Log for August 24 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.

Wednesday

• 6.6-Mile Recovery Run – This morning, Paxton and I did our normal “Nature Center” loop backwards as a recovery run. My legs were feeling pretty beat up, but we kept the pace very relaxed. Slowly as the run progressed my legs started feeling better and better, and by the end we picked up the pace just slightly. As I always say, you know it was a good recovery run when your legs feel better at the end, than at the beginning. Mission Accomplished today.
• Cross Training – Because my legs have been feeling really beat-up and tired the last couple of days I decided to take the night off from cross training, and focus on rest. Gotta be ready for track tomorrow night, and a tough marathon workout on Saturday.

“Before the invention of a cushioned shoe, runners through the ages had identical form: Jesse Owens, Roger Bannister, Frank Shorter, and even Emil Zatopek all ran with back straight, knees bent, feet scratching back under their hips…” (from Born to Run)

Two days ago I finished the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s going to take me a while to process everything that was presented, but I know that I will never look at running the same way again. Even before I began the book, I already knew there were things about my form and footwear that needed to change. This book really solidified that thinking, but has also given me a whole host of other things to work my mind around.

“Back Straight? Check.
Knees bent and driving forward? Check.
Heels flicking back? … There’s your problem” (from Born to Run)

Something else it did was just make me want to go out and run. I suddenly wanted to be one of the Tarahumara that could run a marathon every day in hurache sandals through the Copper Canyons. I wanted to be Caballo Blanco or Barefoot Ted or Scott Jurek who can not only run for hours and hours and hours, but also seem to embrace the pure joy of running.

This book is a LOT of fun to read. It is fast paced. It is a good story. It has a compelling premise. I have a feeling this is one that I will read a number of times. This is the first Kindle book I’ve read where I’ve actually highlighted sections so I can go back and reference them when needed.

For those of you that have also read this book. What did you think? Do you buy the premise? Did it make you change anything about your running form? Your footwear? Your commitment?

Justin Gatlin dealing with frostbite > Will still compete in World Championships

Log for August 22 & 23 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.
Monday

• 5.1-Mile Trail Run – It was really good to run with Nathan again. It seems like we haven’t run together in a long time. Along with Paxton, we did the Blue, Yellow, Orange & Candy-Cane trails in Edwin and Percy Warner parks. My legs felt really good considering the 20-miler on Saturday, and I even ran most of the route with the barefoot stride I’ve been practicing in my Saucony Hattoris. I’m starting to think about fully transitioning to this stride prior to the Chicago Marathon. May write a blog post dedicated to this transition soon.
• Cross Training – Tonight was P90X: Shoulders and Arms. I continue to use slightly less weight on the dumbbell exercises and put much more focus on form.

Tuesday

• 9-Mile Tempo Run – Today’s run was a solo effort through the streets of Belle Meade. I had hoped to average around 7:45 pace, but I just didn’t have it today plus it was very humid at 6am. Even though I felt pretty good during the trail run yesterday, my legs just didn’t respond this morning. I’m guessing this is still carryover from our 20-mile run on Saturday.
  
  My pace through the first 7-miles was around 7:58. Since I wasn’t feeling great I decided to focus on stride and ended up doing about 40% of the run using the new barefoot stride that I’ve been working on using my Saucony Hattoris. This is beginning to feel more and more natural and I’m almost at the point where I feel like I can go faster with the new stride. By the time I finished mile 7, I finally started feeling better and did the last two miles in 7:35 and 7:06. This pushed my overall average down to 7:50. While I wasn’t thrilled with how I felt, I am happy to have finished strong and to have done so well with the forefoot stride.
• 1-Mile “Barefoot” Run –  This little run was not planned, but I decided to do an easy mile when the opportunity presented itself. Today my wife Olivia went back for her 4-week follow-up after being diagnosed with tibial stress fractures in both legs. Her doctor told her that the healing had progressed to the point where should could begin walking 3 days a week. To get in her walk tonight we went to a little park down the street that has an asphalt track and a playground. Olivia walked the asphalt while I played with the kids on the playground. When she finished, we traded places and I did a mile on the track in my Hattori’s.
• Cross-Training – Tonight Olivia and I did P90X: Ab-Ripper X … BRING IT!!

I had already pretty much decided that I was gonna go with Saucony Kinvara’s for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in October. I actually still have one pair of the first Kinvara’s in the box that I have not yet used. However, a few days ago I saw that Saucony has released some new colors in the Kinvara 2, and I am now smitten with the new Red and Black model pictured below:

I know it would be more economical to go with the unused pair that I already own, but I am such a big fan of red, and these are SWEET!

Instagram filter used: Sutro

View in Instagram ⇒

Log for August 19, 20, & 21 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.

