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Tag: speedwork

The backlog

The backlog

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So much to write about!  This is what happens when I don’t write every week…

I often think about blog topics as I’m running, riding the bus, or at other random times throughout the day (especially when I have an idea dry spell), and it seems like when I get an idea, I get a handful of them.  Trying to remember them all, on the other hand, is another story.

Here’s the backlog:

  1. When the weather ruins, or inhibits, your run
  2. Returning to the track (and to speedwork)
  3. How to listen when your body tells you not to run (and what happens when you don’t)
  4. Finding time for a run in an incredibly busy, fun-filled weekend

Clearly, I’ll have to break this up into several posts or you’d have to do tons of screen-scrolls to get through it all.  More to come…

Spring, that flirt

Spring, that flirt

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Springtime has been flirting with Chicago since sometime last week or last weekend.  Though the FF training group and I met last Saturday’s 15-miler at the lakefront with our usual array of winter gear like jackets, gloves, and hats, it was sunny — and SO beautiful that Chris and I remarked how unfortunate it was that not everyone exercises (or uses the lakefront at all) because they were missing out on the GORGEOUSNESS of the day.  We had an excellent run, and the fact that the sun was shining on our face the whole time made it oh-so-much-better.

This week’s training has gone well.  We’re preparing for 20-miler #2 this weekend, either out in Barrington or (gasp) Waterfall Glen, depending on how much snow and such continues to thaw.  Last night’s 8xYasso 800s also went remarkably well, with many in the group sporting shorts or short-sleeves because it was 60+ degrees during our workout… after the sun had descended.  Just incredible!  We book-ended the 8x800s with a 2-mile warm and another 2-mile cool, and as usual, between each 800 was a 2-minute active recovery.  In retrospect, I think the lovely weather gave us an extra spring in our step, as our splits reveal: 3:28, 3:34, 3:26, 3:30, 3:27, 3:29, 3:27, 3:29.  Quoting Carrie Bradshaw and Big from Sex and the City: fan-fucking-tastic.  (if you would have told me in January that I’d be consistently running low 3:30s or high 3:20 800s, I would have been dubious, at best).

I can’t believe I wrote an entire post about the weather… makes me miss my grandpa (whose favorite conversation topic was the weather)… but man, it’s awesome to think that spring is on its way.  Bring it on!