I’ve got a lot of great pictures of Kate running, but this one from Sunday’s ING Kids Rock Marathon is by far my favorite! Look at her Go!!
I love the form! I love the intensity! I’m so proud of my Kater Bug!!!
The backlash from our culture against Christianity and Biblical teaching is disturbing to Christians, but should not be surprising. Our message is “foolishness” to the world:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (I Corinthians 1:18, NKJV)
Today’s Run
After a rest day yesterday (Day 11), this was the 4th day from week 2 of my “Return to Running” program, which includes:
*3 to 5-minute walking warmup
*4 x 5-minute run / 2-minute walk
*3 to 5+ minute walking cooldown
For today’s run, I pushed Sara in the running stroller down the Harpeth River Greenway on a beautiful afternoon. We started out at the Nature Center in Edwin Warner Park, and she seemed to have a really good time. It was awesome to have another member of Team Agee along as company! Her favorite part was the “Bumpy Road,” which was the old connector road by Ensworth High school. Even with the stroller, my legs felt pretty good throughout. In total we did 20 minutes of running and just under 18 minutes of walking for a total of 3.54 miles completed.
- Miles: 3.54
- Time: 37:52 minutes
- Pace: 10:42
- Shoes: adidas Energy Boost (#1)
- Route: HR Greenway from Nature Center
Local Flooding
We had a LOT of rain over the weekend, with areas of flooding. My original intention today was to park at a different area along the greenway, but this is what I saw on the road leading to the parking lot:
Bone Density Scan
Last Friday morning I had a Bone Density Scan at Premier Radiology to see if a lack of bone density might be contributing to my recurring stress injuries. Well, today I found out the scan shows I have mild Osteopenia, which simply means that my bone density is slightly less than the norm for my age and gender. The prescription was to take calcium and vitamin D supplements, and eat more calcium rich foods. So, it looks like I now have one more thing to add to my training program.
Cross-Training
- 100 Pushup Routine >> Week 4 / Level 3 / Day 1 – 109 total reps (supposed to be 120, but I crashed in the last set)
- Pullups – 15 total reps
- Balance Squats x 25 reps (each leg)
- Calf Raise Squats x 25 reps (2 x 15lb dumbbells)
- Wall Squats – 90 Seconds
- Step-Back Lunges x 15 reps (each leg with 2 x 15lb dumbbells)
- 3-way lunge x 15 reps (each leg)
- Chair Salutation x 2 (30 sec each)
- Toe Roll Iso Lunges x 20 reps (each leg)
- Groucho Walk – 45 seconds
- Hip Hike 2 x 15 reps (each leg)
- Monster Walk with Band 2 x 12 reps (each leg)
- Clamshells with Band 2 x 15 reps (each leg)
- Toe Flexor x 60 reps (each leg)
- Dorsiflex Raises x 75 reps
While I was putting Sara (She’s 3) to bed, I laid my head on top of hers for a snuggle….
Me:
Do you want me to sleep here like this all night?
Sara:
No, you need to go downstairs and sleep in your bed. But….you can call for me if you need me, and I’ll come down and sleep with you.
Today’s Run
This was the 3rd day from week 2 of my “Return to Running” program, which includes:
- 3 to 5-minute walking warmup
- 4 x 5-minute run / 2-minute walk
- 3 to 5+ minute walking cooldown
Today’s run was through the streets of Green Hills in a driving rainstorm, following 1-hour on the elliptical at the Green Hills YMCA. Even though it was tough running in such miserable conditions, it was NOTHING compared to what the participants in the Country Music Half Marathon and Marathon had to deal with today for 13.1 or 26.2 miles respectively. It rained heavy throughout the race, and in honor of my running comrades who endured these nasty conditions, I give you one of my favorite Bill Bowerman quotes:
There’s no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.
Kudos for being true runners today! You definitely earned your medal.
As for my run, it was not fun, but I felt OK considering the weather. Just happy to have it over with. In total I got in 20 minutes of running and 11+ minutes of walking for 2.94-miles completed.
