Apparently we have one or more of these ‘critters’ who has made a home in the air ducts under our house (and has been wreaking havoc with our outside condensor and return air duct). The AC repair people initially found them, and the critter people have set traps to catch them. However, in the meantime, we can’t use our heat in case it sprays. Very grateful it’s turned warmer outside.
This has been a hard, but good week of training for the Rock n’ Roll NOLA Marathon next month. After Nathan, Paxton, and I did our tough tempo workout on Tuesday, I ended up getting two more speed/tempo workouts this week (in addition to easy shakeout runs on Wednesday and Friday):
Thursday Track Workout
The temperatures on Thursday night were slightly above 30º, but it felt much colder than that with a strong and persistent wind throughout. However, I ended up having my most consistent track workout since returning from the injury. Here’s a rundown of the workout with my splits:
The times weren’t blazing fast, but I’m very happy with the workout. This is especially true considering the wind and the fact that I ran the entire thing by myself since no one else was running my pace.
Saturday Marathon Workout
Today our group did a marathon workout over in Percy Warner Park, and it was one of the toughest ones we’ve ever done. Nathan, Brian, and I got in a couple of extra miles early, and then did most of the repeats together along with John. Here’s a rundown (not including the recoveries between intervals):
This looks hard enough on paper, but add to this the fact that the route had over 2,000’ of cumulative elevation gain, and you have one nasty workout….
Again however, I felt really good even though it was difficult. We hit or exceeded all of our goal paces throughout the workout. It made it a lot easier having several friends running with me the whole way. With recoveries I got in just over 16.5-miles for the day.
This week has been a big confidence boost towards NOLA. In total I finished just over 51-miles, which brings the monthly total to 196.
Beast Mode….ON!
Good question. I think moving to the Kinvara as your road shoe would make a lot of sense if you love the Peregrine.
I actually started with the Kinvara (fell in love!), and then decided to try the Peregrine after having a conversation with a Saucony rep about the similarities. The Peregrine and Kinvara are made on the same “Last,” so the fit is consistent. Also, the heel-to-toe drop is the same between the two.
I have a friend here in Nashville that got back into running last year after taking some time off. He was running a lot of trails, and hated his shoes, so I suggested he try the Peregrine. He also fell in love with them, and then moved to the Kinvara for his road shoe. He loves both of them.
Also, Nathan (who I mention in a LOT of my posts) and I both use the Kinvara as our road shoe and Peregrine as our trail shoe. I don’t think either of us have any intention of changing in the near future.
Hope this helps!
Last Wednesday morning, Nathan, Paxton, and I did an easy 4-mile shakeout run after a hard tempo workout on Tuesday. Shakeout runs are usually awesome, because they usually leave my legs feeling better at the end than they did at the beginning. However, during this particular shakeout run, my legs felt like they had been in a car crash.
Today we did another easy shakeout run one day after a hard tempo workout. Unlike last week, my legs felt really good this morning, getting better throughout the run. We kept the pace pretty chill, but did get down into the mid 8:00s by the end…
Beast Mode…ON!
On a side note related to gear / apparel – This morning was slightly warmer than yesterday (25º compared to 20º) with similar wind conditions. However, I felt MUCH COLDER during today’s run than I did yesterday. Why is that?
On a typical cold morning (below 30º), I generally wear exactly the same things up top…A single base layer with an outer shell jacket. My preferred base layer is one of 3 long sleeved Lululemon shirts that I own, which are made out of their “Luon” material. This material is like “magic” in that it is moisture wicking (and fairly thin), but has a warm fleecy feel. It is also awesome because I have yet to find a temperature where I needed more than two layers if I have the Luon base layer.
This morning, all 3 of those shirts were dirty, so I went with a standard poly compression shirt under my outer shell. What a MAJOR difference this makes. I know the Lululemon shirts are crazy expensive, but they are awesome on cold mornings!
Even though it wasn’t my coldest run of the winter (that was in Michigan over Christmas), it did turn out to be a pretty chilly morning with a starting temperature of 20º and a “feel’s like” of 12º …
As a follow-up to last Tuesday’s 40-minute tempo run, today we planned to have 50 total minutes of tempo work, broken up into 3 individual segments. Nathan and I met in Percy Warner Park and did our warmup over to the Nature Center in Edwin Warner Park where we met up with Paxton. From there we did all of our tempo repeats out and back on the Harpeth River Greenway.
