Start time: 10/10/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:52min/mile
Yep, after my 20-miler on Saturday (and Chris running the Army 10-Miler on Sunday), we were definitely a little slower than normal. At least it’s understandable! Really, no big deal.
Start time: 10/03/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:37min/mile
It’d been a while since I’d run the Custis Trail! More importantly, it was time for new shoes. By my best calculations I was due… perhaps a little overdue. So, armed with (yet another) new pair of Brooks Beast ’04, up and down the trail I went. A little slow in places, but I think Chris and I were both getting back up to speed. And with the 20-miler looming on Saturday, better safe than sorry. But yeah, a good run… especially since I racked up about 8 miles on Saturday running up and down the Hill of Doom with numerous training groups tackling their own 26-miler. Woohoo!
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=350060
Start time: 09/12/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:29min/mile
…that run where I inadvertantly step off of the trail and shout an obscenity. Today was at least just a stumble (and twisting of the ankle) and not an outright fall, thank goodness. But still cringe-worthy because it seems to happen at least once a year. Oh well, fortunately nothing was broken and it’s just a little sore, not too bad. (And definitely not that bad considering that I still had over 2 miles to go.) I really need to stop doing this, though. Must remember to stick to the left on the trail!
Start time: 08/22/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:25min/mile
Once more into the breach… and by breach, I mean HILLMANIA. Why do I keep running this route on Tuesday? Must be the stellar company. (Ok, that and since my long run route is pretty much hill-free, it’s my only chance to get some good hill work in.) Today seemed tougher than normal; it was only around 90 degrees so I’m not sure what the big deal was, but I pushed through as best as I could. Another 9:25min/mile average when it was all said and done. Somehow those hills always make it feel like I was trying to run it a minute or two per mile faster… phew. Still, not bad progress since I first hit this course, especially when I look at my average times:
May 23rd: 9:57
June 13th: 10:17
July 11th: 10:36
July 25th: 9:24
Aug 8th: 9:27
Aug 22nd: 9:25
Now I just need to start shaving off some time…
Start time: 08/17/06, 7:00pm
Location: Old Town Alexandria and the Mount Vernon Trail
Distance: 4.75 miles
Average pace: 9:16min/mile
Two weeks in a row with the Pacers Thursday group? What is this world coming to?
Start time: 08/10/06, 7:00pm
Location: Old Town Alexandria and the Mount Vernon Trail
Distance: 4.75 miles
Average pace: 9:02min/mile
As I was driving home from work, I kept thinking, “If it starts pouring, I’m not going to the run tonight.” When I got home and changed, it still looked like rain… but none was forthcoming. Finally I grabbed a hat and decided that if I didn’t bring a hat (to shield my glasses from the rain) it would pour, but if I brought one and wore it, we’d all be spared. Sure enough… no rain, just me with a sopping wet hat (and it’s even made out of those tech fabrics) and a reminder why I hate wearing hats while running. Sweat city.
The course for the Thursday run in Old Town changed since the last I was here, due to part of the route being closed off while the old Wilson Bridge is torn down. The new route was a little shorter, and runs by a lot of businesses in the area (and more traffic lights, boo) but still nice and flat unlike my Tuesday runs. It was a nice run, too; even with one or two brief pauses to cross the road we got a 9:02 min/mile pace for the 4.75 miles (9:14, 9:07, 8:57, 9:15, 6:22). I also finally gave the heartrate monitor a try and it seems that my average heart rate was 160bpm (and splits of 149, 160, 160, 165, and 165). I have no idea what this means but with some research hopefully that’ll all get sorted. Still, a very good run!
Start time: 08/08/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:27min/mile
This run was a little more inconsistent in terms of splits than my last run through (9:02, 10:16, 9:35, 9:09, 2:10), but I do have to remind myself how much hillwork I have waiting for me in that second mile. Still, considering that the last .75 miles is straight uphill and that last .25 pace was an 8:28 average… well, I’m really quite happy. Chris was back, and Pacers Kate (not to be confused with AIDS Marathon Katie) was back from two weeks ago as well. We had a couple of others draft off of us the whole way through, and a little disconcertingly I actually ended up finishing ahead of Chris by a bit; I somehow got Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me” stuck in my head (?!?!?!?!) but by god did it work for motoring up those hills. It felt a little odd to not be drafting off of him or Darrell (who wasn’t there) for the end part, but it also felt good to push up without having to mentally latch onto others.
