I’ve tried to ignore it. I’ve tried to explain it away. However, the pain in my right leg is no longer confined to my quad, and continues to get worse and worse. Because of this I’m shutting everything down until I can get in to see a Sports Medicine MD. Hoping this will be a short layoff, but preparing for something much worse. I’ll update when I know something. Everyone else keep running strong!
The time between my 75-minute run today and last night’s 15-miler with 10 Yasso 800s was a little less than 12 hours, so I was feeling a little bit of residual fatigue throughout the run this morning.
However, it was good to be joined by both Nathan and Paxton. This was the first run for the acclaimed “Bellevue Trio” in quite some time. We started out at the Bellevue United Methodist Church Parking lot, and ran for 6-miles through the surrounding neighborhood and the new segment of the Harpeth River Greenway.
Paxton only wanted 6-miles total, so we looped back to the cars, and then Nathan and I headed back out into the surrounding neighborhood for our final 25-minutes or so. Our pace started off very, very chill, and then slowly got faster through the first 6-miles. However, I slowed down quite a bit for most of the final 25-minutes, because my legs were toast. I’m looking forward to the nice break before Thursday night’s track workout.
In total Nathan and I completed just under 9-miles with an average pace of 8:50 per mile. That makes just over 30-miles completed since Monday morning.
Beast Mode….ON!
Tonight our group met at the Vanderbilt track to do Yasso 800s, which is designed to be an indicator of what marathon time someone is capable of completing. For those of you that are not familiar with this workout, here is the lowdown…
Yasso 800s are a popular workout among runners who are trying to achieve a specific marathon goal. The name “Yasso” comes from Bart Yasso, the chief running officer at Runner’s World magazine, who popularized this workout. Here’s how to do Yasso 800s:
The theory is that if you can complete 10 of these at your goal splits, then it indicates you should be able to achieve your marathon goal. Well, since the group was getting together to run Yasso 800s, John put the following in my schedule:
I did my warm up around the Vanderbilt campus and on the track for just over 26-minutes, and then did two quick 100m stride outs with the group. For the Yasso 800s, my goal split time was 3 minutes 5 seconds (6:10 pace), since my goal marathon time is 3 hours 5 minutes. Also, per the design of the workout, I was supposed to run easy for 3 minutes 5 seconds between repeats.
Other than the start of the first one, I ended up running the workout by myself. However, in spite of this I still felt FANTASTIC! I was expecting this to be brutal, but I felt great, and nailed my splits. The biggest thing I had to fight was going too fast. Here’s a rundown of the splits for my 10 repeats.
I’m very excited about how this workout went, and it was a BIG confidence boost. I don’t necessarily buy into the idea that this means I can definitely run a 3:05 marathon, but I am pleased with how I felt throughout the workout. I think I could have easily run 2 to 4 more and maintained consistent splits.
At the end of the Yasso 800s, I ran a 30-minute cool down on the track, and then back onto the Vanderbilt campus. My legs still felt great during the cool down, and I felt like I could run all night. BTW….We had awesome weather tonight, which was a big plus.
In total I finished with 15-miles on the button at an average pace of 7:44 per miles with warmup and cool down. Might be hard to get going for my 75-minute run in the morning, but tonight was awesome.
Beast Mode…ON!
Today’s schedule called for 50 minutes at easy pace with 6 x 100m stride outs at the end. The weather this morning was just magnificent with temps around 61º and lower humidity. It was weird to finish a run and not be dripping wet.
Nathan and I met at the Edwin Warner Nature Center, and then ran out-and-back to the model airplane field. We started off at a very chill pace, and then got progressively faster throughout.
Overall I felt pretty good, but could tell that we’d run a hill 18-miles on Saturday. I’ve mentioned a couple of times recently about the twinge/strain in my right quadriceps muscle. Well today it was particularly annoying, and did not really loosen up until just before we started our stride-outs. I’ve been really stretching and rolling it tonight trying to keep this from becoming a bigger problem, but I’m starting to get nervous that this may ultimately lead to some missed time.
