Ok so yesterday in the morning it was raining again, so I didn’t go for a walk. But I also didn’t do a hard workout. By the afternoon I had very few steps, so I knew I had to do some kind of indoor workout.
I stared at the stationary bike and thought should I? One of the reasons that I don’t really workout on the bike is that I have never really done an organized workout. I would get on the bike and pedal for 20 to 30 minutes maybe changing the tension every now and then. Overall, I used to think it was too easy!
The Bike Workout
You noticed I said used to think it was too easy? See yesterday I found a 20 minute Bike HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) video on YouTube. Oh, there’s another reason I haven’t worked out on the bike a lot. I used to need to move my laptop around so I watch any YouTube videos to workout with. But now YouTube is on Xfinity so I can watch it on the TV.
But back to the workout. The workout started out easy 6 – 15 second hard burst followed by 15 seconds of easy riding. However, when the burst of hard pedaling went up to 30 seconds and then 45 seconds, my heart rate started to climb and the sweat started to pour from my pores.
The Results
By the end of the workout I had burnt 225 calories, and had an average heart rate of 115 beats per minute (bpm). My maximum heart rate was 142. Not bad!
The end result was that it was a good cross -raining workout. Here is the breakdown of my time in each heart rate zone, during the workout:
peak – 1 minute
cardio – 16 minutes
fat burn – 8 minutes
A New Workout Schedule??
So all in all it was an unexpectedly good workout. So now maybe I have a new workout schedule (remember Work at Target serves as my workout on Mondays and Fridays).
Tuesday – run
Wednesday – indoor cardio
Thursday – run
Saturday – cross train bike ( stationary or outdoor)
Sunday – run
In addition to the above I will still be doing my daily Hatha or other Yoga. And if I can keep this up maybe by July I can run a 5K! Wish me luck!
My wife posted the above photo from Ancestry.com on my Facebook time line yesterday and described my status as being genealogical heaven. She was correct and her Valentine’s Day gift to me was the reason.
Probably a year or more ago through Ancestry, we found the marriage of my great-grandfather Henry Karn. He married Pauline Hechler in Brooklyn New York in May of 1886. We never got around to ordering the certificate from the city though. The hope was that his parents names would be listed on the certificate. The only thing I knew was his father’s name on his death certificate was listed as Andrew.
As far as I knew Henry came to the US from Hesse Germany in 1882 by himself. In the 1890s he was in the Philadelphia area and by 1895 he was living in Bridgeboro NJ. I have never found any Andrew Karn in any Federal Census in either the Philadelphia or New York areas.
A Valentines Day’s Gift leads to Karn Genealogy Discoveries
Anyway, for Valentine’s Day, my wife contacted a researcher in New York and he went to the City Archives and got the certificate. To our surprise,his parents were listed. His father’s was not Andrew, it was Kaspar! His mother’s name was Katherine Sohl.
Edward Researches on Ancetry.com
On Thursday I was busy because we were picking up Oliver and then taking him and Zoe to play bingo at our elementary school. Sometime later that evening, I discovered a birth certificate on Ancestry among the Hesse Lutheran Church records. It was for a Peter Karn born in 1872. His parents were listed as Kasper and Katerina Elisabeth Sohls Karn. He was Henry’s brother!
A few more minutes of searching revealed a second brother named Andreas. Andreas was born in 1875 . Both of the brothers were born in Oberaula, in Hesse. Next I found the children of Peter and Andreas. Peter had three girls Katherina Elizabeth, Anna Barbara and Martha Pauline.
Andreas had only one child listed in the database. A daughter Anna was born in 1906. Sadly, she died in 1907. Andreas died a year later in 1908.
The database, which had all this information, only covers births until 1901. I haven’t been able to find any of the children of Barbara who married Heinrich Moller or Katherina who married Johannes Braun in 1919 and then William Seiple in 1924.
The Research Leads to Ancestors in Oberaula Hesse in the Early 1800s
The final find was the death certificate of mother Katherina Elisabeth, Kasper’s wife. Katherina was born in 1838 and her parents were Johannes Sohl and Anna Maria Roth. While I have not found any death certificates for Johannes or Anna, based on Katherina’s birth year, they would have been born in the early 1800s.
