This is going to be a great Wednesday night and a great weekend in East Nashville...

Wednesday's Run

Wednesday at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m.

To get us ready for this Saturday's race, we're going to take a hiatus from our route sequence and run the Tomato Fest 5k course.  (Here is the map) But remember, this is not the actual race... so run safely. There are a couple of places on this route where you will need to make a left turn - make sure that you cross at an intersection.

Wednesday afternoon, we will be joined by our Potato to Tomato training group and by former world record holder Arturo Barrios.  This is a big moment for our couch to 5kers, so be sure to offer them a word of encouragement!   On the other end of the spectrum, Barrios is the first man to ever break 60 minutes for a half-marathon. His fast running days are behind him, but he's always willing to give a few pointers for your next race...

Also, if you have not signed up for the race yet, folks from the Y will be at the run in the afternoon taking any last minute registrations.

Ragnar Relay

Also on Wednesday afternoon, a representative from the Ragnar Relay will be at the run giving out free swag and a promo code for $150 off!   Do not miss this chance if you are even thinking about putting together a Ragnar team.

Pint Night

It's the first Wednesday of the month, so that means pint night at Nashville Running Company.

The Festival

Of course we want you to run the 5k this Saturday morning, but if you miss the race, you need to come down to 5 Points to enjoy the festival.  As you may know, it is almost a requirement that the temperature and humidity are both over 90 for the Tomato Fest.  So every year East Nasty has a water stop for the festival.  At our booth outside of 3 Crow Bar we hand out the extra water from the race, and keep 3 coolers full of cold water to hand out to festival goers.  It is a great way to give back to the community that we love, but we need your help. We still need a couple more volunteers to take a 2-hour shift where you do three things (1) hand out water, (2) sell the soon to be released summer East Nasty tees, and (3) explain to people what "East Nasty" means.  It's really a lot of fun, and a great way to meet people.

Sign up for  shift here.

ENFL! - Mark

Shirts will be ready for pickup at Nashville Running Company no later than Wednesday evening, April 24th. We will send out more details to those who ordered a shirt as soon as they are ready!

Today, Sunday April 7th, is the last day to order one of our spring racing shirts or singlets. Order online at: eastnasty.storenvy.com After today, you will not be able to get one of these shirts, so get your order in ASAP!

2013 Spring Race Shirts Our Spring 2013 race shirts are now available for pre-order in our online store! Order at: eastnasty.storenvy.com

Please read these details carefully:

We have a short sleeve and a singlet option available for women, and a short sleeve and sleeveless option for men. These shirts will have our East Nasty logo on the front and a new East Nasty design on the back (were still working on that). They will not have Country Music Race specific art.

Last day to order is April 7th. If you dont order by then you will miss out – so order ASAP! Orders will be ready to pick up around April 19th. You will be able to pick them up at one of our East Nasty runs or at the Nashville Running Company store in east Nashville. We will let you know when they are ready and give more detailed info then. You MUST select the PICKUP-NO SHIPPING option during checkout to get your shirt in time for the Country Music Half/Full Marathon race on April 27th. There will not be enough time to ship these before the race.  *If you are out of town or dont need your order for the race, then select regular shipping and we will get it to you in the beginning of May. But if you’re local, we would prefer you just to pick it up. You can stop by Nashville Running Company anytime they are open to try these shirts on to find your correct size. (Note: they are closed on Sundays so dont wait until the last minute.)

If you have any questions, contact Duane at: duane@eastnastyforlife.com

Tonight's Run

Tonight we are running Route #9 - LP Field. Meet as usual - 6pm at 11th & Holly.

Christmas Party

On December 12 after the run, Phil and Gretchen Zimmerman are hosting our annual Christmas party.  We'll have soup, beer and holiday music.  We need you to bring $5.  East Nasty has no membership fees, and we do not charge for any of our runs or training programs.  But since we are part of the Road Runners Club of America, we have to pay membership dues to maintain our insurance.  That's what the $5 is for.

If you are willing to part with $10, we have about 80 copies of the 2013 East Nasty training log for sale.  It is amazing...

Hoodies Are In!

They came in a week earlier than expected. Yay! So, if you ordered a Hoodie, you will be able to pick it up at tonight's run!

See you tonight! ENFL! -Mark

Dog Food Drive

Remember the mission of East Nasty:  "We love our neighborhood, and we exist to make East Nashville a great place to live and run, and to make running accessible to everyone in our community."  In that light, sometime this week, Drew Landerman from the TN CO-OP is going to drop off 960 pounds of dog food for East Can.   That food, purchased with your donations, combined with the bags of food you brought last week, yielded well over 1200 pounds of food for East Can. Thanks guys!

