Early On

Five-thirty a.m. – the official start time on my long road to the finish line of the Chicago marathon. Bleary-eyed and groggy, I pulled on gym clothes, got my wife out of bed, and together, we trudged to our community gym (.7 miles from our house). And there, it began.

Chicago, the third marathon we’ve taken on, has loomed since completing the Marine Corps Marathon in October '06. At MCM, I came seven minutes away from breaking four hours - a goal I set for myself after signing up. It’s hard to be disappointed after completing a marathon but nevertheless...I tried to put those seven minutes behind me and focus instead on training to reach this new goal, that suddenly felt not so new anymore.

It did not start as I planned.

A week following MCM on my first run, I ended up in a physical therapist’s office being treated for tendonitis in my right knee. A month of rehab and a two-a-day stretching routine brought me back to running form…lacking any of the endurance I had built up for Marine Corps. The word frustration took on an entirely new meaning. I tried setting out for runs that at one point had felt like jogs but now felt like entire marathons.

My Chicago training start is different from the two prior in that I just completed a nine week “spring training” program to prepare for the actual 18 week program, not to mention a rather drastic change in my diet. Given that I’m focused on bringing my time down, the program interspersed several speed and hill workouts each week with longer runs on the weekends. What I found was that when I forced myself to run faster for longer distances, I got tired but always handled the workouts. I had to train my head to know that I could push my body harder. Since then, I may be reevaluating my goal pace time of 9:00/mile and lowering it to 8:30-8:45.

So, this brings me back up to the beginning. Mondays are dubbed x-training days, so in the official log, I have run zero miles. However, I did end up swimming laps for 30 minutes (more than I’ve swam since I was in elementary school), prompting a quick night following dinner given that my body felt like it had been hit by a truck.

Day 1 of Week 1. Complete.

Miles Run: 0