Chicago Lakefront Trail

Ran:    17.08 miles
Time:  02:41:42 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  09:26 minutes/mile
Temperature:  77°

Solo on the Sunday long run along the lake front. End to a great week and month of training. Set a new PR for monthly miles 172.8, and a new PR for miles for a run 17.08. This is the end of week 8 of the marathon training, 10 to go. Next week is a step back week(thank you!). 17 miles was tough both mentally and physically. After the run I tried a new recovery drink, chocolate milk! Not sure if it worked, but it sure tasted great! I found out about chocolate milk as a recovery drink from the Hal Higdon Forums at trainingpeaks.com as well as other articles from coolrunning.com and active.com. From coolrunning.com :

An interesting article from Fox News stated the chocolate milk is a good recovery food that has exactly what your body needs (perfect carb/protein mix 4:1) after a long run. "The findings suggest that chocolate milk has an optimal ratio of carbohydrates to protein to help refuel tired muscles, researcher Joel M. Stager, PhD, Indiana University kinesiology professor, tells WebMD."

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Sat, Jul 30, 2011 6:06 AM Central
Swallow Cliff Trails Warmup Run
Ran:    1.91 miles
Time:  00:17:31 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  09:07 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  73°
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Run For the Cops 10K
Ran:    6.3 miles
Time:  00:53:40 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:28 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  73°
John, Maria and I running the Run for the Cops 10K at Swallow Cliffs.
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Thu, Jul 28, 2011 3:30 PM Central
Country Lane
Ran:    4.00 miles
Time:  00:34:18 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:33 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  88°

Solo, back at Country Lane, haven't run these trails for a few weeks, nice to be back, but it was hot and humid..

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Wed, Jul 27, 2011 4:40 AM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    8.01 miles
Time:  01:08:45(hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:34 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  72°

Solo around the neighborhood before work.

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Tue, Jul 26, 2011 5:31 AM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    4.25 miles
Time:  00:36:08 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:29 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  73°

Solo training run around the neighborhood. The start of a tough week, ending with 17 miles on Sunday.

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Sun, Jul 24, 2011 5:51 AM Central
Chicago Lakefront Trail
Ran:    16.01 miles
Time:  02:34:09 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  09:36 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  77°

Solo, 16 mile long run today. Perfect weather, overcast and a refreshing rain the last three miles. This is a new PR for me, never ran this far before. More than the distance, I found it hard to believe that I ran for 2 1/2 hours! This ends week 7 of the 18 week marathon training program. Tough week, 43 miles. Next week the long run increases to 16 miles. Better start resting up...

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Sat, Jul 23, 2011 7:39 AM Central
Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10
Ran:    11.06 miles
Time:  01:36:34 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:40 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  78°

John, Andy and I running the Xtreme 10. Fortunately it was an overcast day, no sun no xtreme heat. Unfortunately Andy twisted his ankle after about 2 1/2 miles and was done for the day. I was able to stay pretty much on pace @9:00 min/mile(give or take 20 seconds.
Note, my stats are not official, they are from my Garmin, I doubled back to check on Andy and ended up running an extra mile.
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Thu, Jul 21, 2011 5:32 AM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    4.04 miles
Time:  00:33:46 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:20 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  83°

Solo, early in the morning before work. Running early beats some of the heat but not the humidity. It was a tough 4 miles.

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Wed, Jul 20, 2011 4:39 AM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    8.04 miles
Time:  01:10:50 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:47 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  78°

Solo, 8 mile run in the morning. I rather get up early and run in 78° than run in 95° in the sun!

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Tue, Jul 19, 2011 5:37 PM Central
Swallow Cliff Trails
Ran:    4.01 miles
Time:  00:34:45 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:36 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  93°

Andy and I on a 4 mile training run on the Swallow Cliffs trails. Tough run in the heat and humidity. As soon at the Garmin hit 4 miles, I stopped!
Tomorrow is suppose to be even hotter and it is an 8 mile run, this is gonna be rough..

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Sun, Jul 17, 2011 6:28 AM Central
Argonne Water Fall Glenn
Ran:    10.01 miles
Time:  01:34:29 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  09:25 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  73°

Andy, John, Shawn and I on our Sunday long run. This was a "stepback" week where every third week the long run and the weekly total is reduced from the prior two weeks to help gather strength for the next push upward. Today's long run was 10 miles and weekly mileage was 32 miles versus last week's 14 mile long run and 36 mile weekly total. Next week(training week 7 of 18) we bump it up to a 16 mile long run and a 40 mile week total. The next month is where the training gets tough!

