Tag Archives: Chicago

Train in Chicago; Race in Napa! – Team Challenge

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Team Challenge is the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s endurance training and fundraising program. Through Team Challenge, you can run or walk 13.1 miles or train for a triathlon or cycling event while helping to find a cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, two chronic and often debilitating digestive diseases that impact 1.4 million Americans.

Next week, informational meetings kick off to talk about training in chicago to run the Wine Country Half Marathon on July 15th! Grouptraining begins at the end of March and will take place on the Lakefront Path and in the Chicago area suburbs. Under the guidance of two experienced coaches, participants will have fun while training for the beautiful race in Napa Valley!

The group will be trained by professional coaches for 16-weeks in Chicago while they raise funds for the 1.4 million Americans battling Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, chronic and often debilitating digestive diseases. Monies that the team raised will help go toward research, education and support services through the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. The group will get the ultimate tour of Napa Valley with Team Challenge.

Runners and walkers from across the country will start amongst the vineyards in Napa on their way to the finish in front of City Hall in downtown Sonoma. The course runs through the scenic Carneros wine region from Napa to Sonoma culminating at the post-race Wine & Music Festival in this world-class destination event.

Hear more about how you can make a change, help find cures, and run or walk 13.1 miles. Visit www.ccteamchallenge.org today or contact Lauren Kaminsky at lkaminsky@ccfa.org.

The following information meetings will take place across Chicagoland in March:

6:00PM Wednesday, March 7, 2012-Naperville Running Company

34 W Jefferson Avenue, Naperville, IL 60540

10:00AM Saturday, March 10, 2012-Whole Foods-Lincoln Park

1550 N. Kingsbury St, Chicago, IL, 60642

6:30PM Tuesday, March 13, 2012-Fleet Feet-Lincoln Square

4762 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625

6:30PM Wednesday, March 14, 2012-REI-Schaumburg

1209 East Golf Road, Schaumburg, IL 60173

6:00PM Wednesday, March 21, 2012-REI-Lincoln Park

1466 North Halsted Street, Chicago, IL, 60642

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Endurance Sport Speaking Events

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While you’re sitting on the bike or mindlessly doing laps in the pool your mind is probably wondering. This time of year is a great opportunity to hear from some of the best and brightest in endurance sports at various speaking events around the city.

So while your mind is wandering, it might as well be thinking about something that could help you come race day. Here are a few good speaker events coming up!

Trek Store of Highland Park
Meet Mat Steinmetz on January 25th 6pm – RSVP Here 
A performance advisor to Ironman World Champ Craig Alexander, Mat will talk about his coaching and training experinces with many elite athletes like Juile Dibens and Mirinda Carfrae. He’ll also talk about the importance of a bike fit and the large role it plays into an athletes success.

Running Away Multisport
My Coach Jen Harrison and my buddy Dan “Cubicle Dad” Malinski will be guest speakers at Running Away Multisport Clybourn Store on Feb 1st, 7pm. Dan and Jen will be talking about his weightloss journey as well marathoning. You can trust me when I say there are no dumb questions to ask Jen… becuase I asked them all already! You can RSVP for this event on the RAMultisport Facebook page.  

Garmin Chicago
This isn’t a speaking event, but it can be really helpful. The Garmin Store on Michigan Ave is offering a GPS Academy. So if you got the new Forerunner for Christmas and need some assistance to utilize everything it offers Garmin is here to help. You can schedule a 1 hour one-0n-one session to learn all the tricks of your new device. There is a charge of $15 ($8 if you have your receipt), but that’s a small price to pay for a tutor! You can make an appointment here.

Fleet Feet Chicago
Hows your form? Each Tuesday Fleet Feet Lincoln Square offers a Good Form Running Clinic at 6:30pm.  Learn how to run fast and more efficiently by doing running drills while getting instruction on how to improve your form. You’ll also get a video analysis of your running form and how to improve it. Each class is limited to 20 people, so make sure to RSVP!

Runners High ‘n Tri
Runners High ‘n Tri is holding some Biomechanic and Dynamic running seminars. During the 4 week course participants will learn more effective and individually beneficial biomechanics. There are 4 sessions 2-times per week and a registration fee of $120. The current sessions are full but you can keep an eye on when new ones are starting on the Runners High ‘n Tri Facebook Page.

ProKine Performance
Jessie Stensland of MovementU will be coming to ProKine Performance in St Charles April 14th & 15th. Jessie will be doing day-long camps showing Stratgies for Speed & Sustainability in swimming, cycling and running. You can register here. Plus check out the ProKine website to learn more about their TRX functional strength classes and training.

