Monthly Archives: November 2006

Watch out for that… never mind.

0, 05mi, pacers alexandria

Start time: 11/21/06, 7:00pm
Location: Old Town Alexandria
Distance: 5.4 miles
Average pace: 9:29min/mile

This is the second time I’ve run the Pacers Alexandria Tuesday route, and we actually ended up a tiny bit faster (40 seconds), which considering that I’d changed my GPS so that it no longer pauses when I stop moving (as happens when running up and down King Street waiting for cars to go by) is impressive. My last hill work pre-marathon, and it felt effortless. (Really consistant, too.) Amusement for the evening was watching Darryl deliberately leap and roll in a massive pile of leaves along the course… and then later on finding bits of branch trapped in his shoe. Hmmm, wonder how that got in there?

If I’ve got everything else ready I might try and do a slow 3-miler Thursday morning, we’ll see.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=510272

And that’s that.

0, 08mi, aidsmarathon

Start time: 11/18/06, 8:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 10:00min/mile

That was it—the final group run before the Florence Marathon in 8 days. There were six of us; four of us (me, Tod, Sarah, Rob) running Florence and the other two (Stephanie, Katie) running Honolulu. Honolulu was scheduled for a 26-miler, but Stephanie and Katie had both decided to just run a 16-miler. Tod, Sarah, and I were running an 8-miler… and Rob decided that even though Florence is now a week away, that he was going to run an 18-miler.

…Well, to each their own, right?

It was a good run, though. I dropped off my car at Fletcher’s Boathouse before coming in, so we got to run all the way out with Stephanie and Katie before they turned around there (instead of just running four miles with them and then waving goodbye). Rob was a little too zippy/speedy, but after we picked up Kendall (whose two fellow runners were not doing so well) we let the two of them start zooming off ahead. Since we’re on taper-mode, I didn’t want to go too fast so this slightly reduced pace was a-ok by me.

The Walk for the Homeless was going on downtown today, so we had some slight detours here and there to avoid the huge masses of people. I did this walk back in 2001 with Julie and Pam and it was a lot of fun, so it was nice to see it still continuing. (It did make driving back to the starting point a little problematic, though. Oops!)

At this point all that’s left is a run with the Pacers folks on Tuesday, maybe a 3-miler on Thursday morning… and then I’m off!

Slow again

0, 04mi, pacers arlington

Start time: 11/14/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:48min/mile

Ok, we are in taper mode, and the Custis Trail is amazingly hilly. But still, a little disappointing to look at my finishing time here versus ones earlier in the year. Maybe Chris and I just need Darryl to push us up and down the trail a little faster? Not sure. (My thighs were sore from Sunday so I was a little hesitant on the idea of running, but by the halfway point they felt fine. Perhaps they just needed a good run.)

Taper taper taper

0, 08mi, aidsmarathon

Start time: 11/11/06, 8:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:15min/mile

I can tell when it’s almost the end of the season when I forget to record my Saturday runs. Anyway, the second-to-last group run and with gorgeous weather to boot. (I dodged a bullet there, too; my normal running morning is Sunday and on that day, the weather dropped 20 degrees and started raining. Yuck.) Tod and I ran with three of the Saturday runners (Katie, Sarah, and Susan) and as Tod put it best, they sped us up and we slowed them down. A nice happy medium, and a good 8-miler. This upcoming Saturday will be our final group run for us Florence Marathoners (8-miler) while the Honolulu Marathoners have their big 26-miler. Should be a fun time… if a wee bit colder.

Oops!

0, 05mi, pacers alexandria

Start time: 11/09/06, 7:00pm
Location: Old Town Alexandria
Distance: 5.25 miles
Average pace: 9:05min/mile

Oopsie… I forgot to turn on my GPS when I went running with the Pacers group tonight. Fortunately Darryl turned on his stopwatch, though. A good run, all in all.

Backdated Entry…

0, 10mi, aidsmarathon

Start time: 11/05/06, 8:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:30min/mile

Oops! I forgot to put this entry in. (Fortunately I can backdate it. But it’s really five days later.) A nice 10-miler with me, Tod, and Stephanie. Great cool weather, great company… taper taper taper!

Remember, remember, the hills of November…

0, 04mi

Start time: 11/01/06, 7:00pm
Location: Downtown Arlington
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 8:51min/mile

I’ve missed my hill workouts lately… and clearly the hills have missed me! This wasn’t crazy Custis Trail levels of hills, but still that stretch between the Clarendon and Rosslyn Metro stations is nothing to sneeze at. Phew. (Apparently the strange warm snap here in the DC area has meant that the sidewalks must be clogged with people walking aimlessly all over them, though. Yikes.)