Chicago Corrals

Earlier this week, the Chicago Marathon put out their qualifying standards for the 14 corrals across 3 waves, and sent runners their preliminary corral assignments.

Wave 1 has the elites and 5 additional corrals:

We'll get specific instructions on the timing later this summer, since the final assignments will get posted August 17. If they proceed like races with corrals under normal circumstances, it will be a rolling start for each of the consecutive corrals within a given wave.

I've been assigned (as of now) to Corral B, so I should be crossing over the start line within a couple of minutes of the starting gun. And, mercifully enough, not only is there a 3-hour pacer in Corral A, there is one inside Corral B, too. Perfect for those of us who haven't previously cracked that huge barrier but are trained up to do so.

If you're reading this, are registered for the Chicago Marathon, and are looking to change your corral assignment prior to August 10 (one week before the final assignments are made), make sure to fill out the request form.

Stay tuned for additional details re: Chicago, Boston, and NYC as they become available.

Don't cheat your training

Admit it: you saw that title and figured this post would be about one of two things -- 1) make sure not to skimp on speed or duration of your workouts "just because" or 2) something related to nutrition. Nope, not this time. It's actually a warning to make sure that you always treat your "easy" days as "easy" (don't do anything extra or difficult on them, even if you think you have it in you), and to make sure that your scheduled "off" days truly are just that -- off from exercise.

As infuriating as it can be to just sit around the house watching TV, reading a book, or working a tricky puzzle at a moment when you actually have the energy and drive to go out for a good run and expend that energy, planned days off (typically after a long run or a particularly difficult "something of substance" workout) are extremely important. It is when adaptation occurs and improvement is made manifest. And it is something to *not* talk yourself out of.

This week's long run was only 10 miles at 7:30 pace (where goal marathon pace will be 6:52), and I had a day off following it, setting me up for the first SOS day of the week -- intervals, mostly ½-mile each at 9.8mph with only 90 seconds rest in between. It was great; HR didn't get too high during the intervals and it dropped sharply during the rest intervals -- exactly what it was supposed to be. Today was an "easy" day to help recover from yesterday's effort, setting me up for tomorrow's 7-mile tempo run. While my legs clearly weren't "fresh" (after all, how could they be after yesterday's effort and my standing at my desk all day today, as per usual?), it was still a comfortable 8:00 pace.

Yes, my goal (still) is sub-3 for Chicago, but running all training miles only at goal marathon pace (what I did when I first started marathoning) is not the best way to go about it. Not so dissimilar to Galloway's run/walk method to hit your goal, so too is alternating training days between hard efforts and easy ones the best way to train to achieve your time goals, IMO (and that of my coach).

Training for Chicago

So, I've been a bit lax in posting. Things outside of my training have been a bit busy. I'm actually inside of Week 2 of training for Chicago. The big days with Week 1? 10k time trial (Day 1) and 5k time trial (Day 2), so that my coach could see what sort of shape I'm in.

As he put it, age has not been a detriment to me. His goal for my 10k was 40 minutes, and I finished in 39:45. His goal for my 5k was 20 minutes, and I nailed it in 19:20. (!) 

Today's speed work had intervals ranging from ¼ mile (at 10mph) to 1 mile (at 8.9mph). Really nice to get the praise of "Just a superior effort. Executed perfectly. HR data is a thing of beauty for a coach." The sharp, fast drop-off/recovery with each walk break is what this was about. Now to keep that up for, oh, 15 more weeks. :-)

Mercifully, SOS (something of substance) runs are alternating days, so tomorrow's 6 miles should be a pretty easy effort.

Delaware HALF Marathon

Despite having been pissed about the marathon cancellation, I ran the half marathon today. Very quickly I understood why they couldn't have merely had the marathoners do the course twice. Far too many points along the course were too narrow to accommodate the extra traffic, especially with marathoners who would want/need to pass the half-marathoners who were taking up the rear of the half while the mid-pack was on the return already. And there was no viable turnaround point at the half-way mark.

