hills

Did some hill repeats in the rain this morning. Warmer than yesterday, around 40 degrees, but a harder, steadier rain. Couple of different hills in the Murfreesboro area for hill repeats. I usually run on Saddle Drive. It's about a 7.5% grade hill for about a quarter mile. MTSU runners use to run it back in the day. Don't know what they do now.

Excerpt from this thread on the Striders board regarding the hills in Rutherford County.

very interesting stuff. from a rutherford county perspective.

Grade = rise / distance

1% = 53 / 5280

1% grade for a 53 foot rise over one mile

3 mile Hill at PWP 6.00%

Nine mile Hill at PWP 4.73%

Bert Bergen Hill 7.58%

Saddle Drive 7.58%

Short Mtn. 10.73%

Tiger Hill 4.68%


For hill repeats a quarter mile rise works very well. Saddle Drive is a good one. Quarter mile rise, recover on the backside and repeat. Short Mtn and Tiger hill are probably to long.

I've never run Tiger Hill, but sure seems steeper than Saddle Drive, its just to far from the house.

herd mentality

Met the 4:30 herd this morning for an easy 10 miles in the rain. Pretty crappy day. I was late and the guys did a quarter mile loop waiting for me to pull up. I was almost secretly hoping they'd all slept in. The temperature was 34 degrees and a pretty steady rain. Yuck.

First 4-5 miles weren't to bad, the rain was mostly at our back. By 6-7 miles the guys were picking up the pace. They were ready to be done. By 8 miles we were all soaked to the bone and ready to call it a day. The final couple of miles home seemed to be filled with road sized puddles which were deep enough that we were leaving a wake and splashing each other.

Blech. Not the worst conditions I've run in. Glad the guys slowed down enough that I was able to keep up. Couple of fast miles around 6 or 7 miles in, but still only averaged marathon pace for the entire run. Probably to quick for an easy day for me, but slow for their easy day.

The long run

This weeks long run went much better than the one where I experimented with not taking in calories before or during the run. Cool morning with a little bit of wind, around 27 degrees to start and didn't warm up much. I waited until almost 7:30 am to start, after the sun was up enough to warm the day a little. Ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before I started. Went out slow and took a powergel at 45 minutes and then another caffeinated powergel at 90 minutes. I drank diluted gatorade until about 12 miles when I ran out. Didn't want to stop and refill, because of the headwind going home. Nice to have the energy left to be able to run negative splits.

Trent wrote a great summation of the need for calorie intake during a marathon in this thread on the Striders board. The cliff notes version. 1. Know your ability 2. Start with a full tank. 3. Know your race fueling strategy. 4. Lose weight. 5. Expect the unexpected.

Indeed. Thus the long run every weekend to practice taking in the calories and to find out what works or doesn't. I could start to feel the energy levels dwindling after about 40 minutes, not so much when I was running slow. More so when I picked up the pace. Especially when I didn't take in any water in the last 6 miles.

Rune scape

This is a screen shot of Dylans character from the role playing game (RPG) he has been playing on line for a couple of months. Did the wiki search this morning and found out it's really a MMORPG. (Massively Multi-player On-line Role Playing Game) 15 million free accounts.

Watched "Legend of the Seeker" 3 times on Saturday. First time it was on channel WGN, Chicago. Then on the local CW58 channel, like it was last week. New episode and then last weeks episode afterwards. Really pushing the love sparks between Kahlan and Richard. The wizard, Zeddicus continues to evolve as a character, especially in today's episode. Forgot that Lucy Lawless from the "Xena: Warrior Princess" series narrated a special about the filming of the series. This series is based on the books "The Sword of Truth" by Terry Goodkind. Both were directed by Sam Raimi, who's most popular work is Spiderman and Army of Darkness.

Boston is closed

If you haven't registered for Boston, you're to late. Registration is closed.

As of this mornings run, I've run seven days straight. Plan to run with no days off for at least a 3 week cycle. Mileage will be over 60 miles this week and should be close to 70 miles next week. Tomorrow's run will be on the gravel portion of the new trail from Old Fort Parkway. Hopefully, two days a week of soft surface running will help my body recover from the seven days a week of running, and the extra mileage.

I'd forgotten Lance was riding in the Tour down Under. Need to go and find out when it's going to be televised or repeated. Lance gets bashed some much on the forums, I'd quit reading them. Last week they were making fun of his yellow and black bike.



January is almost over, which means everyone is looking for their W2's. If one more person asks me where their W2 is, I'm going to choke them. Really it isn't that big of a deal, but some folks seem to be kind of paranoid. Guess, they're all waiting for that big fat refund check from their uncle sam. Personally, I wish I could calculate it so I'd wouldn't pay a nickle to the "man", nor would I get a refund. Just more in my paycheck, please.