I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I was actually pleased with how I felt during the stride-outs, and so far the quad problem has not affected my stride or ability to run fast. Anyway, in total we finished just over 6.3-miles at an average pace of 8:19 per miles.
Beast Mode…ON!
Great weather + Over 3,200 ft of cumulative elevation gain + Just over 18-miles completed + 8:11 average pace per mile = one of the best tough long training runs of my running life.
Today the group planned to run the 16.5-mile loop in Percy and Edwin Warner Parks, which is one of the toughest road routes in this area. My scheduled called for 16 to 18-miles at easy pace, so Nathan and I added a little bit here and there to end up with just over 18-miles completed for the day. I ran the entire way with Nathan, but after starting off with the entire group we ran at different times with either Marc, Aine, or Paul.
We had great weather with starting temps around 63º, and the humidity began to burn off about 45-minutes into the run. The 16.5 starts off with an almost 250 ft climb during the first mile, so our pace was very, very chill starting out. This included our first two miles which were just under 10:00 min pace, and our second two miles which were just under 9:00 min pace. After the fourth mile, 10 of the next 14 miles were completed under 8:00 min pace, and 5 of those were under 7:45 pace (our final two miles were 7:25 and 7:06).
Nathan and I both felt fantastic, and for me the run felt really comfortable, even going up the big climbs throughout the route. I’m still fighting a little twinge / strain in my right quadriceps muscle, but this was litte more than an annoyance today. Overall my legs felt great, and I was in one of those rhythms where I felt like I could run all day.
We also had a lot a great conversation today which ranged from Victorian Poetry to computer programming to great guitar players. After the run we headed out to our normal breakfast spot, Bread & Company, and a great morning was topped off because they were serving my favorite coffee, Bongo Java’s Immaculate Percolation.
Beast Mode…ON!
Thursday is normally track night with the JSRC, but tonight is also “Meet the Teacher” night at Kate’s school. Because of this, John sent me a substitute workout that I could run this morning.
I was expecting it to be similar to one of our Jim Spivey track workouts, but was a bit surprised when I got the following from John…
This is a bit more intense than a normal track workout, but I’m guessing this is more in line with what John would draw up for marathon training if I didn’t normally go to JSRC workouts. Would love to know your thoughts on this John.
Anyway, to be honest I had a bit of trepidation about this morning after my so-so tempo workout on Tuesday, and experiencing hip and quad tightness yesterday. We got a bit of a break in the temps today, and this provided a very welcome boost. It was still fairly humid, but 64º felt nice.
Nathan and I met at the Bellevue United Methodist Church parking lot, and ran our 10-minute warmup out to the new section of the Harpeth River Greenway. Up to this point we had only done easy runs on this greenway, so it was nice this morning to break it in a little. For the workout we went 5-minutes out, did our 30-second recovery, and then did 5-minutes back.
The bizarre thing is that I felt MUCH better on the way back than I did on the way out, EVERY TIME! Nathan said he felt exactly the same way. You can see this in our average pace for the segments:
On the Way Out:
On the Way Back:
The reason for this is a mystery to me. There does not appear to be a significant difference in elevation change between the two directions, and there was almost no wind to speak of. I’m guessing it was either a mental thing, or both of our Garmin watches just liked coming back better and showed a faster average. No idea.
Regardless, I felt much, much better today that I feared I would. It was a hard workout, but my legs felt strong, and the pace was not overwhelming. Also, unlike Tuesday, Nathan and I ran together the whole way, which was nice. Even though the intervals were 5-minutes each, it turned out to be almost exactly an 8 x 1200m workout. All of our segments were between .74 and .76 miles completed.
Once we finished the repeats, we ran our 10-minute cool down back to the cars at a very chill pace. In total we finished just over 8.5-miles with warmup and cool down at an average pace of 7:32 per mile.
Beast Mode…ON!
