Overview

We’re in full taper mode with just a few days left before the race.  Last week’s total was just shy of 22 miles, including about 6 miles of intervals (including warmup, cooldown, and recovery) on Tuesday and a 6-mile tempo run on Thursday.  The long run on Saturday was 10 miles at marathon pace.

I’ll finish out the rest of this week with about 4 miles of interval training on Tuesday and a 3-mile tempo run on Thursday.  I’ll probably go for a short walk on Saturday to keep fresh, but go progressively easier on everything as the week goes by. 

Favorite moment of the (long) run:  The weather was much better than last week, and as I entered a clearing near the lake, I looked up at the Carolina blue sky.  Out of the corner of my eye, it seemed that something wasn’t quite right about a bird flying in the distance.  I stopped my watch and squinted my eyes as it circled closer.  The bird seemed to be much bigger than a hawk, but didn’t fly like a buzzard.  Then I noticed the white head and a second later… a white tail… a Bald Eagle.  My parents live on the Tennessee River and are amateur bird watchers, so a quick phone call confirmed my identification.  I had never seen one in the wild before, so this was really cool for me.  “By the way,” Mom said as she hung up, “we saw two yesterday.”  Thanks, Mom.

In the last two entries, I described the first two-thirds of my experience at last year’s marathon.  This week, I’ll cover the final miles from 19 through the end.

Mile 19 is where it first dawned on me that I was getting tired.  There is a short but steep hill as you come out of the Old City and up onto State Street.  I found myself slowing dramatically for no apparent reason while some guy cruised past me while talking on his cell phone.  (I find this to be really annoying during a race, by the way.)  The grade up to the top of the hill by James White Fort also seemed like it was much tougher than it should have been.  I finished the mile in 10:02, but I was starting to think that my speed at the start of the race was going to catch up to me.

Luckily, mile 20 seemed to be mostly flat or downhill as we got on the James White connector and over the South Knoxville Bridge.  The official mile marker was way off for this mile (it had to be at least a half mile early) and it gave me some short-lived hope that I was really far ahead of schedule.  I came back to earth soon afterward when I realized that there was no way that I was 5 minutes ahead of my most optimistic pace.  So I turned my thoughts to the energy gel that would be waiting for me at the Mile 20 water stop.  I had written a bunch of notes on a pace wristband, including the exact locations of the water stops and gels.  Unfortunately, they all disappeared as I sprayed sunscreen on my arm just before I left the house.  Despite that, I was convinced that the gels would be at mile 20 and became so fixated on their importance that I was crushed to find that they weren’t exactly where I expected them to be.  It turned out that they were handed out a half-mile later as we circled under the bridge.  At this point, however, my mental state was not helping me keep on track.  The elevation change must have helped me out, though, because I finished this mile in 10:02.

Once again – if you plan to rely on gels for this (or any other) race, my personal suggestion is that you carry your own.  I now safety-pin them to the outside of my shorts and let my shirt hang over top of them.  When it’s time to take one, the safety pin holds the top while I rip the bottom part off.  It works pretty well and you have the peace of mind of not relying on anyone else.

In addition to the much-anticipated gel in the middle of Mile 21, there was also a significant drop in elevation that helped me finish in 9:52.  I don’t remember a lot else about this mile, except that somebody tried to drive through the marathon course and I realized how much I dislike out-and-back segments (especially when the people you’re running opposite are 2 miles ahead of you and appear to be having much more fun than you are).  At this point, I had eroded almost all of the time cushion that I accumulated early in the race.

I really liked the Island Home neighborhood that we ran through in Mile 22, except that they must have built “The Wall” in the middle of the street.  Because I ran right into it.  Despite all the encouragement and free oranges they were handing out (personally, I can’t imagine having sticky orange juice on me while I run), I slowed down dramatically and finished 40 seconds off my “best case” pace for the mile.

