too hot wrote:
Smoove, I say this from the bottom of my heart. Don’t you think you might be rushing things along? Why not give yourself extra time and run CIM for example?
A fair question. I gave CIM some real consideration. I have 3 female athletes who are considering taking a run at their OTQs at that race, and I thought it would be great to be there for the race, plus the weather is more reliable there than it is at Chicago.
But I chose Chicago for a few reasons.
First, I wanted to leverage my existing fitness from my Boston training cycle. I have had lifetime high volume in 2015 (just under 2800) and 2017 (just under 3100), and my fitness back in March was probably the best it has been as a masters runner. I thought that I would be able to snap back into shape pretty quickly since the lay off was not all that long, and I cross trained through part of it. Really, I am viewing it as regaining and continuing something that is mostly already there rather than having to start all over.
Second, Chicago logistics are just a lot better for me. It is a cheap trip for me since my wife's family is there and we can stay with them. My wife and kids can come along to the race as well. It is a much less stressful travel event, and I can go a few days early to recover from travel since I will be staying with my in-laws.
Finally, while I have heard from guys like Sam Krieg (Masterblaster on these boards, and the 2017 masters champ at Chicago in 2:26 or 2:27) and my 1:04 guy that CIM is a legit and fair course, there is part of me that would not feel quite right if I were to hit my goal time there. Part of me would always feel like there is some internal mental asterisk next to the time. Given that my primary goal of running another marathon is to get that sub 2:30 time, I would feel much better about it if that time came on a record-eligible course, even though I know the downhill nature of CIM is vastly overstated by people on these boards.
That being said, CIM will still be a potential back up depending on how things go the next month or two.