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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:

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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…

Wednesday’s Run

Yesterday I couldn’t get myself out of bed in time to get in my run before work so I ended up having to squeeze it in between work and mid-week Bible study. It was fairly hot, but the humidity was down just a bit. My schedule called for 6-miles at “easy” pace, so I decided to start from my house and do a 6-mile route through the streets of Bellevue. When I went to grab my Garmin I saw that the battery was dead, so I just took my basic Timex stopwatch instead.

I knew from the start that my legs felt good, but I really didn’t know what pace I was running without my GPS. The heat was pretty intense, but I maintained a steady pace and my legs felt good throughout the run. When I got back to the house my stopwatch read 48 minutes, 46.16 seconds. I used MapMyRun.com to confirm that my route was actually 6-miles, and it came out to 6.05. This translates to a pace of 8:04 per mile, which is quite a bit faster than my “easy” pace target of 9:05 to 8:26. This is actually even faster than my “long” run pace range of 8:05 to 8:25.

Not sure where this burst came from, but it was actually a big confidence boost after many slower runs in recent days.

This week started out with back-to-back 8-mile runs at “easy” pace on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday I met Nathan at BUMC for a run through Bellevue, the Harpeth River Greenway, and Edwin Warner Park. The heat and humidity were especially nasty yesterday, which made this run a challenge. My legs were really, really tight for the first few miles, but thankfully they slowly loosened up to where I felt better at the end of the run than at the beginning (always a plus). Here’s a breakdown of our splits:

After two consecutive tough workouts on Thursday and Saturday, I fully expected this morning’s 6-mile “easy” run to be a challenge, and I was right. The heat and humidity continue to be tough, and I was really feeling it from the start. Thankfully my legs felt fairly decent, and this only got better as the run progressed. I started from my house and did a big loop through Bellevue, Edwin Warner Park, and the Harpeth River Greenway. My pace started out extremely chill, but I actually got below 9:00 pace for the last mile:

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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 3 “speed” workout prescribed in the Hansons Advanced Training Plan. This was 6 x 800m with 400m recovery in-between each interval. This equates to 3-miles of intervals and 1.5-miles of recovery. Based on my goal marathon time of 3:15, the target splits for this workout are 3:15. While, this is the goal, the Hanson brothers really emphasize not exceeding your target pace, and even make their athletes do sets of push-ups for every second they exceed their goal.

However, “exceeding” this goal was not gonna happen on Thursday due to the nasty heat and humidity. It was 94º in full sun, with a “feels like” of 98º at the beginning of my warmup:

Tuesday’s Run

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that one of the core principles of the Hansons Advanced Training Plan was “Cumulative Fatigue.” This is the idea that you are always running on tired legs up until marathon race week. Well a second core principle is the inclusion of two to three “SOS” runs per week. “SOS” stands for Something Of Substance and includes:

1. Long Runs – From 10 to 16-miles…completed at a pace somewhere between goal marathon pace and easy pace
2. Speed / Strength Workouts – Speed runs are in the first 1/2 of the schedule and include 3-miles of intervals at 5k pace. Strength runs are in the second-half of the schedule and include 6-miles of intervals at half-marathon pace.
3. Tempo Runs – From 6 to 10 miles…completed at goal marathon pace

Yesterday was my first scheduled 10-mile “long” run under the Hansons Advanced Marathon training plan. My target pace range for these runs 8:25 to 8:05, and I knew this was going to be a BIG challenge with my tired legs and the nasty heat and humidity. I met Brian and Nathan at the Harpeth River Greenway parking lot across from the Old Harding Road driving range, and we did a 5-mile out-and-back on the greenway back towards Edwin Warner Park. I felt fairly decent from the start, and this only got better as the run progressed. Our first mile was a little slow, but we were also still warming up. After that point I had three splits that were either too slow or too fast by a few seconds, but was generally in the goal range. Here’s a rundown of the splits:

I met Brian and Nathan this morning at Brian’s house for a 6-mile run “easy” through the surrounding neighborhoods along with Sneed and Temple roads. This route was out-and-back, and I felt pretty rough on the way out. My legs were very tight and just had no jump to them. It also didn’t help that the nasty humidity is firmly back after a nice reprise on Friday and Saturday mornings.

However, as soon as we turned around for the way back things started to improve dramatically, which can clearly be seen in the splits over the final three miles:

Friday’s Run

After a rescheduled off-day on Thursday (Friday is my normal off-day) due to my day-trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Friday was a 6-miler at “easy” pace. I met Brian and Nathan at Bellevue United Methodist Church parking lot and we went down Sawyer Brown to Hwy 70, did two laps around the vacant Bellevue Center Mall, and then headed back up Sawyer Brown to close out the run. It was a pleasant run in cooler temps and a steady rain. I didn’t keep track of our splits, but overall it was a little faster than most of our recent “easy” paced runs.

