Start time: 02/12/05, 9:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 11:15min/mile
It’s so nice when you and your group are on the same page in terms of speed. Nice brisk 8-miler on a finally-ice-free trail. Yay!
Start time: 01/29/05, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Average pace: 12:45min/mile
It didn’t hit me until we were on the trail this morning that it’d been two weeks since I’d gone running, y’know, outside. Yeesh. It was a nice group, especially since right as we were about to begin our friend Mark showed up. He’d already run 10 miles and was going to hit 8 more; he’s training for the Fredericksburg Marathon this spring. We offered to run with him, and hey, the fact that he was running a slower pace was ok with us. (Some of my fellow runners hadn’t been running at all in, um, a while.)
Lots of ice on sections of the W&OD Trail, still, but thankfully no one wiped out on it. And despite the arctic temperatures it went pretty well. We’d started earlier so I could then take my parents to the airport when we were done, but I’d misjudged at what time we should start (and didn’t factor in the whole “people showing up late” aspect) so I ended up only getting in 8 miles instead of 10 like I’d mentally planned, but still a very good run. Now I’m just feeling sleepy and wondering if it had anything to do with getting up a little earlier this morning, or if it’s just time to start catching back up on some ZZZs this weekend…
On the bright side, I think I’m finally thawed back out. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr. Did I mention it’s cold out?
Start time: 7/26/03, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Activity: Running
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Well, it’s been two weeks since the last report, and you’d think I’d have a lot to say. Nope, not really. Went to San Diego, probably walked about 40 miles (minimum) in the five days I was there, but didn’t do a lick of running. Nor when I got home. So it had been two weeks since I’d gone running (a 7-mile recovery run) when I got up this morning for the 8-miler.
We had a pretty small group; Julie was there but just water volunteering to let her knee rest from last week, and a bunch of other group members were also MIA (Madelyn, Michelle, Asha, Dave, John… you get the idea). So it was just six of us that headed out for this week’s run. The temperature was pretty hot, but not unbearably so. We went down to five members pretty quickly since one group member was still getting back up to speed from an IT-band injury, and Mary decided to drop back to a slightly slower group for the rest of the run.
The remaining five of us hoofed it pretty well, though. After about half of the run one of my leg muscles felt a little stiff (from non-use) so I made sure I didn’t push it too hard. I happily Scott and Beth take the lead and they blazed a good trail for me, Lisa, and Lindsay to follow. By the last quarter mile I was feeling beat enough that the final hill was too daunting to run up, so I walked it instead, but other than that had a strong-enough finish for my books considering I’d been a real slacker.
Next week will be concentrating on getting back up to speed (where has my drive gone this year?) and preparing for the 18-miler. Woohoo! In the meantime, check out the newly-updated pictures section of the website and enjoy!
Start time: 6/7/03, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Activity: Running
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Average pace: 14:00min/mile
Well, with week four, it’s hard to believe it’s been a month since Julie and I took the plunge again. It’s also hard to believe it’s almost summer with all this rain we’ve been getting in DC. Argh! One big ray of sunshine, though, came in the form of donations from my parents, Felicity Kusinitz, and Trina Short. Thank you all so much!
This weather is more than just annoying, I might add—it makes running really dreary and distinctly not fun. I ended up skipping one of my weekday runs entirely, doing the second one on Thursday when the sun decided to come out and taunt us. When the sun was still hanging around on Friday I thought that maybe… just maybe… nope. Saturday morning brought us rain, rain, and more rain.
I have to say that today’s training run was probably one of the five most miserable ones I’ve ever experienced. We’ve had some scorching hot runs (although I missed the infamous run of death last summer… oh darn) but this was a completely different kind of yuck. Despite having a baseball cap on my glasses were covered with water so I could barely see, my waterproof jacket had clearly overloaded and was clinging to me in a not at all pleasant way, and all I could think about was how wonderful it must be to wear dry clothing. I don’t know if it was the weather or just being tired, but I was dragging all through the second half to boot; nothing was hurting, just a general desire to find a nice warm bed and curl up for a little nap.
When we had about a quarter mile left to go, Julie started cracking up and pointed at the front of my legs. Apparently the rinse cycle of my laundry machine left trace amounts of soap in my shorts, and after almost two hours of pounding rain, they’d started to foam up and then drip the soap all down my legs. We decided that I was so eager to go home and take a shower that I’d already started to lather up. (Of course, then we noticed that Julie’s new shorts had dripped black ink down into her socks, so turnabout is fair play.)
Here’s hoping for a slightly dryer next Saturday!