Progression, 800s + an Olympic Double, a 5K, 24

This past week was a pisser. I had some harder workouts, it continues to be an Indian Summer here in Chicago, and I’ve been stuffing mileage in where I can.

A huge knock on wood here... My calf feels solid again. My dead legs are long gone. With the exception of feeling tired, I continue to plug along.

In the last week:

- Tuesday evening progression – it was hot and humid, 14mi total w/ 5.5 at MGP or faster.

- Thursday afternoon track – Another hot and humid day. 10x800 at 2:36.4 average w/ 90sec recovery. It was about two seconds slower than I would've liked, but I think given the conditions, it was all I could expect.

- Thursday evening Olympic double – 11mi at a moderate pace. It made for a bitch of day, but it was an absolute mandatory run. A huge thank you to my friends, Michelle and Anu Parekh for including me in Anu’s birthday festivities.

Long story short, Michelle surprised Anu by having Matthew Centrowitz join a small group of us for the evening. In case you need a refresher... Matthew Centrowitz was freshly crowned the Rio 1500M Gold Medalist. He's the first American to win the 1500M Gold Medal since 1908!! Literally, HE IS QUENTIN CASSIDY FROM ONCE A RUNNER... only Matthew won the gold!!

The whirlwind festivities included an 11 mile run with him on Thursday evening, then dinner/drinks and hanging out, and then another 8 again on Friday AM. Everyone was totally geeked out by this. There’s no way we couldn’t have been!! The guy has inked his name into running history for having won one the greatest races I've ever watched. And to top it off, Matthew is a really friendly and genuine person too, let alone a complete stud. Seriously, a thoroughbred racehorse at his prime. It’ll be fun to watch him perform over the next few years as he ventures into more competitions and new distances. We’re all huge fans of his following this experience.

- Saturday 5K – There’s nothing to brag about here, as I choked out a lame 16:30 at Park Ridge. It was just that... me gutting the thing out.

First mile was solid and I clung to a 3rd place position, at 5:13. 1st and 2nd places were about 5 seconds ahead of me, and I had 4th slightly off my tail. Second mile I over took one of the front runners, but slowed to 5:19. And that was the end of it for me. The guy that was originally in 4th passed me and I just let him go. I slipped to a 5:23 in that third mile, and closed at 33 sec for the 16:30 and 3rd overall. The lame thing was, the guy that wound up passing me and in 2nd place was only 4 seconds ahead. I can’t say that I sucked, but I definitely didn't lay pipe like I was supposed to... I was just plain old tired. That capped off a 102 mile week, which had me over-running in the past couple days. There was no taper or letting up going into this thing.

- Sunday 24 – So following yesterday's 5K and now being officially two weeks from the Chicago Marathon, I was struggling with what to do with myself. I wanted a long run, but I didn’t know if I should push 20, 22, or 23. I started easier and just let it unfold. First 8 miles averaged about 7:15. I then began plugging away. I knocked it down with about 9 miles of 6:35-6:45s, followed by a couple of 6:10-6:15s in the 22+23rd miles. I felt completely strong the whole way and finished without the slightest dent from 75 degree heat or dehydration. Absolutely no complaints there, and it totally redeems my 16:30 the previous day.

In light of the 24, I’m definitely fit but I’m not done yet. It’s clearly risky doing all this two weeks out from the marathon, but given my lull in July and early August, then my speed bump a couple weeks ago... I don’t think it’s a bad strategy. After today, I have easy miles tomorrow, another bigger tempo on Tuesday, a day of rest on Wednesday, and then my infamous 20x400 track workout on Thursday.

After that, the peak is in and I can start a massive recovery for the following nine days. By Thursday, I’ll how fast I should gun this marathon.

Hopefully Centro has rubbed off on me, and helps my motivation to lay pipe on marathon morning:

Speed Bump

It’s simply part of marathon training. You can’t push the redline day after day or week after week without something giving. All you can do is damage control, and try to get back to training as quickly as possible.

Following a nice MGP/tempo run at the Lake Zurich Half, my goal was to push hard for two and a half final weeks with my training, then wind down for the final week and a half.

Unfortunately, my lower legs tightened up like mad after that half. It was a bit hilly, so I wasn’t totally shocked at the soreness. But something just didn’t seem quite right, especially in my right calf. The race was a Sunday, I went easy on Monday, then took Tuesday off to let it calm down. Then in my easy-AM run on Wednesday, something pulled in my final quarter mile of the run. It felt like it was dead in the middle of the right calf.

Without a doubt, this was caused by my dehydration in the last week.

In the end, it was merely a knot, and I’m incredibly lucky for that... but at the time, I was legitimately concerned that it was much worse. I took some aggressive steps right away for damage control. I booked a massage for later that day, I iced, I compressed it, I took some Motrin, etc.

The massage helped a ton – and likely got half of it out. It also helped to flush some of the crap from my lower legs, which let me focus on where the damage was actually located... deep at the intersection of the soleus and the gastroc. The calf certainly wasn’t ready to run though, and I was forced to keep nursing it and take two days off.

I continued with aggressive icing, compressing, and resting on both Thursday and Friday. Most importantly though, I tried Ream’s favorite trick several times a day, for 3 days in a row - laying my leg on a baseball to self-massage / roll the thing out. The knot finally let go and I was ready to run by Saturday, and picked up my long run yesterday. As of now, I think I'm in the clear.

The result of this stupid injury meant three donuts in a key peak week! Instead of running 100 miles, I wound up with 40.

On the plus side, I feel reasonably fresh again and can push for the next week+ to try to regain my position. My marathon isn’t busted yet, but it’s not going to be easy... and these fuckers don’t run themselves!

ADK'16, Round 2

So my first trip up to the cabin this year didn't really amount to a whole heck of a lot of running, as it typically has been in the past. Aside from doing the Boilermaker, I wound up trying to recover and chilling out most of the time. I simply didn't need the miles back in early July.

However, this year I'm fortunate enough to have the time for a second trip to the cabin, so I went back up there for a long Labor Day Weekend. It was good quality family time with my parents, my sister, Patti, and my two nieces. I got in some solid water skiing, worked my butt off with a few maintenance projects... and ultimately, I had some running redemption with 5 days to cram as many miles in as I could handle.

I wound up running 4 of the 5 days.

Quick recap:

Thursday - Moderate 14 miles out/back from cabin to Hogsback/Belfort Rd.

Friday - Progressing 12 miles from cabin to Croghan... started easy and progressed into 7 miles that averaged 6:15. Finished with a pancake breakfast with Mark at Schultz's.

Saturday - Easy 21 miles looping cabin up to Number 4 (past Charlies), then down and back.

Sunday - REST I was a little too sore in the morning, so I decided to chill for the day.

Monday - Easy 14 miles out/back from cabin to Stillwater.

In the end, I had just over 60 miles in the 4 days that I ran. I capped off the week ending 9/3 with 99 miles, which has been my biggest training week so far.

My diet was reasonably healthy and I feel fairly lean coming back to Chicago. Even better, so far so good with my Dead Legs Syndrome, as I haven't had any major issues since I knocked that out a few weeks ago. My only issues at this point are dealing with the lingering Chicago heat. The last two days have been brutal runs in well north of 90 degrees. As I write this, I know I'm severely dehydrated. I'll need to be careful for the next few days until the weather breaks.

I’m looking to maintain my mileage from here for the next two weeks. This week will have me moving some runs around ahead of Sunday's Lake Zurich Half Marathon. I'll juggle my long run to Friday, and look to do a marathon paced run at the half, much like I did last year.