I ran the Chicago Distance Classic yesterday as part 2 of my 3 race season with Team in Training. After my Indy Mini PR of 1:58:20 I had a good head start on my training with 14 weeks between races to see how much faster I could get. The Team in Training Summer program features speedwork, stretching and ab work on Wednesday nights and so I pushed those sessions pretty hard.

Over the last 14 weeks we've done hill repeats, yasso 800s, strides, intervals and pickups around one of Chicago Lakefront's only hills at Montrose harbor. My pace had gradually been increasing while my heart rate was dropping over the same easy runs week to week and I felt really strong.

After studying my runners world training diary and pouring over the Garmin workout logs I decided to start with the 8 minute mile Chicago Endurance Sports pace group for a finish time of 1:45. I started in the first wave as a consequence and left with the first batch of runners. I stuck it out for the first four laps with splits of 7:46, 7:55, 7:46 and 8:02 but realized I was out of my league when I peaked at my Garmin to see a Heart Rate of 175 bpm, a rate typical towards the end of my workouts so I slowed down to 8:13, 8:01, 8:05 and 8:06 for the next four. At that point I hit the gusting wind from the north and was pegged back to 8:17, 8:54, 8:02 and 8:17 for the next four miles. The last mile and change to the finish I had nothing left in the tank and slugged through at 8:54 to finish with an overall chip time of 1:48:38 - another PR!

I'm really excited because it's one day later and I don't feel like I've been hit by a bus and ready for the next 9 weeks of training to take me to the Chicago marathon where, through my time in this race, I have secured a corral start! I'll throw it out there now so I can remember it but the Greg McMillan Running Calculator predicts that based on my half marathon time, my current level of fitness would indicate a 3:49 marathon. That would be 17 minutes faster than my 2006 San Francisco marathon finish and a PR so I hope it works!

Anyone else run it? What did you think of the course, the weather and the organization?

I've just returned from the longest run of my training for the San Diego Marathon and I'm thrilled to report I made it all the way around with no walking. Ok, I walked the last 5 yards to and from the water fountains along the way but I got it done. That was the message I told myself at mile 17 as I turned for the final 3 miles. "Get 'er done".

I left the house and it was breezy and overcast at about 53 degrees as I headed South from Addison down the lake front. The first few miles I paid close attention to my pace and made sure I pegged it back when my iPod Nano Nike+ reported I was pushing faster than 9 minutes per mile. My goal for the run was to finish and my strategy was to avoid going out too fast and try to stick between 9 and 10 minute miles all the way.

Just past Navy Pier I came across a crowd of pink shirts as a horde of walkers proudly marched for what appeared to be a Mothers Day breast cancer walk. Great job to see so many people out exercising and supporting a good cause. The shear number of walkers meant some creative ducking and weaving as I headed toward the museum campus. In front of the Field Museum we parted company as I turned left to run along the lake front to the Adler Planetarium. That marked my 7 mile marker so I turned around to run back. I had the wind in my face pretty much all through the first 7 miles so I was hoping to get a nice push up the path as I headed North again but alas that crazy Chicago wind had whipped around and appeared to be cutting across me from the East.

Just past the chess boards at North Avenue beach I took advantage of the bathrooms and some water before cutting over the bridge over Lake Shore Drive. The bridge seems so innocuous but the gentle rise slowed me to a trot before I reached the top and shuffled down the other side. The 5 miles back up to Addison flew by as I day dreamed about the week ahead, taking water breaks every 1.5 miles at this point. At Addison I glanced up at the apartment windows for signs of life but could only make out the silhouette of the cat looking on, exhausted from her morning of lounging in the sun which had burned away the clouds leaving clear blue skies.

I made the decision shortly after Addison to change my plan for the remaining 6 miles. At Irving Park I would tackle the hill rather than run around it. At the base of the hill a slight diversion was required due to the arrival of two soccer fields they had marked out the last time I came by this way. Steadily pumping my arms and lifting my knees I made it to the top of the hill and raised my arms, partly to check my form and partly in triumph before chugging down the other side past the Wilson parking lot where my fellow Team In Training members had probably celebrated finishing their 20 miles yesterday while I waited 2 hours at Weiss Memorial Hospital. I've had a headache every day this last week in the same place and my doctor thought a CT scan would be in order. Early indications from the radiologist suggest it's all in my head :-)

After the high of making it to the top of a hill at mile 15 I found another water stop at Montrose and caught my breath. Setting out from here I was still motivated by my success and it was easy going but very quickly the reality of the distance started to set in and I felt myself slowing down. I knew there was a water stop less than a mile away from here so I gritted my teeth and willed myself to reach it with the promise of another break. This mental part of running is the most challenging from me. A quick check of my body suggests that all is well but mentally I'm convincing myself that something must be hurting and I can feel a part of my brain saying stop.

