Log for July 28 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th. Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.
Thursday
- 6.25-Mile Track Workout – Tonight was undoubtedly the warmest track workout of the year. It was mid 90s at the start with a heat index over 100 degrees. I got in a nice 2-mile warmup on the grass infield, but could tell that it was going to be a difficult night with the heat. Our coach turned on a grass sprinkler in the infield so that we could run through the spray during our recoveries to try and cool down. This turned out to be a GREAT idea that I used during every recovery. All things considered I felt really good tonight for most of the workout, which consisted of various 200m and 500m repeats with one set of straights and curves. Paxton looked especially strong tonight, but I was able to hang with him up until the last set. During our final 500m (next to last interval set), I pushed it a little too hard in the heat and didn’t have much energy for our final set of 200m repeats. During this set, my 200m times were around 2 seconds slower than during the earlier set, and Paxton ended up finishing almost 200m ahead of me at the end. All-in-all, it was a good workout, and I learned a lesson about not pushing it too hard in the extreme heat and humidity.
On a related note, I absolutely love our running group. We had dinner after track at the Dog of Nashville (my family was also able to join us), and I had a fabulous time hanging out with everyone (as always). There are a number of races over the next 6 months that many of us will be doing together, and I’m really looking forward to them all (Tupelo 14.2, Chicago Marathon, Ragnar Relay, New Orleans Marathon).
- Cross Training – Tonight was P90X: X-Stretch — So needed this tonight!