Thursday, October 27, 2011

Thu, Oct 27, 2011 3:43 PM Central
Country Lane Yellow Trail
Ran:    10.01 miles
Time:  1:26:46 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  8:40 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  51°

Solo on my favorite trail. It has been 6 weeks since I ran the Yellow Trail. This was my longest run since the marathon three weeks ago. My quads are sore. This is a great trail any season of the year, great colors, winding trails along Maple Lake, it doesn't get much better than this.

Click for Garmin Connect - Details

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Wed, Oct 26, 2011 5:35 PM Central
Palos Park Turkey Trot Course
Ran:    3.67 miles
Time:  31:59 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  8:43 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  49°

Andy and I running the Palos Park 4 mile Turkey Trot course. We attempted to use a map of the course loaded on to our Garmins but took a wrong turn and only ran 3.67 miles. Beautiful tree lined course with several large very cool homes.

CLick for Garmin Connect - Details

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:22 Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    7.23 miles
Time:  1:00:30 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  8:22 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  66°

Solo, around the hood, I was sore after two days of walking around the Covered Bridge Festival in Parke County, Indiana, so I skipped the trails to run on the flat streets. Sore for the first 3 miles but tolerable for the remainder of the run. At this point, I guess I have not completely recovered from the marathon.

Click for Garmin Connect - Details
Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:50 Central
Swallow Cliffs 6mi Loop
Ran:    6.16 miles
Time:  50:20 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  8:11 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  54°

Solo, at Swallow Cliffs, I was sore the first 2 miles but felt good for the remaining 4 miles. The falls temps are great!

Click for Garmin Connect - Details
Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:38 Central
Country Lane
Ran:    4.01 miles
Time:  33:38 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  8:24 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  60°

Andy and I at Country Lane. Still a little sore, I had to push to keep up with Andy's pace.

Click for Garmin Connect - Details

Country Lane

Ran:    4.89 miles
Time:  45:19 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  9:16 minutes/mile
Temperature:  52°

John and I at Country Lane, Our first run after the marathon. Still a little sore but nice to get some cool temps for an early morning run.

During my recovery time I thought what a better time to recap the key factors that helped me complete my first MARATHON! So the following is my review of Hal Higdon's book and training program that was instrumental in the successful completion of my first marathon.

Book: Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide
Author: Hal Higdon
Publisher: Rodale Press; 3 edition (September 30, 2005)

I bought Marathon, The Ultimate Training Guide and read it cover to cover when preparing to run my first marathon, the 2011 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. I am not a big reader(of books) so for me to read any book is rare. But Hal's book is a great read and provides invaluable information about running a marathon, including the history of a marathon, both pre and post training, as well as interesting and motivating anecdotes.

Using the book as a reference along with Hal's 18 week training guide from his website(I used the intermediate II training program), not only did I run and finish my first marathon, I was able to complete it without walking, in a time of 4hr 2min!

I can't imagine running my first marathon without Hal's book or training programs. I will be re-reading the book and following Hal's training program in preparation for my second marathon, the 2012 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

Hal Higdon's website: http://www.halhigdon.com/
Hal's Marathon Training programs: Marathon Training Programs
Note: The 4th edition was available Sep 27, 2011.

Click for Garmin Connect - Details
Sun, 9 Oct 2011 7:32 Central
Chicago Marathon
Ran:    26.2 miles
Time:  04:02:41 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  9:06 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  63°

My first marathon! My primary goal was to finish, my secondary goal was to finish under 4 hours. I was close at 04:02:41. It was a lot tougher than I anticipated. I was using a marathon pacing tattoo for a 03:50:00 finish which was about a 8:47 pace. I was 30 seconds within the target splits up to mile 13, I felt good but it was getting warm so I slowed down a little and just tried to keep at a 9:00 pace. I was ok, until about mile 23 when I hit the wall, my quads were quite sore, and at that point thoughts of finishing under 4 hours was replaced with just finishing. It took every thing I had and then some just to finish without walking. Somehow I managed. During those last few miles, I swore to myself that I would never submit myself to such torture again and that this was my last marathon. Well four days later, after much thought, I figure that now I know what my weak link is, my quads, so if I can strengthen my quads I think I can beat my 04:02:41 time.

Everyone in our group six finished! What an amazing accomplishment for all of us!

Click for Garmin Connect - Details




My Stats:

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Sat, Oct 8, 2011 7:30 AM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    2.08 miles
Time:  18:13 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  8:46 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  62°

Andy and I on our last run concluding our 18 weeks of training for the Chicago Marathon on Sunday 10/9/10. It has been a long 18 weeks of hard work, training, pain and suffering, but now the day is just about here! I feel that I am ready. Now it is just a matter of lacing them up and going out and "Just Do It"(thanks Nike for the slogan, thanks New Balance for the shoes!)!!

Click for Garmin Connect - Details
Wed, Oct 5, 2011 6:15 PM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    4.00 miles
Time:  36:00 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  09:00 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  63°

John, Andy and I on our 4 mile training run. I learned something about my Garmin during this run. After 1 mile it started beeping, I couldn't read the display because is was dusk and the print was small, so I just started hitting the lap and start/stop button to get it to start working again but nothing worked, I tried turning if off and on again, still no luck. When I got home I was able to read the display and found that the lap history was full and there was no more memory. At that point I realized that I never deleted or cleared the history, so every run since I bought the watch over a year ago was there. Good thing I caught this before the marathon. At that point I just went into history and deleted everything except for the last month.

Click for Garmin Connect - Details

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Tue, Oct 4, 2011 4:03 PM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    3.25 miles
Time:  26:43 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  8:13 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  73°

Solo, 3 mile run around the hood. Only 3 miles, it seemed like it should have been easy but it wasn't??

Click for Garmin Connect - Details

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Sun, Oct 2, 2011 11:48 AM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    4.11 miles
Time:  32:29 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  7:55 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  57°

Solo, 4 mile training run around the hood. This completes week 17 of the marathon training program. Next week is a light week 3, 4, and 2 mile runs before the marathon on Sunday 10/9. I am ready!

Click for Garmin Connect - Details

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Thu, Sep 29, 2011 6:04 PM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    4.04 miles
Time:  35:22 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  8:45 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  45°

Angelica, Andy, Shawn and myself at Country lane. We actually were cold this morning, still a nice refreshing run. Finished September with 166 miles down from the last two months because of the taper in prep for the marathon. It is hard to believe that I have the 17 weeks of training behind me, only 1 more week before the marathon, starting to get anxious and nervous. 45,000 runners and 1.7 million spectators, how can you not get excited!

Click for Garmin Connect - Details