- Miles: 2.94
- Time: 31:30 minutes
- Pace: 10:40
- Shoes: Saucony Hattori LC (#2)
- Route: Abbot Martin, Vailwood, Hobbs
Cross-Training
- Elliptical >> 1 Hour
Beast Mode…ON!
Today’s Run
This was the 2nd day from week 2 of my “Return to Running” program. This includes:
- 3 to 5-minute walking warmup
- 4 x 5-minute run / 2-minute walk
- 3 to 5+ minute walking cooldown
Kate still had 2 miles to go for the ING Kids Rock marathon that culminates on Sunday, so she joined me for this run to finish it out. I’m very proud of her for completing all 4 of the running intervals without having to stop and take a break. She was a real trooper, especially considering that it started raining about 1/4th of the way through the run. I’m also happy to have been able to run at least part of the kids marathon with her, since I was injured while she completed most of the miles. This afternoon, we kept everything very chill since Kate was with me, and because my legs were feeling timid after some intense cross-training yesterday. In total we got in 20 minutes of running and 18+ minutes of walking for 3.22-miles completed.
- Miles: 3.22
- Time: 38:10 minutes
- Pace: 11:50
- Shoes: adidas Energy Boost (#1)
- Route: Harpeth Pkwy, McPherson Dr, HR Greenway
Cross-Training
- None >> been feeling rough today with seasonal allergies. Decided to take the night off from cross training.
Beast Mode…ON!
Kate had two pieces of art selected for “Evening with the Arts” at Lipscomb Academy, and they remained on display at the school for the last couple of weeks. All of the selections were made by the art teacher and the world renowned artist Michael Shane Neal. This event ended a few days ago, and we cannot wait to get them framed for display in our home. We are so proud of Kate! Here are the two items selected:
Per Kate, this is a water-color painting where she used salt mixed with blue paint for the ocean water to give it the cool effects. She also used a white crayon for some of the electric “shocks” and bubbles. The painting includes a clown fish in the lower-left, an electric eel in the upper left, and a big puffer fish in the middle. I love this one!
Per Kate, this is a torn paper mosaic made from construction paper. I love the mix of colors she used on this one, and this is also her favorite of the two.
This is the cover of the May issue of Boston Magazine. It is comprised of over 100 pairs of shoes worn by participants in the 2013 Boston Marathon. Inside the magazine are runner’s stories for 15 of the pairs, and many of the additional stories can be found on their website. This is fantastic.
Boston Magazine has an article (Behind the May Boston Magazine Cover) on their website that explains how the cover came about. Here is a brief excerpt:
Then our design director, Brian Struble, and deputy design director, Liz Noftle, came up with the concept of taking shoes worn during the marathon and arranging them so that the negative space is in the shape of a heart. For reasons I’ll explain in a moment, I knew as soon as I heard the idea that we had our concept—not just for the collection of essays, but also for the cover. In fact, I quickly realized that the stories of the runners who wore those shoes would be even more powerful than the essays we’d commissioned. We quickly changed course and settled on the cover concept and the outlines of a feature package: We’d shoot the shoes collectively to form the heart, but we’d also photograph them as individual pairs to illustrate the stories told by the runners in the package (which we called “The Shoes We Wore,” and which you’ll find in the May issue).
What an awesome idea, and amazing they were able to pull it off.
Today’s Run
After a rest-day yesterday (Day 7), tonight marked the beginning of week 2 in my “Return to Running” program. This includes:
- 3 to 5-minute walking warmup
- 4 x 5-minute run / 2-minute walk
- 3 to 5+ minute walking cooldown
It was nice to actually get in more minutes running than walking for the first time since my return from injury. I was a little fatigued since Olivia and I had done an hour of aqua jogging earlier today. However, my legs still felt really good throughout on a perfect evening through the streets of Bellevue. In total I got in 20 minutes of running and 12+ minutes of walking for 3.1-miles completed.