Mile 23 is where I learned to embrace the concept of the extended walk-break.  This part of the course is flat and should have been relatively straight-forward, but my legs seemed to decide on their own that they were tired and would stop running without asking for permission.  This time, I was on the positive side of the out-and-back course, but the people on the opposite side still seemed to be having much more fun than me.  Once again, I was 40 seconds behind my goal pace for this mile.

I got through mile 24 by forcing myself to run to a certain spot, where I would walk for a minute.  Then I would choose another spot and try to run again.  My legs were calling all the shots, though.  Even if I told them to run, there was only a 50-50 chance that they would listen.  The hill that took us up to Gay Street was especially unpleasant.  I was a full minute behind my pace for the mile and had accumulated a two minutes deficit against my best-case finishing time.

High places don’t typically bother me too much, but I had to force myself not to look off the Gay Street Bridge as we headed back into town.  The wind was pretty stiff and I’m sure that I was weaving back and forth on the sidewalk as if I’d been drinking something other than Powerade.  Unfortunately, the course gained elevation over the rest of the mile after the bridge.  As I stumbled into Market Square for the enjoyment of all the people gathered at the cafes, I suddenly remembered a field trip during my years at West Hills Elementary when we came downtown to sing selections from “The Sound of Music”.  It must have been 30 years ago that it happened and at least 25 since I had thought about it, but it seemed like yesterday as I ran past the bandstand.  There was no time to stop, though, because I had dropped another minute and a quarter off my pace during this mile.

Mile 26 finally brought a little bit of downhill running and I could feel that the end was near.  I was certain that I would finish, so I knew that I would at least accomplish one of my goals.  Although there was no way that I could recover enough time to finish in my “best-case” goal of 4:18, I was still hopeful that I could average 10-minute miles and accomplish my “realistic” goal.  Somehow, I found the energy to finish this mile in 10:04.

Of course, they couldn’t make the last point-two miles easy, so we got to run onto the UT campus and up Estabrook towards the stadium.  I graduated from UT with an Electrical Engineering degree, so I am very familiar with the hills around the back of Ferris Hall.  This time was totally unlike anything else I had experienced, though, as I made the turn onto Lower Drive and saw the tunnel into the stadium. 

Then it was a blur as I entered the darkness, was told to watch the carpet they laid down due to construction, headed back into the sunlight inside the stadium, felt the grass under my feet, and heard the announcer mispronounce my name.  I ran as hard as I could, knowing that it was ridiculous to try and save a few seconds at this point.  And then I was over the finish line.  Watch my step - don’t trip on the timing mats.  Take the medal.  Then the “finisher” hat.  Let them take my picture, knowing that I probably look horrible.  Oops – turn off the watch.  Say “hi” and “thanks” to the guys from Canada.  Oops – I forgot to watch myself on the JumboTron since I was too busy worrying about the timing mat.  Drink some absolutely amazing chocolate milk.  And some water.  Drape a space blanket over my shoulders.  And then stop to think – what did the clock say? 4:22:36.  If I ignore the “36” part, that’s 10-minute miles, right?

So I met my “realistic” goal, in spite of the fact that I ran too fast and probably wasn’t strong enough to meet my most optimistic goal.  Seven months later, I ran my second marathon and was able to address both of these issues.  At the OBX marathon in November, I was much more consistent in my pace and I was actually able to run the last 10k at a faster pace than the first 20 miles.  Then again, the course in the Outer Banks was almost completely flat in comparison to Knoxville.  Here’s the visual:

So this weekend, I’ll be back in Knoxville to see if I can make up for the mistakes I made the first time.  I’ve still got a “realistic” and a “best-case” goal, but I’ll be much more focused on hitting consistent pace targets and preserving my strength for the last few miles.

Good luck to everyone this weekend!  I’ll be the one with “Stick To The Plan” written on my hand right next to my watch.  If you see me running eight-and-a-half minute miles, please kick me (unless we’re at mile 25).