Ice man

Paula took this picture of me, yesterday morning. Just returned from a run in 18 degrees. Usually not this much of a ice buildup.

Department stores are giving away cosmetics? Sounds like one of those urban legends. First read about it on Lisa's blog and then again on the Serotta forum.

week 15 recap

I've already started to make adjustments in this training cycle. Friday's brutal cold forced a wimpout of my planned 12 by 200 meter repeats. Talked myself into doing 400 meter hill repeats on Saddle Drive and then decided 5 degrees and wind just wasn't where I wanted to be. Debated whether or not to go to Sportscom and run on the indoor track or dreadmill. That plan lost out because, I needed the speed not just another run and I hate running on the dreadmill. But, in missing that run I did also miss hitting 60 miles this week.

Saturday the temperatures rose a little and I was able to get 8 miles on the greenway. I started real late, almost 8 am. Wind was still pretty strong the whole way out, but pretty much at my back the whole way home. Saw 2 things on the greenway I've never seen. Don't know if it was the cold or maybe his/her favorite fishing spot was iced over. A great blue heron was standing on the side of the trail and didn't fly off until I was within about 10 feet. Awesome bird, wingspan and standing height easily 4 or 5 foot. Never have seen one that close. Secondly, a half a dozen chocolate covered donuts. That was really puzzling. First, that the were uneaten, the birds didn't even want them? Or that anyone is walking,running, biking, in-line skating or whatever and throws out their donuts. Blasphemy!

We went to see "Mall Cop" Saturday afternoon. Still cold and windy. Typical movie theme, boy wants girl, with a couple of funny scenes throw in for excitement. Lots of different twists from the normal made the movie interesting. Darrell didn't really care for it, Paula and Dylan thought it was funny. I'd give it a 6. Didn't quite make it as a comedy and not enough action. It was better than "Beer for my Horses", which isn't saying much. Dylan and watched that later saturday evening and I fell asleep. Some movies just never really click.

Legend of the Seeker was good this week. I'm really getting into this series. The local station carries the new episode at 7 pm and then last week's episode afterwards. Watched the "Deena" episode for the second time. Only down side to watching this stuff on television is the commercials, seems like they come on every 3 minutes and last for 4 minutes. May have to start recording the show and skipping through the commercials. Surfed around for some of the comments about the show and seems the readers of the book are disappointed with the series, because it doesn't follow the books. I'll need to pick up the books to make the comparison, but this is one of the better scifi/fantasy series to come along in quite awhile. I can't think of any show in the past that it even comes close. Most are of the space theme. The Harry Potter stuff is similar.

Long run today was a modified pace run. Started out with the fast guys and hoped for 14 miles around 7:15 to 7:30 pace. They stopped around 2 miles in for a nature break and I continued on. I figured they would catch me around 4 miles in, just past the crest of Spain Hill. Temperatures were warm compared to what we've had the past couple of days, right around 37 degrees to start. I wore shorts for the first time in several days. I stopped at 8 miles in to down a powergel and see where the guys were. I had to wait a couple of minutes before I could see them coming roughly a quarter mile back. I took off counting on them catching me in the next mile. They didn't overtake me until just past 10 miles, just after cresting the last hill for the day. They flew by me like I was standing still. Tried to pick it up to keep them as close as possible, but they gapped me really quick. I was just able to keep them in sight until about a mile to go. My glutes started tightening in the final 2 miles and I wasn't able to stay on pace as well. Still managed to average 7:22 pace for the run. Next time, I'll need to bring the succeed caps, the gatorade didn't work as well.

Kinda fun being the one chased in the run this morning. It kept my effort honest, because I kept expecting the guys to overtake me. When they didn't pass me at 4 miles in after cresting Spain Hill, I pushed the downhills and maintained on the inclines. At 6 miles in when I made the turn onto the hills of St. John I really expected to see them. Really surprised when I stopped at 8 miles with how long it took for them to come into sight. Found out after we finished they'd stopped another time to shed a layer of clothing.

windless wednesday

Wednesday morning and time for another tempo workout, but lo and behold the wind was almost non-existent. Holy &^%$# batman, could it be, a tempo workout without a 15 mph wind blowing in my face. It was cold, 18 degrees. The cold never was a factor. Did the duct tape trick on my shoes, but it only stayed for the first few miles. Didn't really need it after that, the pace was enough to keep everything else warm.

