Week 9

It's three weeks until the 1/2 and I'm cruising right along. I had a little 3k race in here this week to practice some speedy running and show me how well my training is going. And it's going well! Today's long run was split into two parts because of the 3k, but the 2nd part still went well.

Here's the rundown...

8/19: 5.0 miles - palatine trail (library), track*5, and back (9:32 pace)
8/20: 3.0 miles - track*5 and back (9:05 pace)
8/21: 5.0 miles - palatine trail (library), track*5, and back (9:38 pace)
8/24 1.86 miles - Palatine Feet Fest 3k (7:24 pace) - that's not a typo!!
8/24: 8.14 miles - lake arlington * 4.25 laps (9:42 pace)
Total: 22.0 (goal 21.0)

Palatine 3k

This will be a short race report for a short race :) Every year as a part of our little neighborhood "street fest" in Palatine, they have a 3k race. Now 3k is barely worth putting on a good pair of running shoes, but I use it as a nice warm-up for a longer run later in the day. And it goes right past my front door, so how I could turn that down!!

Anyway, I decided that I was going to give it all I had and really run through it. I mean, it's only 3k. So I line up right behind a bunch of high school cross country kids that I know I can't beat and try to stay up towards the front for most of the race. They ended up a few blocks ahead of me, but I kept going strong and didn't let up. As I turned the corner towards the finish I saw the clock at 13:20 and was a bit shocked. I kicked it up a bit and finished in 13:50, which is a 7:25 pace! My fastest race to date!

It's also really nice to walk to the start of the race and leave home 15 minutes before the gun :)

Week 8

Just four more weeks until the 1/2 and all is going well. This was my first 20+ mile week and I decided to keep on going and make it 21. The 1/2 training plan I'm doing is a little light at the end, so I'm trying to increase the long runs a bit as I near the end.

Here's the rundown...

8/12: 4.5 miles - palatine trail (library), track*3, and back (9:22 pace)
8/13: 3.0 miles - track*5 and back (9:12 pace)
8/14: 4.5 miles - palatine trail (library), track*3, and back (9:26 pace)
8/17: 9 miles - lake arlington * 5 laps (9:42 pace)
Total: 21 (goal 20.0)

Week 7

Week seven really brought up the mileage! But so far so good. Actually I'm feeling really excellent for just having a 19.5 mile week. This training thing is definitely much easier the second time around!
Here's the rundown...

8/6: 4.5 miles - palatine trail (library), track*3, and back (9:31 pace)
8/7: 3.0 miles - track*5 and back (9:12 pace)
8/8: 4.5 miles - palatine trail (library), track*3, and back (9:33 pace)
8/10: 7.5 miles - palatine trail (dundee, library), track*3, and back (9:39 pace)
Total: 19.5 (goal 19.0)

Week 6

Week six was a fun one and included a morning run through Central Park in NYC on wednesday morning. That was a wonderful run that I really wish I could do more often. I'm super jealous of anyone who lives right there!! This was also a fallback week, hence the easy "long" run.
Here's the rundown...

7/30: 4.0 miles - NYC - 6th ave to Park Dr to The Lake and back (9:34 pace)
7/31: 2.0 miles - track and back (9:17 pace)
8/1: 4.0 miles - track * 9 and back (10:11 pace)
8/2: 4.1 miles - palatine trail (9:29 pace)
Total: 14.1 (goal 13.1)