I feel like it’s Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is the day! The Hokies kick off their season against #1 Alabama.

Tunnel to Worsham Field in Lane Stadium

It’s time to go to work, lunch pail defense-style.

And I’m hoping to see a little bit of ‘Beamer Ball’ too!

Block that kick!

Game day, game face!

Gobble, Gobble. Beat Bama!! As if I needed more excitement, I am planning on doing tomorrow’s 10 mile long run on the Huckleberry Trail. Although the football game is in Atlanta, Blacksburg is still where it’s at. I think a ten mile run on the Huckleberry Trail is the perfect way to pregame before the Hokies kick off at 5:30 PM!

View of the football stadium from the Huckleberry Trail

Lately I have noticed a pattern of having a good long run one weekend followed by a bad one the next. If the pattern continues, this weekend would be an off weekend. I am hoping a long run on my favorite trail will break the pattern.

Anyone planning to watch tomorrow’s game (5:30 on ESPN)?

Do you have plans to watch any college football kick off games?

What is your long run/workout this weekend? Anyone racing?

I don’t often run with music. If I am running on my own I like to be alone with my thoughts. My mind wanders to some extremely random and often entertaining places while I run. When I run with other people (usually Barry or my friend Kim) I never bring music. But every once in awhile the mood strikes and I decide I’d like to rock out during my run. Wish I had his skills:

I’ll be facing some of the longest long runs I have ever done as I work my way through my marathon training plan. I’m sure there will be at least a few runs that I bring along my music, for no other reason than a little company while I’m out on the trail. With that being said, I thought I’d share a few songs I’m currently enjoying as well as my favorites.

Songs I’m currently digging (not necessarily current top hits, but mostly):

All time favorite songs to run to:

Since we’re talking about music, I’m going to touch on my opinion on the safety of running with music real quick. I never run with music when I am running on roads, because I don’t want any distractions that may keep me from hearing an oncoming car or more often than not a loose dog in hot pursuit.


A friendly loose dog who used to run with me, but I haven’t seen him in a long time.

When I run on a designated bike/hike/horseback riding trail with music, I always keep my left ear bud out. This allows me to hear what’s around me, including approaching cyclists. Sometimes I do zone out and get startled, but I always stay to the far right of the trail and look over my shoulder before passing anyone. Just my two cents.

Do you listen to music while working out?
What are some of your current favorite songs to workout to? All time favorites?
Anything to add on listening to music while running?

1. Do you remember how I saw a black bear during my long run the weekend before last? It was a large, black animal up in the trees that was scuffling up or down (I didn’t stick around long enough to see which way) a tree next to the trail I was running on. I assumed it was a bear, because what else could it be? Well this past Sunday there was an article in our local paper about an unidentified animal being captured on a trail camera in the next county down from ours:

Seriously, what is that thing? And is it the animal I saw the weekend before last? The article talks about the animal possibly being an unverified “Bigfoot” but I think that’s nonsense. I don’t believe in Bigfoot and I think it’s either some weird looking bear or somebody’s pet monkey that got loose or something. I’m not bringing this up to argue the existence or non-existence of Bigfoot. But I can’t help but wonder if that animal is possibly the same one I saw the two Saturdays ago, since I don’t normally see bears. The best part of the article is when the author says “I think it must be a bear. It has to be a bear, does it not?”

2. I was at one of the pharmacies in town over the weekend to print pictures for our family tree picture frame collection and I saw something crazy. They had their whole Halloween candy display up already. In August. I said something to the girl working at the register about it and she replied “I know, it’s crazy! You want to know something crazier? The last truck we got in had all of our Christmas merchandise and candy.” Crazy indeed. It seems like that stuff shows up earlier and earlier each year.

3. Yesterday’s track workout went really well. I wasn’t sure how this workout was going to go, because I felt exhausted all day long and had a headache when I got home from work. But I ran solid, albeit a little too fast because I was without my trusty pacer. I had 5 miles on my schedule, so I did 800m warm up, 5 x 800m with 400m recovery jogs in between, and 1200m cool down to total five miles. Here are the splits for the 800’s:

1- 4:15
2- 4:25
3- 4:17
4- 4:21
5- 4:13

If you remember from last week, I am supposed to be aiming for 4:30 for each repeat, since my goal for the marathon is 4 hours 30 minutes. I’m sure as I increase the number of 800m repeats my times will slow down a bit. I do most of my runs with my Garmin, but when I’m on the track I prefer my Timex.