- Miles: 3.1
- Time: 32:29 minutes
- Pace: 10:29
- Shoes: Saucony Kinvara 3 (#8)
- Route: Sawyer Brown, George Patton
Cross-Training
- Aqua Jogging >> 1 hour
- 100 Pushup Routine >> Week 3 / Level 3 / Day 3 – 120 total reps (this hurt)
- Pullups – 14 total reps
- Balance Squats x 25 reps (each leg)
- Calf Raise Squats x 25 reps (2 x 15lb dumbbells)
- Wall Squats – 90 Seconds
- Step-Back Lunges x 15 reps (each leg with 2 x 15lb dumbbells)
- 3-way lunge x 15 reps (each leg)
- Chair Salutation x 2 (30 sec each)
- Toe Roll Iso Lunges x 20 reps (each leg)
- Groucho Walk – 45 seconds
- Hip Hike x 30 reps (each leg)
- Monster Walk with Band 2 x 12 reps (each leg)
- Clamshells with Band 2 x 15 reps (each leg)
- Toe Flexor x 60 reps (each leg)
- Dorsiflex Raises x 75 reps
Beast Mode…ON!
This is a great message to see…
I got an email today from my dear friend, and frequent running partner, Paxton with some insightful analysis of my training log and possible factors that could have lead to my recent stress fractures. A number of members of our running group have accounts on RunningAhead.com, and have access to each other’s logs. Without prompting, Paxton looked through my logs for trends in the data that could provide insight into what threw me into my recent injury cycle. Paxton works in genetics, and is an expert in looking at datasets and graphs. He sent me a couple of annotated graphs from my log such as the one below:
He pointed out several things that were present in the data, but the one that jumped out to me was the fact that tempo and interval mileage accounted for almost 50% of my total mileage for a given week or month, just prior to both of the stress fractures. This is obviously way too high, but was exacerbated by the fact that it was also accompanied by a significant uptick in mileage. This is another example of how I allowed my obsession with Boston to push me over the edge in my training.
A big thanks to Paxton for selflessly spending this time to look at the data and help me out. It means a LOT to me. I will definitely remember this when I put together my full training schedule for NYC. I wish I knew some way to get both Paxton and Nathan into NYC to run with me. Would be great to have the Bellevue Trio in NYC together.
Today’s Run
Today was the final run for week 1 of my “Return to Running” program, which includes:
- 3 to 5-minute walking warmup
- 4 x 4-minute run / 2-minute walk
- 3 to 5+ minute walking cooldown
It was a very pleasant evening for a run with mostly clear skies and temps in the mid 70s. My legs are pretty sore from an intense leg workout last night, so the running segments were very, very easy through the streets of Bellevue. In total I got in 16 minutes of running and 17+ minutes of walking for 2.9-miles completed. Since this was the end of week 1, tomorrow will be a rest day before week 2 begins on Thursday.
- Miles: 2.9
- Time: 33:43 minutes
- Pace: 11:39
- Shoes: Saucony Kinvara 3 (#8)
- Route: Bellevue – Sawyer Brown, Todd Pries, Baugh
Next Step to New York
I already knew that I had guaranteed entry to the 2013 New York City Marathon, but it was still exciting to get this email today as confirmation. Now just have to remember to sign-up tomorrow!
Cross-Training
- Aqua Jogging >> 1 hour with Olivia
- In and Outs x 25 reps
- Seated Bicycle Forward x 25 reps
- Seated Bicycle Backward x 25 reps
- Crunchy Frog x 25 reps
- Wide Leg Sit Ups x 25 reps
- Hip Rock n’ Raise x 25 reps
- Pulse Ups x 11 reps
- Roll-Up / V-Up Combo x 20 reps
- Oblique V-Up Right x 25 reps
- Oblique V-Up Left x 25 reps
- Leg Climb x 24 reps (1 grab)
- Mason Twist x 50 reps
Beast Mode…ON!
