This morning I set out on my last training run for Chicago.  4.50 miles.  I don’t know what my training schedule said to do, I’ve been ignoring it the past couple of weeks and just been doing what felt right.

I DO know that the next two days are supposed to be rest days, two miles on Saturday and then Sunday is race day!   Seeing as I have a bazillion things to wrap up tomorrow and then hit the road for Chicago on Friday, the schedule is working out perfect!

Yesterday and today, I actually had a running buddy!  My neighbor is new to running and we have met the past two mornings in a row.  We had run together a few times before my Ultra in July and then hadn’t crossed paths since then.

He had been back in California (he just moved here from there earlier this year) wrapping up some loose ends.  I had been on vacation, blah, blah, blah, and we finally crossed paths again.  Nice guy and the company is most welcome.

Seeing as he is new to running, he comes with a lot of questions.  His biggest concern right now is his shoes.  He needs some good running shoes in the worst way.  I have given him advice.  Told him NOT to go to Walmart.  So, what did he do?  Yup, went to Walmart.  Those shoes lasted less than a week.  At least he learned his lesson and got that out of his system.

He is wanting to do a race here in the near future, so I may be running a race with him yet this fall…we’ll see if that pans out.

Anyway, training for Chicago is done.

Whew!

I am ready to have this race done.  I am very excited about it, don’t get me wrong, but I am ready to have it done.

I am going to take a little break from long distances here after Chicago…just for a few weeks.  I am have about 3(?) weeks where I am not required to be doing uber long distance running and I want to plug in some speed work.  I haven’t been able to work on speed for over a yr.  I have just had to focus on building a solid base for long distances.

I. am. slow.

I would like to improve on that a little bit, so I am going to try to take advantage of those couple of weeks before Ultra training picks up again and see if I can go faster than a turtle.

Speaking of turtles, I met up with this guy on my run this morning.  I won, but just by a hare (see what I did there   🙂