Running Archives - Renaissance Granddad

Posts tagged "Running"

Great Blues from Anthony Geraci Drives My Morning Run

Since my last post way back on June 11th, I have written drafts of several posts and haven’t completed any of them! So I’m not going to go into a big explanation about why I haven’t posted I’m just going to post something and then move on! So over the last month plus I have ran two to three days every week. Most of them have been run at a pace slower than I was running last year. But considering I usually don’t run at all during the summer months I think running slower beats not running! With that being said I did run this morning. I was neither too hot or too humid. The sun was bright though, so I loved the few spots of shade I got along my route. Even though I was running at a slower pace, the run was somewhat of a struggle. The two minor hills on the course seemed like mountains. In addition, the slight declines provided little relief! The good things is I made it! My average pace over the 3.1 mile course was 11.20 min/mi. Here are the nerdy details….. The Nerdy Details Tot. Dist. 3.15 mi. Tot. Time. 35:49 AVG Pace 11:20 Avg Hr.140 Max Hr. 153 Cals Burned 454 The Soundtrack: Daydreams in Blue The soundtrack for the run was Daydreams in Blue the latest release from Anthony Geraci. The album is currently number 4 on the Roots Music Report‘s Blues Chart. It rose from number 45 last week! I chose…

A Music-less Return to Running Yikes!

So yesterday was a fairly nice day and since my legs were feeling pretty good, I thought it would be a good day to start running again. Since it was going to be a little warmer in the afternoon I decided that’s when I would run. In the morning I went to Trader Joe’s. I made a playlist with some Blues harp players who i didn’t know (see post from yesterday). So…. Poor Run Poor Planning Leaves Me Music-less When it came time to run, I decided to listen to Twist the Knife from The 44’s. The one thing I forgot was that my phone’s battery runs down fairly quickly and by the time I was ready to run it was at 20% and falling fast. I charged it a little and was able to get it up to about 45%. However, I knew that was not going to get me through the run with both my Fitbit app and Spotify going at the same time. When that happens I can watch the charge drain from the battery. I was right. By the time reached the first mile, I knew there was no way the battery would last through the whole run. So I turned off Spotify. I did make it through the run with 1% left when I finished. While the run wasn’t a struggle, it wasn’t a piece of cake either. I was able to maintain about an 11 minute per mile pace through the first two miles….

Toronzo Cannon Powers My Fastest Run Since June

The Preacher, Politician or the Pimp - Toronzo Cannon

Toronzo Cannon Powers My Fastest Run of Last Three Months So sometimes as a runner you have to plan around of activities. Today I wanted to run but I also knew I wanted to do a load of laundry at the laundromat and make a trip to Trader Joe’s. I also wanted to be home before the Eagles game at 1:00. The solution was to get up before 7, meditate for 15 minutes, then take the laundry. Since the laundry takes slightly less than 40 minutes, I had time to come home and do a 20 minutes Cardio-Yoga warmup. The cardio to get my heart working and the yoga to stretch out. After bringing the wash home to dry it, I was ready to run. My initial thought was to run 4 miles today, but considering the time it would take to run. then cool down and shower, I settled on running a 3.1 mile course. It was a nice morning for running. Temperatures were in the high 50s and it was overcast. I chose the 5K I’ve been running for 95% of the year. For years I ran with only a stopwatch on courses measured by my car’s odometer. I knew where the mile and half-mile marks were and would judge my pace using them. Now I have the GPS on both my iPhone and my Fitbit Blaze. The two rarely agree. Even on the iPhone somedays the miles are shorter, somedays longer. Today the first half-mile was little…

John Mayall Makes A Good Run Better! Try It

John Mayall Makes A Good Run Better! Try It The Run Yesterday’s was one of those days that was about as close to perfect as you can get. First we were going to be babysitting our grandson Logan all day while his parents and older sister went to Six Flags. The good thing was we didn’t need to be there until 9:30. That meant that I could run around 8:00 and and be done and showered by 9:30. So I got up at 7:00 did some warm up exercising and was out the door by 8:00. I ran a 3.1 (5K) mile course that is pretty flat. It’s the fourth time I’ve run since I was sick with an upper respiratory infection and a touch of pneumonia. Overall, it was the best of the four runs. Here are the results…. Total Distance: 3.19 Time :33:38 Pace: 10:33 Avg HR 144 Peak HR 163 Cals 423 Splits 1 – 10:18 2- 10:40 3- 10:51 0.19 9:38 The Soundtrack – Nobody Told Me – John Mayall I think the first John Mayall album I bought was 1969’s The Turning Point. I really loved that album an over the next 50 years I have continued to follow his legendary career and he has consistently provided me with great albums! Nobody Told Me is another. Throughout his career Mayall has always had a terrific lead guitarist in his band, starting…

