The days are getting longer, the weather looks nice and warm – there is not a better way to spend Wednesday night than joining us for Run #8: Rick’s Market (Coldest Beer in Town).   6 p.m. at the corner of 11th and Holly in East Nashville.   And please: learn the route and volunteer to lead a group!

Thursday Night Tempo

A lot of us are already beginning to feel the benefits of the Thursday night workouts.  So if you are looking to run the half marathon, or if you just want to run in a faster group on Wednesdays, come join us Thursday.  Same time, same place as Wednesday – although we do start on time on Thursdays :)

Novice: 20 minute tempo, Intermediate: 25 minute tempo, Advanced: 30 minute tempo.

Spring Half-Marathon / Marathon Shirt

Ordering for our Spring 2012 race shirts (full marathon, half marathon, & plain) will close after Wednesday night!  You can get more info and order yours online over on the Shop page. These are the shirts that East Nasty will be wearing for the Country Music Half/Full and all other spring races. You can head over to Nashville Running Company to try one on to find the size that fits you best. Place your order today before you forget and miss out!

See you Wednesday night.
-Mark

Sunday will be our last long run in Percy Warner Park, before we head back to Shelby Park for two Sundays of structured workouts.   Once again, this week we are just spending time on our feet.  The pace should be conversational, the duration is the same as last week, and we will have groups on the trails and the roads.   And the best part is that afterwards we will have brunch!

When:  9 a.m.

Where: Percy Warner Park under the Stone Gates the end of Belle Meade Blvd

What:  Novice: 80 minute run, Intermediate: 90 minute run, Advanced: 120 minute run

Looking ahead, we all need to do another 3 mile time trial in early March.  We won’t be doing one as a group on Sunday morning, so you need to make plans to either: (1) do one on your own or (2) run a local 5k.  Personally, I am going to run the Tom King 5k before I head over to work the infamous Jones brothers water stop…Be sure that you print off the training program so you know what we are doing and where we are meeting!

Brunch

The best part of Sundays…the East Nasty brunch.   Check out this link right here.  All the necessary information is included.  Our gracious hosts are Nick Abruzzo and Christina Young, who live right close to the park off of White Bridge Road.  Please sign up and to show off either your cooking skills, your cleaning skills or your shopping skills!

1/2 Marathon / Marathon Shirts

Every year, we get East Nasty shirts for the Country Music half and full marathons.  In a race of 33,000 people, it’s fun to look around and see a bunch of other nasties in the same gear.  This year is no different except (1) we are actually ordering them early so we don’t have to stress over getting them printed in time, (2) we are ordering on line, and (3) we have a different design for marathon runners vs 1/2 marathon runners vs. people who just want a shirt.

We will be closing orders this coming Wednesday (February 22) at midnight!   We may have a couple of extras, but don’t count on it.  So if you want to get yourself a shirt, or grab one for an out of town friend, place the order soon!  All the details are here.

Those crazy kids…

So a 17-year old Kenyan just won a world class half marathon with a winning time of 60:34.  That’s 4:38 pace for 13.1 miles.  That’s got to be the world record for juniors (18 and under)!  Wrong!   That record is held by Sammy Wanjiru – winner of the last Olympic Marathon, and perhaps the most talented marathoner ever – who ran 59:16 when he was 18 years old, but is now dead after jumping out of a window following a bad encounter with his angry wife.  It’s really a pretty crazy story.

See  you on Sunday.

Mark

February 15, 6p.m. at the corner of 11th and Holly we will run Route #7: Little Hollywood.  This week we cut back on the distance (3.2 miles) and run through a great part of East Nashville.  Make sure that you check out the houses as we run down Ordway toward the golf course.  Also check out the map and please volunteer to be a pace leader.

Shirts

Our Spring race shirts are ready to order!  Click the Shop tab above for more info and to order online. Lee and the NRC crew have invited us down to their store after the run to (a) finish the beer from their grand opening, and (b) try on the shirt in a warm, dry place. You can also head over to NRC at any time they are open this week to try on the shirts to get your size right before you order online. Shirts will be available for order through NEXT Wednesday the 22nd. Get your order in before then! Also coming soon: new casual 50/50 shirts for men and women, and probably Lululemon tanks for women. Stay tuned.

