All posts by Greg McElhatton

Ugh

0, 04mi

Start time: 7/16/09, 7:30am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:44min/mile
Total Miles For July: 31 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 410 miles

The humidity is back, bleah. With today, unfortunately, was also some stomach distress during the last mile. At first it required a walk break, then it required hurrying up a bit. Oh well. Also, I altered the route a tiny bit and that was a mistake; I now remember why I don’t run along Route 50 in-between Glebe and Washington Boulevard. Lots of tiny little hills and sucking down car exhaust. No thanks.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3009671

Stress Reliever

0, 03mi

Start time: 7/14/09, 8:00pm
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:05min/mile
Total Miles For July: 27 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 406 miles

Hmmm. Guess that 3-mile time from last week wasn’t that far off. (Why can’t I do this in a 5K?) The last two days at work have been uber-stressful, so it was nice to go out for a quick 3-miler this evening (I’d wanted to run this morning but poor sleep the night before prevented it) and shake off some of the stress.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3005448

Quickie

0, 03mi

Start time: 7/9/09, 8:00am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:12min/mile
Total Miles For July: 22 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 401 miles

Just a small run; I was feeling sick on Wednesday and skipped spinning, so I needed some exercise but needed to take it easy at the same time. I think the GPS may have glitched in terms of keeping time, though. Hmmm. Oh well.

Brick?

0, 04mi, brick

Start time: 7/6/09, 8:36pm
Location: South Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 9:19min/mile
Total Miles For July: 19 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 398 miles

Ok, I know that a “brick” in the triathlon world is doing either a swim/bike or a bike/run workout. So really, my swim/run workout wasn’t a brick. But it was still switching from one to the next, which was important in my mind. I had my second lap swimming class this evening, which went pretty well. (Especially at the end where we had three sprints and… yay… I actually came in first in all three. By just a second with each, but still, it felt nice.) Afterwards, I pulled on my shoes and a shirt, and went out for a 4-mile run. As soon as I headed out I did realize my one mistake—Wakefield High School (where I’m swimming) appears to be at the top of a hill. So what I had to run down early on, had to then be run back up during mile 3. Uggghhh. One really steep hill. And then I decided to pick up a fourth mile and it was all hills too. I definitely ran out of gas there, but don’t get me wrong, that was a good thing. Nice to know limits.

(8:53, 9:03, 9:21, 10:02)

4th of July = Boom

0, 10mi, custis

Start time: 7/4/09, 7:00am
Location: North Arlington, Mount Vernon Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:48min/mile
Total Miles For July: 15 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 394 miles

With the Independence Day celebrations downtown resulting in lots of closed roads and bridges, we decided it was easier to just run in Arlington this Saturday. Just a 10 miler, which turned out to be a good thing for me. We started out with six, but Stephanie and Ben turned around after three miles, and Bill a mile later. Unfortunately for me, as we were heading back, once we cleared the Mount Vernon Trail, Jim and Michael were feeling a little peppy and I most definitely was not. They zoomed up the Custis Trail, while I kept looking at this hills and thinking, “I am gonna die here.” Just feeling out of gas, I ended up taking a shortcut back to the start. Then, feeling bad, retraced the trail so I ended up catching the guys on their way back, only a quarter mile behind them. I ran an extra quarter mile, and it worked out well in the end. But that ninth mile… oof! I’m blaming this one on hills and improper hydration.

(10:05, 9:53, 9:57, 10:24, 9:21, 9:09, 9:10, 9:14, 11:00, 9:38)

Heartbeat

0, 05mi

Start time: 7/2/09, 7:00am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 8:40min/mile
Total Miles For July: 5 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 384 miles

I ended up skipping Tuesday’s run—I was feeling really bleah and just not good all around. Sometimes you need to know when it’s better not to do it. (I wish I’d slept in instead, though.) This morning fortunately went much better. I ran a new slightly larger 5-mile loop, which went pretty well. I also thought for the first time in ages to strap on the heartrate monitor that goes with the GPS. I don’t have the average here, though, oops. But, all in all, a good run.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2961242

12!

0, 12mi

Start time: 6/27/09, 7:00am
Location: SW Waterfront, National Mall, Rock Creek Parkway
Distance: 12 miles
Average pace: 9:05min/mile
Total Miles For June: 67 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 379 miles

Yay for proper hydration! I was much more careful to get the proper amount of hydration before my long run today, and that happily did the trick. No nausea like the previous two weekends, and I felt good and strong the whole way. I ran 9 miles with Aaron, Dave, Paul, and Dave’s friend Eddie. We started off a little slow, but at the turn around Aaron and Dave really started picking up the pace, which was nice. (Paul actually turned around half a mile earlier and then let us catch him on the way back, because he wasn’t quite feeling it.) Once we got back to the start, I turned around and picked up another 3 miles by myself at the same faster pace. It was a good, good run.

Better than nothing

0, 04mi

Start time: 6/26/09, 7:15am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 9:03min/mile
Total Miles For June: 55 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 367 miles

Originally I was going to run on Thursday morning, but I was not feeling at all well. With book club in the evening, after work wasn’t an option, so I regretfully postponed until Friday. But on the bright side, Charlie offered to run with me, so we did the 4-mile loop at an easy pace. Not bad, and nice company.

Less humidity! Yay!

0, 04mi

Start time: 6/23/09, 7:15am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:32min/mile
Total Miles For June: 51 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 363 miles

Less humidity! Hurrah! Wow, what a difference that makes. I won’t go so far as to say that I was zipping, but I dropped about 15-20 seconds per mile on this route versus when I hit it last week, so I’m really quite pleased. I did bomb out a bit on the last mile but even then, a good overall average.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2921894