Race Recap: Heatbreaker Indoor Half

So earlier this year when on a whim I decided to do the 13-13-13 challenge it then became a challenge to find half marathons that would fit into my schedule and not interfere with my marathon training.  The idea of running an outdoor half in July seemed gross.  Yes I know I also did RnR, but 1 half in July was enough.  I then stumbled upon the Heatbreaker Indoor Half at the Pettit National Ice Center near Milwaukee.  I figured that while dull - the monotony of running in circles would help mentally make me stronger for the Chicago Marathon, plus you can't beat 55 degrees and dry on race day.  Too bad I couldn't predict that the outdoors weather would be nearly as cool as indoors.

The Pettit Center is where the Olympic speed skaters practice which added a touch of coolness to the event.  The race was to be held on a newly installed Kombi rubber featuring 3 lanes that went around the ice rinks.  The speedskating track wasn't up while we were there but there were 2 rinks in the middle with 1 featuring a free skate and the other hosting a hockey practice.  The track was 445 meters in length meaning we would have to run 47.4 laps as measured by USATF to complete our half marathon.  The other features were port a johns at the turns on each side of the course so you had 95 chances to use the restroom if needed.  They also didn't have a traditional water station, instead you placed your water bottle on a table and grabbed it when you wanted it.  Most runners would take it and run and drink for a lap before dropping it back off.  Sadly our heat had no volunteers to refill the bottles for us like the earlier heats did.  Oh, did I mention the race was run in heats?  There was a 7AM (no thanks!), 10AM, and 1PM.  There was also a musical playlist with music for the duration of the race since headphones weren't allowed.  The 7AM heat featured rock music.  The 10AM heat was pop music.  My heat was an 80s dance party.

Artist rendering of the course map

I was able to sleep in relatively compared to most races since I opted for the 1PM heat.  I probably would have preferred the rock music, but there was no way I was getting to Milwaukee at 7AM.  Instead I left at 10AM and made my drive up.  I sipped on a coke to settle my stomach and snacked on a Powerbar on the way.  I hit some mild traffic on the way but still arrived by noon.  I got checked in, grabbed my shirt and ankle bracelet - I mean timing chip, and went to scope things out since people were still running from the 10AM heat.  I snapped a few shots and relaxed while getting my things together.

Water table at the curve on left

Ice rink past the padded divider, concrete where speed track normally is

View towards where the finish line is

Finally I decided I had a ton of time so I headed to the bathroom and walked around to scope things out.  After a bit I headed back to the track and got my shoes, bib, and tracker on.  I was sipping on my gatorade and trying to make sure I was properly hydrated.  I spotted Chris who I found out from his RnR race report was going to be there and he let me know to wave hi before the race so I did and we chatted for a bit.  I found out he had ran the Icebreaker back in the winter so I picked his brain a little bit for what to expect.  We talked a little bit more and then dropped off our water bottles at the table and finally headed to the start line.  It was the most casual start line you will ever see.  There was probably about 30 of us and it looked like we were getting ready to do a run for middle school gym class.  There are some great pictures over at RunningInTheUSA if you're curious to see what the experience was like.  The race director came over and said this is just going to be ready and firing the start pistol, and then he did just that and we were off.

I did my usual and started too fast.  Normally I'm a bit tamer and take it easy for half marathons, but being on a track must have brought back the sprinter spirit in my heart.  I shot out near the front of the pack - but not the front.  Before the race I did some calculations and figured out I needed my laps in the 2:18-2:19 range in order to break the 1:49 needed to bump myself up a corral for the Chicago Marathon.  I hit the first full lap and was at 2:05 - crap!  I knew there was no way I could sustain that so I backed off and started getting splits right in the range I needed - lots of 2:18-2:19-2:20s.  I have not learned to run with a bottle of water in my hand so I suffered on those laps - 2:22-2:23 range, but I figured I bought some time with the first 1.4 laps that I could spare a few seconds.  I had also hoped to pick up speed later in the race if I had it in me.

