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 short, but the mile mark about where it is most of the time. Likewise the rest of the mile and half-mile marks were close to the typical points.
What Ive decided to do is to stop each run at the same point and judge my run by total time and not pace. That’s basically how I’ve done it for about 30 plus years.
The Run
Today I finished the first mile in 9:59. I felt pretty good and by the 1.5 mile mark my overall pace had dropped slightly. At the two-mile mark I was still under a 10 minute per mile pace and feeling good. I maintained a strong pace and a fairly low heart rate over the last mile and finished with a fairly strong kick (at least for me)! My overall time 31:15 is my fastest in the last three months! Here are the Nerdy Details
The Details
Total Distance: 3.16 miles Total Time: 31:15 Pace: 9:53 min/mile
Splits Mile 1 9:59 Mile 2 9:54 Mile 3 9:53 Mile 0.16 9:07
Avg HR 132. Peak HR 145. Calories Burned: 375 cals
The Soundtrack
The soundtrack for today’s run came from Chicago blues artist Toronto Cannon. It was his latest release The Preacher, The Politician Or the Pimp. I first listened to Toronto back in 2016. The album I listened to was his 2016 release The Chicago Way.
The Preacher, The Politician Or the Pimp.is Toronzo’s second release.on Alligator records. when I first listened to Toronzo’s Music I discovered he was a bluesman at night and a city bus driver by day. When I read his biography at his website he is still described as follows
….The blistering guitarist, soulful vocalist, singular songwriter and city bus driver fuses his muscular, rock-inspired blues guitar playing with his original, keenly detailed slice-of-life songs, blazing his own blues trail. …..
And it’s true his songwriting and vocals are just as impressive as his blues guitar. I think his quotation playing is just a little better!!
From Toronzocannon.com ….
The Preacher, The Politician Or The Pimp features twelve Cannon originals, ranging from the burning social commentary of the title track to the wryly told, up-to-the-minute truths of Insurance to the trademark Cannon humor of Stop Me When I’m Lying and Ordinary Woman. He gets serious on the haunting The First 24, the Martin Luther King-inspired The Silence Of My Friends and on the moving final track, I’m Not Scared. uncommon way.
Toronzo Cannon on His Music
“It’s not about the solos,” Cannon says, “It’s about the songs. People get used to everyday life, so it’s easy to miss the things around them. I write about those things. I know the problems of Chicago, the hardship, ’cause we’re always a scapegoat. But I choose to love and respect the city because of the Chicago blues giants that came here from down south. I’m proud to be standing on the shoulders of every great Chicago blues musician who came before me.”
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is Toronzo Cannon is a welcome addition to the pantheon of Chicago blues musicians. Based on his guitar wizardry, soulful vocals and great songwriting skills. The Preacher, The Politician Or The Pimp has all that you could want in a blues album! So Check It Out!
Links for the Further Exploration of the Music of Toronzo Cannon
Artist’sWebsite
Facebook
Apple Music
Twitter
Amazon
Here’s a song “Insurance” that caught my attention during this morning’s run,
