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.
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)
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)
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
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.
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.
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
Start time: 6/20/09, 7:00am
Location: SW Waterfront, Capitol Hill, National Mall
Distance: ~10 miles
Average pace: 9:59min/mile
Total Miles For June: 47 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 359 miles
This Saturday, I went running with a new group. As I’d mentioned last Saturday, we’d run into some of the folks we used to run with, and this week we sort of merged groups. I say sort of because Aaron and Dave are still building up their distance, so they went running with Ben for just 7 miles. Meanwhile, I headed out with Stephen, John, and two new guys I hadn’t met before, Jim and Michael. It was a nice group, they’re all chatty but in a good way. The one downside was that once again, after a few miles I started feeling sick to my stomach. *sigh* Maybe I’m not hydrating well enough? Or need to take something like pepto before a run?
I did finish out the full 10, though, although Stephen and I started lagging behind a bit the later the run went. The humidity certainly wasn’t helping matters, it was just dreadful out this morning. I certainly welcomed that the guys took a short walk break at each mile; with a day like today, I definitely needed it and then some. Disgusting out, pure and simple. As it was, literally seconds before Stephen and I finished running, a drop of rain hit me. About a minute after we were done, it had started to pour. So at least we dodged that bullet!
Start time: 6/18/09, 6:20pm
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:48min/mile
Total Miles For June: 37 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 349 miles
I forgot to write down what my actual pace was for this run, and the information’s at home; I’ll edit it in later. It was a humid, humid, humid run; it’s been raining almost every day for about two weeks now, and the air just gets thicker by the day. It was a tough run but I’m glad I pushed through it. I had tickets for King Lear at 8pm, so I had to really hustle to get this run in. (It was raining in the morning, and my community center’s gym was closed yesterday and today because of an antique show there this weekend.) I actually saw an old doctor of mine towards the end, but he didn’t recognize me. I think that’s a good thing because I looked rather putrid.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2921894
Start time: 6/16/09, 7:30am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:50min/mile
Total Miles For June: 33 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 345 miles
Ok, I saw not one but two different people reading off of a Kindle while in my first mile this morning. At least one person was sitting at a bus stop; the other was walking while reading. I sense disaster. (Not to be confused with having a slightly queasy feeling in my stomach for a while. What is up with this anyway? I don’t remember being this sensitive to humidity in the past.)
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2921894