Just like last week, I received whistles and cat calls from the JV football team as they made their way from the practice field to the locker rooms. There was also an older man, who I think was waiting for his son to finish football practice, who sat in the stands and watched nearly my whole workout (he showed up just as I finished my warm up). When I finished my cool down he asked me how many times I had gone around the track, and I replied “twenty.” He said “Wow, what is that, about two miles?” and I said “No, it’s five miles.” Then he told me “Way to go!” I left with a smile on my face.

What do you think: black bear, monkey, Bigfoot?? Do you think that could be the same animal I saw the weekend before last?

Any signs of Halloween candy in the stores where you live?

Do you ever get whistled at by high school boys??

This week was a recovery week and boy did I need it. I think I wore myself out during vacation by staying up later than usual and getting up earlier than usual. By the time I got back to work on Monday I was feeling pretty worn out.

Monday- First track workout since beginning marathon training, totaling 4 miles. 1 mile warm-up, 4 x 800m, 1 mile cool down. The intervals were a bit slower, since they were in the form of Yasso 800s. That means I took my marathon goal time of 4:30 and converted it to minutes and seconds for the 800m repeats. The plan is to add on one 800m repeat per week until I get to 10.

I was happy that I was able to hit my goal time for the 800’s since this was day 4 in a row of running. In the past when I have done track workouts, they have always been after 1-2 days off. Granted they were a little more intense than this workout, but still. I wasn’t sure how the workout was going to go, but it went well.

Tuesday- Unplanned rest day. Tuesdays are usually cross training days, but I was feeling really tired so I opted for a rest day instead.

Wednesday- Four miles with two at marathon pace (10:17/mile) before work with Sven. I thought hitting marathon pace for the two middle miles would be in the bag, since I was running on a treadmill at a fixed speed. I used a treadmill pace conversion chart to determine what speed I should set my treadmill at with 1% incline. It indicated that 5.8mph at 1% incline would be 10:12/mile pace. I had it set on that at 2 miles, but my splits came in at 10:19 and 10:17. But that’s pretty much right on pace so I’ll take it.

Thursday- Rest day. Sometimes if I take a rest day Tuesday, I will do some cross training on Thursday. And I definitely could have in the morning before work. But I knew it was going to be a long workday (nearly 13 hours when all was said and done), so I just went with another rest day.

Friday- Mid-afternoon 4 mile run on the Dora Trail in town. Why I waited until it was mid-afternoon when it was 80 degrees (when I finished working for the day around 9:00 AM) to run I have no idea. I felt alright during the first mile, but things just went downhill from there. My pace got progressively slower, my legs felt like lead, and my stomach felt completely empty. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and that definitely didn’t help anything. I also didn’t bring water because I didn’t realize how hot it was. I think I was also just worn out from coming off of a 13 hour workday the day prior. But I survived and promptly put this run behind me.

Saturday- I met up with Kim for a 6 mile long run on the Dora and New River Trails. My legs felt a million times better than Friday and I had an enjoyable run. It was in the mid-50’s, which felt wonderful. We encountered a pickup truck crossing the trestle bridge, which was a first in over a year of running on this trail.

Same bridge, picture from last winter.

I have started to notice a trend in my long runs, thanks to these weekly marathon training recaps. It seems like I always have one good long run followed by one bad/tough long run. I have no idea why I would be “on” one weekend and “off” the next. But I looked back through my weekly recaps since week 4 and my long runs have literally flip flopped every week. On even weeks I have good runs and on odd weeks I have bad runs. The good news is the marathon takes place on week 20 of training, so at least there’s that. But seriously, I wonder if this is just a coincidence or what.

Sunday- Slept in and then went for an easy 3 mile run on the roads around our house, which means hills. My legs felt tired and it felt ridiculously hot outside, even though it was only 68 degrees and 85% humidity. Those were really the only notable things about that run.

Total miles: 21

This week’s schedule:
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: XT
Wednesday: 5 miles w/ 3 @ MP
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 5 miles
Saturday: 10 miles
Sunday: 3 miles