I reached the water stop closer to 10 minutes per mile than 9 but running nonetheless. I took a well deserved chug of water and checked the iPod to see how much further I had left to the turnaround to send me home. 0.4 miles to the turn so that means 0.8 miles to get back here for more water and to gobble down more of the Clif Shot Bloks I neglected to mention earlier.

I know conventional wisdom says don't try anything new on race day and while this wasn't a race it was a pivotal run in my training schedule so I was a little wary. However, when you forget to buy the nasty orange Gu (that nearly makes you hurl as you run anyway), you get desperate. The Adidas shorts I wear have a neat little zipper pocket in the middle of your back and they just fit one packet of the Shot Blok perfectly so I thought why not. The first couple I had tried to eat around mile 8 left me looking like a dog eating peanut butter. The gummy consistency became tougher due to the cold wind whipping around me and I probably spent a mile trying to dislodge them from my back teeth with my tongue. The next two were a little easier due to the warmth of the sun shining on my back and making them a little less chewy.

Okay, back from the long digression, I set out from the water stop with 0.4 miles to the turnaround back South to Addison and for the first time in the run my legs were the ones telling my brain that they were tired. My calf muscles were the first to scream and my quads quickly followed suit. I could feel my quads shaking a little as I ran from the stress and I began to doubt my ability to make it 3.2 more miles. There have been times when I've been in this situation before as a runner and I've taken the easy way out and added a walking break but with 0.6 miles to the next water stop and a slight break how could I stop now. I pushed on to the the turn and as I checked my foot down to mark it a phrase popped into my head. "Get 'er done!". I trudged back to the water stop and drank deep while I chewed down the last 4 bloks for an energy boost with my new mantra repeating in my head.

I set off again in the knowledge that it was just over a mile to the next water stop before the big hill and as I ran along a new torment or perhaps a hallucination plagued me. Over the sound of my iPod I could hear the chime of bells, almost like a music box, or was it? An Ice Cream van? Over my right shoulder cruising alongside me in the parking lot was a blue and white Ice Cream van. Sweet temptation. Don't worry, I'm not nuts despite the CT scan and I can assure you that the van was real. I was glad when the path took a turn under a bridge and my new nemesis had stopped to serve some desperate children. In reality, the van had been such a distraction I had barely noticed the running and I had already reached my next and final water stop.

A triumphant gulp or two later I actually raced away towards the hill once more. Go around or go over? It certainly felt good to hit the top and it had a soothing effect on my legs last time after all the flat running offered by Chicago's lakefront. Up the hill it was and once more I beat a path past the soccer fields, up and over to the 1 mile from home marker.

Nine minutes left. This felt so good to be nine minutes from the end of a 20 mile run and I set myself a new goal. Half a mile from the apartment I would hit the power song button on my iPod to help my cruise to the finish. I listen to "Damn, it feels good to be a gangster" by the Geto Boys after hearing it in Office Space. I know it's a strange choice but mentally it relaxes me as I think of the movie (if you haven't seen it, stop reading, go and rent it and watch then return). Another benefit is that the beat keeps me at just under a 9 minute mile pace and it's really good for stretching me out at the end of a run. 19.46... 19.49... 19.5 boom... "Damn, it feels good to be a gangster". Yes. It does.

I realize I may have lost many of you at this point but those of you who have run any kind of distance will understand how emotional you feel when you realize that you are going to do it - finish what you set out to accomplish. At 8.46 per mile for the remainder of the run I was flying past the softball fields, past the tennis courts towards our apartment building now so close and welcoming. "Congratulations, you have finished your 20 mile run" interrupted the ladies voice on the iPod, and even better, Paula Radcliffe piped up to congratulate me on my longest run! A few sips of water by the tennis courts, some stretches and then back home for a shower. What a great day.

