Just got done running 7.5 miles here at Fermi Lab. The run went great. We slowed down a little for the first thing which I think is helping. I'm not a 8:45 miler....for these long distances...yet anyways.

So we ran from D-Zero towards the east entrance, and on the North side of Batavia Rd is a little path, so we ran down there and immediatly the gravel that was the road turned into flattened grass. But i thought well it's something different as we always run on concrete. So we took it and 10 minutes later (or less) we were in the middle of freakin' no where. It really was amazing, I felt like I was in some different country or something, not at a high energy physics lab. Which was very cool. We followed this little semi path around a couple of the lakes here and ended up back in the Village. We ran around there a little, past the softball game, and then back to the little road by CDF that we found yesterday and back to D-Zero ending at the Outback.

It was a great run, and nice to shake things up a little, especially here were a 7.5 mile run could consist of 4 long, boring straightaways.

Also, no leg pain to report....this could be because of the 2 aleve that I took before we left. One more quick note, I haven't had much of an appetite these last few days, eating small meals and not finishing them. I was pretty hungry today on the run and as suggested by Jason will try to do more snacking to get my appitite back to normal. I can't not be eating right now as I need the food for the energy to get through these runs.

so 7.539 Miles in 1:08.09 giving a pace of 9:02 min/mile

Like Jason said, it was a good run yesterday. We ran on a little path that is to the west of the ring by D-Zero. When we got to the point where we usually turn around I looked ahead and saw another runner coming out of the grass. So this little bike path continued and ended up by CDF. A nice little thing to learn because it's not too much fun running on the roads. All in all a good run, no leg pain.

The Route:
Path by D-Zero->Around Computing Building->To little road->Back to Batavia Rd->To stop sign in the village->Back to D-Zero

We went by time, so the route doesn't really matter. The time was 47:42:25

Yesterday afternoon, before out weekly softball game (which we won, thank you), Leah and I ran about 5 miles. I say about because we didn't have any way to measure the distance, but we ran for 47 and a half minutes which means that we should have been around 5 miles.

It was a perfect day for running. The sun was shining, it was not too hot...all in all a very good run. The only problem was that I was having some, er, uh, digestive problems, if you will. So the minute I left on the run I was really hoping to get back as quickly as possible. This is sort of difficult to manage when you are running by time.

But I survived and the run went well. No leg pain to report.

Yesterday we ran 3.5 miles after a weekend of fun in the sun. Since my knee had been hurting all day, we took it nice and slow and I tried to think about my running form as I was going. Felt good throughout the whole thing until we stopped and the heat of the night hit me. Whoo hoo was it hot out. Walked home and stopped to get water from the fire hydrant across the street from Wrigley that is always turned out (i swear this is the best water in the city!) Went home and enjoyed an Edy's Lemonade popsicle. Really is there anything better than a popsicle on a hot summer night? I didn't think so either.

I also have gotten some Johnsons Foot soap and have been soaking my feet for 15-20 minutes each night. I know I know i sound like such an old lady, but I have some blisters on my toes and so I don't want them to get all infected and actually think it's working alright. I also iced my left knee for about 20 minutes before bed.

The Route:
G&W->Waveland->Lake Front Path->4 Mile Marker (one past belmont)->Back to Waveland->Halstead

Leah did a great job recapping this weekend of running. Let me just add a few things (well, the only thing I'm going to add is my opinion).

• It is totally sweet running at midnight. The temperature is perfect, it is completely deserted, and you feel like a total bad-ass. It is a little crazy, though.
  
• It is really nice to shake things up a bit. These last two runs were in new locals and it made all the difference. I could have done without the hills, though.
• Joe is amazing.

I also ran a little bit with my brother on Sunday morning. He is just getting started running, so we just ran 10 minutes out and then walk-ran the rest of the way back. He did a really good job and pushed himself through the hills nicely. I felt fine on that run.

The hills were pretty hard on my knees too and I'm really glad that I don't run in the hilly areas anymore. In Bloomington my knees were always hurting and I figured out a way that I could stretch my knee while running and aleviate the pain for a couple minutes. I just sort of take a big step, where my knee comes up above my waist towards my chest and then I extend my leg out a big and complete the step. It sort of feels like it is just taking the pressure off the knee rather than really stretching anything, but whatever it does it helps. It is pretty rough to just keep running on a knee that hurts.

