Today’s Run : July 9, 2017 – Four Miles – a struggle over the last mile
The temperature was right around seventy degrees this morning so I decided it was a good day for a run. Looking back at my posts,I see that the last run I wrote about was way back on June 8th. Just because I haven’t posted, doesn’t mean I haven’t been running. While I haven’t been running as much as I should, I did run four more times in June Here are the results….
1 – June 15 – distance 3.26 miles, overall pace 10:45 min/ mile
2 – June 22 – distance 3.28 miles, overall pace 1049 min/ mile
3 – June 25 – distance 4 miles, overall pace 11:13 min/mile
4 – June 29 – distance 4 miles, overall pace 10:53 min/ mile
While you may not realize it, three of those four runs were on a Thursday – June 15,22, and 29! The reason is simple, it’s my day off from babysitting and Target.
The last two runs were both four mile runs and that’s a good thing. Now all I need to do is get another weekday run in and then a longer weekend run! Ha!
Today’s Run Prep
As I said at the start of this post the temperature this Morning was relatively cool (70 degrees). The only bad thing was that it is also very sunny! On days like today, I try to plan my run so that it has a good amount of shade in it. The bad thing about that is that the most heavily wooded area in town is also the area at the highest elevation . Which means it’s uphill to get there!
The Run…
Anyway I took off telling myself to take it easy because there will be a hill coming. So I was buzzing along feeling pretty good like I could keep this pace up for the whole run But when I finished the first mile in 10:25 I began to worry. At the 1.5 mile mark my pace had dropped to 10:38 (mid-way up that hill) and by the time I was at the top of the hill and heading toward the second mile mark my pace had dropped to 10:53! Finally I made the turn and headed back to the hill, but this time I was going down hill so I got to recover a little but the rest of the run after my descent was a struggle! My only thought was I don’t care about time just let me finish – which I did!
Calories burned 591 Average Heart-rate 143 bpm Max Heart-rate by 156 bpm
Overall, I am going to rate today’s as a B – The first mile gets an A and the last a C The to middle miles a B. So that’s the average which is fine by me! AndI just need to remember each run makes me a little better than before!!
The Soundtrack for the run was Erosion the latest from the Prog Rock band Cydemind. I will be reviewing the album in a bit at FreeWheelin’ Music SafarI
We went to the Jersey shore yesterday for a small family gathering ( no beach) Just the way I like it! Anyway as a result I didn’t get to run. I did get in an abbreviated morning workout though. I did the first twenty two minutes of my 60 minute workout. The routine included a 4 minutes dance cardio warm up and a tabata routine was made up of….
1 -4 – 20 second sets of jumping jacks (25 per 20 seconds ( 100 total)
2- 1 – 20 second mountain climbers -35 total
3 -1 – 20 second squat thrusts – 10
4 -1 – 20 second push-ups
5 -1 – 20 squats
6 -1 – 20 second squat kicks
7- 1 – 20 second squat steps
8 – 1 – 29 second squat together
9- 1 – 20 second hydrant
10- 1 – 20 second chair kickbacks
11- 1 20 second curls with 15 pound weights
12 -1 20 second overhead press 15 lb weights
13 -1 20 second lunges 15 lb weights
14 – Two rounds of various weights with a kettlle bell
15 – 2:00 minutes per round 4 total
At the end of those exercise I was just shy of burning 200 calories so I add some dance cardio with some jumping jacks included for 3 minutes or so bringing the total routine to 24 minutes burning a whopping 205 calories! Can you read the sarcasm in that statement?
July 3rd Morning Workout
Anyway this morning I replaced the 15 lb weights with 5 lb weights for 4 minutes. Then resistance bands for four minutes and a closing dance cardio with some kettle bell and jump rope. The routine totalled about 24 minutes and burned
about that same 200 plus calories. I don’t know precisely because I never stopped the Fitbit! So if you through in my shower and getting dressed the workout lasted 54 minutes and burned 314 calories.
I may be able to get a run in today, but with the hot weather I don’t know. Maybe an after dinner bike ride? That would be something a little different.