Tonight's Run - Route #7

Little Hollywood - 3.2 miles. Meet at 6 p.m at 11th & Holly. Wear reflective gear (and even a headlamp, too).

NRC Pint Night

After the run, everyone is invited down to Nashville Running Company for the monthly pint night.

2013 Half and Full Marathon Training

Once again, remember the mission of East Nasty:  "We love our neighborhood, and we exist to make East Nashville a great place to live and run, and to make running accessible to everyone in our community."   To that end, we offer free half-marathon or full marathon training starting in January. While the training is free, it does not mean that everybody is ready to train for a half-marathon. Right now is the time that you need to be thinking about whether you want to try it or not. If you want to join us, we ask that you be capable of running 5 miles without walking before January. Even better, would be if you were running 3-5 miles at least 3 times a week. This is not because we are elitist - it's pretty obvious that we are not.  This prerequisite is to keep you, the runner, uninjured and excited about running. Going from 3 miles to 13.1 miles might not seem like a lot, but in reality it is a huge jump in mileage and can lead to serious burn-out/injury.  So if you are not at 5 miles yet, you have 6 weeks to get there, and then join us in January!

Hoodies

Thursday is the last day to order our Fall hoodie. Try one on at Nashville Running Company after the run tonight to find your size, then order one online here.

See you tonight! ENFL! - Mark

Halloween!

Today is Halloween.  I don't know exactly what to expect, but I do know that 5 Points is going to be packed.  There is a pub crawl, tons of trick-or-treaters, and of course, our weekly Wednesday night run.  It's an exciting night to be around East Nashville.  Run #6 takes us onto Eastland, which is swarming with kids on Halloween.  This is why we are going to repeat last week's Run #5.  (We'll do run #6 next week.)  Come on out and enjoy the festivities!

6 p.m. at the corner of 11th and Holly.  (Wear reflective gear!)

1/2 Marathon/Marathon training

East Nasty started as a group of friends training for the Country Music Half-Marathon and we have offered free training ever since!   This year we are going to train for the Country Music Full Marathon as well as the Half, and there is also a group training for the Rock and Roll New Orleans races.  We'll have details about training for the Country Music races up soon.  Plan on joining us (did I mention it's free..) beginning the first weekend in January.   NOLA training begins this weekend!

NOLA training:   Sunday, November 4th at 9 a.m. Shelby Park.

Dog Food Drive

On November 7th, we are going to have a dog food drive for EastCan.  If you are able, please bring a bag of dog food to the run on that night.   EastCan uses this food to help alleviate some of the financial burden of fostering or adopting an animal.

12/12/12

December 12th is the date for our annual Christmas party.   We'll have a bunch of great stuff to unveil.   Mark the date in your calendar!

New Hoodies

We will have new hoodies available for order in the Store later this week!

See you tonight! - Mark

Hello East Nasties! After a busy couple of weeks, including the Tomato 5K and the Music City Mile (congrats to everyone who ran in those events!), we are back to a bit of normalcy this week.

Wednesday Run

This week we are running Route #8: Rick's Market - about 3.8 miles. We meet at 6pm at 11th & Holly. (Our morning run meets every Wednesday at 5:50am, also at 11th & Holly). Be sure to check out the map and learn the route. Each week we need volunteers who know the route to be group leaders. It's pretty simple - just pick the pace you normally run at and run the correct route so those behind you know where to go. That's it. If some runners get ahead of you that is their own problem. Speaking of runners getting ahead of route leaders: A lot of you runners sandbag your pace time - you start in a slower pace group and then speed up way past it. Especially in the 8:30-9:30 range. Try starting out in the next faster group.

Cups

Each week a volunteer cleans the cups that we all use after the run. East Nasty uses plastic cups so that we don't produce the trash from throwing away 200+ plus paper cups every week. Would you help us by volunteering to clean the cups one week? Again, it's pretty simple: 1) Take the cups home after the run. 2) Wash them (by hand or in the dishwasher). 3) Bring them back the next week. Easy stuff. Please sign up for a specific week here.

5K to 5 Miles

Our '5K to 5 Miles' program has started. This is a great next step for you guys who just finished your first 5K and are ready to add a little milage and/or train for the Boulevard Bolt 5 mile race on Thanksgiving. The group meets in Shelby Park on Mondays at 6pm and Saturdays at 8am. For more details contact Rachel (rachel@schafferlawfirmtn.com) and/or Mike (michaelclark700@hotmail.com).

Lasty Nasty

Dont feel that you're quite fast enough for the main group? Then the 'Last Nasty' group is for you! "We might be last but we have lots of fun encouraging each other!" They adjust our Wednesday evening runs to accommodate 15+ minute milers. Find them on Facebook here and introduce yourself.