So thanks to my wife and Ancestry.com in two days I went from knowing only my great grandfather came from Hesse Germany to knowing who his parents and at least two of his siblings were and where they lived in Hesse! Now that I know that my roots go into the early 1800s in Oberaula, I can do some more online searching using German websites. Wish me luck!
Here is a link to Oberaula with some interesting pictures of my ancestors homeland.
The longer I go without writing a new post the harder it becomes to write one. One reason is that so much has been happening I really don’t know where to start.so at e I’ll just start where I left off.
My last post was about my family genealogy. At the end of the last post I wrote that I would tell you how DNA helped me discover some new cousins. So here goes…
DNA and the Daughters of John Sherrington Ashton and Mary Warwick
My great-grandfather John Sherrington Ashton III married Mary E Warwick in April of 1881. For many years, I thought that they had five children. Recently, though I discovered they actually had six!
Mary Catherine Ashton was their first child. She was born in 1882. Son Edward was born in 1883, he was followed by William in 1884. Blanche was born in 1886 and Horace in 1889.
Those were the five children that I had discovered through my genealogy research. My mother only knew William or “Uncle Bill” as she knew him. She often would tell my that he lived out in Pennsylvania near the Devon horse show.
Alice Matilda Ashton
John and Mary’s last child was Alice Matilda who was born in 1890. While I knew about Mary and had her listed in my tree, I did not know about Alice until I was notified of an extremely high 3rd to 4th cousin match with a James Smith from New York.
When my wife and I looked at his tree we saw his grandmothers maiden name was Alice Ashton and she was born in 1891. The first place we looked for Alice was the 1900 census. We found a nine-year old Alice Ashton living with a Danse family in Monroe Township in Middlesex County New Jersey. She was listed as a servant!
Alice Matilda Smith
We then went back and searched birth records for an Alice Ashton born in New Jersey in 1891. What we found was an unnamed female born on March 7, 1891 to John and Mary Ashton. So we returned to the 1900 census. Luckily the 1900 census lists not only birth years but months. Alice was listed as being born in March of 1891. Bingo!
Alice married twice. Her second husband was Sydney Andrew Smith. Sydney and Alice had six children. Their third child Daniel Howard Smith was born in 1914 and was James Smith’s (my match) grandfather.!
Alice died in 1932 at the age of 41. Her father John Sherrington did not pass away until six years later in 1938.
Mary Catherine Ashton
As I wrote earlier while I know of the existence of Mary Catherine Ashton I didn’t know what ever happened to her. The lack of an 1890 census creates one of the great black holes in genealogical research. There was an 1890 census but it was destroyed by a fire. The problem that’s created can be seen in the case of Mary Catherine.
Typically the first thing you do when you establish someone’s birthday you look for that person in the next census. The child is usually recorded in that census with their parents. As such, since Mary Catherine was born in 1882 the first place you would look for her would be in the 1890 census. But like I wrote that census is gone. The next place would be in the 1900 census.. sometimes children born early in the decade have already left the family which was Mary’s case.
Anyway, there is no Mary Ashton in the 1900 census that I had come across so all that was in my tree was her birthday and mother and father.
A High DNA Match Helps Find Mary Catherine
That was the case until I got a very high 4 to 6th cousin match on Ancestry DNA with a glgottlieb1. Initially, when I saw the name Gottlieb I thought the connection would be through my father’s side of the family both his sides of the family have German roots. But when I looked at the tree for the person in question the first name I saw was Mary Catherine Ashton.
Lawrence Emil Gottlieb was the father of the person tested. Lawrence was born in Philadelphia in 1908. In the Gottlieb tree, Lawrence’s mother is Mary Catherine Ashton and his father is Jacob Emil Gottlieb. Checking the 1910 census. In the 1910 census I found a Mary Gottlieb married to a Jacob Emil. Mary’s birth year was listed as 1882 and her place of birth was New Jersey. Mary and Emil have three children Francis, Clarence, and Lawrence. So far it’s the right family.
