Chicago Marathon Training Thread (Page 7)

Isn't the Fox River Marathon this weekend? I think they do the 5 and 10K on Saturday with the Half Mary and Marathon on Sunday.... better check and see if it's open.

I am used to Swim/Bike training early in the AM with no negative effects afterwards. Running, however is a different beast. A good solid run takes so much out of me, that after about 2 hrs at work I stop being as sharp as I would like to be.

My solution - leave the long or hard runs for after work, and do the easy stuff in the AM, if needed. As a bonus, I get to sleep-in until 7 am most of the days

Has anyone else notice any energy swings with the AM workouts?

Yes it is this weekend but the half, 20 miler and full are all run on Sunday. They do have a kids "marathon" that they run on Saturday at 3p. It's a 1.2 mile run for kids. Over the course of the summer they are supposed to commit to running 25 miles and then on Saturday they get to finish their marathon with 1.2 miles and go through the finishers chute and get a medal.

Since the course is along the river it is not closed to the public anyway. There are usually a few people who are walking, running and even biking during the marathon.

I was tempted to jump in and do the 20 mile course so I could have a long 20 miler with full support but I don't want to get in trouble!

Schaumburg's 20-miler was great - nice pace groups, good food - generally a good time. I knocked 15 minutes off this weeks' 20-miler, compared to last week's 20-miler. That will finish up my significant long runs until the marathon itself - I'm not sure how much more of that boredom I can take.

Let's see how productive I am for the rest of the day - there's plenty of stuff to do today around the house, but all I want to do is set around and chug protein shakes

New here and had a question... I'm averaging about 10:-10:20 on my long runs(just fnished the last 20 miler and that felt good). All of the marathon calculators say I should be able to do the marathon at about a 9:00-9:15 pace... Is this realistic or are the calculators overreaching? I'm trying to figure out my pacing for the actual race itself. Anyone else have experience with this on how much faster they can race vs. the long runs. This is my first marathon and trying to put my mind at ease. Thanks in advance.

This sounds like a bit of a stretch to me, but not impossible. The adrenalyn of the race, the crowd, the other runners, can have remarkable impact.
In my experience, I usually race about 20-30 seconds/mile faster than I run in my long runs.

Just don't go too hard and blow up before you reach Chinatrown.

So I was in Vegas with a bunch of dbags this past weekend so I didn't do my long run. Then i realized it's still 3 weeks til the race. I usually do my long run 12-14 days before my marathons so I'm glad I didn't do it. I am going to do 16 tomorrow with a buddy and then 22 on Sunday, I think, maybe Monday or Tuesday next, ahead of the race. I find if I run long too close to the actual race I suffer.

I just did IMLT this past Sunday. I was planning on that being my long run but I ended up walking a fair amount of the Marathon as the bike shredded my legs. (Combo of poor training, wrong cassette, and tough course). I'm trying to decide if I should stick to the 13 mile run this weekend or try for the long run.

Personally, there's no way I'd go beyond 13-miles so soon after an IM.
Regardless of how little you "ran" of the IMLT marathon, you still completed a freaking IRONMAN. I imagine you'd run the risk of injury.

With 2 weeks to go, assuming you're feeling up to it, I would do a long-ish run (12-14) this weekend (Saturday), then try and do a slightly longer run (~16) on Tuesday or Wednesday. Plenty of time to recover before the 13th.

No need to push it, I'm sure the IM training has you conditioned sufficiently for the marathon.

IMLT? I've read about that race - brutal, just brutal. If it were me, I'd still be sitting in a hot tub drinking Hot Toddy's and ignoring the world. I'd say let your legs guide you - perhaps find a loop you can cut short if need be, or bring a phone and call a ride.

/salute your toughness

My first-ever 20-miler is in the books! Did the CARA Ready to Run and it was perfect for me. Gorgeous day, got seeded with my Darien CARA Pace Group which was a total bonus since I love running with them. So nice of CARA to do that. I found everything very well organized and would recommend it to others. Some people at my work thought the path was too crowded but I'm used to running in a pack so I didn't think much of it. My time was 3:30:58 - with no watch stops along the route. This is right on 10:30 pace for me. I'm so excited for Chicago and for my first marathon!

I bow to you, O great one! Skip the long run- you're too close to the marathon. I think the swim and bike made for a good enough effort.

Awesome job, congratulations!!! If you did that well on your 20 miler you'll kill the marathon, ceteris parabis. Good luck!

Did 14 miles along the lakefront trail on the southside last night. Felt at least a little safer with my SWAT buddy there with me. He was fading toward the end as he hasn't really run more than 12 or 13 miles in the past couple years, but he managed to finish the run with me. On the way out we were averaging about 8:30s and on the way back sub-8s because, as he said, `It's dark and I want to get this over with.' My legs are hammered today, but I need to do another 20-miler just to be sure on Sunday. I was hoping to find a race somewhere but there are no 20-milers that I can find this weekend.

It may have been mentioned somewhere in the thread, but does anyone know whether there will be pacers on the race course? CARA was mentioned, but in the Marine Corp and they had pacers running w/the general crowd.

I'm in the "B corral so I wonder if that complicates my access to a pacer.

These last two weeks, I have shot-up my mileage and am peaking at 70 MPW with the longest run of 24 miles schedule for next week. You would think I'd be confident at my own pacing... but I have NEVER met my goal.

Thanks in advance.

Edited by Porfirio 2013-09-26 9:12 AM

There are pacers for every speed from 3:00-on. If you're faster than that, then you don't need a pacer!

Thanks! Do you know, cause the website doesn't seem to announce and I haven't run Chicago since 2008, which corral/s the pacers will be in? I'm debating whether I should forego the "B" corral assignment if I can hook-up w/a pacer.

Edited by Porfirio 2013-09-26 9:45 AM

pacers stop at 5:45. If your at 5:45 tell Lora I say hi. Cool thing is you can talk to some of the leaders at the expo so you will know what they plan on doing and such. Also can get a pacing tattoo which is pretty cool.

Sad news I will not be doing Chicago. I guess having major surgery right before your suppose to start training does not always work out. Oh well hopefully next year.



Edited by chirunner134 2013-09-26 9:52 AM

 

Here is the section of the web site that has info on the pace groups: http://www.chicagomarathon.com/participant-information/nike-pace-team-information/ 

B will have pace groups.

Edited by fivecents 2013-09-26 10:59 AM

If you're getting the sniffles, not a really bad thing since it will coincide w/your taper in two weeks!

That's great! Thank you so much.

My legs are still really tired from IMLT. I really hope my recovery kicks in this week. I tried to run last night and it was not fun .