Start time: 11/29/09, 12:15pm
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 8:54min/mile
Total Miles For November: 72 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 778 miles

After yesterday's 5-miler, I'd hoped to pick up a 10-miler today. (Time to get ready for the Goofy Marathon and a Half Challenge in January, after all.) The weather decided to cooperate today, with a high of 62 degrees at the end of November. Crazy, I know. I actually left the house with a long-sleeve shirt and shorts on, got all of three steps, and turned around and went back and changed into a short-sleeved shirt.

The run itself was pretty unmemorable; nothing out of the ordinary to report. (Aside from, perhaps, having fallen asleep during mile 8. Not sure what happened there.)

(8:20, 8:23, 9:06, 9:09, 9:19, 9:02, 8:58, 9:49, 8:32, 8:19)

Start time: 11/15/09, 8:15am
Location: 10th St, Wilson Boulevard, Bluemont Junction Trail, W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:01min/mile
Total Miles For November: 44 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 750 miles

I don't get this 70+ degree weather this time of year. I mean, it's lovely and all, and I'm really excited about wearing my short sleeved shirt today. But it just feels... wrong. Also, it meant a rather sweaty and red-faced run this morning. I ended up inadvertently taking two walk breaks; one during mile 5 when I almost choked on the granola bar I'd brought with me on the run (never doing that again), and then during mile 8 when I almost fell over on a patch of wet leaves and walked for about 30 seconds to get out of the rest of them. So, not bad. Especially since it was better than the last two times I ran this route.

One nice surprise was running into Pam Riker who was doing some mile repeats on the trail, since we were meeting with other fellow AIDS Marathon staffers for brunch a few hours later. Clearly we had the same idea...

(8:32, 8:24, 9:02, 9:02, 9:24, 8:58, 9:23, 9:39, 8:44, 8:56)

Start time: 10/24/09, 9:30am
Location: 10th St, Wilson Boulevard, Bluemont Junction Trail, W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:28min/mile
Total Miles For October: 82 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 699 miles

20 seconds per mile slower on the exact same route. The difference? About 30 degrees hotter outside, plus a thick humidity that on and off turned into light showers of rain. Plus, allergies acting up horribly, to the point that on miles 4-6 and 10, I ended up taking a walk break because I was having problems breathing out of my nose. Really wretched run in terms of how I was feeling and then some. Yuck.

(8:27, 8:39, 9:19, 9:52, 9:49, 10:29, 9:22, 8:59, 9:24, 10:14)

Start time: 10/19/09, 7:30am
Location: 10th St, Wilson Boulevard, Bluemont Junction Trail, W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:08min/mile
Total Miles For October: 68 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 685 miles

Originally I was going to run 10 miles on Saturday with Dave and Steve, but when it was pouring rain on Friday night with no plans on stopping and in the low 40s, it seemed like a recipe for getting sick. So instead I went for a run this morning before work. It was still cold—just 40 degrees when I left—so I broke out the hat, gloves, and pants for the first time in quite a while. The run itself was good, though; headed down 10th St and Wilson for two miles, then went onto Bluemont to W&OD for another two miles and turned around. Once I got back home, I went in the other direction for a mile and then headed back. Thanks to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and Evil of the Daleks episodes 4-5, the time just whipped right by.

I am starting to think about replacing my Garmin Forerunner 301, which doesn't seem to be carrying a full charge these days (although still enough to get me through even a 20-miler), plus I'm getting annoyed about its reliability as of late on picking up signals or not. Nothing like running a route over and over again and getting a different mileage every time. Grrr.

Start time: 7/4/09, 7:00am
Location: North Arlington, Mount Vernon Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:48min/mile
Total Miles For July: 15 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 394 miles

With the Independence Day celebrations downtown resulting in lots of closed roads and bridges, we decided it was easier to just run in Arlington this Saturday. Just a 10 miler, which turned out to be a good thing for me. We started out with six, but Stephanie and Ben turned around after three miles, and Bill a mile later. Unfortunately for me, as we were heading back, once we cleared the Mount Vernon Trail, Jim and Michael were feeling a little peppy and I most definitely was not. They zoomed up the Custis Trail, while I kept looking at this hills and thinking, "I am gonna die here." Just feeling out of gas, I ended up taking a shortcut back to the start. Then, feeling bad, retraced the trail so I ended up catching the guys on their way back, only a quarter mile behind them. I ran an extra quarter mile, and it worked out well in the end. But that ninth mile... oof! I'm blaming this one on hills and improper hydration.

