Start time: 12/30/06, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 12 miles
Average pace: 9:15min/mile

My running buddy Craig (whom I trained with in 2005, and who did AIDS Marathon again in 2006) has been working on his new five-year plan to qualify for Boston (which in his 50-54 age-group is a 3:35). He’s been improving by leaps and bounds and I popped him an e-mail to see if he was running this Saturday, since next week he’s got the Disney World Marathon-And-A-Half Goofy Challenge. His response?

Will try to make it at 0800. Supposed to run 12. Will be running without taking a walk break. Will average 9:30-10:00 for 6 then shoot for 9:00 for the last six if I can take it!

Well, I love me a challenge. (Sometimes.) When I run with Pacers for 4-to-5.5 miles it’s without walk breaks, so I figured this shouldn’t be too much harder. And if it was, well, I’d bring my iPod along and prepare to run back the other six miles by myself. So, we met up on Saturday and headed out into a beautifully cool, foggy day. The way out went great; we settled into a groove pretty quickly and knocked out the front six right on schedule (9:50, 9:25, 9:34, 9:52, 9:37, 9:27) with only the Hill of Doom in the fourth mile slowing us down at all.

On the back six, we buckled down and at first said we’d be talking a little less. Well, that didn’t last, we kept talking but aside from the other side of the Hill of Doom (which is pure evil because it’s steep and long on both sides!) we once again stayed pretty true to form (9:01, 8:45, 9:10, 8:48, 8:51, 8:44).

The best thing? Well, aside from it being a really good run and more than doubling the longest distance I’d ever run without any walk breaks, it was knowing that if I’d added in another 8:50min/mile pace for an additional 1.1 miles? That would’ve meant a half marathon finishing time of 2:00:53. My current half marathon PR is a 2:06:08. Barring disaster and keeping my eyes on the prize, this upcoming year I should hopefully get a sub-2 hour half. Fingers crossed!

(Oh, and 2006’s mileage total is 650.75 miles. Nothing like last year’s 732.9, but with a combination of a month off due to injury and no 26-mile long run, I think that’s more than respectable. Bring on 2007!)

Start time: 12/23/06, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles & 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1/3:1 & 7:1
Average pace: 11:13min/mile & 9:20min/mile

I headed out this morning for another round with my 2005 group; the plan was I’d run five miles out with Carla, Chanty, and Randy, before taking the second five miles back by myself at a faster pace. The way out was a nice warm-up, although Carla hadn’t been able to run for a couple of weeks and was definitely feeling it. She and Chanty decided to slow down for the last mile before we split off (a little early, in fact), which was fine by me. Randy offered to run back with me, so we started getting rolling but a little slowly; a 9:53, and then (yikes) a 10:38. The nice thing is that we automatically picked it up at that point without having to say anything, pushing up to a 9:22 and then deciding to take the next mile even faster: a 7:43. The last mile was a 9:04 (Randy was feeling the burn) which was still a good way to end the run.

And then, having gone crazy, Randy and our friend Katie (who had run with Julie) decided that since it was “red and black” day the three of us should pose for a picture. And that picture involved a human pyramid of sorts.

No, I don’t get it either. And yet this is why I must run with them! You never know why you’re going to otherwise miss out on a pyramid making session.

Oh yes, and lest I forget… no knee strap, no pain. I’ll keep one in my water belt for a couple of months just to be certain, but I think (knock on wood) that my knee strap days are finally over.

Start time: 12/16/06, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 10:50min/mile

This Saturday I ran with some of my old running group from 2005: Ali, Chanty, and Randy. They were planning on running a 10-miler at their 11min/mile pace, and with coming off of a cold this sounded perfect to me; get the distance in but also not kill myself by jumping right back to my old speed like I did on Tuesday. It worked like a charm; it was super-comfortable to run at the reduced pace with them, and at the end I felt like I was getting back into the swing of things. We’ll see how Tuesday’s run in Clarendon pans out, mind you.

(Craig was knocking out a long run before the Disney Marathon at a 9:30 pace and it was awfully tempting to try and run part of it with him, but I knew better. Maybe next week when he’s got a shorter distance and I’m back up to speed, though.)

Start time: 12/11/06, 2:00pm
Location: North Arlington (Clarendon, Courthouse, Rosslyn)
Distance: 3.4 miles
Average pace: 8:47min/mile

Today’s run is best defined by absence rather than presence. Sans GPS, sans iPod/headphones, sans knee strap, sans knee pain, sans endurance.

The plan (since I had taken a day off, and the weather was so nice) was to just head on out and run and not worry about speed. I also figured I would give running without the knee strap for the first time in years a whirl; it’s been long enough since the mortifying dancing injury that it should be fine. The good news is that the knee did feel fine, which is a relief. On the other hand, I was certainly huffing and puffing by the time I was done. I ended up calling it “good enough” by the time I hit Courthouse Road; it was just about half an hour and that’s what I was looking for more than distance anyway. (I’d mapped out a 4-mile route in case all went well.) Taking a week off after a bad cold stinks, and trying to run after the cold is finally gone stinks too, but it was good to get out there… even if afterwise I actually ended up sitting down on a hillside and caught my breath when I was done. Lung capacity, why hast thou forsaken me?

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=582640

(Subject line courtesy… oh, look it up yourself. But this final line to a very famous speech was running through my head as I hoofed it up and down the streets of Arlington.)