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WOW. She looks amazing!!

She looks like she is flying!

I wish my form looked SOMETHING like that!

The ING New York City Marathon – Tomorrow I should find out whether or not I was selected in the lottery for the 2012 ING New York City Marathon. Since I’ve NOT been selected the last two years, I’m not really expecting anything different tomorrow. However, if my streak continues then I’m eligible for automatic qualification in 2013 because of the three-strikes policy. They are ending this method of automatic entry in 2014, so I’m glad to be squeezing in just under the wire.

Skechers Sets New Pace on Sponsors (WSJ)

Even though this is a lighter week leading up to the Country Music Marathon, today’s schedule called for a 6-mile tempo run which included a 1-mile warmup, 4-miles at half marathon pace, and 1-mile cool down. Coming into this morning my legs were fairly tired because of a 2.5-mile run with Kate late yesterday afternoon for the ING Kids Rock Marathon followed by P90X Legs & Back with Olivia last night.

The temps this morning remained cool and quite comfortable with a little bit of cloud cover. Nathan and I met at the Edwin Warner Nature Center and ran our 1-mile warmup on the Harpeth River Greenway. We continued down the greenway for the tempo portion and on into Bellevue. As I’ve said before, my target pace for the 500 Festival Mini Marathon (a week from Saturday) is 6:42. With this in mind I wanted to average around this pace and since my legs were already tired I tried to think about this like the last 4-miles of the race. Nathan took a little bit of a head start since he wanted to run at a slightly slower pace, however he ran really strong and there was no way I could catch him.

Most of the first two miles were relatively flat and the splits were 6:37 and 6:38. Even though my pace was good I didn’t feel that great. Not bad, just not as comfortable as I would like. Miles three and four were mostly in Bellevue and contained a few hills. This caused me to slow a bit for mile three with a 6:40, but I was able to finish out with a 6:35. Still felt ok, but not fantastic.

On the bright side I was able to hold pace even though I had tired legs and was never fully comfortable during the tempo portion. Nathan and I joined back up for the 1-mile cool down which felt great after the hard effort.

Today was also the first time in a while I’ve run with a heart rate monitor. My coach John had asked me to train with one for a while so he could monitor my heart rate during different types of runs. Not sure what he will think about this one, but my heart rate was actually lower than I was expecting during the tempo sections.

Tomorrow is a day off, which is gonna feel strange, but I know my body needs it to get ready for Saturday.

Beast Mode….ON!

500 Festival Mini Marathon Long-Sleeve Shirt – As great a race as this is (and it is fantastic), they’ve had really, really pathetic t-shirts over the last three years:

• Three years ago the shirt was cotton, but almost the entire thing was screen printed, and was about as soft as a cardboard box. 

• Two years ago they switched to a technical material, but again it was covered in screen print, and it had the texture of a burlap sack. Might be good as an exfoliator, but not for running. 

• Last year they had a softer technical material, but again it had a solid screen-print on the front that was bigger than my head, which ended up making the shirt stiff and uncomfortable.

From the picture above, it looks like they’ve finally come up with a more minimal design that is striking. Have no idea about the material, but this looks like a big improvement for 2012.

Well, it is finally Country Music Marathon race week and honestly this feels much different than any other marathon race week so far. Normally I’m in the final part of my taper (bouncing off the walls) and very nervous about my strategy or an ambitious time goal. For this race the “goal” is to actually run my slowest marathon so far. As the 4-hour pacer I’m supposed to finish the race between 3:59:00 and 3:59:59. This would be my slowest finish time by 6 minutes (3:53 in my first marathon – Chicago 2009) and slower than my last marathon (3:12 – NOLA 2012) by 47 minutes.

All of this leads me to a bit of uncertainty about what Saturday will be like. Part of me thinks this will be like a long, slow, training run and that maybe I’ll be able to enjoy a marathon for a change. Another part of me wonders how well I’m going to deal with being on my feet for almost 4-hours in the aerobic heart-rate zone when I have never done a run this long before (by time). Whatever the case, it is guaranteed to be a new experience all the way around, and I’m looking forward to it.

While this week will not be a complete taper, my total mileage M-F has been slightly reduced the past two weeks. For this week I’ll actually be taking Wednesday off in addition to my normal Sunday rest day. Today’s schedule called for 4-miles easy with 4 x 100m stride outs at the end. This morning was cool and windy with temps around 40 degrees. I wish that the cooler temps would hang around for a while, but weather predictions are for temps in the 80s on Saturday (Yuck).

