THE 11.2

If you're a runner and you live in Nashville, then you've heard of THE 11.2. It's a route that is 11.2 miles long and winds through one of Nashville's biggest (and coolest) parks, Percy Warner Park. The thing about this route... is that it is shrouded in mystique. It's 11.2 miles through 1,500 feet of elevation gains and losses with grades of up to 10-12%. Imagine the hill that you do your hill workouts on. And then increase the grade of the hill by 10x, run that hill for 11.2 miles and maybe you'll get a sense of what the 11.2 is all about. Maybe.

It's one of those things that runners around Nashville wear as a badge of honor. It's like... you're only hardcore if you've done this route. And as you all know by now... being hardcore is my lifelong dream. Sadly, I'd never gotten the chance to run the 11.2. Oh sure, I'd taken the initiative plenty of times... I'd mention it to other runners, running partners, etc... and I'd always get the same type of response... "No thanks."

Sure, I could have ran it alone (although... my brain gets really foggy on runs and I knew I'd get lost on my own), and sure I could have posted a message on the local running website, but... being an 11.2 virgin, I didn't necessarily want to run it with people that had already done it. I wanted to run it with someone that I would feel comfortable bitching and moaning to, and someone who I didn't mind hearing me heave and gasp for air for 2 hours straight and know that I wasn't actually going into cardiac arrest.

So, I had resigned myself to the fact that I'd just have to wait till the Marathon Training run that includes the route in March. And then... last week, I got an email from Vandy Montana...

"...I have a GREAT idea for our Sunday run. You may not like it though."

I was a little nervous... but I inquired further and his response was...

"...I think we should go to percy warner and do the 11.2 loop. I know it's hilly, but we can take it slow."

JACK-POT. You see, Sunday just happened to be my 29th birthday and I couldn't think of a more perfect way to spend the beginning of my 29th year than tackling the 11.2 beast.

All week long, I eagerly anticipated Sunday morning. I didn't know what to expect... I'd read the detailed description of the route many times and was really nervous about it. When Sunday morning finally rolled around, I was super excited. Even with a hangover headache, I was psyched to get out there and get started. The running gods were smiling on us, because yesterday was the most perfect day. Beautiful clear skies and a balmy 60 degrees with a breezy wind that kept things at a good temperature for running. Not only was I going to run the 11.2 on my birthday, but I was going to get to do it bare armed and legged. Perfect.

All was well until about 2 minutes into the run. Seriously... that's all it took. 2 minutes and we were climbing. I had brought my headphones along, but couldnt get them to stay in my ears, so I just listened to myself choke and gasp for air (ugh, I hate hearing myself breathe).

For the first 8 miles or so... I found myself oscillating between telling myself... "Hmmm... this isn't soooo bad..." and "holy shit... this hill sucks major, major ass." It was literally a rollercoaster of emotions.

I was feeling really good around mile 8. I think we had our fastest split between 7 and 8? I don't remember exactly... but it was somewhere around there... like a 9:05. And then, we hit the 9 mile hill. The 9 mile hill was long and steep and the ultimate in suckiness. Somehow both Vandy Montana and I glazed over the description of 9 mile hill and it took us by surprise. I had thought that the worst was behind us. I was wrong.

I don't generally get a lot of leg fatigue in runs, but, I felt like my legs were on fire. I kept my head down and trudged along. And finally... we made it. We ended up adding an additional .6 miles to do an offshoot loop around mile 10 that had a cool view of the city and the last mile or so was all downhill.

By the end of the run, I felt amazing. The weather was beautiful, the scenery was beautiful, and I felt strong and oh so hardcore. I can't remember a run where I felt that good at the end of it, especially such a challenging one. (Now I'm ready to try the route starting in the opposite direction).

It's a fitting start to my 29th year. I have a feeling I'm going to kick some major ass this last year of being in the 25-29 age group. Bring it.

Triumphant Post-Run Pic:

Hells yeah. We are officially hardcore running bad-asses, now.

run.com

On msn.com today, there was an article listing the 10 best websites you've never heard of. One of these websites was run.com. On this site, you can enter a city or a country and find running routes that other runners have posted with a map, description and rating system. It's a beta site and I only found 4 in Memphis, but if we spread the word, others can enter their favorite local routes and the library will grow. This is particularly nice when you travel and don't have any idea of where to run! I know that runningahead.com has this feature also, but why not use both?

