I’m just now catching up on my DVR, and was blown away by the finish. So cool that they are training partners and both coached by Alberto Salazar. What a race!
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!
seechrisrun replied to your post: Just put my name in the lottery for the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon on November 18th
Wow. Might be hard to run back-to-back, but at least you don’t have to worry about time on the Monkey. Probably will be quite liberating.
I’m actually thinking (or hoping) that getting into this race is going to be a long shot. Otherwise it will be a crazy October and November with 3 marathons and 1 half marathon in a 6-week stretch. If I do get in, I’ll be pleased with anything under 4 hours. I’ve run at least 22-miles of the course in a training run before, and it is brutal.
If selected, it will mean I’m registered for two marathons on two successive weekends for the first time (Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon is the Saturday before). Also the Flying Monkey is one of the hardest marathons (non-trail) in the United States, and is located within our very own Percy Warner Park.
I have no idea what I’m thinking, but this has been on my bucket list for quite a while now. Hoping that Nathan will also decide to sign-up and be crazy with me (he’s also registered for Chickamauga). Last year the race sold out in 4-minutes, thus the lottery this year, so there’s always hope that I won’t be selected 🙂
The following is a description of the race from the event website:
A Tough Little Run in the Park
Ours has become an age of flat and fast marathons on city streets and in urban jungles, with more focus on times, course certification, gadgets, charities and putting on a big show than on running. Many modern marathons have become spectacles rather than athletic events. But it was not always this way. Marathons used to be about running for the sake of running. They were about pushing oneself beyond the physiologic limits of the human body. While running.
The Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon is meant to be an antidote. Featured in Marathon & Beyond and in Runners’ World magazines, it is a marathon that is about running. Running hard. Running over big and memorable and painful rolling hills through dense woods. Running with other like-minded athletes. The Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon is about the joy and pain of running a unique, and uniquely challenging—some would say beastly—26.2 mile course in the beautiful and historic Percy Warner Park, nestled among the Middle Tennessee Harpeth Hills.
We will time and measure the distance, but the course will not be certified and it will not be a Boston qualifying event. If you get to the end and you (or your gadget) believe the route to be long, we won’t charge you extra; if you believe it to be short, just keep running. There will be no bands, cheerleaders, wave starts or crowds. We promise no marathon Personal Records, but we guarantee every runner a PR – a Permanent Remembrance of a well-earned marathon finish. We promise to give you approximately 26.2 tough and memorable miles, with a total of over 3600 feet each of elevation gain and loss, or over 7200 feet of overall elevation change.
Sure, there are other road marathons out there claiming to be America’s toughest. But they are no Monkey. Come out and join us in Nashville. We look forward to seeing you.
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!
runslikeapenguin replied to your photo: New running kicks # 2 – The @Saucony Kinvara 3….
Are these your first 3’s? Let me know how they compare!
They are my first, and I will definitely write a review once I’ve logged some miles. I probably won’t add them to my rotation for a couple of weeks.
Updated – My Current Running Gear
Updated with new “minimalist” shoes and new sunglasses.
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 can’t wait for the track&field to start. Sorry, but I hope Mo Farah smashes it!
I’d be worried about you if you weren’t pulling for Mo 🙂
As a follow-up to my post on Tuesday with the schedule for the middle and long distance runs at the 2012 Olympics, the following is the schedule for the short distance runs and hurdles. All events should be available via live stream on NBCOlympics.com.
