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:
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:
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.
Adam Goucher from “Running the Edge”
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:
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
Just saw this list today published by healthynomics … I was already familiar with some of these, but not all. Seems to be a good list.
What great running blogs are missing from this list?
Should be another great trip with my running group! Look out Milwaukee!!
2012 Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon
This morning our running group decided on the 2012 Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon (October 7) as our official fall marathon. I’m excited about this choice for two reasons:
1.) I have never run a marathon in Wisconsin, so this will help me toward my lifetime goal of running a marathon in each state. Will actually be my first time in the state of Wisconsin.
2.) This is a small marathon (cap at 3,000) which is organized by the local Badgerland Striders Running Club. I’m anticipating that this will mean a true “runner’s race.”
Anyway, registration opens at midnight tonight, so I plan on signing up tomorrow.
Anybody else run this race before?
I’ve noticed a number of new followers over the past few months….Welcome! The link above is to one of my first posts entitled “Why I Run…”
While I post about a number of different topics, I primarily started this blog as an outlet to share my running journey which did not start until I was 33-years-old. This initial post was something I had been wanting to get out, and the blog gave me the outlet. I periodically go back and update the numbers in the post, but everything else is unchanged.
Why do you 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:
*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:
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:
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.
There comes a time in every season when we have to look at the weather outside with sheer defiance and utter insubordination. On that day, we must look outside and proclaim, ‘You are not tougher than me!’
RunningWarehouse.com is by far my favorite online store for purchasing running shoes, clothing, and accessories. However, over the past few weeks I’ve also begun to REALLY appreciate their running blog. It is FANTASTIC, especially if you are a gear nerd like me. They also posted a great summary today regarding the Olympic trials this weekend. Definitely worth checking out.
When I was in high school my “dream” car was the Acura NSX which was produced by Honda between 1990 and 2005. Well, today I learned that they are officially bringing it back within the next three years. It will be made by Honda R&D Americas and manufactured in Ohio. The picture above is of a super sweet NSX Hybrid Concept which was unveiled today at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. It is also noted that Tony Stark will be driving a convertible version of this concept car in the upcoming film “The Avengers.”
I can only hope that the final production car will be half as cool looking as this concept.