Ok so me today’s workout begins in earnest. Zoe is up! Just kidding! Watching Zoe is not a hard task and certainly doesn’t burn a lot of calories- now Oliver that’s a different story! After Zoe got up we spent some time cutting shapes.The featured image shows Zoe cutting the shapes by herself. She will turn three in September!
Ok so last night was my second comeback run and my second run of the week. The last one was ok and there has been no major pain. just the normal little soreness you can expect after not running for a while. I decided that I would run a route that is a little over 3 miles long. It is a loop run with only one small hill near the end of the run.
I had planned to use Selwyn Burchwood’s latest release Pick Your Poison as the soundtrack for the run. However I have been using my old iPhone On my runs because I still do not haven’t a case for my new iPhone. Anyway the old iPhone wouldn’t download any songs. Therefore I went old school and ran without music.
The Run
Once again I told myself to take it easy. The first block of the run, which I usually find the hardest , was a little of a struggle. But it was actually completed a little faster than my previous run.. After that point I was running a little easier, but I was shocked when I looked down at the first mile mark and saw that my time was 10:37!
I thought that’s pretty fast, so I better slow down. I thought I did, but as I kept looking at the time, my pace was hovering right around 10:40 minutes per mile. That was what the pace was when I reached the two mile mark and the three mile mark! And actuallly I was still running pretty comfortably. I was even comfortable enough to get a little sprint at the end. That sprint brought my average pace down to 10:37 for the run!
Here are the splits: Mile 1 10:37 Mile 2 10:40 Mile 3 10:40 last 0.27 10:14!
Hmm I was just thinking if. I better off running without music. That’s the way I ran for years and sometimes I think it helps me be more in tune with my body and my breathing. So maybe I’ll try it in my next few runs and see how it goes.
This Morning’s Workout
This morning I didn’t want to do a full 60 minute workout, but I still wanted to get in a good workout that would burn a few calories not just a yoga strecting workout. So I designed a modified 27 minute workout which combines a little tabata with my regular stuff
. It ended up being a 39 minute workout that burned 236 calories. But the most importantl thing is that my morning workout seems to get my body started in the morning.
Oh by the way i intent to write about Selwyn Birchwood‘a album in a bit so stay tuned. Now I want to go hear what Mr Comey has to say!
So I stuck to plans for a run this yesterday afternoon and took off on a run at around 5:15. Which I guess is actually this evening. My plan was to run for at least 30 minutes. I chose a course that I usually run when I am returning to running. It’s about 2.5 miles plus and takes around 30 some minutes.
Since it was my first run in over a month, I kept reminding myself as I was prepping for the run to take it easy! Anyway whether it’s old age or I just have learned over the years how to run slower, I was able to maintain a nice easy pace throughout the run.
Here are the mile splits: mile 1. 11:01, mile 2 11:17 the last .75 mile 11:19.I’ll take the last .75 mile being only 18 seconds per mile slower than the first mile any day.
The bottom line is that it was a successful start for a return to running. And so far my foot feels fine. The only thing that hurts tonight is my left shoulder, but that is from this morning’s tabata workout. I hate push-ups.
The Soundtrack: Trouble & Whiskey – Sean Chambers
The soundtrack for the run was Trouble & Whiskey, the latest release from Tampa based blues guitarist Sean Chambers. This album has been in my music rotation for several weeks now and is one of my favorites of 2017!
I first discovered the music of Sean Chambers in 2010 when I started blogging and exploring new music. He is the former lead guitarist for Blues great Hubert Sumlin. At that time, I explored his albums Humble Spirits and Ten Til Midnight. I enjoyed them both. More recently I listened to and enjoyed his album Live from the Long Island Blues Warehouse. And while I enjoyed all of the above albums I think that Trouble & Whiskey may be his best yet!
About Trouble & Whiskey
Both Costello’s vocals and guitar work are great on the album. Ben Elliott who has recorded classic artists such as Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons and Leslie West among others produced the album
The Sean’s band consists of obviously Sean on lead vocals and lead guitar. The rest of the band includes: Michael Hensley on Hammond B3 & keyboards, Todd Cook on bass and Kris Schnebelen on drums.
