Start time: 8/27/09, 7:30am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:32min/mile
Total Miles For August: 92 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 551 miles
Decided to run my more regular 4-mile loop with an option for a fifth if I was feeling it. Sooooooooooo tired this morning. I think I need to just worry about getting more sleep tonight and Friday if at all possible. It wasn’t a huge speed drop (only about 15 sec per mile) but still, the zip was not there.
Start time: 8/26/09, 7:30am
Location: Arlington Boulevard, Memorial Circle
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 9:06min/mile
Total Miles For August: 88 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 547 miles
Ugh. I was super-tired this morning—didn’t sleep well last night—and it showed in today’s run. I’d also decided to try out a slightly new route, which was full of uphill stretches in the second half. Not terribly smart on my part this morning. Oh well, it’s good for me.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3132008
Start time: 8/25/09, 6:00pm
Location: Mt. Vernon Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 8:28min/mile
Total Miles For August: 83 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 542 miles
Geez, I haven’t done a progressive run in, well, quite a while. (Running through my neighborhood isn’t condusive to doing them because of the potential for cars and red lights.) The plan was to start at a 9:00min/mile and then every mile drop 15 seconds. It went… ok. I missed the mark on the fourth mile, but at least pulled it together in mile five. I probably should have done this first thing in the morning instead of after work; definitely warmer and sunnier as a result, ah well. Oh, and my quads were sore (like they were on Saturday but I forgot to mention that); not having gone to spinning in a while is definitely showing. Got to get back on that bike!
(9:04, 8:41, 8:19, 8:23, 7:51)
Start time: 8/22/09, 6:00am
Location: Hains Point, Mt. Vernon Trail, Georgetown, Rock Creek Park, National Mall
Distance: 16 miles
Average pace: 10:18min/mile
Total Miles For August: 78 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 537 miles
Ooof. Definitely not as strong as my last 16-miler at the start of the month, but the weather also wasn’t quite as brutal. Still, we pushed through it. We started out five strong, but once we got to Thompson’s Boathouse, Bill, John, and Paul headed back for a 12-mile total route. (Bill had only planned on ten while Paul had hoped for sixteen, so… not quite balancing out between the two, but close.) Dave and I pushed on, though, up and down Rock Creek Park before finally slogging it back home. And I do mean slogging it, there were little squish noises every step I took because I was so soaked. You know things are going wrong when you fill up the water bottle at the boathouse right around mile 9, and then three miles later need to fill it up again because you’re almost out. I just couldn’t rehydrate fast enough, I think.
Still, all things considered, glad it’s done. We managed to wedge it into a window of no rain, which was nice. Dave definitely kept me going those last four miles, though.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3114364
Start time: 8/20/09, 7:45am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 8:31min/mile
Total Miles For August: 62 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 521 miles
Kind of wish I’d not decided today was the day to go back up to five miles. Or at least if I’d gotten up a little earlier. Humidity and a few more hills makes Greg an uncomfortable boy.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2961242
Start time: 8/18/09, 6:40am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:13min/mile
Total Miles For August: 57 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 516 miles
Uggggh when will August be over? Sick of this heat.
Start time: 8/15/09, 7:00am
Location: SW Waterfront
Distance: 8 miles
Average pace: 9:22min/mile
Total Miles For August: 53 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 512 miles
Just took it easy today; instead of the scheduled 14, I ran an 8-miler with John, Ben, and Bill. It was a good time, and on the way back we were picking up our pace a bit after a slow start. Nice way to start the day, and afterwards John showed us his new townhouse in the SW Waterfront. Pretty sweet!
Start time: 8/13/09, 8:15am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:23min/mile
Total Miles For August: 45 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 504 miles
Ah, the best-laid-plans and all that. I originally had this week’s exercise all mapped out:
Mon: 4-5 mile run (morning), lap swimming class (evening)
Tue: spinning class
Wed: 4-5 mile run
Thu: rest
Fri: 7 mile run
Sat: 14 mile run
Instead, I came down with what is either allergy problems or a nasty cold starting on Saturday; the jury is still out on which it was. All I know for certain is that it knocked me for a loop through the end of Monday, but even Tuesday and Wednesday still had lingering effects. So, I ended up taking those days off. Under the circumstances, my 7/14 run for Friday and Saturday seemed like a pretty bad idea. So instead I just went for a four-mile run today, and then I’ll run some on Saturday. As it was, today’s run definitely was tough towards the end; in the last mile I ended up taking a minute walk-break because I was feeling majorly beat, but even with that it’s not a bad pace at all considering how badly I was feeling earlier this week.
On the bright side, I could really feel the difference with the new shoes this morning. And since the last pair was retired at the 500-mark for the year, it’ll be easy to track how many miles this new pair has!
Start time: 8/8/09, 6:00am
Location: National Mall, Hains Point, Mount Vernon Trail, Memorial Bridge
Distance: 16 miles
Average pace: 10:00min/mile
Total Miles For August: 41 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 500 miles
Wow, I couldn’t have timed that better if I tried. 500 miles down for this year, huzzah!
Oh, the run? It actually went really well. For the first seven miles, we just used the old AIDS Marathon route from Waterfront up to the Pegasus Bridge and then back, even running into an old AIDS Marathon coach (Charlie) who is now helping people over at Team in Training. (Psst. Don’t block the sidewalks with your group meetings. Thanks!) The idea was that this way Ben and Stephanie would run 7 miles with us, plus we could refill our water at the cars, but as it turned out Ben and Stephanie turned around a little early and just did 6 miles. Oh well!
After that, we ran over and around Hains Point, then across the 14th Street Bridge and up the Mount Vernon Trail to Memorial Bridge, at which point we hoofed it down Independence Ave and Maine Ave back to our starting point. I have to say, we all did really consistently. Dave and I both finished really strong, and Paul and Aaron were right behind us for the past few miles; Aaron was still a little sore from a bad run earlier, but he made the most of it and really toughed through the run.
Considering last week’s 12-miler made me feel like I’d face-planted the last two miles, it was nice to end up feeling good here. And of course, it’s hard to not note that this week had walk breaks every mile (supposedly just a minute, but sometimes there were requests to stretch them out a wee bit) this week while not last week. I’m thinking I may very well just use the “walk for a minute every mile marker” strategy for NYC. I felt strong and consistent enough (I could’ve knocked the last few out faster if I’d wanted) that I think it may very well help on marathon day itself. We’ll see. Having more of just a “finish strong” goal instead of a time goal does make a big difference, mentally.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3078295
Start time: 8/6/09, 7:00am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 8:26min/mile
Total Miles For August: 25 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 484 miles
When I woke up this morning, I could hear a faint sound of rain, but it seemed to fade away so I decided I’d run outside instead of suffering through the indoor track. As it turned out, there was still a faint drizzle when I ran. Not so much that it was pouring, but enough that my glasses were covered at the end of my run. I was glad that I stuck to my guns, though, and added on a fifth mile like I’d told myself I would do the previous night. I ran my regular four mile loop, then ran the other direction for half a mile and turned around and came back. With that last half-mile being a slight uphill grade, it was tougher than normal finish but I felt like I pushed through well.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3156533