Start time: 09/03/05, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

My first “recovery run” of the season! Normally I’d have had quite a few by now but speed work has meant that instead I’ve been zipping around doing mile repeats those weekends. It felt pretty odd to have this finally happen again, one of only three I’ve got scheduled for the year.

We had a small group, enough to run without having to split up, and to be honest I was less than pleased. Some real problems in terms of direction and leadership, and I don’t think I was the only one who felt it. People kept vanishing without others noticing, there were minor arguements about style… it could have been a thoroughly unpleasant run but I just tried to ignore it and concentrated on chatting with Julie, Ali, Katie, and a few others around me.

It’s rare to have an entire group get along wonderfully like we did last year. This year reminds me much more of 2001, where there were little subsections of the pace group that got along fantastically, but we weren’t all chummy and one huge unit. It’s not a bad thing, so long as you recognize it and move forward with that knowledge. As I was told as a child, “You can’t be best friends with everyone.” Having just good acquaintances with the rest is fine by me.

The actual running part went well, though!

Start time: 08/20/05, 5:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 20 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Average pace: 12:50min/mile

Saturday afternoon I had to be in Middle Of Nowhere, Pennsylvania, and in order to be able to leave in time… there was no way I could start at 6am with my group, with the two-minute-per-mile slowdown (putting us at a 13:00 for the training run). So… in a fit of insanity, I thought, “What if I start at 5am?” I could run 6 miles and be done with that part at 6:18am, at which point my group would just be getting ready to leave after announcements and the faster groups zooming off into the distance.

Julie thought this was a brilliant idea and decided to join me. This would mean I wouldn’t be running alone first thing in the morning, and in pitch darkness to boot. Yeah, it’s still dark out at 5am. I went to CVS and bought a cheap flashlight to bring with us, since very little of the W&OD Trail is actually lit. Miles 1-6 was the two of us, a flashlight… and no one else until the last five minutes. It was really quiet, and really calming to be out there. We nailed the new time easily, which I was happy with: having a new slowdown is often hard to really hit quickly. Right as we finished up the first six miles and got back to home base, our group was ready to head out.

Miles 7-14.5 were with the group, and it was actually a little frustrating. Our leader had problems hitting the right speed (which is not surprising, since like I said it’s often hard to hit it right out of the gate), and we were actually running a little fast for most of it. The part that was setting my teeth on edge is that we had two people take off ahead of us, and one of them A) has had problems finishing the long runs without dropping back, and B) was supposed to be the guy that would hang back that week if someone else had a problem. So, for someone else in the group, I found it frustrating to watch.

The last 5.5 miles were just me and Julie, and we fell back into our groove really well. When it was all said and done… I felt great. An incredibly strong 20-miler… and the first time I’ve ever finished an entire long run and done so before the fastest group came in! Woohoo! 🙂

Start time: 08/06/05, 6:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 18 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 12:00min/mile

18 down and all is well. The temperature dropped a little bit for Saturday morning, and thank goodness for that. Melting Greg is not a pretty sight, believe you me. The run itself went pretty well; most of the group looked to be doing fine, and we did a nice job of staying on pace. The only downside was that we had some real communication problems with the group, where people just vanished with little or no warning whatsoever. We’re going to need to have a talk about that; on the marathon if they want to just disappear that’s fine, but until then… well, you get the idea.

Still, I felt really good when it was over and pretty strong. No aches the rest of the day or this morning either, which is always a very good sign. Knock on wood, this is my best training season yet.

In two weeks, 20 miles… and another slow-down. I know it’s the right thing to do, but just in terms of the sheer amount of time being out there, not looking forward to that aspect. Ah well, better safe than sorry.

Start time: 07/23/05, 6:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 16 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 12:00min/mile

Phew! This was not a run that I was expecting to be tough. Starting with this run, all of the long distances are slowed down by a minute or two per mile (to prevent injury), so I figured that with the slowdown I’d be just fine, right? Right?

Ho ho ho.

It didn’t go badly, but it’s been a long while since I’ve had a long run that I genuinely had to work at towards the end. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing; I definitely took it way too easy last year, after all. But with the heat racketing up and the sun beating down, I felt like I really earned those last four miles or so. (Dear W&OD Trail: Get some more shade between markers 5 and 9. Please.) I ended up being pace group leader this week since Michael was out on a trip. It went really well, and with a little help from Craig and Julie we hit almost every single mile perfectly on time. That was really gratifying, needless to say. But now… well, it’s good to be inside. Hopefully the 18 and 20 milers won’t be quite so brutal in the weather department; it really makes all the difference in the world.

(And oh look, weather.com is predicting a high of 98 degrees* for Monday. I am so not running after work. Either first thing in the morning or in the evening at the gym, I think.)

* — No, not Nick Lachey’s former group.

Start time: 07/09/05, 6:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 14 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

Beauty. It was hard getting up for a 6am start time again, but that was the toughest thing for me about today. Mike was our new pace group leader, although I stuck by him up at the front to help set the pace since it’s a tricky thing to do for the first time with a large group. Boom, boom, boom: we knocked those miles out with little difficulty. Even better, now that we’re going out to the Vienna Community Center, the obligatory bathroom break wasn’t so killer since there are multiple bathrooms to use for everyone who needs them. (I must admit, I like going in just for the air-conditioning and the allure of paper towels to mop off my face.) I’d say we hit almost every single mile on the dot, though, and only lost four people from our twelve-person starting pack. (Two people had to drop back along the way, and each had someone stay back with them.)

If only they could all be this good!

Start time: 06/25/05, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 12 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 12:10min/mile

Today was my first 12-miler at my new pace… well, sort of. Normally we wouldn’t have gotten to our “slowdown” distance (which starts at 16 miles), at which point we take the distance a little slower to make sure that everyone makes it to the end of the program injury free. With highs of 94 degrees predicted for today, though, the staff decided that it would be good to not kill everyone in a forced death march up and down the W&OD Trail. So, slowdown time. Instead of an 11min/mile (and a 5:1 run:walk ratio) we headed out the door at a 12min/mile (with a 4:1). So, still faster than I’d ever run a 12-mile distance before.

More importantly? Piece of cake. I felt great at the end, like I could’ve picked up another four or five miles easily. (If I actually could? Another story entirely, because you never know when suddenly wham, you’ve hit your limit.) Generally speaking, though, a really pleasant run.

Even better? All it takes is a 2.5 miler and I’ll pass the amount of milage I clocked for May, and more importantly I’ve broken the 300-miles mark for my distance run in 2005. (304.9 miles, to be exact. All those 5K and 10K races play havok with the decimal point.) Yay! Can’t wait to see when I hit 600 miles…