Special guests include Jimmy Bennett on guitar on track #8, John Ginty on Hammond B3 on track #4, (one of my favorite tracks!) and Andrei Koribaniks on percussion on tracks #1 and #7.
Seven of the tracks on Trouble & Whiskey new original Sean Chambers compositions. The remaining three tracks are covers: “Bullfrog Blues” by Rory Gallagher,(again one of my favorites), ‘Cut Off My Right Arm” by Johnny Copeland and “Be Careful With A Fool” by B.B. King/Joe Bihari.
So check it out! As for me I think I’ll create a playlist and give a listen to some of those other albums I haven’t heard for a while !
Here are some links …..
Links for the Further Exploration of the Music of Sean Chambers
A Tabata Workout Followed by the peaceful music of Nathan Speir
This morning I really did not feel like doing a full 60 minute workout. I seriously considered only doing a light yoga workout. But the. I thought maybe a short 20 minute Tabata workout. So I created one on the workout app that I use. It consisted of 8 – 20 second intervals followed by 10 second rest of the following
Jumping jacks
Squat thrusts
Sit ups
Mountain climbers
Push-ups/ squats 5 push outs 3 squats
Of course I counted how many of the exercises I did in each interval. If you had told me T the beginning of the exercise I would be doing
200 jumping jacks
64 sit-ups
64 squat thrusts
240 mountain climbers and
40 push ups
I would have said you were nuts! But that’s what I did. And although the workout only burnt. Calories according to my Fitbit I think it was pretty damn good workout!
I followed it with a 10 minute meditation and 5 minute savasana
( had to sneak in a little yoga!)
Today’s Meditation Soundtrack: Part of a Kindly Plan – Nathan Speir
The soundtrack for the meditation was a New Age album that’s been in my music rotation for a while now but I haven’t written about it yet. Big surprise I haven’t been doing a lot of writing about anything recently. So in an effort to break out of that rut,let me tell you about Nathan Speir and his album Part of a Kindly Plan.
Nathan Speir is a pianist, multi-instrumentalist and composer. He was born in southern California but was raised in Florida and Connecticut. Currently he calls Winston-Salem North Carolina home. Part of a Kindly Planis Speir’s eight studio release. His music style is eclectic and varied. He cites among his influences the music of George Winston, Keith Jarrret, Pat Metheny, Steve Roach, Harold Budd, R Carlos Nakai, Chopin and Erik Satie. His is inspired by his family, poetry, fine art, space and astronomy, the study of religion and nature.
From his Website Biography…
“I have a perpetual need to create,” explains Speir, “and making music teaches me many lessons in life. I hope that my creations enhance the ambience in the listener’s life, and in doing so, the listener holistically benefits. This kind of music lends itself to solace, relaxing, thinking and reflecting on life. Studying your inner life and identifying your personal beliefs is serious business, but I believe that serious things can bring great joy. I want the music to feel like taking a pastoral retreat, or going to space and then returning to earth, but afterwards feeling more at one with things. I feel strongly that each person needs to contribute in some way to our world. With my music I try to do my small part.” Read More
About Part of a Kindly Plan
Part of a Kindly Plan contains mostly acoustic instruments – acoustic piano, steel and nylon string acoustic guitars, wooden flute, cello, harmonica, rain-stick and singing bowls. A couple of the tunes also include a little synthesizer (primarily replicating a string section.)
In addition Speir states: “…. silence has a big part in my music and I pay a lot of attention to the space between the notes”
Some of the inspiration for Part of a Kindly Plan comes from the Thomas Hardy poem. “On a Fine Spring Morning” . The poem was written in the early 1900s and Speir has included it on the back of the album cover. Speir explains…
“At the beginning the poem asks a question: What is solace? Hardy says it is not this or exactly that, but at the end he is happy and content because he says everything is part of a benign or kindly plan that is proof that earth was made for man. I liked the sentiments expressed so I paraphrased the various lines for the name of the album and several tune titles”
You can read more about the various tunes also in his biography at his website. Here is the link.