Did pretty well -- 1:31:28. 25th overall, 3rd for age group. Early on, I managed (briefly) to get out in front of one lady whose running gait was rather distracting (her feet were splayed to the outside, though her stride itself was fine), but couldn't manage to stay in front of her. Instead, she wound up being about 50-100 feet in front of me for the vast majority of the race. While there were no pacers on the course, her pace was so consistent (and what I was looking to run), I basically used her as the rabbit to chase. Worked quite well; I thanked her after we crossed the finish line and complimented her on her consistent pace getting me through.

So, the decision I need to make now is where to donate the medal for the full marathon. I was handed it when picking up my bib. And it's just not right to keep it, IMO. At first, I had declined the half marathon medal given I had been handed the medal for the full at registration, but then rethought that decision. Take the medal for the race I completed, and donate the one for the race that never happened. After all, they can't exactly re-use them.

So, where would you donate the extra medal? (Even more helpful if it is a Northern Virginia organization.)

(So far, I've found Medals4Mettle.org and WeFinishTogether.org)

Always get refundable hotel rooms

I should know better. While it's fine to pre-pay for a hotel room, make sure that it is fully refundable. If the race cancels mere days ahead of time, you shouldn't be out that cost.

I was all ready to run the full marathon in Wilmington Delaware on Sunday (postponed from March), but in the last day, they canceled the full (while keeping all the other events). My options: get a refund for the race (great, but I'd still be out the cost of the hotel room) or bump down to the half (while not getting the *difference* in the registration rates refunded to me).

I've done all the training, and thankfully have only a relatively short drive to Wilmington, so I'll suck it up and go out as fast as I can for the half -- see what my PR can really be, knowing that I don't need another 13.1 miles in the tank. The only half marathons I've run (since moving out of NYC, when it would have been only as part of training and to qualify for NYC Marathon in th 9+1 program (before the +1)) have been at Disney, and none of them "for time."

Silver lining: Assuming that the Marathon Maniacs are the pace team for the Marine Corps Marathon again this year (now that they are holding a live event) and I can get onto the team again (like I did for the 50k in 2019), that will enable me to have the 50th running of the NYC Marathon be my 50th marathon. With all the cancellations in the past year and some of the random other races I wound up doing along the way, it's amazing to think that that synchronicity that was supposed to happen last year is set to happen this year - possibly.

Positive Feedback Loop

Lately, my training runs have been going extremely well. All of them for the last several weeks have been pretty comfortable, hitting the pace without much/any difficulty. Sure, it's a bit easier to do so given the pre-set tempos on the treadmill, rather than dealing with the elements, but even the treadmill can be a challenge if there's some issue on any given day. I've certainly had my fill of those over the years.

I'm hitting my training well enough that I'm confident that I could break 3:10 again if the weather is cool enough. Looking at the semi-long-range forecast, though, the forecast is for a low of 66F with sunrise being 1 hour before the race starts. It's also calling for thunderstorms. Hopefully it will merely be an intermittent light rain so that I can get the cooling effect of the rain and not have to worry about getting water at the stations to douse myself with. With a slight breeze, it just might be good enough conditions to not need to pull back. We'll see -- it's a razor's edge we'll be running between that storm and the temps climbing quickly (the forecast high being 85F).

Regardless of the race-time decision on my pace, this latest part of the cycle (now that I'm in my taper) has been going well and I'm totally confident in the times I have in me. Now to just get to the start line already...

Officially in

 It's official! I will be running in this year's NYC Marathon in the reduced-size (33,000-strong) field.

So looking forward to doing all three domestic World Marathon Majors (Chicago, Boston, NY) in the span of less than 4 weeks. I'd love to know how many others are crazy enough to do this triple (given Boston is immediately after Chicago this year, rather than 6 months earlier), let alone even more (if not all) of the Majors.

It should be interesting to see what the different COVID mitigation strategies are going to be among these three races. Hopefully as the population is increasingly vaccinated and we're closer to herd immunity, the protocols will be ever more relaxed. 

Positive thoughts and energy, please. Let's have as close to a normal fall race season as possible!