I must admit it did get monotonous running in ovals, but it wasn't as bad as you might think.  It was a constant game of reel in the person in front of you, and there was always someone in front of you.  Also by being in the 1PM aka the quieter heat meant that most of the super speed demons had run earlier in the day.  It was kind of nice only being passed by 4 people for most the day, although they did pass by me multiple times.  I gave Chris a hard time the 2nd or 3rd time he passed me.  I was finally passed by a 5th person as the announcer let us both know we had 4 laps to go.  By this point my legs had started to stiffen. I wasn't in nearly as bad shape as I was for RnR, but between that race and my normal training load during the week - I didn't taper - my legs were just ready to be done and my pace suffered.  I started slowing down to the 2:25 range and bottomed out at a 2:27 lap when I got Gatorade one last time - which thankfully Chris had finished already and refilled my bottle for me.  I did the mental math and knew I needed sub 2 minute laps for the final 2 laps to reach my goal and that just wasn't happening.  I finished in 1:49:37 - my 3rd fastest half - which is pretty great considering it was my 2nd half of the week and I didn't taper.  It looks like I will have to try and break that 1:49 hump some other time.  I keep coming close - 1:49:13 and 1:49:25 were 2 other halfs I had this year.  I finished 37th of 105 runners.  Amazingly 6 people chose to run all 3 half marathon heats - 1 of the women actually finished first for women in the 7AM heat and still ran great times in the other 2 heats.

After the race I met back up with Chris - it wasn't hard to do with only a handful of people there.  We watched the runners and I grabbed my Gatorade and re-hydrated.  We then decided to scope out the recovery room.  This room had danishes, cookies, bagels, pretzels, water, and chocolate milk.  It was a pretty impressive spread.  I snacked on half a bagel and grabbed a couple glasses of milk.  Other runners came in as they finished and we chatted.  It was great being around other people who just love running and who have accomplished crazy feats like dual marathon weekends.  I'm not at that level yet, but I aspire to be.  I was thoroughly impressed by the event and think I might head back for Icebreaker in January.  They offer several events of a weekend for that one.  They even have a biathlon where you can ice skate 25km and then also run the half marathon or they offer a full marathon.  There is also a 5K and marathon relay that weekend.  Its spread over 2 days so you could really go running crazy if you want.  It will also be guaranteed to be around 55 degrees and dry.

Simple and Classy

A to Z of Me

Yes I've been slacking when it comes to posting this since I got tagged awhile back by Declan.  Even though I ran yet another race today I will postpone that recap to bring you all you wanted to know about me and more.

Attached or Single? Very much single unless you count the attachment to training.

Best Friend? Probably Jennifer in Chicago

Jim from college, here with his brother Chris who many of you may also recognize

And Brad from back home and high school track

Cake or Pie? I'm not big on either, can I get ice cream cake instead?

Day of Choice? Probably Friday.  Its typically my work from home day and leads into the weekend

Essential Item? I've gotten to where I feel crippled if I don't have my phone.  I remember one time I left it in my car while at work and just felt lost all day.  I kept reaching into my pocket to get it and felt sad it wasn't there.  I finally went back at lunch to get it so I would stop going nuts.

Favorite Color? I'm a boy - I like darker colors.  Usually blues, greens, and blacks.  I used to wear a lot of black for someone who wasn't a goth kid.

Gummy Bears or Worms - I like sour gummy worms when I was a kid.  Don't eat much of either anymore.

Hometown - Canton, MI.... its between Detroit and Ann Arbor.

Favorite Indulgence? I like ice cream.  And yes I'll eat it out of the carton :)

January or July? I got to go with January since that is my birth month.

Kids -  I have 2 kittens, does that count?

Pebbles

Ash

Life isn't complete without? Friends!

Marriage Date?  Let me go ask the non-existent fiance...

Number of brothers/sisters? I have 2 younger sisters.  Both live back in Michigan.

Oranges or Apples?  Apples for sure.  I'm not big on fruit but I will eat apples.

Phobias? I hate heights.  Take me up a tall building and I won't get near the windows.

Quotes?   "Damn the man!  Save the Empire!"

"The snozzberries taste like snozzberries!"

"You can't always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes you get what you need"

Reason to smile? Completing a killer run

Season of Choice?  Spring - race season starts (although does it ever end since we have winter races?) and baseball season starts

Tag 5 People -

Declan tagged him, but he's also slacking so Adam@FatBarefootRunningDad

Chris@ChrisIsRunning

Jim@MoreKnown

Chris@AltrudasAlley

and Beth@OutsideTime is overseas right now, but maybe when she gets back

Unknown Fact About Me? I have semi-photographic memory.  It came in really handy during elementary and middle school when everything was just memorization.  To this day I still rock at trivia just because I remember so much random crap.

Vegetable? Tomato sauce - come on I'm Italian!  Ok fine fine, I'll say carrots.

