Chicago Week 9 Training

After last week's much needed cutback this was the time to get back into the swing of things. Decided I wasn't going to worry too much about mileage, just run when I could and keep everything easy except for Tuesday's tempo and Sunday's long run. Turned out OK.

• Monday - 5 easy
• Tuesday - Tempo, 8 miles at 6:30 - these are the cornerstone of my training and they are going well.
• Wednesday - took a day off after running the last 7 in a row.
• Thursday - a very hilly 9 miler on some new trails - great run
• Friday - a morning 12 miler and it felt great, the spring was back in the step, and 12 miles at under 7:30 pace on the hills felt easy. Did another hilly 7 in the evening but much slower, as it was almost 100 degrees out there.
• Saturday - Life took over and running was out the window, which given the 100 degree heat was probably a good thing
• Sunday. Marathon sanity test run. A fairly tough workout of 22 miles with 12 at marathon goal pace (6:52). Did 6 easy, then 12 at 6:49 and the 4 easy miles to bring me home. Felt pretty good - 22 overall at 7:15 pace. This was a few seconds faster and heartrate was 2 beats lower than the last time I ran a test like this (back in April before Ottawa) so I am feeling confident for Chicago.

So 64 for the week. Less than I had on the schedule (85) but I have realised that runnng too much mileage is going to backfire and things will break. Next week schedule say 95, but my body is saying 70.