Since Paxton is still working his way back from a long layoff, Nathan and I did all 3 segments together and then joined back up with Paxton at the end of each so we could start together.
The following is a rundown of the workout along with our average pace for each segment.
Even though this was a very challenging workout, overall I felt fantastic! For “Marathon Pace” we were shooting for 7:05 to 7:10 pace, so this was spot on, and very consistent. For “Half Marathon Pace” we were shooting for 6:45 to 6:50 pace, so this part was a little fast. However, the goal of this segment was to tire out our legs, and then try to maintain a consistent pace for the last marathon pace repeat.
My biggest problem was with my toes going numb. We had a standing 2min recovery in-between each segment, and I used that time to go into the Nature Center bathroom (which is heated) to try and get feeling back into my toes.
Once we finished the tempo segments, Paxton joined us for part of our cool down run back to Percy Warner before heading back to his car at the Nature Center. In total Nathan and I finished with 11.75-miles in just over 90-minutes of work.
Beast Mode…ON!
Today Paxton and I did a nice and easy, 7-mile shakeout run that started at the Bellevue United Methodist Church parking lot and wound through the streets of Bellevue and the Harpeth River Greenway. It was a little cool this morning with temps around 30º, but it didn’t feel bad at all since the wind wasn’t blowing. We kept the pace very chill throughout, which was good since my legs are still pretty tired from the 20-miler on Saturday…
Once we got back to the cars, Paxton had to head out, but I stayed and did 4 x 100m stride outs in the parking lot. Even though I felt pretty good during the run, my legs felt very heavy during the strides.
Tonight I cranked out a 1/2 set of P90X Legs and Back, along with some extra exercises for my shins and hip adductors. I’m hoping this doesn’t tire me out too much for our planned tempo run in the morning.
Beast Mode….ON!
Download Here >> Right-Click On This Link To Download
“Jesus Feeds the 5000” (Matthew 14:13-21) – Audio recording of my Sunday evening sermon at Bellevue Church of Christ in Nashville, TN on January 6, 2013.
This sermon looks at the text of Jesus feeding the 5000 from Matthew 14 and the insight we can gain into the nature and character of our savior from this great story.
Matthew 14:13–21 (ESV)
13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
This has been a very solid week of training, and has helped to greatly improve my confidence that was starting to wane. Things have been going well since coming back from the stress fracture, and my endurance has been terrific, however I just didn’t feel like my speed was coming along.
Well there have been several things this week that have made me feel a LOT better about my speed, including:
-6 x 100m Stride Outs – 6:05 pace
-1600m fresh (400m Recovery) – 6:17 pace
-3 x 200m fresh (400m Recovery) – 5:50 pace
-1000m fresh (300m Recovery) – 6:09 pace
-800m Straights and Curves* (300m Recovery) – 7:20 pace
-800m fresh – 5:54 pace
*Run the straights, jog the curves
When combined with easy runs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, my total mileage for this week was just over 52-miles. This also puts me at just over 145-miles for the month of January.
Beast Mode…ON!
The Bellevue Trio Reunion Tour continued today with a tempo run through the streets of Bellevue on a cold and overcast morning. Nathan, Paxton and I started at the Bellevue Church of Christ parking lot with a 20-minute warmup loop back to the cars, and then we did a 40-minute tempo run at just under goal marathon pace.
Since Paxton has just started back running again, we split up a bit for this section to allow for different paces. My goal marathon pace is 7:14, so Nathan and I tried to hold our pace for the tempo segment between 7:05 and 7:10. While I could definitely feel some fatigue in my legs, especially after doing P90X Legs and Back last night, overall I felt really good. We ended up doing 4 different out-and-back segments during the 40-minutes, mostly in River Plantation, and ended up with an average pace of 7:08. I still doubt I’ll be ready to hold this pace for 26.2 at NOLA, but it was relatively comfortable for 40-minutes this morning.
We arrived back at the cars at almost exactly the same time as Paxton, and then ran another 20-minute loop as a cool down. In total, I finished right at 10-miles in approximately 80-minutes of work.
Beast Mode…ON!
