Country Music ING Kids Rock Marathon

Tonight Kate and I started logging miles for what will be her 6th kid’s marathon. The idea is that they complete 25 miles before race day, and then on the night before the St. Jude Country Music Marathon, they all run the final 1.2 miles around LP Field to complete their own “kid’s” marathon.

The cool thing is that Kate enjoys doing this, and it means that we get to do some running together. Also her school has organized runs once per week leading up to the event to help the kid’s get in their mileage. On race day, everyone from their class gets to run together.

Tonight we were able to get in 2 miles on the Harpeth River Greenway running in 1/4 mile increments. Between each interval we took a 1-minute break, with a slightly longer break between miles 1 and 2. Our average pace for the intervals was around 9:30 per mile. I’ve said this before, but even though Kate is just 7-years-old, I wish I had her running form. She is natural forefoot runner which stands in stark contrast to my heavy heal strikes.

Anyway, it was a beautiful evening and a fun run with my daughter.

Quest for Boston – Hills + Humidity

After taking two days off it was good to get back on the road with Nathan this morning for a relatively easy paced 9-mile run. We ran a modified version of our “Steeplechase” route through Percy and Edwin Warner Parks, which is quite hilly. My legs are still a bit sluggish after the marathon last week, but overall this run felt pretty good, especially considering the hills and the humidity. Even at 6am, the temps were in the mid 60s and the humidity was nasty. Not looking forward to the summer months when we get this type of humidity with temps in the 80s and 90s.

On a side note, I have decided to hire a coach to help me develop my training plan for the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon in October. I know I’m going to have to take my training up to another level to qualify for Boston, and I really wanted someone else with a lot of experience to give me their recommendation on what that should look like. Very excited (an nervous) to see what he comes up with.

Beast Mode…ON

Officially Registered for the Country Music Marathon!

Even though I had already been selected by the Nashville Striders as the “official” 4-hour pacer for the Country Music Marathon, I was not officially registered for the race until today when I finally got my code for FREE registration. This is obviously part of being a pacer, but it was still pretty cool to go through the registration process and see this at the end…

If you are running either the CMM Half or Full and see my 4-hour pace sign, make sure you stop by and say hello. Keeping my fingers crossed for great weather!

Quest for Boston – A Wet and Windy Night at Track

Today has been a pretty miserable day in Nashville with widespread rain, frequent downpours, and gusty wind. I was afraid that our weekly track workout with the JSRC might get cancelled, or that no-one else would show up, so I got to track about an hour early to get in some miles around Vanderbilt campus in case either of these happened.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Susan also show up early for the same reasons and we ended up getting in over 5-miles prior to the workout in the heavy rain and wind. By the scheduled start time, Sue Anne, Aine, and Paxton had also arrived and we were able to have a great track workout.

Since I am still only four days removed from the NOLA Marathon, I took this workout really easy. Even with the nasty conditions I am happy to have completed the miles. The final total with the warmup, workout, and cool-down was just under 9.5-miles.

On a side note, it has been 2-hours since the end of the workout, and I am just now beginning to regain feeling in my toes. I don’t ever remember my feet being as cold as they were after the run was over. During our warmup miles, Susan said “We’re either really tough, or really stupid” to be out here doing this. I responded that to be long distance runners, I think you really have to be a little bit of both.

Beast Mode…ON

St. Jude Country Music Marathon Medals

My next scheduled marathon is the St. Jude Country Music Marathon on April 28th in Nashville as the official 4-hour pacer. Saw this picture today of the various medals for the race, and I’ll have to say that these have got to be some of the most blah medals I’ve seen for a big race (40k+ participants). What’s worse is that the best of the three is the “Mini Marathon” which is a 2.6-mile race.

What do you think? Anybody else out there running the Country Music?

Quest for 3:15 is Over…Quest for Boston Begins

With my 2-year “Quest for 3:15” completed at NOLA on Sunday, today begins a new challenge and a new “Quest.” This time the focus is solely on one thing….BOSTON!