Mike

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With the final long run behind me before the Knoxville Marathon, the mileage starts to go down for the next couple of weeks.  This week’s total was about 25 miles, including over 6 miles of interval training, a 5-mile tempo run, and a long run of about 13 miles.  Once again, cross-training consisted of a spin class on Monday and Wednesday.

The weather for the long run on Saturday was miserable.  About 40 degrees and a constant rain.  I think that I only saw about 8 other people running for the entire two hours that I was out.  Fortunately, there was plenty of other stuff to look at.  Since this is the anniversary of the battle of Guilford Courthouse, there were people camping out for a historical reenactment along my normal route.  It turned out that the rain put a damper (emphasis on the ‘damp’) on their activities, so there were just a bunch of people in tights standing around campfires.  (As opposed to a guy in tights running around in the rain.)

In the end, it was a pretty gloomy run and one of those efforts that you simply work your way through.  The plan called for running at marathon pace.  While I was able to complete it in the target time, it wasn’t a whole lot of fun.

Favorite moment of the (long) run:  There wasn’t much that qualified, but one thing did make me smile.  It occurred when I stopped to look at a sign on a bright orange pole that had been installed for some reason right in the middle of the greenway.  As I paused in the pouring rain to try and decipher the smeared writing, I realized that it said “Wet Paint”.  Yeah, right.

Last Year's Race

Last week, I wrote up a description of the first third of my experience at last year’s marathon.  In general, I ran quite a bit faster during the initial part of the race than even my most optimistic pace.  This week, I’ll review the middle third from miles 10 to 18.

The course for mile 10 continues along the Third Creek Greenway.  Don’t expect a lot of crowd support in this stretch since you basically won’t see anyone but runners from the time you get on the greenway until you reach Tyson Park.  This section is pretty flat and I ended up running about 15 seconds faster for this mile than I should have.

Mile 11 takes you through Tyson Park, where there were quite a few people waiting to cheer the runners on.  It also contained the first water stop with energy gels.  If I had followed the recommendation on the packets, I would have already sucked up two of them by this point.  My recommendation - if you use them in your training and expect to use them in the race, I wouldn’t necessarily tie yourself down to their availability on the course.  After you get through Tyson Park and onto Cumberland, the elevation starts to change pretty quickly.

Mile 12 continues the elevation change as you run up into the Fort Sanders area.  I found it to be a pretty good challenge to maintain speed along this section and I passed several people who were struggling with the elevation as well.  In my case, I finally stopped running ahead of my “best case” pace and ran about a 10-minute mile.

In mile 13, the half-marathon runners split off to head to the stadium.  This transition was handled very well and there were plenty of volunteers to make sure everyone headed in the right direction.  There’s a slight downhill section as you head into the World’s Fair Park (make sure you strike a confident pose as you run past the photographer with the SunSphere in the background).  At this point, I started running near 2 guys who had Canadian flags painted all over them.  They were running with “Jenn” and yelled at anybody who listened that it was “Jenn’s first marathon!”.  This group was really fun to be near and got the crowd fired up as they passed.  Finished this mile about 6 seconds ahead of goal pace.

Mile 14 took us up Broadway and into the 4th & Gill neighborhood.  It was a little awkward getting stared at by all the people standing outside the Rescue Ministry as we ran past.  It seemed to put everything in perspective.  The 4th & Gill neighborhood was a lot of fun, though.  They turn the race into a big block party with a lot of encouraging attention directed at the runners.  Bananas, fruit, and water were available at the mile 14 marker.  Dropped 10 seconds off my goal pace for this mile.

The 4th & Gill neighborhood continued through the first part of mile 15 and there appeared to be quite a few adult beverages being consumed early on a Sunday morning.  The crowd support was great, though.  I think I even passed somebody in a chicken suit at some point.  After heading under the interstate, I hit the mile marker at 2 seconds under my goal pace.  It would be the last time that I was under my goal for the rest of the race.