Worse Habit?  This city is turning me into one of those aggressive drivers

X-Ray or Ultrasound -  The ultrasonic massagers they have at PT are kinda cool.  Make you feel all nice and warm.  I haven't had an X-Ray since I broke my finger.

I had 3 pins put in my pinky

Your Favorite Food?  I love me some babyback ribs.  I remember going on vacations as a kid and ordering them like everyday.  I was eating whole slabs at like 10 years old.

Zodiac sign? I'm a capricorn

Race Recap: Rock and Roll Chicago Half Marathon

So this half marathon was initially not in the plan to run.  It became part of the plan once I decided I wanted to run 13 halfs in 2013.  I looked for different half marathons and tried to figure out which ones would work best with marathon training.  I figured since this race ran some of the same course as the Chicago Marathon that it would be a benefit to me as well as keep me honest in my mileage during training.  I also figured it would be ungodly hot and that it would only make me stronger running it.  So when it came to racing only part of the plan happened.

So the race was actually my 4th in a period of 16 days.  I kicked things off with a brutal 5 mile trail run.  Next I might have went a little faster than intended and PR'd at the 8K distance.  Then came Tuesday and the 5K in the 90+ degree heat where I was just a minute or so off of PR pace.  Clearly I know how to pace myself and keep my legs fresh.  To be fair I never intended to run RnR for time, I was just always expecting it to be hot and nasty.  Friday night I was woken from my sleep with stomach pains.  This was not good.  After a night spent up and down and not sleeping very well I finally got out of bed on Saturday and decided to scrap my plans for a short run.  I wasn't feeling good and still needed to get my race packet.  I headed down to McCormick, my first time ever being there actually, and got my stuff.  This time I actually played things safe and didn't sample of of the goods like a good runner shouldn't do before a race.  I mean my stomach was already upset, didn't need to make things worse.  I got home and meant to go to bed early, but of course that didn't happen either.

Sunday I woke up at 3:30AM and on just 3 hours of sleep I choked down a Powerbar and some Gatorade to try and get some calories into my system and off I went.  I managed to make it downtown far faster than I planned on so I wandered around the race site while it was still a ghost town and people were still setting up.  I chilled for awhile under a tree and waited for the blogger meet up.  I finally decided to use the restroom before things would start lining up.  Afterwards I started heading back to the meet up location and ran into Chris.  We talked and wondered where everyone else was at.  Soon we saw Xaarlin, and then Pete, and then others came along with Maggie strolling in a little late.  We took the obligatory photos, chatted things up a bit.  Seems like no one was really planning on going for speed this race, it was fun runs all around.  My plan was to start solidly and decide half way if I was going to pick up the pace or just cruise in.  After a bit it was just me and Chris again and we talked about RnR Vegas since I knew we were both running that and then eventually off to the start corrals we went.

I was sweating before the race began.  I should have taken that as a warning side.  Finally my corral was sent off and away I went.  My Garmin went haywire under Wacker so I had no idea what my pace was.  I had to just guess where I was at.  It also didn't help that I missed the first mile marker.  Finally I saw the mile 2 marker and checked my time and mental math said I was around an 8:40 pace which was where I wanted to be under my plan.  I kept around this pace, perhaps slowing slightly until about halfway through.  It probably didn't help that I wasn't being easy on myself.  A little while after we were heading back east I finally realized that my side of the street was kind of empty and everyone was running on the left side.  I mean I showered, so what was the problem?  Oh right, there was shade on that side.  I shifted over and joined the smart runners in the shade.  Once I reached mile 7 I took inventory to see how I was doing.  The clock said 1:02 and change - that meant 10K PR pace to the finish line to PR.  Yeah I didn't see that happening so I backed off the pace and decided to try and save the legs.