Thoughts About Part of a Kindly Plan…...
I find Part of a Kindly Plan to be a nice quiet and relaxing album. It is a nice album to use for meditation, not a perfect meditation album but damn close. One of the tracks that I’ve heard the most and have really enjoyed is track two “As We Turn” The track features an acoustic-steel string guitar blended with piano, rainstick shaker some sampled tympani and synth strings. Speir says the following about the track:
“There are lots of turns in life, and as we grow older our perspective of life changes.”
As I was driving to Walmart this morning listening to the album, I thought about what Speir had written about the use of space between the notes in his compositions. I really noticed that in practice on the tune ‘Praxis” The song mixes nylon-string guitar and Native American flute with a rhythmic drum-sound created by Speir hitting the cello fretbound with his open hand. “The idea behind this piece”, relates Speir is that everyone should choose a discipline of some sort, seriously practice it, persevere, improve and also enjoy the journey.”
Anyway the album is, like Speir says a beautiful and varied collection of acoustic music and is well worth checking out. I think that it will be in my New Age rotation for quiet a while!! And it’s not just me who likes this album. The album was number 8 on the MusicZoneReporter.com Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart for April
Links for the Further Explorations of the Music of Nathan Speir
One thing that has evolved over the last two weeks is my morning workout. When I decided to get in shape back in January my morning routine consisted of six minutes of Kundalini yoga, followed by six minutes of light weights and six minutes of resistance bands.
Evolution Number One – Dance
Then I added some movement. A few minutes of dance cardio. My weight started to drop and I started to loose inches. Soon my routine consisted of 12-14 minutes of dance cardio, followed by six minutes of light weights and kettle bell, six minutes of two types of resistance bands and four minutes using resistance boxing bands. The entire workout took about thirty minutes. I was.burning close to three hundred calories doing this routine.
Evolution Number 2 – Stabilty Ball and More Dance
Over the last few week I added more to the routine. First came a series of exercises using the stability ball. Then I added more dance-cardio. This increased the overall time of the workout to 40 minutes burning around 400 calories.
Calisthenics are added
Finally over the last few days I added more to the last portion of the workout. During the dance cardio I have been doing jumping jacks, squats, burpees, and other other day I added push ups and sit-ups. Considering anytime I used to do squats of any kind I hurt for days after, the fact that I can do a couple reps of 12 and feel no pain is an improvement!
My last workout on Saturday morning was 54 minutes and resulted in burning 462 calories. Ok 60 minutes and 500 calories here I come.
Now over these last two weeks my weight has dropped to 170 and held steady there without running. My last run was two Sundays ago. I have had some pain in my right foot which seems to be better. I think I will give it this week to see if it goes away completely.
So while I stilll have a long way to go to be in the shape I want to be in I have made remarkable progress, in my humble opinion, since the start of the year! But I better watch out because it seems that I am moving towards an exercise addiction. But I guess there are worse things to be addicted to, eh?
More Changes to Come?
The one thing that has suffered is my meditation and yoga. Back in January Kundalini yoga was part of the routine. Prior to that my morning workout was mostly yoga. Plus whatever routine I did was followed by a 10 to 15 minute meditation.
What I may do is do yoga in the morning on the two days I work and on the other days try to do an evening yoga routine. I will follow each with a short meditation. That seems like a plan! So wish me luck!