Friday

• 4-Mile “Barefoot” Run – It was unusual to have a full 24-hours of rest before my Friday “Barefoot” run in my Saucony Hattori’s.  Normally I have track on Thursday night, but this week I had to run on Thursday morning due to an event at Kate’s school. Paxton and I did our normal 4-mile route through Bellevue at a very relaxed pace. I continue to gain confidence running in the Hattori’s, and am also more confident than ever in my decision to add “barefoot” running to my schedule with the information that I’m learning from the book Born to Run. As usual, Paxton and I commented that we felt better at the end than the beginning, which is the tell-tell sign of a good recovery run. Tomorrow is my first 20-miler of this training season, so I needed a good recovery run.

Saturday

• 20-Mile Long Run – My goals today were simple: (1) Finish 20-miles (2) Spend 3 moving hours on my feet. On my 18-mile run two weeks ago, I spent 2 hours 45 minutes on my feet, and want to continue to push my aerobic threshold out past my marathon goal time of 3 hours 15 minutes.
  
  There were 8 of us (Paxton, Marc, Jenny, Megan, Marti, Dawn and Lisa) that met out at Wave Country for a 20-mile long run along the Stones River Greenway. My morning did not start off great. I woke up late and was in such a hurry to get ready that I forgot to bring anything to refuel after the run. I did remember to grab a Cliff Bar, gels, Gatorade, and water on the way out, which was good. Unfortunately the heat and humidity has returned to Middle Tennessee, so hydration was going to be critical.

  I’m grateful that the group waited on me even though I was 10-minutes late. With the frantic morning, it took me quite a while to get into a running groove. The pace for the first 5-miles was only around 9:30, but I still felt our of sync. We intersected with Ed and Judy around mile 2, and they joined us for a significant portion of the run.

  At the 5-mile mark I had to run over to Jack-in-the-Box for an unplanned pit-stop, so I told the group to go on without me. I knew the planned route included a couple of out-and-back segments, so I was confident I could intersect with them pretty quickly. After the pit-stop, I subconsciously picked up my pace to around 8:45 and slowly started getting faster and feeling better. As I ran down the first out-and-back segment, I expected to see my group, but made it all the way to the end and they were nowhere in sight.

  Through what turned out to be weird timing, I continued to miss them until I was running my 12th mile. As I approached Percy Priest Dam on miles 9 and 10 I really started feeling better, and after turning around at the Dam I felt fantastic. I finally saw my group on the second out-and-back, but they were running in the opposite direction. I wanted to turn and run with them, but I really needed some water, and there was a fountain at the end of the out-and-back, so I kept going.

  Paxton broke off from the group and started running with me, which I am very grateful for. After getting some much needed water, Paxton and I started pushing the pace all the way through mile 15. We got some more water at 15 (and a gel), and then kept going. We kept the pace around 8:30 for the next couple of miles before getting back into a very hilly section.

  I continued to feel pretty good through mile 18, but I could tell that Paxton was beginning to really feel it. This was not surprising since he had run that entire distance with no Gatorade or gels. I’m really not sure how he made it that far. For the rest of the run I either waited for him at the top of the hills while he walked up, or walked with him up the hills. When I got back to Wave Country I was right at 20-miles, and even though I walked up two significant hills with Paxton, my overall pace was still 8:50. This was actually faster than I wanted to run because that was only 2 hours 57 minutes on my feet.

  This was by far the best I’ve felt on a long run this season, and actually felt much worse after I stopped. It was almost like my body was in shock. I started taking in as much fluid as I could and resisted the urge to lay down in the grass and kept moving. After about 10 minutes I started feeling lots better, and was very thankful that Paxton had brought an extra banana since I forgot to bring any of my recovery bars.

  When I got home I took a 20-minute ice bath because my legs felt really beat up. I’m not sure which is more painful, the final 2-minutes of a 20-mile run, or the first 2 minutes of an immersion ice bath.

  Overall this was a very successful long run. Felt great in spite of the heat, humidity, and frantic start to the day. Lots of confidence gained today.

Sunday

• Rest Day – As usual, Sunday is my rest day. My legs feel pretty good today after the 20-miler yesterday. This was another good training week. My mileage was just under 50-miles (48.7), which is slightly less than planned, but they were still quality miles. I’m at 146-miles for the month, and am pushing to try and get in 200+ miles for the month of August.

Instagram filter used: Hefe

View in Instagram ⇒

Instagram filter used: Toaster

View in Instagram ⇒

Instagram filter used: Earlybird

View in Instagram ⇒

I find this pretty funny and sad all at the same time. Within an hour after my recent post regarding the new SKECHERS running shoe, I got this message regarding a new Twitter follower:

Log for August 17 & 18 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.