By mile 8 I was starting to hurt, its strange how quickly things just pop up.  I started taking walking breaks, but limited them, just to keep myself going.  I made sure to take extra water - but didn't do like one guy I saw who ran down the water line grabbing a cup from each volunteer, dumping it on his head and then tossing the cup in the air - if you want to talk about bad running etiquette... not to mention the poor runners behind him who actually want to drink water.   By mile 9 mile stomach was starting to really hurt.  I scanned for portajohns but didn't see any.  Finally just beyond mile 10 I saw some behind the aid station and off I went.  A few minutes later I felt much relieved and headed back onto the course just in time to see Maggie whiz by so I caught up to her and we chatted a little bit.  I eventually lost her in the laser and light show in the tunnel under McCormick.  They were playing Gonna Fly Now - the theme from Rocky - and all of a sudden felt like I had star power in Mario Kart and started cruising.  Once I reached the end of the tunnel and was back in the sunlight it was like someone zapped me with lightning and I faded again.  I saw Maggie run by and knew I didn't have enough in the tank to keep up.  I alternated jogged and running the rest of the way.  I walked a lot of the last 2 miles which in uncharacteristic of my stubbornness but knew I needed to play things safe.  I was in early stages of dehydration and needed to be full strength again this Saturday for the Heatbreaker Half.  Once we got up the ramp and I could see the finish line in the distance I started running again.  It seemed like it would never come, but still I kept running.  Somehow I managed to get my legs churning enough to hit a sub 8 min pace for the final 2 minutes of running.  It was all for naught though, my time was my 2nd slowest half.  On the bright side - it was 7 minutes faster than the last half marathon I ran in similar conditions so I will consider it a hot half PR ;)

I saw Maggie again in the finishing chute so we walked and talked and I grabbed some Gatorade and a much needed popsicle.  Maggie complained about the lack of bag to hold all the goodies.  I didn't have much of an issue.  I didn't want anything much to replenish my fluids.  After heading to gear check I decided I should head home while I was still upright.  I said goodbye and off I went.  When I got off at my el stop 2 other guys got off as well and we were all moving gingerly... we looked at each other's medals and laughed.  I got home, downed some more fluids, tried to make peace with my stomach and then passed out for 3 hours.  I woke up feeling hungover.  Guess I didn't drink enough.

A day later and I'm still fighting with my stomach.  Its not as whiny today and I've been able to eat a little more so that's a plus.  I'm still exhausted - I need to work on the sleeping habits.  My quads are a little sore, but not too bad.  I'm sure the dehydration didn't help with recovery.  I still managed a slow 4 mile jog tonight to shake the body lose.  Hopefully all goes well by this weekend.  Its my last chance to jump corrals for the marathon.  My time is only 13 seconds off from moving up so I feel like I should at least try.  I'll probably do things by feel again.  Its going to be difficult to pace myself as I will be running laps indoors and they aren't at an easy to translate measurement.  Its 447 meters to a lap vs. a standard track of 400 meters.  I'll have to translate that into whatever sort of splits I need to maintain.

It was nice seeing all the bloggers out there at RnR and glad everyone made it through and finished in spite of the heat and humidity.

Race Recap: Strike Out ALS 5K

On Tuesday night I ran the 4th annual Strike Out ALS 5K put on by the Les Turner foundation.  This was my second year running the event.  I had a lot of high hopes after last year's event since it was one of the more memorable events of my first year running.  As I did last year I gathered some friends - including the usuals of Chris and Jennifer - as well as a couple others to raise money for the Les Turner Foundation.  One of the reason I chose this group as a fundraiser was because the cause is a bit closer to the heart.  I lost my uncle to ALS in November of 2011 and so I decided to run the race and raise the money in his memory.  I've seen what this awful disease can do to someone so anyone I can help others I will.

On to this year's event -  Me and Chris bumped into each other on the way to the race.  We only live 2 blocks apart so not completely random, but still a chance encounter.  We also left super early since this is our first time dealing with the red line re-route.  Absolutely everything timed out perfectly and we wound up at the race site an hour early.  We found a nice shaded spot and chilled out while waiting for others.  Eventually Jennifer and Courtney showed up and saved me and Chris from being talked to death by some random guy.  A little later I spotted some fellow bloggers and went over to say hi and get our group photo.  So many bloggers to mention - Erin, Emily, Zenaida, Kelsey, and Lindsay.

After a few announcements everyone lined up to start the race.  There were a few pacing flags set up to organize the speedier runners.  No one wanted to line up front.  Everyone stayed behind the 7 min pace flags.  I had to squeeze my way closer to the front of the group since people were talking about taking it easy.  Who lines up in the 7 min group if they are taking it easy?  Soon the race was underway and we were off.  I didn't hold back like many others did in the grueling heat.  I told myself this was going to take less than 25 minutes, just deal with it and see what happens.  I actually had a great start to the race... I had good form and was running pretty solidly and up near the front of the pack even.  After a half mile in I realized I needed to slow down some.  A mile in the heat started to get to me.  After the race I looked at the results from my Garmin and realized why I was near the front of the pack and then faded... I ran the first minute at a sub 6 minute pace which is pretty crazy for me.  I finished the first mile in 6:53 which I'm quite proud of given the weather conditions.

