Cottage |

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 6m easy 8:40/pace

Wednesday: 8m tempo (2m warm up, 5 @ 7:30/pace, 1m cooldown), 45 min upper body

July 4th weekend were spent in Chicago for a birthday and a wedding. Friday morning I loaded up a few bags & LE and drove to the midwest! I made it in early enough to grab hotdogs & fries and head to a local NWI (northwest Indiana) fireworks show #Merica. Also just because I have to say it, the midwest does fireworks right. Best show i’ve seen in years. DC you need to step up your game, it’s quite embarrassing being the nation’s capital.

Saturday morning started with an easy eight mile run. I was so thankful this was a cutback week. I’m finally feeling these 40+ weeks! My best friend Marie (she’s been on the blog a few times before) was due with her first baby boy on July 4th. She invited me to her last ultrasound that morning. I missed so much of her pregnancy so being there at the last appointment felt very special.

Everything seemed like it was going well, we were discussing brunch and catching up on life. The doctor stepped in the room and let us know Marie’s amniotic fluid was extremely low so they had to move her into labor & delivery. I think the doctor’s exact words were, “We’re going to get things moving along.” Which made us both a little confused. Marie needed to hear exactly what was going on. The doctor clarified that she was about to be induced!

I hung out with her while she made calls and facetimed her family. My sis-in-law Trish came up to the hospital to bring food and keep us company for a few hours. Marie’s mom made it up to the hospital soon after and I felt better about going to the wedding. Induction takes a while and the doctor was confident she wouldn’t have the baby until the next day.

I rushed home to change for the wedding and headed to Chicago!

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The venue was at City View Loft and was so pretty! We had a blast catching up with family and the bride and groom looked amazing!

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The weekend just kept rolling on… the next morning at 9:00am Marie had her baby and little Philip entered out world!

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I made a quick stop to the hospital to drop of gifts and meet little Phil then took off to the cottage for Josh Raycroft’s 30th birthday and 4th of July festivities!

Josh on the left

Pro compression socks for all sports! (or recovery from wearing heels all night!)

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The next day I turned around and drove back home. That was a FAST weekend!

Last Week

Monday: 35min legs (deadlifts, kb swings, front squats, lunges)

Tuesday: 7.5m easy 9:48/pace

Wednesday: 10m easy 8:55/pace, 20 min shoulders/core

Thursday: 6m easy 9:23/pace

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 8.6m easy 8:51/pace

Sunday: Rest

Total Miles: 32.1 (cutback!)

Have you had a day or weekend with several life events?

Monday: 10m easy 8:09/pace (super-flat midwest)

Tuesday: 5.2m 10:01/pace (super hilly humid east coast day after running 10 and sitting in a car all day run)

Wednesday: 25min upper body

If you know me for long enough you’ll hear the elusive words, The Cottage like i’m referring to a good movie you should have already seen. In actuality, it’s just a lake house. You know, a house that sits on the lake. There’s nothing too fancy or special about it. What makes is awesome, is the people.

I had a difficult time on and off during this trip. Being with friends, family, a lake and a few drinks helped me through it. And of course a couple of excellent early morning runs never hurt–What better way to clear your head, right?

I did a ton of thinking about my job, relationships, family, life, and iced coffee while I was out running the old routes through Munster, IN. Came to a few conclusions and realizations that I’ll share in the near future, but for now i’m just happy that i’m seeing things clearly and starting to make decisions to keep this happy train chugging (and no, not chugging beer haha).

Joe, me, Patrick & Liz

For now I’m trying to regain some focus back on the Chicago Marathon. It’s 52 days out. My longest run has been 10. EEK. I’m hoping that Sunday’s 5k and September’s half marathon provide some good info for Chi. But I mean, if worse comes to worse, I know i’ll finish this marathon during a crazy time in my life and that itself will be an accomplishment. Either way, there’s always another marathon right?