Today’s scheduled called for 50-minutes easy with 6 x 100m stride outs. Between Nathan and Josh, they suggested that we try something new in the neighborhoods around the old, vacant Bellevue Center Mall. I mapped out a 5.5-mile run on MapMyRun last night that started at Bellevue Church of Christ parking lot, included a loop around the mall, and then went into the surrounding neighborhood.
Well, we stayed on the planned route for the first 3-miles before I missed a street, and it all fell apart. We ended up crossing back by the church parking lot and running an additional small loop back in familiar territory to close out the 50-minutes.
We kept the pace very chill throughout, and overall I felt pretty good. However, I did struggle a bit with some tightness in my right hip and quad, which was annoying. It didn’t seem to affect my gate, but I’m definitely gonna keep an eye on it over the next few days. I’ve spent quite a bit of time tonight working on some exercises to try and get it loosened up.
At the end we did our stride outs in the church parking lot. Because of the hip and quad tightness I took these fairly conservative while Josh and Nathan blew past me each time. In total we finished just over 6-miles with an average pace of 8:40 per mile.
Beast Mode…ON!
Today’s scheduled called for 50-minutes easy with 6 x 100m stride outs. Between Nathan and Josh, they suggested that we try something new in the neighborhoods around the old, vacant Bellevue Center Mall. I mapped out a 5.5-mile run on MapMyRun last night that started at Bellevue Church of Christ parking lot, included a loop around the mall, and then went into the surrounding neighborhood.
Well, we stayed on the planned route for the first 3-miles before I missed a street, and it all fell apart. We ended up crossing back by the church parking lot and running an additional small loop back in familiar territory to close out the 50-minutes.
We kept the pace very chill throughout, and overall I felt pretty good. However, I did struggle a bit with some tightness in my right hip and quad, which was annoying. It didn’t seem to affect my gate, but I’m definitely gonna keep an eye on it over the next few days. I’ve spent quite a bit of time tonight working on some exercises to try and get it loosened up.
At the end we did our stride outs in the church parking lot. Because of the hip and quad tightness I took these fairly conservative while Josh and Nathan blew past me each time. In total we finished just over 6-miles with an average pace of 8:40 per mile.
Beast Mode…ON!
Since we didn’t do a tempo workout yesterday, the schedule today called for…
Nathan and I met at 5am at the Edwin Warner Park Nature Center so that I would be able to get back in time to go with Kate to her first day of second grade. After two consecutive runs with lower than normal humidity, today it was back with a vengeance, and it seemed to just suck the life out of me.
It was weird running our warmup and first tempo interval in the dark after several months of mostly running after sunrise. Neither of us brought a headlamp, so I had to be a little cautious with my footing and there were several times where we had to dodge posts in the middle of the greenway.
We took the 15-minute warmup very easy on the Harpeth River Greenway, and then continued on down the greenway for a 10-minute out-and-back for our first interval. On the way out it was a struggle to keep my pace at 6:45 or under, and by the time we started back it had drifted just above 6:50. Secretly I was hoping it was just my watch having GPS issues again, but Nathan confirmed that we were hovering right around 6:50 on his watch as well.
About 3/4 of the way through the segment I could no longer hang with Nathan and let him go. Over the final five minutes my average pace continued to rise, and I finished with a 6:56 average pace for the first interval. This was obviously quite a ways off from the target pace. The funny thing was that I didn’t feel overly bad, I just didn’t have the extra gears to go fast like I normally do.
We did our 10-minute recovery in the park, and then headed back to the greenway for the second interval. Just before we started I told Nathan to go on without me, because I was going to modify my pace based on how I felt. I was hoping to at least maintain goal marathon pace (7:05), but this also felt fast today. It didn’t take long for Nathan to be completely out of sight, because he was flying.
Again, I didn’t feel awful, but just didn’t have the umpf to maintain a faster pace. At the turnaround point my average was around 7:25 for the segment. Early on during trip back I started feeling a little burst of energy and picked up the pace a bit to finish out the second segment with a 7:13 average. When I saw Nathan at the finish, he said that he had maintained a 6:35 average for the final interval. That is pretty impressive in the nasty humidity.