London Time (CDT)
Friday, August 3
- 10:40 AM (4:40 AM) – Women’s 100 Meters Preliminary Round
- 11:15 AM (5:15 AM) – Men’s 400 Meters Hurdles Heats
- 12:00 PM (6:00 AM) – Women’s 400 Meters Heats
- 7:05 PM (1:05 PM) – Women’s 100 Meters Heats
Saturday, August 4
- 10:00 AM (4:00 AM) – Men’s 100 Meters Preliminary Round
- 10:35 AM (4:35 AM) – Men’s 400 Meters Heats
- 12:30 PM (6:30 AM) – Men’s 100 Meters Heats
- 7:00 PM (1:00 PM) – Men’s 400 Meters Hurdles Semifinal
- 7:35 PM (1:35 PM) – Women’s 100 Meters Semifinal
- 8:05 PM (2:05 PM) – Women’s 400 Meters Semifinal
- 9:55 PM (3:55 PM) – Women’s 100 Meters Final
Sunday, August 5
- 7:00 PM (1:00 PM) – Women’s 400 Meters Hurdles Heats
- 7:45 PM (1:45 PM) – Men’s 100 Meters Semifinal
- 8:40 PM (2:40 PM) – Men’s 400 Meters Semifinal
- 9:10 PM (3:10 PM) – Women’s 400 Meters Final
- 9:50 PM (3:50 PM) – Men’s 100 Meters Final
Monday, August 6
- 10:05 AM (4:00 AM) – Women’s 100 Meters Hurdles Heats
- 7:20 PM (1:20 PM) – Women’s 200 Meters Heats
- 8:15 PM (2:15 PM) – Women’s 400 Meters Hurdles Semifinal
- 8:45 PM (2:45 PM) – Men’s 400 Meters Hurdles Final
- 9:30 PM (3:30 PM) – Men’s 400 Meters Final
Tuesday, August 7
- 10:10 AM (4:10 AM) – Men’s 110 Meters Hurdles Heats
- 11:50 AM (5:50 AM) – Men’s 200 Meters Heats
- 7:15 PM (1:15 PM) – Women’s 100 Meters Hurdles Semifinal
- 8:25 PM (2:25 PM) – Women’s 200 Meters Semifinal
- 9:00 PM (3:00 PM) – Women’s 100 Meters Hurdles Final
Wednesday, August 8
- 7:15 PM (1:15 PM) – Men’s 110 Meters Hurdles Semifinal
- 8:10 PM (2:10 PM) – Men’s 200 Meters Semifinal
- 8:45 PM (2:45 PM) – Women’s 400 Meters Hurdles Final
- 9:00 PM (3:00 PM) – Women’s 200 Meters Final
- 9:15 PM (3:15 PM) – Men’s 110 Meters Hurdles Final
Thursday, August 9
- 11:35 AM (5:35 AM) – Men’s 4×400 Meters Relay Heats
- 8:20 PM (2:20 PM) – Women’s 4×100 Meters Relay Heats
- 8:55 PM (2:55 PM) – Men’s 200 Meters Final
Friday, August 10
- 7:10 PM (1:10 PM) – Women’s 4×400 Meters Relay Heats
- 7:45 PM (1:45 PM) – Men’s 4×100 Meters Relay Heats
- 8:40 PM (2:40 PM) – Women’s 4×100 Meters Relay Final
- 9:20 PM (3:20 PM) – Men’s 4×400 Meters Relay Final
Saturday, August 11
- 8:25 PM (2:25 PM) – Women’s 4×400 Meters Relay Final
- 9:00 PM (3:00 PM) – Men’s 4×100 Meters Relay Final
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!
I’m totally getting geeked up for the 2012 Olympic Track and Field events on Friday. Here’s the schedule for the middle and long distance runs. All events should be available via live stream on NBCOlympics.com.
