Start Time: 11/22/08, 1:00pm
Location: Arlington
Distance: 4.5 miles
Average Pace: 9:27min/mile
Total Miles For November: 7.5 miles

Well, this month might be one of my shortest mileage months in… a long time.

Charlie and I went for a run aoround the neighborhood on Saturday, trying to get back into the swing of things. My stomach had been bothering me for most of this past week so there wasn’t any sort of running really going on (despite several plans to do so). It was a nice little jaunt, although my stomach was feeling less than pleased while we were waiting to cross Route 50 about 3 miles into the run. But still, we finished it, and it was a nice easy-going back to basics run. My hope was to get some more running in on Sunday and get ready for the idea of a 5K.

Of course, tomorrow I go to my doctor to talk about gall bladder removal, so… yeah, see ya, November.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2409745

Start Time: 10/30/08, 6:20pm
Location: Arlington (Courthouse, Clarendon, Ballston)
Distance: 4 miles
Average Pace: 8:15min/mile
Total Miles For October: 77 miles

I have a love/hate relationship with late fall and winter running. With the daylight hours being so much less, it’s sometimes (ok, a lot of the times) hard for me to get up the gumption to go running. I’m not a big fan of running in the dark, and often with that dark comes frigid temperatures. Brrrr. But, after using excuses for no weekday runs last week, and then bagging out on Tuesday, it was time to get up and moving again. (I actually caught myself thinking, “Well, I did my hour at the gym on Monday, and on Wednesday in addition to spinning class I picked up an extra 20 minutes of rowing…” Yeesh!) Fortunately the temperature went up a bit so it was 50 degrees out instead of, oh, 30.

The thing is, once I actually get out there and moving? I usually have a good time. It helps that without the heat slowing me down, I pick up the pace pretty easily without even realizing I’ve done so. Just a nice, short, brisk run in the cool temperatures—although I have got to remember to not run eastbound on the Arlington Boulevard Trail at night, because all the car headlights are shining right into my eyes. (Fortunately there’s a small distance of space between the trail and the road itself, but it’s still annoying… and also hard to see the cracks and little jumps in the pavement as a result. I turned my ankle at one point as a result, hopefully it will be ok.) Hopefully now that the proverbial ice is broken, I’ll be a little better about my weekday runs!

(That said, this is why I never sign up for a spring marathon. And perhaps no more November marathons?)

Start Time: 10/9/08, 8:30am
Location: Clarendon
Distance: 4 miles
Average Pace: 8:55min/mile
Total Miles For October: 12 miles

Oops! Way behind on my running log, here.

After my run on the 2nd, I was away for the weekend, then feeling sick on Monday. Deciding not to chance it (especially with a long run on that upcoming Saturday) I shifted my Monday gym trip to Tuesday, then did spinning as normal on Wednesday, making it a full week before I was out running again. Just an easy four-miler to get back into the saddle, nothing particular momentous.

Start Time: 9/23/08, 4:45pm
Location: Mount Vernon Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Average Pace: 8:51min/mile
Total Miles For September: 49 miles

Originally I was going to run 6-to-8 miles on Tuesday, but within a mile I knew I just wasn’t feeling it. My right lower calf was feeling a little stiff, and I decided to terminate the run a little early. Two miles in, I turned around and just headed back to start. The ankle/calf never did really loosen up, so turning around early was absolutely the right decision.

9:04, 8:51, 8:52, 8:35

Start Time: 7/17/08, 7:20am
Location: Highland Street, Arlington
Distance: 4.7 miles
Total Miles For July: 45.5 miles

Today I finally went out and did a “just hills” workout; I jogged up to Highland Street (with its oh-so-apt name) and then ran down it from Hancock St all the way to Lee Highway, then back up, and repeated it for a total of four times. I was up for more, but I had gotten a very late start this morning (just couldn’t wake up!) so I called it good enough and headed back home. It was a nice little run; non-timed, just powering up and down the hill while passing people on their way to work or out walking the dogs.

Start Time: 7/1/08, 5:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Average Pace: 8:37min/mile
Total Miles For July: 4 miles

Start Time: 7/3/08, 5:00pm
Location: Clarendon, Virginia Square, Ballston
Distance: 5 miles
Average Pace: 8:54min/mile
Total Miles For July: 9 miles

Last of the catching-up posts, honest! I’ll try and be better about this so it isn’t a flood of posts again.

Tuesday my original plan was to run 3 x 2miles at a fast pace, plus a mile warm up and another cooldown. I was tired before I even began, though, and halfway through the warm-up I knew that it just wasn’t going to happen. So, instead, I just turned it into a 4-mile progressive run, and that went a-ok. (9:02, 8:52, 8:32, 8:02)

On Thursday I was thinking about running a 6-miler, but I’d forgotten that it was extremely hot out. (I know, a whiny trend. I need to get better about the heat this year.) Still, I would have been all right had I not realized around mile 3 that I was already almost out of water. Whoops. Where’s a lemonade stand where you need it? I ended up truncating to five miles with a parched mouth and an empty water bottle for the last three quarters of a mile. I really should plan this a bit better. Still, not a bad run; my goal was just a 9:30min/mile pace as I ran through Arlington, and my splits were distinctly less, even with me halfway through mile 3 deliberately trying to slow down. (8:48, 8:46, 8:57, 9:01, 8:56)

Start Time: 6/14/08, 7:00am
Location: Washington-Lee High School
Distance: 1 mile & ~3.5 miles
Total Miles For June: 26.5 miles

Oops! I almost forgot to put last weekend’s entries in here…

For our last spring session (the summer ones begin on June 28th), Fred introduced us to the horror that is “Kill Your Partner”. We were put into groups of 2-4 runners based on ability, then were sent out on the track with one person taking the lead at a fast clip and the others trying to keep up. This would go on from anywhere between 30 seconds and 3 minutes, at which point Fred would blow his whistle and we’d slow to a jog for the same amount of time that we’d just run. Then the whistle would sound again, and the next person would take the lead, once again for that undetermined amount of time that only Fred would know, and so on.

My group started with me, Paul, Emma, and Courtney. Now, I know that Emma and Paul are both faster than me, and Courtney’s got some real strength behind her, so I was feeling a little uneasy about this run. I was person #4, and with Paul being #3 I remember thinking that for my turn it would be all I could do to not just die. As it is, after my round, Courtney dropped back to the next group, saying we were going too fast. Suddenly I felt very, very alone in my relative slowness to them… I kept up with Emma and Paul for almost the entire exercise; on the second-to-last round, though, I started dropping back, about 100 meters behind them. As it was, on the last round the same thing happened to Emma as Paul zoomed off into the sunset. Yeah, he’s fast. We did it for 30 minutes, and I certainly felt like I got a good, if really hard, workout. Not knowing how long the bursts are going to last? That’s hard for me. Something to work on.