Since I will not be running on Wednesday, I decided to do today’s run in my Saucony Hattoris. This was a solo run through Bellevue, and I really just made up the route as I went along. I didn’t really feel comfortable during the first two miles, so my pace lagged around 8:45. At the beginning of the third mile my legs finally started to feel good and my pace dropped to just under 8:00 for the final two. I finished up with stride outs in the Bellevue Church of Christ parking lot which felt a bit strange due to the strong winds. One direction I was getting a good push and the other direction was like running with a parachute behind me.

Overall, it was a good easy-paced run that I hope will get me ready for a harder effort tomorrow.

Beast Mode…ON!

The Country Music Marathon weather forecast looks NASTY! Hoping this changes before Saturday.

You’re gonna be a great pacer man!

Thanks Brother! I’m really looking forward to it…and a bit nervous 🙂

Our group run today was a preview of the first 8.5-miles of the Country Music Marathon (CMM) course. The plan was to meet at Dan’s house and run 1.5-miles to Centennial Park where the official start line is located. My schedule called for 12 to 14 miles today, so Nathan and I met a bit early to run some easy warmup miles on Belmont before joining the group at 6:30.

Our warmup plus the 1.5-miles to Centennial Park ended up being around 4-miles at a very easy 9:00ish pace. Once we reached the park, Dan asked me if I would run with him from that point forward at his planned race pace (8:00). Most of the rest of the group wanted to run a bit easier, so I was happy to join him. The two of us along with Nathan ran the rest of the way together and averaged around 7:45 splits while we were on the CMM course.

This was a highly enjoyable run, with great conversation, in absolutely perfect weather conditions. When Nathan and I were warming up it was cool and raining pretty steady. By the time we reached the park the rain had stopped and the temps were fantastic. I wish that we could save today’s weather for next weekend. The 7:45 pace was comfortable throughout, and I was quite pleased at how good my legs felt. It was another one of those mornings where I felt like I could have run for a long time. Once we got back to Dan’s house I was right at 12.5-miles, so the three of us did a 1.5-mile cool down on Belmont before heading out to Fido for a delightful breakfast with the group.

I was glad to get one last preview of the course before leading the 4-hour pace group next week. Even though I’ve run most of the first half many times before, there is now a section on Granny White Pike that is new to me. This part is gonna be tough for those that are pushing their pace. It has 4 or 5 pretty good hills before getting back to Wedgewood and Music Row. Overall, the changes they made to the route last year have increased the difficulty of an already challenging course. I hope that I’m able to help some runners with a sub 4-hour (or 2-hour) goal to make it through these tough spots and stay on pace to the end.

Beast Mode…ON!

Very interesting video that highlights the running of Scott Jurek and includes segments with the late Caballo Blanco (Micah True) and Christoper McDougall (Born to Run). Fascinating presentation of how his interaction with the Tarahumara changed his view of running and what it means to him. 

Today’s schedule was for an easy 4-miles with 6 x 100m stride outs at the end. I met Nathan at Bellevue Church of Christ after he had already completed 3 miles. As usual for Friday I ran in my Saucony Hattoris. This was by far my easiest-paced run of the week with miles one and two in the 9:40s and miles 3 and 4 in the 9:10s. I think the reason for the slow pace was two-fold:

1. It had only been a little over 12 hours since my 8.4-mile track workout last night, so I was still a bit fatigued.
2. I kinda got lost in conversation with Nathan and never really thought about pace or how I was feeling…I just went out for a run. Nathan was probably thinking “why are we going to slow?” but he never said anything.

At the finish of the 4-mile loop through Bellevue, we did our stride outs in the church  parking lot, and ran them pretty hard (5:40ish pace). Running fast in my Hattoris actually feels really, really good. I love getting up on my toes and just letting it fly.

Beast Mode….ON!

Saucony Kinvara 3 Review “Three is a magic number” (@Bintherun believeintherun.com)

It was a warm day in Music City and a warm evening at track tonight with the JSRC. Our group was a bit smaller than usual since we had 11 people participating in either the Southern Indiana Classic or Boston Marathons last weekend. However, we were joined for the first time by my friends Mark and Josh from our church, and it was good to have them with us.

After a 3-mile warmup, including 6 x 100m stride outs, our workout consisted of 3 sets of 1000m (300m Recovery), 400m (400m Recovery). For the first set my legs felt very rubbery, especially during the 400m interval. I told Paxton this must have been due to the hard tempo effort on Tuesday morning. However, I felt much better during the second set, and fantastic during the final set. After the workout John said that this was good, but maybe in the future I should think about pushing the pace a little bit more or running an extra set since I felt so fresh at the end.

