Shamrock Shuffle Here I Come

Sunday was a good day.

I put off my 7 mile training run for Sunday along Chicago's lake front path because of the expected warm weather, and boy am I glad I did! It was gorgeous!

To top it off, all of my personal running bests fell to new records.

It didn't start off that way. The first three miles were going better than expected, until I glanced down at my Garmin and saw I was going faster than usual for a 7 miler. I figured I'd have a little fun and see if I can beat my 8K (5 miles) personal best I set at last year's Turkey Trot. After 3.5 miles, I put it in high gear and left my old records in the dust- fastest mile, best 7 miles at 1:06 (old 1:07), and my 8K was done in 00:47! That's six minutes better than my old time. I was a happy guy.

I think my times would have been much faster if I wasn't dodging all of those puddles from the melting snow.

I'll be running my first race of the year at Chicago's Shamrock Shuffle 8K in Grant Park on Sunday, March 30th, and I'm shooting for officially setting that personal best time. The course is designed as a mini Chicago marathon, and the field is capped at 30,000 runners (it's sold out!). I'll be with lots of company for sure.

Here's my training schedule for the week:

Mon: Stretch/Walking
Tue: Weights
Wed: 7 miles hard
Thur: 2 miles
Fri: Rest/Weights
Sat: 8 miles