Last night I was worried about having to run today on the Dreadmill due to overnight storms in the Nashville area. We’ll, regardless of the storms, I just could not get out of bed early this morning to get in my run.

Even though I was bummed about this for most of the day, it ended up working out really well. After the storms passed, it was a really pleasant day with highs near 60. I came home from work a little early to try and sneak in my run, and ended up taking Sara with me in the running stroller. This was the first time I had tried the stroller in quite a while, because Sara used to HATE it. Tonight was a different story. We talked the whole time and had a great time. Awesome 6.5-miler in the books, and I didn’t have to run on the Dreadmill!!

I pride myself in always running outside, no matter the conditions. This comes with one exception however….Lightening.

To that end, it sounds like we’ve got some nasty storms moving into the Nashville area tonight which should still be around tomorrow morning. If that is the case, then my planned 7-miler might end up being on DREADMILL in the morning. Just thinking about running on the Dreadmill makes me a little bit crazy, but I really need to get in the miles, and would rather not wait until tomorrow night.

While training for my 10 marathons over the past 3 years, I have completed a LOT of 20+ mile training runs which incorporated the 16.5-mile loop in Percy and Edwin Warner Parks. This loop makes for a challenging long run because of the 2,300 ft. of elevation gain from start to finish.

This morning, our group was again scheduled to run the 16.5 as part of training for the Rock N’ Roll New Orleans Marathon / Half Marathon. My plan called for 20 today, so John and I decided to start 30 minutes early from our normal post-run breakfast spot, Bread & Company, to add the additional 3.5-miles before and after the group run.

Even though I still feel crummy (can’t seem to shake this cold I came down with on Tuesday), today’s run was the best I’ve ever felt on a 20-miler in the parks. The hills were challenging as always, but my legs felt good all the way to the end, and I felt like I could have easily kept going if needed. Weird thing about how good this run felt is how bad I’ve felt the rest of the day (my cold, not my legs). By far the best I’ve felt all day was during this 20-mile run, which is a weird thing to say.

Anyway, it is good to have this first 20-miler of NOLA training in the books. My schedule calls for two more 20+ runs over the next 4 weeks, and I hope I continue to feel this good during those efforts.

Each race and workout is like a mini battle in a personal war of fitness and self-discovery. Running provides the context we need to look deep inside ourselves and discover personal characteristics only visible when we push our physical limits.

Thursday night is usually one of the highlight’s of my running week since it is when the Jim Spivey Running Club (JSRC) has their weekly track workout. However, I expected tonight’s workout to be extremely difficult for me for two reasons:

1. Since last Friday night I have been dealing with my biggest Small Fiber Sensory Neuropathy flare-up in the past two years. The peak of this was on Monday (I didn’t run at all on Mon), but I’m still dealing with it today. For those of you unfamiliar with this disorder, you can read about it in one of my initial posts on this blog entitled “Why I Run…”
2. On Tuesday I started coming down with a bad cold (possibly the reason for #1 since it is an auto-immune disorder) which has been at its worst today. All day I’ve had muscle aches, chills, and even felt shaky. I was unsure whether or not I was even going to track.

Well, with those things going on I was just hoping to survive tonight and get in the miles. I ran an easy 3-mile warmup, and then we began the workout which was:

• 1000 M (400 recovery)
• 800 M (300 recovery)
• 600 M (300 recovery)
• 400 M (3 min recovery)
• 800 M (300 recovery)
• 1000 M (1.5-mile cool-down)

I ran very conservative, but still did all the intervals at faster than 1/2 marathon pace. What was amazing to me was that once the workout began I suddenly started feeling great. I’ve said for a long time that running is the best drug on earth and tonight it literally felt like a drug. Once I started felling better, there was a great deal of temptation to pick up the pace, but I just tried to stay steady and finish the workout.

When you don’t feel good, it is hard to get in the miles, and even harder to maintain confidence in yourself and your training. Tonight was a good confidence boost towards the New Orleans Marathon in the midst of what was otherwise a crummy week.

