The difference between my last two runs really couldn’t be any bigger, the more I think about it.

Tuesday I decided I’d finally give the infamous Mount Vernon Trail a whirl. I’ve seen it many a time as it snakes along the Potomac River, and thought to myself how nice it looks. The reality? Well, the view is outstanding as you run down the river, looking into DC at sights like Georgetown, the Washington Monument, and Memorial Bridge. I know that if you go further you eventually pass by the airport, Old Town Alexandria, Mount Vernon itself… a pity that at least the section I went on, it’s a pretty lousy trail. It’s incredibly narrow to the point of danger; I was running so far to the right that I was practically falling off the trail and still almost getting clipped by bicycles. The part where the trail goes under Memorial Bridge, it goes down to a single “lane” and it’s a miracle more people don’t collide and die there. In general, the people on the trail were pretty rude, both runners and cyclists; very little warning of people passing, some trail hogs, and all in all I was utterly unimpressed. I will give the people on the trail points for looking pretty darn hot, but this is ultimately a trail where the view is great but nothing else is.

On Wednesday I met up with Julie to run down the W&OD Trail… where we promptly ran into Katie about to go running as well. Julie and I adjusted our ratio so we could run with Katie, and were about to get going… and then butchinson zipped by on his bike. Why did no one tell me that it was “familiar faces” day on the trail? Sure enough, a mile and a half out, we saw Noel from our run site going in the other direction. Julie and I eventually bid goodbye to Katie once she needed to slow the pace down a bit, and switched back to our old ratio and pace for the remainder. All of this reminded me more than anything else about what I like about the W&OD Trail: all the familiar and friendly faces. It’s got mostly polite people, a lot of genuinely cool acquaintances that I run into here, and it’s just a generally well-maintained and cared for trail system. It might not be as glamorous or well known, but it’s pretty great. (And then after all of that, right as we were finishing up we ran back into butchinson, whose bicycle had lost a pedal. Julie promptly offered him a ride back to his car since she’s got the SUV, so that worked out really well.)

It’s a shame that the Mount Vernon Trail stinks; it does have the great view(s) and it’s really near my new place. But on a regular basis? No thanks. I’ll stick with the W&OD and try some others like Custis. For now, though, I’m good.

Start time: 08/31/05, 6:45pm
Location: Local Neighborhood (Vienna)
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 9:43min/mile

As I’m picking up my keys to my new apartment today, and since most of my running during the week has been on the W&OD Trail this spring and summer, I thought it was time to take one last spin through my current neighborhood. It was a quicky—just three miles—and for the first lap it was nice to hit the route that I’ve been doing since late 2001. The stores, the car dealership, the crazy toiletbowl building… it’s hardly scenic, but it was nice to see it all again. By the second loop, I was ready to bid it all goodbye. Cars were trying to run me over, the weeds sticking out over the sidewalk had to be dodged, and my headphones kept falling out. (I really need to get a new set, these emergency back-up ones stink.) It’ll be fun finding new routes to run through Arlington.

The end of the month tally for August 2005 is 88 miles, putting me at 468.4 for the year. After July’s being depressingly low in comparison to the previous two months, August is the highest mileage of the year, a very nice change! (And my second highest mileage clocked for a month since I started this.)

Start time: 07/27/05, 8:30pm
Location: Gold’s Gym
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 10:45min/mile

After skipping a day or two of running because of the extreme heat conditions (100+), I headed over to the gym this evening to knock out a few on the treadmill. Not a big treadmill fan, but I figured it was better than nothing. Gold’s was nothing short of an oven, so after three I decided that was good enough for government work and called it a night. Since my weekend run isn’t until Sunday, I might see if I can knock out a few on Friday morning, provided I can haul my lazy ass out of bed in time.

Start time: 06/22/05, 5:45pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:17min/mile

When Julie and I started out this afternoon, she asked if we could run just four miles instead of five; she wasn’t able to pop home during lunchtime and let the dog out and didn’t want his little bladder to explode. Within a quarter mile, we were making new plans: run just three miles, and then add on a fourth if the storm that looked to suddenly be arriving in Falls Church hadn’t made it in.

Naturally, as is my luck, it showed up at exactly our turn-around point. I was ready to really hoof it back, but Julie wasn’t up for quite the same speed through the rain so I let her drive the pace the rest of the way home. Still a strong average. I’m sad I wasn’t able to get two more miles in (I’d planned on doing extra mileage and having a total of five miles until the storm changed those plans) but better low mileage than electrocuted-Greg.

Start time: 04/23/05, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 9:20min/mile

A bunch of the people in our group wanted to have our own mini 3-mile time trial on Saturday, so that’s all I got around to doing in terms of running. (Run three miles at a comfortable pace, round up to the nearest half minute, then add one minute on and that’s your training pace.) I took the first mile waaaaay too fast thanks to trying to Randy on a subconscious level, and the other two miles were a little disastrous in comparison. If I hadn’t done that, it probably would’ve been a 9:40min/mile pace, which puts me squarely in the 11:00 group for next week. Here we go again…

Start time: 04/19/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles & 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1 & just running
Average pace: 11:10min/mile & 9:20min/mile

I went running with Julie after work today to have a “3-mile time trial” with her. I’ve done several with myself to know what group I should be in, but it was time to see how Julie was doing. Julie’s unfortunately had the remnants of a chest cold that just won’t go away for almost three weeks. (She really needs to go to the doctor to get it looked at to make sure it’s nothing more serious!) We headed out and halfway through the first mile Julie asked if we could take a walk break. She just couldn’t get a good deep breath going on, unfortunately, and as the three miles went on we slowed down more and more. When we finished it was with an 11:10min/mile pace (33:30min), which would place her in the 12:30min/mile training group. It’s an improvement over last year, certainly, but I know that if she could get rid of the cold she’d do much better. She agreed to call the doctor tomorrow morning and hopefully she can get it licked. (I also advocated her waiting until the “second start” on May 14th to start training so she can get fully healed.)

After it was over, I went and ran three more quick miles by myself. I was huffing and puffing a little bit towards the end, but still quite pleased with my finishing time (28:00min). If nothing else, my 5K on May 1st should go quite well… especially since I don’t have to run 3 miles right before starting the 5K! 🙂

Start time: 04/14/05, 6:30pm
Location: Local neighborhood
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 9:28min/mile

I was actually planning on a 5-miler yesterday but right as I was heading out the door, the phone rang and it was invitation for dinner with a friend of the family who was in from out of town. So, two quick zips around the “long loop” and I called it a day. The Sallie Mae 10K is this weekend so that should be entertaining to see how that all turns out.