(10:05, 9:53, 9:57, 10:24, 9:21, 9:09, 9:10, 9:14, 11:00, 9:38)

Start time: 6/20/09, 7:00am
Location: SW Waterfront, Capitol Hill, National Mall
Distance: ~10 miles
Average pace: 9:59min/mile
Total Miles For June: 47 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 359 miles

This Saturday, I went running with a new group. As I'd mentioned last Saturday, we'd run into some of the folks we used to run with, and this week we sort of merged groups. I say sort of because Aaron and Dave are still building up their distance, so they went running with Ben for just 7 miles. Meanwhile, I headed out with Stephen, John, and two new guys I hadn't met before, Jim and Michael. It was a nice group, they're all chatty but in a good way. The one downside was that once again, after a few miles I started feeling sick to my stomach. *sigh* Maybe I'm not hydrating well enough? Or need to take something like pepto before a run?

I did finish out the full 10, though, although Stephen and I started lagging behind a bit the later the run went. The humidity certainly wasn't helping matters, it was just dreadful out this morning. I certainly welcomed that the guys took a short walk break at each mile; with a day like today, I definitely needed it and then some. Disgusting out, pure and simple. As it was, literally seconds before Stephen and I finished running, a drop of rain hit me. About a minute after we were done, it had started to pour. So at least we dodged that bullet!

Start time: 1/24/09, 1:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:27min/mile
Total Miles For January: 35 miles

This run had all sorts of "finally" meanings.

Finally running again after a week's break. That wasn't intentional, although at least I walked my butt off on Sunday (5mi) and Tuesday (7.25mi). Unfortunately while I made it through spinning on Wednesday, then all the inauguration exertion caught up with me, big time. Oof. Oh well. I got a lot of sleep last night and everything seems to be back to normal.

Finally running outside. I mean, come on, this should be a given. It's just been too darn cold, though. This run seems to have shown that treadmills are indeed (as I was hoping) the enemy. Bleah. No more treadmills for a while if I can help it! Sure was windy out, though. Brrrr.

Finally hitting double-digit mileage. The last time I did that was when I ran 13 miles of MCM with Sarah... at the end of October. Yikes! It felt nice to get the mileage moving up again.

The run itself wasn't bad. It wasn't one of those, "Wow, I did great," but after last week's major poop-out on an 8-miler, I'll take it. Once again, I ran downhill for the first mile, then turned around and started my climb up through mile 6. Oh, did it feel nice to turn around at marker 7.5 and start heading back downhill after all of that! Slowly getting back there. It felt nice to make some real progress today.

(9:03, 9:20, 9:36, 10:09, 9:55, 9:48, 9:30, 9:15, 9:09, 8:42)

Start Time: 9/21/08, 8:15am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average Pace: 8:59min/mile (or 9:08min/mile)
Total Miles For September: 45 miles

I will be the first to admit that after Saturday's bomb-out, I was not looking forward to Sunday's run. My quads were a little sore, and I was feeling... less than encouraged about the run. But I headed out anyway (because I am a masochist, I guess) and ran on the W&OD Trail; starting at marker 3.5, down to the 2.5 marker, then up to 7.5 before heading back to start.

I don't know why I am always surprised by the trail heading just slightly uphill as the marker numbers increase, but some days it gets me more than others. This was one of those days where that tiny tilt semed just horrible. About 4.5 miles in I actually turned off my watch, sat down, and ate my gel for 90 seconds before continuing on. That helped a little bit, but the biggest thing was about half a mile later running into Alma, whom I trained with back in 2005. She was on her bike getting ready for a triathlon next weekend, and she rode next to me for a few minutes before she zoomed off. And that was what really got me going again. My spirits were lifted, and I did just fine until (finishing off mile #6) I got to turn around and start heading slightly downhill for the remainder.

My finishing time was supposed to be between a 9:00 and 9:30min/mile average, so even with that 90 second break being fully added on, things were a-ok on that front. But I was still pretty beat after Saturday's 15 mile disaster, so it was certainly tougher than it would have otherwise been!

(8:44, 8:47, 8:56, 9:32, 9:07 (or 10:37), 9:14, 9:06, 8:54, 8:40, 8:48)

Start Time: 8/9/08, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles & 2 miles
Average Pace: 7:59min/mile & 10:05min/mile
Total Miles For August: 26 miles

Eeeek. Saturday brought a group make-or-break run, where you run about a minute per mile faster in four 2-mile stretches, with a recovery between each one. I was a little worried only because I'd really cramped my legs up good earlier in the week (I don't know what I was thinking, wearing my running shoes four days in a row), but things seemed to be juuust about back to normal.

