Artichoke's Running Blog (Ken Spence)

5:10 a.m. Gold's Gym with Sharon for 40 minutes.  20 min. elliptical and 20 min. upright cycling.

6:00 p.m.  Chicago.  5 mile run from hotel to loop around Soldier Field, Aquarium, and Planetarium then north along the Lakefront Path to the Marina by Navy Pier and back to the hotel.  Pretty easy running in 45:55, 9:11 average pace. 

Also about 3 miles walking up Michigan Avenue to Giordano's Pizza and back. 

Chicago.  6:00 p.m. run from hotel to Lakefront Path and north to just beyond Navy Pier and back direct.  Tempo effort last couple of miles or so.  43:33, 8:43 pace.

Also about 3 miles waking up and back on Michigan Ave. 

Chicago.  4.3 miles at 3:00 p.m. in light rain.  Outbound through Grant Park up to the Navy Pier River Walk path and then back via the Lakefront Path.  EZ running.  

A lot of walking today.  Walked from the McCormick Convention Center past Soldier Field and the Museum to the hotel for about 2 miles in the light rain.  2 more miles up and back to the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  About 2 more miles on an architectural walking tour inside the south end of the loop at 5:30 p.m.  And probably 2 more miles up to the Magnificent Mile for dinner.  I was beat so I took the bus back. 

Chicago.  4 miles at 6:00 p.m. Lake shore path along the marina to the Chicago River and back via the upper Lakefront pathway.  36:18, 9:05 average pace.

Walked about 2 miles to dinner and back.  Hard Rock Cafe, Chicago. 

Chicago.  4 miles at 6:30 a.m.  Slow and easy up Michigan Ave. to Millennial Park.  Around Frank Gehry's Pavilion and across the bridge through the park up to the north point residential towers by the Chicago River.  Back to hotel along the upper Lakefront pathway.  A bit chilly, but felt good in long sleeves an shorts running along the lake.  Headed home this afternoon.

10 mile run in 1:27:12 at 8:00 a.m. with Tina through town and up the Smelter Road hills and back the same way.  Pushed 4 of the last 5 at tempo pace.  Felt pretty good but I'm sure Tina wanted to be going a lot faster than our 8:43 average overall pace.  For an out and back course I felt pretty good about it since it was only 4 minutes slower than last week which was generally downhill for 8 of the 10 miles.  32 miles for the week.  The Saucony Pro Grid feel like they should be a good shoe.  I'm feeling some slight achilles strain after my runs, but I was feeling that for a couple of days before running in these shoes, so I'm sure they're not the problem.