It's Taper Time!

Ten days til the Chicago Marathon!!

I haven't posted on here in awhile because life got pretty busy with work, marathon training, and socialization.  And then a lot of my free time pretty much went straight toward research for a new business idea I had.  I can't share the idea just yet, but it's coming and it's awesome.

So here's a summary of last week:

Monday - 3 miles on the treadmill

Even as I was walking to the gym, I could tell that the shoes I was wearing should be thrown away ASAP.  I think I got that pair for Christmas and started running in them in February.  I have another pair I started using in June and have been alternating between the two.  I thought I'd run the marathon in that pair, but now I'm thinking even those are a little too worn.  I started running on the treadmill at an 8:30 pace and was planning to keep it at that for 6-8 miles as a recovery run.  But I stopped after 3 miles because of the shoes, went home, and ordered a new pair online.

Tuesday - 5.7 miles on the lakefront

This run went by super fast.  Probably because the entire time I was thinking of my awesome new business idea that I am really excited about.

Wednesday - Rest

Went to dinner with some lovely accounting ladies  :)

Thursday - 4.5 miles

Mac and I ran after work through Wicker Park.  We went up onto the abandoned train tracks that Christopher told me about.  I wasn't feeling great - my legs felt really tight.

Friday - Rest

Running in the morning just hasn't happened lately.  I'd have to run in complete darkness for my entire run to get ready and to work on time.  Or go on the treadmill.  But the evenings have been perfect weather lately.  There was no time to run on Friday evening though because we left for Dayton right after work!

Saturday - Frericks 5k Race

You can read my full race recap here!  I mentioned that my mom ran/walked the 5k too, but forget to tell you how she did.  She finished in 52:39, which was much better than the hour she was expecting.  After the race, she said she should've kept J-Lo's song "On the Floor" on repeat because she really loves that song.  I agreed and said I do the same thing with Teenage Dream.  Or at least put it on at the very end of a race/run to get me through the finish.  I still don't have an iPod though since mine broke last week.

And another tailgate picture from Saturday:

Sunday - 5 miles on the lakefront

New shoes!!  I went for a run right when I got back to Chicago.  It was perfect running weather and a ton of people were out on the lakefront path.  Angela told me she did 15 miles out there this morning, so it was just weird to think while I was running that she was here in Chicago running there while I was in Dayton and then when I came back to run in Chicago she was already en route back to St. Louis.  But we'll get to run together in 10 days!!

I might wear these new ones in the marathon, if I feel over the next 2 weeks that they are good to go.

And a summary of this week so far:

Monday - 4.5 Miles on the lakefront

Nothing fancy.  I ran in the new shoes again.  I used my really old iPod Nano.  The songs on there haven't been updated in over a year.  They were obviously pretty good though.  I think I'll post tomorrow with the workout playlist that's on there - it will be a nice throw back to the summer of 2012 and earlier.

Tuesday - 4 Miles on the lakefront

I ran with Mac to the lakefront with the intention of doing 12 miles.  Not sure what happened because I was fine most of the day and pumped to get in my last long run, but I just did not feel good mentally and needed to stop.  We ended up just walking back.  So that was frustrating, but hopefully I'll be able to get in other solid runs over the next 1.5 weeks.

Wednesday - REST

I got a massage after work!!  I definitely needed it because my muscles were super tight and now feel better.  I am not good at just relaxing and not thinking - even during the massage I kept thinking about various things.  I've only gotten massages at a salon before and this one was at my gym, XSport Fitness, because I had some reward points to use so it was free.  The massages I've gotten at the salon were more relaxing and light and this one at XSport was more of a deep muscle massage, which was probably a good thing right now.

So that's all I got for now...boring running talk I know, but I felt like you needed to be filled in obviously since this blog is supposed to be to document my training.