We finished up with an easy 18-minute cool down back to our cars. In total I completed 10.3-miles with an average pace of 8:12 per mile. After downloading my Garmin I noticed that my heart rate never went above 171 during the 20-minute tempo segments, and my average heart rate for those segments was in the low 160s.
This actually made me feel a lot better, because it helps explain why I didn’t feel really bad even though I didn’t have the extra gears today. I’m glad that my issue was not with controlling my heart rate, but instead just overall leg fatigue mixed in with some tough humidity. Since I just had a great workout on Saturday, I know this was just a normal blip in the midst of tough training. Looking forward to bouncing back with authority over the remainder of the week.
Beast Mode…ON!
This morning I finally retired my last pair of the original Kinvara that were in my rotation, and replaced them with a fresh pair of red Kinvara 2s. That means that I now only have a single pair of Kinvara 3s in my unused inventory, and those should enter the rotation within the next two weeks.
Our nice weather from the weekend continued this morning, with temps in the mid 60ºs and relatively low humidity for this time of the year. The schedule deviated a bit from normal in that today was simply a 70 to 75 minute easy run instead of my normal Monday tempo workout.
Nathan and I met at the Bellevue United Methodist Church parking lot, and ran through the surrounding neighborhood for a couple of miles before hitting the Harpeth River Greenway and then Edwin Warner Park. After a couple of very, very easy miles we then settled into a nice rhythm with splits for the final seven miles between 7:59 and 8:18.
Overall this run felt pretty good, though I could tell we had run fairly hard on Saturday. My legs were just a touch fatigued, so it was nice to have an easy run instead of the normal tempo workout. It was also nice to be able to talk with Nathan about the Olympic Track and Field events from over the weekend. I’m really gonna miss the Olympics.
In total we finished right at 9-miles with an average pace of 8:23 per mile.
Beast Mode…ON!
The weather this morning was GLORIOUS, with temps around 64º and a slight break in the humidity. This made a BIG difference today.
My original scheduled called for 16 to 18-miles at easy pace, but yesterday afternoon I got the OK from John to do the marathon workout with our group in Percy Warner Park. The plan was to do 4 x 3-mile repeats around marathon pace. I still wanted to get in 18-miles, so Nathan and I met at the Beech Grove picnic area in Percy Warner around 5:20am for a little extra.
We were able to get in just over 4-miles before beginning the workout with the group. I noticed during the warmup miles that my Garmin 405 was having a lot of trouble keeping up with our pace since we were running under heavy tree cover. My goal for the repeats was to land somewhere between 7:16 (BQ Pace) and 7:05 (Goal Marathon Pace). For repeats 1, 3, and 4 we ran a loop between the 7 & 8-mile markers on the main drive.
This loop starts off with a sharp incline that lasts for about half a mile, so I told Nathan I wanted to start conservative and then pick-up the pace once we crested the hill. The whole way up the hill I had a hard time getting the pace on my watch below 8:00, but it felt like I was killing myself. Once we reached the top, Nathan told me that our average pace for interval was 6:58, and I knew that my watch was going to be worthless today.
From this point forward Nathan kept our pace on his Garmin 305, and we slowed down our pace considerably for the remainder of this interval. We finished the first 3-miles with an average pace of 7:15 per mile, and I felt FANTASTIC. Between each of the repeats we ran easy for just over a quarter mile before beginning the next one.
For interval number two we actually left the park and ran and out-and-back route on Chickering Road. The way out was much easier than coming back due to the inclines, but we still ran a negative split and finished the second 3-miles with an average pace of 7:10 per mile.
We returned to the loop for our third interval, and I told Nathan that I wanted to get a lot closer to 7:05 for this one, but wanted to take the big hill fairly conservative. When we crested the hill our average pace was around 7:35, and over the next 2.5-miles we lowered this average to 7:04. I honestly could not believe how good I felt today. 7:05 pace felt very comfortable, and this was a BIG confidence boost.