Hopefully Leah's knee gets better soon. Lots of ice and aleve and run slow, I guess.

UPDATE

Wow, am I behind on the running updating.

So let's see waz up.

07/21/05
Today, we had the busiest day that we have had in awhile, and that's saying a lot for our days. We are leaving for Michigan the next morning and had so much to do to get ready for our mini three day vacation. So we came into work, played softball at 5:30 and the game went forever! We left the lab around 8:00 and got home around 9pm. We started cleaning our apartment, and packing. I had to make cookies to bring to my aunt and uncles lake house, so to make a long story short we went for our 4.5 mile run at MIDNIGHT! Actually it went alright. We got the usual, "What the hell are you running for, don't you know that it's 12:30 in the morning" from a band of drunk 20 somethings. I love the comments from people when Jason and I run late at night. No, actually I thought that it was more like 12:30 in the afternoon. idiots. Anyways, the run went fine. Nothing too spectacular. The underpass at waveland was closed so we had to run to the underpass that is a tad north of Belmont.

07/23/05
We ran at my aunt and uncles lake house in Three Rivers, MI. Our best friend Joe (who was the best man at our wedding) was up there for the weekend also and decided to go on the long run with us. We got up at 5am and were out running before 6, which I always love. The planned distnace was 12 miles. I brought my gps timex system, but it had a lot of problems getting and keeping a signal. So Jason and I decided that with all the hills to play it safe and run for 1 hour and 52 minutes, this comes down to 9:15 miles, which seemed about right. If anything it would have been a little far, which I would rather have it be than too short. So we found out that Three Rivers, MI is WAY HILLY. yowza. It was a little tough for me to finish as I had some knee discomfort that hit me at about 90 minutes. I am hoping that it will heal itself up since it's annoying. I would like to congratulate Joe because he ran the whole 12 miles. The farthest he had run before that was 6 miles. So rock on Joe.

Alright, well that should catch me up. Tonight we will run a slow 3.5 mile.....hopefully these thunderstorms move along.

Like Jason said the run was alright. Not good for me, not bad either though. Just seemed long and slow. But it always feels good to be done with the run no matter how it went. We stopped for water at about 3.5 miles and then again at about 4.5 miles and then just finished up.

I traded in my shoes yesterday at Fleet Feet and got the ones that Jason is wearing. The asics 2100. They feel very similar to the Brooks Adrenaline and thought i'd give them a shot since they do seem a bit "bouncier" than the adrenalines.

There will have to be one more pair of shoes bought before the actual race so I will decide then which shoes I want to run the marathon in.

I am keeping track of the distance that we put on the shoes on the right hand side and know that when those numbers hit about 300 miles it will be time to get a new pair. We are running over 30 miles a week, so this will be less than 10 weeks, which will be just a few weeks before the marathon. perfect timing.

The Route:
G&W->Waveland->Lake Front Path->6.5 Mile Marker (Oak St. Beach)->Back to 3 Mile Marker (totem pole)

Today was an eight mile run which, if you're scoring at home, is very far. It seemed especially so this morning as we took off at about quarter to seven and I was just not mentally "with it". I may just not have been awake, I don't know, but my thoughts consisted pretty much entirely of "oh god, I've only gone three miles" and "geez, it's hot out here." These aren't the thoughts one looks for on a longish run. But, the Wife and I gutted it out and it went alright. We stopped for water a couple of times and took it nice and slow and finished just fine.

Not every run is going to go perfectly. It's like pitching. You are only going to "have it" 25% of the time and it's what you do with the rest of the time that really defines you as a runner.

Regarding those fancy new shoes I got this past week...I like them, but I'm not sure they fit my feet perfectly. I am getting a little bit of pain in the outside of my foot, towards the back, when I start running. It generally seems to go away after the first couple of miles, but I hope I'm not doing myself any actual damage. I don't think so, and otherwise I really like my shoes, so I'm going to stick with them. They are very bouncy and my legs haven't hurt, so on the balance, I think they are good shoes.

