Weekly Log 4-May to 10-May-2015: Illinois Running

Monday:
2 miles.  Trail maintenance in Woody.

Tuesday:

7 miles.  Continued trail maintenance, plus five miles out to Rock Ridge and back Shore Road.  6:45 average pace.  Fast for me; would have been a walk in the park for FiveK.

Wednesday:

10 miles. 

Schiller Park, IL:  First run ever in the Land of Lincoln



The trail started off
nice and dry ...

Then got a tad muddy

Well, good morning! Would
you care to join me on my run?

Cool stone bridge trail crossing.



Yeah, turned around here. Only
brought one pair of running shoes.
Is this their wet season?

Sections I traversed seemed pretty clean to me.

Thursday:

8 miles.  Downtown Chicago. The conference held a Fun Run 5K (well, more like 2.7 miles) and more than 100 attendees signed up for the 6:30am start.  While waiting for the start, the talk was about business, but once it got started the talk turned to running.  Yes!

The organizer announced that he would be leading the front group at about 8:30 pace, but it was closer to an 8 pace.  OK, not bad.  The ten or so of us at the front were chatting away about where we were from, marathons we had run (Note to Chris:  they were "real" runners - they had run marathons), etc.  Being an out-and-back course, at the turn around, we didn’t need the leader anymore and the pace picked up markedly to mid-6s.  The pack thinned quickly down to about 4.  With just less than a mile to go, the pace picked up again to mid-5s and for some reason all conversation ended.

At the end, after milling about for a few minutes and catching our breath, the three top finishers headed out for a cool down at an easy 7:30 pace:  Enrique, a 47-year old from Puerto Rico, Peter, 37 from PA, and me.  We ran about 3 more miles together, and then I tacked on two more.

1,020 yard swim!  Evening swim on the hotel’s 8^th floor.  Odd 20-yard pool.  There were only two lanes for lap swimming, and that was fine, since only two of us showed up for swimming.  The other was a very fit looking black gentleman in his mid-40s (?).  We chatted for a bit.  I’m not a city person, but I do like the diversity here.

Lost track of time and found myself late already for a business dinner across town.  Texted my colleague and host that I’d be late.  As I settled into a taxi for a traffic-jam ride, the first thing (of many) the driver felt the need to share with me was that he hadn’t had sex in over two years.  Oh boy, it was going to be a long and awkward taxi ride …

Friday:

11 miles. 

Even in the city there were
plenty of park-like "trails".

Found some softer running
surfaces as well.  Bonus!

Lakefront Trail popular with
cyclists and runners alike

With about a mile to go, I run into my new friend Enrique from Puerto Rico.  He’s running along the seawall (lakewall?), but when he sees me waving to him, he comes over to run with me.  We added another mile or two and chatted away at his “easy” pace of 6:45.

Nice view of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline,
running back towards the city

Something funny about this tree.
Can't quite put my finger on it.



Should I stay until the morning? Nah, time to come back to Rhody.

Saturday:

36 miles!  First group ride of the season, back in the Ocean State. Chris, Mike B, Tom, Jeff D, and I went on a tour replete with the Charlestown Hammett hills before a break at Dave's Coffee.  Great time.  Looking forward to biking season.
5 miles with Matthew.  Out to Rock Ridge and back.

Sunday:

6 miles.  Charlestown Beach with Matthew.  Can you believe they completely ran out of scones upon our return?
17 miles.  Afternoon coastal ride. Pushed two Strava segments (Ocean View Highway at 24.5mph, and Atlantic Westbound at 24.9mph), but not fast enough for a PR.  Finished the ride with a stop at FiveK's place (or as Mike says, "Shara's house") to check out his sweet new ride.  How am I going to slow him down now?

Weekly Mileage Log:
0.6 miles.
53 miles.
49 miles.