Start time: 05/12/06, 6:30pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:14min/mile

It’s been a while since I’ve run a 5-miler for a maintenance run… apparently the last one was just over two months ago when I was in Florida. Yeesh!

Anyway, it was a nice day, and while my allergies seemed to really be drying me out I decided that now was the time. The first mile, unsurprisingly, was a little fast (8:57) but the second seemed to be as well (9:08). I was bracing myself for the inevitable Mile 3 Slowdown, but even it wasn’t too bad (9:29). As I continued to head back I kept waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop, but it never did (9:20, 9:16). Considering the second half is uphill, I was quite happy with that. Really, a genuinely nice run.

Well, except for deciding to eat a gel because I felt like I was on an empty stomach and the entire Carb Boom shot out of the packet in one big blob that made me feel like I’d just swallowed a gigantic ball of snot. Mmmmmm, yum! Isn’t running fun?

Anyway, a nice run and a bit of a confidence booster to boot. The one strange thing? Running on a Friday. Now I don’t have running logs for November or December 2004, but I’m pretty sure that the last time I ran on a Friday was in October 2004. And in my May through October training season it was the only time I did so. This may be the second time I’ve ever run on a Friday! Oh, the difference of not having a run scheduled for Saturday mornings…

Start time: 05/09/06, 8:20am
Location: Arlington Boulevard Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:23min/mile

It’s funny, because while I’m used to running early on Saturday or Sunday mornings, the past year and a half has been me almost always running on weekdays after work instead of before. The end result is that it still feels a little strange to do so, even though I think overall I enjoy the benefits more with having gotten everything moving beforehand. I was actually a bit behind schedule this morning when trying to get out the door, and it was a bit chillier than I’d expected, but I’m quite happy I finally started hoofing it.

I started a little fast—the first half-mile clocked in at 4:01 and I could just see another colossal “crash and burn” on the horizon if I kept that up. The rest of the run was me trying to find a new pace that I could stick with. I was hoping for a good 9:30 that I could find and then maintain. The second half of the first mile, I think, was actually that once you factor in the walk break having landed there (8:57). Mile two was me a tiny bit off-kilter (9:38) and mile three I was happy with considering it was the two-walk-breaks zone that a 6:1 will have it fall in (9:39) and I was clearly starting to find what I was looking for. Sure enough, mile four was more or less at the same point (9:20) once it was back to one walk cycle. Since miles 2 and 4 are uphill (a slow grade at first, then steeper at the end) I’m happy with that. lostchaos hasn’t commented on me looking like death warmed over when I passed her as she was walking to the metro around mile 3.8, so that’s a good sign. Now let’s see what happens on Thursday (another solo run as jabulous is out of town on a business trip through Friday afternoon).

(I must say that I was surprised to see no other runners out when I started, though, but a ton of them at the very end. I’d have assumed it would be the other way around!)

Oh, and big props to confessions_123 for hooking me up with Girls Aloud, whose “Waiting” is a really fine running song. That and the Go-Go’s “Unforgiven” have got a great beat to try and sync up with.

Start time: 05/03/06, 6:30pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:54min/mile

I went out running with Julie today for a four-miler. The first three were pretty standard miles for when we run together (10:01, 9:46, 10:32), perhaps a tiny bit faster than the last couple times we paired up. With one mile to go, though, Julie wasn’t feeling well so I took the last one in by myself at her directive (9:17). Afterwards I turned around and started heading back towards her but she was just around the corner, not far behind me at all. I felt bad about having gone on ahead and said as much, so she yelled at me. 🙂 (Ok, not literally yelling.) But it was a good run despite finishing a minute or two ahead of J-Money.

Start time: 05/01/06, 6:15pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 8:35min/mile

I want to say that this was a full week since the last time I ran, but considering how disastrous THAT run went… the last real successful run was actually on April 19th. Phew!

I figured the best thing to do would be to just stick with a 3-miler, get back on track and all that fun stuff. Knowing it was just a 3-miler, and with the Marine Corps Marathon training program starting up again on Saturday, I know that in the back of my head I had AIDS Marathon’s training program and its kick off time trials bouncing around. One of the pace groups I’d been eyeing this year is the 9:30 group, which means finishing the 3-miler at under an 8:30 pace and doing so in a comfortable manner. (It’s that last part that’s the kicker. Right now my 5K PR is a 28:23, or an 8:31min/mile pace. I’d like to pick up a new PR at a 5K this Sunday, but we’ll see.) But anyway, it was definitely rattling around in my brain when I headed out.

