Category Archives:

Ice and Fire

0, 12mi

Start time: 2/1/09, 1:15pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 12 miles / 3×4 miles
Average pace: 9:39min/mile
Total Miles For February: 12 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 57 miles

There is something rather disconcerting about running in 60 degree weather while dodging sheets of ice on the trail. And yet, that’s what happened today. We had a bizarrely warm temperature (it’s supposed to snow tomorrow night!), and there sure were a lot of people taking advantage of it—including myself. The plan was to run 12 miles; start at marker 3.5, run just down to marker 3, then turn around and all the way up to marker 9 before coming home. (Marker 9.5 is on the far side of Gallows Road and it seemed rather silly to have to wait for several minutes to cross such a major road when I could just pick up half a mile in the opposite direction and ignore the road entirely.)

As it is, when I first left the house, I ended up turning around a minute later because I clearly did not need to be running in pants. I swapped out to shorts, and ignored my jacket, hat, and gloves that I’d put in a bag “just in case.” There was still a strong breeze going on (and at that point my car said it was 57 degrees out) so I kept on my UnderArmour ColdGear long-sleeve shirt, with a t-shirt over it. Originally I was going to just run 12 miles straight, but 4 miles in I stopped for a minute to gulp down some gel, then headed back out. At mile 8, I also stopped, this for a couple of minutes, so I could take off the long-sleeve shirt and tie it around my waist. (Don’t worry, I kept the t-shirt on.) So really, it ended up being three 4-mile sets, I guess, even though the stops were never terribly long.

More importantly, though, sections of the trail were absolutely covered in ice. Anywhere there was a hill and some shade was fair game, really. (Or at one point along the infamous “hill of doom” where two people couldn’t be bothered to shovel their sidewalks. Thanks, jerks! And on a pretty steep hill, no less.) So it’s hard to say how my run really went; there was a lot of slowing down and speeding up going on as I ran. I certainly didn’t feel as strong after this run as I did last weekend’s, alas. (I’m glad after next weekend’s 14-miler my schedule involves some shorter distance weekends.) Overall, not great, but under the circumstances I’m glad that I never wiped out, and kept moving pretty well. I’d really wanted a stronger time in that last 4-mile stretch, but considering two of those miles had seriously bad iced-over sections that made me slow down, I am not complaining one bit.

And hey, it sure was gorgeous out. 60 degrees by the time I finished, and I sure was glad I stopped to take off that long-sleeve shirt. It felt marvelous out.

38:33 (9:36, 9:23, 9:46, 9:47)
39:02 (9:34, 10:04, 9:53, 9:29)
38:17 (9:06, 9:50, 10:01, 9:18)

More Mile Repeats

0, 05mi

Start time: 1/29/09, 6:00pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles & 3×1 mile
Average pace: 9:41min/mile & 7:48min/mile
Total Miles For January: 45 miles

On Thursday I went back for some more mile repeats—same deal as Tuesday, but this time it went much much better. I think it helped that I didn’t go too fast on the first one, so I was able to stay more consistent through all three. If I can do this again as well I’ll probably add in an extra mile. (Maybe.)

In general this was also a pretty good exercise week; rowing and stationary bike Monday, mile repeats Tuesday, mild yoga Wednesday, mile repeats Thursday, and spinning class Friday. (I picked up the Friday spinning class partially because of Wednesday’s class being cancelled, and partially because I pushed this weekend’s run to Sunday.)

warm-up/cooldown: 10:04, 9:19
mile repeats: 7:51, 7:48, 7:47

Back to the Repeats

0, 05mi, indoor track

Start time: 1/27/09, 2:15pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles & 3 x 1 mile
Average pace: 9:43min/mile & 7:54min/mile
Total Miles For January: 40 miles

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve run mile repeats. I was hoping to get four of them in today, but I also knew I was potentially biting off more than I could chew at first. I figured if I would go by the old adage from Fred that if you can’t complete the exercise at the desired pace, to terminate the rest. I ran my warm-up mile, then went for my 8min/mile targets.

The first two were fine—heading a little fast out of the gate on each of them at first, and then adjusting accordingly. And for the first half of the third one, it was the same as the first two… but then I definitely started sucking wind towards the end of the third. Three? Three sounds good to me.

warm-up/cooldown: 10:05, 9:21
mile repeats: 7:38, 7:58, 8:07

Finally

0, 10mi

Start time: 1/24/09, 1:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:27min/mile
Total Miles For January: 35 miles

This run had all sorts of “finally” meanings.

Finally running again after a week’s break. That wasn’t intentional, although at least I walked my butt off on Sunday (5mi) and Tuesday (7.25mi). Unfortunately while I made it through spinning on Wednesday, then all the inauguration exertion caught up with me, big time. Oof. Oh well. I got a lot of sleep last night and everything seems to be back to normal.

Finally running outside. I mean, come on, this should be a given. It’s just been too darn cold, though. This run seems to have shown that treadmills are indeed (as I was hoping) the enemy. Bleah. No more treadmills for a while if I can help it! Sure was windy out, though. Brrrr.

Finally hitting double-digit mileage. The last time I did that was when I ran 13 miles of MCM with Sarah… at the end of October. Yikes! It felt nice to get the mileage moving up again.

The run itself wasn’t bad. It wasn’t one of those, “Wow, I did great,” but after last week’s major poop-out on an 8-miler, I’ll take it. Once again, I ran downhill for the first mile, then turned around and started my climb up through mile 6. Oh, did it feel nice to turn around at marker 7.5 and start heading back downhill after all of that! Slowly getting back there. It felt nice to make some real progress today.

