Category Archives: 02mi

Break’s over

0, 02mi, brick, indoor track

Start time: 3/31/10, 7:20pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 2 miles
Average pace: 8:11min/mile
Total Miles For March: 62 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 181 miles

Ten days after the half marathon, it’s back to running! I have been exercising since then, mind you; last week ended up being ultra-busy but I did get some swimming in, and this week has already had cycling, swimming, and now a spinning/running brick. I need to try and figure out if the better move might be to break down the bike quickly and run outside next time; there’s something nice about just going 15 steps to be on the track and dash out two miles with no interruptions, but it was also a pretty gorgeous night outside. Hmmmm. Will think this one through. Anyway, it was a short run, but after coming off a tough-but-good spinning class (and ten days off of running) I’m really quite pleased.

(8:20, 8:02)

Brick

0, 02mi, 04mi, brick, indoor track

Start time: 3/3/10, 6:10pm & 7:15pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 2 miles & 2 miles
Average pace: 8:12min/mile & 8:30min/mile
Total Miles For March: 4 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 123 miles

Wednesday was a bit of an experiment; I’d missed Tuesday’s run due to jet lag, so I decided that I’d try and get some running in either before or after spinning class. By the time I got there, I was too early for the 6:30 start, but too late to get 4 miles in. So instead, I ran two miles, then did my 45 minute spin class, then skipped the cool down and dismantling of the bike (don’t worry, I cleared it with the instructor in advance) and immediately ran 2 more miles. Considering I felt a tiny bit wobbly at first from the transition, I’d say only picking up 18 seconds per mile was a nice accomplishment. (Then I went back and wiped down and took apart the bike as well as did some cool-down stretches.)

(8:15 & 8:10; 8:29 & 8:31)

Run Bike Run

0, 02mi, 04mi, brick, gym

Start time: 8/5/09, 6:10am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 2 miles & 2 miles
Average pace: 8:13min/mile & 8:16min/mile
Total Miles For August: 20 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 479 miles

Greg vs the duathlon! Sort of.

To switch things up a bit this morning, I got up early and ran the first two miles of my 4-mile loop, which conveniently has my gym just past the 2-mile point. I changed my shirt, headed in, and went to spinning class… well, except the instructor never showed up. (Oops!) Still, I did get my 45 minutes of cycling in, just without someone pushing us extremely hard. (One of the people in the class did lead us as best she could, though, which was nice.) Then, I grabbed my stuff, jogged over to where I’d left off, and ran the remaining two miles home. It was a nice little way to have transitions of sorts, and to make the morning a little more exciting. Plus, the plan was to go get burgers and fries at lunch today, so an extra caloric burn was definitely a good thing.

Two by Two

0, 02mi, 04mi, indoor track

Start time: 7/28/09, 5:45pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 x 2 miles
Average pace: 8:15min/mile & 7:53min/mile
Total Miles For July: 76 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 455 miles

Been a while since I’ve run at TJ, but as it’s in the 90s even after work today, inside it was. I ran two miles, then stopped for about 40 seconds or so to get a drink of water from the fountain, towel my face off, and then back off I went. Pretty pleased with the splits. Also amused at the little kid who kept trying to catch me… and failing. But that kid was fast. And he probably clocked 2 or 3 miles, too. I wish I was that good a runner when I was under ten years old!

(8:25, 8:04, 7:50, 7:55)

Not Very Smart

0, 02mi

Start time: 3/3/09,7:00pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 2.5 miles
Average pace: 7:49min/mile
Total Miles For March: 2.5 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 119.5 miles

I have year-round allergies, and normally if I’m going running I have done at least one of the following: taken an afternoon dose of my allergy medicine, flushed my sinuses out with a neti pot, taken some sprays of Asmanex. Guess which of these I did today? That’s right, none of them.

I ended up terminating the run after 2.5 miles, but on the bright side, I knew after mile 2 that I wasn’t going to stick around much longer so I at least made it count. Ah well.