The Trail to John Sherrington Gottlieb
In the 1920 census the family had moved to Baltimore. They now had five children Catherine and John S. Catherine was born around 1911 and John S in 1917. Soon my wife found John S’s death date and confirmation that his name was in fact John Sherrington Gottlieb! The name and the high DNA match is enough for me to declare John’s mother Mary Ashton the daughter of my great-grandfather John Sherrington Ashton III!
As I was writing this post, I realized that I did not have a death date for Mary Catherine. A search at Ancestry.com resulted in finding the death of a Mary Gottlieb who was born in 1882 in 1920. This has to be Mary Ashton but I will need to do a little more research to confirm it.
The one thing that struck me was that both of the daughters of John Sherrington III and Mary Warwick died before John. And since they were both in different states, did he even know of their passing?
I believe it was probably more than a year ago now, when I wrote that I was going to write more about my family heritage. So I guess it’s about damn well time I got started, don’t you think?
So let’s begin, I was born in the hospital in Riverside, New Jersey. My mother thinks she was there but she was never sure! They zonked her with some strong drugs and the next thing she knew, I was in her arms!
Anyway all the DNA evidence points to the fact that I am the son of Edward Karn and Helen Ashton. Born in Riverside, NJ on October 1, 1951. A date that always made me the oldest person in our class that hadn’t been held back. The reason was that the cut-off date for enrolment was September 30th!
The Ashton Family (My Maternal Line)
John, Helen and Mon Elva
My mother was Helen Ray Ashton. The middle name Ray is correct. She was given that name by her grandmother Charlotte Trout Regars. Ray was the name of my grandmother‘s sister Cora‘s first husband! Note I said her first husband!
So much for using an in-law‘s masculine first name for your granddaughter‘s middle name! Well, Cora’s second husband was William Atz, so I guess Ray is better than William!
At least she used the names of her brothers for her grandsons. One grandson‘s name came from her brother Howard – John Howard Ashton.The other one Elmer was from another brother and her grandfather. – James Elmer Ashton. Jimmy hated the name Elmer so much he would tell people his name was James no name“ Ashton.
Helen Ray was born in Tupelo, Mississippi I’m sure. But my mother was born in Beverly, New Jersey on June 12, 1928. She was the daughter of John Sherrington Ashton IV and Elva Mildred Regars. John was born in Beverly. Elva was born in Florence and raised in Burlington.
Helen was the third of three children Her oldest brother was the aforementioned John Howard born in 1923. James Elmer was born in 1923.
I never knew my Uncle Jimmy. He was killed on July. 1944. in the „hedgerows of hell“ in France. Shortly after D-Day as Us troops moved away from the beaches of Normandy.
Uncle Johnny I knew well and I will write about him in a future post.
John Sherrington Ashton IV
My Grandfather John Sherrington Ashton IV was the son of John Sherrington Ashton and Margaret Agnes McCloskey. He was born in Beverly, NJ While my grandmother, the daughter of John McCloskey and Mary Stewart, was born in Northern Ireland. She had too many brothers and sister to list them here.
The Karn Family
Arther, Kenny and Edward
My father Edward Henry Karn, Jr. was the son of Charlotte Frieda Meyer and, drumroll please, Edward Henry Karn. He was born in Riverside,NJ on June 23,1923 and was the oldest of the three Karn boys. His brothers were Arthur Herman Karn and Kenneth Irving Karn. Uncle Kenny may belong to the what the kind of name is that, club! I’ve never understood where Irving came from.
Edward Henry Karn
My grandfather was born in New Jersey, his parents were Henry Karn and Pauline Heckler. Edward was the younger of five children. He had two brothers Harry and Charles and two sisters Emma and Anna.
Based on the only immigration records that’s I can find for a Heinrich Karn that match Henry indicate that Henry was born in Hesse, Germany.
Pauline and her family came from Switzerland.
Charlotte and Irmagard
Charlotte Meyer
My paternal grandmother, Charlotte Meyer was born in Dresden Germany. She was the daughter of Herman Adolph Meyer and Helene Wendel. Herman was born in Konigswalde, in the Kingdom of Saxony and Helene in Dresden.
Charlotte had one older sister Irmagard and one brother Albert. Both Charlotte and Irma were born in Dresden while Al was born in NJ.
