Bryan's Running Blog

54:26 ==> 8:38 pace. Slow and cold.

42:37 ==> 7:45 per mile. I ran this morning with my co-worker, Tim Sterling. I had to be back home to babysit so it was a little short -- but a lot longer than any of my Saturday runs during the past month or two. Overall, it was a pretty good week.

54:51 ==> 7:50 pace. Colby (our 8 month old) woke up at 4:00am. We try to let him cry himself back to sleep if it's before 5am, but he wouldn't. Kristen went in and fed him -- I decided since I was awake I might as well go running. So I got this morning's run done very early. Felt fine, except that it was very, very cold. I had more energy than expected the day after fast Sunday.

49:49 ==> 7:13 per mile on average. I did the Crockett Park, Green Hills Blvd run with a little twist. During 3 sections of my run, I picked up the pace: I ran around a 6:30 mile for about a mile 2 miles into the run, around a 6:00 pace for about 2/3 a mile about 4 miles into the run, and about a 6:10 mile for about 1.3 miles just before the end of the run. Felt OK. I was wearing too many clothes.

52:49 ==> 7:26 per mile. I ran down Knox Valley Road until Gordon Petty Court. On the way back I cut through Crockett Park via the River Trail. At this pace I feel like I am exercising -- but it's not too difficult to maintain for a long time.

57:11 ==> 8:10 per mile. Crockett Park, Green Hills run. I felt like going slow today. I had to go to the bathroom for half of the run -- keeping it all in me until getting back to the house was the most notable part of today's run.

59:30. Very slow -- I tried to hardly use any energy. I'm saving up for my big 5k tomorrow.

I ran the Frostbite 5K (Sumner County, TN) yesterday. My time was a little slower than I'd hoped, but I ended up taking 3rd place (out of around 200). So at least I got a sports bag prize out of it!

I got to the race site a little late and didn't get much of a chance to warm up. It was cold. The first mile was in 5:57. I started a little bit behind the front and had to weave my way through people. I probably should have had a faster first mile, because much of it was downhill. Next time I'll try to make it to the race a little earlier and get closer to the starting line.

The next mile I ran in 6:20. There were two fast kids way ahead of everyone who I never saw after about the first half mile. (These two got times of 17:05 and 17:12). Another guy (Mike) and I slowly broke away from the others. From mile 1 to the finish, I didn't see any other runners except for Mike. I followed about 5 yards behind him from mile 1-2. There were quite a few ups and downs.

I felt the pace was a little too slow and picked up the speed a little just after the mile 2 mark. I passed Mike and stayed ahead of him the rest of the way (he ended up finishing 20 seconds behind me). There was a bit of uphill on this last mile. Had a nice sprint for the last 50 yards.

Anway, my time was slower than I'd hoped. I had a goal of sub-18 minutes. It's probably that I'm just not as fast as I'd imagined. Other factors include 1) not enough of a warmup, 2) a bit of a cold/ sore throat this weekend, 3) a hilly course, 4) lack of a racing strategy, 5) few people close enough to my target speed to run against. In any case, it was nice to run a race again.

56:05 ==> 8:01 pace. Crockett Park, Green Hills Run. I'm sore from Saturday's run and a little low on energy. I had to take a quick pit stop in some bushes halfway through the run.

61:00 ==> 8:39 per mile. Wow, that's slow.

47:54 ==> 6:50 per mile.

Following Zac's lead, I decided to race a virtual 7-minute miler today on my Crocett Park - Green Hills Blvd loop. He's tough because he doesn't slow down going up hills. But I catch him going down. In the end, I beat him by over a minute, and felt good about that.

41:17 ==> slow.

First, let me apologize to my fans (in the thousands) who closely follow my blog. I was in Baltimore for work. Baltimore is an interesting place. There are nice neighborhoods, but then two blocks away you're in a bad neigborhood, and then a few blocks later you're in a nice neighborhood again. I decided to run mainly in the touristy area by my hotel and the harbor. It was a very slow run -- kind of a siteseeing run.

48:52 ==> 7:45 pace.

Running around Baltimore again. I'm not exactly sure how far I ran, but 7:45 pace sounds about right. Today I ventured off of the water/boardwalk area and ran by the baseball stadium, the birthplace of Babe Ruth, Mount Vernon, and right through the heart of downtown around 7am. So there was a lot of stop and go for stoplights and traffic. I wouldn't want to do this run everyday, but it was fun, I saw quite a bit, and I felt good -- had a lot of energy. I picked up the pace quite a bit for the last mile or so.

1:00:26 ==> 7:22 per mile. I ran east, crossing Edmonson Pike and continuing through some neighborhood near Holt Run Road. Earlier this morning, Kristen and I went on a 13 mile bikeride, with me dragging the two kids behind me. So, I had more energy than I thought this afternoon. A pretty good run.

51:37 ==> 7:42 pace. Old Smyrna road to Edmonson Pike and back.

57:30 ==> 7:27 per mile. I ran this afternoon a couple of hours after lunch -- I had minor cramps at the start of the run. My pace picked up in the last half. I ran south and west of campus.

I'm kind of in a running rut: I don't have a great desire to do speed workouts. I've trained myself mentally just to go out for a nice run. I don't think it's necessarily bad, but some day I guess I'll have to work on my speed again. My miles are staying pretty good, and I think I've generally been going a little faster on my fairly relaxing runs (like today -- not slow, but not pushing myself to go fast either).

58:14 ==> 7:59 pace. I probably started out around 8:30 pace and ended up running much of it at around 7:45 pace. I ran around Brenthaven this morning.

54:47 ==> 7:18 pace. Slept in a little today (7am), and ran south in the light thru Crockett Park, along the River trail, into Brent Meade along Devens Drive, and then back. I was a little lethargic at first. Two miles into the run on the river trail I decided to pick up the speed and ran 5:45 pace for 2/3 of a mile. I slowed down when I got to the end of the river trail, doing a relaxed run for a little while, and then did another fast mile (1.06 miles in 6:00, that means about 5:40 pace), and then just ran home. I didn't feel like going fast for an extended period of time, but it was nice to go fast.

I bought some heel raisers this morning after my run. My left achilles heel has been a little stiff lately. It felt about like this (maybe a little worse) 1.5 months ago, but I bought some new shoes and it went away. I have ran about 250 miles in my new shoes. I hope to get around 500 out of them. How far do other people run in their shoes? I was told to get new shoes every 300-500 miles -- by the lady in the running store and also by a guy at my church who is a podiatrist. Running can be expensive if I buy a new pair of shoes every 300 miles! The podiatrist said that the heel raisers might help. I typically run on the left side of the road which is a little sloped -- maybe it also has something to do with my left achilles heel hurting a little. Any thoughts?

1:06:56 ==> 7:42 pace. Crockett Park to Ravenwood up Green Hills Blvd and home. Thanks for all the advice yesterday, Paul, Maria, and Zac. I made a conscientious effort to run on the middle of the road or the right side of the road (on the less busy roads). I also tried to run on grass when possible -- it was a little spongy and wet so it gave me a little more of a workout. The heel raisers seemed fine -- after a couple of miles I forgot they were in there.

23:00. I'm in Austin, TX. I've been taking off the past few days because my achilles heel has been a little sore. It still ached a little this morning, but I thought I'd give it a try. I'm not in pain while running (nor am I in pain afterwards), but it doesn't feel right -- even after a 4 day break. I'm debating either just running as usual until it starts to hurt (if that ever happens) or else taking off another 4 days and resuming again on New Years.