Category Archives: 04mi

Winter blahs

0, 04mi, indoor track

Start time: 12/1/09, 6:15pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:06min/mile
Total Miles For December: 4 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 782 miles

One of the (many, many, many, MANY) reasons why I will never be an elite runner: I lose what little motivation I have for running when it gets cold out. It wasn’t even that bad out yesterday but I still bailed and went to the gym and ran on the stupid indoor track instead. Which I am also not a fan of. After four I just had no desire to keep running, so I stopped there.

(8:15, 8:08, 8:08, 7:52)

Loop-de-loop

0, 04mi

Start time: 11/17/09, 8:00am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:10min/mile
Total Miles For November: 48 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 754 miles

Just another whirl around the four-mile loop. I did come up with a new five-mile loop course that I’m tentatively going to start running next week and make that the new regular morning run. We shall see.

(8:16, 8:06, 8:15, 8:00)

Return to the indoor track

0, 04mi, indoor track

Start time: 11/12/09, 6:00pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:25min/mile
Total Miles For November: 34 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 740 miles

I ended up missing my first run this week, due to a trip to the oral surgeon for a tooth extraction. (Joy!) I did get out for a swim mid-week, though, which was better than no exercise at all, of course. Anyway, I find it very funny that whenever I run on the indoor track, there’s always a ramping up process. Apparently it takes a mile or two to adjust to those 1/8th mile loops! Too wet and cold out to hoof it outside, unfortunately. Hoping to do an 8-10 miler on Sunday morning.

(8:47, 8:38, 8:13, 8:01)

Back in the saddle… eventually…

0, 04mi

Start time: 11/8/09, 11:00am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:23min/mile
Total Miles For November: 30 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 736 miles

After a week off, I finally went running again the Sunday after the marathon. It was an unseasonably warm day, which was lovely, if suddenly a slight shock to my body which kept saying, “Wait, what, I need to start cooling you down?” It felt good to get out and moving again, though.

(8:15, 8:14, 8:35, 8:30)

Pop-Tart Taper

0, 04mi

Start time: 10/29/09, 8:15am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:14min/mile
Total Miles For October: 89 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 706 miles

Boy, it sure is getting dark out in the morning. It’ll be nice to have the clocks change an hour on Sunday. Last pre-marathon run this morning and I ended up just doing the regular loop. Today, fueled by something I haven’t eaten in years: a pop-tart. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

(8:20, 8:04, 8:24, 8:08)

Memories and Hills

0, 04mi

Start time: 10/22/09, 5:45pm
Location: Arlington Boulevard, Iwo Jima Memorial
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:29min/mile
Total Miles For October: 72 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 689 miles

Another night of poor sleep equalled no running in the morning. On the way to work, though, I saw that a lot of the set-up for the finish line area of the Marine Corps Marathon is already put together. So after work, I ran a mile down the Arlington Boulevard trail, and then ran through the Iwo Jima Memorial area and down to Memorial Bridge so I could see the stuff. Doing so was fun and brought back a lot of memories of running MCM (four times, 2002-2005) and I was definitely speeding up. Doubly so because it meant that I spent two miles running straight downhill. And then I turned around… and kind of ran out of gas. Oops. Doubly so since I was then going straight uphill the whole way back. Ah well. It was still a nice run.

(8:14, 7:44, 8:43, 9:16)

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3276789

Wow do I hate treadmills

0, 04mi, treadmill

Start time: 10/15/09, 2:30pm
Location: Spring Hill Rec Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:41min/mile
Total Miles For October: 58 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 675 miles

It’s a gloomy rainy day, and after getting little sleep last night thanks to what I have charitably decided was a slowly dying car (I like to think someone did not lay out their horn, deliberately, for a solid two minutes at 1am, 2:30am, and 4am) I didn’t make it to the gym this morning. So I decided I’d go in the afternoon to Spring Hill (where I normally swim) and run on a treadmill there. Ugh. Hated every minute of it. There was no air circulation so I felt really badly overheated from start to finish, and some crazy lady decided that she needed to turn ALL the televisions to Fox News. Including ones right next to other ones on Fox News. Great, six big screen tvs all showing a run-away balloon soaring through the air. I was going to run five miles but after four I felt like such crap I stopped. Death to the treadmill.

Cool weather, pros and cons

0, 04mi

Start time: 10/12/09, 12:45pm
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:27min/mile
Total Miles For October: 54 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 671 miles

Well, the temperature has dropped big time in the DC area. I left for my run around lunchtime and it still was in the 50s. What a difference! It felt great to run in the cooler weather, and I do love it—except for that my body is adjusting to the colder weather and I was a little hacky at times. Bleah. You know things are bad when I’m having to do the runner’s spit, which I consider to be one of the grossest things about the sport in general. It was a nice run, though, even though at all three major intersections that I run through, I somehow ended up with green lights for all of them. (I know, I know, boo hoo. Normally, if nothing else, the one around the 2.5 mile mark results in a temporary catching of the breath.) Had thought about doing five miles, but thanks to getting almost no sleep at all on Saturday night (even after that 20-miler!), still a little worn down.

(8:35, 8:16, 8:30, 8:25)

Tiny bit creaky

0, 04mi

Start time: 10/6/09, 7:45am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:30min/mile
Total Miles For October: 24 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 641 miles

I’d skipped swimming yesterday because I was feeling a little creaky after the weekend’s runs, and now I’m glad I did so. Still feeling a tiny bit creaky when I headed out this morning, although by the end I’d definitely loosened up somewhat. (Hoping to fit swimming in tomorrow mind you.) On the plus side, though, gorgeous weather, in the mid 50s. I’m going to have to dig out the rest of my long-sleeve running attire, both of the ones I’d kept hanging around are now waiting to be washed!

Catching up

0, 04mi

Start time: 9/24/09, 6:00pm
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:32min/mile
Total Miles For September: 40 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 609 miles

Oops, forgot to post a couple of these. Catch up time. I had to squeeze this run in between getting home and heading off to book club. Slowly starting to pick things back up a bit after my brief sabbatical.