Summarizing My Ethnicity
Ok so based on the above here is my ethnic background. Karn -German, Heckler – Swiss, Meyer and Wendel -German, McCloskey and Stewart -Irish and Ashton- English and Regars your guess is as good as mine!
So there you have it! My family tree back through my great-grandparents. Two of the families, the Karns and the Hecklers came to the US In the 1880s. The McCloskey‘s arrived in the late 1870s. The Meyers and Wendels came in the early 1910s. Herman was the first to arrive coming in 1911, with Helene and the girls coming the following year.
I hope this initial story wasn’t to boring but it lays the groundwork for further explorations of my various family lines. I will try to tackle their stories, at least as much as I know about them, one post at a time! First up, in the next post, will be the Ashtons!
Featured Image: the Karn Family at my first birthday party at the table: me and cousin Jim Ashton. Family: left to right: Father’s Brother Art, Nana Karn, behind her Art’s wife Polly, John Ashton’s wife Jim’s mom Jean Plant Ashton, My dad Edward Karn, his brother Kenny and my grandfather Edward H Karn Sr.
As I sit and watch the Cubs in the baseball play-offs memories arose of some magical years in my life. I was born in 1951 and I have vague memories of the 1957 or 58 World Series my mother was rooting for the Braves over the Yankees. The first time I really remember watching the games was 1960 when the Pirates beat the Yankees in a seven game series, which ended on a Bill Mazeroski homer. I remember getting home from school just in time to see the homer!
1961 – Barney Gets the Call!
The following year 1961 was also a big year for me.. In that year, my mother’s first cousin Barney Schultz was called up to pitch for the Chicago Cubs. Barney was a knuckleball relief pitcher. He languished for most of his career in the minor leagues. By the time he was called up in 1961 he was 34 years old!
We went to several Phillies games that year. One of the times when my Uncle Kenny took me to an afternoon doubleheader, Barney collected a save in both of the games!! That feat was on the back of his baseball card the next year!
Another time because we were family, we got to go below the stands to the hallway outside of the visitors locker room.
That night I got autographs from several Cubs players. At one point I walked up to a player who was standing by himself near the exit. I got his autograph, when I looked at it, I saw it was the hottest rookie in the league and the future savior of the Cubs- Ken Hubbs.
The sad part of that story was that after the season in the league Hubbs died when private plane he was piloting from Provo, Utah to Colton, California crashed during a snowstorm. Topps issued the In Memoriam card below in 1964.
1964 – What a Year!
Speaking of 1964, now there was a season for a 13 year-old to remember! In Phillies history . In Phillies year that the year that Ruiz’s steal of home started the Phillies Plop that saw them blow a 61/2 game lead with 12 games to play. (1) But in my baseball history it is the year that “Uncle” Barney helped lead the St. Louis Cardinals to the pennant! At 38 years-old Barney was a September call-up for the Redbirds. He appeared in 30 games and saved 14 of them. His ERA over those gamed was 1.64! His 14 saves placed him 5th best in the National League and the Cardinals in the World Series against the hated (at least by me) Yankees.
Barney Pitches to Mickey Mantle – Oh My!
Oh and it placed me in the left field bleachers in Yankee Stadium for game 3 of the Series. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning Cardinal manager Johnny Keane summoned Barney from the bullpen to replace started Curt Simmons. What I didn’t know at the time was what an aging Mickey Mantle told Yankees starter Jim Bouton. Bouton relates….
“He was standing there with the bat on his shoulder watching Barney Schultz. His warm-up pitches were coming in about thigh high and breaking down to the shin, to the ankles — two or three in a row. Mickey said, ‘I’m gonna hit one outta here.’ (2)
Catcher Tim McCarver recalls what happened next……
Mantle stood in. Schultz wound up. McCarver knew right away:
“Nothing good was gonna come of this pitch. There are a lotta pitches that don’t do anything during the course of a game. There are fastballs that aren’t fast. There are fastballs that are meant to hop in on a lefthander and they don’t hop. There are breaking balls that are meant to break and guys pop ’em up, foul ’em back, or pull ’em foul, or hit ’em for a single, or hit ’em for a home run. But nothing like this.”