Mile 16 had some rolling hills through a relatively industrial section of town until you got to Caswell Park.  You were exposed to a pretty strong wind at this point.  There was a woman in front of me wearing a jacket that inflated with air as we ran into the headwind.  Simply running was hard enough - I couldn’t imagine doing it with the parachute that she was wearing.  At this point, the runners were significantly spread out.  This section was a couple of seconds behind goal pace for me.

In mile 17, we made our way through the Parkridge neighborhood where there are some great old houses.  Once again, there was a lot of support from the neighborhood.  There were a few rolling hills and I was off my goal pace by 10 seconds.  This section was typical of the mileage at this point in the race – no significant challenges but just another mile to get through on your way to the tough part.

Mile 18 took us back through an industrial section of town and into the Old City.  The running wasn’t very difficult at this point, but I fell into a consistent pace about 10 seconds per mile less than my goal.  There was quite a crowd assembled in the Old City and it felt good to be headed into the final part of the race. 

With two-thirds of the race behind me, I was still about 30 seconds ahead of pace for my most optimistic finishing time.  But I had varied widely in my pace up to this point and had been anywhere from 30 seconds per mile ahead to 15 seconds per mile behind where I wanted to be.

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We’re on the home stretch for the Knoxville Marathon.  Last week consisted of a little over 6 miles of interval training, an 8-mile tempo run, the final long run (about 22), and two days of spin class.  The weekly total was the highest of the program at about 36 miles.

I had a meeting at the church at 9am on Saturday and a full day of activities after that, so I had to finish the long run early.   Once again, I found myself on a treadmill at the gym at 5.  Six miles was all I could take before jumping in the car and driving to the local greenway to start the “real” run.

After a quick warmup, I stepped on the trail but quickly saw that the path was blocked by 3 deer.  I reached for the camera that I brought along, but all I got was a scene of where they were about 3 seconds ago.

As I continued up the path, I realized that they were running through the woods as well.  For a moment, I ran alongside them but they quickly left me behind and disappeared into the trees.
I then headed toward the lake as the sun came up and was greeted by the following sights:

I finished the run at about marathon pace + 15 seconds/mile and felt pretty good.  I hope that this bodes well for the race.

Favorite moment of the (long) run:  If I ignore the treadmill part, the whole run was great.  It was really impressive to watch the world come alive as the run progressed.  From the initial encounter with the deer, to the sunrise, to the first couple of people I came across, then a small running group, then a huge Team-in-Training group, it was like seeing the world wake up and shake off the darkness.

Last Year's Race
Since there are three weeks left, I’ll try to review my experience from last year in the remaining blog entries.  I have read that a marathon can be divided into three sections…  You run the first third with your head, the second third with your legs, and the final third with your heart.  I’ll divide my description up the same way.

The 2008 Knoxville Marathon was my first full marathon and there was apparently a lot to learn.  Specifically: when you’re told to “use your head” during the first part of the race, then that’s what you should do.  I didn’t, and I ended up paying for it later on.

I had three different goals for the race.  My first goal was to simply finish, regardless of the time.  I was pretty sure that I would I wouldn’t have any problem accomplishing this.  My second goal was a “realistic” finishing time of 4:22, or 10-minute miles.  Once again, I thought this was definitely achievable based on my training.  Finally, I had an “optimistic” goal of finishing in 4:18, or 9:50-minute miles.

So when the gun went off, I was planning to try and run consistently at a 9:50 pace and then fall back to the 10-minute pace if I needed to.  I felt a surge of adrenaline at the start, so I couldn’t figure out why I was struggling to keep up with my fall-back pace.  It turned out that in the dark, I couldn’t tell the difference on my watch between a “ten” minute-mile and an “eight” minute-mile.  It appears that a zero and an eight look very similar when you're not really paying attention.  Stupidly, I ran the first half-mile much faster than I should have.  Even more stupidly, I continued to run too fast even when I finally turned on the watch light and realized what was going on.  I finished the first mile in 9:19, 30 seconds faster than even my “optimistic” goal.