We finished up with a nice, easy cool down jog around Vanderbilt, which marked 8.4-miles completed for the evening. After track most of us headed out to the Dog of Nashville for a fun dinner. Great evening!

Beast Mode….ON!

Game Changers: Desiree Davila (ESPN) – Awesome video and article by Bonnie Ford of ESPN on American Olympic Marathon Qualifier Desiree Davila. Definitely worth a watch and a read. While I have serious doubts about the ability of our men’s team to compete for a medal in London, our Women’s team is gonna be tough. I’m especially pulling for Desi. Go U.S.A.!

After a hard effort yesterday, it was nice to get in some easy recovery miles in my Hattoris through Bellevue on a pleasant and sunny morning. The schedule was 4-miles easy followed by 6 x 100m stride outs. 

I finished the first mile in around 9 min, before I settled into an 8:15ish pace for the remaining 3. At first my legs were really sore from P90X on Monday and the tempo run yesterday, but this quickly faded. My legs are definitely tired, but they still felt pretty good throughout the run, even during the 6 x 100m stride outs at the end which were at 6:18 pace.

I’ve got tomorrow morning off in prep for the track workout with the JSRC tomorrow night. It will be nice to sleep in a bit 🙂

Beast Mode….ON!

The Salomon S-Lab Sense is a new light-weight trail racing shoe that is set to launch in May. It was developed specifically for ultra running superstar Killian Jornet, and was worn during his major wins in 2011 including the Western States 100. Even though I’m a Saucony guy (and much more of a road guy than a trail guy), this shoe is extremely intriguing to me for a few reasons:

• It is a 6.5-ounce trail shoe, but it looks much, much more substantial than any other sub 7-ounce trail shoe I’ve ever seen before. For example, it weights less than the Merrell Trail Glove which basically looks like a slipper compared to the Sense.
• The reviews are almost universally glowing (Example1, Example2), and make it seem like this is some type of alien technology super-shoe.
• The MSRP is $200!!!! I don’t care how good it is, are people other than elite racers actually going to drop $200 for a trail shoe?

Anybody else out there intrigued by the Salomon S-Lab Sense?

The mini is my favorite race!

I LOVE the Mini….This will be my fourth year in a row to run it. It is by far the most well organized big race I’ve ever participated in, and the only race that I’ve run each of the past four years.

I just love your pace!

Thanks so much! Working really hard to try and get to Boston 🙂

Also….Mega kudos on a sub 4-hour time in your first marathon!! That was exactly what my goal was for my first in Chicago back in 2009. This is an accomplishment you should be really proud of…Congratulations!

With a 6-mile run yesterday afternoon and P90X: Legs and Back last night, my legs were fairly tired before we ever got started this morning. The schedule called for 8-miles including a 2-mile warmup, 5-miles at goal half marathon pace, and a 1-mile cool down. For this run I met Paxton and Nathan at the Edwin Warner Park Nature Center, and we ran along the Harpeth River Greenway.

After a leisurely 2-mile warmup we started the tempo portion together. Since they were targeting a different pace from me, I decided to break up the tempo section into 2 x 2.5-mile out and backs on the Greenway. This way we would stay close to each other and be able to run the cool-down together. My goal pace for the upcoming 500 Festival Mini Marathon in Indianapolis is 6:42, so this was the target I had in mind for the tempo section. Since my legs were fairly tired I tried to think of this like running the last 5-miles of a race.

At the start, my left shoe came untied about halfway through the first mile which forced me to stop and then restart. This disrupted my rhythm slightly and led to a 6:51 first mile. My second mile felt very good and I completed it in 6:37. Paxton ran mile three with me, and we were way too fast at 6:31. I ended up paying for this during mile four which was 6:43, but is still close to my goal pace. I had regained my wind for the last mile which I finished in 6:37. Once we were all back together we ran a cool down mile back to the cars.

Overall the tempo section felt pretty smooth. I could definitely feel the fatigue in my legs, but my heart and breathing were not a real issue, except for the mile that I ran too fast. Even with that mistake, I’m still very pleased with the run. Tomorrow will be a recovery day with 4-miles scheduled followed by 6 x 100m stride outs.

Beast Mode…ON!

Save the Date: The Murfreesboro “Middle” Half Marathon