Excitment going up!

Excitement and expectation are building up for 10/10/10! My training has been solid and am healthy for the most part. I have a sore lower back but it’s getting better by the day. I am logging a lot of weekly miles and my body is feeling it. I feel great otherwise. The weather is much better so my legs are fresh. I actually think that training in a very hot and humid weather made me substantially stronger. My endurance is very good and my speed is coming back to where it was before running in Traverse City. The Chicago Marathon is in 6+ weeks and a lot of things can still happen until then but, if I keep training like this, am going to be very strong and fast. I use my daily runs to imagine how I want to run the Chicago course turn by turn, mile by mile, step by step. I have done that course two times but this one is going to be different because I am a different runner. For many years, I trained to finish races or, better said, to survive races. I enjoyed finishing marathons, it was nice to have the medal. Yet I recently discovered that I enjoy them much more when I run in front of the massive pack of runners. I enjoy them much more when my body responds smoothly when I ask for more. So I now train to run in front. The mental barrier that prevented me from running faster times doesn’t exist anymore. I know I can go fast and I train, physically and mentally, to go fast.

I did 61 miles last week. The best part of it was a very solid 8x5 min. tempo run on Wednesday and a lot of base, easy miles on Mo, Tu, Th, and Fr. Saturday’s run wasn’t easy. I did a combo of tempo+10 miles+tempo (17 miles total). My times on Sat. were good, but I had to dig deep to finish the workout. This is the first time in my running life that I run 60+ miles in two consecutive weeks. Hopefully this is going to make 3 in a row. I have done 10.75 and 9 miles on Mo and Tu respectively. This is going to be a difficult week but I see the finish line in Grant Park waiting for me. If someone offers me a settlement for a sub 3:10 marathon right now, I wouldn’t take! I think am in much better shape than that and I hope to continue traveling in this line until October 10th.