Luke Puskedra's daughter is cancer-free and he's trained like an animal for Chicago

Our 4000+ word preview of the Chicago Marathon men's race is here:

http://www.letsrun.com/?p=127671

If you only have time to read 2,000 words, we've separated out the American talk here:

http://www.letsrun.com/?p=127835

God is truly good.

A 22 miler and a 24-28 mile run ending near MP in the same week as typical? If true, I don't like his chances.

I'd like to learn more about the biking he does. Is he just doing some easy spinning or is he doing some sort of intervals or steady state efforts? Has anyone else had success supplementing healthy training with cycling like that?

That's great news!

Hope Luke does great...

Very good schedule, only thing I would switch is allow 2-3 days of 13 mile recovery runs in a row AFTER the 4 hard sessions, but he knows how his body reacts though the most motivated athletes are also at highest risk of leaving it in training, Good luck to him, i will be rooting for him to run a 2:07-2:08 breakthrough performance, and glad to hear his daughter has overcome the cancer.

Awesome, truly inspirational

LetsRun.com wrote:

Jonathan Gault recently caught up with Puskedra who reveals he did 130 mile weeks (all in singles) + an hour of biking each day to get ready for Chicago.

http://www.letsrun.com/?p=127746

Here is a typical week of training:

Monday: long warmup, track workout -- either 12 x 1k at 2:40-2:45 with 1-minute recovery or 8 x mile at 4:25 with 2-minute recovery

Tuesday: hilly 22-mile run

Wednesday: 13 miles easy and strides

Thursday: 40-minute warmup, 90-minute hilly fartlek, 10-minute cooldown. Approximately 23 miles total.

Friday: 13 miles easy and strides

Saturday: long run, 24-28 miles with the last part close to marathon pace

Sunday: 13 miles easy

Hmmm. Puskedra's 10000m PR is 27:56:62. Either he's in shape to run 27:10 now and will win Chicago, or he's running himself into a puddle. I hope it's the former.

perhaps he is bluffing?

Sadly I would say he will not sniff 2:10:24 in this race or ever again. I predict 2:13:30.

I liken this to Wheating when he ran 3:30 out of no where and hasn't been within 4 seconds since.

oh please wrote:

Sadly I would say he will not sniff 2:10:24 in this race or ever again. I predict 2:13:30.

I liken this to Wheating when he ran 3:30 out of no where and hasn't been within 4 seconds since.

Why do you say that?

I don't know, I'm feeling pretty good about Puskedra after reading the article the bros jo put up. Is he still running without a contract? Seems like kind of a blue chip to me. This dude is running with different motivations than the typical marathoner, i.e. "do well in this race / run a fast time so I can provide for my family and pay off some medical bills." Go Luke! I'm feeling a 2:07.

Luke is sponsored by Nike, and is nothing like Wheating.

Color me skeptical, but I refuse to believe that is representative of what he was doing week-in, week-out.

Pulling for the guy, though. I'm a fan.

Puskedra is hungry- he missed the Olympics by one spot. Look at fellow non Olympians Bekele and Kipsang and how that worked out in Berlin. I'm seeing potential greatness on Sunday. or if he overdid the training at least a very strong spring marathon.

Wishing him well and delighted to hear good news about his little daughter

LetsRun.com wrote:

Jonathan Gault recently caught up with Puskedra who reveals he did 130 mile weeks (all in singles) + an hour of biking each day to get ready for Chicago.

http://www.letsrun.com/?p=127746

Here is a typical week of training:

Monday: long warmup, track workout -- either 12 x 1k at 2:40-2:45 with 1-minute recovery or 8 x mile at 4:25 with 2-minute recovery

Tuesday: hilly 22-mile run

Wednesday: 13 miles easy and strides

Thursday: 40-minute warmup, 90-minute hilly fartlek, 10-minute cooldown. Approximately 23 miles total.

Friday: 13 miles easy and strides

Saturday: long run, 24-28 miles with the last part close to marathon pace

Sunday: 13 miles easy

It seems to be too much.

Marketing?