I’d like to say that I learned my lesson on the first mile and calmed down for the second.  I’d like to say that, but I can’t.  A combination of a downhill section followed by the flat course along the river resulted in a 9:12 pace for the second mile.  The notes that I wrote down after the race indicated that I struggled to handle the varying paces of the people around me.  Unfortunately, I unintentionally kept up the pace of those I was near and spent energy passing people I shouldn’t have been passing in the first place.  After two miles, I was a full minute ahead of where I should have been.  Not good.

Finally on mile 3, some sanity was restored and I finally ran a reasonable pace – 9:49.  Or maybe it was just the long slow climb up to Kingston Pike that finally slowed me down.  My notes for mile 4: “Rolling hills with some serious uphill sections.  Pace dropped since I was trying to slow down and deal with the hills, too.”  My time for this mile was 9:58, so I finally started to regulate my speed.

Ooops.  Mile 5 is the entry into Sequoyah Hills, so it’s downhill to the river with an uphill section in the middle.  I ran it in 9:44 when I should have been conserving energy. 

My notes for mile 6:  “Flat section along the river, so I ran too fast again.”  Yes, 9:33 was way too fast.  On a positive note, it was really nice to run past the park where I spent so much time hanging out on the weekends in High School.  If only I could have stopped at Long’s Drug Store for a hamburger and a milkshake when we ran passed it 20 minutes later…

Mile 7 continued the relatively flat section along the river and then started to lead back into the hills as we moved away.  I managed to regulate the pace to 9:56 here.

My notes for mile 8:  “Hill on Noelton didn’t seem as bad as it was built up to be on the message boards.  Passed several people on the way up (it’s actually a hill followed by a short flat piece and then another hill).  Once you get up to Kingston Pike, it’s relatively flat and even downhill for the rest of the mile.  My pace was 10:04, which seemed appropriate at the time.

I continued this pace into mile 9, where I ran a 10-minute mile as we moved onto the greenway behind the UT student apartments and West High School.  I was a full minute ahead of where I should have been according to my “best case” scenario (and I had already been as much as 1:30 ahead at one point).

So the first third of the race was over... but the impacts of running too fast at the start are yet to come.

Next time:  Running with my legs (as if I had a choice)

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One month to go until the Knoxville Marathon and I can't wait.  This week added up to a little over 30 miles, including about 5 miles of interval training on Tuesday, a 10-mile tempo run on Thursday, and a long run of about 15 miles on Saturday.

I got up on Saturday morning and looked at the temperature - 45.  That's not too bad, so I put on the shorts and short-sleeve shirt that I would normally wear.  I knew that there was a good chance that I'd be running in the rain, but I wasn't really prepared for the combination of rain, wind, and falling temperatures that I'd experience.  One mile in, my teeth were still chattering.

I was beginning to wonder why the big drops of rain falling off the trees didn't seem quite right when I ran into a clearing and continued to feel the big drops from trees that weren't even there.  It turns out that I was running in a combination of rain and snow... in shorts and a t-shirt.  Looking back on it, it seems like an extremely stupid idea.  At the time, however, I just remember a stubborn sense of pride for being a "real" runner.  A real stupid runner, maybe, but a "real" runner all the same.

Favorite moment of the (long) run:  The realization that none of it was on a treadmill.  I didn't post an update last week, but the long run conflicted with a day full of activity, starting with a 9am departure for my daughter's birthday party.  With 20 miles to run, I was up at 4 and headed to the gym where I put in the first 12 miles on the most monotonous piece of exercise equipment ever invented.

Song-of-the-run:  In preparation for the race, I won't be listening to music for the rest of my long runs.  So it was with a sense of anticipation that I approached the end of my run and the last song I'd hear during training.  The result nearly made me stop in the wintry mix to catch my breath: "Rocky Top".

