset that I had missed my "A" goal of breaking 3:20. But the more I learned about how the conditions had affected everyone, the better I felt about my performance. For example, only the top three men's finishers broke 2:08, and only the top five broke 2:10. And the top woman faded from a 1:07 first half to a 1:15 second half. So I feel like it is a reasonable assumption that with better conditions I would have finished several minutes faster, although this is obviously just conjecture.

After taking Monday completely off I rode my bike on Tuesday and eased back into running on Wednesday. I am not sure what the future holds for my “running career,” but I can finally say I am a Boston Marathon qualifier, and I have to admit that feels darn good. Thanks for reading!

It All Comes Down To This

Tomorrow morning I will be running in the Chicago Marathon, which will be the culmination of nearly a year and a half of training. This will be my fifth marathon, and quite honestly I have never gone into a marathon feeling so confident. My confidence is based on a simple fact: I have never prepared so well for a marathon, not even close. With the exception of the cut back weeks I consistently put in 55-60 miles a week, including running six days a week, a weekly speed workout, and a weekly long run. Three of my long runs were 20+ miles, and I had a handful in the 18-19 mile range as well. I am also 100% healthy--no "niggles" whatsoever. Oh, and I ran 69:47 in a ten mile race and 1:31:42 in a half marathon. So it's just a question of executing tomorrow. We will see how it goes, but at the end of the day I know with 100% certainty I am as well prepared as I possibly can be, and there is a level of solace in that fact alone.