Category Archives: 03mi

Clarendon Day 5K

0, 03mi, 05k, pr, race

Start time: 9/26/09, 9:00am
Location: Wilson Boulevard
Distance: 3.1 miles
Average pace: 7:57min/mile
Total Miles For September: 43 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 612 miles

I swear, every time I go for a 5K, something happens beforehand. Sometimes it’s benign, like simply running a marathon eleven days earlier and getting injured in the process. Other times it’s a combination of getting bronchitis and a trip to the ER for gallbladder problems. So when I ended up with a calf strain two weeks earlier, well, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. But I felt good enough to give it a shot, even though I knew that I still wouldn’t do what I would have been capable of sans injury.

It was a nice, quick race. I started with Butch and Chris, but after about half a mile I remembered that it’s only a 5K and I was moving way too slow for a race that I wanted a PR in. (The GPS said around the 1/2 mile mark that my time was 4:30. A nice “going for a run with friends” pace, but not a racing-just-three-miles pace in the slightest. A 5K is just such a small distance that a too-slow first mile will never really get made up.) I picked it up at that point, and it paid off; a 24:27 finishing time, which finally replaced my old 25:40 from two years ago (the post-marathon-injury race). I like to think that had I not had a few weeks off I could’ve gotten even faster, but that just gives me a new goal for next time.

I still don’t think I’ve mastered running a 5K, but that’s something I’d like to work on next year once I’ve (at least temporarily) bid marathons adieu.

Short run

0, 03mi

Start time: 9/1/09, 7:30am
Location: Neighborhood
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:09min/mile
Total Miles For September: 3 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 572 miles

Originally the plan was to run five miles, but my stomach was still feeling a little unsettled, so I ran a 3-mile loop with an option to add in another two. Said option didn’t happen, needless to say. Although I am now starting to finally start feeling back to normal, after several days of anything but. A co-worker recently commented to me that I might have to just accept that my insides probably aren’t going to ever really work quite the same again, and I think she’s right unfortunately.

On the bright side, gorgeous cool September morning.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3150447

Wrong Turn

0, 03mi

Start time: 7/23/09, 7:15am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:19min/mile
Total Miles For July: 52 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 431 miles

I was going to run a short 3-mile loop this morning; I’d been having some more stomach issues this morning and I didn’t want to head out too long/far just in case. It went well enough, except I made a wrong turn at some point (it was a new loop) and added on about an extra quarter mile. No big deal, obviously, but it was kind of funny when I was thinking, “And now I’ll end up on 5th Street… so wait, why is that Wilson Boulevard instead?” Oopsie.

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.

Humidity

0, 03mi

Start time: 5/28/09, 7:30am
Location: Clarendon/Courthouse
Distance: 3.1 miles
Average pace: 8:41min/mile
Total Miles For May: 47 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 308 miles

I wanted a short run this morning—my tendon still needs some healing so I really shouldn’t be pushing it too much—so I dug up my old “faux 5K” route, which is two 1.55 mile loops around the neighborhood. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy it; sure, I have to run up Washington Boulevard (which is a slow incline that doesn’t seem like much until you run it a second time) but the closest thing to crossing a major road is going across Pershing where it ends at Arlington Boulevard, which is not bad at all. Only a tiny bit of discomfort afterwards, which is a good sign on the tendon, too. Yesterday was spinning, tomorrow will hopefully be swimming, so it’s also a mini-triathlon three day event, ha ha ha.

More importantly, though, it was ultra-humid this morning. I weighed myself before and after the run and even with drinking water while running, I sweated out 1.5 pounds of water in just under 27 minutes. Yuck. Not my idea of a good time, that’s for certain. Fortunately there’s a storm system coming through that I believe is supposed to help knock out some of the humidity. Let’s hope so, I’m not ready for it to already be summer.

3.2

0, 03mi

Start time: 4/28/09, 8:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3.2 miles
Average pace: 8:56min/mile
Total Miles For April: 71 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 261 miles

I was going to run in the morning today but when I woke up, my muscles were slow to warm up; so, instead, I postponed until the evening once the temperature began to drop back down again. (It was in the 90s today, but by waiting until 8pm it was only 78 degrees.) Just a quick 3-miler, nothing terribly special. Well, aside from the horrendous pollen. It’s supposed to rain tonight, hopefully that’ll help matters a bit.

(The running of “3.2” miles instead of just 3 is a little joke that is hard to explain… it’s for Laura’s benefit more than anything else. Although it really was 3.2 miles, I should add.)

8:50, 9:22, 8:47, 1:38

Walking Bruise

0, 03mi

Start time: 3/5/09,7:00am
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 3.5 miles
Average pace: 8:17min/mile
Total Miles For March: 6 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 123 miles

Between smashing my leg into the side of my bed late Tuesday night (why Greg, what a lovely bruise you have) and then my toe into the side of the bed this morning, I am feeling a little battered. The toe is thankfully barely hurting (phew) but the bruise on my calf is still really tender and sore. Geez. I made today’s run a tiny bit shorter as a result; I’m supposed to have a long run this weekend so I don’t want to push it too hard. Let my poor bruise finish healing, right? It wasn’t too bad while running, but I was certainly aware of its presence the entire time I ran. Fun fun fun.

8:29, 8:13, 8:12, 4:05

Swampland

0, 03mi

Start time: 2/10/09, 5:00pm
Location: Mount Vernon Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:48min/mile
Total Miles For February: 29 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 74 miles

Just a quick three-miler; I thought it was going to be in the 60s and sunny when I went running, but it was actually the mid-50s and cloudy. Oops. Also, the Potomac smelled so much like a swamp on my run I thought I was going to gag. I was happy to pick up the pace a tiny bit on the second and third miles, though; I felt like I could keep going but it was more important for me to play it safe after Sunday’s cramping issues.

(9:03, 8:41, 8:40)

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)