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Although it is of little consequence now, I'd like to go on record saying that I was an unwilling accomplice in the tragic event during last weekend's run.  While the sparrow and I were traveling down the path and then froze to assess each other, I had no idea that the red-tailed hawk was watching the entire time.  And when it streaked through the trees and past my shoulder, I was powerless to help as my former friend disappeared in a cloud of feathers.  There was little left to do but continue my run, safe in my relative position in the food chain but severely rattled nonetheless.

So... a little over 31 miles of running last week.  Intervals on Tuesday were slightly difficult to keep up with - 3 sets of 2 intervals of 3/4 mile each.  Between the late-evening run on the treadmill due to a scheduling conflict, the complicated training session, and all the "Biggest Loser" drama I was mindlessly trying to keep up with, I probably screwed it up somewhere.  But at least I tried.

The tempo run on Thursday was 10 miles at marathon pace.  Once again, an early-morning conflict put me on the treadmill at night for the whole thing.  Not a lot of fun there, to be honest.  Saturday's run was 15 miles at marathon pace + 20 seconds/mile.  Except I read my training calendar wrong and ran it at MP + 10 seconds/mile.  Ooops.

I'll try posting a snapshot from SportTracks (http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/) of my training mileage so far.  Hope it works out.

Favorite moment of the (long) run:  A few miles into the run, a flock of geese flew overhead.  They were honking, making a huge racket, and drawing a lot of attention to themselves.  15 seconds later, a lone goose followed.  Quietly and with strong consistent strokes, he appeared to be gaining ground.  I didn't miss the metaphor.

Song-of-the-run:  "Ain't Goin' Down 'Til the Sun Comes Up" by Garth Brooks.  In March of 1998 when my wife was 8 months pregnant with our first child, we went to see Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood in concert.  When he fired up this song, our daughter started kicking the inside of my wife's belly like a drum in perfect time with the music.  It was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen and the song makes me smile every time I hear it.  And it's not bad for running, either.

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The running portion of last week's training totaled about 34 miles.  As usual, Tuesday was interval training.  This time, the intervals were relatively long at 2 miles, 1 mile, and 2x half-miles.  Thursday was a tempo run that totaled 6 miles.  The long run on Saturday went for about 21 miles.

I'm using the FIRST training program that specifies only 3 days of running per week with 2 days of cross-training (http://www.furman.ed/first).  I used this program to train for my last race (OBX Marathon in the Outer Banks) and it seemed to work really well for me.

One of the ideas behind the program is that the cross-training provides a break between runs that allows you to push a little harder on your running days.  While using this program in the past, the cross-training has been on either a stationary bike at the gym or bike rides on back streets and trails near my house.  With the cold weather in winter, however, the training was happening exclusively at the gym and was starting to get just a little bit boring.

At the start of January, I made the leap to a Spin class at the gym as an alternative to the stationary bike.  I must admit that I was extremely reluctant to step into the class - the incessant throbbing of the techno music and being yelled at by an instructor isn't exactly my style.  After a month and a half of bi-weekly Spin sessions, though, I'm starting to appreciate the benefits.  I am definitely getting a more intense workout and it's hitting a lot more muscles than I ever worked on the stationary bike.  From everything that I've read, it's also important to keep up a high cadence if you're going to cross-train on a bike.  When I was working out by myself, it was a struggle to stay on task and keep the pedals turning fast enough.

The verdict so far is that I'm really glad that I added the Spin class to my training program.  I think it's a much more consistent and a higher quality workout than I would have completed on my own.  I guess I'll have to see if the hill-climbing on the bike pays off when I get to mile 24 and have to run up that hill to the Gay Street bridge.