Romans Chapter 9 Handouts and Notes are Now Online
For students in my Wednesday night class on Romans: Handouts and Notes for Romans Chapter 9 are now available online. Lord willing we will cover this great chapter during class tomorrow night at 7pm at Bellevue Church of Christ!
Other than one post-run picture, I don’t think I’ve made a single running post in 2013. Well, I am still running, and things are going well in training for the 2013 Rock n’ Roll NOLA Marathon on February 24th.
The weather here in Middle Tennessee has been crazy for the past couple of weeks. For example, last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday it was around 65º for my runs, and I wore shorts and a singlet. This morning it was 27º and windy, and I wore tights, a jacket, and two pair of gloves. It has been sleeting since early afternoon, so we may end up ice skating instead of running in the morning.
Highlights of the last two weeks:
The Return of Paxton – The best thing that has happened over the past couple of weeks is that Paxton has started running with Nathan and I again. He took a break from running during the second half of 2012, and joined us back on January 4th. It is good to have him back.
Marathon Workout – On January 5th, our group began their bi-weekly marathon workouts in preparation for spring marathons. While NOLA is much earlier than most of the races that everyone else is training for, it was still good to get in a tempo workout with the group. Here’s a rundown:
My goal for the marathon pace intervals was to land between 7:05 and 7:10, since my goal pace is 7:14 for a 3:09:59 marathon. Nathan and I ended up running most of the repeats slightly faster than this, but overall I felt fantastic. Nathan even joined me early (and stayed after) to turn the workout into a 20-mile run as I ramp up for NOLA.
Track with JSRC – My splits are slowly coming down to times much closer to my peak last summer. Two weeks ago I ran the entire workout with Robert (who is 15, and fast), and felt great. The planned workout was a ladder:
When Robert and I finished the first 1200m, and the recovery, John instructed us to add another 1200m before going back down the ladder. Even with this extra repeat, I felt really, really good during this workout.
Last Thursday night, I didn’t feel great, but still had good times on most of the repeats.
Long Run Deluge – Last Saturday our group started on Belmont Boulevard, ran downtown, and then across the Cumberland River through East Nashville and into Shelby Park before heading back. Most of the group got 10 to 12 miles, however Nathan and I met early for 3-miles on Belmont Boulevard and then ran an extra loop on the Shelby Bottoms Greenway to end with a total of 17-miles. The “highlight” of this run was that most of it was completed in a steady downpour. It was raining so hard as we were on our way back that a van stopped and asked us if we needed a ride.
So far I’ve completed 99.9-miles for 2013, and hoping to get in around 200-miles for January. Good start to the new year!
Beast Mode….ON!
The Saucony Kinvara has been my training and racing shoe of choice since its introduction in 2010. I’ve loved every version so far, and we got our first look at the upcoming Kinvara 4 (K4) last month on the Saucony blog. Today Running Warehouse posted some new pics along with a rundown of changes and color options for the shoe that will drop in May.
Per Running Warehouse…The K4 retains many of the design elements of its successful predecessor, though a few tweaks (such as an improved upper and the addition of a PowerGrid heel insert) should make for a more enjoyable running experience. Saucony claims weights of 7.7 oz in a Men’s size 9 and 6.7 oz for a Women’s size 8.
Changes from the K3
Men’s Colors
Women’s Colors
What do you think? Personally, I’m excited about the changes, though I do think the new overlay pattern results in a less attractive shoe than the K3.
26.4.26 Foundation to Deliver $30K From Marathon to Sandy Hook
Article from the Runner’s World Newswire about the 26.4.26 event that I was blessed to participate in a few weeks ago for the Newtown victims. So cool how this idea started as a text message among friends, and how now exploded to national news.
I believe that 2012 was the first time I had ever written down my running goals, and I ended up with a pretty successful year in spite of my stress fracture. For 2013 I’m doing away with all goals related to total mileage or running a certain number of races, and instead focusing on racing achievements.
Well, there it is for what it’s worth. What are your running goals for 2013?
On Sunday evening at 6pm, I will be preaching at Bellevue Church of Christ in Nashville, TN. We will be looking at the text of Jesus feeding the 5000 from Matthew 14 and the insight we can gain into the nature and character of our savior from this great story.
If you are in the Middle Tennessee area, we would love to have you join us!