This morning was my 14 mile run with Team in Training as part of my preparation for the San Diego marathon in June. I've been good so far with my training - since February I've missed just one actual training run although my optional cross training days have generally remained optional :-) Of the cross training sessions I have made, it's been 30 minutes of laps in the pool at my gym.

The Team in Training program has a few interesting differences compared to the Hal Higdon plan I did last year for the San Francisco marathon. The first big difference is that the weekday mileage is generally recorded in terms of minutes rather than miles and it doesn't progress as quickly as Hal's plan. The midweek run is reserved for special types of runs and the last 4 weeks have been a series of gradually increasing treadmill workouts designed to help prepare us for the hills of San Diego and build extra leg strength.

The best difference for this program is the support provided by the coaches, the mentors, the other runners and the administrative staff. Unlike last year when I was running solo and facing my psychosomatic aches late in the runs, this year there is at least one person running with me to distract me from getting stuck in my head and people handing me chocolate, carbs and Gatorade at tactical points. Wrapping up a long run you are rewarded with all kinds of simple carbs to help you get fuel back into your body as quickly as possible.

Despite all of this incredible support this run today was a challenge from the start. It was 20 degrees as I left the house but the 15mph wind brought the temperature down to feel like 9 degrees. We hopped around as people assembled at the meetup point and it became clear that my little magic gloves weren't a match for the biting icy wind.

I got a tip from a friend earlier in the week about a great podcast available on iTunes called Podrunner so my iPod Nano was loaded up and ready to go. The Podrunner mixes are also available from his website if you use any other kind of MP3 player and they are well worth the download wait. Each week DJ SteveBoy releases a new mix an hour long of dance music. Every track is seamlessly mixed and pumped to a consistent number of beats per minute. He has mixes ranging from 120 all the way up to a heart pumping 181 beats per minute.

This may sound like a lot but I'll put in a better context. Over a week ago, the training program for TnT mentioned turnover drills and after some research and a great article in Runners World I understood the goal. The powers that be suggest that every runner has their own cadence (number of times their feet hit the ground in a minute) programmed into the way they run and most runners have a cadence around 160. As you speed up and slow down you typically increase or decrease your stride length but your cadence remains fairly constant. This is crucial since as you get older, your stride shortens so if you don't improve your cadence you get slower. Most professional runners are coached to run at 180 foot falls per minute. Sound familiar? 181 beats per minute music fits right in with your goal of faster feet turnover. I'll leave the article linked above to go into more detail about the why and the how but mention that my Wednesday 40 minute treadmill session flew by as I pumped my legs along to a 163 beats per minute track and it was a great workout.

Back to today from that long digression. JP (a great mentor in the program) and I made our way 1.5 miles north from the Wilson Ave parking lot up to the mile 0 marker. Running that way we faced the wind all the way and my lips started to turn numb. We turned to run south and it was instant relief - the wind behind us we pounded 7 miles down the lake front path at a great pace. I had set my iPod to play the 181 beats per minute Podrunner track as an experiment and it felt great shuffling my feet low to the ground and much lighter on my legs. A natural side effect of the faster cadence is that my natural stride length meant we were running between an 8 minute mile and 8:20 for most of the 7 miles south. At the turning point just north of Navy Pier one of the coaches had raced down to meet us with his beautiful Weimaraner to give us some encouragement and get a check on how we felt. This was the last part of the run that felt comfortable.

As we started North again towards the Wilson parking lot the icy wind from our back was against us and doubly biting along the exposed path. Our 8:20 pace stretched to 8:40 and as we charged up the ramp of the North Avenue bridge my legs were screaming for mercy. Just after the bridge was another support crew with slightly frozen Gatorade and candy. Starting back up after a quick break my legs felt like lead. Another mile or so north of there we stopped to get some water at the fountain, still running despite the slick ice forming around the stand. Another stop, another tough restart. I didn't check but I'm certain we had slowed to a 9:00 pace.

Two miles out from home I started to feel a slight pinch in my shoulder and I checked my heart rate monitor to discover I was at 93% of my theoretical max heart rate. Not wanting to push myself to a serious injury and a little relieved to slow it down further we had a fast walk break until it dropped back down to 80% again and then picked it back up a little slower than before. Less than a mile from the finish JP checked if it would be okay to charge off to the end and then hit the gas. I finished the 14 mile run to the sound of cowbells as Tovah and the support crew cheered me home in 2 hours 6 minutes, an overall pace of 9:03 per mile. After stretching, scarfing down peanut butter and jelly pie, munchkins and assorted other goodies, Melissa arrived to ship me home after a brief detour at Starbucks.