Shirts

We still a few Tomato shirts left in women's sizes S, M, L, and XL on sale for $10. We also have only a few of our new green cotton blend Ts ins women's sizes L and XXL available for $20. See Duane after the run to purchase one.

See you tonight! ENFL! -Duane

Update: We're sold out of the green V-necks, but we have a handful of the green women's cut scoop-necks. We also have a few of the white Pearl Izumi tech shirts available in women's sizes. They will be available for purchase after the run this Wednesday. First come, first served!  Update: We can only accept cash or checks (made out to East Nasty Running Club)

Our new cotton-blend shirts are in! They are $20 and come in men's and women' sizes. We will have them available for sale TODAY (Friday August 10th) from 5:30pm-7:00pm at Nashville Running Company, and tomorrow (Saturday August 11th) all day at our booth at The East Nashville Tomato Festival. Our booth will be located on Woodland Street right in front of 3 Crow Bar. This is a limited run and we are sure to sell out of these - come get one while you can!

We also have just a few of our 2012 Tomato tech-shirt available for sale today at NRC and tomorrow at our booth. These are high quality Pearl Izumi tech shirts, in both men's and women's sizes. They are white with our logo and tomato art in red and are $20.

Welcome to Biggest Week of the Year for East Nasty!

It is East Nashville Tomato Fest week, which of course includes the East Nashville Tomato 5K this Saturday at 7:30am. There are going to be several opportunities on Saturday for you to participate and volunteer. Come be a part of our favorite week of the year! This is a long post - but contains everything you need to know about  this week. Please read the whole thing!

The Route - Wednesday Aug 8th

First things first – the route this Wednesday will be the East Tomato 5k race course. Here is a map. Many of us will be running in the race so we will get in a practice run on the course. We will be joined Wednesday night by our Potato-to-Tomato 5K Training Group that has been meeting 3 days a week all summer in Shelby Park. Please be sure to introduce yourself to these runners, congratulate and welcome them to the big East Nasty family as they have all trained very hard for the race this weekend.

The groups will start at different times tomorrow night but needless to say we will have a large group of runners out on the roads. It is very important to obey the rules of the road. Run on the sidewalk or on the left side of the street, do NOT run more than 2 people across and do NOT run out into the road in front of oncoming traffic. This is a very fun night and a big week for East Nasty – please do not ruin it for others by running in the middle of the road or jumping out in front of traffic and getting us into trouble with the police.

Our morning run meets at 5:50am and starts promptly at 6am. The evening run meets at 6pm. Both runs meet at our usual spot - the corner of 11th & Holly in front of the yellow ArtEmbrace house.

How can I participate on Saturday Aug 11th?

There are several different ways to be a part of East Nasty’s homecoming event this Saturday:

1) Run in the East Tomato 5k race. The race starts at 7:30am just off of the 5 Points intersection and there will be East Nasties all over the place. All we ask is that you wear an East Nasty shirt during the race. See more on shirts below. The Potato-to-Tomato Group will meet at out normal Wednesday night meeting spot ( 11th & Holly ) at 7:00 am for a warmup and then head down to the start of the race together.

2) Volunteer at the race. Our good friends at Fleet Feet Sports are sponsoring a water stop at mile 2 on the race course and our peeps at Nashville Running Company are helping out at the finish line. If you're not running in the race, we need some East Nasty volunteers to help them pass out water, help on the race course, and cheer on the runners. Contact Amanda (amanda@eastnastyforlife.com) or Drew (drew@eastnastyforlife.com) to volunteer. We need you!

3) Work the East Nasty 'water tent booth' during the East Tomato Fest. From 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on Saturday. East Nasty will have a tent set up right in front of 3 Crow Bar and we will be serving free water to anyone who is thirsty during the Tomato Festival. It is our way of giving back to the community as a thanks for letting us run on the neighborhood streets. We need volunteers to work a 2 hour shift. The volunteers will be passing out water, selling shirts, refilling coolers, getting ice, and spreading the East Nasty cheer. SIGN UP FOR A SHIFT HERE. Be sure to wear an East Nasty shirt. Contact Sarah Shearer for more details: sarahkshearer@gmail.com

4) Come and hang out. Even if you can not run in the race or volunteer please still try to come out to the Tomato Fest for a bit and spend some time with your running buddies. There will be live music, contests, art, parades, food and drink, free water and all things tomato all day long. Again all we ask is that you wear one of your East Nasty shirts with pride.

Speaking of Shirts...

We have 2 new shirts now available for you guys.

1) The 2012 Tomato tech shirt is now available for purchase for $20 at Nashville Running Company. These are high quality Pearl Izumi white tech shirts with our logo and Tomato 5K art in red.