Officially that means a 3:10 (or 3:09:59) to qualify, which is 2min 29sec faster than my NOLA finish. However, with the new staggered registration process the actual time to get into Boston could end up being a few minutes faster. Also, it would not be outside the realm of possibility for the B.A.A. to bring the times down even lower. Finally, I’m only three years away from turning 40 which will hopefully bring an expanded qualifying time (currently 3:15). Since the qualifying time could be a moving target, this quest will not be centered on time, but on actually qualifying for and running the Boston Marathon.

For the remainder of 2012 I plan to run 3 or 4 additional marathons. One of these will be as the 4-hour pacer for the Country Music Marathon in April, so that will obviously not be an attempt at qualifying. The other race I’m registered for is the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon in October which will be my next point of focus. After that, I’m in the lottery for NYC again, and thinking about the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon as a backup option.

I know it’s going to take a lot of work, and lots of help from my family and friends, but I’m very much looking forward to the challenge.

Beast Mode…ON!

Rock n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon (Race Review)

My thoughts on the 2012 Rock n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon…

Rock n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon
March 4, 2012
runrocknroll.competitor.com/new-orleans

My Run:

Overall, the Rock n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon (NOLA) was my 11th full marathon, and first since setting my current PR of 3:18:44 at the Rocket City Marathon last December. For NOLA I had been very public about my goal of breaking 3:15 for the first time (i.e. my “Quest for 3:15”).” My training leading up to the race had been fantastic, having only missed 4 scheduled runs due to two stomach bugs and a flare-up of my Small Fiber Sensory Neuropathy in January.

The weather for NOLA was just about as good as anybody could have hoped. The temperatures were right around 50 degrees at the start, with low humidity, clear skies, and a light breeze. By the end of the race the temps were just over 60 degrees. Can’t ask for much better than that in New Orleans in March.

For this race I tweaked my preparation schedule and nutrition plan slightly. This included:

  • For the second time in my 11 marathons, I only did a two-week taper as opposed to three. The other was before Rocket City last December.
  • I ran 3.5-miles the day prior to the race. I normally don’t run the day before.
  • I ate a peanut butter PowerBar, a banana, a Honey Stinger Waffle, and a bagel 3-hours prior to the race.
  • I drank a full cup of caffeinated coffee 1.5-hours prior to the race.
  • I took a 2x caffeine Gu 1-hour prior to the race, and another 15-minutes prior.
  • I took 6 more Gu packs during the race at 30-minute intervals. I only washed these down with water, taking Gatorade occasionally between Gu packs during the first half of the race. The first of these six was a 2x caffeine, the next two were 1x caffeine, and the final three did not have caffeine.
  • Starting 1-hour prior to the race, I did a 12 minute warmup run followed by 4 x 100m stride outs 15-minutes prior to the race.

All during the warmup my legs felt good with no unusual aches, pains, or stiffness. My strategy for this race was to start off fairly conservative and then slowly work my way down to goal pace (7:26). I wanted to try and delay “the Wall” as long as possible, and knew that starting off too fast would bring it on a whole lot sooner.

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Quest for 3:15 – THANK YOU FITBLRs and RUNBLRs!

A HUGE thanks to all of you who have offered so much support and encouragement throughout my “Quest for 3:15.” It has been and continues to be greatly appreciated. Below is just a sampling of the awesome shout outs I got after my 3:12 yesterday at the NOLA Marathon (Any my wife’s PR in her first half marathon after injury). THANK YOU!

davidsgoals said: Fantastic news Tim! Congrats to you both

beautifulday4running said: Congrats!!

runtastic said: So fantastic!! Many, many congratulations to both!

losingitall said: Congratulations to you both! 3:12 thats within the mens qualifying time for the Virgin London Marathon here, amazing time!! Well done.

lagirlontherun said: Congrats!!!! You killed it!!! Revel in your success 🙂

runslikeapenguin said: Congratulations!!

livelongtrainhard said: Awesome job!! Congrats to you both.

runrunningrunner said: Congrats – to the both of you – that’s awesome!

catchthemontherun said: Man that’s incredible!!! So proud of someone I barely know, haha. Great job!!

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