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Sat, Jul 16, 2011 6:20 AM Central
Willow Springs Run
Ran:    8.86 miles
Time:  01:22:54 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  09:18 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  81°

Angelica, John, Andy and I running in Willow Springs going past the location where Santa Fe Speedway used to be(fond memories of dirt car stock car racing).

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Thu, Jul 14, 2011 6:10 PM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    3.31 miles
Time:  00:28:30 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:34 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  82°

Andy and I around the neighborhood running our 3 mile training run.

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Wed, Jul 13, 2011 6:04 PM Central
Yellow Trail West
Ran:    7.01 miles
Time:  01:00:55 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:38 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  73°

Andy and I on the Yellow Trail in Country Lane woods. I lost a mile and had to run 8 miles for Garmin to register 7. User error, I stopped the watch and didn't turn it back on until a mile later.. :( (much to Andy's amusement)

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Tue, Jul 12, 2011 6:36 PM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    3.52 miles
Time:  00:28:40 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:06 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  74.5°

Andy and I around the hood, overcast and in the 70s.

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Sun, Jul 10, 2011 5:48 AM Central
Chicago Lakefront Trail
Ran:    14.00 miles
Time:  02:12:30 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  09:21 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  80°

Andy and I along the Lakefront, our long training run of the week, 14 miles. This was our longest distance run ever. This weeks total was 36.24 miles. They say 'cooler by the lake', I don't think so! Not today it was 80 degrees when we left Oak Lawn and 80 degrees when we hit the trail. It was hot and humid along North Avenue and Oak street beaches even at 6AM.

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Sat, Jul 9, 2011 6:16 AM Central
Yellow Trail West
Ran:    8.45 miles
Time:  01:20:58 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  09:29 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  71°

Angelica, Maria, John, Andy, myself and Daisey today on the Yellow Trail.

Interesting article from ACTIVE.com "25 Best Trail Running Destinations in the U.S.". The Swallow CLiffs and Country Lane trails are in the list! We are lucky to have access to these trails all year long!

Palos/Sag Valley Trail Systems
Palos Park, Illinois
A hidden gem on the outskirts of Chicago, these adjacent forest preserve parks offer more than 30 miles of dirt trails through thick deciduous forests and deep ravines, past wetland lakes and marshes, and across wide-open meadows. Among the best routes are the hilly 12-mile Maple Lake loop and the nearby 6-mile Swallow Cliff Woods loop, which encircles a series of morainal hills created by retreating glaciers 12,000 years ago. The Chicago area is known for its network of flat, crushed gravel rail trails (including the 61-mile Illinois Prairie Path and 31-mile Des Plaines River Trail), but the rolling single-track trails in Palos are carved out of a secluded natural setting that belies the trails' close proximity to the bustling city and suburbs.

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Thu, Jul 7, 2011 1:44 PM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    3.27 miles
Time:  00:26:10 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  07:59 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  72°

Solo, short training run around the hood.

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Yellow Trail West by samrunr at Garmin Connect - Details

Wed, Jul 6, 2011 5:56 PM Central
Yellow Trail West
Ran:    7.07 miles
Time:  01:04:23 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:59 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  78°

Andy and I back on the Yellow Trail. It has been more than a month since we ran the Yellow Trail, what a difference now that summer is here, the trail is overgrown with green stuff(foliage) and much more dense. This is a great run through the woods, winding trails and inclines, roots, stumps logs and bike riders as well.

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Tue, Jul 5, 2011 7:07 AM Central
Oak Lawn Neighborhood
Ran:    3.44 miles
Time:  00:29:02 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:24 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  74°

Solo, 3 mile training run around the neighborhood.

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Sun, Jul 3, 2011 6:29 AM Central
Chicago Lakefront Trail
Ran:    13.11 miles
Time:  02:04:53 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  09:28 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  78°

Andy and I along the Chicago Lakefront doing our long run. Beautiful morning along the lake from Montrose Harbor to Navy Pier! Nice cool breeze on the return trip to Montrose Harbor. I would rate this run up there with Central Park New York and The Strand in Hermosa Beach! We definitely need to come back for future long runs. We left Oak Lawn at @5:45AM and made it to Montrose Harbor in a little less than 30 minutes, the return trip was about the same so traveling time is better than what you would expect.

This ends week five of the training program. 31.24miles this week. The mileage keeps building. The Sunday long runs keep increasing, by the end of July the longs runs are 16 and 17 miles, and August hits 20 miles.

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Sat, Jul 2, 2011 6:30 AM Central
Country Lane
Ran:    6.00 miles
Time:  00:54:00 (hh:mm:ss)
Pace:  08:59 minutes/mile 
Temperature:  81°

Angelica, Maria, John, Mark, Andy, myself and Daisey on a humid run on the trails.

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