8:02, 7:48, 3:41

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)

Post-Spoons

0, 02mi

Start Time: 9/16/08, 11:00am
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles
Average Pace: 9:04min/mile
Total Miles For September: 7 miles

Well, the plan was to run while I was on vacation up in Cape Cod. What actually happened, though, was the first night there we played a game of Spoons — and in doing so I wacked my knee really hard on the table. To the point that it really hurt even to the touch until Monday afternoon. So on Tuesday I went for an easy 2-miler just to make sure everything was ok. Neither it nor a half hour on the rowing machine hurt, so I think I’m back up to speed for a run after work today. (Fingers crossed!)

Stinkers

0, 02mi, stinkers

Start Time: 5/24/08, 7:00am
Location: Washington-Lee High School
Distance: 1 mile & 2600 yards
Total Miles For May: 34 miles

After our warm-up, Fred had us run an exercise he called “stinkers”. The idea is that we would sprint 50 yards down to the middle of the field, then head back briskly to the goal line, then turn around and do that 4 more times. Five total equals one “stinker”, and we were to do five total. Emma wasn’t there, but Paul (who ran a couple of times in the winter program) was and he is blazingly fast. He could almost always beat me in a sprint, but on the way back he was a little slower and that meant I was ahead of him at the end of some of the stinkers. The one downside? In the second “stinker” I miscounted and because I was ahead of him and everyone else, didn’t realize it! So I actually ran 26 reps instead of 25. Oops. After that was some stair work, and strange jumping exercises. A gorgeous morning for exercise!

Wetness and Confusing Directions

0, 02mi, meter repeats

Start Time: 5/10/08, 7:00am
Location: Washington-Lee High School
Distance: 1 mile & 200/400/800/600/400/200m
Total Miles For May: 13.5 miles

I didn’t end up with my Tuesday or Thursday runs this past week; one of my calves was mysteriously tight on Tuesday, which made me scrap any running plans, as well as Wednesday’s spinning class. It actually was feeling about 99% better on Thursday morning, but I decided to not push things and held off there as well.

It was a wet, nasty morning on Saturday, and it honestly took a lot of willpower for me to actually get up and go. Fortunately, the longer we were out there, the less it stopped raining. And as an added bonus, no running up and down the bleachers (for fear of slipping and falling).

We ran meter-repeats again, and the originall schedule was 200/400/600/400/200m. However, after the 400m, Fred told me, Emma, Laura, and Tracy that we were going to run 800m next. What? No 600m? Why was he torturing us so? *sigh* Sometimes it doesn’t pay to go fast.

Except, what Fred apparently REALLY meant was, “You’ll run 800m, but only after you run a 600m, so you won’t be running it next.” Which none of us got from his statement, unfortunately. Oops! Ah well. It went well enough, although all four of us were amused that after the 800m we all were of the opinion that we didn’t feel terribly good.

200m: 0:41
400m: 1:24
800m: 3:13
600m: 2:20
400m: 1:24
200m: 0:37

(No run on Sunday due to monsoon rains. Darn.)

Oh, g’wan…

0, 02mi, meter repeats

Start Time: 5/3/08, 7:00am
Location: Washington & Lee High School
Distance: 2 miles
Total Miles For May: 7 miles

I got to this morning’s workout a tiny bit late and missed a bit of our warm-up, but as it turned out… I made it up later. After the warm-up run (plus some stairs, ugh) it was time for four 400m runs—as always, each faster than the previous. Emma wasn’t there this morning so I ended up taking the lead, which was both good and bad. It feels good to be up in the front, but at the same time with no one to pace off of… well… Here’s how those four went: 1:44, 1:31, 1:28, 1:21.

Yeah, that jump between the first and the second? A bit daunting. But I kept it up, and really went all out on the last one. So that’s when Fred casually said, “So, who wants to run an extra one?”

Huh? Really? Then someone said they would… and the next thing I knew, six of us had lined up for a last one. And the end result? 1:20. Phew! The difference of a second could have just been clumsy fingers, but hey, I’m taking it as a victory.