London Time (CDT)
Friday, August 3
- 1:00 PM (7:00 AM) — Men’s 3,000m Steeplechase, First Round
- 8:05 PM (2:05 PM) — Men’s 1,500m, First Round
- 9:25 PM (3:25 PM) — Women’s 10,000m, Final
Saturday, August 4
- 11:35 AM (5:35 AM) — Women’s 3,000m Steeplechase, First Round
- 5:00 PM (11:00 AM) — Men’s 20K Race Walk, Final
- 9:15 PM (3:15 PM) — Men’s 10,000m, Final
Sunday, August 5
- 11:00 AM (5:00 AM) — Women’s Marathon, Final
- 8:15 PM (2:15 PM) — Men’s 1,500m, Semifinal
- 9:25 PM (3:25 PM) — Men’s 3,000m Steeplechase, Final
Monday, August 6
- 10:50 AM (4:50 AM) — Men’s 800m, First Round
- 11:45 AM (5:45 AM) — Women’s 1,500m, First Round
- 9:05 PM (3:05 PM) — Women’s 3,000m Steeplechase, Final
Tuesday, August 7
- 10:55 AM (4:55 AM) — Women’s 5,000m, First Round
- 7:55 PM (1:55 PM) — Men’s 800m, Semifinal
- 9:15 PM (3:15 PM) — Men’s 1,500m, Final
Wednesday, August 8
- 10:45 AM (4:45 AM) — Men’s 5,000m, First Round
- 11:35 AM (5:35 AM) — Women’s 800m, First Round
- 7:45 PM (1:45 PM) — Women’s 1,500m, Semifinal
Thursday, August 9
- 7:30 PM (1:30 PM) — Women’s 800m, Semifinal
- 8:00 PM (2:00 PM) — Men’s 800m, Final
Friday, August 10
- 8:05 PM (2:05 PM) — Women’s 5,000m, FInal
- 8:55 PM (2:55 PM) — Women’s 1,500m, Final
Saturday, August 11
- 9:00 AM (3:00 AM) — Men’s 50K Race Walk, Final
- 5:00 PM (11:00 AM) — Women’s 20K Race Walk, Final
- 7:30 PM (1:30 PM) — Men’s 5,000m, Final
- 8:00 PM (3:00 PM) — Women’s 800m, Final
Sunday, August 12
- 11:00 AM (5:00 AM) — Men’s Marathon, Final
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!
♫ I’m BAAAAAAAAACK! I’m Back in the Saddle Again! ♫
When I got today’s tempo workout from John last night, I knew he was setting me up for success, and figured I would feel better than I did during my tempo workout last Monday. However, I had no idea I would feel FANTASTIC! Last week was tough with an abysmal workout on Monday and a crash and burn during my long run on Saturday. All of that left me feeling a bit nervous for the effort this morning.
Here’s what was on the schedule…
- 30-minutes easy pace
- 6 x 4 min at 6:50 to 7:00 pace with 90 second active recovery
- 30-minutes easy pace
In addition to this being a shorter and slower workout than last week, we also got a little break in the temperatures this morning. All of this added up to getting a little bit of my confidence back.
Nathan and I again met at the Edwin Warner Park Nature Center, and completed our first 30 minutes at a very chill 8:46 pace. We started the tempo repeats on the Harpeth River Greenway, and I felt like myself again. With every interval the biggest thing I had to fight was going too fast. Honestly, this was a battle that I lost on all but two of the six repeats (just barely). My legs and energy felt great from the first interval to the last. Also, since this is my schedule and not Nathan’s, he is not restricted to running my pace, and frequently put a little distance on me during the repeats. As I’ve said before, he is running stronger right now than I’ve ever seen him run.
Once we finished the intervals, my legs still had a bit of jump in them, and it was hard to get geared down during the final 30 minutes. Because of that we ended up with a 7:50 pace for the last segment, but this felt extremely comfortable.
In total we ran just over 93 minutes and completed 11.83-miles at an average pace of 7:54 per mile. Glad to be back in saddle again!
Beast Mode…ON!
I know this has been blowing up on the net and Twitter since the Detroit Free Press claimed to have received an email from her coach, Kevin Hanson, saying that Desiree Davila had withdrawn due to her lingering hip injury…
Shortly after that story broke, Desi went to Twitter with this…
Not sure exactly what is going on, but the Free Press has now retracted the story….
Cool to see her getting support from her U.S. teammates…
Also, the Free Press is getting a lot of heat for running the story…
Regardless of what happened, I really hope Desi gets to race. She is absolutely my favorite runner in the 2012 Olympic Games. Go Desi!!
Update: Joe Battaglia with NBC just posted an article, which provides further clarification. Looks like Desi and Kevin are on a different page.
