Week 2. Never Give Up.

I'm still here - game face at left needed for this week. It's been a completely insane week at work (summer, lots of new people in lab, people who can help new people on vacation, etc) and at church (search committee stuff wrapping up but lots of details) and at home (house guest) and with family (dad still sick though much better) and the usual amount of kid drama/kid stuff (violin lessons, soccer meetings & registration for new team, the missed piano lesson due to busyness).

Now I know these are minor things in the big picture - but it's just been a lot of, well, stuff. Too much stuff = stress and anxiety. I need a personal life declutterer. Haha. But just saying that makes me realize that I am my own personal life declutterer, and I've been neglecting simplification. Sometimes you can't simplify, and this may be one of those times, but I need to try. A practical step is probably going to involve scheduling in some "me" time on my calendar. Not sure where, but it's going in.

All that to say that though I overslept on Thursday and had to postpone a workout to Friday, I still did all of my workouts. HA!

Sunday: rest
Monday: 6K at 6:50/km (slow but done)
Tuesday: 4K  at 6:39/km (indoor track - pouring rain and I was wimpy), plus 3x200 @85% (which I did at more like 100% because I was in a mood!) in 1:01, 1:02, 1:00
Wednesday: elliptical - 30 min (at the gym)
Thursday: overslept
Friday: warm-up (10:45 for 4 laps - slow), 3K fartlek in 19:23 (slow and heavy legs but DONE anyway)
Saturday: 12K at 6:54/km - hilly route! Calvin and dogs did 6K with me.

I'm in need of more speed but otherwise I'm doing OK. My legs felt fine when I was done with 12K again so at least the endurance is better than last week, when the last 3km of 10km was not optimal, leg-wise.


My eating wasn't great but it wasn't terrible either. I did lose 2 lb. Home scale says 166.0, WW scale 167.2 (down 2.2 at WW). Keeping on track enough. For this week, am going to do better at menu planning and scheduling me time. I'm on it right now.

18K at the Oval

Yesterday: ~35 min elliptical, plus did some hiking at Red Butte Garden (~30 min) very, very easy with a friend (she's in her mid-60s and a little frail for her age). 

Today: 18K on tap, and with it raining (hard) and 40F (4C), I opted for the indoor comfort of the Olympic Oval. It was odd today as there was no ice (!) just concrete where the 400m speed skating track usually is; I guess they have to redo the ice occasionally. So, no long track speed skaters to watch, though there were a few short track skaters on the two hockey rinks in the center of the oval. The track is 442m and so for me 6:30-6:45/km would be about 2:53-2:59 per lap. I was hoping to stay in that range, and I did overall, though there were a number of slower laps. Sigh. My legs were kind of tired by 10k, but not terrible; still, I wasn't feeling strong today. I also didn't feel awful, so I will take it :). No GI distress at all, which is great. Last week after my 16K I had problems, and also had some trouble after the 14K the week before, so no trouble is good news. 

I was slow, getting to 5K about 33 min and change, 10K about 1:06 and change, 15K in 1:40:40 or so, and 18K in 2:01:17. My pace overall was 6:44/km, which is a lot slower than I'd like to be, but my HR was mostly in the low to mid 150s (average was 149, but that reflects short stops for gel/water 4 times during the workout, I think) and I felt I was pushing the pace a little. The reality is that after not training for a long time, and increasing in age, I'm not going to be fast. But I'm glad I could train and prep some more for the half marathon in a few weeks. It will be slow, but at least I can do it, which is the main thing. 

Garmin data here.

more problems

First, I should catch up on workouts that I was actually able to do.

Friday: 6K, felt good; 6:25/km with ave HR 147.

Saturday: Was camping with Grace at Wasatch Mountain State Park and did 20K at altitude (1700m instead of my usual 1300m), in heat (started late-ish, and finished at about 10 am...it was 70 and sunny at the end, which I'm not used to), with hills...lots of hills. My legs were toast by 14km and hamstring got very whiny about the hills; 14.5km in I wondered if I should keep going but worked a lot on my posture and the pain didn't increase. Despite all that I managed 6:45/km for 2:15 which seems pretty good for that workout. Had a LOT of muscle soreness afterward - Sunday, and Monday too.