(9:03, 9:20, 9:36, 10:09, 9:55, 9:48, 9:30, 9:15, 9:09, 8:42)

Preparation for the Walks to Come

0, 08mi, treadmill

Start time: 1/17/09, 12:30pm
Location: Thomas Circle Sports Club
Distance: 4 miles & 4 miles
Average pace: 10:19min/mile & 10:56min/mile
Total Miles For January: 25 miles

Ugh. Maybe I’m allergic to treadmills, now? It would explain my continual crappy performance on them, versus elsewhere. Hopefully that’s it. I was supposed to hit 8 miles on Saturday, but it was rather frigid out and Charlie offered up his gym as a location instead. Not happy at all with how I did, though. Not really sure what’s up with it, either. Hmph.

(Clearly I was so non-enamored that I then forgot to record them until now. I didn’t do my Tuesday run this week, but since I walked about 7.25 miles very briskly, plus another 5 on Sunday, I don’t feel at all bad about doing so. My legs were definitely moving!)

Not so bad

0, 04mi, indoor track

Start time: 1/15/09, 6:40pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 9:06min/mile
Total Miles For January: 17 miles

Hey, that wasn’t bad at all. One full month after surgery, and two and a half after bronchitis, things are starting to come back together. Just four miles at the gym tonight, but after a slower first mile my pace picked up and at no point in time did I feel like I needed to stop for a few minutes. Maybe this weekend’s 8-miler won’t be so bad… well, aside from it being outside. Brrrrrrrr. Not looking forward to that already.

(9:45, 9:05, 8:48, 8:48)

Huffing and puffing

0, 06mi, treadmill

Start time: 1/11/09, 4:00pm
Location: Basement of Charlie’s condo
Distance: 3 miles & 3 miles
Average pace: 9:42min/mile & 9:58min/mile
Total Miles For January: 13 miles

Two things I really dislike about winter running are the cold, and the treadmill. It’s honestly a wonder I get any running done at all, really. I decided today’s wind was the bigger enemy, doubly so since I had a grumbly stomach yesterday so I didn’t want to be several miles out and then hit an, “I don’t feel good” moment. So, I went over to Charlie’s and ran two sets on his treadmill with a couple minutes off between them. That last bit felt like some real failure; I am bad when it comes to bouncing back from extended time off and expect to be immediately back up to speed. Nope. I had to take that second set a tiny bit slower, unfortunately, but after a mile or so I picked the pace back up so it ended up not being as bad as it could’ve been.

Sooner or later it’ll all be back up to full speed, but until then, I’m mister grumbly.

Faster but less distance

0, 02mi, gym, indoor track

Start time: 1/9/09, 7:30am
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles
Average pace: 8:27min/mile
Total Miles For January: 7 miles

I went to the gym this morning with two goals—get back on the rowing machine, and run a couple of miles. Both were accomplished, although for less than planned with each of them. I ended up just rowing 20 minutes on the machine (the idea is on Monday I’ll go back to the full 30), although I could not help but notice that the calorie-per-hour numbers were lower than normal. Still, to be expected.

Afterwards I ran two miles on the indoor track. At first I started out at a 9:00min/mile, but the Arlington County Fire Department’s recruits were also using the track, and about 3/4 through the first mile I started speeding up as either I passed them or they passed me for the rest of the distance. Heh. On the bright side, it felt good for both miles being under 9 miles. On the not so bright side, I was beat afterwards. Still, I know it’s going to take time to get back up to speed (no pun intended). Patience. Patience. And enjoy the victory.

(8:40, 8:14)

Happy to Finish

0, 03mi, 05k, race

Start time: 11/27/08, 8:00am
Location: Clarendon neighborhood
Distance: 5K (3.1 miles)
Finishing time: 26:45
Average pace: 8:38min/mile
Total Miles For November: 13.5 miles

After everything that’s gone on this month—getting bronchitis, scratching my marathon, ending up in the ER with cholecystitis—I wasn’t sure I was even going to be able to run this race! With a supreme lack of running this month, coupled with uneasy lungs and abs, I knew I wouldn’t beat my PR from last year of 25:40. It’s frustrating because in August and September I was in shape to have beaten it with little problem today. But that just wasn’t an option, and going into it knowing that wasn’t so bad.

That said, it would’ve been a little hard as it was thanks to a really slow start. Waaaay too many walkers and strollers that were really far up towards the front of the corral at the beginning, meaning they were blocking people who were trying to run. I have no problem with them being there—I used to be ultra slow after all—but it’s important to also pick a starting place that is appropriate. I think I walked the first 30-40 seconds before I could even start running, yeesh. But still, not too bad. I definitely am not up to a full amount of energy just yet, and annoyingly I had to walk a tiny bit of that hill in the last mile again this year. Yeesh.

At the end of the day, my watch says I was 1:06 off of last year’s finish time. Since I’d told myself it might be as much as 1:30 slower, I’m a-ok with that. It is a little sad to look on the big list of races and note that right above it is a 10K race where my pace was 10 seconds per mile faster. I think that really says it all in terms of where I physically am right now. As I told Alma (who flew by me and looked like a badass), at this point I’m just concentrating on making it to the end of the year and starting over in many ways. It’s a shame because I’d have liked to get stuff rolling now and in December, but that’s just not looking possible at the moment. Still, we’ll see.

(8:40, 8:21, 8:55, 0:49)