Two Four-Mile runs highlight the Weekend…
So last weekend was a great running weekend! On Friday I ran my first 4 mile run of 2017. I followed that with a 3 mile walk on Saturday and capped the weekend off with another 4-mile run on Sunday. Adding the two four-mile runs to my 3.25 mile run from earlier in the week, the result is 11.25 miles run for the week. This is the first time that I ran more than 10 miles in a week in a very long time!!!
Friday’s run was over an out and back course that I call Creek Out and Back. Through the years it has been a course that I run consistently. On this run and Sunday’s run I kept a close watch on my heart rate and tried to keep it as low as I could and still run at an acceptable pace. On Friday I ran the four miles in 46:36 for an average pace of 11:36 min/mile. My average heartbeat was 144 bpm.
Sunday’s course was a loop course, that was a familiar course. Hey, if you run over the same streets for 20 plus years they’re all familiar! Anyway I covered the 4.01 miles of that course in 45:55 at an average pace of 11:26 min/mile. And even though my pace was slightly faster than Friday’s run my average heartbeat was down. My average heartbeat was 139 bpm!! So there is improvement!!
The Soundtracks
The soundtrack for Friday’s run was the latest release from Great American Taxi Dr Feelgood’s Traveling Medicine Show. I first discovered Great American Taxi back in 2010 when I first started to blog. Back then, I listened to their debut album Reckless Habits and liked it a lot! I only listened to their second album Paradise Lost very briefly and I didn’t like that album as much as the first album. Of course, I could probably listen to it again and like it just fine!!
I’ll try to give the album a few more listens and then write about it! Boy, I keep saying that about albums, I have to get on the stick and start writing about these albums!!
Another one of those albums was the soundtrack for Sunday’s run. That album would be Heaven and Beyond from the neo-prog band Knight Area. Knight Area calls the Netherlands their home. The first album of theirs that I listened to was their 2011 release Nine Paths. I enjoyed the album as I did the follow-up album Hyperdirve. While writing I this post I read a review of Heaven and Beyond at ProgArchives.
The author of the review writes that he liked the band up until their fourth album the aforementioned Nine Paths. But he thinks that the band has changed their style over the last two albums and he has not liked the changes! I think I liked the album more than he did, but I do agree that on many of the songs I was just getting into the song and for some reason it just abruptly stopped!! Once again I will try to give the album another listen preferably when I am not running before I make a final evaluation of the album!!