I’ve gotten the urge to do some real scientific, in-your-face, who’s-king-of-the-castle, head-to-head(-to-head) taste tests between some of our favorite trailers. This post is just a preview of what I have on deck. The rules are simple: 1) Each place needs to offer up a similar, nearly identical menu item for a fair competition. 2) The food needs to come from a trailer. That’s it. Let the battle(s)… BEGIN!
Now we’re getting serious. It’s been a long time since I cracked 40 miles in a week, which isn’t really all that much when it comes to marathon training, but it’s a milestone nonetheless. Another milestone is going 14 for 14 on scheduled runs so far in the training plan. Hopefully I’ll be able to say I went 74 for 74 by the time the race rolls around, but we’ll see.
Pizza for breakfast is a beautiful thing. In a land where tacos topped with eggs, potatoes, cheese, bacon, peppers, cheese, and/or even pulled pork sometimes, are served for breakfast and considered normal, it’s amazing how many funny looks you get eating a pizza at 9:20 in the morning. After a punishing character-building 15 mile run, I needed some recovery food. What better than carbs (dough), protein (eggs and ham), veggies (onions), and ooey goodness (cheddar cheese) served in the form of a pizza? Nothing, that’s what.
I’ve talked about Bola Pizza before, and specifically this exact breakfast pizza. But it is just so good that it deserves a second post just for being so amazing. The crust is crispy and chewy with a few air bubbles and nicely charred. The speck (ham) is salty and meaty. The onions are mild and slightly sweet. The cheese is melted and never stands a chance against the 900 degree oven. And the eggs, oh the eggs, are the perfect addition for a proper breakfast. It just doesn’t get any better than this pizza. Expensive? Well that depends. How much would you pay for perfect? Go find them at the Farmers’ Market downtown on Saturdays from 9am – 1pm, but get there early if you want this breakfast pie. And trust me, you do.
Time for another installment of eating meets running. This time it involves an irresponsible amount of running followed by an irresponsible amount of dessert. To make it sound more responsible, I’ll consider it a heavy dose of calcium and protein to refuel and recover from a difficult workout. Yea, that’s better. Anyway, after coming across a blog post (how many bad ideas start off that way?) I got to thinking about accepting a challenge of skyscraping proportions.
Week 2 was much better than Week 1. Sticking to the schedule didn’t go particularly well, but the actual running was much improved. I hit all my runs, though had some more rescheduling to fit into general life. I pushed my long run up from Saturday to Wednesday to accommodate the Couples Triathlon on Sunday. Yep, I participated in another tri even after swearing off switching to running-only.
For now things are going smoothly, but my paces are slower than I’d like. I can’t expect to pick up where I left off at my peak, but I’m hoping I see some big gains soon. Otherwise I may need to reevaluate my goal for the race. Still early though, so only time will tell.
| Distance | Time | Pace | Heart Rate | |
| Monday | 8.31 Miles | 1:10:26 | 8:28 min/mi | 151 bpm |
| Wednesday | 13.23 Miles | 1:47:38 | 8:08 min/mi | 155 bpm |
| Thursday | 10.00 Miles | 1:25:23 | 8:32 min/mi | 144 bpm |
| Friday | 5.00 Miles | 46:48 | 9:21 min/mi | 138 bpm |
| Sunday | 3.00 Miles | 23:06 | 7:42 min/mi | — bpm |
| Total | 39.53 Miles | 5:33:24 | 8:26 min/mi | 149 bpm |
Sunday morning the Couples Tri came to town. The conditions were hot, the course was tough, and the competition was competitive. My goal, which wasn’t really explicit, was to be faster than last time. Since this race and the Rookie Tri are at the same location, with identical bike courses and transition areas, it made it easy to compare apples to apples. Each leg of the race is similar enough to the CapTexTri that I can see how I’ve progressed. So how did it go? Well keep reading to find out. (Here’s my race preview if you want to get caught up to speed first)
Hi. Don’t take this as “You never tell me anything!!” It was just a mistake and I thought I had told you. It looks like I forgot to mention that I’m signed up for a triathlon this Sunday. Yep. I signed up for it like 2 days before switching over to marathon training and I guess never really brought it up. In any event, I wanted to let you know that I’ll be tri-ing it up at the Couples Triathlon this Sunday out at Decker Lake (the same place where
I did the Rookie Tri).
Well, Week 1 of my Team VW Chicago Marathon training plan is in the books. It started off shaky but quickly found a groove. It’s nice getting back in the running seat, but I can tell I’m thoroughly out of running shape. It’s true my swimming abilities have seen some exponential improvement, apparently at the cost of my running fitness. That’s OK though! Week 1 in the books and things can only go up from here.
I’ll be brief. I’m feeling much more comfortable now that I have returned to marathon training. The workouts are consistent, I understand what needs to be done, and I’m hungrier (both figuratively wanting to work hard and literally wanting to eat more). It’s a good feeling and I’m excited to get deep into the
training schedule. The hardest part is leaving this little support crew member behind. Talk about comfortable.
I'm comfy. Deal with it.
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On Friday my very typical 8am-5pm job shifted my schedule to 3pm-11pm. I know, lucky me. Who needs Friday nights anyway? Don’t despair! I took full advantage of my weekday off hitting up quite a few trailers all over, including SoCo, South Lamar, downtown and near campus. The lucky vendors? The Mighty Cone, Bananarchy, Patika Coffee, and Conscious Cravings. How’d each of them stack up? Spoiler: Wonderfully.