The first two miles were pretty comfortable; I was surprised at the times I picked up (8:23, 8:28)… so in retrospect what should’ve NOT been a surprise was that I felt like crap for the third mile. Definitely running out of steam, the whole nine yards of “I’m pooped”. With it came a noticeable decrease for the final mile (8:53) which landed me at an 8:35min/mile pace. And I really felt like crap when I was done; I actually walked over to a bench and sat down for a minute or two when it was over because I was at empty.

What does this say? Well, that I’ll probably not be in the 9:30 group this year. Don’t get me wrong, I can run a comfortable 9:30min/mile pace for a good distance right now (the National Half Marathon and the Cherry Blossom 10-miler this year both said that to me) but… I’ve also always said that ultimately I need to land in the group that the training program puts me in. If everyone else in the 9:30 group did a comfortable 3-miler at a speed that I can’t, I probably shouldn’t be there. But, we’ll see. A lot can certainly change in a month, and I do need to remind myself that this was the first post-sick run I had. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m not giving up hope but I’m also not setting myself up for disappointment.

And hey, if I am in the 10:00 group, that’s still pretty rocking good. 🙂

Start time: 04/24/06, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:45min/mile

So. The idea was to run four miles by myself today; I’d missed running on Saturday because I’d started to come down with a cold, but I decided that it was more or less gone and I could hit the trail after work. It was a quarter mile out on the trail that I discovered the new headphones I’d bought for running… well, they stunk. To the point that I threw them in a trashcan rather than even try to keep using them. Back to the earbuds, I guess, despite how much I don’t like them either. (They always feel like they’re about to fall out.)

My first half-mile was a little fast (4:00), but after that I settled into a good pace for the next two miles worth of halves (4:19, 4:20, 4:18, 4:23) and I had a mile and a half to go. It was at mile 2.75 that everything fell apart. I’d thought on the previous half mile that I was starting to drag, but the split only had me about 3 seconds off so I figured it was just my mind playing tricks on me.) Suddenly and with no warning, though, I started feeling light-headed and dizzy. For a couple of seconds I actually thought, “I’ll just run to the mile marker and then I’ll stop, it’s only two minutes away.” Within another couple of steps, though, I knew that wasn’t happening. I stepped off the trail and walked for about forty-five seconds to try and catch my breath, then jogged the last bit to the marker and stopped entirely (4:57).

And so, I walked the last mile back to my car. Slowly. I felt stupid for having gone out running in the first place when I was just getting over a cold, and doubly stupid for not having the good sense to at least plot a route where I would’ve gone out less distance and then just repeated it, in case something like this happened. More importantly, I just felt like my ass had been kicked all over the place. My stomach was a little queasy, and as I trudged back to the car in my own personal humiliation, I prayed I wouldn’t see anyone I know. (No such luck. Madelyn’s husband Don had been out jogging and I’d passed him on the way out, and sure enough he passed me as I walked that very long mile back.)

Well, I guess I know what I’m not doing on Wednesday.

Start time: 04/19/06, 6:15pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 10:14min/mile

On Tuesday after work, I went to Target to get some shopping done… and finally get a new battery in the watch half of grok‘s old Timex Ironman Speed & Distance GPS. Except they were A) out of the battery at the jeweler’s counter, and B) didn’t seem terribly thrilled about the idea of exchanging it even if I got a battery from the electronics department and brought it over. So, undeterred, I went to the mall on my lunch break today to get the battery switched out. The woman took a small eternity, first continually dropping one of the screws and then unable for quite some time to get the watch strap on. When I finally got the watch? The strap still wasn’t actually attached properly, but I managed to fix it with the help of a ballpoint pen.

So after all of that? Despite downloading the manual and reading it carefully I still couldn’t get it to do what I wanted to—namely to beep at me every mile. *sigh* I need to keep working on this.

Oh, today’s run? Almost identical to last week’s run (9:54, 9:48, 10:43, 10:27). Creepy. jabulous is an amazingly consistent running partner!

