All posts by Greg McElhatton

Pleasant Saturday Morning

08mi

Start time: 3/12/11, 7:30am
Location: Downtown DC
Distance: 8.25 miles
Average pace: 9:55min/mile
Total Miles For March: 31 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 129 miles

A nice run with the guys; up New Jersey Ave all the way to R Street, then cutting back down 6th before running down to the Waterfront and up around the Washington Monument. Aside from a bit of dawdling at mile 4 (several people were dropping things off at the cars since we were heading near them anyway) we were definitely on top of things.

(9:56, 10:03, 10:07, 10:54, 9:47, 9:52, 9:47, 9:16, 2:05)

Kcirb + Bleah

03mi, 04mi, brick, indoor track

Start time: 3/9/11, 6:00pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:30min/mile
Total Miles For March: 19 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 117 miles

Oops! Catching up on entries here. Wednesday was a 3-miler before spin class, due to missing Tuesday’s planned run. No complaints.

(8:28, 8:29, 8:34)

Start time: 3/10/11, 4:45pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:37min/mile
Total Miles For March: 23 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 121 miles

We had tickets Thursday nights for Madama Butterfly, so I got into work early enough that I could knock out a run afterwards. With the rain still bucketing down I decided I’d rather not drown and (alas) went for the indoor track again. I was hoping for 5 miles but I felt like crap the entire time I was running. Sometimes it just never quite clicks internally and this was one of them.

(8:37, 8:33, 8:44, 8:35)

Well, really 13

12mi

Start time: 3/5/11, 7:30am
Location: All over DC
Distance: 12.67 miles
Average pace: 10:21min/mile
Total Miles For March: 16 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 114 miles

Last long run before the National, it seems. Five of us started out at 7:30am for a quick 4-miler before coming back to scoop up the others. Would’ve been unnotable except Ben tripped on a grate at mile 2 and skinned his knee. Didn’t look too bad, but it was a gusher, as anyone else in the same situation will know happens. Steve had some hand-wipes so we cleaned it off as best we could (several times, it was going all down his leg and onto his shoe) and once we got back to the cars, took a brief break to bandage it up from the kit in Jim and Michael’s car.

Those first four miles were really something like 4.4 miles, but I’d turned off the watch when we hit 4. (Habit I guess.) Picked up another 8 and two thirds on the second half, which despite a bathroom stop at mile 5 and a “gel emergency” right at the start of mile 12, all was good. So really a 13 miler, but I’m counting it as 12 for the purposes of… um… whatever the purpose of me tallying all this stuff up is. 🙂

(9:57, 9:36, 10:17, 9:44, 10:50, 10:14, 10:01, 9:48, 10:28, 10:36, 10:43, 11:36, 7:10)

Spin Sandwich

02mi, 04mi, brick, indoor track

Start time: 3/2/11, 6:10pm & 7:20pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 2 x 2 miles
Average pace: 8:31min/mile
Total Miles For March: 4 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 102 miles

That cold ended up knocking me for a bad loop, but this morning it appeared to be 100% gone. Didn’t have time to run in the morning and enjoy the great weather, alas, but when I got to the gym for spinning I had time for 2 miles. So I decided I’d do an indoor duathlon (or as I jokingly renamed it, a spin sandwich) and put 2 miles at either end of spinning class. All in all, worked pretty well.

(8:36, 8:23, 8:33, 8:29)

Getting over a cold

10mi

Start time: 2/26/11, 7:30am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 10:10min/mile
Total Miles For February: 47 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 98 miles

Stupid cold. All things considered I’m happy to have finished, much less without dragging.

(10:18, 10:18, 10:30, 10:37, 9:48, 10:20, 10:04, 10:30, 10:24, 8:51)

Devilish Runs (or, Treadmill 666)

06mi, travel, treadmill

Start time: 2/18/11, 2/18/11, 2/18/11, 7:30am
Location: LAX Marriott treadmill
Distance: 6 miles each
Average pace: 9:09, 8:50, and 8:55min/mile
Total Miles For February: 37 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 88 miles

The plan was, initially, to hit a long run out on Venice Beach up to Santa Monica on Friday, for 10-12 miles or so. I got to do that last year and it was a real pleasure from start to finish, with the change of scenery and all. Problem was, Los Angeles weather was threatening serious amounts of rain on Friday and Saturday. Hmph.