Thursday

We’re got a couple of things going on Thursday:

(1) Thursday workouts.  6 p.m. at 11th and Holly.  This week we continue our tempo workouts with a steady state tempo run.  Novice and Intermediate will run 20 minutes, while the advanced will run 25 minutes.    The bulk of this run should be done at about 90% of your max heart rate – or about 30 seconds slower per mile than your 5k race pace.  Depending on fitness, the total mileage should be between 5.5 and 8 miles.

(2) NRC is hosting their first movie night.  They are going to show the movie “Unbreakable: The Western States 100″ . Even though I know what happens, the movie still looks pretty sweet. The movie will start at 7:30, and if you don’t feel like doing a tempo run with us, NRC will have an easy run from their place at 6:00.

See you Wednesday!
-Mark

Our good friend Kristine was born in New York state, in the small town of Mt. Kisco. It is also the birth place of one Bo Duke, also known as John Schneider. She did not stay in the Empire State too long, growing up mostly in Oakton, Virginia, which is just outside our nation’s capital.

In school Kristine was a bit of the “jack of all trades” variety. To some she was a tomboy, to others a girly-girl, and then she was also a music geek. As far as early sports, her family introduced her to the world of cycling an early age. Her father, who still races in cycling events at the age of 75!, ran the local BMX track, and yes there is a picture of young Kristine tearing up the track. ENJOY!!!

She is rocking the blue helmet and t-shirt

Her main passion though was music. She studied the piano seriously for several years, and she began singing and competing vocally as early as the 4^th grade. Her singing carried her to George Mason University, where she studied Music and English. Through various singing groups in college, she gained the chance to perform at the White House and Kennedy Center.

In 1996, Kristine arrived in Nashville. She wanted to be a part of musical community, but not the ones in New York City or Los Angles. She had only planned on staying for a few years, but like so many others, Kristine thankfully stayed here instead. Now she runs marketing for J. Alexander’s restaurants and she has a cool side gig running the Jumbotron at Titans and Predators games.

Kristine’s running career took off in 2009. While planning a reunion with some college friends, they ended up all running the Indy Mini-Marathon together. Her husband, Dudley, had tried his best to convince her that running could be fun, but she would just laugh at him every time he said that. At a Hope on Wheels bike ride in 2009, she meet ENOW alumni Holland Carley, and she told Kristine all about this great running group out in East Nashville. The rest is history. Since her first half marathon in 2009, she has run several more half-marathon races, and even started getting into triathlons in 2011. Her greatest moment so far was during last year’s Half-Ironman in Augusta, GA. Although the run was brutal in the 90+ degree weather, she pushed herself to through the finish line!!!

One final mention about Kristine is that she loves helping train our Couch to 5K groups. She has recruited tons of people to the program, and her favorite part is to watch people transform themselves from not being able to run for 60 seconds to finishing a 3.1 mile race. (From everyone at East Nasty, we are so thankful for all that Kristine does for that program.)

For downtime, which is not all that often, Kristine likes to read, travel, hang out and relax with her husband, and sing. She still performs every once and while, Jazz primarily, but who knows, you may catch her singing the National Anthem once again in the future.

Here is one last picture of Kristine with her East Nasty buddies after this last weekend’s Mercedes Benz half marathon in Birmingham, Alabama. Be sure comment on Kristine induction to the ENOW club.

Holland, Kristine, Mary Tom, and Shawna

Rod

This week we’re back in Percy Warner Park just logging miles.  Nothing structured, just “time on your feet.”   The purpose of Sunday’s run is duration, not intensity.  And even though we’re adding miles and hills, the entire run should be conversational.  Under 75% of your max heart rate – maybe peaking at 80% on the hills.   There will be groups running the road loops and trails.

