Taper Time

The marathon is eleven days away, so it's taper time!  I was injured in December during what should have been the taper period, so I'm pretty excited to get to be in this position this time around.  We had our last long run (21 miles) on Saturday, which went well and left me feeling good about the race.  I feel like I'm in better shape than I was the first time around, and even though the last six miles are going to hurt, I will be fine in Nashville.  

Oak Barrel Half-Marathon

Yesterday was the Oak Barrel Half-Marathon, which is my favorite road race, period.  The race is in Lynchburg, TN and is sponsored by Jack Daniel's.  The race runs through the very scenic Moore County, which has alot of creeks, streams, farmland and rolling hills.  The course has a pretty challenging hill, called "Whiskey Hill", that is roughly a mile long starting around mile 4.  After mile 5, the course is primarily a gradual downhill run with a few rolling hills scattered around. 

Lynchburg is proud of this race, which is now in it's 3rd year.  Hundreds of spectators come out to volunteer on cheer on the runners.  Driving in to this race, there are always signs in people's yards and at local stores welcoming runners into town.  There's nothing like the atmosphere at Oak Barrel.  At the finish line, you get a finisher's medal that is cut from the oak barrels they use to make Jack Daniel's whiskey.  The festivities at the finish line are incredible.  There is a live band, good food (especially the Brunswick stew), and of course the distillery where you can take the tour or get a custom engraved commemorative bottle of Jack Daniel's, with your name, finish time, and the race logo.

We ran this race as part of our marathon training, and pretty much just for fun.  It was a perfect morning to run, about 50 degrees at the race start.  I made a point to take it easy early on, at least until I topped Whiskey Hill.  In the 2011 race, I had to walk a little on the hill, but surprisingly this year I didn't have to.  I ran pretty easily until about mile 11.  I felt pretty good then, and pushed the pace down the rest of the way in.  I finished in 2:14, Bill in 2:02.  My cousin Heath and his wife also ran it; it was his first 1/2 marathon, and I was glad to be there for that.  

I absolutely love this race, and I'll run it every year that I can.

Lately

Life's been pretty busy lately, and I haven't had alot of time to post updates.  Last weekend, Helen and I got married and have been on our honeymoon the last week.  Honeymoons are bad for marathon training.  We stayed at an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas and loved every minute of it, but the next few days are going to hurt after a week of around the clock buffets and pampering.  

As for training, I've stuck to the schedule as close as possible.  On the Thursday before the wedding, we did our 19-mile long run that was scheduled for Saturday.  Then, on the morning of the wedding, March 24th, there was a 5k near our hotel, so I decided to do about a 2 mile run, then the 5k at a very casual pace.  I ran it in 28:42, and best of all got a t-shirt with my wedding date on it.  Then last week, on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, I ran twice ... a 3.5-mile run on Tuesday, and a 4-mile run on Friday.  Running in the Bahamas was pretty cool, but it is really hard to run with traffic on the left side of the road when you're not used to it.  Regardless, it was neat and took me to parts of the island that I wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise.  

Hills

We've decided to add hill workouts to our schedule.  The race in Nashville is fairly hilly, and another race that we're running in training also has a HUGE 1 mile uphill climb in it, so running hills in training will help get us ready for those two races.

Our Tuesday runs, which are 8-10 mile runs, we are adding a section where with roughly a 500 foot climb in the middle.  We did this for the first time this last Tuesday.  It's tough, but after you get started climbing,  it gets easier.  We've also decided to do all of our Saturday long runs on Monte Sano, which has alot of gently rolling hills.

Fundraising the last week

The last week has been amazing as far as fundraising goes.  Last week, I sent out a mass email with information about raising money in memory of my dad for the American Cancer Society.  I also contacted the HR manager at my work, who also helped spread the word.  Since then, people have donated almost $1000, bringing the total to $1235, which is only $65 dollars short of the goal.  I really can't say enough about how generous people have been, and how proud I am that people are donating to such a great cause  to honor my dad.

Flat Rock Loop

Yesterday, we were scheduled to run 15, but we decided to run 13 on trails instead.  I wouldn't want to do all of my long runs on trails since the race is on the road, but the run that we call the "Flat Rock Loop" is hard to resist.  There are only a couple of times per year that you can run all of the Flat Rock Trail on Monte Sano.  The "flat rock" part of the trail is actually on private land and is closed to the public Nov-Jan, because the landowner hunts on it during that time.  It's open the rest of the year, but the trails aren't frequently traveled, so they are grown up in warm weather, so you're likely to run into snakes and poison oak.