The first pitch to Mantle, a knuckler, didn’t dance or flutter or defy expectation. It didn’t do anything at all. “It wasn’t thrown,” McCarver said. “It was dangled like bait to a big fish. Plus it lingered in that area that was down, and Mickey was a lethal low-ball hitter lefthanded. The pitch was so slow that it allowed him to turn on it and pull it.” (2)
And Mantle sent it sailing over the right field fence! It was Mantle’s record-breaking 16th World Series homer!
Schultz took one quick look over his shoulder and walked off the mound. “I crossed the third base foul line as he was rounding third base,” he recalled. “I didn’t even watch him run the bases. I wasn’t interested in that. I was interested in punching myself in the mouth.” (2)
It Was Still a Great Year!
The car ride back to our home in New Jersey was sad that day, for every but my Yankee loving cousin Jimmy Ashton!! However, the Cardinals went on to win the Series in 7 games, capping a pretty great 1964!
A year that also saw me go also go to my first and only All-Star game! In that game the Phillies’ Johnny Callison hit a walk-off homer to send the National League home winners!! We also went to the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows that year!
Also in 1962 and 1964 my Little League baseball team Hope Hose, in spite of me, won two league championships!! Great Times!!
Yesterday morning I started my day with a 30-minute meditation. The soundtrack for the meditation was Weightless (Ambient Transmissions Vol 2) from the Ambient New Age band Marconi Union. According to their website Marconi Union….
…… were asked to write a piece of relaxing music in consultation with Lyz Cooper, the UK’s leading sound therapist and founder of the British Academy of Sound Therapy. During the process of recording the track, a number of musical ideas captured their imagination. Unable to explore them all in a one piece but keen to work further on them, it soon became apparent that this was turning into an album-length work. Feeling like this was a natural follow-up to Beautifully Falling Apart (Ambient Transmissions Vol.1), it was decided that this album should become part of their Ambient Transmissions series.
Weightless (Ambient Transmissions Vol.2) comprises of six tracks, simply entitled Part 1 to Part 6. The tracks are minimal, combining warm drones and drifting sounds with occasional sparse rhythms.
About Weightless Part 1
Part 1 is the original commissioned track which has been hailed as ‘the world’s most relaxing song’. Created instinctively and intuitively by Marconi Union it has been claimed by others to have therapeutic properties in the way the track almost appears to have a heartbeat running through it which slows down very gently throughout the piece, encouraging a deep sense of relaxation in the body. Its use of specific rhythms, deep bass tones, frequencies and intervals induce an almost trance like state in the listener. It has already attracted over 12 million worldwide views on YouTube and over 4 million followers on Soundcloud.
Basically, the reason that I used the album was because of the highlighted statement…..how can you NOT meditate to the world’s most relaxing song!! Anyway the meditation was relaxing and after a short yoga routine with lots of stretching of my legs I was ready for my run.
The Run’s Soundtrack – Spotify Cardio Playlist
When I thought about the soundtrack for the run, I decided to do something different. I decided to use a playlist instead of a full album. So I went to Spotify and downloaded the Cardio playlist. Now there’s no question that the music contained in this playlist is not the music that is typically in my music rotation! The reason that I went with the playlist was that I knew it would contain music with a strong driving beat that would keep me moving!!
The Run
So I was off on a four-mile run. I chose one of my newer courses. (Click here to see route) The course is fairly flat and has a good amount of shade. And while it was a fairly cool morning the sun was bright and that usually causes may sweat glands to start working!
My pace was under 10:30, 1027 to be exact. and while I slowed down a little over the third mile, I still crossed the 5K mark at 32:55 which was not bad. After that I was hot and tired and I still had almost a mile to go. Since I had modified the run from the original course I have aid out for that course I needed to just add a few turns to make up the necessary distance.
Then it happened I was probably less than a quarter-mile from finishing, when I tripped on the sidewalk and went down! Luckily, I only received scrapes on my hand, elbow and knee. And the Speck case on my iPhone 7S+ did its job and kept my phone screen in tact!! So I got up and completed the run very slowly and today I feel fine!! Anyway, here are the results.
