road block

Yesterdays run was stopped momentarily by a tree across the greenway. Nothing really unusual about that. I stopped to try and move it, but it was to big to move by myself. Interestingly it had been felled by a beaver. At least that's what I thought. The more I thought about it as I finished my run. I changed my mind. It must have been a muskrat. A beaver would have been smart enough to take the tree down so it would fall into the water, not across the greenway. It does mean the Stones River probably isn't quite as polluted as it has been the last several years.

Never did see the culprit, only signs of chewed upon trees.

Also saw a great blue heron standing in the creek waiting to catch a shiner. Probably the closest I've ever been to one of those birds. Only about 20 feet away. Pretty cool to have a greenway right in the middle of town with so much wildlife. Of course the sad part is driving the 2 miles to the greenway.

Only downside to the run. I'll call it a long run at 8 miles. A blister on my forefoot behind my big toe. New spot, because I'm still doing some kind of limp/compensation/flat foot strike with my right leg. May have also been the increased pace trying to catch a runner ahead of me for the 4 miles home. He must have finally slowed down when I did catch him. My pace didn't really ever pick up very much.

Karma

She's a bitch or he's a bastard.

Looking through my log, 'cause that's what wannabe runners do. Entry below from 5 days before breaking my foot.

"still cold, still spitting rain. big group. supposed to be 3 miles at 5k pace plus a minute. fuck that. time for some marathon specific stuff. target 6:52 for the 3 miles. close enough, for the first attempt. finally a decent workout. hell, it took long enough. 14-15 weeks out. lots of time to build. plus did 4 x 30 second hill repeats off the hill on the square."
 

Mile 4

6:53

Mile 5

6:51

Mile 6

6:53

Didn't need my Garmin. Just went by effort, didn't look at the watch, until I downloaded it. Didn't need a heart rate monitor. Great to run with the group. Everyone doing their own thing. Some leading, some chasing.

I miss it.

By the numbers

For this latest comeback, I've decided to try something a little bit different. I'm an accountant, I count. This time I'm going to try and make some kind of nifty little graph to show how much my average heart rate declines over time as my average pace decreases. Boring, but it gives me something to focus on instead of my pitiful times.

Most times I don't have any problem not looking at my Garmin as I'm running. This go around it's even easier. This is probably the slowest I've ever run. The average pace last week was slower than most of the 50k's I've done. Still, that gives a good couple of minutes to trim off the average pace. Plus, you can't expect much from 4 runs for a total on the week of 15 miles.

Managed to break a couple of the new runner rules with this first week back. From this link, "build slowly for 9 weeks to a 3 mile run". Oops, I ran almost 5 miles on Sunday. Plus loads of advice from the forum on Running Ahead. Don't consider myself a new runner, so I'm able to get away with some of these "rules". It was pretty dumb to run almost 5 miles on Saturday and then run 6 miles on Sunday for only my 3rd and 4th run back. The one thing I'm not dumb enough to do this go around, is a running streak.

This morning we got a dusting of snow. Actually it was still snowing when I went out for a 3 mile run. Running while it's snowing is a treat. Running in the dark in the snow, not so much. Only because the snow flakes were so tiny, the only way to even know it was snowing was the reflection from the streetlights. That just doesn't quite compare to the daylight and big fluffy flakes floating out of the sky.

Watched the Special Kids 15k race on saturday from a point on Old Nashville Highway about 3/4 of a mile from the finish. I ran over from the trail head at Haynes Lumber, about 2 miles away. Brought the cow bell along to encourage/annoy/motivate the runners. Fun to watch and helps to keep me motivated to get out and run. Guess, I'm the only one would have liked to see different color bibs for the 5k versus 15k. Especially as they share so much of the course. It would have been nice for the lead female to have a bike leading the way to move the walkers out of her way as she finished. (I'd volunteer to be that bike rider)

One slog at a time

Finally back running. It's only been 46 days. Wore the heart rate monitor to have a starting back bench mark. Average heart rate 145 bpm at an average pace of ....................drum roll......................10:56 per mile for a whooping 2.1 miles. Damn. Another long build up.

First day of spring is tomorrow. For some reason I thought it was today. Birds sure acted like it was spring, they were singing and chirping even before the sun was up. Tad chilly at 34 or so degrees. Glad to be back running. The bike trainer just doesn't cut it for me. Love riding the bike on the roads, but that hasn't really been much of a option the last couple of weeks.

Guessing I'll be ready to attempt a run with the fellas in a couple of weeks. Probably about the time they come back from Boston.

Marathon bike ride on the Stones River Greenway

Redo of the pond

Yuck.

Cool graffitti

Old steam tractor

Chapel where Paula and I were married.

Stiff wind, steps of the chapel

Chapel placard

Gas pump

Replica gas station

Another view

End of the greenway

End of the greenway, other direction

Stones River fork

After ride refreshment

spring fever

It's been six weeks since I broke my foot. Decided to stop wearing the boot on Saturday. Hopefully the doctor will agree, should I elect to go see him next week. Also went ahead and shaved, below before and after shots. I've been trying to grow my hair out, you know like Fabio or any of those long haired hippie looking dudes. Isn't working. Actually the hair on my face grows quicker than the hair on my head. Bleah.

Scary old man

Still riding the bike trainer. I hadn't been wearing my cycling shorts, only because I was only on the thing for 30 minutes. Forty minutes and it hurts my rear end. Maybe because, I'm just not use to being in the saddle. Went ahead and put on the shorts this morning for my forty minute ride to nowhere. It may have helped a little. I think the bigger issue is getting out of the saddle. Did about 3 minutes worth of 15 second out of the saddle jumps to change things up. That may be the thing that's missing to make this trainer stuff tolerable. I may be tempted to go ahead and ride outside in the dark instead of on the trainer to nowhere.

Brewed a batch of beer on Sunday with son number one. Went back to a malt extract kit instead of all grain. Only because we didn't want to drive into Nashville for ingredients and we wanted to see what the local brew/wine shop stocked. (Lets make wine) They are located off the square in a old house.

Son number two is really getting good with the skateboard. He's a better skater than all of the teenagers in our neighborhood.  We went back out to the local HS to get a video of him doing his thing. Attached is his edited version. Pretty amazing what these kids are capable of doing with computers.

Bonnie Franklin RIP