Update #2: Looks more and more like the email did indeed go out from Kevin to the Detroit Free Press, but obviously Desi was not OK with it…
Update #3: More confirmation that Desi has not withdrawn from the Marathon. This tweet from her Olympic roommate and college teammate Amy Hastings…
Update #4: The following has been posted on the Hansons Brooks Original Distance Project Facebook Page…
Sorry for the misunderstanding earlier. Desi was frustrated with the fact that she is a long way from 100% both fitness wise and health. She had decided that it was probably best to pull out of the Marathon. After discussing her options with the Olympic coaches and medical staff, they convinced her that she deserves the entire experience and that means giving herself every chance to make it to the starting line.
One of the most intriguing things about the 2012 Olympic Marathon in London is the course, which is routed to include many iconic London sights. It is comprised of four loops. The first one is 2.2-miles and is where the race begins. Loops 2, 3, and 4 are basically a large, twisted, 8-mile figure eight (same loop repeated three times).
Check out some of the stats about the course:
- The course contains 111 turns
- The longest straightaway is 1/2-mile
- There are three sections of the larger loop which contain a non-paved running surface made out of either cobblestone or marble.
All of this makes me wonder if anyone will be able to go super-low with the turns and varied surfaces. However, no one thought it would be possible to go low in 2008 at Beijing due to the hot and humid conditions, but Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya set an Olympic record with a time of 2:06:32. Should be fun to watch!
London 2012 Olympic Marathon: Paula Radcliffe Ruled Out
This is crazy….in the last two days I’ve read that Desiree Davila and Meb Keflezighi are both dealing with significant injuries and might have to pull out of the Olympic Marathon for the U.S. team. Now I just found out that women’s world record holder Paula Radcliffe will not be able to compete due to a recent flare-up of a long-time foot condition.
I feel bad for Paula. She has won just about everything there is to win in marathoning, but has never won an Olympic medal. Since she is 38-years-old, this effectively means that her chances to finally stand on the podium in the Olympics are over.
Friday:
After a super-hot track workout last night, it was nice to just have a very chill-paced run through the streets of Bellevue with Nathan and Josh. The schedule called for 40-minutes at easy pace with 6 x 100m stride outs.
We met at the Bellevue United Methodist Church parking lot, and I ran in my Saucony Hattoris. After about 30-minutes we took a little detour down a just completed new section of the Harpeth River Greenway. We didn’t have much time to explore, but it was exciting to see this new running space.
At the end we did our strides in the parking lot, and other than one stride out, Nathan and Josh blew past me every time. Even with this I still felt good throughout the run and the strides. In total we finished just under 5.2-miles with an average pace of 8:59 per mile.
Saturday:
Today’s schedule called for a 16-mile long run at easy pace. Our group had a marathon interval workout planned, but John wanted me to stick to the easy run since I had struggled some this week. However, I did run in the same location as the group so that we would occasionally cross paths.
Well, today’s effort can easily be summed up in three parts:
- Felt relatively great during the first 12 miles, maintaining a smooth 8:30ish pace.
- Felt awful for miles 13 and 14, and dropped to a 9:00ish pace.
- Walked most of the final 1.5 miles back to my car
The thing about the late run fail today is that it was predominately self-inflicted. It is true that the conditions were nasty, as they have been recently, with high temps, high humidity, and full sun throughout. However, I did absolutely nothing else to help myself finish the run strong. This includes:
- Getting less than 5 hours of sleep last night (out late at the Sounds game)
- Not eating anything before the run, and only drinking about 12 oz of Gatorade.
- Not drinking enough fluid during the run, only stopping at miles 3 and 12.
- Not taking a gel during the run, and only having sports drink at the end of mile 3.
Looking back on this, I have no idea what I was thinking. The lack of sleep was mostly unavoidable, but everything else should have been a no-brainer with today’s schedule and conditions. I really hate carrying fluid, and I just thought I would be able to route my run in such a way as to make use of the water fountains throughout Edwin Warner Park. However, even if I had made that happen, it still doesn’t explain why I didn’t at least carry a gel with me.
