Chicago Marathon Training Week 4

It was a pretty routine week for Chicago Marathon Training (week 4). Thursday and Sunday were tough but the rest of the week was smooth.

On Thursday, for the first time ever, I ran hill intervals. My legs are not strong enough for easy uphill running. I started easy for the first 10 minutes and then ran eight intervals of two minutes each at a 4% incline on the treadmill with two minutes easy; and then cooled down for 10 minutes. The final 15 seconds of each uphill interval were sheer torture. Over the past few months, I have started doing strength-training once a week especially to strengthen my quads. This has surely helped my bicycling speed but doesn’t seem to have helped my uphill running speed. I’ll keep at it!

Today (Sunday), I ran 17 miles on the treadmill. At mile 11, the treadmill jerked and stopped working. It almost caused me to lose my balance and fall off. I gathered my bearings, got on a different treadmill and ran the final 6 miles with some pent-up anger! I’m pretty sore as I write this; I’m quite certain that I will be even more sore tomorrow and the day after.

Here’s a synopsis of my week:

  • Monday, July 10: Rest Day
  • Tuesday, July 11: Easy Run | 4 miles | 33:32 mins | Treadmill (The Village)
  • Wednesday, July 12: Cardio Strength | 30:32 mins | The Village
  • Thursday, July 13: Hill Intervals (2 mils @ 4% grade x 8)  | 6 miles | 50:45 mins | Treadmill (The Village)
  • Friday, July 14: Rest Day
  • Saturday, July 15: Bike Ride | 19 miles | 1:08 hrs | Cyclologic Group B (back solo)
  • Sunday, July 16: Long Run | 17 miles | 2:23 hrs | Treadmill (The Village)
I did see a lethargic king snake on during my bike ride on Saturday. It looked like he may have been run over by either a bicycle or a car; there was nothing I could do for him except hope that he was going to recover. As you can see, he was quite a gorgeous specimen (similar to the one I saw last month in my pool). You can also see the kink in the middle of his body; it looked like that’s whre he was hurting.

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