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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!

Tomorrow I will have the pleasure of preaching at both the morning (9:00am) and evening (6:00pm) worship service at Bellevue Church of Christ.

For the Morning Worship Service at 9:00am, my lesson will be 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.”

For the Evening Worship Service at 6:00pm, my lesson will be entitled, Follow the Steps to Righteousness, which will be a study of the Beatitudes from 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.

If you are in the Middle Tennessee area, we would love to have you join us!

Bellevue Church of Christ
7401 Highway 70 South
Nashville, TN 37221
bellevue-church.com

With thunderstorms in the area this morning, I decided to come home from work a bit early and try to squeeze in an easy 6-mile run before midweek Bible study. It was cloudy, windy, and a bit cooler (mid 70s) when I started but the humidity was NASTY. I also knew more heavy rain was on its way so I was hoping to knock out the run before it arrived.

I parked my car across from the Old Harding Road driving range, and ran 1.5-miles out-and-back both directions on the Harpeth River Greenway. My legs felt really good from the start, and my pace quickly got a bit too fast. The plan was to try and keep all my splits between 8:26 and 9:05, which is my “Easy Run” range under the Hansons training plan that I intend to start in a couple of weeks. I was good for the first two miles with 9:00 and 8:27, but then mile-3 was 8:07. As I started the second out-and-back I kept telling myself that I needed to slow down.

About a 1/2 mile into the second segment I started to feel a few raindrops and then after another 1/4 mile the bottom completely fell out. For some crazy reason I decided to run without a hat, and I could barely see anything with the downpour. I took off my shirt and made a quick, makeshift bandanna, which did a surprisingly good job of keeping the rain out of my eyes. Since I was already soaked, and there was no lightening, I decided to just finish my planned route. While the rain was a little irritating at first, I quickly started to feel fantastic. The cool rain was much more tolerable than the intense humidity at the beginning, and my body just dropped into a nice groove. Of course this also resulted in me continuing to run faster than I planned as my splits below demonstrate:

For some reason my body just wanted to go faster today, and all-in-all this run felt fantastic. The good thing is that the last mile really didn’t feel much faster than any of the others.

So, hoping to get in another easy 6 over the next two days before a 10-miler with the group on Saturday. Trying to build up my base a little over the next two weeks before St George Marathon training officially begins.

Beast Mode….ON!

The Life of Abraham

Lesson 16: Sunset of Life

(Genesis 25:1-10)

For students in my Wednesday night class on The Life of Abraham: Handouts and Notes for Lesson 16 are now available online. Lord willing we will cover this text tonight at 6:30pm at Bellevue Church of Christ!

This looks daunting when written down, but below is my tentative training plan (click to enlarge) for the 2014 St.George Marathon. It is based on the Hansons Advanced Marathon Training Plan:

(Click to enlarge)

It’s gonna take a LOT of discipline the make it through this schedule, especially considering I’m having a hard time finding running partners these days. The total weekly mileage peaks in the mid-60s, but the longest single run is only 16-miles (that’s right….NO 20-milers).

I shifted the Hansons plan a bit so I could end up with my Speed / Strength workout on Thursday and my tempo runs on Saturday. My plan right now is to do the speed workouts at the Vanderbilt track with the JSRC track group. I won’t be able to do the same workouts as everyone else, but at least it will give me access to a track. When it comes to the strength workouts I plan to do these on local greenways.

By far my two biggest concerns are consistently doing 6-days of running each week AND the tempo runs at goal marathon pace. Those are gonna hurt!

Beast Mode…ON!

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Just found out about an hour ago that I was selected in the lottery for the 2014 St George Marathon! So excited to be participating in this race. Definitely one of my bucket-list marathons and a chance for redemption after dealing with multiple injuries over the past 18+ months. It is also the perfect race to celebrate my 40th Birthday! Can’t wait!!!

Now, I’ve got to work-out travel arrangement and my training plan. On training, my goal is simple….3 hours 15 minutes. I’ve broken it once before, but this time it will be for a BQ. Everything I do in training will be aimed squarely at this target. I also know that to get there I have to avoid injury, which has been a problem for the last year and a half.

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I hoped to get back on the road today after taking last week off. I got in a solid 6.25-mile easy run on the Harpeth River Greenway. It was pretty warm and humid, but overall my legs felt fantastic. If I decide to go with the Hansons Marathon Training Plan, my easy-run target pace will be between 8:26 and 9:26 per mile. Today I averaged 8:40 pace, which is right in-line.

Beast Mode….ON!!!!

Well…tomorrow is the day I find out whether or not I made it into the 2014 St George Marathon. Feeling a little nervous, because I REALLY want to do this race to celebrate my 40th birthday and return to marathoning. If I don’t get in, then I hope to quickly select an alternate race. Either way I plan on mapping out my training plan ASAP, and am strongly considering doing the Hanson’s Advanced Plan. More on that later if I choose to go this direction, still in the middle of reading the Hansons Marathon Method book.

After the 500 Festival Mini Marathon last Saturday, I took an unplanned week off from running this week. Just felt tired and decided to take a week to recover. My plan is to get back on the road tomorrow. I did a new core workout yesterday morning, and my obliques are more sore today than I ever remember before. This is definitely a problem area for me, so hoping this new routine will help out there.

Beast Mode….ON!

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Recap of the 39th annual One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in Indianapolis, IN

One America 500 Festival Mini Marathon 
May 3, 2014
www.500festival.com/marathon/

My Run:  Overall, the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon (“the Mini”) in Indianapolis was my 15th half marathon. This was the fifth year to run the Mini, which is the largest half marathon and fifth largest road race in the U.S. with 35,000 runners.  The Mini is part of the month-long 500 Festival that leads up to the Indianapolis 500. I missed last year’s Mini due to injury, but was able to defer my registration to this year.

The Life of Abraham

Lesson 15: Spouse for Isaac – Part 3

(Genesis 24:53-67)

For students in my Wednesday night class on The Life of Abraham: Handouts and Notes for Lesson 15 – Part 3 are now available online. Lord willing we will cover this text tonight at 6:30pm at Bellevue Church of Christ!

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