Anyway, I started out from the Edwin Warner Nature Center, about 20-minutes ahead of when the group was starting, and ran a 3-mile loop on the Harpeth River Greenway back to the Nature Center. The group was just starting their warmup when I got back, but I stopped and got some Gatorade anyway, before heading back onto the greenway. I caught up with them at their staging area, and ran part of their first interval with them, but at an easy pace. When they turned to head back to the staging area I kept going to the end of the greenway and out onto Harpeth Bend Road.
During our run on Friday, Nathan, Josh and I had noticed the city had completed a new section of the Harpeth River Greenway with an entrance on Harpeth Bend Road. We were not able to run the full distance of it on Friday, so I thought this would be a good opportunity today to see how far it went. The only problem was there was no access to fluid throughout this area.
On a side note, the Harpeth River Greenway is now completed in three different sections, but none of them are connected. The first starts near the Edwin Warner Nature Center, and is approximately 2-miles long. This new section is about a mile down Harpeth Bend Road past the end of the first section, and is approximately 1.25-miles long. The final section is on the other side of Old Harding Road, about 1-mile from the end of the second section, and is approximately 1-mile long. It will be really nice once all of these are connected into one continuous greenway.
Anyway, because of my little detour to explore the new section of greenway, I was not able to get back to water until I had completed almost 12.5-miles. As mentioned above I had felt relatively good throughout the first 12-miles, but then all-of-a-sudden I just hit a wall. I stopped at a water spicket in one of the picnic areas of Edwin Warner, and stuck my head completely under it with the water turned on. After this point every step felt like the “survivor shuffle” that is frequently employed at the end of a marathon.
My pace didn’t drop off too drastically, but I felt awful. I saw some of the folks from our group as I was in the middle of mile-14, and by this point I was starting to feel nauseated. Once I completed 14-miles I stopped for a minute and took inventory. On Thursday night, in response to my poor workout on Monday, John had talked to me about listening to my body and knowing when it was time to just shut things down. Well, I really felt like this was one of those times because of how bad I felt.
I walked up a hill for about a 1/4-mile and then attempted an easy run again once I was going downhill. This lasted just over 3/10-mile before I gave it up for good and walked the rest of the way back to my car. When I got back I was pretty dejected, but this quickly turned into anger at myself. I know that my problems today are NOT due to over-training or significant fatigue, but are simply because I was NOT SMART! I’ve got to take this as a learning experience and then move on.
In total I finished just over 14.3-miles with an average pace of 8:40 per mile. Also, for the week I completed just under 55-miles, which makes three consecutive weeks with 50+ training miles. My monthly total for July is just over 201 miles with two training days remaining.
Beast Mode….Sputtering, Sputtering, Sputtering, ON!
Yesterday, Competitor.com posted an article on their blog titled The Most Expensive Running Gear, which contained five items that are quite pricey. One particular item stood out to me and is pictured below…
Oakley Elite C Six Sunglasses, $4,000
I was immediately curious when I saw these sunglasses….How could they possibly be $4,000? Are they made out of platinum? Do they contain some type of sophisticated electronics? Do they have a GPS built in? However, what I found on Oakley’s website is that it simply has to do with the complexity of their construction. They are made from 40-layers of pure carbon fiber, which is supposedly stronger than high tinsel steel. While this sounds cool, it certainly doesn’t sound like anything that would make someone be willing to pay $4,000 for a pair of sunglasses.
I first saw this when I was at lunch with a few guys from the office. One of them asked the question….Is there anything that a pair of sunglasses could do that would compel You to pay $4,000 for them? I had a hard time coming up with an answer, other than things which are ludicrous like “running lots faster” or “preventing injury.”
How about you….Is there anything that a pair of sunglasses could do that would compel You to pay $4,000 for them?
That’s a great looking shoe! Is it cheaper than the Kinvara? What colors will be available? I guess I could just Google it. 🙂
MSRP will be $90 » Colors for Men include:
- Black/Red/Citron
- Citron/Blue
- Grey/Orange
- White/Black/Red