Chicago Training Begins

Today, Monday, was the Official Start for the Chicago marathon training program here in the Gazelles Village. It was nice out, 68 degrees after last night's storms. The crowd was much more numerous than over the last month or more, and there were lots of new folks in attendance. That made it a lot more fun today. After a few brief words, we were sent off to Austin High School for circuitry. We only had to dodge one or two tree limbs knocked down in the storm, and had to dance across the little stream flowing down the drainage canal near AHS. Let's just call that a warmup steeplechase. It took the whole warmup to really get loose for me, but after drills, I felt pretty good. The various nagging muscle problems in my left leg seem to have worked themselves out of my life, so I'm relieved about that.

We went back to the standard circuit workout today, with 400m runs between each set, and I ended up with 4 complete circuits. Brian and I paired up for the medicine ball tossing after that last circuit, which burned a bit by the end of the three exercises. We took turns exhorting the other to be tough and finish the sets. Sort of funny, really.

The post-circuit extra fun stuff included some hopping, the 15/30/45/90 degree angle leg lift routine, and a round of fast feet. Gilbert changed (or enforced) our form on fast feet, and the new "Crouching Gazelle" position made it a lot tougher. Still, that's such a bonding experience at the end of circuits, that it is fun once you're done.

I cruised back and chatted with Rich, and for a change, we really did run at a recovery pace coming back. Go figure. You hook up with one of the faster runners out there, and you find out that he runs slower coming back from speedwork or circuits than you usually do. Can we derive some sort of insight here?

So, that's about it. I'm not in quite the shape I was last May, but as long as I'm smart over the next month, in particular, I'll find my way back into marathon fitness. Now, will I take it to the gym this week and get back on track? A breathless nation awaits the answer. :-)