Got up at 5:30 am this morning so that we could get our run in before we left for work. We are looking at apartments the next two days and wanted to get both today and tomorrow done in the morning. Ran 4.5 miles, and I actually used my old shoes because my toes were bothering me in the old ones. Felt fine. I think I will exchange the new shoes for a new pair of my old shoes. Make sense? My feet fit very well into the Brooks Adrenaline and no need to mess with something that works. right? right.

After the run, we biked downtown to the metra station.

The Route:
G&W->Byron->Southport->Irving Park->Clark->Montrose->Lake Front Path->Belmont->Clark->Addison

Just got back from our 3.5 mile run. Felt ok, the usual for a monday.

I am noticing however that I do have toes. I am very aware that they are knocking into the front of my new shoes :-( I am sad, but I did buy them at Fleet Feet less than a week ago so it shouldn't be a problem to return them and probably get the shoes I have been training in since last may. The Brooks Adrenaline since I know those have worked pretty well for me, but we'll see what else they have there.

The Route:
G&W->Waveland->Lake Front Path->4 Mile Marker->Back to Waveland->Halstead

This past weekend Jason and I went to Fort Wayne, IN to visit Jason's parents for a weekend bbq. We decided to do the long run early on Saturday morning. So we got up at 5am, ate some toast and drove some water bottles to leave on the side of the road where we knew we would be running. On the way back from doing that it started POURING! I was so annoyed because it was looking like we would have to wait until the evening to get the run in, or go on Sunday morning. So we had a cup of coffee, everyone was waking up because the thunder was incredibly loud. Around 7am, the storms stopped so we decided to go then.

We had a GREAT run. It was so nice to shake things up a bit. It started raining about 30 minutes into the run, but it was that awesome rain. No wind, and not cold, just a constant rain. It totally didn't bother us though, and I found it quite fun to run in the rain, through the country. We ran by farms and fields, and saw the apartment complex that Jason spent many years living as a kid. Before I knew it we were at 11 miles with only 2.5 to go. We finished in 1:59 so under two hours! This put us at a pace of 8:48, which is not bad considering all the hills that we had to conquer which we never see in Chicago.

We took Sunday off and will be running 3.5 later today.

Yesterday we ran 4.5 miles. The shoes are still feeling good. They will have the big test tomorrow with our long run of the week at 13.5 miles. We are going to visit Jason's parents in Fort Wayne, so it will be a whole new place to run.

It looks like Jason and I will have to move due to a lame rental agency, (don't even get me started) and so during the run yesterday we talked about neighborhoods and price limits and all that good stuff. How does this relate to the marathon? We will have to move the weekend before the event Gotta be careful not to drop a box of books or something on my toe. ouch. Hmm...maybe we should get movers....we are on a 3rd floor apartment.

The Route:
Grace&Wayne->Waveland->Lake Front Path->4.5 mile marker->Back to waveland->Halstead

Registration Now Closed

Well it looks like they have closed the registration for the Chicago Marathon. Wow that was fast. We signed up just a couple of weeks ago, good thing we did it when we did it!

Yesterday Jason and I stopped at Fleet Feet on the way home from the Metra station to get some new shoes. They are a specialty running store and know lots about shoes! Was Leah in heaven? Yes she was! They let you run in the shoes after you try them on and so it's easy to compare them. We both tried a new type of shoe with Leah going with the New Balance 765, and Jason with Asics GT-2100. (Thanks again Dad!)

Of course we started out on them with a 7.5 mile run, and our legs felt good! Lots of times I get pain on the outter parts of my shins. Didn't feel any of that yesterday. We'll have a 4.5 mile run this afternoon to do more testing.

The Route:

Grace&Wayne->Waveland->Lake Front Path->6 Mile Marker->Back to Waveland->Halstead

Well our long run on Sunday, July 10th was horrible.

We like to get up around 5am on Sunday mornings and be out the door by about 6am, and then done with the whole thing by 8:30 or 9:00. So I wake up on Sunday morning, slowly look at the clock and it's 6:30...WHAT?!?!?!?! I don't know if turned off my alarm or slept though lots of snoozes. who knows.

So we left the house around 7:30 or so, and just the whole time was bad. I don't know what to do when runs like this happen. My legs are tired. I'm completly unmotivated to be out there. However, we did run/walk the entire 13.5 miles, and paces 10:01 miles. This is not good.

