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Jeanne Robertson “Don’t send a man to the grocery store!” – I haven’t posted a humor related video in a while and was recently reminded of this great story from Jeanne Robertson. Very much worth a watch!
Jeanne is a nationally recognized humorist and professional speaker. In 1963, at age 18, she was named Miss North Carolina. I regularly hear her on Laugh USA on XM Radio, and she has become one of my favorites. Enjoy!
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
Since Dan and Marc were both out of town this weekend, the task of organizing the group’s Saturday run fell to me. My schedule called for 14-16 miles at an easy pace with a few miles at a slightly quicker pace in the middle of the run.
With this in mind, my plan was to start at the Percy Warner Park main gates and complete three loops in Belle Meade of 4 to 5 miles each. The temperatures and humidity were expected to be higher than the past few days (which they were) so each loop ended back at the cars to allow everyone to grab some fluids. The plan was to run the first loop fairly easy, pick-up the pace slightly for the second loop, then do the final loop fairly easy again.
We ended up with a bigger group than I was expecting, which was great. For the first loop we did a version of Ed’s famous “Zig Zag” loop in reverse, which had a total distance of just over 4.5-miles . I ran most of this loop with Kelly and Aine, and we kept the pace very chill with splits of 9:17, 8:50, 8:46, and 8:40. Everything felt very comfortable.
Loop #1 – The famous “Zig-Zag” loop (in reverse) – 4.61 Miles
The second loop was just over 5.3-miles and was a little more challenging with regard to elevation change. My goal for this section was to drop the pace down around 8:00 min per mile, and again I was joined by Kelly for most of the route. We finished the fifth mile (started during the first loop) with a time of 8:22, and then reeled off splits of 7:59, 7:54, 8:19, 8:03, and 8:00. On the 8:19 mile, we ran backwards a couple of times so the following group would know where to turn, and this slowed us down a bit. Everything still felt very good, and I could have run faster, but I didn’t want to push anything today.
Loop #2 – 5.32 Miles
Our final loop was a little more challenging than I expected when I drew it up earlier this week, but the visual interest of running through the Belle Meade Mansion and Temple properties made for a fun route. We took the pace back down a couple of notches, and I ran this one with both Bob and Kelly. Our splits were 9:02, 8:32, 8:45, 8:32, and 7:33. I got a little carried away on the last mile back on Belle Meade Boulevard. Even though I started feeling the increased heat and humidity during this section, my legs still felt fantastic, and I broke away a bit at the end. I just ran what felt comfortable, and was pretty surprised when 7:33 poped up on my watch.
Loop #3 – 5.18 Miles
Normally at the end of a run I feel a rush of endorphins after I stop. Today I felt much worse after I stopped than when I was still running. Strange, but I think it had a lot to do with the increase in heat and humidity this morning. Overall, it was a fun run with lots of good conversation, and I felt pretty great throughout. My final total was just over 15 miles completed with an average pace of 8:27 per mile.
Beast Mode…ON!
mar replied to your post: I’ll be preaching Sun PM @ Center Chapel Church of Christ in Mt Juliet on “Reverence” from Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Come join us!
Wow, are you scared? I can’t imagine what it must be like to be behind the pulpit!
Not at all….I usually end up preaching a dozen or so times a year at various congregations in the area. Something that I love to do. Starting next week I will be helping another church as a “fill-in” until their new pulpit minister starts in August.
The irony about this is that I was originally scheduled to preach for another church on Sun PM, which is also in Wilson County. That ended up getting cancelled last week, but today my good friend Andy, who is the preacher at Center Chapel, called and asked if I could be a last minute fill-in for him. Funny how things work out sometimes 🙂
Anyway, I’m excited to visit with this congregation on Sun, and plan to preach from one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 5. If you’re in the area please come and join us.
Our track group has been temporarily displaced by the Nashville Strider’s Track Series which is being held at Vanderbilt on Thursday nights in June. Fortunately, Jenny from our group is a teacher and the cross country coach at Harpeth Hall, so with her help we received permission to use their awesome track facility in the interim…
Tonight I felt really good during the workout, and I’m sure the continued mild weather conditions had a lot to do with it. The temperatures were around 80 degrees at the start with clear skies and low humidity.
Here’s the rundown…
- 2.5-mile warmup
- 6 x 100m stride outs
- 600m f (200m recovery)
- 400m f (200m recovery)
- 800m straights and curves (400m recovery)
- 2 x 400m f (1-min standing recovery / 200m recovery)
- 2 x 400m g (1-min standing recovery / 400m recovery)
- 1000m f (200m recovery)
- 1-mile cool down
Beginning with the second interval, John split us up into groups based on our pace, and I ended up running the entire workout by myself. The thing that made tonight’s workout challenging was the relatively short recoveries between intervals. However, I felt good enough that even with the short recoveries I ended up running faster splits than normal.
For example, lately I’ve been running my 400m “fresh” intervals around 84 or 85, and my 400m “good” intervals around 80 or 81. Tonight my three “fresh” 400m splits were 83, 81, and 80. My two “good” 400m splits were 76 and 77. On a side note, that second “good” 400m repeat was a mistake. The workout actually called for a “good” followed by a “fresh” on the second 2 x 400m repeat, but I misread it.
Final total for the night was 7.6-miles completed with warmup and cool down. My daughter Kate came with me to track tonight and ended spending most of her time playing on the school playground. After track we had a little impromptu daddy-daughter date night with dinner at Pei Wei and dessert at Sweet CeCe’s. Fun times!
Beast Mode…ON!
Happy “National Running Day” everybody! After several weeks of really nasty weather, the past 6 days in Middle Tennessee have been AWESOME. Much lower temperatures and humidity. I could get used to this!
