The end of Week 7...

Here are a few pics my wife took of me when I got home from the Nashville Strider's 18 mile training run.

Well, Week 7 went way better than Week 6. I ran all of my scheduled days and only had to cut my Tuesday run from 4 to 3 miles due to soreness in my calves and my right arch hurting. I am hoping my body is getting adjusted to running more now. If it has, I can concentrate on running my low mileage days at 8:30-8:45 min/miles. We will just have to see, because in a few weeks, I will be doing 5-7 miles on my low mileage days. So here are the totals for this week.

End of week 7 totals

Scheduled miles - 27 miles Actual miles - 29 miles (dropped one on Tues. but got 3 extra on Sat.)

Now for my best running day (this far anyway), the Nashville Strider's 18 mile training run

This morning is the first time in along time that I got right up when the alarm went off at 5:15 am. I was excited about today and didn't know what it would hold. I was out the door by 5:35am. I drank an Amped and ate 2 Speical K bars on the way to Nashville. I also ate 800mg of Ibephrofen and my allergy medication. I got to LP field at 6:15am. The Strider's president was there organizing water and Gatoride for the water stops. I introduced myself to him and gave him my membership application and $20 to join Nashville Striders. I then got back in the truck to stay warm until I stretched. I stretched out at about 6:45am and everyone started getting ready to run. We left right at 7am to start. There were alot of people there. We made our way into downtown and weaved around until we picked up the marathon course at mile 11. I had set my Garmin to beep at me when I was going faster than 9 min/mile pace. I guess the wind blowing in my face or something because I didn't hear it beeping. I had ran my 1st 2 miles way faster than my planned 9:30-10 min/mile pace. I was too busy looking at all the sites in Nashville. I have not been downtown in probably a year and a half, so I looked like a tourist. When we come to the 1st water stop at Rite-Aid, there were a ton of people getting drinks, so I just went on past. The run to MetroCenter was not bad. I felt really good and finally settled into a pace that was comfortable. Turns out, it was faster than my planned pace too. At 45 mins in, I ate my 1st bag of Jelly Belly's. I was close to 2nd water stop, so I knew I could get water there. When I passed it, I stopped long enough to grab a cup of Gatoride and down it in 2 big gulps. I then climbed the incline and started the part of the course that is on the Greenway. We ran down it for over a mile to a mile and a half and got off down a steep incline. Right after the incline I spoted a row of bushes that would be a good place to use the bathroom if I have to during the marathon. We finished up by passing MetroCenter and started the steady climb out. The hill was not that steep, just long. I did well on it though. I even passed a few people. We left MetroCenter the same way we came into it, so the water stop at Rite-Aid was the 3rd one. I stopped there long enough to grab another cup of Gatoride and down it. Here is when I met Vandy-Montana and Amy. We exchanged hellos, and they were off before me. I had a plan to try and keep them in site. From reading their blogs, I have seen that they like to finish strong. The 3rd water stop was around mile 10 or so. We headed back toward LP Field at this point. I ate some more Jelly Belly's on my way to LP Field because I knew there was a water stop there to wash them down. When we got back to LP Field, I ditched my long sleeve t-shirt I had on at my truck. I came out of it, my gloves, and head cover at about 2.25 miles. It was not that cold anymore anyway. At LP field was the 4th water stop. I grabbed a cup of Gatoride on the way to my truck and downed it. This was at mile 12 or so I believe. When I got back on course, Vandy-Montana and Amy were turning the corner. I was needing to keep an eye on them to make sure I was running the right way too. But I fell in behind a group of ladies and just followed them. We had to stop at an intersection just long enough to let it clear out and we started running again. It was nice though, because there were about 10 to 12 of us running along together. I had my MP3 player going, so I was not talking to anyone, but it was nice to have people there to talk to if I wanted too. Around 13.5 miles into this adventure is when I started to get tired. I had planned on running atleast 15 miles of it without stopping since I was scheduled to run that far today. Earlier on during the day, I thought I would just run all 18 miles. But at this point, I was just glad to still be running. I passed the 5th water stop while in Shelby Bottoms Park. I didn't stop at this one because I had grabbed a bottled water at my truck to carry. We ran through the park and went around the lake. On the back side of the lake, the urge to pee hit me. Ain't it funny how you can sweat your butt off running and still have to pee. So at mile 14.5, I started to walk so I could spot a bathroom or porta potty. I ate another bag of Jelly Belly's and drank some water. I spotted a porta potty fairly quickly and stepped inside to do my business. I started running again and made it out of the park and up the small hill leading out of the park. I decided earlier that I would walk/run the last 2 miles to keep from injuring myself again from overtraining. I walked for about 2 mins, and then run about a 1/2 mile. I walked again from 1 telephone pole, past the next one, to the one after that. Then I picked it up and ran for another 1/2 or so. When I walked this time, I called home real quick to put my wife's mind at ease that I was ok and still running. She was suprised I was at alittle over 17 miles. I started running again and at 17.8 miles, while rounding a turn, my left hamstring locked up on me. I had to stop for a few seconds and message it. I tried to run again but it cramped right back up. So I spent a min or so and rubbed it down. When I picked up running again, it was really tight, but not cramping. I finished in the same parking lot we started in 2 hrs 57 mins and 26 secs. That is a 9:51 min/mile pace. It would have been way lower if I had not decided to walk/run the last 2 miles. I was extremely excited and started to stretch out. I drank some more Gatoride and ate a banana. I called my wife to tell her I was done and I would be leaving soon. I finished stretching out and then headed out. I called my running buddy Rich on the way home, but didn't get an answer. He texted back and I told him I was done and my time. He was proud of me.

I know now that I can run the full 26.2 miles with the rest of the training I have scheduled. Today helped prove that. I will be signing up for the CMM very soon!!!!!

Here is a look at my times per mile

Mile 1 - 9:21

Mile 2 - 9:06

Mile 3 - 9:21

Mile 4 - 9:05

Mile 5 - 9:04

Mile 6 - 9:43 (Water stop)

Mile 7 - 9:27

Mile 8 - 9:31

Mile 9 - 9:18 (Either 9 or 10 was a water stop)

Mile 10 - 9:34

Mile 11 - 9:29

Mile 12 - 9:48 (Water stop)

Mile 13 - 9:16

Mile 14 - 9:16

Mile 15 - 12:17 (me walking to find a bathroom and my potty break)

Mile 16 - 9:55 (1 short walk break)

Mile 17 - 11:21 (2 short walk breaks)

Mile 18 - 12:26 (stopping to message my left hamstring)

Now to Week 8 and a rest week (24 miles - 12 mile long run)

Happy Running......