Skating Through The Park

The Run: 10 Miles
The Tunes: None-Just friendly conversation
The Mood: It’s a back down week! More coffee time!!

This morning I meet up with some of the NQRFPT’ers at 7am at the Fleet Feet parking lot. This week was a back down week on our schedule and after last weeks tough 14 miler, 10 miles was welcomed with open arms.

After weighing our options of potential routes we chose to run through Cherokee, up to Seneca, around the loop and back. With the light dusting of snow on the ground we decided that staying on the road and avoiding slippery sidewalks would be the safest route to take. But we later found out that the parks provided their own tricky spots and while I had a couple close calls of wiping out myself, Pam and Dave had a 2 person pile up.

We had an early enough start that we were able to get through the park and finish the run before the 5k race started. We also finished well before the snow picked back up for the day.

As we took shelter in the warm surroundings of Heine Brother’s those of us traveling to Nashville discussed our upcoming trip. We recently found out that the headliner for the post race concert is going to be Sara Evans, so we are talking about extending our trip by a day to stay the night and enjoy the free concert.

Terry kept us entertained as always. We learned from him that the Clarksville Hooters is a much desired location to work as a Hooter waitress because of the friendly atmosphere and camaraderie of the staff there. He also share with us his views on our Customs System and how much he enjoys going to Tijuana (in total sarcasm of course).

Next week we are back up to higher miles and I am looking forward to some spring like temps to return. My winter running wardrob is a lot smaller than my summer running collection and I am getting tired of wearing the same few things over and over again. Time to breakout the shorts!

Is that Love in the air I smell....or is it just me?

The Run: 4 Miles
The Tunes: DEE-DEE(self titled album)
The Mood: It’s V-Day! I’m in the mood for Love!

Got in a quick 4 miles this evening before a lovely Valentine's Day dinner with the hubby. We went to Limestone (one of my fav’s) and I always throw out any diet when I’m there.

Today’s tunes were courteous of a DJ called DEE out of Montreal. To sample some of his “electro-pop” sounds you can visit the site http://www.myspace.com/deemontreal. The funky sounds and upbeat tempo work great to keep up the pace. I got a free download of their latest song “Miles and Miles” off of the Ford website because it is featured in their commercial for the Ford Edge. You can’t help but pick up the pace when that song comes on!

The run was pretty fast paced as it was my shortest run of the week. My legs told me later in the evening that the run was at a quicker than normal pace for me, but with speed workouts coming up soon it was a good warm up.

I actually got in a morning run this week! This is kind of a big deal for me lately since for the last 2 months I’ve been setting my alarm to get up in the morning and run and have hit the snooze button every time and opted for an evening run instead. I do love getting the run done in the morning, I love the way it makes me feel through the rest of the day (except for the big hunger attack I get around 2pm). I also love the extra free time I have in the evenings. But when it is 6am and the temp is 9° it gets so easy to stay in bed another hour and plan the run for later in the day.

New Orange Shoes!!

The Run: 14 Miles
The Tunes: None – Just friendly conversation
The Mood: Sleepy, but the cold shock of the morning air woke me up in a snap

This mornings run started with meeting some of the NQRFPT’ers at Fleet Feet around 8am, however as the long runs start getting longer an 8am start will be come a luxury of the past.

After chit chatting for bit, we didn’t actually hit the road until 8:15. The route of choice was from Fleet Feet up to Iroquois Park. Heading out down Eastern Parkway there were quite a few complaints about the cold. For some it was the coldest temps they’ve ever ran in. Eastern Parkway is always a challenge no matter what the conditions. The rolling hills never seem that bad on the way out, but on the run back they always kick my butt.

Once we hit UofL we started to lose members of our group. Some had less mileage to do today and started turning back around the 3 mile point, other decided that they had enough of the cold crap and headed back to finish their run indoors.

Heading up Southern Parkway wasn’t too bad because we were actually running in sunlight most of the way, but by the time we got to the entrance of Iroquois I was sucking some major wind. Time for a GU break!! Todays menu consisted of Apple Cinnamon CarBoom and Glacial Blue Gatorade. One thing I enjoy about running in the cold is that your Gel’s thicken almost to the point where it gets chewy, it could almost past for solid food.

After a mid-run break we were ready to head back to the store with the main drive being the cup of hot coffee waiting for us. For some the drive was bigger than others. Terry entered into his zone and when he has coffee on the brain, nothing can stop him. Karin#1 and Leslie tried to keep up with Terry, but from what I hear he was unstoppable.

Amy and I took the trip back with a little more ease. I don’t think we necessarily tried to slow it down, but the hill by the Medical Arts building made sure that we wouldn’t set any land speed records. The rest of the returning hills on Eastern reminded me why I try not to do this route all that often, but once we could see the Bardstown Rd. intersection it was smooth sailing.

We got back to Fleet Feet and defrosted with the other runners (my hair actually froze), I noticed that new Adidas SuperNova’s were out (my one and only running shoe!!) This season's color is…ORANGE!! This is always an exciting thing for me..to see what new color the shoe will come in next. I now have owned every color of the rainbow in these shoes.

After the run we headed across the street to Heine Brother’s where we enjoyed our usual weekly post run coffee and conversation. This weeks topic included: (1) The death of Anna Nicole Smith, (2) The Britney Spears photos and who actually went online to see them, (3) The Grand Canyon, (4) Skanky clothes for little kids. As always intriguing and stimulating.

78 Days & Counting

The Run: 5 miles
The Tunes: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium
The Mood: Really didn’t feel like running today, but once I got going it wasn’t too bad.

First of all, allow me to say "Hi" and "welcome" to my little corner of the blogging world. I'm looking forward to sharing my various experiences as I train for the Nashville Country Music Marathon.

After running the Louisville Triple Crown for the last 5 years, completing 4 Mini's and conquering (sort of) the Derby Marathon course last year, I decided to continue my quest of running a marathon in every state and head down to the Music City and see what Nashville has to offer.

As of today there are less than 80 days until the Nashville Race, which is the same day as the Derby Marathon/Mini. 78 days to be exact. I put in an easy 5 miles, which puts me at 15, so far, for the week with 2 more runs to go. Today was one of those days where I almost bailed. I got home from work and had huge urge to be lazy. But once I got the running gear on and headed out the door I settled into an easy groove.

The tunes of choice for this run were from the Chili Peppers latest album Stadium Arcadium. Not necessarily my favorite album of theirs, but I find that it has a nice collection of songs that have a steady beat nice for an easy pace with a couple of jams to rock out to and pick up the pace now and then.

So far my best run this week was on Tuesday. I LOVE to run in the snow! I am a native of Green Bay, WI so anytime it snows here I make sure to hit the road….reminiscent of my days in the Frozen Tundra (GO PACK!). I guess the snow got me pretty psyched up because my pace was nearly a minute per mile faster than what I have been running lately. The road itself was too slick, but the extra resistance from the dusting of the white stuff did give the legs a little extra work out.

The cold has yet to keep me indoors. I hate treadmill running. I feel like a rat on a wheel, and even though the Y has TV’s to distract you, it takes some pretty severe weather to keep me off the road.

This weekends long run is scheduled for a 14 miler. I’ll be sure to update you on the many adventures that the “Not Quite Ready For Prime Timers” (NQRFPT’ers) will encounter. Even if the run itself is boring, the conversation never is!