Category Archives: 04mi

Taking it easy

0, 04mi

Start time: 08/03/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 12:30min/mile

Another ultra-hot day here in the Nation’s Capitol, so we decided that rather than die a horrible death we’d just go slower than normal. In retrospect, we should’ve changed the run:walk ratio to something smaller but instead, no, we just ran slower. Which can actually be difficult, on a hot day, because all you keep thinking is, “I’d rather be taking a shower.” In fact, that is literally all I thought for the last two miles, and there was no chit-chat when we were done; I leapt into my car, drove home, and practically threw myself into the shower. Ahhhhh…

Need for Speed

02mi, 04mi, aidsmarathon, speedwork

Start time: 07/03/05, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 2 miles & 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: all running & 5:1
Average pace: 9:30min/mile & 11:00min/mile

Sunday was my first official day of “speed training”. It was planned to be a short session, just two miles worth, but I was really looking forward to it. I drove down to Wakefield High School, which had given us permission to use their track…

…and the gates were locked. D’oh!

Once everyone arrived (maybe a dozen people in all, including Mark, Julie, and Laurel from my pace group, and my good buddy grok) we conferred for a bit and decided that as tempting as it was to just jump the fence, that if someone got hurt it would be A Bad Thing, so instead we carpooled over to the W&OD Trail where with the help of GPS units, quarter mile increments were marked out. It’s not a track, but until that gets sorted out with the high school, it’d have to do. I ended up doing my mile repeats at a 9:30min/mile pace, and that worked really well for me. I need to decide before the next one if it’s the right pace for me; it hit me after I got home that I had done the 10K (admittedly with a run/walk pattern) at a faster pace than that, after all. After all, I am supposed to be pushing a bit here!

Anyway, once that was over, Julie, grok, Cal, Rick, and I ended up knocking out a few more miles at a slightly slower pace. It was nice to get to just run and chat (all great people!) and was a great way to start the day.

Sometimes the trail beats you

04mi

Start time: 06/13/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:32min/mile

I went running with Mark after work today and let me tell you, not the brightest move. It’s still really hot and humid, and we didn’t have the advantage of a 7am start time today. There were predictions of a storm coming in so I suggested that we just run four miles, and when we got back to home base we could add on a fifth if we still felt like it. Oh, thank god we did it that way. Our times steadily slid downhill (10:00, 10:24, 10:52, 10:50) and at the end of the last mile we were fairly beat. Mark commented, “Sometimes you beat the trail, and sometimes the trail beats you” and today was definitely the latter.

Oh, and about ten minutes later, the storm did arrive so thank goodness we didn’t bother with that fifth mile.

I got up early for this? :)

04mi, aidsmarathon

Start time: 05/07/05, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

Oops, almost forgot to put this down for my records. The 4-miler with the training group felt almost silly to have gotten up early for; it’s very easy to get blaise about this sort of thing after so many years! It was nice to be able to meet the new people in the running group, though, or rather groups since there were so many people in our pace time that we’re split into two. Our pace group leader was still trying to find footing for this particular speed; one mile we were thirty seconds under, the next one thirty seconds over, and so on. It’s a fine art to hitting those times just right but hopefully later jaunts down the W&OD as a group will go smoothly, given time.

Picking up the pace a tiny bit

04mi

Start time: 05/04/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

Now that it turns out that Julie’ll also be in the 11min/mile group with me, it was easy to convince her to push the pace up by thirty seconds or so. A beautiful day for running, just about perfect. Julie seems to be adjusting to the new pace well, which is nice to see. Going a little faster and closer to my old “maintenance run” speed, of course, is an added bonus. Right now I’m just enjoying being able to go running after work with Julie though, so that’s good. Eventually as it gets hotter I’ll probably shift back into running before work on my own before the temperature gets too high, mind you. (Additionally either this week or next I’m going to probably add in a Thursday running session by myself, now that I’ve looked over the speedwork guidelines for AIDS Marathon this year. Should be fun!)

Howdy, stranger

04mi

Start time: 04/27/05, 5:45pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:25min/mile

Julie and I headed out after work for another 4-mile spin, and about half a mile in I said, “Wow, that looks like Mark heading our way.” Turns out it was, so he turned around and ran with us since he’d just started. Mark’s missing this Saturday’s time trials because he’s going to be running the Frederick Marathon on Sunday, but we chatted about who would be in which group. Hopefully he’ll end up joining the 11:00 group; not only is he a nice guy, but I think he could handle it really easily based on his recent race results!

Afterwards I talked with Julie about maintenance runs and she was fortunately in favor of doing them a little faster after another week or so—she says it makes the Saturday runs feel easier, which is so true. I haven’t minded running the 11:30min/miles with her because she seemed a little nervous about the idea and it’s nice to be able to run with someone else, but picking up the pace a bit is a good thing in my book. (Especially since I’ve been running 5-mile stretches at 10min/miles for a while now!) Since we probably won’t be in the same Saturday group anymore, it’s nice to still get some running-together time in.

Trying out the new ratio

04mi

Start time: 04/25/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:30min/mile

Julie wanted to give her projected new pace a whirl, so we decided to head out after work and try 5:1 on for size. I let Julie direct the pace and she did great; didn’t have any problems keeping the 11:30 going and by the time the 4-miler was done, was feeling really good about being in her new group this year. Yay! (I knew she could handle 11:30 but doubt is a powerful thing. I should know.) Depending on how our schedules are, the idea of getting our twice-a-week maintenance runs in together after leaving work is a good one, at least for May while it’s still nice outside. (Once it gets a little hotter, running before work might become a necessity. Either that or later at night after we’re both already home.)

A quickie

04mi

Start time: 04/12/05, 8:00pm
Location: Gold’s Gym
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 10:38min/mile
Time: 42.5 minutes

It kept threatening to rain this evening, so I gave up and went to the gym… and oops, I forgot to update my credit card expiration date information. Ah well, it didn’t take long to sort out. That’ll learn me!

Running: 4 miles

04mi

Start time: 4/19/03, 9:45am
Location: W&OD Trail
Activity: Running
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:2

It ended up being just Julie and myself (everyone else was injured, alas) but we had a nice run through some brisk weather. The sun never came out, but the breeze sure felt good by the end. That long-sleeve shirt was perhaps not the smartest of things to do! We didn’t move that fast, but it was good to just move again.

Running: 4 miles

04mi

Start time: 3/8/03, 10:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Activity: Running
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:2
Average pace: 14:30min/mile

We had an AIDS Marathon Reunion Run this morning—a chance for everyone to get back together. Almost no one from my pace group showed up, unfortunately; Madelyn wasn’t feeling well, Debbie had anniversary plans, and the others were simply MIA. Fortunately, Martha, Kimberly, and Lisa were there and we ran with them (and a few others) and afterwards went out for breakfast. It was a great run, between warm weather and a generally good pace. Even better, it turns out that Martha and Kimberly are signed up for the Rock ‘n Roll 1/2 Marathon (hurrah!) and Lisa’s contemplating it (hurrah!), so we’re going to train together.

Oh, and it turns out there’s a 10K downtown next week that we will probably all do. Should be fun!