16 Down, 10.2 to go

So, to continue where last night's post ended we had planned to do a 16 mile training run this Sunday. My marathon is still a REALLY long time away, but I'm totally type A so I developed my own training plan to make sure I'm overly prepared for this thing. I've always been this way. There's a project due April 15th? Mine will be ready Feb 15th. On two parts of the CPA exam I scored over 90. You only have to have 75 to pass. My extremely unsupportive boss at the time 'congratulated' me with a "Someone obviously studied too hard". Thanks, old fat lonely woman. Anyway, on my "Rachel's Marathon Plan Type A" I'm scheduled for 5 18-milers, 2 20-milers and 1 23-miler. That's what I mean when I say I plan to be overprepared (and probably injured if I can make it that long.)

I don't want to burn out on locations for all these long runs so we picked another new spot for Sunday afternoon's training run. While most of you were sitting down for yummy lunches we had a bagel + PB and headed out to run. (Don't say you weren't we passed a ton of yummy open air bistros and I was SO close to reaching in and grabbing some food.) I had noticed a fun run for the Nashville Striders where they were planning a run to pass a lot of the Nashville Guitars that are out about town. These guitars are a lot like the cow project in Chicago - they're big 10 foot guitars around tourist sights painted by local artists, or commissioned by a lot of the country singers. I've noticed them around town, and even though I'm not a fan of country AT ALL we thought it would be a fun urban run to try. The details on the Striders map said the run was 8.2 miles, so we thought we'd give it a try and then stop after Lap 1 refill our water and repeat for 16 miles.

We memorized the map and headed out. The run starts at Centennial Park, within .4 miles we had to cross busy West End Avenue. We had to stop and wait for the light. Hmmm. That never happens on the Greenway. We finally got going again and ran through Vanderbilt, then had to cross a very busy 21st avenue in Hillsboro Village (which is a lot of fun to hang out at in the evenings) & Belmont University, then up to Music Row and down to Downtown. We had forgotten there was a home Titans game until we got closer to DT. Since it was almost game time most fans were already in the Coliseum, but it was pretty fun to run through the crowds and see tons of people across the river already in their seats. From there we headed back up Music Row and back through Vandy/West End to Centennial Park. We changed out our water bottles and decided the course was a little too congested with traffic to repeat so we made our own path and headed back down Elliston/Church past Baptist Hospital, Hustler Hollywood, and back downtown before we turned back around. It was pretty warm out yesterday, and on the second half of our run we were really feeling it. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and not a lot of shade (esp between 12-2!) We made it back to Centennial Park around mile 13. I could tell Brent was near breaking point from the sound of his feet and the amount of water he was downing. There's a 1-mile loop around the lake at CP so I decided to do that a few times and finish off the run. Brent fell behind so I picked up my pace to finish, I was getting SO hot and tired. A couple laps around the lake (including several runs through some sprinklers - thank heavens for ssprinklers!!) and I was DONE. 2:48.05. Not too bad! Avg pace was 10:30. I headed back to the car and Brent was already there stretching. He stopped around mile 15 with some pretty bad leg cramps. We headed over to McDs and got some sugary sodas and stretched it out around the park before leaving.

I'm pretty happy with my splits -

.4 miles - 10.27 pace(I paused it when we waited for a traffic light and started all my laps from here! GRRR)
10.09
10.59
10.50
9.46
10.27
10.08
10.46
12.36 (this is when we traded out water bottles and I didn't pause it)
10.35
10.23
10.41
10.37
11.04 (BIG hot hill)
9.37
9.38
9.26 pace for the last .6 miles

My last few miles crack me up! I saw so ready to be done. On some of the first ones we slowed down for pictures and a lot for crossing major roads. All in all I'm very pleased with the run. The second half was a lot tougher because we really didn't have a plan. Next time I'd run more through Vandy and the neighborhoods surrounding to enjoy the beautiful homes there and avoid some of the major intersections.

Next week.... 17 miles!

Rachel

Exercise -

Mon - 1 mile am walk with Pips AND Brent