Wake up at 8am (woah!) and think, I'm going to break my half marathon run time today, its my goal to average a 90 minute speed this year, but I keep falling a couple minutes short.
Walk to the living room, greet my lovely ladies. My wife is feeling a bit off, so I offer to postpone my run until our daughter takes her nap around noon, and I'll pick up the morning so she can rest. Not really sure how I should eat to run that late, just have to wing it.
Wife suggests I take our daughter out the the park, so we venture out (one block) to the park. We spend a good hour or so chasing birds, digging in the grass, and once in awhile actually using the park equipment. She is very adept with a stick I'll have you know.
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| My daughter trying to catch the pigeons |
Come back around 11:00, and try to mimic my running routine I normally have. Mostly to get my stomach in order so it won't act up in the run (you know what I'm talking about). Drink a few cups off coffee, change, and mentally clear up. I'm going to try to start using the products that will be available at the Chicago Marathon to make sure I don't introduce anything new to my stomach on race day. Today, I tried out a step 1 Gatorade pouch about 20 or so minutes before I went out the door. It tasted like melted Otter Pops. I felt really jittery after it, not sure this is something I want in my regimen. I checked the weather, and saw a wind out of the North, kept telling myself to prepare for it... never can.
I set my Endomondo (I thought) to give me a pace time for ever half mile, to try to focus on my goal time. After starting, it appears it went off every .05 miles. Rather than stop and fiddle, I just turned it off. Stop watch it is! I knew enough distance points to base my time off of as I go.
3 miles, 20 minutes... too fast... slow down Declan. Stomach shows up, feels funky for a couple miles. Gatorade pouch? Too much breakfast? who knows.
One minor story here, I have a beef with rollerbladers that don't pick a speed. I initially passed two ladies on rollerblades, a little odd, since I know they can get speed pretty easy. A couple minutes later, they pass me. Okay better. A few minutes later, I pass them. You can see where this is going.
After a couple miles, we are about at the same speed on several occasions, and I'm stuck on the dirt several times. Finally they zoom off after hitting a small decline on the path. Good bye! Thank you.. But I see them one more time getting water... Please don't go my way.
7 Miles, 47 minutes... slow down Declan... because it is time to turn around.
And we have wind. Experience tells me the wind is strongest from Michigan avenue to about Belmont. I focus on my form and just hope to get through it. The wind off the lake is not kind if you are trying to get to a new speed.
I reach Belmont, no change... ***** Every mile got harder, I knew I wasn't going to get a great time now. I finish my run with my slowest time in about a month and a half. Dang.. I gotta learn how to take that wind better and save more energy. Maybe I'll bring Gatorade a few times during as well.
Time for the walk home, the breeze feels minimal. bleh.
Get home and we decide to go to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba ( we couldn't agree on a mexican place, Fiesta Mexican or La Ciudad) . So we head off and have a wonderful dinner then custard at our favorite neighborhood shop, Lickity Split!
Now to close, here is a photo of our daughter giving us a look on the train down to dinner.
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| Dad, whatcha looking at? |