Also, it’s going to be cold…but being in the woods will keep you sheltered and out of the wind.  This is the precise reason why we run at Percy Warner in February…

Where: Percy Warner Park at the Stone Gates.  (At the end of Belle Meade Blvd.)

When: 9 a.m.

What:

Novice – 80 minute run

Intermediate: 90 minute run

Advanced: 120 minute run

No organized brunch this week.  But looking for something new?  Try Sky Blue Cafe at 700 Fatherland Ave.    One of the best brunches in Nashville.

Wednesday Night Run

Our run this week is Route #6: Riverside - about 4.5 miles. We cross through Shelby Park and head up Riverside.  For you East Nashvillians: it’s easy to get turned around on this route – so if you live on the east side, please check out the map and volunteer to lead a pace group.  And everyone needs to look at the route sometime before 6 p.m. Wednesday night!

As always, we meet at 6p.m. at the corner of 11th and Holly in East Nashville.

Being a Good Neighbor

Reflective gear.  Running with 200+ people on a Wednesday night is fantastic, but we have to operate differently.  This week I want to remind people to wear reflective gear.  Better yet, run with a light.  It keeps us all safer.

Want to run the Chicago Marathon?

Too bad.  It sold out in 6 days.  Yet another reminder (like the Mumford and Sons concerts….) that you need to be on the ball!  Seriously, big marathons are selling out in record time, and Chicago should be on your marathon bucket list.  (If you don’t have one…you should create a race bucket list…)  So prepare yourself for 2013, and be sure that your ready when registration opens!

Thursday Night Workout

After 4 weeks of hill repeats – we are starting our tempo runs.  Tempo runs are the common thread through any training program – from the marathon to the mile, every distance runner should be doing tempo runs.  Tempo runs are “comfortably hard”.  Meaning that you should be just on the edge of breathing hard.  That correlates to about 90% of your max heart rate – or about 25-30 seconds per mile slower than your 5k race pace.  Tempo running is usually done by time, and here is our workout this week:

Novice:  4 x (5 minutes tempo / 1 minute jogging)

Intermediate: 2 x (10 minutes tempo / 2 minutes jogging)

Advanced: 3 x (10 minutes tempo / 2 minutes jogging)

We meet on Thursdays at 6 p.m. at the corner of 11th and Holly.   This week we’ll be running down to LP field and running laps of the stadium.  I know, I know…boring…but this will keep us all together and in a well lit area.  We’ll move to Shelby once the days get longer.  If you run a little bit on the sidewalk, you can create a perfect mile loop around the stadium.  Here is the loop.   The entire workout should be between 5.5 and 8.5 miles – depending on fitness.

- Mark

After a couple of weeks of structured long runs (a time trial and a tempo run), the next three weeks are just “time on your feet.”  We’re not even worried about how far you run!  We all just need to run for a designated amount of time.  Also, for a change of venue, and the addition of hills, we are going to be meeting at the Belle Meade entrance to Percy Warner Park (under the stone gates.)  If you have never run out there, this park is amazing, and only about 15 minutes from East Nashville.

Sunday morning, we will have several groups: novice, intermediate and advanced – and trail or road.  Whether you run trails or the road, everyone needs to run at a conversational pace – even if you have to walk some up the hills!  Your heart rate should be about 75%, peaking at 80% of your max on the steep hills.  How does this feel?  Conversational.  This run should be hard because of the duration not because of the intensity.

Workout -

Novice:  70 minutes (probably the 5.8 mile road loop +)

Intermediate: 80 minutes

Advanced: 100 minutes (white and red trails or 11.2 mile loop)

See you at the Percy Warner Stone Gates at 9am on Sunday! Remember, our workouts and locations of those workouts are outlined on our training plan.

Brunch

The best part of Sunday runs!   This week David Canas and family is hosting out in Brentwood.  Here is the information, including the Canas’ address.   Please sign up to bring something!    It’s important that we all contribute.