Check out the sick new colors which will be available in the upcoming Saucony Kinvara 3s!! I’m nervous about the changes they are making to the shoe, but the styles are awesome. Picture was tweeted out earlier today by @clindyrun – Saucony CMO

Update: Looks like these babies are going to hit in July 2012 – at the same time as the Kinvara TR.

Update 2: There will be six colors total for each gender (picture looks like eight, but this comes directly from Saucony). Four colors will be released on May 1, 2012. The other two will be released on July 1, 2012.

The harder the challenge or the more difficult the obstacle, the smaller the number of people who have what it takes to succeed, the greater the feeling of personal satisfaction gained from doing it.

SWEET! I have last year’s 27” iMac and love it. How long have you been a Mac user?

David….Been a Mac user for a LOOOONG time. We currently have 5 Macs in the house, and this will be Number 6. Wish I never had to use a Windows machine, but unfortunately part of the life of being a Technology Consultant.

Should be Awesome:

• 27” Display
• 16 GB RAM
• 256 GB Solid State Boot Drive
• 2 TB Data Drive

I’m such a GEEK!!

Shipping delay was due to a shortage of 2 TB hard drive because of the massive flooding in Taiwan.

20 Outstanding Running Blogs for 2012 and Beyond

Should be another great trip with my running group! Look out Milwaukee!!

2012 Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon

Why I Run…

Today was our group’s second marathon interval workout as part of training for the Rock n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon or Half Marathon. The workout consisted of:

• 2-mile warmup
• 2 x 12 minutes at goal pace* with three minute recovery run in between
• 20 minute easy run
• 2 x 15 minutes at goal pace* with three minute recovery run in between
• 1.5-mile cooldown

*While my goal marathon pace for 3:15 would be 7:26 per mile (or 7:16 for BQ pace), I decided to do these intervals around half marathon pace to better prepare my body to go fast.

I ended up with just over 14-miles and felt FANTASTIC today. I ran the intervals pretty hard, but felt very smooth and comfortable at sub-7:00 min pace. My last 15 minute interval was at 6:46 pace, and I felt like I could have gone farther or done more intervals when we finished (that’s the goal). Very positive day today.

Also big congrats to @runmeb, @ryanhall3 & @Abdi_Runs on making the 2012 US Olympic Marathon Team #Houston2012 – Major kudos to Meb for taking down Ryan and setting his second marathon PR in the last three months at age 36!! USA! USA! USA! 

Official Results:

1. Meb 2:09:08 (PR)
2. Hall 2:09:30
3. Abdi 2:09:47
4. Ritz 2:09:55 (PR)

First time 4 Americans under 2:10 ever, any race.

Big congrats to @ShalaneFlanagan @des_davila & @KaraGoucher for making the 2012 US Olympic Marathon team. #Houston2012 – What an awesome group of women to represent our country. USA! USA! USA!

Official Times:

1. Flanagan 2:25:38
2. Davila 2:25:55
3. Goucher 2:26:06
4. Hastings 2:27:17

All under old Trials record.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

(From Competitor.com) Ryan Hall: “Guys are gonna have to earn it if they’re gonna get on that team.” – I love this little snippet from today’s pre-race interviews leading up to the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials on Saturday. Ryan looks like he’s got his game face on.

Thursday nights are usually track workouts with the JSRC. However with freezing temps and light snow, the Vanderbilt track was frozen over. There were only five of us that showed up anyway, so we decided to just do some running around Vanderbilt’s campus. The temps were hovering around 28 and it was the strongest wind I’ve run in quite a while. Not only did this make it REALLY cold, but it was also strong enough to actually move me while we were running. When my back foot would come off the ground in mid-stride I would land about a foot to the left of where I took off. This is a CREEPY feeling.

Also weird was how the roads and sidewalks were completely fine, but the parking lot where we left our cars was frozen over when we got back. We were still running when we hit the parking lot, and a couple of us started sliding around. It was actually hard to walk back to the car. Even with all this it was still a fun 7-mile run and I enjoyed the company. LOVE my running group.

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