….With Some Great Music from Terra Guitarra and Joseph L. Young
The Morning Workout
So every non-Target working I try to do a workout that includes a tuning in warm up (Long Ek Ong Kar) followed by a 7:30 minute Kundalini and regular exercise set that includes
Lower spine flex
twists
side bends
shoulder shrugs
head rolls
alternating knee to chest
alternating leg raises
double leg lifts with a 5 lb exercise ball
arm lifts – on back legs at 90 to floor and extend up arms with the 5 lb ball (lifting head also)
bicycle
pick me up (butt raises)
expand and contract legs with legs on 45 degree angle
Each exercise is done to a recitation of the Mool Mantra (about 25 seconds)
That is followed by 7 minutes of light weights – a series of exercise with 2 – 15 lb weights, 2 5 lb weights and a 20 lb Kettle bell. The last 6 minute exercise set uses a resistance band, followed by a slightly aerobic set using a boxing type band and then another x-type resistance ban. The set ends with a 15 minute meditation. Total time is 40 or so minutes.So I typically have been starting my Fitbit tracker at the start of the routine and turn it off at the end. I end up with about 12 minutes of productive exercise and the rest well like resting (i.e the warm-up and the meditation.
This morning I started my routine with some rhythmic movement to get me moving and followed it with my regular routine. I stopped the Fitbit before the meditation. So I ended up with a 26 minute workout with 18 productive minutes. 17 minutes in the fat burn zone and 1 in the cardio zone. It was a good workout! I still did my 15-minute meditation but I just didn’t track it as exercise!
The Soundtracks: Terra Guitarra and Joseph L. Young
There was another twist to my exercise this morning. Typically, I use one album as the soundtrack for the entire workout. However, this morning I used two albums. Of Sea & Starsfrom Terra Guitarra was the album for the exercise portion of the routine, The soundtrack for my meditation was Etherium from flutist Joseph L Young. Both did their job splendidly! Of Sea & Stars kept my pace up during the exercising. While Etherium relaxed me during my meditation!
While I have listened to both of these albums several times, I think I need to explore more about both the players and the albums a little more before I write about them.
Terra Guitarra is an acoustic guitar duo composed of lead guitarist and composer Bruce Heckel and Julie Patchouli. Patchouli plays mainly rhythm guitar as a foundational base to Heckel’s blazing solo’s. On Of Sea& Stars she also plays drums and bass. Ok so have listened to this album several times and have heard their music previously. However, I have never seen then perform live or on YouTube The following video is the first time I have seen them and my first reaction to seeing Heckel’s playing was Wow!! I have another favorite!!!
So check them out! I on the other hand are going to go exploring and listening to find out more about this fantastic duo!! I’ll let you know what I find out!!
If you’d care to Explore you can start at here at Terra Guitarra’s website!
Renaissance Granddad Returns to an Old Workout and Starts Running Again!!
Ok so I haven’t written anything here in a very long time! One of the reasons is that I switched and started posting more at my original website Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries, and most recently I decided that I was going to focus more on the books that I read, so I started a new website This Man Reads. The second reason is last year I sucked at turning my biological clock backwards. In actuality, I think the clocks moved faster last year! Anyway, I have vowed to do better this year. So far that is happening and hence this post!!
Actually, the move to getting in shape and slowing down that speeding biologic clock started at the end of 2016! For several years I did a simple 15-minute workout before work. The workout consisted of a 5-minute warm-up and tuning in using the Ek Ong Kar mantra. followed by 5 minutes of Kundalini exercises and then 5 minutes of light weights and resistance bands. Last year I stopped doing that workout and started doing more yoga in the morning. Additionally, for years I ran three days a week. Typically, I ran four miles to days a week and a longer run between 5-8 miles on the weekend. For a variety of reasons in 2016 I hardly ran at all.
Renaissance Granddad Postpones Yearly Doctor Visits!
When December rolled around and I was faced with my yearly physical and my visit to my cardiologist, I put them both off. until after the holidays. It’s not that I am in bad shape, just not the shape I am normally in. My weight is about 5-6 pounds over my typical weight and 12 pounds over my running weight. Additionally, I have not been eating all that well!
So near the end of December I decided to go back to the old routine on a daily basis. On days that I work at Target I do the routine in segments of 3, 6, and 6 minutes. On the non-Target days I do the routine as follows 3 minute meditation, 6 minutes Kundalini, 6 minutes light weights ( 5 and 15 lbs) and a kettle bell and 6 minutes using a variety of bands. The result has been that while I have not lost weight I have lost some inches, I think!
A Return to An Old Workout Leads to a Return to Running – Hopefully!!