So, I went with a change of plans and knocked out three 6-milers on the hotel treadmill over the course of Friday through Sunday. Not quite the same, but at least I got the miles in. (And of course, the promised rain on Friday didn’t ever erupt as promised, although all Friday morning it looked like at any second it was going to drop. I like to think that had I actually gone out there, at my turn-around point it would’ve in fact poured.)

Despite my general hate for the treadmill, the runs were all right. Was feeling a little stiff for most of Saturday, but happily it was gone on Sunday, despite that last one being done on minimal sleep and with a bit of drinking the night before. (During Sunday’s mile 4 was also where I accidentally hit the “stop” button on the treadmill and had to hurriedly restart it, oops.) Not quite the runs I’d hoped for, but I consider three days of treadmill while on vacation to be a major victory.

Fri: 9:35, 9:30, 9:21, 9:13, 8:57, 8:17
Sat: 9:12, 9:05, 8:56, 8:48, 8:42, 8:15
Sun: 9:22, 9:22, 9:04, 9:00, 8:33, 8:08

Everything But Running

08mi

Start time: 2/12/11, 8:00am
Location: Mount Vernon Trail, West Potomac Park, Rosslyn
Distance: 8 miles
Average pace: 9:37min/mile
Total Miles For February: 19 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 70 miles

Ok, so since Monday’s run, I got a bunch of workouts in. Tuesday was an hour of rowing and elliptical, Wednesday was spinning class, Friday was a mile of lap swimming. Of course, the one I missed was Thursday’s run (due to work). Ah well.

Anyway, it was just me, Jim, and Michael today, so we started from their house in Rosslyn, took Custis Trail to Mount Vernon Trail, and then ran over the 14th Street Bridge and up West Potomac Park until we got to Memorial Bridge. Then it was back over the bridge, down onto the Mount Vernon Trail, and back home.

First seven miles were fine, but I started feeling like crap during that seventh one and ended up letting them pull off ahead while I slowed down a bit. Even with the extra walk breaks I was only about a minute slower than before, so I’ll take that as a mild victory, at least.

(9:30, 9:30, 9:25, 9:27, 9:22, 9:35, 9:29, 10:36)

50 degrees

08mi, custis

Start time: 2/7/11, 4:50pm
Location: Custis Trail, W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Average pace: 9:46min/mile
Total Miles For February: 11 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 62 miles

The plan was to run 8 miles on Saturday morning… but we had friends in from out of town over the weekend, and 8:30pm dinner reservations at Citronelle, followed by not being able to fall asleep, meant that at 5am I was on about 1 hour of sleep, and starting a run at 7:30 simply was not going to happen. So I sent a quick “I am totally not coming” e-mail and turned off the alarm.

Anyway, I made it up today since the weather is so freaking awesome. Started at where the Custis Trail hits Spout Run and ran all the way to the end at the W&OD, then ran up it a little bit to add on some extra distance before turning back around. The trail’s almost completely clear (hurrah!), just one or two tiny ridges of snow/ice here and there. Custis Trail still slows me down, and I am still a bit slower than where I want to be, but it was nice to get out there and it was even nice to run on the evil Custis. No, really. Honest.

(9:11, 9:35, 9:32, 10:15, 9:59, 10:14, 9:44, 9:31)

kcirB

03mi, brick

Start time: 2/2/11, 5:45pm
Location: TJ Indoor Track
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:24min/mile
Total Miles For February: 3 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 54 miles

This week’s been a little nutty and overbooked, and so far during the week I’ve only squeezed in stuff on Monday and Wednesday. On Wednesday I got to the spin class with enough extra time to knock out three miles right before spinnign. Another backwards brick, as I like to think of it. 🙂

(8:25, 8:22, 8:25)

Hmph

08mi

Start time: 1/29/11, 7:30am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 8 miles
Average pace: 10:52min/mile
Total Miles For January: 51 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 51 miles

Yeesh, what a week. Missed my running on Tuesday due to stomach issues, Wednesday spin class due to snow cancellation, Thursday & Friday due to not feeling well. A week of “hmph” in regards to all that.

Fortunately I got out this morning and ran 2 miles with Steve, then we came back and pcked up Ben, Mark, and Stephen for another six with them. It was some slow moving at times due to ice hazards and some people not feeling too up to the run, but it was a nice time overall. And it felt good to just get out there for a bit. (But oh, the difference in the splits between last Saturday and this Saturday.)

Current goal is to try and work hard on this upcoming Tuesday and Thursday runs. It’ll probably have to be at the gym’s indoor track, alas, but we shall see.

(9:45, 9:58, 10:34, 11:18, 12:01, 11:27, 11:02, 10:57)