My Yoga and Walking Challenges Lead to a Month of Runs…

A few weeks after I started my 21-day Yoga Challenge I realize that wanted to add some more to my exercise regime. I thought back and remembered how I started to gain weight, when I stopped babysitting Oliver two plus years ago. While I was babysitting I would take him for two or three 30 minute walks during the day. Once those walks stopped on came the weight! Anyway I thought even though you won’t be pushing a stroller you can walk twice a day numb nuts! So I created the 30-day Oliver Walking Challenge. The aim of the challenge was to use walking to help me get back into shape with the idea that I would then be able to start and run again. Well the Walking Challenge worked so well that within two weeks or so, I was running again. .The Run: 3.1 Miles…. Yesterday I ran for the third time this week. It’s the fourth week in a row that I have done such! The first week I ran 3.1 miles on Sunday and then did the same on Tuesday and Thursday. On the following three Sundays, including this past Sunday, I ran four miles and 3.1 miles on the following Tuesday and Thursday. The end result is that I ran 11 days in May and have run 3 days so far in June. Yesterday’s run was my fourteenth since May 1st and one of my fastest. I completed the 3.1 mile course in 33:53 about…

A Running Update -Sunday’s 4-Miler with Gazpacho

A Brief Running Update So I guess I should catch up before I write about this week’s runs. Last week I ran three times. Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Each run was 3.1 miles. Two were over the same course. So far this week I have also run three times. The first run was a four-mile run on Sunday. The second was a 3.1 mile run on Tuesday and I ran another 3.1 on Thursday. Sunday’s Run Sunday’s run (May 20th) was my first four-mile run of 2018. I ran my old standby run called Creek Out and Back. And I screwed it up! A little after I ran the first mile in 10:40, my fastest mile so far this year, I looked down and saw my shoe was coming untied. I stopped to tie it and paused the Fitbit. I thought I restarted it but a half-mile later I looked and the distance and pace hadn’t changed. So I stopped briefly and restarted it and continued on. At the end of the run (which I know is 4 to 4.1 miles) my Fitbit registered 3.69 miles. I think that the pace ended up somewhere around 11:40 min per mile. The pace was slow because I struggled over the last mile. My average heart rate was 145 bpm and I burned 563 calories. So overall it was a productive run. The Soundtrack -Soyuz by Gazpacho The ‘soundtrack for the run was Soyuz the latest release from the progressive rock band Gazpacho. Gazpacho…

A Good Workout, a Good Run with Great Blues from Laurie Morvan.

Okay so I will find out today if I over did it yesterday How you ask? Well maybe you didn’t ask or even want to know how. But I am going to tell you anyway! The Morning Workout It all started with my morning workout. It was intended to be a 46 minute workout using just about every piece of workout equipment I own. At the start of the workout I was feeling pretty good so I was moving a little quicker than normal and that continued throughout the workout. When I got to the 46 min mark I was close to 450 calories burned, so I decided to go for a few more minutes to get to 450 calories. The final time for the workout ended up being 50 minutes. The final number of calories ended up at 481 calories. The Run -2.7 Mile Loop Later in the day I remembered that I had said I wanted to run/jog on Tuesday and Thursday this week so when 4:30 came around I decided to do just that! My plan was to go for a slow two-mile run, and possibly, if I needed to, I would walk. However, when I started I was running along at an easy 11:08 minute per mile pace. I completed the first mile at a pace of 11:14. I felt good and my heart rate had actually gone down since the start of the run. The second mile was completed in 10:58 thanks to a couple of…

Finding Gobi – Dion Leonard – A Wonderful Tale

Finding Gobi: The true story of a little dog and an incredible journey – Dion Leonard Dion Leonard’s Finding Gobi is the typical boy finds dog, boy loses dog, boy searches for dog, ultimately finds him and brings him home. Only the boy is an ultra- marathoner who races in some of the most grueling races around the globe. And it was at one of those races that Leonard found Gobi. The race was a grueling seven-day 155 mile run that crosses the China’s Gobi Desert. Gobi and Dion Leonard Meet Actually, I guess it’s more correct to say Gobi found Leonard. That’s because at the start of the initial stage of the race, little Gobi started attacking The shoe covers Leonard had on his running shoes. The covers were in place because during the first part of the race, the runners would be going up a sand dune! Anyway, as the race started Gobi started running too and stayed by Leonard’s side through the whole 26.2 miles! That night Gobi slept in Leonard’s tent. The following morning Leonard and Gobi set off again on the next leg of the race. All and all Gobi stayed by Leonard’s side through three marathons! Of course there were a couple of times that Dion had to carry Gobi. When it came to cross the scorching black sands of the desert, which was virtually devoid of life, Leonard knew that he could risk allowing Gobi to run. So Gobi moved ahead with the…

A Fine Day for A Great Run – Music by Karibow

A Fine Run Highlighted by a 9:52 Mile! – Yeah Me! – Life’s Little Victories! Over the last few weeks I have been checking Weather.com’s rating for going for a run. Considering the conditions, clear skies, low temperature and humidity I figured it would be a high rating. It was 8 out of 10. That was slightly lower than I thought it would be, but still great. No excuses if today’s run wasn’t a good one! The Run But with that said the run didn’t start out too well. I wasn’t too far into the run before I realized I forgot my Fitbit! I had left it in the house charging. So I turned around and walked back home! I know I never ease into runs like I should so I considered this minor delay my easing into this run. So I see out again when I passed the first half-mile mark in under five minutes I thought to myself” could this be the day I run a mile under 10 minutes! Sure enough I ran the first mile in 9:52! Now came the hard part not sucking wind over the next 3 miles! I slowed down a little but I still felt pretty good. I ran the second mile in 10:19, with an average pace of 10:05. Once again I slowed down a little more but again I still didn’t feel too bad! Mile 3 was completed in 10:38. I looked at my time when I hit the 5k…