No Blues in Chicago

This week’s training: 23.5 miles, 45 minutes cycling, two weight sessions

This week has been a right old whirlwind!

I got back from Paris late on Monday and the rest of the week has largely been playing catch up on laundry, training and seeing people now I’m well again, before I flew out to Chicago on Saturday. Yes folks, this post comes to you direct from the windy city, home of the Blues, Chicago!!

I’m out here for the next week staying with my gorgeous friend Shruti who moved out here 15 months ago after getting hitched to a lovely man who lives and works here. We’ve not seen each other for almost that long and I absolutely adore Chicago as a city, having been once before, so I’ve been really excited about this trip. Obviously I still need to train, more importantly than ever since I lost some sessions due to illness, but we have such a long list of things we want to do that an actual spreadsheet itinerary has been drawn folks, I kind you not, to ensure there’s time for me to run in amidst the bike rides, breakfast, brunches, lunches, dinners, drinks (theme?) and museums. Shruti even scheduled me a lie in!

The Bean!

I’ve already been for one run. It was meant to be a long one but I switched my 16 miler for an 8 miler to get my bearings so my weekly mileage is much lower than planned. Also we ended up starting the day later than expected, with brunch at Lou Mitchell's and a visit to the aquarium, getting back much later than expected so there wasn't really enough time to safely go for a full 16 miles. I actually ran 8.5 miles and got a bit lost getting to Navy Pier, stopping to take lots of photos but I should stand in good stead for the next runs. It was great fun and I reckon the next runs won't be a problem.

At the end of Navy Pier

Ice on Michigan Lake as seen from Navy Pier

Before I came out here I had the worst club run ever. Despite it being a warm evening (first outing for the Paris Half t-shirt) it was a poor turn out and the group I chose ended up being quite a bit faster than me, or at least I couldn’t keep up after a coughing fit so I lost them after a mile and never managed to catch up. No other option but to run the remaining 5 miles solo which was not what I’d gone out to do. But after the run our Marathon Beginners group had a meet up to review our training plans which was useful. I think our mentor is a little concerned about where I am because of the illness but he said I did the right thing by not running. I’m behind everyone else who are up to 18-20 miles while I was languishing on 13 but I’m hoping to turn that around quickly. And I’ve squeezed in two strength sessions, a bike session and another run this week so I’m pretty pleased to be back on track.

During the week I had a real big up from the Scleroderma Society on twitter and Facebook which was such a boost. I’ve also had confirmation of my collection date at one of the local supermarkets so more good news there.