For the final interval we were joined by Tyler who was visiting our group. We started on our normal loop, and crested the hill with a 7:19 average pace. I had told Nathan that I wanted to shoot for 7:00 pace on this one, and by the time we reached the end of the first mile we were almost there. Instead of looping back to the cars we turned out of the park again and finished up on Chickering Road with an average pace of 6:58 per mile.
We ran just under a mile back to the cars, as a cool-down, to finish up our 18-miles. I feel like Nathan and I CRUSHED the workout today. I don’t think I’ve felt this good since the Rock n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon in March. This was WAY easier than the 18-miles I ran last Saturday, and our average pace was almost 45-seconds per mile faster today.
In total we finished exactly 18-miles with an average pace of 7:45 per mile with warmup and cool down. Our average pace for the 12-miles of tempo intervals was 7:07 per mile, and our pace progressed almost exactly the way I would want for a marathon. We got a big boost from the weather conditions today, but this was not an easy course with over 1,500’ of cumulative elevation gain.
In addition to getting a big confidence boost out of today’s run, I’m also extremely proud of Nathan. He is killing it this summer, and I’m convinced he is gonna obliterate his marathon PR at the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon this November. Our average pace today with warmup and cool down is 15-seconds per mile faster than his PR. I’m excited to see what he is capable of.
Beast Mode…ON!
After missing last week’s JSRC track workout because of my business trip to NYC, it was good to be back with the group tonight. We continued to have a slight break in the weather with temperatures around 86º at the start. However, even with the cooler temps the humidity was still pretty intense.
All through the warmup and strides I had a little twinge that ran all the way down my right leg and into my foot. It didn’t feel like a muscle strain or anything like that, but more like a nerve twinge caused by a tight hamstring. Whatever the case, it didn’t affect my stride, but just felt strange. Thankfully, once we got into the meat of the workout I didn’t notice it at all.
Here’s the rundown…
All short intervals tonight, but I felt fantastic throughout the repeats. I ended up running the entire workout with Sue Anne, and it was really nice to have someone to run with tonight. Our consistency was a little wobbly during the first two sets, but we got dialed in during the third and fourth. In total with warmup and cool down I finished just over 8-miles with an average pace of 7:59 per mile.
One neat thing tonight was that Olivia, Kate, and Sara came out to meet me near the end of the workout. I got to run one cool down lap with Sara and another with Kate. Pretty Cool!
Beast Mode…ON!
The biggest shock this morning was seeing temps below 70º for the first time in quite a while. The humidity was still really high, but it was nice to get a break in the temperature.
My schedule called for 50-minutes at easy pace with 6 x 100m stride outs at the end. For the first time in a few weeks, Nathan and I decided to run trails, and met at the Deep Well Trailhead in Percy Warner Park…
We spent most of our 50-minutes on the red trail (Mossy Ridge Trail) and kept a very chill, but steady pace throughout. My legs were pretty tight on the steep hill at the start, but started to loosen up fairly quickly. By the end of the first mile I was feeling fairly strong on the steep climbs. Even though this trail is only 4.5-miles, there is over 1,500’ of cumulative elevation gain…
The weird thing today was that I felt pretty timid on the downhills. Being able to run fast on trails like this requires letting go, picking your spots, and trusting your footing. Well today my mind was just a little more hesitant than usual. I’m guessing this has to do with the fact that I fell twice during my last trail run, and that the Milwaukee Marathon is just a little over 8-weeks away.
All-in-all it was a tough, but enjoyable run on the trails with Nathan. The beauty of the park is amazing, and trails are definitely the best way to experience it. After finishing up our 50-minutes, we did the 6 x 100m stride outs on a section of the main drive by the trailhead. We both started off the strides fairly conservative, but picked up the pace considerably with each repeat. In total we finished just under 5.2-miles with an average pace of 10:42 per mile.
Beast Mode…ON!