Start time: 04/17/06, 8:00pm
Location: Arlington Boulevard Trail
Distance: 2 miles
Average pace: 8:43min/mile

So the original plan was that I’d go running this morning when I got home from Pennsylvania, then head into work after lunch. What actually happened, though, was that I got home later than anticipated due to a number of reasons, and the temperature had dropped to 45 degrees and raining. Brrrr. So, very tired from getting up early (in fact, earlier than necessary based on the other people I was driving home and their general poking around) and then driving all the way back, I figured I wouldn’t run at all. Then two things changed my mind.

The first was that it not only stopped raining in the afternoon, but the temperature began to rise. I was walking over to pick up dinner (having no energy to cook, I’d decided) and was marvelling over how it was now 60 degrees at 7:30pm and what a great evening it was turning out to be… and then I saw him. The Perfect Runner. Seriously, folks, there’s no other way to describe him. It was a guy out for an evening run in a sleeveless white running shirt and black shorts, and an absolutely perfect body. And as he effortlessly glided by (and I tried not to trip over my own feet as I stared in awe), I suddenly felt fat and lazy and lame.

So I went home, put my dinner aside on the counter, and got dressed to go running.

Except, of course, I was still tired. So while I had 2-, 3-, and 4-mile routes mapped out, as I finished up the first mile I was already starting to feel seriously pooped. And by the time I got back to my starting point (at which point I could’ve gone out for a third or fourth mile) I was ready to drop. Good intentions and inspiration can only take you so far when you’re just plain wiped out. So I decided two miles was better than nothing and stopped. (8:15, 9:10) Now at first I was feeling a little less than thrilled, both in terms of pooping out after just two miles, as well as having a less than spectacular second mile. Then I remembered that I used to run 2-milers for my weekday runs back in 2001, only I would finish each mile in (yikes) 16:30. And I’d just run two in 17:25, and without needing to stop and walk. So while it wasn’t my best day, it was still good. And now I’m really quite happy with that indeed.

I have really got to remember to get a new battery for the watch half of the GPS unit tomorrow, though.

Start time: 04/15/06, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

I went out running with last year’s training group on Saturday (the day before Easter, thus the thoroughly unwitty subject for this entry); it was a large group, with me, Julie, Ali, Alma, Carla, Craig, Katie, Mark, Randy, and Craig’s brothers Jeff and Scott. We headed out slow, and halfway through mile two we had several people hit a bathroom break, so we were off to a slow start. (12:09, 12:24) Before long we got our groove, and miles 3-6 involved a bunch of speeding up by the group. (11:04, 11:27, 10:42, 10:30) The group had started to stretch apart around the end of that stretch, though, and around mile 6.5 there was a sudden shuffle at the front and Katie was about 75 feet ahead of everyone else while the people she was running with had suddenly started dropping back quickly. I had been content to stay with the main part of the group (for me the run was as much social as it was exercise since aside from Julie I won’t be training with any of them this year) so Jeff and I ran ahead and caught her and took the last part of it in. (10:17, 9:19)

What can I say, Katie’s fast. It still amazes me to this day that she did not utterly crush me at the marathon (like she did at the Cherry Blossom 10-miler). I’m just happy that half of the time I can keep up with her, or alternately that she humors me by letting me think so!

Start time: 04/12/06, 6:15pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 10:14min/mile

No run for me on Monday or Tuesday, alas. After Sunday’s run I felt good… up until the part where we sat down and had lunch. When I stood back up my left calf muscle was all cramped up and sore. I took it easy for the next two days and used The Stick on it a lot, and on Wednesday all seemed good enough to run again. Julie kicked out a faster-than-normal second mile (9:55, 9:49, 10:44, 10:25), which was a little entertaining because the second we did all I could think was that mile 3 would be longer as a result. (Normally we hit the second mile marker about 10-15 seconds into a walk break. Hitting the marker before the walk break began meant that we had two full walk breaks waiting for us in dreaded mile 3.) It was a nice run, though, and it felt good to get back out there. I was going to report that my calf is completely back to normal but about half an hour it mysteriously was sore again. Although now it’s not. Huh.

Since I’m going to be away on Saturday and Sunday I was thinking that I might just plan on running Friday and Monday mornings, but we’ll see what my legs are saying to me later tonight and tomorrow morning. If more rest is required, so be it!