Mile 2 was a lot tougher.  My pace slowed tremendously.  You know its a rough one when you swing wide just to run near a wall that is blocking some of the direct sunlight from hitting you.  This was the first time I've ever gotten water during a 5K and I even had to walk through the station to make sure I got all the water down.  I wasn't the only one stopping.  Shortly after the water station the coursed turned away from my precious sun blocking wall and out into the wide open spaces of the rest of the parking lot where we zigged and zagged.  Some of the course here was poorly marked and the runners started playing follow the leader and trying to follow directions.  We missed a turn somewhere in the parking lot and wound up doing some weird out and back thing rather than gentle turns.  Somewhere in the parking lot I hit mile 2 and this one came in at 7:53.  At about mile 2.5 or so we entered the stadium which felt a ton cooler compared to the outside.  I started to catch my breath and speed up again.  Next thing I knew the runners ahead of me were turning down a tunnel so I followed and we wound up on the field - in the outfield, half a lap early.  We were supposed to come out a tunnel near home plate.  It looks like a big group of the "speedier" runners all did the same mistake before they sent someone to direct people not to run down the tunnel.  This was a little frustrating for me since I was hoping for a good outcome from the race.  I knew my PR was good enough to place when compared to last year's field of runners.  I knew I wasn't going to run a PR in the 90 degree heat, but figured most the runners would still be slowed down just like me.

I crossed the finish line in 20:34, but that is for about 2.75 miles by my estimates.  I was on pace to run between 23:00 and 23:30 which would still rank among my fastest 5K times.  Who knows how well I would of done had I ran the full race since I was just starting to speed back up when we hit the field.

After the race a bunch of the runners realized what had happened and no one knew what it meant for us.  There wasn't any midway checkpoint so even though we took an accidental shortcut the times counted.  I just gathered my things from gear check and headed to the stands to watch for my friends to finish.  One by one they finally came - out the correct tunnel.  Before leaving I found the computer to check my results.  It said I finished in 24th place.  I didn't know whether or not to believe this at the time.  Today the official results were sent out and I did indeed finish in 24th place out of 567 runners.  There is a nice, nearly 3 minute gap between 28th and 29th place where they fixed the shortcut.  I no longer felt like being in 24th place was cheap or that I cheated since I would have likely finished around the same place had all the runners did the full course.  If anything I might have passed a couple more runners since the 5 runners before me were within 5 seconds.

When all is said and done it was all for a good cause.  Its not like we're out there running for gold medals.  Ok I like to pretend I am sometimes, but that's just some personal motivation.  Its a great event and I love being able to sit in the stands and watch the rest of the runners finish and watch the all star game on the jumbotron.  I didn't get anything from the concession stand this year.  It was just too hot to eat, plus I learned that my post race stomach does not like hot dogs last year.

Race Recap: Bastille Day 8K

You would think that a Bastille Day race would be a bit more, you know French?  Instead we got shirts with stereotypical mustaches. Last year they at least gave out little French flags at the finish line.

This is what I picture for Bastille Day

All and all though it was a decent race.  I heard the 5K course was a bit goofy and crossed back on itself.  The 8K course wasn't too bad.  It got bunched up in spots since we were sharing the lakeront path with everyone else.  We had a weird loop back at mile 2 that seemed to confuse everyone and put us in the path of oncoming bikers, but besides one biker yelling at us, and being subsequently told to chill out by someone else it was pretty uneventful.

Picture stolen from courtesy of Maggie

This was another race that would feature the trio of myself, Chris, and Jennifer.  I arrived at the race site and found Jennifer and her mom.  We then looked around for the gear check area for the blogger meet up.  We also had a couple other friends coming to the race that we needed to meet up with as well.  Eventually we found the spot and later along came Maggie and Amanda.  We took our obligatory photo, talked a little shop, then headed towards the race start.  I lined myself in the middle of the 7:00 min pace area.  I wasn't entirely sure I was going to keep this pace with it being a little warm and the sun still being out.  This was not a goal race and I just wanted to run strong, but not over do it.

Once the race started I found myself busting out of the starting shoot with my usually enthusiasm, but calmed myself down before I over did things.  I spent the majority of the race running comfortably hard.  It was enough that my body was like "Hey let's take a short walk" but not hard enough that I was breathing too hard.  In the end it all worked out and I broke the weird PR thing I had going on where my 10K PR pace was faster than my 8K PR pace... they are now exactly the same!

I'm happy with the result and wasn't even too sore the next day so I went for a Runch - I also did this because I knew I wouldn't be running after work since I was meeting up with Maggie to see Robert Plant live in a free concert at Taste of Chicago.

