Not going to lie, I’ve been a bit nervous about Chicago for the last couple of weeks because of some IT band and hamstring soreness. Haven’t done any workouts and kind of felt like my training was at a standstill while trying to rehab the leg (via Dr. Levine) and run as much as I could without aggravating it. When Betsy and I were running together the other day, my response to her, “I feel gooood [about the race],” was pretty much “that’s great! I, um, err, don’t?”
I hate that feeling of not really knowing if things are going to head downhill injury-wise and if a goal race is going to have to be postponed (like I had to do last spring), especially when the race has been planned for so long with my bud. But, I do think I’ve wised up over the years and know that no one race is the be all that ends all, and whatever happens, it’s going to be fine. Still, I was relieved to finally have a great, pain-free long run on Saturday to help kick off this last stretch of training before taper time.
#sorrynotsorry for the Garmin shot
Set out for the run without a set plan, but felt good and ran a good chunk of the miles a little slower than goal marathon pace (so, 8:15-8:25). Really conscious of my fueling disaster a few weeks ago and took two gels (Clif Shot at about 70 minutes in and Honey Stinger about 2 hours, 15 minutes in) and a handheld filled with Nuun (which had to be refilled twice, so sweaty!). This kind of made up for the fact that I stayed out a bit too late the night before drinking beer and am way too in love with early morning runs to sleep in. Even so, I felt 100% better after the run compared to the one without fuel. Besides the usual post-long run exhaustion (and a tiny hangover), felt like I could pretty much go about my day as usual.
favorite post-run homemade “brunch” – two egg omelet with veggies and salsa, baked sweet potato fries
I haven’t really followed a training plan this whole summer, and plan on taking it week by week with some workouts and (hopefully) two more 20 milers until about a 3 week taper. A kind of controlled “winging it,” if you will. As fall marathon season gets closer, hopefully it’ll feel more like fall soon too…