So, we ran a warm-up mile, and then started heading down the W&OD Trail. The first set was waaaay too fast for me, which could have spelled real doom considering that not only were there three more sets to go, but sets 2 and 4 are uphill (while 1 and 3 are downhill). Happily, I did get to adjust a bit and on the whole it wasn't too bad. Not quite where I wanted to be (set #3 was the best), but not bad. Especially for the overall average, which was perfect, really.

As an added bonus, though, it was "familiar faces on the trail" day; Deborah and Archie were both out running, and Ryan was walking a friend's dogs. Yay for that!

warm-up: 10:17
splits: (7:26 & 7:38), (8:15 & 8:14), (7:49 & 7:58), (8:06 & 8:30)
cool-down: 9:54

Start Time: 3/6/08, 8:00am
Location: Court House, Clarendon, Ballston, W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average Pace: 9:33min/mile
Total Miles For March: 13 miles

Ok! Back on the wagon, Greg—both for running and for updating. (I just put a whole bunch of backdated entries from the past month and a half on here. Eek.) Anyway, I ran a 10 miler today; with the National Half Marathon for me on the 29th, it was rapidly approaching do-or-die time. So it was a slowish for me run, and I felt a little bit creaky, but so long as I can get running again all will be quite good. Right? Hopefully?

Hell of a lot of hills though. Especially once you get west of Ballston. Upppp and dowwwnnn and upppp and downnnnn... bleah!

(Supposedly it was a 9:33min/mile. But the GPS also said that my ninth mile was a 10:54, and to be honest I find this hard to believe. So on the bright side, a little faster. Not much, but a little.)

Start time: 9/26/07, 6:15pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:01min/mile

My schedule called for a 12-miler on Thursday, but with book club that just wasn't happening. Instead I shifted it to Tuesday, with the idea to get the bulk of it run in the morning and the rest in the evening. When I woke up Tuesday morning, though, my legs felt stiff and sore so I decided not to run and went back to sleep. Upon waking back up 90 minutes later, though, they felt fine. Hmph.

After work, I decided to pick up something in the 6-to-8 range and then just call it a day. Heading out, the first three miles were slightly uphill and also heading right into the setting sun. It was an unpleasant run at best, with me feeling too warm (it was almost 90 degrees) and less than thrilled. (8:51, 8:36, 8:55) When I hit the turnaround at marker 8, I decided that perhaps 6 miles would be all I'd get in. By the time I made it back to marker 5 (and my car), though, I'd convinced myself to run at least a tiny bit more, even though I was definitely slowing down a great deal. (8:46, 9:00, 9:08) So, onwards I ran. I hit marker 4 (9:12) and then decided I could pick up another half mile before finally turning around, which would be a grand total of 9 miles, perfectly respectable. As I was closing in on that turn-around point, though, I could sense there was a runner right on my heels, so I turned a bit and said something like, "Sorry about that," assuming that he was trying to pass my slow butt.

As it turned out, he was drafting off of me to keep going, so we ended up running together for another half mile. His name was Justin, and he's training for his first marathon this November in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. It was nice to talk with him, and while he dropped back a bit before I hit my turn-around, it definitely made me speed up for what was my eighth mile. (8:54) From there it was a slow uphilll trudge back to marker 5 and my car, and I was glad to stop when I did. (9:17, 9:25) Considering I was expecting to get no more than 8 miles in after work, picking up 10 was a nice surprise even if a bit lacking in performance by the end.

Additionally, I had a brand-new sort of foot pain; a strange sort of cramp on the left side of my right foot. Hmmm. I'm skipping spinning today to let it rest; hopefully that will do the trick!

Start time: 9/9/07, 8:00am
Location: National Mall & Capital Crescent Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 8:47min/mile

Another 10-miler this morning, but one in which I learned something very important—I need someone in a race that I can pace off, get discouraged by, and ultimately beat. Because if I have all three things, I'm golden. Laura and I ended up losing Dave and Paul around mile 4.5 today; they were about 10 seconds ahead of us, hit a light that we missed, and were gone. But as Laura and I pushed on (and I was still feeling a little beat from this week's exhaustion, although a lot of rest on Saturday helped a great deal), we were still doing good. I'd told Laura that if she wanted to talk off at any point she was free to do so, and around mile 8.5 she began to pull ahead. Then, as we got closer to the second turn-around (at mile 9), Dave came through—and then we saw Paul hit the turn-around, not that far ahead of us.

