Week 16 of Chicago Marathon training

I am getting so close that I can hear the trains and smell the pizza!!!!  Chicago, here I come!!!  As usual, here are some random pictures of the week.  The weather has been more summer like with heat indices in the 100s and humidity back at 100% as well.  Come on Kansas, can we please have a fall before winter????

Monday:  Rest day.  Well, rest day, but also a nice little work out with the GOTR group.  Most girls are attempting a walk/run at this point, but I have a few that still want to walk pretty much the entire time.  While I just need them to be moving forward, the practice 5 K in a few weeks is going to be tough.  I hope that it shows them what they need to do in order to be able to finish their 5K strong, but I worry that a few may get discouraged at how much work this really is.  I so wish I could run with them 3 days a week and not just 2 :(

Mel knows me well.  She brings me the best presents!

Tuesday:  Speed work 6 miles.  I originally saw speed work 9 miles on my schedule, but with the way my body was beat up post that last 20 miler, there was no way.  I switched work outs, hoping that would help my body get with the program.  I also had a new friend who has moved to Wamego and works at KSU that wanted to join us, so I thought 6 miles might be a little nicer introduction to our craziness than 9 miles.  Let's just say the humidity kicked all of our butts, but especially hers, and there was a ton of walking.  I think it really helped her to see where she was at realistically, and honestly, with my hip angry again, I didn't mind the lack of speed one bit.

Why is it that any time I take a pic with a hat on that no matter what the hat, the hat is always on sideways???

Wednesday:  Cross training.  Got some miles in with my bike.  They still haven't started harvesting the corn on our side of the fields, so I didn't have to dodge too many tractors or grain trucks.

Thursday:  9 miles of speed work  8 miles of survival.  Couldn't get my butt out of bed and when I did, it was 75 and 100% humidity.  Sigh. I am so OVER HUMIDITY.  I went back to bed after texting Mel that I was not feeling well enough to run.  That meant that post GOTR, we HAD to get our run done.  Feels like 105 with 20 mph winds?  Sure why not.  We tried using our buffs and soaking them to cool us down, and that helped not only with the heat, but also with the dust on the roads.  I can tell the grain trucks are traveling down our road, even if it isn't quite time for our corn and bean fields to be harvested.  The road is almost pure soft dirt at this point, due to heavy traffic.  There was no speed, only survive the miles set before us.

Friday:  5 miles of recovery.  I had nothing really to do at KSU so I headed out post taking andrew to school for a quick 5.  I am so ready for fall.  It was almost 80 with 90% humidity, but like the day before, we had a nice breeze blowing and the clouds kept the sun mostly covered.

Saturday:  Long run or get in as many miles as you can pre soccer.  I had 14 miles on my plate, but I also had an 8:15 soccer game and a race I was volunteering at on Sunday.  Friday night we had headed to manhattan to hit up Jeff's pizza buffet for carb loading.  Unfortunately, something on Jeff's pizza buffet did not agree with me, and I had indigestion that did not respond to zantac all night long.  I tried sleeping sitting up to keep the stomach acid down, and for some odd reason, that didn't work at all.  4 am came way to early.  My throat was super sore from acid all night, my tummy was very unsettled, plus I was super tired.  Andrew also decided to get up when I got up, as well as Tony, who had spent the entire night down stairs coughing.  It took me a little longer to eat, as my throat was so swollen, but I managed to get my pre long run fuel down by 4:20.  I was out the door by 5:20, but that was not enough time to get all of my run done.  I also had to make numerous pit stops due to a very unhappy tummy.  I called it done at 10 and headed home to go coach soccer.  We had the early game, and let me say that I was SO happy we did.  While it was super humid, the heat hadn't really set in yet. I really feel sorry for the later games.  Post my silver sharks playing an awesome game, I just didn't have it in me to go back out and finish.  I consulted with my coach, and we decided due to my tummy not being happy and me not feeling 100 percent, that it was not worth going back out right away. Plus, I am pretty sure I got 4 miles running around the soccer field coaching my kiddos.

Sunday:  Rest day and volunteering. I love volunteering for local races, especially races in which many of my running friends are running.  This is a super tough 25 K and 10 K, Konquer the Konza.  This is a race I run every other year depending on if I am doing a marathon or not or how close to my big race is to this race.

I as usual, was stationed at the top of the toughest hill on the course.   This year, other than the horrible heat, the race went very smoothly with no injuries and only a few people dropping from the 25K to the 10K.  I was done in record time this year and headed back to wamego to hang out with the family.  We spent the rest of the day playing on the deck and riding our bikes around town.

Total miles run: 32 miles

Really glad that this is a taper week and that the missed mileage won't hurt me too badly.  I missed one mile on my speed work and 4 miles on my long run, but I am in full taper mode so it's all good.

 Have a great week next week!  I will be enjoying more tapering before we leave for Chicago.  It's getting SO close!