u/dancingQueen999

Mets fan coming in peace. I’ll be visiting Chicago for the first time in about a week’s time. I plan on checking Wrigley Field off my stadium list, and I’m excited to hopefully see some former Mets play (Holmes, Peterson, Tyrone Taylor, PCA if that counts lol) and cheer for the cubbies haha.

I bought a bleacher section seat, and I just realized the day I’m going (Aug 28) happens to have a 90’s replica jersey giveaway for the bleacher audience. Given that this ticket is low key the most expensive baseball ticket I’ve ever bought, it’d be nice to be able to actually get the jersey. How early would I have to get there? Also, since it will be my last day in Chicago and I plan on leaving for the airport right after the game (should be more than enough time as long as the game doesn’t go for like four hours), is there a nearby locker/storage facility where I can store my luggage for a few hours?

I ran my first half marathon last November, and I’m a relatively new runner in general (been running for a little under a year and a half). My half marathon time was 2 hours 19 minutes on a fairly hilly course. I plan on running the same half marathon again this coming November and want to shoot for 2 hours 10 minutes. From last November to today, I’ve really been only doing all my runs at pretty easy efforts since I’m not doing any races. Occasionally I would mix in some progression tempo. I run anywhere between 20-25 miles a week, spread out over four or five runs. My longer runs are 7-8 miles currently. I’ve noticed my easy pace dropped quite a bit since last November. My current 9:45 min/mile pace feels like my old 10:35 min/mile pace in terms of effort. I got a 10k PR of 59 minutes 5 seconds two weeks ago accidentally on a run that was 5k easy and 5k progression. That was on a pretty flat gravel trail.

This morning I did my first interval workout for the first time since last November (and tbh I didn’t do very much interval training for my half marathon because I was just trying to run the whole thing, which I achieved). 1.5 miles warmup, 400 m repeats 8 times with 60 seconds break in between, and 1.5 miles cooldown. The intervals are all on the track, so it was completely flat. I didn’t really have a good sense of how fast I should be running. All my 400m intervals ended up taking between 1 minute 38 seconds and 1 minute 45 seconds. I definitely felt like I was dying by the end of the last interval but managed to stay in the time range somehow. I did some googling after I got home, and it seems like the internet suggests a slower pace for my 400m intervals for my current half marathon target. I guess my questions are: How hard should I run my intervals? Like am I supposed to feel like I’m on the brink of death (okay that’s a bit dramatic but you get the point) by the end of last interval? Should I adjust my interval pace to my half marathon target? Or should I adjust my half marathon target based on what I can do with intervals?