2) Our 2012 cotton tri-blend t-shirt will be available for purchase for $20 at our Tomato Fest booth on Saturday. This years shirt is green, super soft, and comes in both men's and women's sizes. We will have a preview of them at the run on Wednesday evening. (We may have the shirts available for sale on Friday evening somewhere in 5 Points - if so, we will announce that here and on our Facebook page.)

A very exciting and fun week for East Nasty indeed. Please see Mark Miller, Drew Jones, Amanda Tungett, Sarah Shearer, or Duane Stephenson with any questions you have regarding this weekend. We will all be there at the Wednesday night run.

Hope to see all of you this week out there in Full Force  — EAST NASTY FOR LIFE – Yahhhhhhhhh  !!!!!

Drew (and Duane)

1/2 Marathon Training

Sunday, April 22: Shelby Park 8 a.m.

We are only a week away from the Country Music race! As Mark would say - "in the final week before a race there is nothing that you can do to make yourself run faster, but there is a lot you can do to make yourself run slower!" So, this week is called a "taper".  Your focus this week should be on being fully rested, hydrated and to stay "sharp" with your running. What does that mean?  Cut all of your workouts in half, but keep a little bit of intensity.

So this week is just an easy 60 minute run in Shelby and is not as long as what we have been doing the past few weeks. Mark will explain more when we meet Sunday morning.

Mark says: "If you think that you have missed too many long runs and want to get on last log run in this week - don't do it!  You will be better off on race day just doing our easy run than if you try to sneak one last 12 miler in. Resting will allow our bodies to fully repair all the damage we've done to our muscles the last 16 weeks, and some short bursts of speed will help to maintain your leg turn-over.  Here is a pretty good article about tapering, and here is another article about the mistakes people make when they taper."

The Post Race Party

Make plans to join us for our yearly post-race party at 5pm on Saturday April 28th!

The East Nasty Post Country Music Half (and Full!) Marathon Bash

Everyone is welcome, even if you didn’t run. We start early (5 p.m) with grilling out, and end late with DJ Zach Barnett. The link above gives details and provides a place for you to sign up to bring something!  (You need to bring your own grill-able item.)

Shirts

There are a few of you who haven't picked up your shirt yet. They will be available after the run on Sunday, and then starting Monday you can pick yours up at Nashville Running Company during their regular business hours.

See you tomorrow morning! -Duane

Wednesday run is Route #4

This week we are doing the old switcheroo. We are going to run Route #4: Big Shelby Loop this week (4.31 miles), and come back to Route #3 next week.  Why?  Because run #3 takes us downtown, at just about the same time that the Predators' fans will be getting to the arena.  So to avoid mass chaos, (and having a hockey fan/runner brawl - we all know how that will turn out...) we're making the change. So check out the map - we're heading back into Shelby Park. As always we meet at 6 p.m. at 11th and Holly

Being Good Neighbors

Learn the route and volunteer.  Managing 200 people on a run each week is not rocket science, but it does require help.  And we need your help.  Even though East Nasty is a labor of love for us, Drew and I are tired of having to beg people to be run leaders.  We need you guys to step up!   There are people who have been running with us for years who always have an excuse not to lead - stop it. We need to take the burden off those folks who seem to lead the run every week.

And read the blog for cryin' out loud.

Thursday workouts

Thursday, 6 p.m.  Meet at 11th and Holly.  This week we will be heading back to the track for some quicker repeats.

Advanced/Intermediate/Novice: 5 x 1000 (@ 5k pace) 3/4 or 5 minute jog between each one.

Alternate workout (if you don't want to go to a track): 4-5 x 5 minutes fast / 5 minute jog

The Green Wagon & '5 Points 2nd Saturday'

Here is a message from The Green Wagon:

"For the next '5 Points 2nd Saturday' we'll be drinking the beer we brewed at our Craft Beer Week Homebrew Kickoff, we'll feature local artist, Hunter Mize (see his work on the current cover of The City Paper but imagine it with east neighborhoods!), and we'll be donating 10% of sales to East Nasty Running Club! Don't miss it!"

Sweet!  Environmentally friendly products, craft beer, art... - sounds like a great way to spend a Saturday.

1/2 Marathon Weekend

One of the best days of the year for East Nasty is the day of the Country Music Marathon.  April 28th this year. We run in the morning, meet up after the race to celebrate, and then get together that night for the real celebration.  Thanks to Andy & Heidi for offering to host the post-race party this year at 'Camp MossyWilson'.  It will be on Saturday night, April 28 from 5 till ???   We're going to need your help, so stay tuned for more details and what you can do to help.

Shirts

If you didnt pick up your shirt last week you can pick it up after the run this Wednesday.

See you Wednesday! - Mark