Anyway, today’s schedule called for 60 minutes at an easy pace, and I decided to run in my Saucony Hattoris. Nathan and I devised a 7ish mile route beginning at the Bellevue United Methodist Church parking lot and winding through the streets of Bellevue, Edwin Warner Park, and the Harpeth River Greenway.
For this run we kept everything very chill with regard to pace. Our first mile was 9:24, followed by 5 miles between 8:55 and 8:42. For our final full mile we slowed a bit to 9:02.
Overall this was a very comfortable and enjoyable run with lots of good conversation with a dear friend. Our final total was 7.45 miles completed at an 8:58 average pace.
On another note, today my total mileage for 2012 crossed the 1,000-mile mark. This is well ahead of pace for my beginning of the year goal to complete 2,000 miles in 2012…
Just for comparison I ran a report on my total mileage as of June 6 in 2011 and came up with just over 638 miles…
That’s a difference of 367.3 miles year over year! When I look at the first half of 2011, my mileage was very inconsistent from week to week, month to month. For 2012 I haven’t had any massive mileage weeks or months, but have consistently landed between 175 and 210 miles for each month so far this year. I know that with my training for the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon in October those monthly totals are only going to go up (if I stay healthy).
Beast Mode…ON!
What do you do? Are you an attorney?
I’m actually an IT Consultant. Our consulting group is a subsidiary of a public accounting firm here in Nashville.
Today’s schedule called for 40 minutes at an easy pace with 6 x 100m stride outs at the end. I really wanted to run trails at least once this week so Nathan and I decided to hit the Blue trail in Edwin Warner park (plus the smaller Orange and Yellow to add some distance).
Our running friend Susan Johnson always says that she hears at least one woodpecker on every run. Well, today Nathan and I heard at least three while running on the trails (unless there was one that kept moving around). One of the awesome things about running trails is being enveloped in nature and getting away from the distractions on the road.
Just as we started on the flat portion of the Blue trail we came across a lady who I see quite frequently in the park. She was standing in the middle of the trail by one of the bridges, pointing at the ground. She said something to the effect of “there’s a snake right there, be careful!” Neither Nathan nor I saw anything on the trail that resembled a snake, but she kept standing there and pointing. Not exactly sure what she was looking at, but Nathan and I just kept running.
On the flat and downhill portions of the trail our average pace was between the mid 8:00s and mid 9:00s. For the steep climb(s) we fluctuated between 10:00 and 10:30 per mile. As I’ve mentioned before, the Blue trail is fairly short, but does have one significant climb right in the middle that will get your attention…
Even after the fairly hard tempo effort yesterday, and P90X Legs and Back last night, my legs felt pretty strong on the climbs and throughout the run. Before we started our stride outs, Nathan and I had completed just over 4 miles at around a 9:30 average pace per mile on the trails.
We did our 6 x 100m stride outs in the parking lot, still wearing our trail shoes. This felt a little strange with the big lugs on the bottom of my Saucony Peregrines. My pace for the strides was around 5:55. I don’t know what Nathan’s pace was for these, but he absolutely blew past me on the last few to the point where I felt like I was standing still.
Final total was 4.5-miles completed with a 9:18 average pace per mile. Great run!
Beast Mode…ON!
For the third monday in a row my schedule called for the 20 / 30 / 20 workout. This included a 20-minute warmup, 30-minutes at tempo pace, and a 20-minute cool down. The only difference from the previous two weeks was that John had me take the tempo section down just a hair from 7:15 to 7:10.
The temperatures at 6am this morning were in the mid 60s with overcast skies and fairly high humidity after early morning rains. Just like last Monday, Nathan and I met in the parking lot of the Forest Home Church on Old Natchez Trace in Franklin. We completed our 20-minute warmup on a loop through Montpier Place subdivision, with an average pace around 8:25 per mile. Even though the humidity was high, the overcast skies help a lot with the conditions.
For the tempo portion we ran 15-minutes out and back on Old Natchez Trace, Old Hillsboro Road, and Del Rio Pike. Nathan decided to run with me this week instead of running the tempo portion as a progression like last week. It always makes it easier when you are running with someone, and this morning I felt fantastic. It has been interesting how I’ve felt progressively better each week while doing this workout. Today we nailed the splits on the first three miles with a cumulative time of 7:10, 14:20, and 21:30, exactly 7:10 for each one. For the fourth one we were three seconds fast with a cumulative time of 28:37. After the final 2 1/2 minutes my watch showed 4.18 miles completed with a 7:10 average pace.
Two weeks ago my average heart rate for the tempo section was 164 at 7:15 average pace. Last week it was 160 at 7:14 average pace. Today it was 158 at 7:10 average pace. Not sure why my heart rate is getting better, but I’ll take it! On a side note, during the second mile on Del Rio, Nathan pointed out a large Owl up in one of the trees on the side of the road. We occasionally see owls in Percy and Edwin Warner Parks, but I still get a kick out of seeing these magnificent birds out in the wild. He kept a close eye on us until we were well past.
After grabbing a quick drink, we finished with a 20-minute cool down back in Montpier Place subdivision. We ended up running on some different roads this time, and they turned out to be quite hilly. Pretty close to our turnaround point, I noticed an almost neon pink Volkswagen Beetle (modern version) sitting up in front of a house. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a car quite that shade of pink, and have a hard time believing it was a factory color. I commented to Nathan that it was like the shade of the old Hubba Bubba bubble gum.
How many of you remember Hubba Bubba?
Anyway, our final total was just over 9-miles completed at 7:47-min pace with warmup and cool down. Great run with Nathan!
Beast Mode…ON!