Romans Chapter 8 Handouts and Notes are Now Online
For students in my Wednesday night class on Romans: Complete Handouts and Notes for all 39 verses of Romans Chapter 8 are now available online. Lord willing we will cover this great chapter during class tomorrow night at 7pm at Bellevue Church of Christ!
lagirlontherun replied to your photo: Olivia playing with her Christmas present from her…
What is that? A hunting vest?
Actually, the vest and knife are part of a “Survival Kit” that she received from her parents. It came with an Army backpack and vest, flashlights (no batteries required), mylar blankets, non-perishable food, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Since this is it for 2012, I wanted to talk a final look back at my running goals for the year. I was a little bit sidetracked by a femoral stress fracture in my right leg, which caused me to miss the entire month of September, along with 3 full marathons and 1 half marathon. However, in spite of this, I still consider 2012 to largely be a success from a running perspective with new PRs in both the half and full marathons. Here’s a rundown:
Achieved – Up until the last week of August, I was WELL ahead of pace for 2,000 miles in 2012, but not running for the entire month of September, and some of October, made this goal very questionable up until the end. However, my return to running program went so well that I ended up with just over 2,022-miles for the year, which is 259-miles ahead of my total for 2011.
Partially Achieved – The “Quest for 3:15” was officially completed at the Rock n’ Roll NOLA Marathon on March 4 with a finish time of 3:12:28. However, due to the stress fracture, my fall marathon season was wiped out, and with it the goal of running a BQ in 2012. I’m hoping that next year both Nathan and I can run a BQ so that we can both experience Boston together for the first time in 2014. That is unless Nathan decides to completely forego road marathons for trail ultras after finally finishing “Born to Run” (not kidding).
While not an official marathon, I did end up running 26.2-miles at the 26.4.26 event just over a week ago. This was a very special experience.
My next scheduled marathon is the 2013 Rock n’ Roll NOLA Marathon at the end of February, but I’m having serious doubts about my ability to break 3:10 in this race. Coming back from the stress fracture has not allowed me to run the type of mileage I would like leading up to this race, so I might have to target a race in the fall.
Not Achieved – I completed two full marathons in the spring, and was registered for three more in the fall, but as mentioned above, the stress fracture wiped all of these out. As for running one at a slower, conservative pace…I was the official 4-hour pacer for the St Jude Country Music Marathon back in April and had a blast!
Achieved – I officially broke 1:30 for the first time at the Oak Barrel Half Marathon in Lynchburg, TN on April 7th with a 1:29:52. I was hoping to take it even lower at the 500 Festival Mini Marathon in May, but the 91% humidity throughout the race was a deal breaker on that front. As for the Middle Half mentioned in the goal, this race was also a casualty of the stress fracture. I ended up running the Chickamauga Battlefield Half Marathon in November as my first race back after the injury (I was originally registered for the full). This was obviously not the occasion to run really fast, but I was pleased to finish in 1:39:06 even though my longest run prior to the race was 8-miles, and I used a 10/1 run/walk strategy throughout.
It’s been snowing here in Michigan since noon yesterday, so I decided to wear trail shoes for my run this morning. I parked at Potter Park and did 3-miles out-and-back on the Lansing River Walk, which took me right to the edge of the MSU campus.
The snow on the greenway was ankle-deep in places, but my traction was really good with the Saucony Peregrine trail shoes. It was a really beautiful route by the river, and my legs felt good considering the 14-mile run yesterday.
The running was slow in places with the snow, but I still managed to get in just over 6-miles at around 9-min pace.
Beast Mode…ON!!
Today’s run was a little bit slippery with all of the snow and ice here in Michigan. I almost fell 3 times, but thankfully only actually fell 1 time. Luckily I escaped any significant consequences, coming away with only a couple of bruises.
Otherwise it was a really good run. I started out at our hotel with a 2.5-mile loop through a residential area, and then ran 5.5-miles down Saginaw Highway to the Grand River in downtown Lansing.
Olivia drove out and met me at one of the trailheads for the Lansing River Walk. From there we ran just under an hour out and back on the River Walk, which was a much better route than the 5.5-miles down Saginaw.
In total I finished just over 14-miles for the day, and felt really good throughout.
Beast Mode…ON!!