Start time: 05/26/06, 8:45am
Location: Clarendon neighborhood
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:57min/mile

The plan was a pretty simple one; head out around 8am, run 4 miles and give the Garmin 301 Forerunner a whirl. It’s supposed to be raining/storming after work today, so running before work was paramount. I was running a little late, but that was ok–an 8:15 start time would still work. So, suited up and ready to get moving, I stepped out the door, turned on the Garmin… and it said that it was at a “low battery” level of power and had “0 hours” of battery life left. What??? I’d charged it fully up on Wednesday, surely it was all right? The only thing I could think is that when I played with the software on the computer and hooked it up through the USB port, it somehow drained the battery rather than charging it. It’s either that, or it can’t hold a charge. Hmph.

So, back inside I went, and hooked it up to the charger for about half an hour until it said it had “1 hour” of power. Then it was back outside for a now-shortened 3-mile run. It went pretty well; I didn’t mess with intervals, just wanting to get used to the basic functions of the watch itself. I was thinking for some reason that it was going to beep at me each mile, although for all I know it did and I just didn’t hear it over the headphones. But it did auto-lap each mile, which was more important, and afterwards I was able to download the data off to provide me with a cheezy map, and more importantly my splits. The first one supposedly was a 7:59 (?!), the second and third more reasonable at 9:24 and 9:29. Considering that a good portion of mile 3 is uphill, such a small slip is a great thing in my book. Afterwards I used the Gmaps Pedometer and it said the route was 2.9 miles. So it could have been a hiccup in the first mile (a distinct possibility with that split), or just an overall slight slide in distance. With some more usages I’ll have a better idea. Regardless, even if it was only 2.9 miles, it was still a good run… despite the last third of a mile involving getting rained on. Hmph.

Start time: 05/17/06, 6:30pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 10:03min/mile

Rain and stop and rain and stop and rain and stop and rain and stop. Yay, weather.

Start time: 05/01/06, 6:15pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 8:35min/mile

I want to say that this was a full week since the last time I ran, but considering how disastrous THAT run went… the last real successful run was actually on April 19th. Phew!

I figured the best thing to do would be to just stick with a 3-miler, get back on track and all that fun stuff. Knowing it was just a 3-miler, and with the Marine Corps Marathon training program starting up again on Saturday, I know that in the back of my head I had AIDS Marathon’s training program and its kick off time trials bouncing around. One of the pace groups I’d been eyeing this year is the 9:30 group, which means finishing the 3-miler at under an 8:30 pace and doing so in a comfortable manner. (It’s that last part that’s the kicker. Right now my 5K PR is a 28:23, or an 8:31min/mile pace. I’d like to pick up a new PR at a 5K this Sunday, but we’ll see.) But anyway, it was definitely rattling around in my brain when I headed out.

The first two miles were pretty comfortable; I was surprised at the times I picked up (8:23, 8:28)… so in retrospect what should’ve NOT been a surprise was that I felt like crap for the third mile. Definitely running out of steam, the whole nine yards of “I’m pooped”. With it came a noticeable decrease for the final mile (8:53) which landed me at an 8:35min/mile pace. And I really felt like crap when I was done; I actually walked over to a bench and sat down for a minute or two when it was over because I was at empty.

What does this say? Well, that I’ll probably not be in the 9:30 group this year. Don’t get me wrong, I can run a comfortable 9:30min/mile pace for a good distance right now (the National Half Marathon and the Cherry Blossom 10-miler this year both said that to me) but… I’ve also always said that ultimately I need to land in the group that the training program puts me in. If everyone else in the 9:30 group did a comfortable 3-miler at a speed that I can’t, I probably shouldn’t be there. But, we’ll see. A lot can certainly change in a month, and I do need to remind myself that this was the first post-sick run I had. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m not giving up hope but I’m also not setting myself up for disappointment.

And hey, if I am in the 10:00 group, that’s still pretty rocking good. 🙂

Start time: 04/24/06, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:45min/mile

So. The idea was to run four miles by myself today; I’d missed running on Saturday because I’d started to come down with a cold, but I decided that it was more or less gone and I could hit the trail after work. It was a quarter mile out on the trail that I discovered the new headphones I’d bought for running… well, they stunk. To the point that I threw them in a trashcan rather than even try to keep using them. Back to the earbuds, I guess, despite how much I don’t like them either. (They always feel like they’re about to fall out.)