-Mark

Wednesday Night February 1st

The run this week is Route #5, a 4.3 mile scenic run that takes us across the pedestrian bridge into downtown. Meet us at 6 p.m. at 11th & Holly. We’ll need a couple of  new pace leaders. Find us by the water coolers to volunteer.

Post Run

After the run, NRC (Nashville Running Company) is going to host their first monthly post-run happy hour. So plan on heading over there after the run. The store is located in 5 POints at 1105 Woodland Street – right between the new Animal Hospital and the East Nashville Post Office.

Thursday Workouts

Thursday night February 2nd is our last pedestrian hill workout. We’ll run 6, 8 or 10 repeats. Meet at 6p.m. at 11th and Holly if you want to join us. Remember, we scale the workout so it can be done by advanced, intermediate or novice runners!

Speed Sessions

Speaking of workouts, if you are looking for some very structured/personalized training, speed sessions is for you. Below is a little more information.

Are you looking to become a faster and more efficient runner?

Winter speed sessions from Fleet Feet Sports is a program designed to do just that. The training sessions will be on Tuesday mornings and Tuesday evenings and will last for 11 weeks. Speed sessions are open to all different levels of runners but as a rule of thumb you should be able to run 3 miles without stopping if you want to take this program. Winter speed sessions are geared towards those who are training for a 1/2 or full marathon but again would benefit any runner who is trying to improve. The workouts will change each week and they typically will last about an hour. The 6:00 am sessions will meet at Christ Presbyterian Academy and the 6:00 pm sessions will meet at Centennial park. You are welcome to come to whichever one best fits your schedule each week. The workouts will consist of a warm up, drills, strides, intervals and cool down each of which will be explained to you. In order to become a faster / better runner you need to teach your body what faster feels like and that is exactly what speed sessions will do. Mark Miller and Drew Jones have been the coaches for the past 5 years and speed sessions has been very successful for a lot of runners. As we tell people each year if you come out and do 11 weeks of speed workouts in a row then it is impossible to not be a better runner at the end.

Click here if you are looking to sign up.

See you Wednesday evening.
-Mark

This week we will still be meeting at Shelby Park outside of the nature center. (Which is a good reminder to download the training schedule.  It has all the workouts outlined of course, but it also lists our Sunday morning meeting locations.)

This week’s workout is not completely straight forward, so please take a moment to read below.

Last week we ran a 3-mile time trial. Time trials / races are essential workouts because that pace is a benchmark that will determine our training paces. To begin, divide your three mile time by three to get your mile per pace, and we’ll go from there. (As I explain the workout, I am going to use a hypothetical intermediate runner, “Bob”, who ran 23:00 for the time trial last week.  Which is 7:40 per mile.)

The run is split into three parts: the warm-up, the workout, and the extra mileage. The first two parts will be the same for everybody (run at different paces of course), the last part will be different for the novice, intermediate and advanced groups.

We will run at two paces this week: our long/easy pace and tempo pace.

Our long run pace is 1:30 – 2:30 minutes per mile slower than our time trial pace. That pace for Bob would be 9:10 – 10:10. In terms of heart rate, that pace is under 75% of your max heart rate. (Another good estimate is 180 – your age.) Tempo pace is 20-45 seconds per mile slower than your time trial pace. In terms of heart rate, tempo pace is between 88-92% of your max.   Since we are doing tempo intervals rather than a steady state run, our tempo pace will be on the faster end of that range: 20-25 seconds slower than our 3-mile pace or about 90% max HR.

Part 1 – the warm-up  (everyone) 20 minutes at about 2 – 2:30 minutes slower per mile than their 3-mile pace.

Bob would start at 10:10 pace and speed up to 9:40 pace during the warm up.

Part 2 – The workout  (everyone) 5 x (5 minutes tempo pace +  1 minute easy)  – 30 minutes total.

Bob would run 5 minutes at 8:00 – 8:05  pace, then jog easy for 1 minute. He would do this sequence  five times.

Part 3 – Extra mileage novice adds 20 minutes, intermediate 30 minutes and advanced will add 45 minutes. This pace should be about 1:30 slower than 3-mile pace.

