Start time: 06/25/05, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 12 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 4:1
Average pace: 12:10min/mile

Today was my first 12-miler at my new pace… well, sort of. Normally we wouldn’t have gotten to our “slowdown” distance (which starts at 16 miles), at which point we take the distance a little slower to make sure that everyone makes it to the end of the program injury free. With highs of 94 degrees predicted for today, though, the staff decided that it would be good to not kill everyone in a forced death march up and down the W&OD Trail. So, slowdown time. Instead of an 11min/mile (and a 5:1 run:walk ratio) we headed out the door at a 12min/mile (with a 4:1). So, still faster than I’d ever run a 12-mile distance before.

More importantly? Piece of cake. I felt great at the end, like I could’ve picked up another four or five miles easily. (If I actually could? Another story entirely, because you never know when suddenly wham, you’ve hit your limit.) Generally speaking, though, a really pleasant run.

Even better? All it takes is a 2.5 miler and I’ll pass the amount of milage I clocked for May, and more importantly I’ve broken the 300-miles mark for my distance run in 2005. (304.9 miles, to be exact. All those 5K and 10K races play havok with the decimal point.) Yay! Can’t wait to see when I hit 600 miles…

Start time: 6/21/03, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Activity: running
Distance: 12 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Average pace: 14:00min/mile

Woohoo! What a great week this was. I got some donations from the following fabulous people: lioncub (who even as I type this is participating in the Tour de Friends bike ride from North Carolina to Washington DC to raise money for people with AIDS!), West and Jim Flanagan, and Monica and Jim McGrath. All heroes!

Then, I actually got off my butt and ran both of my maintenance runs during the week (instead of just one of them like I’ve been doing as of late). On Tuesday this meant running through the rain, while on Thursday it was outrunning a storm front that was rolling in (hey, at least there were nice cool breezes!), but the miles were under my belt and I was ready for Saturday.

Saturday morning started without a cloud in the sky, but still nice and cool; a couple pace group members were actually shivering! It’s great running weather, though, and after last week’s really hot temperatures this was a real relief. The majority of our run actually went without incident, unless you count me stepping off the trail and twisting my ankle around Mile 4 to be an incident. I shouted “Ouch!” or perhaps a less-pleasant word, but everything seemed to be fine so we pushed on.

Ultimately, though, it was a world of difference from last week. Everyone felt strong, we kept hitting the times we should have, and while we sort of split into two groups for the last mile or so (sometimes it just happens, there was about 100 feet distance between the groups so it wasn’t that far) we all finished really strong. In short, a near-perfect run.

Why couldn’t they all be this easy?