Sunday: rest day.

Monday: was to do 8K with 3x3' at 10K race pace, but my legs were DEAD. So I did 6K and called it good (or terrible, actually). So slow. 6:58/km, with HR only 133, so you can see the problem was my legs. Sigh...

To make matters worse, that afternoon while parking my bike in the garage (biking kids to summer camp these days now that school is out) I tripped over a pile of rocks we had delivered for our backyard, and caught myself poorly, skidding forward on my bad leg. My hamstring screamed in protest, and so did I. It hurt a LOT for 30-45 minutes, despite ice + acetominophen + naproxen. Oh yay.

So, yesterday & today I did elliptical. I did racewalk 3 laps on the indoor track today and it wasn't too awful. It hurt, but not horribly so. My last lap was 1:51 (6:15/km pace) and that felt OK-ish. But sitting at work today has been brutal (had a lot of time on the microscopes, confocal and compound) and I think I need one more day of cross-training. Maybe on Friday I can try 6km again and then Saturday longer assuming the hammy does OK.

I'm really bummed out. I am seriously considering finding a different sport. I have no idea what I'd do but I'm just done with this right now.

6K, 16.5K

Yesterday: 6K in 6:26/km with ave HR 144. Then a very vigorous PT session working on glutes, quads, calves, lots of core, and more...fun! But tiring. Then 7 hr of yard work shoveling heavy rocks (seriously ---- we got 5000 lb of rocks delivered!) and planting our strip. Plus laying some pavers. Yeah...I was SO tired after that. Oh, and my hamstring hurt a little for the 6K, probably 1/10.

Today: 20K was on the agenda, but I knew after yesterday I might not make it, and I was OK with that. This was the only chance I had to do that much yard work, and I took a day off to do it, so...yeah. But I did OK today considering. I made it 16.5km, with the last 6km pretty hilly, and though I stopped pretty frequently it went all right. And yeah, I was slowish, at 6:38/km, but considering how tired my legs were I think that's not bad. They were pretty much toast at 13.5km but I cranked out another 3km so I'm happy with it. Garmin data here.  Best of all: NO pain in hamstring! YAY!

And I did more yard work today - no pics from today though.

12K

Yesterday: elliptical and PT. Got new eccentric hamstring exercises. Yay! Hammies are a little sore today but feeling ok.

Today: Coach said 12-15km. It was a very wet morning. Very, very wet. We're in a desert here, so we are a bunch of rain wimps. It started off raining lightly but soon became moderate, steady, soaking rain. Oh yay. It kept that up for my entire workout. When I turned around at 6k (reasoning that I could do 3k more when I got back to the car if I felt OK) the rain was in my face. Yay. I had forgotten my baseball cap and my waterproof jacket, so I was pretty miserable. My injured hamstring started to complain a bit at about 6km, and I double-checked my technique. It never hurt more than 2/10 and was mostly 1-2, but it was still a bit annoying, and between that and the rain, and the fact that I was a bit late (and had to get to work for a bit), I decided 12km would be enough today.

Total time: 1:18:58 for 6:35/km with ave HR 148.

16K in Dana Point

Yesterday: elliptical/bike at hotel (the recumbent bike was NOT hamstring-friendly, so only did about 7-8 min on it) and LOTS of PT exercises. Calf raises, hip hikes, monster walks with band, planks on all sides, bridges, and NEW unweighted one-legged hamstring dead lifts (eccentric, gently --- if any pain I am to NOT do them, but it felt fine).

Kelly's wedding was great! See pics on Facebook...

Today: 16K along the beach and up a giant hill with Calvin - 8K with Calvin, then 8K alone. Including the giant hill (91 floors on my fitbit! elevation gain 195m on Garmin) I did 6:35/km for the 16K, which is very good IMO. Better yet, pain was mostly ZERO with 1/10 for the last 3-4km. HA! Happy with that. Weather was incredible - in the 50s (12.8C) and with a gentle ocean breeze. Rough life here.

