Log for August 22 & 23 – 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.
Monday
- 5.1-Mile Trail Run – It was really good to run with Nathan again. It seems like we haven’t run together in a long time. Along with Paxton, we did the Blue, Yellow, Orange & Candy-Cane trails in Edwin and Percy Warner parks. My legs felt really good considering the 20-miler on Saturday, and I even ran most of the route with the barefoot stride I’ve been practicing in my Saucony Hattoris. I’m starting to think about fully transitioning to this stride prior to the Chicago Marathon. May write a blog post dedicated to this transition soon.
- Cross Training – Tonight was P90X: Shoulders and Arms. I continue to use slightly less weight on the dumbbell exercises and put much more focus on form.
Tuesday
- 9-Mile Tempo Run – Today’s run was a solo effort through the streets of Belle Meade. I had hoped to average around 7:45 pace, but I just didn’t have it today plus it was very humid at 6am. Even though I felt pretty good during the trail run yesterday, my legs just didn’t respond this morning. I’m guessing this is still carryover from our 20-mile run on Saturday.
My pace through the first 7-miles was around 7:58. Since I wasn’t feeling great I decided to focus on stride and ended up doing about 40% of the run using the new barefoot stride that I’ve been working on using my Saucony Hattoris. This is beginning to feel more and more natural and I’m almost at the point where I feel like I can go faster with the new stride. By the time I finished mile 7, I finally started feeling better and did the last two miles in 7:35 and 7:06. This pushed my overall average down to 7:50. While I wasn’t thrilled with how I felt, I am happy to have finished strong and to have done so well with the forefoot stride. - 1-Mile “Barefoot” Run – This little run was not planned, but I decided to do an easy mile when the opportunity presented itself. Today my wife Olivia went back for her 4-week follow-up after being diagnosed with tibial stress fractures in both legs. Her doctor told her that the healing had progressed to the point where should could begin walking 3 days a week. To get in her walk tonight we went to a little park down the street that has an asphalt track and a playground. Olivia walked the asphalt while I played with the kids on the playground. When she finished, we traded places and I did a mile on the track in my Hattori’s.
- Cross-Training – Tonight Olivia and I did P90X: Ab-Ripper X … BRING IT!!