This mornings effort was 45 minutes at tempo pace. The pace came in better than last week and a more even effort, but still not as quick as it should be. I'll take it. The speed will come later.

Need to find out when "Legend of the Seeker" is scheduled to run again. I've watched about 4 episodes. Great show. It was shot in high definition in New Zealand. It's science fiction/fantasy with lots of action, little love interest and beef cake for everyone. Take the lead, the seeker, the last episode I watched had him hanging by his wrists and bare chested. You could count every muscle in his abs and chest. For the guys, the dominatrix wasn't to hard on the eyes either. Didn't hurt she was clad in leather.

More than a feeling, Boston

No not the band, though they do rock. The Boston marathon. All runners have heard of it, most non-runners even know about it. It's the first thing anyone asks you after you tell them you finished a marathon. "Have you ever run Boston?". Great blog about trying to make the show. My race report. We started talking about it on this mornings run. I get excited just thinking about it. It's that time of the year to start back the training to run Boston in early April or if you live in Nashville to start training for the Country Music Marathon.

Someone gave FM2 a word document with loads of Boston tips, he's been twice. I've lost my copy. Google shows plenty of other advice. Here's a few.

Runners World Article.

Active.com article.

Cool blog with good advice.

Bill Rodgers.

Cool Running.

Nice course preview.

History of Boston.

week 1

One week down in training for the Flying Pig. The goal for this race is 3:15. Didn't run 7 days this week. I'll try that starting tomorrow. Did 2 speed workouts, one decent 12 by 200 meters and a lousy 35 minute tempo run in the wind. Seems like everytime it's time for a tempo run the wind is blowing pretty hard.

Long run was a 15 miler, with about 9 miles of marathon pace effort in the middle of the run. I'd hoped for 16 miles worth of work, but stopped after 2 hours. Difference in this long run versus my typical long run was the lack of carbs. I'm trying the long runs without gels during the run or food beforehand, only water and succeed caps. Workout went ok, slowed in the final 3 miles but no real issues.

rock and roll

Watched 3-4 days worth of VH1's top 100 hard rock songs, since the start of the new year. Can't find the list on the web, only their story about the 4 shows. Dylan and I watched it for 2 hours straight on Saturday night. I'd watched a little bit on Friday night and watched the pieces I'd missed on Sunday. Lots of hair bands from the 80's, some punk (Ramones and Clash), and lots of stuff I sure wouldn't consider hard rock (Jethro Tull, Heart). My definition of hard rock is probably more of the heavy metal, Black Sabbath, Metallica. Their (VH1) number one song was Guns and Roses, Welcome to the Jungle. Lots of interesting quotes from band members, comedians, and even some wrestler ? Entertaining stuff, even if it was geared towards selling Guitar Hero.

Everyone at work seems to be sick. I hear everyone hacking, coughing and runny/snotty noses, hard to not get sick. I've been fighting some kind of crap in my chest for a week. Finally, seems to have broken last night. Hasn't affected my runs to much. Wanted to start running seven days a week yesterday, but sleep in instead. Pretty much laid on the couch all weekend.

Rainy 10 mile run this morning. Easy pace with Speedy and FM2. Wasn't as bad as I expected. The rain was mostly just a light drizzle and the temperature was around 40 degrees and no wind. Almost got a little bit warm with my rain jacket, but glad I wore it instead of just a long sleeve shirt. To hard to figure whether or not it would be raining hard enough to soak through a shirt or not.

Hate to see the Ravens coming to town. I think the Titans can come away with a win, if they don't turn over the ball and establish the run and dominate time of possession. But, if they get behind and have to try and play catch up, the Ravens defense can be overpowering. Titans 17, Ravens 10.

3rd Fat Ass 50k

Another year, another fat ass. This years run had the best weather to date. Sunny skies all day long. Temperatures started out brisk at around 24 degrees but warmed rapidly to low 50's by the time I finished. Turn out increased over last year to 20 runners. Most ran one or two loops or some other variation. 5 of us did the 50k distance.

I arrived early to try and get the electric connection. Plugs in the restrooms still don't work. Park employee tried to flip breakers and still couldn't get any power. I tried twice to get a fire started. First attempt the paper didn't catch my kindling and the second time the grass was to damp. Just as well, I didn't feel comfortable leaving an unattended fire.

Lots of different foods this year. Rick brought his world famous energy bars, super yummy and packed with energy. I brought chicken and dumplings and they did stay warm at least through the second loop. Also, some excellent cranberry and walnut cookies, bagels, croissants, tangerines, assortment of muffins and cupcakes, and candy.

Pictures are stuck in my camera. I don't have my SD card reader to get the photos'. Maybe next week.