Well, today is my 38th birthday, and I was pleased to find that running at 38 feels very similar to running at 37 (so far). The best running present I could have asked for was a nice, chill-paced run with my buddies, and that is exactly what I got.
Today’s schedule called for 60 to 70 minutes at easy pace. Nathan, Josh, and I met at the Percy Warner Park main gates, and ran through the streets of Belle Meade on what was another crazy humid morning. After a first mile of 9:25, we kept the next four miles in the 8:40s and 8:50s.
At the end of mile five I suggested we take the fairly hilly Jackson Blvd all the way back to Belle Meade Blvd before heading to the main gates. After a small protest from Josh, we headed that direction and began to hit the hills. For some reason going up these inclines felt great, and I sub-consciously lowered the pace to an 8:14 sixth mile.
The highlight of a run on Jackson Blvd is passing the infamous “Gateway” mural that is painted onto the side of a house at the corner of Jackson and Harding Place…
For those of you unfamiliar with Nashville, Belle Meade is a very, very affluent area, and the fairly recent unveiling of this mural has caused quite a bit of controversy with their neighbors.
Anyway, after leaving Jackson, we finished up our run by taking Belle Mead Blvd back to the main gates at Percy Warner. All-in-all this was exactly the type of run I needed after the hard effort yesterday. I continued to feel better throughout, and my legs felt much better at the end than when we started. In total we ran for just over 65-minutes and finished 7.43-miles with an average pace of 8:48 per mile. Very enjoyable birthday run!
Beast Mode…ON!
After a very solid running week last week, I felt terrible on my rest day yesterday. I think part of it was coming down with a cold, and the bigger part of it was allowing myself to become dehydrated. I ended up staying in bed for most of the time from 1pm yesterday to 5am this morning, drinking as much fluid as I could. By this morning I was feeling a LOT better, but still not at 100%. However, I was feeling good enough to give our run a try.
The scheduled workout today included….
The conditions this morning were nasty. As I was walking through our house I noticed that our windows were covered with condensation, and knew we were in trouble. When I checked the weather it showed a temp of 74º with 95% humidity and a dew point of 73º.
Nathan and I started out from the Edwin Warner Park Nature Center and ran our 15-minute warmup on the Harpeth River Greenway and back into Edwin Warner. For the first tempo segment, we did 10-minutes out-and-back on the greenway behind Ensworth High School. I told Nathan as we started that I wanted to hang toward the upper end of the range since I had felt poorly the day before, and because we had 40 total minutes of tempo work.
During the first tempo segment I felt OK, but not great. The humidity was almost overwhelming, and I started having stomach issues about 5-minutes in that didn’t let up. However, we did keep the pace under 6:45 and finished the first segment with a 6:44 average. Because of the stomach issues I had to take a bio-break during the 10-minute recovery run, which was less than ideal.
I was pretty nervous about the second tempo segment because of how hard the first one had been. Nathan suggested that we try to run a negative split on the out-and-back since both of us were pretty tired. To that end we finished the first 10 minutes with our average around 6:50. Up to that point it was a struggle, though my stomach was feeling a bit better.
On the way back Nathan started to pull away and I thought I was toast. I just tried to maintain contact with him. All of a sudden with about 6-minutes to go I started to get a second wind, and caught back up just behind Nathan. We finished out pretty strong and dropped our segment average pace to 6:43. Just before we reached the finish Nathan yelled out “Beast Mode On,” which made me smile. That 20-minutes was really, really hard, but I’m proud that Nathan and I finished both of the tempo segments within the prescribed pace range.
Today was one of those days where I don’t think I would have been able to maintain pace without having Nathan to run with. It has been huge having someone to train with this summer.
We finished up with a 17-minute cool down back to the Nature Center. As we were running back toward the cars, we heard a loud BANG coming from Ensworth High School. This gave me quite a scare, and ultimately I have no idea what it was. It sounded like a gun, though I’m guessing it has something to do with all of the construction that is going on around campus. Because of our encounter with Ensworth Security a few months ago, Nathan and I joked that it must have been a runner cutting through their campus and this time they just shot him!
