Monthly Archives: February 2005

Catching up

05mi, travel, treadmill

Start time: 02/20/05, 5:30pm
Location: Airtel Plaza Hotel treadmill
Distance: ~5+ miles
Average pace: ~11min/mile

The figures here are fuzzier than normal thanks to someone kicking out the power strip that my treadmill was connected to. Nice. I’m still amazed I didn’t go flying through the front of the machine when it lurched to a halt. I should’ve actually taken it as a cue to stop, in retrospect; my left calf was sore for a good day afterwards thanks to it being grumpy from several days of nothing but walking leading up to this.

Start time: 02/26/05, 9:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 12:30min/mile

Finally got back outside and running this morning with my friend Katie. The first half was at 12min/miles and under, but after refilling our water bottles at the community center Katie asked if we could slow down a bit; she was just dragging, so we downshifted a bit and chatted and jogged the rest in.

Some days are good, some not so good

02mi

Start time: 02/15/05, 4:30pm
Location: Local Neighborhood
Distance: 2.5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 12:30min/mile

In case you were wondering what that horrible sound coming from near my apartment was yesterday, it was my run coming crashing to a halt halfway through. I suddenly and without warning got a nasty stitch in my side that derailed me badly enough that after the second of four loops, I gave up. Bleah.

Brisk one

08mi

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!

Ice Ice Baby / Need for Speed

05mi, 10mi

Start time: 02/05/05, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 12:01min/mile

Start time: 02/08/05, 5:50pm
Location: Local Neighborhood
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 10:00min/mile

Two, two, two updates in one. On Saturday (after a week of sloth) I met my group for a run, but they were feeling even more slothful than I. Everyone bagged out after six miles, but I decided to hoof it a little further on my own. The group hadn’t been moving terribly fast thanks to the section of the trail we were on getting clogged with ice every half mile or so. I headed out in the other direction and it was much clearer; knocking out four 11-minute miles dropped the average pace down into something a bit more acceptable, though.

Last night I took full advantage of the fantastic weather we’re having in the DC area right now. Gorgeous running weather, and I whipped through the 5-miler even faster than I’d have imagined. In the end my finish time for the distance was 49:59. Ha! Just barely scraping the 10-minute mile point but I did, something that’s a real record for me. I think I’ve been holding myself back too much so it’s time to start playing with speed a little bit and seeing what I’m really capable of. When I finished I was breathing a little hard but I hadn’t for almost the entire distance, so that’s a good thing.