Thursday, April 5, 2012

East Nasty Run #2, Round the Lake

I was a little apprehensive about this run for two reasons.  First, I was concerned about the hill coming out of Shelby Park and second I was on my own for this run because all of my friends had other plans!  But, a goal is a goal, so I sucked it up and drove over to East Nashville.  I got lucky and actually spotted a friend when I got there, Quincy!  Not a friend I could run with, he is much too fast for me, but it was great seeing him and he introduced me to a few people, although I couldn't run with them either!

Once again East C.A.N. was there with an adoptable dog.  They didn't give much of a story for this one.  I'm not sure if it was a boy or a girl.  He (or she) was very pretty though.  They asked for a volunteer to run with him and a guy stepped up to take him out.  This however, didn't work out so well.  Turns out he (or she) didn't want to run.  He (or she) made it about 5 blocks before wanting to turn around so he took him back to the start and headed out once again.  How do I know this?  Welll, he passed me a couple miles into the run!  Man, these East Nasties are fast!

I liked this route although once again the Garmin doesn't really do justice to the elevation changes.  Either that or it's just me not getting along with the hills.  I guess it could be a little of both.  I'm hoping that after 12 weeks of running in East Nashville me and the hills will be getting along better. Anyhow, I guess it's just that time of year but everything seemed so green and pretty and if my phone battery hadn't been so low I would have taken some pictures as we ran down into Shelby Bottoms, around the lake, and back out.  Running out of the park wasn't as bad as I expected.  I walked a few times but all in all I think this was a pretty good run.  I'm looking forward to Run #3.  

Thursday, March 29, 2012

East Nasty Run #1, One Hilly 5k...

Okay, so I started this blog last year to document my training for my first triathlon and my first marathon.  I didn't do very well with that, however, I've recently been inspired by a friend of mine, Tracy Turner, who is blogging about training for her first marathon (Marine Corps in Washington DC this October) and I'm going to make another attempt at this!

I recently set a goal to run all 12 East Nasty runs in succession, leading up to the run of all runs "The Nasty"!  Last night was my first run titled "One Hilly 5k", and in my opinion it was!   This run, like all of the runs, started at 11th and Holly in East Nashville.  When I got there I remembered why I stopped going to these runs, it's the adoptable dogs they show before each run!!!!  Okay, I am just kidding about that but I'm terrified that by the end of this running series I'll go from having zero dogs to having twelve!!!  Last night's adoptable was a cute little puppy.  Looking at the website I think he might have been Copper.  Julianna and I stayed as far away as we could because we are both suckers, but I did talk to the lady from East C.A.N. beforehand.  Copper was found tied to the porch of a house after the family had moved.  I don't understand how people do these things!  He was such a cute and sweet puppy that I'm certain he will find a good home soon!

The route, in my opionion, lived up to it's name.  I live in the flat 'boro but I try to run in Cool Springs and Nashville as often as I can but this still seemed very hilly to me!  I was very proud of myself that I ran up Shelby Avenue, not a huge hill but a long incline and really enjoyed the downhill into Shelby Bottoms.  Unfortunately I had to stop and use my inhaler when we go to the bottom.  I never equated my breathing issues to allergies, but I guess that's what causes them.  I've always had trouble at the change of the season so I guess that's what it is.  Anyhow, after a moment's panic of thinking I had an empty inhaler (I didn't), we were back off and running.  Now we all love the hills because we know what goes up must come down, right?  Well, in this case what goes down must come up!  I think I did okay on the hill out but I did have to walk so I convinced Julianna to walk "the poles" with me.  This is my method of getting up a hill when I can't just straight run it.  I'll run to a pole, then walk to the next one and so on.  Before I knew it were up and out of the park.  The last hill caught me a little off guard on Holly Street.  I saw it as we were running down Holly and it looked huge!  Once we got on it though it didn't seem so bad and I ran most of it before having to walk.  Truthfully, I think I could have made it up this one but my head made me stop. Yep, still fighting the head games, but I'll come out on top, I'm sure of it!

Almost at the end of the run Julianna saw some friends of hers, Brian and Ashley, so we stopped to chat with them before running to the finish line.  Afterwards Julianna and I headed down to 3 Crows Bar for a beer and some more conversation.

Things I learned on this run?  I do suffer a little from allergies.  I can run the hills but I need to push a little harder on them.  And most importantly, I need to run faster so that there will still be some water after the run and we'll be able to get a seat at 3 Crows Bar to enjoy our beer!

Here is the Garmin data for the run.  I just found my chest strap and wore if for the first time in awhile.  I am little disconcerted that my heart rate was so high on this run, but overall it really was a good run. 

I'm looking forward to Run #2 Round the Lake next Wednesday!  Looks like we run into Shelby Bottoms again but down the hill we ran up last night which means up the hill we ran down.  It's going to be fun!