Now, after a good long soak in the tub I'm sat with my legs propped up on the edge of the sofa and chugging down water. On a technical note I'm glad I used the band-aids on my nips to avoid the Marilyn Manson look from last summer and the vaseline to prevent the tops of my legs from chafing me like last week. A new issue I didn't have to deal with last year is a side-effect of the Superfeet inserts I have been using to correct the over-pronation of my ankles. I'm not sure if I need to look into a wider alternative because for the 12 mile last week and 14 mile this week I've developed a blister on the big toe of my right foot that really pinches late in the run. It's either the inserts or I need some new socks. I'm going to watch the rest of the Cubs game now so have a great Easter weekend and I'll try and check in next week after my 16 mile run (yes, 12, 14 then 16 - at least I get a break after that in a cutback week).

I've managed to put off my procrastination and worked through a very important piece of the functionality for WalkJogRun's newest feature. Within the next few weeks I'll be launching a limited beta of the training diaries for WalkJogRun. I've been putting this off for well over a year but I have turned the corner in terms of development. All that remains is the addition of some suitable reports and testing it. Through my deliberation there have been several other online training diaries that have sprung up, one notable character being the Nike+ site. I don't have the marketing dollars to compete at that level but I do know that my site offers a more flexible approach through the ability to track training without the need for a Nano and Nike+ device. I'm banking on the fact that many of my regular visitors will sign up for the service too (just over a third of a million visitors last year and growing!).

This week I've managed to get all my three training runs in so today is a rest day before the step back run tomorrow of 45 minutes with the Team in Training crew. After last year's success in the Shamrock Shuffle, finishing 5 miles in 39:39, I've been accepted into starting corral B for the event which is great news. I was worried about my fitness to be able to run an 8 minute mile when my training runs are about the 9 minute mile mark so last night I did a test. I was able to sustain an 8:30 pace for the run with an average heart rate of 85%. This suggests there may be just enough juice in me to hit 8 minute miles for the race in just over 2 weeks. Of course I'm probably getting ahead of myself so I'm going to email the coaches for Team in Training to see if there is anything I can do to prepare.

On the team in training note, I've added some text to the WalkJogRun homepage to say that if every visitor for 1 day to the site contributed just 5 dollars or just over 2 pounds I would have 10,000 dollars in my training account for the charity.

Things have been hectic around here, so much so I've not had much time to blog. So when Melissa showed me the "no blog entries available" message on her screen I felt like I should post something. The response to my Team in Training fundraising campaign has been overwhelming with over $1900 raised of $3900 so far with 3 months to go!

Since I started training we discovered that Melissa's step-brother's 3 year old girl Haidyn was diagnosed with Pre-B Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. This was quite a blow and just makes the cause even more worthwhile.

The running has been going well and I've hit every long run so far. The shorter runs I'm getting 2 out of every 3 on average due to a combination of lame excuses including terrible weather and co-ordinating a gallery opening in Chicago where me and 14 other photographers from my ChiFlickr group exhibited our work. The opening was a huge success and attracted over 300 people that night. I've been running around printing things, framing things, hanging things and making sure everyone else had their stuff done on time so it's been quite hectic. The weather has been less than co-operative with some -30 degrees fahrenheit temperatures with the wind chill. I've been treadmill training a little until about two weeks ago and then I just gave in, wrapped up and made it outside.

I've realized that the combination of my heart rate monitor and the pace display on my Nike+ device make an excellent team to help me complete my runs. It has been a case of push and pull. I know my short and medium runs are supposed to be at a heart rate equivalent of 70% of max effort (according to current opinion), so I have been recording my average heart rate and trying to maintain a steady pace each time I run using the nike+. After some experimentation, I've worked out that 9:10 per mile is good for my short runs and allows me to finish with energy left over and no aches or pains. Over my longer runs, including 8 miles yesterday, I have been able to run at 9:30 per mile to get an average of 70% of max HR over the run. Again, I finished my run yesterday with energy to spare and the only problem was the chill across my big belly where the wind cut through my shell jacket! I think as I lose more weight with the increased mileage, the belly will get smaller and stick out less so it won't turn red again.

I promise I'll try to blog more from now on and hope you'll get something out of reading along. If you have any running questions you think I might be able to help with, drop me a line!