A night of "Firsts"

Tonight I started at Centennial Park, but ran a different route than normal going all the way down to music row by Tin Roof and actually getting lost for probably a mile or 2 before figuring out where I was. I also ran more hills (total Ascent of 1964 feet.. over 500 more than any other run) than I've ever run including the ridiculous hill by Vandy not once, but twice! Tonight's 7.1 mile run gave me these firsts:

- Longest run to date
- Longest run with a pace faster than 9:00 mpm (1:03:45 total which is an 8:59 pace)
- Passed the 100 mile mark on my shoes
- Passed 50 miles for the 2nd month in a row (ok technically that's a "second" not a "first")

I finished with a loop around a dark Centennial Park wishing I could keep going, but it was dark and my knee was starting to bug me.

Crazy Map - Part Deux

I met a friend of mine downtown today and we ran around West End. I told him about my plan to create crazy maps with my Garmin (and he just got one too) so we took some random turns and 2 loops through Centennial Park at the end which gave me this:

I also tried something different today in my never ending quest to figure out what's hurting my #$&*(^#( knee. Since day 1 of using my Superfeet insoles I've noticed the arch on my right foot hits me just a little more noticeably than my left. So today I took those out and tried running with the regular insoles that came in the shoes. I ran 4.5 miles total during which my knee felt better at the beginning than usual, then started talking to me around 3.75 and then told me to quit at 4.5. Today may not be a good reference since I don't usually string a 5 miler and a 4.5 miler together with only 1 day inbetween. So I think I'm going to give it another run or 2 to see if it's making any difference.

Definitely no running for the next 2 days and then I'll probably try another 4-5 miles one day this weekend. Also today I registered for the Boulevard Bolt.. the one I said I registered for a week ago and finally got around to doing today!

My Garmin Drawerings

Today was my 2nd day officially working downtown instead of in Cool Springs so I had a lot more options for running (and it's always nice to skip the traffic). I decided to head over to Centennial Park, but since I'm getting more and more bored with greenways/tracks I opted for the streets instead of just running around the park. Back at home I loaded up the Garmin to pull down the stats and realized I almost literally ran all the way around Vanderbilt University, plus partially around Centennial at the end! I think next time I'll try to purposely make a crazy drawing by running weird routes! See Shannan.. you can't do THAT on a treadmill :)

Oh and I ran 5 miles which makes me feel much better about my race in less than 2 weeks. Not only that, but 2 of the splits were negative with a 3rd being 2 seconds away from being negative (all under 10:00) and I can't remember the last time that happened! My knee whispered to me for about the first .5 miles and then it shut up until about the 4.5 mile mark. Post-run it feels about the same as it normally does after a shorter run.