Overall we completed just over 10.5-miles with an average pace of 7:46 per mile. This was definitely not my best day, but I’m thrilled to have completed the workout without my best stuff. Not only do I want to give Nathan a big shout out for helping get me through today’s workout, but also for completing 51 total miles last week, which is his biggest mileage week ever. He’s getting really strong.
Beast Mode…ON!
One week ago I bonked at mile-12 of a planned 16-mile long run, because I didn’t take in enough fluid and carbs on a hot and humid morning. This morning I made sure that didn’t happen again. Before the run I had a Honey Stinger Waffle, 16 ounces of water, 10 ounces of coffee, and 8 ounces of Gatorade. During the run I drank approximately 40 ounces of Gatorade, 32+ ounces of water, and had a gel at the 10-mile mark. The difference turned out to be significant.
Today my schedule called for 18-miles at easy pace, and it just so happened that our planned group run, organized by Ed, was exactly 18-miles. We started at Percy Priest Dam on the east side of town and took the Stones River Greenway all the way out to Wave Country before heading back to the dam. The conditions this morning were tough with temps at 6am around 78º, and humidity well over 90%.
Our first few miles were pretty chill with regard to pace, and then we settled into a nice rhythm in the mid 8:00s for much of the remaining distance. On the way out we stopped briefly at Kohl’s parking lot to grab some fluids, and then Nathan and I slowly pulled away from the rest of the group on our way to Wave Country, and even stayed fairly steady up the monster hill at mile-8, just before Two Rivers Middle School. I’ve run this route many, many times, but I always seem to forget just how hilly it is. In 18-miles, we had over 2,300 ft of cumulative elevation gain…
We stopped briefly at Wave Country to grab some fluid and catch up with the rest of the group before turning back for our return trip. We all stayed together for a couple of miles, and then Nathan and I broke away from the rest of the group all the way back to Kohl’s parking lot. I was actually surprised at how good I felt throughout the run today. It was hot, humid, and nasty, but everything just seemed to be clicking this morning.
After grabbing some more fluid at Kohl’s we started the final 3-miles back to the dam. I hung with the group briefly, and then broke away as we began a steady climb along Stones River. I dropped my pace down a bit for the final 3-miles with splits of 7:57, 7:41, and 7:54. Even at the slightly quicker pace I still felt very comfortable. When I reached the dam I was .4-miles short of 18, so I ran back to meet up with Nathan who was only a short bit behind. We finished off the 18 in the greenway parking lot.
Overall I’m ecstatic with how I felt today. I was honestly a little nervous about the run because of my fail last week, but it ended up being really, really good. In total I finished 18-miles at an average pace of 8:27 per mile.
Since we were so far away from our normal breakfast spot, Bread & Company, we decided to hit the local Waffle House on Stewart’s Ferry Pike. Being on a training diet I don’t spend much time eating at Waffle House, but I really enjoyed the change of pace this morning, even if it is like “A gas station bathroom that sells waffles,” as comedian Jim Gaffigan would say…
Beast Mode…ON!
This morning I got in the first run in my new Saucony Hattori LC shoes during a 40-minute easy effort through the streets of Bellevue and on the new section of the Harpeth River Greenway. As we were texting back and forth yesterday to organize the run, Nathan told Josh that he would have to make sure and be there to see my new shoes. Josh responded that he would also have some new running shoes called “Brown 4-Minute Milers.”
When Josh got out of his truck this morning, he was wearing cowboy boots (he did change back into running shoes). This led to Nathan saying that Josh would have to write a book about running in cowboy boots, and that it would be the next running sensation. After talking through all of the possible benefits of running in boots, I suggested that it should be called “Cowboy Running,” so be looking for it soon at a book retailer near you…
In all seriousness we had a very good 4.25-mile run this morning at a chill 9:22 average pace. Overall the new Hattori LC felt similar to the original Hattori, though it was weird to have to stop during mile 2 to retie my shoes. I’ll have a full review of the Hattori LC once I’ve gotten a few more runs under my belt.