The Results
Total Distance miles 4.0 Total Time: 43:20 Average Pace: 10:49 (m/m)
Average Heart Rate ; 151 bpm Max Heart Rate 170 bpm
Calories Burned: 593 cals
Note that last mile! I’m just glad that I got up and could finish the run!! In closing I will say that the FALL wiped out any memories that I had about the soundtrack! I didn’t hate the music and at different times in the run I was able ti get my stride in rhythm with the music!! So maybe I’ll try other pop music soundtracks!! Or maybe an electronica or dance playlist!! Any suggestions????
Here’s is “Weightless Part 1” Is it the Most Relaxing Song ever? Check it Out!
So is the fall one of the best tones of the year for. sports fans or what’ it starts in the beginning of September as the baseball season winds down and your teams is a quizillion games out of the playoffs. (Hey more years that man not that has been the case with my. Home team Phillies!) You are given either college or NFL football! I choose both!
First there’s Football – College and Pro!
I follow the Eagles in the NFL and my college teams are those where I went to school the Florida Gators and the Georgia Bulldogs. An odd combination,eh?
Well see I went to Florida and my wife to Georgia. When we married she wanted to go back to school so we moved to Athens. She said in school for a quarter but we lived in Athens for four years. I eventually went back to school at UGA I only went for one year to get the credits I needed to get a Bachelor of Science degree in Education. By the way both my Florida degree in Politcal Science and my Georgia degrees have prominently been displayed on my walls unused! They did lead to my being hired by the consulting engineering firm for which I worked for over thirty years!
Then There’s the Start of the NBA and NHL Seasons
So back to sports in the fall. So with the footballs seasons three to five weeks into swing the baseball playoff start, the National Hockey League season starts and the NBA pre-season gets underway!
And the MLB Playoffs and World Series
So last night I watched the Sixers lose to the Celtics, the Indians beat the Yankees (I just flipped back I time to see the grand slam that made the score 8-7!) and the Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks. Oh and a saw bits and pieces of the Nationals and Cubs game!!
Oh and earlier in the evening I even got my nightly political fix by watching a little of Hardball with Chris Matthews and All in with Chris Hayes!
The party has continued today! So far I’ve watched Georgia crush Vanderbilt And am now watching the Gators lose to LSU. Come on Gators! Later tonight I’ll be watching both of the National League Divisional series games capped off with the Flyers in the road playing the Anaheim Ducks!
Does Get any better?
Yes it is the best sports time of the year the season are all new and hope is springing eternal! Unlike the end of the basketball and hockey seasons when your teams are once again watching the playoffs. Or February when the Eagles are watching the Super Bowl.
!! It maybe this year will be different at least for one of the teams!!!
So do you agree that this is the best time of the year in sports? I know many probably think that July is the best month. You have the Tour de France going and football training camp starting! Yeah right!
For All We Know’s Latest – Take Me Home Provides the Music
:So today was a running day, I left about 8:15 knowing that would give me enough time to finish, take a shower and eat before 10:30 when I had to pick up granddaughter Zoe at school. The one thing that I didn’t remember was my wife had A doctor’s appointment at 10! One of the reasons that I forgot was that she was sick this morning and didn’t go to work.
II was made aware of my forgetfulness a little more than a half mile into my four mile run. In order to answer the phone I had to take off my headphones. That action along with the call I need to make to the doctor to make to cancel the appointment forced me to walk a short distance.
When I started again I was a short distance from the first mile. I passes that point in a time of 11:28 ! That was not a bad time considering the walking I did! In addition, I actually felt better than. I did before I walked and my average pace was dropping
I decided though to deviate from the course that I had planned to run. The basic reason for the deviation was the course I had planned to run would have required another lengthy uphill run!
The Run Post Phone Call
Anyway for the rest of the run, my overall pace continued to drop which meant that I was on pace to run the course in about the same time that I would have run it without the stop. By the time I finished 4 miles my pace was 10:50 minutes per mile! Since I felt pretty good i decided to kick it home with a little sprint. That brought my overall pace time down to 10:48 per mile. That makes the run one of my fastest!
The one thing that I did like about the runs was that because the first mile was so slow for the remainder of the run my overall pace kept going down! That kept me positive any running hard for the full run!!
The Results
Total Distance 4.15 miles Total Time: :4 Average Pace: 10:47 (m/m)
A Fine Run Highlighted by a 9:52 Mile! – Music by Karibow
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 mark and my time was 31:56!
