Overreaching?

Well, today was another day for strides. This time, rather than running at my normal "easy" pace for the individual miles (7.5mph -- 8min/mi) in between the strides, I was running much closer to marathon pace (7:15min/mi). 

After the first stride at 11.5mph, which felt a drop easier than expected, I decided to bump it to 11.7mph for the other strides.

Well, needless to say, after the second time of bumping it up, my HR never dropped back down to any appreciable extent.

Hopefully it didn't take too much out of me for my long run tomorrow. I think I should be fine; despite the fact that it's 16 miles on the treadmill, it's at my easy pace (8min/mi). And my RHR today has stayed in the 40s.

Volunteer Opportunity

Earlier today, the Chicago Marathon and 5k sent out an e-mail highlighting the fact that their volunteering opportunities related to both the marathon and 5k have opened up. When I ran my first Chicago marathon in 2016, I volunteered at the expo handing out the t-shirts to the runners.

This time around, I've decided to do two different volunteer shifts:

The first at the expo for the marathon -- handing out the registration packets. Can't wait to help hype the runners up, especially first-timers. (Gotta remember to wear my Abbott 6-star cap and possibly pin.)

The second will be in the finisher's area of the 5k. Regardless of whether it's handing out medals, post-race food, or dealing with merch, it'll be fun congratulating the finishers and hyping up any who are marathoners doing their shakeout run for the next day.

If you're interested, go to Chicago marathon's website.

Nearly half-way there...

Training for this possibly last sub-3 attempt in Chicago is going well, despite the heat. Granted, I typically only run outdoors on the weekend, but still.

VO2 max has gone from 51 at the start of the cycle to 59. (Hoping to hit 62 by the end.) And I'm enjoying the weekly workouts that include 30-second strides... at 11.5mph(!). They kick my ass, but are actually doable.

While today's run was slightly slower than desired, I wasn't upset with the results, since I started at 72F and finished at 80F.

Finally took a look at just how much of an increase in elevation that first mile is (which was repeated as my 7th mile, too): 100 feet, so, about 2% incline -- no wonder why it's as tough as it is for me. Goal for today was 7:55, which I managed for 5 of the first 6 miles, and the last mile. 

Some tough workouts for the coming week: speed workout with intervals at 9.6 and 10.2mph, tempo workout with half of the mileage at 7min/mile, stride workout with the base pace near tempo (so there won't be much recovery after the strides), and a good 16-mile long run. Bring it!

Expected rejection leads to unexpected award

London Marathon sent out the results of their ballot to the 2024 marathon earlier today. There were about 450k people who entered the ballot, but there are only 40k spots available. Not surprisingly, I was one of the over 400k people who received a rejection e-mail. :-(

However, since I didn't see the e-mail in my inbox, I went into my spam folder. Yep, sure enough, I found it quickly. But as I scrolled a little bit within the folder for gits and shiggles, I discovered several totally unexpected e-mails: from the Marathon Pour Tous (a.k.a., the Mass Participation Event that is being held in the evening following the completion of the 2024 Olympic Marathon -- looks like I won an entry into the race! Registration is several months away, but that was the first step that was needed. Sweet! Now to do the necessary research to figure out where to stay (hopefully not RIDICULOUSLY expensive), and how long I can spend on this first-ever trip to France (given other travel I'm looking at possibly taking throughout the year).

GWR outfit

I'm very much looking forward to running Sydney. Both for the fact that it's Sydney (love that city!), and the fact that I will be attempting a world record in a graduation gown. Since I wasn't required to have a black cap and gown, I decided to go with red. And I'll make sure to augment it by attaching my Marathon Maniac singlet to the back. Gotta figure out if there's something good to put on the mortarboard, too.

Yes. The record requires dark trousers (or khakis), white dress shirt, and dark tie. No specification for shoes - so my regular sneakers will be fine.

Once I upload the photo for Guinness' approval, I need to find out if I have to have the gown zippered up a certain amount, or if I will be able to have it partly (<50%), mostly (50-99%), or entirely unzipped. (I doubt that they will allow it to be 100% unzipped, since the requirement for the gown being below the knee would be mostly pointless then.)

Brutal run

Today's run was truly brutal. When I started out a little after 8am, it was 73F and 90% humidity. By the time I finished, it was nearly 80F. While the conditions were truly horrible, the run wasn't so horrible from the breathing/effort standpoint. However, today's run was atrocious. I started with somewhat fatigued legs, and by the time I finished Mile 7, I had to walk up the hill -- my legs were mostly dead. I wound up alternating .5miles walking, 1.5miles running (slower than desired pace) twice, and then walking my final mile.

Boy, howdy, is it demoralizing when this sort of performance happens. But, at least it's relatively early during the training cycle, and can be overcome. And, as my coach said, this sort of day is why I've got a coach -- he can change up the training sessions during this next week, properly factoring in what's happened.