Marathon Recap, Injury Update, 2012 Goals

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I felt pretty prepared for the 2011 Chicago Marathon last Sunday. I felt relaxed as I waited to start with the crowd for 45,000 runners.

Right before the start I took 4 Motrin and 2 tylenol to ease the pain in my knee from the Plica that I learned I had a few days before the race. I got across the start line about 7:10 am and felt great.

My goal for the race was to finish in under 5 hours. Jen wanted me to run the first 3 miles as a warm up, so I ran those between 11:00 and 10:30 a mile. I felt AWESOME through 15k.

Right around mile 13 the pain killers started to wear off and the knee issue started to kick in. My pace slowed to about 11:30 at mile 14… Yikes. At mile 15 the Nike 4:45 pace group caught up to me. My first thought was that they were off pace. I asked the leader and she said they were running about a minute AHEAD of pace!

EXCELLENT! I’m not doing so bad! I felt a glimmer of hope that I could finish sub 5:00.

I saw Lauren (Forward is a Pace) at mile 17. Some cheering and high fives gave me a boost, which was awesome!

About the 3ok mark I was hurting… BAD. I walked about a half mile, looked at my Garmin and quickly realized I wasn’t going to hit my goal. My pace was bouncing between 12:30 and 13:30.

Though I wasn’t going to meet my goal, I knew I could still PR as long as I didn’t walk anymore. I started to trot and it hurt A LOT!!! Nothing about my body felt coordinated. There is a pretty awful picture of me running at that point, I’ll post it later.

I struggled to keep motivated through miles 20-24, but I kept “running”. I saw some co-workers at 16th and Michigan, got some more high fives and fought my way around the turn on to Roosevelt (and that bastard hill) and then to Columbus where I sprinted to a 5:24 finish for a 12:00 PR!

My knee and now my right foot were throbbing. My knee gave out as I crossed the finish line. I was saved from falling by 2 volunteers who wanted to take me to the med tent. After explaining that it was my knee/foot and that I wasn’t passing out they reluctantly let me go.

After a few days most of my soreness was gone… except for my foot. We’re thinking it’s a stres fracture. I went to the doctor Wednesday and got an X-Ray which came back normal. Friday I got a 2nd opinion and a 2nd normal X-Ray. The next step is an MRI on Wednesday and then back to the Sports Medicine doc to figure out what we do from here.

so I’m limping around like an idiot for another week. But this “downtime” is giving me time to think about what I want to do for my 2012 racing schedule.

I’m already registered for Ironman Wisconsin, so that will be my focus for the year. I’m also planning on doing Ironman Orlando 70.3 in May. I don’t THINK I want to do the Chicago Marathon again.

Assuming that this IS a stress fracture in my foot, at least it’s happeing now. I’m treating the next 10 or 12 weeks as a maitinance period. I really want to work on my swimming cause I still feel like that’s my triathlon weak spot (even though I usually fall apart on the run).

So there it is. I’ll update on my knee/foot next week.

Have a good weekend!

I ran the Shamrock Shuffle… Now want to talk about it.

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Remember that 80 degree last Sunday when 45,000 runners look over the loop? Well I was one of them.


It was my first start of the season and I was pumped! I somehow qualified for corral B, which psyched me out a bit. Usually I’m placed in Corral Q or somewhere waaay back there. So it was a little intimidating at the start line.


When we kicked off the run I was being passed by EVERYONE… there was a point right off the bat where I tried to pick up the pace to keep up with my fellow “B” starters… But I heard coach jen in my head yelling at me “Didn’t I say don’t start too fast!?!”‘


Ok slowdown… Mile one 8:15… Oops that’s 1:15 faster than we planned, but I felt good… Let not slowdown too much.


All week I had been tweeting about how fast I was going to be, in my mind anything longer than 48 minutes was considered failure… I wrote that check now it was time to cash it!


The heat was getting to me around the 5k mark… But as I crossed that spot, I checked my time… 28mins and change.


There’s no stopping now. I tried to kick it up a gear as we rounded on to Michigan. The next turn as Roosevelt seemed 100 miles away… It felt like it took 20 mins to get there, I refused to look at my watch…


I made the left on Roosevelt up that damn hill… I hate that hill. Its my sworn enemy… I ran it constantly when I lived in the loop and I know it can’t stop me… I own that hill!


I tried to kick it up again…Made another left on Columbus. There was the finish, it’s time to go BIG!


I felt like I went in to a full sprint, I was passing people and as I approached the finish line I wanted to look at my watch… Nope not until I cross… Just a few more strides…


BOOM– 46:59!!! That’s 4 minutes faster than last year!!!!!


It felt awesome. I guess my running has improved.