Really, all it ultimately took was for Laura to pass Paul for me to end up picking up the pace. I didn't catch Laura by the finish (she was about 10 seconds of me) but that combination of having a target to focus on and also knowing the end was in sight? Perfect.

Fingers crossed that next Sunday's long run goes well. After the last one's disaster (courtesy stomach problems), I need a strong long run.

On a random note, my right foot is a little sore. Hmph.

Start time: 8/30/07, 6:45pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 8:56min/mile

The original plan was that I would split this run up like I did two weeks ago; 5 miles in the morning, then 5 more after work. Unfortunately, stomach problems kept me up until around 4am on Tuesday night, meaning I was so tired on Wednesday that I skipped my spinning class and went to bed early... and then couldn't fall asleep for less problematic reasons, but still resulting in not much rest. I ended up scratching the morning portion of the run, and decided that I'd just do 5 or 6 after work and call it a day. Well... except... I figured, why not try and pick up the full 10 miles in the evening?

As it turned out, it worked pretty well. I decided to not make it a Tempo run, instead just shooting for a regular 9min/mile pace. Based on the splits, I'd say I had some really good consistency! (9:02, 8:53, 8:43, 9:02, 9:03, 8:55, 8:49, 9:01, 8:54, 9:00.) A nice evening to go running, and it was fun to make the turnaround marker 8.0 on the W&OD; I haven't seen the stretch between 5.5 and 8.0 for a long time, and it was like being reunited with an old friend.

Start time: 6/17/07, 8:45am
Location: Greenfield Lake, Wilmington, North Carolina
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 8:58min/mile

I was vistiing friends in Wilmington, North Carolina this past weekend, so I tackled my two scheduled runs at a nearby park that had a 4.25-mile trail running around a lake. Well, a lake full of alligators, apparently. That's an incentive to not stop, huh? The run went well, though. I did have to stop twice, though. It started to rain on me halfway around the first loop, so when I completed the loop I stopped at the car and put my glasses inside because there's nothing worse than water hanging on the lenses. I also took a quick bathroom break at mile 8, because when you're by yourself and there's no one to disract you, it's two ugly miles othewrise. But a good run, and right on pace. Yay!

Start time: 6/18/07, 8:00am
Location: Greenfield Lake, Wilmington, North Carolina
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:52min/mile

A pretty unremarkable "EZ" run for Monday. I had no idea if I was actually on pace at first, but thankfully that was the case. It's hard to tell the day after a long run what's really going on!

Start time: 4/28/07, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk Ratio: 6:1 (& none)
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

On Saturday I went running with some of my old running buddies—Carla, Chanty, Craig, MJ, and Randy. It was all about running with them and enjoying the good company, so they picked the pace (and a run:walk ratio, which I haven't done in quite a while!) and off we went. It was good to catch up with them, if a little slower than I was used to. Randy and Chanty needed to slow down on the way back from the inital 8 miles, so we said farewell to them around mile 6. MJ finished up at mile 8, and then Carla and Craig and I picked up an additional two. Carla wanted to try dropping the walks at that point so we did the last two miles that way. It was a nice way to wind down the non-marathon-season.

Cherry Blossom 10-Miler
Start time: 4/1/07, 8:00am
Location: Washington DC
Distance: 10 miles
Finishing time: 1:26:09
Average pace: 8:37min/mile

( This part was on my regular journal as well. )

STATISTICS!

2004: 2235/2242 (99th percentile) (20-39 group)
2005: 2132/2290 (93rd percentile) (20-39 group)
2006: 1955/2873 (68th percentile) (20-39 group) / 585/671 (67th percentile) (30-34 group)
2007: 483/902 (53rd percentile) (30-34 group)

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: 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!

Start time: 10/22/06, 8:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:48min/mile

Ok, it was actually (according to the Gmaps Pedometer) a 9.85 mile run. Close enough for government work, that's what I say. It was a nice run today; a little slow at first as Stephanie, Tod, and I got our frozen muscles to start moving (another cold cold day), but by the end we were definitely zipping along. Definitely a good day for running once you really get going. Meanwhile, Emma and Site Assistant Stephanie are off in Chicago getting buffeted by 14mph winds as they run the Chicago Marathon. Oh, and there's a chance of snow. Yikes.