We did however find out that Fleet Feet has another water and gatorade stand on the South Side of Navy Pier, which is totally awesome and something to keep running for!

After the run we talked about reasons it could have gone so badly. Jason and I need to realize that runs will not just "go good" because we want them to. We treated ourselves very badly the week before this run. Runs were moved around, sleep was not had on many nights due to the heat and presentations at work. In fact sleep in general was very hard to come by last week. Dinners were eaten anywhere rom 9-10pm.

We realized that we are training to run the marathon and so we need to treat ourselves like we are doing so. We were glad that we could pin down what was wrong and the craptastic run wasn't due to injury.

The route:

Grace&Wayne->Byron->Southport->Clark->Montrose->Lake Front Path->8.5 Mile Marker->Back to water fountain that is right past 3.5 Mile Marker

Monday, July 11th : We ran 3.5 miles and already felt better. We took things slow and steady and felt better than we have on many Mondays past.

The route

Grace&Wayne->Byron->Clark->Montrose->Lake Front Path->Waveland->Clark

Tuesday, July 12th: Ran 4.5 miles and just had "tired legs" We have both been noticing that our legs have just been hurting a bit more lately and have decided that it's time for some new shoes. Our current pair was purchased at the beginning of April, so 3.5 months is about time to retire them. We will start keeping better track of the actual milage on the shoes, and plan on needing one more pair before the marathon.

The route:

Grace&Wayne->Waveland->Lake Front Path->4.5 Mile Marker->Back to Waveland->Halstead

yeseterday (i should start posting these on the actual days that we run). anyways.

we ran 4.5 along the lake and although our legs didn't hurt too bad the motivation factor was a tad low. Today we have a day off, but will be riding our bikes downtown to make sure that we still do something with our legs, which usually helps our weekend long runs.

Tomorrow 13.5 is on the schedule which will be the farthest that we have ever run before....ooh scary.

The Route :

Grace&Wane->Byron->Southport->Clark->Montrose->Lake Front path->4.0 Mile Marker->Back to fountain, past the 3.5 Mile Marker

Yesterday was a 4.5 mile run. We ran at Fermilab, out 20 minutes from the gym and back. It was very long and straight, but my favorite kind of run. On the other hand, my legs felt fine and we were faster on the way back than on the way out. That's alway nice when that happens.

I need to start icing my knees before they get bad, though.

Yesterday we ran for about 40 minutes at Fermi Lab. We needed to complete 4.5 miles, and with our normal pace this should have been just about perfect.

It's always hard to run here at Fermi Lab because it's so so so flat, and there is no shade or water if you needed it. But all in all the run went alright, did the second half faster than the first. gotta love that.

The Route:

Fermi Lab Gym->Batavia Rd ->To backwards stop sign right past CDF->Turn around and go back

No pain yesterday

...at least in my shins and calves, which have been hurting recently. I have a sneaking suspicion that the stretching of my arch has helped the rest of my lower legs. I can't prove it, of course, but that is the best I ca come up with.

So heading south was easy enough, but on the way back the wind kicked up and that always seems to make my knees tighten up. Like if I was running uphill. Not a big fan of that, no sir.

Anyway, glad to know that I won't have to run the marathon alone, as Leah's ankle seems to be unbroken.

Wee!

Our schedule had us running 4.5 on Tuesday and then 7.5 Wednesday with an off day on thursday. Since I was unsure of the status of my ankle after falling off my bike like an idiot (the bike was not moving, seriously) I thought best to switch around thursday and tuesday.

This seemed to work ok as 7.5 miles went alright. I had pretty sore legs everywhere for the first 2.5 -3 miles or so, but the pain subsided enough to allow me to finish.

The Route:

Grace&Wayne->Waveland->Lake Path->6.5 Mile Marker : Oak St. beach->Back to 3.5 Mile Marker : Belmont

Today we will run 4.5 at Fermi Lab before we go to Leah's fams for dinner.

Yesterday we ran a slow 3.5 miles with a couple of stops to stretch our tired legs. We ran 12.5 on Sunday and think we were still recovering from that.

On the way back from the John Hiatt concernt downtown yesterday evening, I fell off my bike and am concerned about my left foot. It's a tad painful when I stand on it, but it's not swollen or anything. I hope I can get my run in today. we'll see.