For students in my Wednesday night class on The Life of Abraham: Handouts and Notes for Lesson 18 are now available online. Lord willing we will cover this text tomorrow night at 6:30pm at Bellevue Church of Christ!
Today’s plan was for 8-miles at “easy” pace, and I was joined by my friend Brian on the Harpeth River Greenway at 5:30am. The humidity was again pretty dense (there was even a low-lying fog), and temps were slightly higher than yesterday.
We started off by the driving range on Old Harding, and ran 3.25-miles out and back on the greenway. Our pace was very chill, but I still nailed the high-end of my “easy” range on every split but the first one. It is already obvious to me than many of the goal pace ranges in the Hansons Plan will have to be modified as the heat and humidity continue to rise in Middle Tennessee.
While this is technically the first week of my training plan for the St. George Marathon, the first scheduled run doesn’t happen until Saturday. However, I’m hoping to get in some good mileage leading up to the weekend.
Last Week:
After getting off to a good start last Tuesday & Wednesday, I turned into a lazy bum the remainder of the week. The only real positive is that I got in 4 solid days of cross training activities, including 2 upper body workouts, 2 leg workouts, and 2 abdominal workouts.
I also mapped out my weekly cross training schedule for St George training…
My goal is to get in 15 to 20 minutes of cross training each day until race week. Now that training has officially begun, there can be no more lazy days off from running or cross training!!
Tuesday
After struggling to hit my “easy” run paces last week, and having a miserable run on Sunday, I felt really smooth during my 6-mile run yesterday afternoon on the Harpeth River Greenway. The temps were in the mid 80s, but I still hit my target pace for every mile, except the first by 2-seconds when I was still warming up. Here are the splits (goal range 8:26 to 9:05):
My legs were a bit stiff during the first mile, but generally felt good after that. Glad to finally hit my “easy” pace.
For cross-training I got in a short abdominal workout last night. Working on finalizing my cross-training schedule for St. George.
Wednesday (Today)
I met some friends at the main gates of Percy Warner Park at 5:15am for a hilly, 6.5-mile run in the park. Most in the group were running 9-miles, but my plan was to run just past the 3-mile marker, which is a climb of just over 1000 ft., and then head back down the same route. My goal is to get in some downhill running that closely approximates what the St. George descent will be like. With that in mind, I didn’t worry too much about “easy” pace since anything would be greatly skewed by the elevation change (my overall avg was 9:15 per mile)….
Overall I felt pretty good considering that I had barely over 12-hours between runs. My legs felt better than they had in a long while during the climbs. My friend Marc also only wanted 6-miles, so it was nice to have him accompany me back down. As many times as I’ve run the main drive in PWP, this is the first time I’ve ever done an out-and-back to the top of “3-mile-hill.” Will likely make this a regular part of my St. George training.
After mid-week Bible study tonight, I came home and got in the following short leg & back workout:
Beast Mode…ON!
For students in my Wednesday night class on The Life of Abraham: Handouts and Notes for Lesson 17 are now available online. Lord willing we will cover this text tomorrow night at 6:30pm at Bellevue Church of Christ!
Download MP3 Audio (Right-Click Here)
Audio recording of my sermon at Bellevue Church of Christ from Sunday Evening, May 18.
The lesson was entitled, Follow the Steps to Righteousness, and was a study of the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:3-12…
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The handout referenced during this sermon can be downloaded by clicking HERE >> Handout: Follow the Steps to Righteousness
My intention was to wake up early before worship service this morning and knock out a 6-mile easy paced run. However, I couldn’t get myself out of bed, so that meant I got to do the run this afternoon.
Early this morning it was in the low 50s, but when I started at 2pm it was in the 70s with full sun and high humidity. I was already tired from yesterday’s 10-miler, but the addition of the heat and humidity made this a miserable run.
I parked at the entrance to Percy Warner Park and ran through the streets of Belle Meade, mostly on Belle Meade Boulevard. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that my objective leading up to the start of St George training to practice my target paces. For an “easy” run, my range is 8:26 to 9:05 per mile. This topic leads to the strangest thing about today’s run. As awful as I felt, I was still too fast of 3 of my 6-miles…
This is baffling to me. I wasn’t intently focused of my watch today, but when it would beep at the mile splits I was shocked when I saw that it was too fast. Ever since I came back from the half marathon in Indy, I’ve been inexplicably pushing the pace on most of my runs.
Anyway, even though I paid the price for my lack of discipline in getting up early, at least I got the run done today. Also, because I count my “running week” from Monday to Sunday, this was my first 5-day-week since coming back from my latest injury.
Beast Mode….ON!
Download MP3 Audio (Right-Click Here)
Audio recording of my sermon at Bellevue Church of Christ from Sunday Morning, May 18.
The lesson was entitled, Choosing the Right Foundation, taken from Luke 6:46-49…
46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
In the lead-up to the beginning of my training schedule for the 2014 St. George Marathon, my goal is to keep building my base to prepare for the higher mileage weeks, and to practice the designated paces from the Hansons Plan for various types of runs. During this week I’ve been practicing “Easy” pace, which is supposed to be between 8:26 and 9:05 per mile. I nailed this on my Monday run, but was waaaay too fast on Wednesday.
Yesterday (Friday) morning I met Brian for a 4.5-mile run through the streets of Bellevue and on the Harpeth River Greenway. During that run we hit the goal for all 4 of the complete miles….
Today my goal was to get in some practice doing a 10-miler at “Long” run pace, which is supposed to be between 8:05 and 8:25 per mile. I started out with my running group at the Edwin Warner Park Nature Center. They were planning on doing approximately 10-miles on the Harpeth River Greenway, but I wasn’t sure if anyone else would want to run that pace since most are coming off recent marathons. About 30 seconds after starting I realized this would be a solo effort.
This pace is a lot faster than I’m used to for a long run, but I felt really good for the first 7 or 8 miles. Generally I did a decent job of keeping most of the splits around my goal range, but tended to be a little fast. My last two miles were a bit tough, but I still kept a good pace. I made the mistake of not carrying water, and was very dehydrated by that point.
My overall average was 8:04, so just a touch too fast, but not a bad first try. After grabbing some much needed water, I ran an additional 1.2-miles at a much more modest pace as a cool down back to the Nature Center. Feel good about this effort though I know it is only gonna get harder as the Summer temps arrive.
I normally don’t run on Sunday, but if I can be disciplined enough to get up early tomorrow I’m hoping to get in another 6-mile easy run before morning worship service.
Beast Mode…ON!
