inthewright replied to your photo: Do you think this coffee will make me faster?…
Why is it AA? Seems to me that straight KENYA would be faster.
You would think. In case you really want to know…AA is a grade which references the size of the bean. Beans with a screen size of 17 or 18 (17/64 or 18/64 of an inch) are assigned the grade AA, generally the largest bean.
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!
Thanks so much! Never received one of these before, but here goes…
(1) My wife and I will have been married for 15-years on September 6. We met at Lipscomb University in Nashville when she was a Freshman and I was a Sophomore.
(2) I attended Michael Jordan basketball camp in Chicago between my 7th and 8th grade year. Had fun, but came away despising MJ – long story. Best part was being coached by Sean Elliot when he still played for Arizona (before entering the NBA).
(3) I used to be OBSESSED with all things Star Wars, but this was tempered drastically by the prequels which began in 1999. They were awful!
(4) My first car was a Silver 1988 Chevrolet Beretta. I got it for Christmas in 1990, 4 months after my 16th birthday. I loved that car. Flipped it end-over-end on the interstate in 1992, the day before my high school graduation.
(5) My nickname in high school was “Thyge,” which is a mashup of the last three letters of my first name (Timothy) and the middle two letters of my last name (Agee). Do not remember how it started, but even had teachers who called me by this name.
(6) I’ve been to see a LOT of concerts through the years, and by far my favorites have been…
(7) My favorite book (other than the Bible) is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Also loved the mini-series. My favorite author was Michael Crichton. Especially loved Congo, Sphere, Jurrasic Park, and Timeline.
(8) I have lived in Middle Tennessee my entire life. Have no desire to live anywhere else. Incidentally my wife is from Michigan.
(9) I have not had a soda in almost five years. Still drink LOTS of coffee.
(10) I currently own 5 Mac computers that are actively used by our family. Make my living working with Windows-based systems, but would much rather have a Mac for personal use.
Well…there it is.
Just got the following email from the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon…
Well…now I’m officially registered for 3 full marathons and 1 half marathon in a 6-week period this fall, and the last of those races just happens to be one the hardest road marathons in the country. WHAT WAS I THINKING???
I’m really hoping that Nathan also got in, but I probably won’t find out until tomorrow morning. We had an agreement that if one of us got in, and the other didn’t, that the one who didn’t get in would have to pace the one who did through the second half of the race.
Bring It Baby…Beast Mode…ON!
runslikeapenguin replied to your post: RunningAhead.com @arestlessmind @running-uphills
RunningAhead can import from Nike+?? Hmm… maybe I’ll look into the Nike GPS Sportwatches then… was strictly considering Garmins just so I could upload the data to RA 🙂
I honestly thought that was the case, but now I can’t find any information on importing from Nike+ … Maybe I was dreaming.
arestlessmind replied to your post: 1500 Miles and Counting for 2012…
Where are your graphs from? So pretty! And great job on the miles!
running-uphills replied to your post: 1500 Miles and Counting for 2012…
Congratulations! What program are you using in the screen shots?
I track all of my run data on RunningAhead.com – It will integrate with most GPS devices, and is WAY better than Garmin Connect (and anything else I’ve tried out there for that matter). I was introduced to it about 2 years ago by John from our group (now my coach). It is a free site, and I highly recommend checking it out if you’ve never seen it. Here are some of the things I really like about the site:
We have about 10 members of our running group that use the site, and it is pretty cool that we can all keep up with each other.
I just realized that with my 10.3-mile run this morning I have now completed over 1,500-miles for 2012…
On the same date last year, I had only completed 995-miles…
This is a difference of almost 514 total miles, and I’m creeping up on my overall totals for 2010 and 2011!
Beast Mode…ON!
Megan Shifrin’s Day: Save Life, Finish Half Marathon
This is a short but awesome story about a runner (Megan Shifrin…pictured above) who stopped in the middle of the 2010 Country Music Half Marathon to save someone’s life. A worthwhile read for every runner.
We actually live fairly close to Megan and her husband David, but did not know them until a happenstance meeting on a train headed to the airport after the 2011 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Very cool.
inthewright replied to your post: Quest for Boston – The Humidity Strikes Back
I hit 188 on the ol’ heart-o-meter towards the end of that last interval. I felt okay but was about to enter no man’s land. 🙂
I like the phrase “heart-o-meter” – If I had tried to push into 6:35 pace on the last interval like you did I might have just collapsed. Good work my friend!
You may or may not know that I’m obsessed with the color red, especially when it comes to running clothes and shoes. Well, with that in mind…
Kate’s school has required uniforms, which are a combination of purple, black, yellow, and white. Last year Kate wore grey Nike Frees, which complimented her uniform very well. Last week Olivia took Kate to buy some new shoes for school, and sometime during the afternoon I got the following text from Olivia…
Even though they clash horribly with her uniform, I thought they were great…
Well, today when I saw Kate after she had dressed for school…
I thought her shoes were awesome, and was immediately reminded of one of our family’s favorite children’s books featuring Pete the Cat…
And today Kate was DEFINITELY Rocking in Her School Shoes!! Wear ‘em proudly honey!
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!
Great post from my friend Paul Hunter on the blessing of being able to run. Recommended for all runners.
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!
Neil Young and Bruce Springstein sing “Whip My Hair” – If you’ve never seen this it is a MUST WATCH! Also, if you’re not familiar with the original by Willow Smith you can catch it by going here.
You can see more Neil and Bruce goodness in this video – Also another MUST WATCH!
P.S. Jimmy Fallon is one seriously talented dude.
What an impressive surge as he crossed the 23-mile marker! I didn’t think he would be able to challenge Kipsang or Kirui from Kenya in the last few miles, but he left them in the dust. Very well run race in hot and humid conditions.
On another note, I’m extremely proud of Meb Keflezighi on his fourth-place finish for the U.S. I didn’t think he had any shot of finishing in the top five, or even the top 10 for that matter. His move from 14th to 4th over the last five miles was awesome. Way to go Meb!
Finally, while I didn’t think the U.S. had any chance to medal, I never imagined both Ryan and Adbi would drop out of this race. With Meb at the end of his career, and Ryan continuing to under-achieve, it looks like the future of U.S. men’s marathoning is very much in disarray. Maybe we can hope that Galen Rupp will eventually decide to move up to the marathon. Would be fun to see what he can do at that distance.
The Equation of Life (Ecclesiastes 9:11-12) – Audio recording of my Wednesday evening sermon at Kingwood Church of Christ in Murfreesboro, TN on July 18, 2007.
Life doesn’t fit into an equation, and is full of injustices and things that just don’t seem to make sense. This study looks at ways in which we can be ready to deal with the unexpected and unfair things that are a part of life under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 (ESV)
11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
As I’m watching the Men’s Olympic Marathon go through loop after loop this morning I keep thinking about this movie…“Hey kids, look, Big Ben, Parliament.”