Beast Mode….ON! Cowboy!
After yesterday afternoon’s 9-miler, this morning’s 40-minute run was just a nice-and-easy shakeout effort. Since it was only about 12-hours between runs my legs felt a little stiff at the start, but progressively got better throughout.
Just like yesterday I started out on the Hudson River Park Greenway, but this time I headed south toward Battery Park. Once I passed the Staten Island Ferry I kept going north along the East River, under the Brooklyn Bridge, and finally turned around once I reached the Manhattan Bridge.
One thing about this morning was that the conditions felt very similar to being back in Nashville. The temperature was 72º at 6:00am with 90% humidity and a dew point of 70º. This made for a rather sticky effort. In total I finished 4.25-miles with an average pace of 9:26 per mile.
Beast Mode…ON!
I flew out for NYC at 6:00am this morning, so my scheduled run had to come later this afternoon. When I originally found out I needed to be in New York today and tomorrow, I really didn’t think I’d have much time to run at all. I told John last week that I might be able to squeeze in runs Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning.
To accommodate my travel, John moved some things around a bit and only had me down to do 40-minute easy runs today and tomorrow and a 70 minute easy run for Friday after I get back. However, by mid-afternoon today I knew my meetings were going to finish early, so I texted John about doing the 70-minute run today and moving the 40-minute to Friday. He gave me the ok, so I got ready and headed down to the Hudson River Park Greenway around 4:30pm.
It was nice to have milder weather than I’m used to in Nashville. The temps were around 73º with overcast skies and a light rain. The humidity was really high, but it still felt better than Tennessee. I started the run just above Battery Park at the south end of Manhattan and headed north on the greenway. From the first step I felt really, really good. My first two miles were both 8:10 splits, and then every one after that was under 8:00…
This was one of those days where I felt like I could run forever. I got into a rhythm quickly, and just continued to feel better and better throughout. After spending so much time running in parks and residential areas this year, it was a nice change of pace to have a good urban run in my second favorite city. I’ve never run on this greenway before, but it was really nice (aside from the occasional NYC pungent smell).
I made it as far north as West 48th Street before turning around and heading back south to the financial district. The really neat thing about the return trip was getting to see the rising One World Trade Center tower for almost the entire way. Very inspiring.
I ended the run staring across the harbor at the Statue of Liberty in all her glory. In total I finished just barely under 9-miles in 70 minutes at an average pace of 7:50 per mile. I’m really excited about how good I’ve felt this week, and that is a BIG confidence boost.
Beast Mode…ON!
After our tempo workout yesterday, Nathan and I met at the start of Old Natchez Trace this morning for a scheduled 70-minute easy paced run. The temperature break we got yesterday was gone today and the humidity was through the roof with a dew point of 74º. This made it quite a bit harder to breath, especially in the early minutes of the run.
We ended up running the entire length of Old Natchez out-and-back, on what turned out to be a steady progression effort. Every mile split was faster than the previous except for one…
At the start of the route my legs felt a little heavy from the workout yesterday morning and doing P90X Legs and Back with Olivia last night. However, this faded pretty quickly and left me feeling really good. Because of this our pace kept getting faster and faster, and we finished with a 7:06 final mile.
In total we finished 8.45-miles in 70 minutes with an average pace of 8:18 per mile. Also for the month I completed 221-miles, which is my best mileage month ever by almost 9-miles. This makes 4 out of the 7 months in 2012 with at least 200-miles. Before 2012, I had only eclipsed 200 miles one time. Yeah Baby!
With this run I’ve now completed exactly 1,400-miles for the year, which is 503-miles ahead of where I was on the same date last year.
Beast Mode…ON! Baby!
P.S. – Nathan just finished 170-miles for July, which is his biggest month by approximately 35-Miles. Glad to have someone to share all those miles with me. Nice work my friend!