Garmin data here. 

16K

Yesterday: elliptical & resisted urge to bike to work, since last time my hamstring didn't like it.

Today: 16K on the JRP; first 10K with Kelly and Sugar and last 6K with just Sugar. I ran into Sarah out there at a bit shy of 13K and it was nice to see her. The weather was amazing and my workout was great, too. Yay! Plus all the flowers are blooming and it's just gorgeous right now. Of course, this being SLC, it could snow tomorrow (and who knows, it might!). It was 13.9C (57F) and breezy, but not so windy that it messed up my walking.

Pain levels were quite good. They started off at mostly 1/10 with some 2/10, then as I went it was more 1/10 and even some kms with no pain. Yes!!!! This after sitting a lot at dinner and the symphony last night, so I'm quite pleased.

I didn't try to go fast. We started slowly and I didn't want to push anything. I got to 10K in about 1:06:xx and felt good. Happily, my legs felt good all the way to probably the last 500m, when they started to get tired. But that bodes well for next week's half marathon, and also for next week's training. Maybe I can ramp things up.

Weight Watchers: Um, yeah, I have had a lot of problems the last few weeks. I only gained 0.4lb from 2 weeks ago, but...yeah...it's time for some soul searching. Kelly and I talked about it and it was very helpful to have her support and her perspective, plus I went to my meeting today and also my church small group has been helpful. I am in a good frame of mind right now and realize that I need to 1) slow down a little so I can sleep a bit more, 2) focus on treating my body well. I'm feeling a second wind here; it probably helps that racewalking is going better this week.

Perth, here we come (I hope!).

Garmin data.

Easy 10K

Yesterday: elliptical and PT exercises.

Today:

I hoped I could go farther today, but I'm so darn de-conditioned, endurance-wise. Sigh....

I'm in Mesquite, Nevada, with my friend Sarah for a girls' weekend away. It's awesome :). It's usually about 20 degrees warmer here than in Salt Lake, and right now it's so lovely. It was definitely shorts weather for my walk at 50F (10C) but rapidly warming to 55-60ish, calm, and clear and so much sun :).

The drive down here was surprisingly OK on my hamstring (5 hr drive) at the time, but this morning it was sore, probably from the drive I assume. I was very apprehensive about RW. I started out and the pain was probably a 2/10 and I was very concerned, but I thought I needed to give it a few km, and the pain lessened to 1/10 and didn't really bother me much. Whew. The bigger problem was that my legs got really tired around 7-8km and so at 10K I knew I should call it quits before I did strain something trying to go longer. Geez. :(. But since I still want to do the SL Half Marathon in a couple weeks, I knew I needed a bit more work, so I did 33 min on elliptical + bike. Would've done longer but the hammy started to hurt on the bike (?what?!?) so I quit. It feels totally fine now (after a shower and breakfast) so I don't know what was going on. I got a total of about 1:40 of exercise so that's something.

The 10K was slowish at 1:06:38 for 6:40/km but my HR was nice and low at 138. Haven't lost all my fitness, just some endurance. It'll come back.

I saw 3 very cute cottontail rabbits, a bunch of quail, some cattle, chickens, and BABY goats -
very very cute! Here's a photo of the goats and also one of some giant concrete Lego blocks.

PT; 16K

Yesterday: elliptical; hard PT session wherein my PT put me through a boot-camp-like workout. It was tough, but very good. Everything was a bit sore this morning as a result.

Today: 16K. I was sore, and legs were heavy from 5km onward. My hamstring bothered me quite a bit (it was aggravated a bit yesterday in PT, go figure!) but only for the first 1-2km (pain 1-2/10), and then it settled down and didn't hurt much. The heavy legs worried me and I wondered if I'd finish, but it went OK. Not fast, but not a death march either, which is good considering what I did yesterday. It was cold this morning (27F, -2.7C) but not much wind, and the sun was out once it got light. It was still semi-dark when I started.

Total time: 1:45:35 for 6:36/km with ave HR just 143 - happy about the low ave HR. I'm getting fitter, slowly!

Garmin data here. 

16K! (10 miles!)

OK, so I was slow, but I made it 10 miles for the first time since my hamstring injury in early December. I'm inching my way back, bit by bit.

 The weather was gorgeous this morning - so unusually warm - just enjoyed it for all it was worth, since it's pretty much guaranteed to snow several more times. It was 52F by my iPhone but Garmin says it was 55F (12.8C), so I dunno. But either way, it was shorts and T-shirt and no gloves weather! YAY! Calvin came along and planned to do 10K with me and the dogs, but then he was feeling really good and talked me into changing our route and we ended up doing 11K together, leaving only 5K for me to finish alone. Nice! I am very much enjoying his company as he actually loves to run and loves being outside. His commentary on everything cracks me up and entertains me as I train. Plus he's pretty silly - here's a photo of him climbing the railroad ties at 600 East at the S-line (~2500 South); I had stopped there to put Powder's poop bag in a trash can, turned around, and then he was up there. Haha!

I felt pretty good this morning. My pain was 0-2/10, mostly 1, some 0, some 2. Kind of the usual as of late. It felt better than last week's 15K, probably because I didn't do as much sitting the day before? Though I did some sitting last night, but it wasn't too bad. My legs held up pretty well until about 13.5K when they got kind of tired, but I was still able to push a bit until 16K. And yeah, I was slow, but was faster than last week. That counts for something right? 

I don't think I got as tired as the dogs. Powder went 11K and Sugar did all 16K. Now they are really not interested in moving much (photo at left) :).

1:45:55 for 16K (6:37/km) with ave HR 144. 

15K

Yesterday: rest day, though I walked around San Diego a lot - both on the beach, in La Jolla, and downtown where we are staying for Kelly's bachelorette party, which has been a lot of fun. I also did too much sitting: 1.5 hr for lunch, and even longer at the dinner/show we went to.

Today: 15K. Sore and stiff at the start from sitting, and things hurt a bit in the first few km. However, after a bit (4km?) I started to feel better; pain never got more than 2 and was mostly 1/10, even to the end of my walk. I was super slow, but my coach assures me that is OK at this stage and that it will improve. I hope so.

I was tiring near the end but got a boost from striking up a conversation with a runner, "Sally", that I happened upon. I passed her (barely going faster than her) and we started talking, and she was great to talk with. We chatted for about 15 min and it helped both of us finish the hardest part of our training for the day.

Total time was 1:41:51 (! so slow!) for 6:47/km with ave HR nice and low at 143.

12K; making slow progress

I made it 12K this morning on a hilly route; the pain was a bit more than it has been, just like yesterday, but it wasn't terrible. It was a 1-2 mostly, and maybe once or twice was pushing 3 (which is the place where I have told myself I will stop). I did my glute activation and PT exercises before going out, I focused on a wider stance and faster cadence, and thought a lot about good posture. That was great until 10km or so, when I had an uphill slog and it was all I could do to hang on and think about posture. I got tired! Geez. So out of shape. But it'll never get better unless I persist. Many of my good RW friends are doing the 50K tomorrow in San Diego, and I'm jealous. I wish I could do it too. On the other hand, it's supposed to be hot, and so maybe I don't wish I was doing it :). OK, back to today's workout - it was nice here, for February, at 2.8C (37F), and Calvin and both dogs came with me for the first 6km. Then I did the rest with just Sugar, and Calvin and Powder stayed home.

My time was OK, considering the hills and my pain level. 1:20:08 for 6:40/km with ave HR 150. I'll take it.

***

Good news. I went to Weight Watchers this morning and after only losing 0.2lb last week after a good eating week, I lost 3.0lb this week :). Sometimes water weight does a number on you. I'm down 4.8lb (2.2kg) since rejoining on January 30, which is awesome. I am just 1.8lb away from my goal weight of 155.0, but really I want to be 150 or less for racing, so I have a ways to go, but I'm on the right track. It's been hard, but good. Last night I took Grace to a concert (Salt Lake Choral Artists!) and then to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. With the new Smart Points system the ice cream is very, very, very high in points, and I decided it wasn't worth it. I had 3 small bites of hers and came home and made myself a skinny mocha latte for 3 points instead. Go me!!! I can't believe I resisted, but I think the goal of Perth 2016 is pushing me to accomplish good things.

Happy New Year! New Year's Revolution Run 2016

On the first lap I knew this was going to be a tough day. I don't know why, but my left piriformis/other muscles were quite annoyed today without any racewalking. My best guess is that the cross-country skiing I did yesterday afternoon with the kids aggravated it? I didn't feel it hurting but who knows? I did fall once going downhill, 'cause I stink at skiing :). But the fall was gentle and I didn't have any pain afterward. I'll probably never know. 

I really, really wanted to do the half marathon though. About lap 20 (of 47, in lane 2 (448.3m/lap) - that's 21.07km but I did walk one lap slowly at the end to ensure a full half haha!) I thought maybe it wasn't gonna happen. But with massage and glute activation every 9-10 laps, and stopping briefly to grab snacks in the latter half of the race (ate a Gu and also some cheez-its (yummy! and no tummy problems!), water, gatorade) I made it. If the pain got bad I would have stopped - but it never really got bad. It hovered at about a 1-2 of 10 the whole time, pushing a 3 at the end, but not enough to make me stop. Some of the discomfort, honestly, seemed to be in my glutes themselves, as I know those muscles are adjusting. 

I am sure I had really good posture and used my glutes for the whole race. I worked very, very hard to concentrate and hold it, which I am sure also contributed to the difficulty. This was my slowest half marathon ever, but I did the whole darn thing. 

The kids did great too - Grace did 5K and Calvin did 10K, running some and walking some. My friend Sarah did a half as well, and Diane and Nancy were there too. Diane did a half, and Nancy went farther, doing 15.87 miles (over 25K). Go Nancy!!! She looked good, too. She's been working hard on her form. 

Total time was 2:26:24 for 6:57/km (hey, it was under 7 min....slow but I'll take it, with good form).

Christmas Eve edition

Monday: elliptical

Tuesday: rest day

Wednesday: glute exercises and a bit more than 5K at the indoor track; all feeling good; last lap was 1:50 which is 6:15km :). Total time was about 6:50/km on average :)!

Today: I went on the JRP with Ashley from Portland, who is visiting her in-laws for Christmas. We had an awesome time together and she was more than willing to walk a bit slowly for me because of my injury. I was able to go 7:02/km for 13km!!! OK, so that's slow, but it took 1:31 and change, and it was super snowy & icy in spots and we had to run a bit and/or slow down. I know I'm still slow, but it seems to be getting better. Not much pain, though I did stop and massage it a few times. It was cold...27F (-2.8C) and a steady breeze of 6-7 mph (11kph) which doesn't sound like much, but when it's that cold it's very unpleasant. But my new Nike fleece-lined base layer made it a lot more comfortable - no cold rear end today :)!

Garmin data here.

6K on treadmill, 3x200; 20K aborted due to hamstring

Yesterday: 6K on treadmill. I noticed that my left hamstring was sore, probably from 1) sitting endlessly in meetings (6 hr Thursday, and another 6 hr Friday) at the USATF annual meeting, and 2) the treadmill, which does really weird stuff to your gait, especially when RW. I did the 6K in 38:20, which was reasonable given that it was on the 'mill, and then headed out to the parking lot across the street for 3x200m @ 85% effort; did the first one in 1:04 then screwed up my watch so I have no idea how fast the second two were.

Garmin data here. 