Anyway, I feel better and this has led me to the streets!! Yes this week I have run twice, so far! I hope to make it three days with a run tomorrow. And while I have not run far, both runs were 2.1 miles, my overall pace was not bad the first day was 11:22 and the second 11:15 min/mile. Both times were better than I ran back in August and October!
And Doctor Appointments!
I also made an appointment with my doctor for my yearly EKG and blood work in two weeks and will make an appointment with the cardiologist for a week or so after that, so I can take all the results to the appointment!
So the plan is to watch what I eat and see if the added running can help me lose a few pounds within the next two weeks. So that I go to both appointments feeling good about myself! And maybe I can start moving my biologic clock in the reverse direction!!
Wish Me Luck!! Don’t worry you’ll hear about the running!
Edward aka (Renaissance Granddad) – Day 23823 (Dec 21, 2016)
Woo! Hoo! Today is the Winter Solstice!! That of course means, today is either the shortest day of the year or the longest night! I prefer to look at it as the shortest day and from here until the Summer Solstice the days keep getting longer!! I used to hate it when it was dark when I went to work in the morning and again when I came home in the evening.
For years i ran at 5:30 after work. I always hated it when daylight savings time ended and it would get dark before 5! I particularly hated it the night I sprained an ankle coming off of a sidewalk and not seeing the two by fours that someone had put along the curb so they could jump the curb! From that night on I have been leary of running at night!
Now that I work in the mornings and could run in the afternoon before it gets dark, I am not running at all! That has got to change soon!! The only thing I due hate now with these short days is getting up and ready for work in the dark! Come On Spring!!
Morning Exercises and Meditation
For the last week or so I have changed up my morning exercises. For most of 2016 I have done various yoga routines in the morning. On the days that I don’t work I had been sporadically doing a routine that includes: Kundalini yoga, weights and bands. I used to do that set of exercises each morning when I worked at Lippincott. When I did it on those mornings. I did 5 minutes Kundalini meditation called “Long Ek Ong Kars” followed by 5 minutes of various Kundalini exercises and a few typical exercises – leg raises, bicycle, etc. The last five minutes was composed of weights and bands exercises.
By doing that routine regularly, I always was able to maintain my weight at the same level even through periods when I didn’t run. Then came retirement and babysitting. Over the last two years, I have run less, but thanks to Oliver I had long walks two or three days a week. Well, back in June that ended, when Oliver went into full time day care. The result, I gained weight not a massive amount but enough to bother me.
While I have not gone on a strict diet I have cut down and have not really lost any weight. So the other day I thought maybe I will try to do the old routine on a daily basis again. I modified the routine so that it looks like this now 3:00 minutes “Long Ek Ong Kars”, 7 minutes Kundalini and other exercises, and finally and 9 minutes of Weights and Bands. The whole routine ends with a 10 minute meditation.
Like I said earlier I started this about a week ago and since then I have felt a lot better, more energetic, etc. I actually feel like I could start running again!! Damn you cold weather! Anyway I think may have lost a little weight (my scales gave me two different weights this morning) but I do feel like I may have lost some inches! Overall, we’ll see where it takes me! Wish Me Luck!
The Soundtrack: Joseph L Young – Ethereum
Joseph L Young is a world-flute master and keyboardist. Ethereum is his fourth album. His music brings together global music traditions that mix primal earthiness with modern synthesized sounds. His primary instruments are a wide variety of ethnic flutes from around the world. I will write more about the album soon!!
Jazz Birthday of Interest (at least to me): Hank Crawford
You can check out a complete list of Jazz Birthday on this day here
Hank Crawford – (December 21, 1934 – January 29, 2009) From the Artist Biography by Thom Jurek at AllMusic…..