I'm thinking of getting Greg to meet me after work one day next week to run somewhere new...gotta love this extra daylight...and these beautiful sunshiney days we've been having in Memphis!!

Tomorrow night, Greg is meeting some friends from work for a poker night so I've decided to make an Asian noodle salad for my dinner (cause I know he'd never eat it...too many vegetables)! So be on the lookout for the recipe review on Friday!

Clear skies for a time...

An opening in the rainshowers!

Somehow, I managed to find 25 minutes in this of no rain last night.

So, last night I managed to get in 3 miles in between rain showers. But the air was just so thick and all the car fumes from rush hour, yuck.. made for a terrible run....

I was a little worried after that run. How is running in my new neighborhood going to be? Aren't there always going to be car fumes around?

Well, worry no more. My new neighborhood is awesome for running! I started off in familiar territory, making a loop through music row and then I ventured out in Vanderbilt country. I like to call this one, my Vandy Boy 5 mile Route.

I call it that because of a few things I passed along my way:

1. Fraternity houses

2. Baseball Field

3. Athletic Department (where I saw a football player get out of his car and walk inside for).

4. Football Stadium

5. Football Practice Field (where I saw players huddled around a coach for morning practice).

I mapped this run on runningahead.com but I can't ever get the map to show up on this page. I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure it out before I gave up.

The only drawbacks to this city running is... car fumes and red lights.

But, it was an awesome run. I'm excited for tomorrow morning and a new route!

Surviving the Switchbacks

Yes, I now know what that means...they weren't exaggerating.
Sunday's 10 mile race was just awesome. Even though I had to get up really, really early that morning to drive 45 minutes to the park, it was ok cause my brother Logan was my navigator. He and my mom were in town to help us out with the renovations on the new house. More on that in a minute...

Pre-Race:I didn't get to bed as early as I had planned and I was betting that my pre-race meal was not the best choice. Although it was really good...We had steak, baked potato, corn-on-the-cobb and salad along with a really delicious Cabernet Sauvignon called Canyon Road. In addition to those things, my 5 mile run on Saturday was miserable. It was hot and I was just not feeling it. I feared a very bad race coming on.

I did, however, wake up on time which was good because Logan and I got lost on the way. Here is Logan trying to find the directions on his iphone:

But we made it in more than enough time. I even ran a warm-up mile.

The Course: The course was very hilly. I'm not talking about gentle rolling hills, I'm talking mountain-like hills. Oh, and those switchbacks. Those came within the 9th mile. They weaved back and forth at, I'm guessing between a 35-40 degree angle. Everyone literally stopped and walked-or hiked, rather. It was that steep. Some of the downhills were so steep that we had to walk them as well.

The Good: Even with all those hills, I felt great. The scenery was beautiful....it was all shaded since we were running through the woods. I had lots of energy and felt good for most of the race. I had a Gu at mile 5.5 and even with only 3 water stations on the course, it was alright. I came in with an average of 9:53 miles and I feel good about that since it was crazy hilly.

The Bad: As it turns out, my distance/pace calculator on my HRM has been correct all along...so that sucks...I've just been slow/out of shape.

Post-Race: After the race, Log and I went to Cracker Barrel and then over to the house to do some work. I'm proud of the way it's shaping up!!

Here is Logan, priming the walls for painting and flexing his muscles for the camera.

A few of the gardens we were working on from sunup til sundown on Saturday and Sunday.

My mom and Greg, working hard.

And Banner watching us from inside the house. He was in timeout because he kept barking at everyone who passed by. Poor Banner.

Damn it Feels Good to be a Gangsta

Week One of Training: Successfully Completed!

It was a great start and I'm ready to take on week two. I think I'm really going to enjoy incorporating speed and hill workouts into the schedule simply because of the variation. It makes training more exciting...I never thought I'd look forward to a hill workout, but its kinda fun! Of course its hard, but it just feels so good to complete a good, quality workout like that. So here is my week review:

Highlight of the week: first long run of 10 miles. I was kinda of nervous about it because I hadn't run that far in a while, but it went off without a hitch. I got out to Shelby Farms around 7:30am and the weather was awesome! The run was just really enjoyable and reminded me again of why I run. I think I was experiencing, like, a mini- runner's high.