Today: 20K. Not :(. I felt a little sore in left top hamstring (I think it's hamstring - doesn't seem like piriformis) the first 500m or so but then loosened up and felt really, really great. My first 12k was awesome. There's a beautiful walkway in Buffalo Bayou that goes right next to downtown Houston, and it was so perfect this morning. Low 40s and calm and clear (about 5-6C?). SO pretty. Kathy, who was with me on a rented bike, took a photo of downtown with the sunrise...gorgeous.

But then about 12.3km I felt something pull or spasm in the sore left butt, and I had to stop. I tried to stretch and casual walk it off, and then racewalked another 0.3km, but then it really pulled and I just couldn't continue. I think and hope that it is only a spasm and that it'll be fine in a couple of days. I curled up on the sidewalk and had a good cry. Kathy was very sympathetic as she is a racewalker too. Fortunately, we were close to the conference venue at that point in the walk, and I was able to ride the bike back. I can walk OK as long as I don't racewalk or try to walk briskly. It's definitely quite sore. I am very, very disappointed as I really needed to get in a long walk prior to the 1 hr postal in 3 weeks, and I felt SO GOOD this morning before this happened. SO FRUSTRATING and SO ANNOYING. I was doing 6:20/km before that happened - seriously good! Arrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!

I took an 800mg ibuprofen and am icing it now. Will take tomorrow as a rest day (planned anyway) and then re-evaluate. If I feel good I'll do my planned 10K fartlek on Tuesday. If not, I will rest more and go from there. If it's just a spasm, I should feel good in a few more days.

Garmin data here. 

cold...cold...cold...20K...no, 15K...

I will admit it: I totally wussed out today. It was so very cold, and I am so not used to it, and it was dark, and very very early. Met Kelly at the JRP at 5am (!) because she had to be at work early, and I had been to the symphony the night before and up until 10:30pm, so...yeah...no sleep, cold, dark, and tired. Legs were fine until 12K, and they did get tired then, but not dead tired. Just tired. By 15K I could've kept going, but I was so.stinking.cold. And Kelly had to leave. And I wanted a coffee and I wanted to be warm. So yeah, I quit at 15K. And I got a coffee, and I took a hot bath, and life was good again.

This amuses me, because my friends were in Santee, CA, doing a 50K in brutal heat, and here I was, wimping out because of some cold. Geez.

Well, at least I made 15K. It was only 20F when I finished, according to my car. That's -6.7C if anyone cares or is still reading :).

I wasn't fast either. But it wasn't a death march; 6:29/km with ave HR 143.

Right now I hate winter. And it's just started...

Garmin data here. 

windy 16k

Yesterday: 45 min elliptical.

Today: It was super windy, but warm, as it always is when a storm is coming. It's going to snow a bunch, so they say. This morning it was 6.1C (43F) with a constant 21kph (13mph) wind according to Garmin; 16 mph or 25kph according to Kelly's phone. Either way, it was very windy, and it was a headwind going out and a tailwind coming back, thankfully. We were so tired at 8km when we turned around, just from fighting the wind. Coming back we were tired for a few km but then recovered and had a nice finish. Kelly's watch was 0.08km ahead of mine at the turnaround, so we called it at 15.92km, which split the difference between our Garmins. Our total time was 1:43:10 for 6:27/km with ave HR 144 (nice!). With the wind, I think that was very good. On my watch I had 52:23 for the first 8km, and for the last 7.92 it was 50:48, which adjusted for the distance difference (if in fact it was different?) would still be 51:19, a good negative split.

My legs felt fine when we were done; no weird soreness despite a good amount of sitting at the piano and sitting in church this morning. A slight bit of stiffness but barely noticeable.

It's windier now...glad to be inside...storm's coming! Good to have the day off tomorrow, unless I decide to get out the cross-country skis?!?

Garmin data here. 

1:30 easy RW with Kelly

This morning Kelly had her long day; she was going to do 100 min (1:40) but ended up cutting it to 1:30 when her legs (and mine!) were very tired after yesterday. We tried not to push the pace, and because Kelly's legs were so tired, we went a bit slowly. I could have gone a bit faster alone, I think, but honestly, I'd have been hard pressed to go faster than 6:30/km. I think I'd have been more like 6:35/km. We did 6:39/km so finished 13.54km in the 1 hr 30 min. Edited to add: my ave HR was only 144 so it was a nice easy day!