It was the second time that I've ran this loop.  We drop one car at the Land Trust parking lot and then drive up to the hiker's parking lot in the state park and leave from there.  We take the Bucca Family Trail, Warpath Ridge trail, Power Line trail, and then the Flat Rock trail around the mountain.  The Flat Rock trail winds along the northern side of the mountain and stays mostly flat, with gently rolling hills.  It was pretty muddy out there, which was actually pretty fun once I got used to having wet feet.

There are alot of things that make this a neat run.  About 2.5 miles in, you reach O'Shaughnessy point, which has a nice southern view of Huntsville.  Going down Warpath Ridge trail, you run through a boulder field with a few sinkholes scattered around.  Around 5 miles into the run, you go up Power Line trail which has been cleared, and you get a view looking down in the valley east of the mountain.  The final 8 miles of the run is on the Flat Rock trail which crosses several small creeks and streams, runs along several steep rock walls, and takes you out to the ~2 acre flat rock on the northeastern point of the mountain, which also has a nice view.

Coyote's Don't Bite (Humans)

Monday was President's Day, and so there weren't very many people around work.  I went for a 5 mile run that evening.  About 4 miles in, a coyote popped out of the trees about 50 feet in front of me.  That's the first time I'd ever been that close that I'd been to a coyote other than in a car or hunting, so I was kinda scared for a minute.  Usually, that path is covered with runners and cyclists, but now it's just this coyote and me.  At first, we both stopped and stared at each other for a few seconds.  I didn't want to run away from it, because I didn't want it to chase me.  After a few seconds, I started to run towards the coyote, it actually ran away from me.  It was pretty funny.  Whenever I got close to it, it would run away and then just stop and stare.  I eventually started running away from it, but kept looking back to make sure it wasn't following me.  I'm not really sure what I could have done if it decided to chase me, but thankfully, it didn't try.

After I got home, I did some research and found that they rarely attack humans, but do sometimes chase them.  According to Wikipedia, there have only been 2 fatalities from coyotes.

Training, 2/12 - 2/18

Training last week went well.  Monday, I ran 5 miles ... Tuesday, 6 miles ... and Thursday, 5 miles ... and Saturday 8 miles.  All of the mid-week runs were pretty standard runs, either during my lunch break or after work, but my Saturday run was unique and worth writing about.

I was in Nashville over the weekend for a wedding shower and making final arrangements for the rehearsal dinner, so I had to find somewhere to run there.  I found some information on the Nashville Striders website and got in touch with them regarding their local training runs.  So Saturday morning, I met up with them at Shelby Park in E. Nashville.  I ran the "Shelby Bottoms Loop", which is a scenic 8 mile out & back along the Cumberland River.  The weather was perfect, roughly 50 degrees and there were about 200 runners out there.  I met a few people out there and chatted about different races around the Nashville area.  I always enjoy running new places and will definitely run out there again.

Training, 2/5 - 2/12

Training for the week of 2/5 - 2/12 was different than most, due to the fact that 3 out of the 4 runs were trail runs.  Usually, I only trail run a couple of times per month, but this week it worked out where trail running was the best option.

On Monday, I took off work, and since I had time, I went up to Monte Sano and ran the S. Plateau loop.  I parked about a half mile away from the hiker's parking lot, so that run ended up being 4.5 miles. 

On Tuesday, I ran 7 miles on my lunch break.

On Thursday, I met up with a friend after work the cross country park in Huntsville, we ran the 3 mile loop and the 2 mile loop for a total of 5 miles.  It was a perfect evening to run.

This Saturday, we had a long run scheduled, but since it was supposed to be in the 20's with a 20mph wind, we decided to run on the trails on Monte Sano to stay out of the wind.  We were scheduled to run 13 miles, but did a 11 mile trail run instead.  We parked at the barricades on Bankhead, took Mt. Mist Trail out to Goat Trail, took Goat Trail back to Keith Trail, went up through Super Cuts and Stone Cuts, and took Sinks Trail/Mt.Mist Trail back to the cars.  It was FREEZING, but luckily we stayed out of most of the wind by staying in the woods.  It sleeted and snowed while we were running, and when I got back to the car at 9:30, it was still only 26 degrees.  This is one of my favorite runs, even though it's very exhausting with steep climbs and rocky terrain.

The plan

On April 28th, I'm running the Country Music Marathon in memory of my father, who passed away after a short battle with stomach cancer.  For this race, I've joined the American Cancer Society's DetermiNation program in order to raise money to fight cancer in my dad's name.

Even though I'd like to run the race in a respectable time, my only goal for this race to finish.  I'm using a slightly modified version of the training plan that I used to train for my first marathon last year.  The plan consists of 4 runs per week, with a long run every other weekend.  The final long run is 21 miles and takes place 2 weeks before the marathon.