After the race I found Jennifer's mom and we and rested and stretched waiting for everyone else to finish.  A little later Chris came along, then I spotted Maggie and Amanda so i rejoined them for conversation.  We then went and got some beers and chatted some more.  I also got to meet Britt who had come and found us.  After awhile Jennifer texted me that they were going to get froyo which sounded good for a post race cool down so off I went.

Bastille Day is a nice convenient race for me, but next year I want more croissants or pain au chocolat, merci!

Race Recap 'Merica! 5M

Beers! Brats! Mullets! 'Merica!  That's about all I needed to hear to sign up for this race that was all about the American dream.  This was to be my 3rd Muddy Monk event and the 2nd one that Chris has joined me for.  I got him hooked at Double Down.  We left the city at 8:30 AM and after getting slightly lost, made it to the race site with about 25 minutes to spare.  We wandered around and took in the fantastic scenery and 'Merica themed costumes - think jean shorts, mullets, mustaches, and American flag everything.  I ran into my friend Allison who I used to be in a skeeball league with, yes skeeball league, its a real thing.  She was running her first race so I wished her luck and assured her it wouldn't be her demise. 

Red, white, and 'Merica!

Soon we were lining up and after Art's brother in law chugged a beer we were off to the races... until we reached the trail and there was a brief bottleneck and traffic jam.  Most of the trail was single track and a lot more technical than my previous Muddy Monk races.  I used the short stints on the gravel paths to my advantage to get around other runners, using my speed to my advantage, and then catching my breath once back on the wooded trails and everyone slowed down.  This worked well for the most part, but some of those trails had some pretty nasty climbs.  There were 2 short creek jumps, both followed by climbs that would of been near impossible if not for the tree roots to use for grip.  I just wasn't ready to keep up pace as we don't normally face these conditions in the city.  Combined with the heat, I eventually started to wear out and slow down a bit.  Chris caught up to me after the water station at the halfway mark and ran with me the rest of the way.  He even stopped when I had to stop to tie my shoe.  He let me run in front, probably to figure out where he needed to go by letting me test the waters.  I did nearly bite it once.  My shoe got full on root and I was going down hard and fast into more roots.  Somehow I got my leg back under me and recovered.

Jumping the creek

Chris on my tail

So I'm a little bit of a stinker and just full out took off when we hit the clearing and I knew the finish line was near.  I was flying past other runners who had passed me on the last little bit of the trail and thought I had left Chris behind even though he kept with me for the last half of the race.  Every man for himself at the finish line right?  I get to the finish line and turn left and Chris was right there.  He had kept up with me!  Chris had started catching up to me last year before knee issues sidelined him.  It looks like he may start to catch up again now that he's back to training regularly.  Nothing better than a friend to push you along in training.  Once Muddy Monk posted the pictures I went through and found mine and noticed that yes, we did indeed have a photo finish.

I'm running and Chris looks like he's on the catwalk

Overall it was a great race and a great day in spite of the rising temperatures.  We didn't stick around long enough for the BBQ because I had to get back to the city to meet relatives and head to the Cubs game.  Baseball is all American too right?  I'll get to return to this same trail for a bit of redemption next month for the Nearly Sane Trail Half.  Something tells me I should work on the hills in the meantime.

Marathon Training Week 3

Hi Folks,
I've been slacking hardcore.  OK, I've been working like a dog, but I've been slacking on the blog and other aspects of life.  I don't have much interesting news from week 3.  I tried to fit runs in between arriving home late from work and the various wet things that mother nature has decided to throw at us over the last week.  I never even got to do my intervals this week.  I tried to do some on Wednesday, but between it being a bit warmer and me just being dog tired it didn't work out so well.

With all that said, I did hit my prescribed mileage for the week, although I ran less that the first 2 weeks when I went a little above and beyond.  My hip started acting up again later in the week.  I finally resorted to taking anti-inflammatory meds, but not until after my runs.  I also went and googled more stretches to do.  I will probably continue to take it easy as I have a heavy race load coming up again.  I think I'm going to take this round of races a tad easier that my last rough stretch.  Also doing 2 half marathons within a week for the first time every - go cumulative fatigue training!

7/6  'Merica!  Muddy Monk Trail 5 miles
7/11 Bastille Day 8K
7/16 Strike Out ALS 5K
7/21 Rock and Roll Half
7/27 Heatbreaker Half in Milwaukee