Wednesday

• 6.75-Mile Recovery Run – Paxton and I ran this morning through Belle Meade at a nice and easy recovery pace, after a hard progression run yesterday. We kind of made up the route as we went along, trying to avoid hills wherever possible. The temperatures were pleasant, though the humidity was still high. As with every good recovery run, my legs felt better when we finished than when we started.

Thursday

• 5.5-Mile Track Workout – I was not able run with the JSRC tonight for our regular track workout due to “Meet the Teacher” night at my daughter’s school. Since this was the case I did a solo track workout this morning at the Harding Academy track. I decided to do one of my favorite workouts which consists of 3 sets of 3 x 400m repeats. These were done with a 200m recovery between each repeat and a 400m recovery between each set. I also did one repeat per set at “good” pace, with the rest at “fresh” pace. My “fresh” intervals were between 83 and 85 seconds, while my “good” intervals went from 80 to 78 to 76 in the 3 sets. Other than a little tightness in my right leg, I felt strong throughout the workout, with plenty of gas left at the end. Hate that I missed the JSRC workout, but happy with the way things went this morning.

• Cross Training – Tonight was P90X: Chest & Back. The soreness in my right hand is FINALLY starting to subside after my fall almost 2 months ago.

In a blog post last week I asked the question “Will Runners Take SKECHERS Seriously?” Well today I finally saw an up-close picture of their upcoming entry into the serious running shoe market, the SKECHERS GOrun:

Per Competitor.com “The yet-to-be-released GOrun by Skechers uses minimalistic engineering and a 4mm heel-toe drop to create a barefoot running experience. The shoe, endorsed and engineered with the help of Meb Keflezighi, will hit stores later this year”

I’ll have to admit that this is a pretty sweet looking shoe, but I still highly doubt they will have much success among serious runners or even minimalist fans. What do you think?

UPDATE: I also found this page which has more information on the GoRun along with a video presentation from YouTube.

The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness.

I would image that many of the RUNBLRs out there have already read “Born to Run” by Christopher Mcdougall, but I’m just now getting around to it.  Having now read a little over 50 pages, I must say this is the wildest, most manic, most captivating opening to a book that I’ve ever read. I’m not sure what I expected, but this is something far different. Hope the rest of the book is as much fun as beginning.

Log for August 16 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.

 Tuesday

• 7.25-Mile Tempo Run – Paxton and I decided on a highly modified version of our “Steeplechase” route this morning, where we actually combined our “Nature Center” route with our normal “Steeplechase” route. The schedule called for an 8-mile tempo run with an average pace between 7:35 and 7:45. A couple of things were working against me on reaching this pace today: (1) We had very cool temps at 6am (mid 60s), but unfortunately the humidity was very high. (2) I did a 5.25-mile trail run last night along with P90X: Legs & Back.

  With all of this going on, today’s run became more of a progression run than a tempo run. It took a little while for us to get warmed up, and my legs could really feel the hard effort from last night. Our first mile was just over 9:00 min pace and the second mile was around 8:05 pace. After that, our last 5-miles were all under 7:50 pace, with a final mile of 7:19. Even though our overall average pace was around 7:50, I’m very pleased with the pace of the last 5.25-miles. We decided to cut it a little short of the planned distance for two reasons (1) It was obvious that neither of us were feeling our best (2) We got in a significant number of tempo miles last Saturday, so there was no need to push it too far.

  One thing I know is that I’m gonna have to change my night for doing P90X: Legs & Back. Doing it the night before my tempo runs is just not working.

• Cross Training – Tonight I did P90X: Ab-Ripper X with my wife.

Instagram filter used: Hefe

View in Instagram ⇒

Log for August 15 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.  

 Monday

• 5.25-Mile Trail Run – What an awesome run. One of the most enjoyable of the summer. We got a BIG break in the heat and humidity today, and my legs felt exceptionally good after a day of rest yesterday. I ran on the Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Candy Cane trails in Edwin and Percy Warner Parks, and ran at a much faster pace than normal for this summer (on trails). My normal trail pace has been between 10:15 and 10:30, but today’s pace was 9:14. It was fun to be able to blast up the steep hills and not feel like I was about to collapse.

• Cross Training – Tonight I did P90X: Legs & Back, but was only able to finish about 3/4 of the workout.  I tried to do this only a couple of hours after my trail run, and just didn’t have the gas to finish it with the energy that I wanted. Decided to save some fuel for the tempo run in the morning.

Instagram filter used: Nashville

View in Instagram ⇒

Log for August 14 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.  

 Sunday

• Rest – As always, Sunday is my scheduled rest day from running and cross training. This was another good week, with just over 46 total miles completed. My legs are a little sore, but felt much better today that I thought they would after the hard workout yesterday. I’m really looking forward to my trail run in the morning, because we are getting a big break from the heat and humidity for the next few days.