My first half-mile was a little fast (4:00), but after that I settled into a good pace for the next two miles worth of halves (4:19, 4:20, 4:18, 4:23) and I had a mile and a half to go. It was at mile 2.75 that everything fell apart. I’d thought on the previous half mile that I was starting to drag, but the split only had me about 3 seconds off so I figured it was just my mind playing tricks on me.) Suddenly and with no warning, though, I started feeling light-headed and dizzy. For a couple of seconds I actually thought, “I’ll just run to the mile marker and then I’ll stop, it’s only two minutes away.” Within another couple of steps, though, I knew that wasn’t happening. I stepped off the trail and walked for about forty-five seconds to try and catch my breath, then jogged the last bit to the marker and stopped entirely (4:57).

And so, I walked the last mile back to my car. Slowly. I felt stupid for having gone out running in the first place when I was just getting over a cold, and doubly stupid for not having the good sense to at least plot a route where I would’ve gone out less distance and then just repeated it, in case something like this happened. More importantly, I just felt like my ass had been kicked all over the place. My stomach was a little queasy, and as I trudged back to the car in my own personal humiliation, I prayed I wouldn’t see anyone I know. (No such luck. Madelyn’s husband Don had been out jogging and I’d passed him on the way out, and sure enough he passed me as I walked that very long mile back.)

Well, I guess I know what I’m not doing on Wednesday.

Start time: 02/02/06, 6:00pm
Location: Custis Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:52min/mile

Bleah. The Custis Trail is hard enough on a good day… and this was anything but one. I’d planned on running 4 or 5 miles, and after a mile and a half I was turning around. Between a stitch in my side almost instantly, my foot starting to hurt, feeling exhausted, and making a wrong turn briefly, enough was enough. Sometimes it’s important to know when to just call it quits. Ah well, next time will be better.

Start time: 12/14/05, 5:45pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:15min/mile

Julie and I went running yesterday after work and unlike Tuesday I remembered to bring my hat and gloves this time. Phew! Unfortunately, the temperature outside was even colder than before and instead of the top of my head and my fingers feeling like they were ice, my face felt like it was going to freeze and then fall off. Oof. We pushed out three miles (and ran into Mark off running a 6-miler at one point). Brrrr, I’ll look forward to some warmth returning this spring.

Start time: 12/13/05, 6:30pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:05min/mile

Last week I told Julie that if her toe got green light for running again, that we’d start going after work (despite the rather dark conditions) and hoofing it up and down the W&OD. I’ve had bad motivation problems in getting up early and running, and I knew that Julie was in the same boat. With the broken toe, things were even more problematic; after running the 26-miler in October 1st she promptly broke the toe, and all she’d run since then was the marathon on October 30th.

So, Julie asked for a 3-miler to get her back into the swing of things. I said “sure!” and away we went. We ran on the Custis Trail portion of the W&OD since it’s A) well lit, and B) plowed clear of snow. So what we ended up doing was starting at marker 5, running to marker 4, turning around and going back to 4.5, then back to 4 again, and finally finishing at 5. (The Custis veers off right after mile marker #4 and while the logical turn would be to just run on the Custis further, so far as I can tell it doesn’t have its own mile markers.) For someone who hasn’t run in a month and a half (and hadn’t run for a month before that), Julie did fantastic. She was convinced that she was dragging us down (when we finished she even said, “So how slow was I?”) but our splits were 10:46, 11:09, and 11:19. Not bad at all after such a long break (and then freezing once we were out there).

I’m not 100% sure if we’ll get another weekday run in tomorrow or not but next week we’ll hopefully back into the twice-a-week-after-work schedule. It felt really good to me to be back out there other than a Saturday morning.

Start time: 11/28/05, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon, Court House, and Rosslyn
Distance: 3.5 miles
Average pace: 10:14min/mile

After feeling immensely fat/lazy earlier today, I took advantage of the fantastic weather we’re having here in the DC area and went running. I deliberately went slower than the last time I ran along Wilson and Clarendon Boulevards, trying to avoid all that huffing and puffing. The difference did me well; it was much more comfortable despite my slacking as of late, letting me run up to Clarendon metro, then turning around and heading all the way down past Court House and Rosslyn metro and practically to the water.

Of course, there’s still that killer hill coming back up from Rosslyn (especially between Rhodes and Veitch, good god) but it felt really good to just get my legs pumping and to finish up the loop, which turned out (without planning on my part) to be exactly 3.5 miles. If only it was a little flatter I’d be thrilled with the route, but it was still quite nice. Definitely a distance I’ll have to remember for the future.

Oh, best of all? I tried out a pair of Superfeet inserts instead of my orthodics that I had made back in 2001 (and which are starting to wear out). No pain! This is a huge relief, knowing that instead of $300 custom-made arch supports I can stick with a $35 store-bought pair. Phew.