Bob would run at 9:10 pace for 30 minutes.

We’re also going to move off the greenway, and run 5k loops of the park. Why? To prepare for the race by adding a little bit of rolling terrain. (The Country Music 1/2 marathon is hilly, the greenway is not…) Here is the loop that we will use. I am going to try and mark the miles on the ground tomorrow – no promises, so make a mental note of the mile marks.

Dubai Marathon

Yesterday at the Dubai marathon, Deressa Chisma Edae ran 2:05:42 (4:48 pace)…and finished 8th. Wow. The race was won by a 21-year old Ethiopian, Ayele Absharo, in his debut marathon. (He earned a cool $250,000 for his efforts.) Even more amazing was the fact that his last 2 miles were run in about 9:04. (Once again emphasizing negative splitting:  1:02:22 first half, 1:02:01 second half.) He broke the lead pack apart by running the 39th kilometer in 2:46 – for you track guys, a 2:46 kilometer is 66.4 seconds per lap! For more check out the race coverage here.

No Brunch

Last week was amazing! Belgian waffles, pancakes, bacon… Outstanding! Many thanks to our gracious host Sara Spencer. This week, you’re on your own. My post-run East Nashville food suggestions are Mitchell Deli and Marche. A third option would be Bongo Java East. Of course they make great coffee, but they also have some fantastic bagel sandwiches.

See you on Sunday.

Mark

This week is Route #4: Big Shelby Loop – 4.3 miles. As always, we meet at 11th and Holly at 6 p.m. Be courteous with parking, wear reflective gear, and please volunteer to be a pace group leader!

iPod Nano

Lots of runners use an iPod Nano, and apparently some the 1st generation Nanos had something wrong with the batteries. So I’m not sure if it is still going on, but Apple has an iPod Nano replacement program – where they would replace your 1st generation with a brand new one. (for free)  Here is the link to check and see if your iPod qualifies.

Cups

We’ve got the cups covered for the next two weeks. But, I would love to have the month of February and March filled. Washing the cups just involves taking them home, washing them and bringing them back the next week.  Sign up here.

Thursday Workout

Thursday we are heading back to the pedestrian bridge for more 6 or 8 hill repeats. Remember, these are not maximal efforts, but should be your mile race effort (really hard).  Like all your runs, hill workouts should go from slow(er) to fast(er). So, the first two repeats should be under control, and the last two should be really fast. We meet at the same location and time on Thursdays: 6 p.m. at the corner of 11th and Holly.

Hanson’s Marathon Training Program

There is an elite training group in Michigan called Hanson’s. At the Olympic marathon trials they had women finish 2nd, 9th and 13th, and four men run faster than 2:19.   Well they also have a marathon training program for mortals (those of us who don’t have time/energy/desire to run 130 miles a week). Their elite athletes are producing top times, but so are their amateurs.  So what is their secret?  They do not focus on the long run!  WHAT?  That’s right. In fact, amateur marathoners run one 15 mile run, three 16 mile runs and nothing longer!  (Elites are a little different…)

Their theory is that no one workout is more important than the next. So they have all their runners run 6 days a week (peaking around 54 miles a week). Each week has one speed workout, one steady state run at marathon goal-pace, and one “long-ish” run.  But here is what makes it unique:  they do their long runs on tired legs.  They will have an 8 miler the day before their 16 mile long run. On their “off” weekends, they will run two 10-milers in a row. It is the accumulation of hard work, day in day out, that makes you a good runner…not going out and crushing yourself twice a week.

This is how I want you to apply this idea: run more often. Add mileage by adding an additional day of running rather than slogging through three extra miles on your weekend run.  Don’t feel like to be a better runner your Sunday and Wednesday night runs need to be harder. Don’t change those runs, just add two more easy runs during the week. Even if you can only get out the door for 20-30 minutes. It will do more for your fitness than you can imagine.

Anyway… something to chew on. Here is the article from Running Times if you want a little more detailed information.

See you Wednesday!
-Mark