Oh, and we met really early....at 5:15 am because Kelly had to get to work at 7:30. It was dark but very pretty with the moon and planets out. I snapped this photo at the turnaround point.

Did I mention it was cold yesterday? It was only 27F (-2.7C) on the Jordan River Parkway yesterday; today it felt a lot better though it was only a bit warmer at 1.1C (34F), and at one point the wind kicked up a bit making it feel colder, but mostly it wasn't too bad today.

I'm resting tomorrow!!!

Garmin data here

whoops!

I was supposed to do 20km today. Kelly was supposed to do 10x5 min at 6:10/km with 2 min recovery jogs. I mistakenly thought I could do her workout as part of mine. Well, after yesterday's workout I wasn't up to that. Add in not getting enough sleep after going to the symphony last night, and well...yeah...it was interesting. Kelly's workout was much harder than I expected, and by the time we finished (at 11.42km on my Garmin) I was mentally done. The 5 min intervals had my HR up in the low to mid 160s by the end of the workout...yeah, not good. I did another 0.58km to get to 12km, but then I quit.

Whoops.

Well, at least there's not an important race until the 1 hr postal Dec 19th. So the fact that I screwed up my schedule isn't a big deal, I don't think. Though I probably need to get in some more km. Kelly has 110 min easy tomorrow, which I think I'll go do with her. I'm going to move my schedule to have Sundays my long day again, since that's how her schedule is, and that should work a bit better. Maybe, for now anyway. If my long day gets over 20km then that won't work so well. We'll see...it's just so much better to work out with someone else.

Whoops.

Garmin data here.

16K - Chicago Lakefront Trail

Loren and I are now in Chicago for me to attend the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting and present a poster. We left the kids in my parents' capable hands, and the house and dogs in the care of our awesome house sitter, and here we are.

The meeting didn't have much going on until 1pm today, so today was the ideal time for my 16K. I was thinking to do 16-18km, but my legs were definitely still a bit tired from yesterday's speed work, even though it was short, probably because of the fast 200s that I haven't done in a while. So at about 10k today I was pretty sure 16k was a good distance rather than 18k. The weather was good for fall here; 40F (4C) and windy. The wind was in my face on the first 8k, at a steady 19kph (12mph) plus gusts, which was definitely enough to slow me down and tired me out a bit. The lakeside scenery was beautiful though! For my international readers, a bit about Chicago: though in the middle of the country, it's next to a huge lake (Lake Michigan), and is the 3rd largest city in the US, behind New York and Los Angeles. It's pretty cold here in the winter, much colder than Salt Lake, though it doesn't snow as much as in Salt Lake. It's also famous for being windy here, and the city's nickname is "the windy city". But in October, windy or not, it's lovely --- at least it was today. And it's also only about 180m (590ft) above sea level, and very flat, perfect for RW. The Lakefront Trail here is an amazing paved trail along the lakeshore, and it's something like 20 miles (32km) long, adequate for almost any kind of training.

The trail was busy today with tons of runners, walkers, and cyclists; the runners were pretty good, as I only passed a handful in the 16K. During the first 8K into the wind, my legs felt decent, though it was nice to stop at the turnaround and get a few photos. I noticed the wind at my back right away when I turned around, and in fact I managed to negative split the workout, probably due to the tail wind; my legs were tired then. The first 500m was NOT right (3:45? not that slow...) and neither was the last 500m (2:42? no way!) so I figure that along the river walk my Garmin had a bit of trouble. But close enough.

I finished in 1:41:45 for 6:21/km and had splits of 32:00 (5K), 51:19 (8K), 1:03:53 (10K), 1:35:35 (15K); the last 8K was 1:41:45-51:19 = 50:26 for a negative split :).

Garmin data here.