With an unmistakable blues wail, full of emotion and poignancy, altoist Hank Crawford bridges the gap between that tradition and that of jazz more completely than any other living horn player. Born in Memphis, Crawford was steeped in the blues tradition from an early age. He began playing piano but switched to alto when his father brought one home from the army. He claims his early influences as Louis Jordan, Earl Bostic, and Johnny Hodges Read More
Wildfloweris the only Hank Crawford album in my music library and it’s a good one! Again from AllMusic
….This record is so hot the only soul-jazz it can be compared to in both its contemporary form and funky feel are Grover Washington’s Feels So Good and Mister Magic issues. In other words, Crawford’s Wildflower is indispensable as a shining example of ’70s groove jazz at its best. Read the Full Review
Today when I was reading about Hank Crawford I also checked out his vast discography! I decided that I would listen to his 1987 release After Dark. After Dark is an editor’s pick at AllMusic. You can check it out here at Spotify
This is the first of a new kind of post. I hope to continue the idea is to give you a glimpse of my ADD Days on one or two pages! The page may cover my exercise for the day, the music I’m listening to and the book I am reading. Maybe I should say plan to read! Sometimes I plan to read more than I can get through!!
Oh ED K Day at the top of the post is the number of days I have been alive!!
The Guitars of Jim Stubblefield and Armik Power Two Runs!
The Run – Sunday October 25, 2015
So the last two runs I need to catch you up on are from Sunday and Tuesday of this week. I didn’t get to run on Sunday until almost five o’clock and since I knew the sun would be setting a little after six o’clock and I was a little tired I decided not to run a full 10 K! The first three miles of the run were great the splits were: Mile 1 – 10:00/mile. Mile 2 10:07 /mile Mile 3 10:09 / mile. I started to struggle a little on mile four with the pace dropping to 10:14 /mile. Then the bottom fell out on mile 5 with the pace dropping to 10:42 / mile. Since my overall time was close to an hour I decided that was when I would stop!. The overall distance was 5.80 miles at an average pace of 10:20 /mile. Which is really good! The other good thing was my maximum heart rate on the run was 152 beats per minute (bmp) and the average was 148 bmp.
The Soundtrack – Encantato – Jim Stubblefield
The soundtrack for that run was Jim Stubblefield’s latest release Encantato. The opening track was a great way to start a run! You can read more about the album here.
The Run – Tuesday – October 27, 2015
Tuesday’s run was not the fastest of the year, I just missed going under 40 minutes over my flat Creek Out and Back course, but it may have been one of my most consistent runs. Th splits were 10:07, 10:03, 10:08 and 10:01 /mile!! The good thing was that it was actually a fairly comfortable run with an average heart rate of 142 beats per minute!!
So overall after 3 months of running I am training fairly comfortably at a 10 minute per mile pace, which I actually didn’t think I could do back when I started in August!! Now the trick will be to keep it going through the winter! See,. I hate running in the dark! I don’t feel comfortable at all if it’s not the cars, it’s the street and the sidewalks. Even with a vest and a headlamp or flashlight I’m still afraid of falling!! But now I can run in the afternoons (see I don’t like the morning cold either!) either on the days I’m off or the days I work in the mornings!
The Soundtrack:: La Vida – Armik
Armik (born Armik Dashchi) is an Iranian-Armenian world fusion flamenco and Spanish guitarist and composer. I have listened to his music before and enjoyed his playing immensely!!His music interweaves flamenco and classical guitar with Latin and jazz influences. He is one of the top virtuosos of the Nuevo Flamenco genre,. Armik has been among Billboard Magazine’s Top Ten New Age Artists in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014.
La Vida is Armik’s 27th studio album was released on September 25 and already spent considerable time on Billboard’s Top 10 New Age Chart, climbing as high as No 2! From his website……
With LA VIDA, Armik’s 27th studio album, he offers a new musical calling card that reveals his stunning guitar virtuosity and the magical percussive layers of sound and soul of the Nuevo Flamenco genre. It is a testament to the continued relevance of Nuevo Flamenco sound that Armik’s global fans revere around the world. You will have the most extraordinary listening experience as Armik fuses the sounds of his flamenco guitar with different musical genres such as Latin jazz, and rumba. Read More
So Check out both Armik and Jim Stubblefield!! Here’s is the title track from Armik’s La Vida
