Chips and Salsa Half Marathon to Chicago Marathon

Another thing to add from last week was the Chips and Salsa Half marathon we have here in Albuquerque. This was last sunday, and the point of it was to run about marathon pace or faster up here at altitude. The course is flat with a bunch of turns, but it actually is a nice course. There were two Moroccans being paced on a bike, me, Kris and John. My lovely girlfriend; Laura, was going to pace us on a bike as well. So after blitzing the first mile in 5:02, I make a wrong turn and have to turn around. Once back on track, everyone in the top five makes another wrong turn which ends up being a 210 meter diversion. After that little mishap, everyone is back on course and back on pace. I clicked off a few solid miles, while staying as comfortable as possible and taking in water and gatorade along the way. At this point I am in 3rd place and am not able to gain much ground on the two Moroccans. I ended up finishing in 3rd place with a time of 1:09:34 with the 210 meter diversion.

After that effort, I feel pretty good about going into Chicago. That effort, with some rest before the marathon should prove to be a great day in a few weeks. I'm also excited to be in a huge group of guys going for that Olympic Trials time, as well as being in a big city marathon with a ton of spectators. Basically, this marathon is going to be like the Olympic Trials, since there are going to be a bunch of Americans in that field. And finally, this will be my first Major Marathon.

High Mileage

Last week was an all time high for mileage. I hit 141 miles for the week with two solid workouts and a long 40k run to finish out the week. This was planned of course, and was the peak mileage for this marathon cycle. The following week (this past), was a race week with little tapering and resting. I ran a half marathon here in Albuquerque at altitude and ran it as a marathon specific workout. It went really well and I hit my splits dead on. I fell off a little bit at the end, but that could have been because of the fast miles at the beginning, and a slight deviation that occurred in the race.

Getting lost in an Albuquerque road race is quite common since many races aren't that marked or marshaled correctly. But, either way it was a great effort and I was pleased with the outcome. We basically made a 210 meter detour which costed about 40 seconds in the race, with a steeple barrier. The 2010 Chips and Salsa half marathon, was still a great event and I was pleased to push hard in those conditions. My splits are: [5:02, 5:15, ???, ???, 5:11, 5:10, 5:20, 5:08, 5:10, 5:21, 5:23, 5:26, 5:17, ???]. So I was pleased. Chicago is looking good at this point.

Mileage break down:

9/6 - 9/12

Mon - 10 easy

Tue - am track workout 12x 1000m. 14 miles

pm easy 8 miles.

Wed - am easy 10 miles

pm easy 12 miles

Thur - am easy 14 miles

pm easy 6 miles

Fri - am 10 mile tempo. 14 miles total

pm easy 8 miles

Sat - am easy 12 miles

pm easy 8 miles

Sun - 25 mile long run

Total: 141

9/13 - 9/19

Mon - Off, no running

Tue - am easy 8 miles

pm easy 10 miles

Wed - am 18 miles w/6 miles @ marathon pace (5:31, 5:23, 5:15, 5:19, 5:18, 5:14)

pm easy 6 miles

Thur - pm 12 miles

Fri - am easy 4 miles

pm easy 12 miles

Sat - am easy 7 miles

pm easy 4 miles

Sun - am 1/2 marathon 1:08:54. total 17 miles

pm easy 4 miles

Total: 102