Favorite moment of the (long) run:  With one daughter and my wife at an all-night church lock-in and the other daughter hosting a sleepover at our house, there was basically zero chance of me getting in an early-morning run on Saturday.  As a result, I didn't make it out until mid-afternoon when the weather was bright and warm.  It turns out that basically everyone else in town seemed to have the same idea because one of my routes through a park was closer to a street fair than the usual isolation that you get on a long run in February.  In the end, it could have been annoying to have so many people around but everyone was in such a good mood that it was impossible not to enjoy it.

Song-of-the-run:  "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals.  No real reason.  It my stride well and came at a good time in the run.

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45 minutes into Saturday's long run, I had stumbled across 5 deer but only 2 other people.  That's my kind of run.  They bolted when they heard me crunching up the frozen trail, then stopped and stared as I passed.  It was as if they couldn't believe that they were afraid of something that plodded along so slowly.

Last week saw the mileage bump back up again after having stepped down the week before.  Monday and Wednesday were cross-training.  Tuesday consisted of 12 quarter-mile intervals, Thursday was a 6-mile run with 3 miles at short-tempo pace, and Saturday was around 18 miles at marathon pace + 30sec/mile.  The grand total reached about 31 miles.

It dawned on me this week that we're two months away from race day in Knoxville.  After this point, my program sets up alternating 20 and 15-mile long runs before tapering off for the last two weeks.  Looking back at my mileage log from last year, the farthest I had run in training to this point had been 15 miles.  I'm definitely feeling a lot stronger than I did then.  At the same time, I'm also expecting to run at least 30sec/mile faster than I did last year, so I'd better be feeling stronger or I'm really going to be in trouble.

Favorite moment of the run:  There was a point in those first 45 minutes on Saturday when I realized that there probably wasn't another person within at least a half mile of where I was running.  Following a week where people were constantly lined up at my door to tell me what was going wrong or how I needed to help them, it was truly liberating to think that I had the whole path to myself, a task of my own choosing ahead of me, and a couple more hours of quiet time to complete it.

Song-of-the-run:  Shortly after I realized that there wasn't anyone else around, "No One Like You" by David Crowder Band filled the headphones.  Feeling relatively spiritual in the first place as I broke through the trees into a sunlit clearing and onto a bridge over a glassy lake, this song kicked it into high gear.  I guess the endorphins must have been kicking in, too.  Safe in the knowledge that there were probably more deer watching than people, I threw my arms out to the side and "flew" across the open water.

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It was 12 degrees when I woke last Saturday.  This week, I woke to a temperature of nearly 50 degrees.  Without checking the forecast the night before, I had laid out tights, long sleeve shirt, gloves, etc. for a cold morning run.  With a smile on my face, I threw all that stuff back in the drawer and pulled out shorts and a short-sleeve shirt.

This has been a relatively easy "recovery" week with a total of about 26 miles.  Tuesday was speed intervals of a half mile each.  (I'm using the word "speed" pretty loosely here, by the way.)  Thursday was an 8-mile run with 6 miles at a long tempo pace.  Monday and Wednesday are my cross-training days.

It had been a pretty stressful week, so I was really looking forward to the 13 miles on Saturday.  The pace was a bit faster than any of the other long runs so far - marathon pace + 15 seconds/mile.  When it comes to the location of my Saturday runs, I'm a creature of habit and I go back to the same place each week.  This typically means a short out-and-back on a trail before getting on a greenway that connects to a couple of parks.  For some reason, I built up the significance of the trail run in my mind and I decided to run the course in the reverse order this week, placing the out-and-back section in the middle of the run.

This plan seemed blessed from the moment my feet hit the mulch and pine needles that carpeted the forest floor.  Two miles later, the worries of the week were just a memory.

Favorite moment of the run:  A section of the trail runs by the side of a stream and an open field.  At this moment, I suddenly found myself surrounded by the brilliant indigo of a flock of bluebirds.  I've never seen so many in one place at the same time before and it was literally stunning.

Song-of-the-run:  "Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2.  This is one of my favorite running songs and the opening crescendo kicked in right as I entered the woods.  I kept hitting 'repeat' until the trees were behind me.

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