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This week started out with a 10-miler on Monday, an 8-miler on Tuesday, and a 6-miler Wednesday. This volume of mileage is INTENSE with the Hansons Advance Plan, but is nowhere near what it is going to be in a few weeks when it gets cranked all the way up to 11 (Next week is 8, 14, 7)!!!
The “ABCs” of Acts
For students in my Wednesday night class on The “ABCs” of Acts, handouts and notes for Acts Chapter 6 are now available online. Lord willing we will cover this text tonight at Bellevue Church of Christ in the Auditorium! This class will begin immediately after the opening devotional at 6:30pm.
Click HERE for more information on this class
Click HERE to download > Acts Chapter 6 Handouts and Notes
Click HERE to download > The “ABC” Outline Worksheet
Please Join Us!
Thursday’s Run
On Thursday I met the JSRC track group at 6pm at Vanderbilt to complete my weekly “speed” workout. I did the week 5 “speed” workout prescribed in the Hansons Advanced Training Plan. This was 4 x 1200m with 400m recovery in-between each interval. This equates to 3-miles of intervals and 1-mile of recovery. Based on my goal marathon time of 3:15, the target splits for this workout are 4:50.
We caught a huge break with the weather Thursday night. The temps were around 79º with a nice break in the humidity. This felt awesome compared with previous weeks. Hard to believe it could be 79º at 6pm on any night in July!
Overall this workout felt really good, and I’m sure the weather had a LOT to do with it. After my warmup and stride outs I still felt a little tight during the first 1200m, but my legs really loosened up throughout the workout. Here’s a breakdown:
My first foray into the world of GPS running watches was the Garmin ForeRunner 305, which I LOVED. It was easy to use and extremely accurate with regard to distance and average pace. The only reason I eventually moved to the 405 in the Summer of 2010 was because my 305 would no longer hold a charge of greater than an hour.
Before I purchased the 405, I knew that the bezel control was a bit flaky, but if had know exactly how AWFUL it was I NEVER would have purchased it:
The bezel worked ok as long as it was completely dry, but this is almost NEVER the case while running. Because of this I always had to keep the bezel locked, and have not been able to consistently flip screens since mid-2010. Sometimes when I try to unlock the bezel mid-run the screen will begin flipping out of control, and will leave it completely unusable until it dries.
This watch has taken a lot of abuse from multiple falls (see damage above), and has seen me through almost 6,400 miles of running and 9 marathon. However, it has been such a pain to use that I don’t have any particularly fond memories of the 405. The only reason why I continued to tolerate it was because of the cost of the watch and its continued strong battery (it will still cover me for a 3+ hour run).
This year I have noticed a steady decline in the overall distance accuracy. It can sometimes be off by as much as 2/10 per mile. Now that I have very specific target paces for St. George Marathon training user the Hansons Plan, I really needed a more accurate watch.
This led me to finally pull the trigger on a Garmin ForeRunner 220. I has fewer overall features than the 405 (or 305), but has all of the ones that I actually use like Distance, Pace, Heart Rate, Auto Lap, etc. It also has a built-in “accelerometer” to help maintain accuracy when satellite signal is weak. This should really help when running under the dense tree cover in Percy Warner Park. However, the BEST FEATURE of this watch is that it is controlled exclusively through BUTTONS just like my old 305. No more wonky touch bezel!!!
Yesterday was my first chance to try out the 220, and so far, so good. The watch is light and comfortable and the distance calculation was dead-on accurate with the 1/4-mile markings on the Harpeth River Greenway. I love being able to flip between different screens during my run again to see my overall, lap, and heart rate statistics. It even has a dedicated screen for the current time which is nice.
It will be interesting to see how well the battery holds up over time, but I think this is going to be a really good watch for me! It even has my favorite color….RED!
Monday’s Run
While Monday was the first day of week 6, it also marked the end of my first full month of training for the 2014 St. George Marathon. As for the run itself, Nathan, Brian, and I did a relatively chill-paced 8-miler on the Harpeth River Greenway, starting at the Morton Mill parking lot. The heat and humidity continued to be nasty, even at 5am! I guess this is going to be the way of things until mid-September.
Anyway, my legs were pretty tight at the beginning, but gradually felt better throughout. Except for mile-4, this was a progression run, with each mile faster than the previous. Here’s a breakdown of the splits:
The “ABCs” of Acts
For students in my Wednesday night class on The “ABCs” of Acts, handouts and notes for Acts Chapter 5 are now available online. Lord willing we will cover this text tonight at Bellevue Church of Christ in the Auditorium! This class will begin immediately after the opening devotional at 6:30pm.
Click HERE for more information on this class
Click HERE to download > Acts Chapter 5 Handouts and Notes
Click HERE to download > The “ABC” Outline Worksheet
Please Join Us!
After two solid (and tough) workouts on Thursday and Saturday, I knew my legs would be tight for this morning’s 7-mile “easy” run. The humidity was down a touch from yesterday, which was nice, but it was still pretty thick. Thankfully I had cloud cover for most of the run. I started out from my house and headed toward the Harpeth River Greenway entrance by the driving range on Old Harding Pike. My legs were REALLY tight for the first couple of miles before the finally started to loosen up.
Once I reached the greenway, I headed south to try and make my run into a big loop. However after about 1/2-mile there were two ladies approaching me on bikes, and I could tell they were trying to get my attention. They stopped and one of them said “Do you know what’s going on?” I had no idea what they were talking about, but they explained that up ahead on the greenway there was a manhunt going on for three men who had stolen, and subsequently wrecked, a car and were now trying to escape on foot. They said that there were police officers blocking the path, and I would need to turn around.
I wasn’t quite sure what to do, but did turn around and finished my run with an out-and-back route on the section of the greenway north of Old Harding Road before heading back home. I also made sure to keep my head up at all times in case I saw the “fugitives” anywhere on my route. This was a bit disturbing. Anyway, my legs continued to feel better throughout the run, and I was able to finish up with my last two miles under 9:00 per mile pace:
Today’s Run
After an off-day on Friday, today was my third “tempo” run of the Hansons Advanced Plan, and final one at 6-miles. The objective was to complete 6-miles at goal marathon pace (7:26). My friend Nathan joined me for this workout at the Edwin Warner Park picnic area.
This humidity this morning was NASTY! Just before we started the temperature was 71º, the relative humidity was 97%, and the dew point was at 70º. This was intense! Thank goodness we at least had some cloud cover.
After a 2.25-mile warmup with 4 stride outs, we hit the greenway for the “tempo” section. I decided this week not to rely on my Garmin for distance, and instead used the 1/4-mile markers on the greenway, and manually lapped my watch at each mile. This workout was really hard with the humidity, but I actually felt a lot better than I anticipated. I could tell during the warmup that my legs were very tired, but I still hit reasonable splits throughout the workout. Here’s a breakdown…