Since at this point in the run I had run my fastest mile and 5K this year I had no problem with slowing down some more. The last mile was 10:50. At the end of the 4 miles I felt pretty good so I gave it a little sprint covering the last 0.13 miles at a 9:33 pace!! So I was really, really happy with the run!
The Nerdy Details
Total Distance 4.13 miles Total Time: 42:54 Average Pace: 10:23 (m/m)
Average Heart Rate ; 150 bpm Max Heart Rate 172 bpm
Calories Burned: 595 cals.
The Soundtrack From Here to Impossible – Karibow
The soundtrack for the run was From Here to the Impossible from the Prog Rock band Karibow. Karibow is a Ctossover Prog band from Germany. From Wikipedia…..
Karibow is a German progressive rock band, the essential elements of the neo-progressive rock with the compositional characteristics of the Adult Orientated rock (AOR) connects. Karibows music is characterized by clear melodic lines, rhythmic complex arrangements and epic, sometimes futuristic text content. Musical relationship consists of bands such as Saga , Marillion and Toto . December 2014 Karibow were with the German Rock & Pop Prize awarded “Best Progressive Band”. Read More
I really like this album and will be writing about it soon! Until then here’s the album trailer!
Using An Age-Graded Running Calculator Helps Me Stay Positive…
So the only things that were rolling through my head this morning as I ran down Long Beach Boulevard on Long Beach Island were thoughts about the Robert Earl Keen song “The Road Goes on Forever”. And that’s what it seemed to do! The second part of that thought was ” I haven’t seen a party yet!” The run was a two-mile straight run from 7th street to 52nd street. At 52nd street, I made a right turn and went slightly uphill to Ocean Boulevard. There I turned and headed north back to my starting point. The total run was four miles. And while it wasn’t that warm out, it was very humid. As a result, I was drenched in sweat when I stopped!! But it was a good run overall!
The Results
Total Distance:4.1 miles Total Time: 44:55 Average Pace: 10:56 (m/m)
Average Heart Rate ; 144 bpm Max Heart Rate 163 bpm
Calories Burned: 593 cals.
My New Obsession Age-Graded Running Times
So my new favorite thing is Age-Grading, which is a way…..
….of putting all race participants on a level playing field, regardless of age or gender. This age grade calculator lets you compare your race times to older and younger runners, as well as those of the opposite sex. Simply input your data and your age-graded score and age-graded time will appear automatically.
As an example, a 40-year-old man who runs a 3-hour marathon would earn an age-graded score of 70.24%. To find your score, input your data in the dropdowns above.
Your age-graded score is the ratio of the approximate world-record time for your age and gender divided by your actual time.
Your age-graded time is your finish time adjusted to that of an open division participant using a factor for age and gender. Thus, the times for women and older participants are adjusted downward, while the times for most open division participants (such as 25-year-old men) remain the same. Read More at Runner’s World
My Age-Graded Time Makes Me Feel a Whole Lot Better!
So here’s how this makes me feel good about my slow plodding along. When I input my time (44:54) for this morning’s run into the age-graded calculator I get the following…..
Age-Graded Score: 48.35% Age-Graded Time: 34:57
That gives me an age-graded mile pace of 8:44 minutes per mile. Which is a to about the pace I could maintain 5 to 6 years ago! Anyway knowing that I am maintaining an equivalent pace considering my age makes me feel better. Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to get my race time lower (remember this was just a training run) because I do want to and now I think maybe I can!!
So if you’re an older runner like me, after your next run put your time and age into this calculator and see if it makes you feel a little better and makes you want to go out and run again!!
The Soundtrack for the run was Monuments from EdGuy.They are a heavy metal band from Germany. From The Metal Music Archives…..
Edguy is a power metal band from Fulda, Germany formed in 1992 and is currently signed to Nuclear Blast. The current lineup features Tobias Sammet on vocals (and occasionally keyboard), Jens Ludwig and Dirk Sauer on guitar, Tobias Exxel on bass, and Felix Bohnke on drums. They released their first album, Savage Poetry, in 1995 (re-recorded in 2000), and followed up with Kingdom of Madness in 1997, both when all members were still in their teens. Read More
