Progress and Prep for the CDC

This past weekend, we visited my in-laws in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. On Sunday, my daughter, Alivia, was baptized.

Last week's mileage total was moderately light at 38 miles. However, it included a sweet 16-mile run on Saturday in the 'Burgh. I met up with my good friends, Aaron and Steve, to run the Peters Township trail.

I wanted to get in some pace miles, as is scheduled at this point with the Pfitz plan. For now, I decided a reasonable goal marathon pace for which to strive is in the 7:00-7:05 range.

The Peters trail has a steady grade for much of the trail in one direction. So you'll see slower miles in the front - and faster miles on the return. There was an add-on out-and-back leg in the middle that also had some relatively steady descent/ascent. This was a very good run, with an overall avg pace of 7:11. Great stuff given the humidity and all the hills.

For this week, I will be again slightly light in mileage to ease up for my race. I will be running the Chicago Distance Classic on Sunday for the third year in a row. It is the most popular half marathon to prep for the Chicago Marathon. I hope another PR is in the making.

Did I do enough tempo work to finally achieve sub-1:28? Or even sub-1:29? It largely will depend on the weather. Last year was brutally hot, but the forecast looks good at this point.

Tonight, I banged out a really solid 11.5 miler after work at 5:30 PM. I felt pretty strong and avg'd 7:29, with a really strong finish. It's always nice to nail double-digit milers mid-week. It was good thing I hit it this evening, too, because I was upset with myself for missing out on a perfect morning of weather to run.

I will now mostly rest and do some light recovery mileage before the race on Sunday.

8.5 weeks until Twin Cities...