Recap of Week 6 - Bracing for a 50-mile week ahead

Attention fellow Chicago-bound road warriors... I thought I would pass along the link to the inspirational clips from Land of the Gods: The Legend of the Marathon. The documentary follows a range of runners at the 2005 Chicago Marathon. There are some great shots of the race course on which we will be marking our blood, sweat and tears in exactly 84 days from now. Check out the trailer and look for the film's release later this year.

Summary of the weekend...

Thurs 7/27 - Rest day

Fri 7/28 - 9 miles - Needed to make up the mileage I cut earlier in the week and make it into a med-long 9-miler around my area - First 5 were recovery pace (around 8:50'ish) and the back 4 were btw 7:45 and 8. It was humid and hot as always for right now.

Sat 7/29 - 12 miles - We all know Saturday was a scorcher. The CARA group had 10 on the schedule so again I planned to add 2 to the back end. I ran 8's again and we were fast on a couple - one 7:50 and another 7:40 in the first 7 miles. For the last 3, Don (who was celebrating his 49th b-day) started to push pace, and I thought I would try to keep up with him. However, he took off. We clocked one mile at 7:18 after that, I decided to let him go. The heat was going to kill us. My first 10 were completed in 1:18:41. I was pretty spent, to be honest. The 9 the day before was taking its toll also. Wed's 5k also had an impact. I added "about 2" on my own at the end to get to a total time of 1:34:05. I may have cut short by 0.1 miles, but it was close enough. It was at least 90 degrees when I finished.

Recap of Week 6
Mon - 6 miles - last 3 were Tempo
Tue - 5 miles recovery in Hackensack, NJ
Wed - 5k Race + short warm-up before - Set PR of 19:32
Thu - Rest after wicked 5k PR
Fri - 9 miles total - first 5 were recovery pace - last 4 were EZ pace
Sat - 12 miles - very difficult with the hot weather -
Sun - Rest - Celebrated my 1st wedding anniversary!
TOTAL 37 MILES - HIT 100% OF PLANNED MILEAGE AGAIN W/EXCELLENT SPEED WORK

Now, it is time to get ready for my biggest mileage week of all time. Here comes a half-century mileage week!!

Plan for Week 7
Mon - 10 miles - 5 at tempo pace - Will train at the Plainfield HS track for the tempo miles
Tue - 5 miles recovery - Will be in Atlanta on business
Wed - 11 miles med-long - Back home in Plainfield
Thu - Rest
Friday - 7 miles - incl. 10x100m strides
Sat - 18 miles long
Sun - Rest, stretch and ice bath!