For long runs, I like to run on this long, straight path across the street from the main part of the park. It goes all the way out to Germantown Parkway and when you cross the street you can get to the Germantown Greenway, which is another park. Anyway, I like running out there because of the flatness and because I can run out for half the distance and then back in for a cheat-free workout...with no temptation of getting in my car and driving home!

The path goes right through farmland, which I guess is owned by the county cause its on a public park. Now I'm no farmer, but its nice to get to see all of it flourishing at different times of the year. There's corn, cotton, sunflowers, bamboo for the pandas at the zoo and probably a lot more stuff that I just can't identify. Right now the cotton is in full bloom. Does cotton bloom? I don't know, but you know what I mean. Ok, I'll quit taking about crops and such because I'm not the Pioneer Woman.
I'm also loving the soreness of the "day after the long run." That soreness just feels like success to me. I love it.

And lastly, I got to run in my new neighborhood so that was really cool!! Yes, we are proud new homeowners as of Friday!! Yay!! Now let the work begin!

Ok now for the Cons:
Now I'm not an especially fast runner, but through the years, I have been able to improve and get faster. But something is up...my times this week have been really, really slow. Like even slower than I even was in the beginning. And I don't feel like I'm moving that slowly, that's the thing. I just recalibrated my HRM so I'm hoping that maybe its just off. I'm just going to leave it as it is and wait for the race this weekend. Then I'll compare my time and distance to the official race stats. So anyway, what was supposed to be a 5 mile pace run on Saturday didn't really go as planned. It was just a regular run. Also my heart rate was way up so I'm not sure what was going on with that either.

I finished up with 30 miles and am all ready to go for week 2. I've got a 3 mile recovery run this evening and then I'm out to the new house to start painting! That will be like an arm workout, right?

Oh-and the title of the blog is my favorite running song of the moment. It's got a great beat and will make you feel like a bad-ass while you run:)

Made it!

Last night, I drove the Shelby Farms route and decided that it was run-able after all. There were some treacherous spots and I would have to be very attentive of passing cars, but I thought it was manageable. So this morning, I got out there and ran it! I am so pumped about it and I plan to run to Shelby Farms early Saturday morning and try and get a long run in. I think I'm going to shoot for 8 or 9 miles. Once at Shelby Farms, all I have to do is a couple of miles cause getting there and back will take up most of the time. It will be better when I am back up to my 10+ mile workouts.
My foot felt fine and so did the rest of me. I had a lot of energy-I really felt like I could have run longer!
I'm a little bit weary of doing a long run the day before my 5 mile race, but I don't think it's long enough to really matter and I am not going to push it too hard on Sunday. I want to scope out the course and then just try to improve my time at the following 5 mile race.
I also mixed it up a bit last night with Billy Blanks Boot Camp. It was a good workout and really good strength training. I'm going to be sore today, I think!

change of scenery

Last night, I decided to run a new route. I was hoping to make it to Shelby Farms because that would be just perfect for long runs...I could run the 3 or so miles to the park, run there and then run back. It would be good variety and I love the idea of not driving. I was doing pretty good and feeling fine until I realized that I made a wrong turn. But that's cool...I got to run through some new neighborhoods and see some new stuff. It was nice and the time went by really fast. Plus, I found a short cut to the liquor store. HaHa. I can just see myself running back home with brown bags full of alcohol.

When I finally got back to the original point where I should have gone left instead of right, I saw that there weren't any sidewalks and not much of a shoulder. Plus it was getting darker by the minute. I didn't want to chance it. So today I'm going to drive it and see if running through that area is possible. I did, however, see a big group of people (runners and walkers) walking from that direction, so I'm thinking they were coming back from the park. So there's hope!

My foot felt pretty good until mile 2 or so. It didn't hurt enough to stop, so I pushed on. After 4 miles, the pain either went away or I got used to it. All in all, I managed to get 5 miles in, which I am very pleased about. To celebrate, I had one of these:

Cool huh? Greg found them! Here I am enjoying one, post-run: