Duathlon Nationals training starts this week!

Ok, the marathon is over and there is nothing scheduled between now and the Duathlon Nationals in April.  My goal is to do as well as possible at that race!  to be more specific, I'm hoping for a top 3 finish. To get there, I'm going to focus the next 3 months on biking and running with more time spend on the biking.  Lots of interval training and some bricks thrown in there.  I'm also going to keep up with swimming at least 1-2 x/week so that I don't regress.  My secondary goal is the Tri Nationals in August.  I may schedule a few races before the end of this year just to keep it real like a 10K or half marathon.  Then in January and February I'll do the indoor triathlon series and maybe an outdoor 10K or biking TT.  Let the training begin! 

Chicago marathon 2017

The marathon didn't go well for me. My time of 3:16 was not what I was hoping for and the race was difficult from start to finish.  Mile 19-23 were particularly bad with my hamstring cramping and throwing my stride off.  I'm just glad its over!  That was my 14th and maybe last Chicago Marathon.  The thrill of finishing just isn't there for me any more.  On to the 2018 duathlon and triathlon seasons!   

Oh God! Race Time

Ok, the marathon is only 4 days away... I'm very apprehensive!  I know my rep as a sandbagger, but this time I'm sincere: I'm going to fail!  This has been my worst marathon training EVER! Last year wasn't great, but I ran all of my training runs as a substantially faster pace. This year, every training run has been a slow slog. I fear this will be my slowest marathon ever. Also, the memories of last year and the pain in those last 6 miles is still in my head! 

Chicago marathon training

Good run yesterday: 24 miles on IL prairie path. Rather boring scenery, but running with GE runners made it much more enjoyable!  I ran the first 12 with the group, but then no one else was going long this week, so did the 2nd 12 miles solo with music. Felt pretty good afterward, so that's encouraging.  

Hartigan Beach swim

Awesome swim this morning with Rich and Arron starting right at 6 AM. Swam about 1.5 miles out and back from Hartigan Beach. Water temp in upper 60s, but air temp only in the 50s. Huge swells! Really fun trying to follow Rich's orange wet suite through the waves! Best part was body surfing in at the end!     

Chicago Marathon training

Officially started Chicago marathon training yesterday with a 17 mile run with the GE runners. Likely that was too far for me given I've only run 12-13 as my longest run this year and that was a few weeks ago. Today I'm extremely sore and tight!  Hopefully my legs make a quick recovery so that I can progress from here.  

Naperville Triathlon

7/8/17- Naperville tri was Sunday and I won my age group.  Perfect day and great race overall. I was able to hang on in the swim thanks to running as far into the water as I could and then standing up and running out of the water at the end as soon as I got to waist deep.  The bike went well and I paced off a faster cyclist for most of the way.  The run started a little slow, but then after about a mile I picked it up.  1:01:06 and 17th overall. I'm happy with that! Now the only race left is the Chicago Marathon!    

7/23/17- Awesome ride on Campton Hills Rd yesterday AM.  Started out with my brother-in-law in Carol Stream on Smith Rd, which was nice, but Campton Hills is the best! Rolling with a few small out of the saddle climbs.  Its the closest we get to real hills here in northern IL.

5K running TT

July 19th, 2017: Did a 5K time trial today for comparison.  My time was 19:59, 5 seconds slower than in April.  But conditions were very different. In April it was 40 degrees and windy and today it was mid 80s and humid.  Interestingly, back then my HR topped out at around 165 and today it topped out at 140, more than 20 bpm slower. Part of that difference can be explained by vasodilation as evidenced by profuse sweating today, but I'm very surprised my HR wasn't higher.  I had zero time in zone 5 and last time I was in zone 5 for 15 minutes.  Weird!

Really fun open water swim in Lake Michigan from Hartigan Beach Park yesterday morning. Met Rich at 7 Am and swam about 1.2 miles. Very invigorating!  Then drove up to NW University in Evanston to watch my daughter play soccer at a camp.  Fun morning!