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!

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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. 

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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!

Great video from @missionlazarus and my friend @sethdaggett on the making of their San Lazaro Estate Coffee. This really is fantastic coffee, and it helps support the amazing work being doing in Southern Honduras by Mission Lazarus.

missionlazarus:

Do you drink coffee? Are you drinking coffee right now? Check out this new video on the coffee process–from start to finish.

***

Music by the fine folks of Seryn – Make sure you check them out at serynsound.com

Learn more or try some of our coffee for yourself – sanlazaroestatecoffee.com

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?

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PREDS WIN! In honor of the Nashville Predators 3-1 win over the Wings, and their first ever 3-1 playoff series lead, here is a video clip of the game winning goal. I love how Marty Erat takes three Red Wings’ players with him, along with Howard the goalie, and then makes the perfect pass to Klein who buries it in the open net. Go Preds!

Now let’s finish off the Wings on Friday Night!

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!

I can’t wait until I have children and I can read HP with them.

Having kids is full of awesome experiences!

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!

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Save the Date: The Murfreesboro “Middle” Half Marathon