Saturday’s Run

Yesterday was my first “tempo” run of the Hansons Advanced Plan. The objective was to complete 6-miles at goal marathon pace (7:26). Thankfully Brian joined me for this workout at the Edwin Warner Park picnic area, and we caught a great break in the weather. It was 55° with relatively mild humidity.

After a 2.75-mile warmup, with 3 stride outs, we ran all 6 “tempo” miles out-and-back on the Harpeth River Greenway without breaks. As has been the trend recently, my Garmin could not keep up so it was hard to tell if we were on pace or not. According to Brian’s watch, we averaged 7:30 pace for the 6 miles, and I actually felt really, really good. I was fairly nervous heading into this run, but my legs were relatively strong all the way through. Our pace was a few seconds slow, but considering this was the first “tempo” run, and I felt great, I’ll take it. With a 1.2-mile cool down, we got in just under 10 total miles for the day.

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Tuesday’s Run

Yesterday was a scheduled 8-miler at “easy” pace. I met Brian and Nathan at the Edwin Warner Nature Center for a run in the park and on the Harpeth River Greenway. My legs were very tired, but overall the run went ok. I do wish that I could push the pace a little faster, but at this point I’m happy simply be getting in all the scheduled miles. This is especially true considering the heavy humidity. Here’s a breakdown of our splits:

Today’s Run

Since I have a day-trip to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow for a speaking engagement, I needed to move a few things on my schedule around this week. This meant that I got to do a solo track workout this morning at the Hading Academy track. Even though I despise doing track work by myself, this workout actually went really well.

I did the week 2 “speed” workout prescribed in the Hansons Advanced Training Plan. This was 8 x 600m with 400m recovery in-between each interval. This equates to 3-miles of intervals and 2-miles of recovery. Based on my goal marathon time of 3:15, the target splits for this workout are 2:26. While, this is the goal, the Hanson brothers really emphasize not exceeding your target pace, and even make their athletes do sets of push-ups for every second they exceed their goal.

I met Brian and Nathan this morning in the parking lot of the Bellevue United Methodist Church building for a 6-mile loop that incorporated the Harpeth River Greenway. We were met with temps in the mid 60s and a steady rain.

A run in the rain this morning was a welcome change from the soupy heat and humidity of the past two weeks. While it was obviously still humid, the rain was refreshing. My legs were very tired, but again they felt better than the same day last week, which is a positive. I can tell that my body is slowly adapting to the workload, but I still have a LONG way to go.

The last race Olivia and I did together was the Rock n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon / Half Marathon back in February 2013. Both of us have suffered multiple injuries since then (Olivia even had to spend 8-weeks in a boot), but we are hopeful to make our return to completing races together this fall at the 2014 Murfreesboro “Middle” Half Marathon. After registration opened at 10am yesterday, it sold-out early this morning, but Olivia and I both got in! She decided to sign-up on a whim last night while we were having dinner at Ruth’s Chris before heading to TPAC for War Horse.

This is one of my favorite races, but I’ve missed the last two with injuries. Olivia has never participated in the Middle Half, so this will be her first chance to experience this great event. Even though the race will only be 7 days after St. George, I really wanted to run it this year!

The last two days of my running were better than last week, but they were still tough with the soupy humidity!! My legs are feeling stronger, and the gears don’t seem to be grinding as much at the beginning of my runs.

On Saturday morning I met Brian in Percy Warner park for a hilly run through Percy and Edwin Warner. Even though both of us were wearing Garmins, for various reasons we lost track of how far we had gone so we just had to estimate when we reached the planned 6-miles. After getting back to the house I used mapmyrun.com and calculated our route to be 5.85-miles, which was a touch short. However, it was an enjoyable effort with Brian. My legs were very tired, but I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation during the run.

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I got in almost 33 years of practice doing “off-days” before I became a “runner” in 2007, so this “off-day” was a piece of cake.

Ooooo…I like cake! Especially with chocolate icing.

Wait….where was I….Oh yeah, today was an “off-day” from running, and it was good to get a break after 6-straight-days of scheduled runs, and a tough workout last night. My legs actually feel really good today. I remember last Friday that I was extremely sore after a hard track workout the night before. Today I’ve got a little soreness in my right hip-flexors, but otherwise am feeling better than I expected. Hope this holds true on my scheduled 6-miler tomorrow.

Today marked my 6th consecutive day to get in a training run, and I can’t remember the last time that has happened. I’m guessing it has been well over a year, if not much longer. Many of these runs have been fairly crummy (Sat, Sun, & Mon specifically), but tonight’s “speed” workout was BY FAR the best I’ve felt during those 6-days.

I met my normal track group tonight at Vanderbilt, but instead of joining their workout I did the week 1 “speed” workout prescribed in the Hansons Advanced Training Plan. This was 12 x 400m with 400m recovery in-between each interval. This equates to 3-miles of intervals and 3-miles of recovery. Based on my goal marathon time of 3:15, the target splits for this workout are 1:38. While, this is the goal, the Hanson brothers really emphasize not exceeding your target pace, and even make their athletes do sets of push-ups for every second they exceed their goal.