(Oh yeah. I meant to finally give the heartrate monitor a try this run. Guess what I forgot? Oops. I think I’m going to put the monitor inside one of my shoes to try and remember it for Thursday.)
Start time: 07/25/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:24min/mile
With the heat not where it was a week ago, it was time for another after-work run with the Pacers group in Clarendon. And of course that means… hills!
So the first three times on this route, it kicked my butt in varying degrees (9:57min/mile; 10:17min/mile; 10:36min/mile). So today I headed out with Darrell, along with two new runners (Kate and Pam). It was nice to talk with Darrell for a bit, and the new runners down at the slow part of our spectrum did pretty well too. I just kept pushing, and while that final climb felt it was killing me (and Darrell pulled ahead a bit), I felt I was moving at a good clip. So then I pulled up my splits and… wahey! 9:14, 9:29, 9:28, 9:38, and for the fraction of the last mile an average of 8:52. I’m thrilled with this; not only because of a really good average for a really tough course, but how consistent my splits were. I’m utterly delighted. Yay!
Start time: 07/18/06, 7:30am
Location: Arlington Boulevard Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:50min/mile
Knowing that the DC area is in a super-scorcher heatwave at the moment, I wisely decided yesterday that I would not be running with the Pacers Tuesday Night group at 7pm. Ultra-hot + hills = dead Greg on the side of the trail. So, instead I went running before work. Still quite nasty out, but not as bad as it would’ve been after work.
I fiddled with my Garmin 301 this morning and set it for intervals to see how that worked out. It does a good job, but the one frustrating thing is that when I download the data it gives me only the breakdowns for the 6min and 1min laps, not the mile-laps that I’ve set it to do otherwise. Hmmmm. I think what I’ll just have to do if I need something to beep intervals at me and I want to use the Garmin is clip my regular watch around my water belt and let it handle the intervals while the Garmin does my mile-lap measurements.
Anyway, I did glance at the Garmin as I hit each mile or so (it helps to have a route you already know) and while I started to slow down a bit in miles 3-4, it was still a lot more consistent this morning than I’d been in a very long time out on my own. A much more graceful series of splits; if I had to guess I think it was something like 9:30, 9:30, 9:45, 10:30. That last mile I was feeling super overheated and made the conscious decision to slow down a little bit. Honestly, it was the hottest I’ve felt while running in a long while. An ice cold shower afterwards felt nothing short of heavenly.
If I run again before the weekend (which I’d like to) and if it’s still nasty out, it’ll be at the gym on a treadmill. Between the heat and “red” air-quality issues (my throat feels a little raw now, although nothing like a couple of years ago when I stupidly ran in the morning of a “purple” air quality day) it just seems stupid to do this again, even if I got up even earlier to do so. Thankfully the heat’s supposed drop a bit on Saturday and Sunday, which is good for our poor Marine Corps Marathon runners who have a 16-miler scheduled. (Good thing it’s also time for the pace slowdown, plus a 6am start time.)
Start time: 07/11/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 10:36min/mile
I finally got back out to the Pacers group and it felt nice to do so. Well, despite the sweltering heat. When I left the house, the weather was saying it was 89 degrees, but that with the humidity it felt like 96 degrees. Eek. What was I thinking?
And yet, there I was. Chris was there as well, and the two of us headed out. The head of the run said that people could go up to 7 miles if they wanted, but we wisely stuck to the tried-and-true trail. The quote in the subject line was something said by Chris, but we pushed each other along. Considering how horrendously hilly (it’s out of control, to put it mildly) and hot it was, I felt like we did a good job. Add in that I’m still getting back up to speed, I consider my splits (9:18, 10:16, 11:39, 10:50, 2:30) not too bad at all. Only about 15 seconds off of last time.