Category Archives: 05mi

Groove 1, Greg 0

0, 05mi, 08k, pr, race, rightfoot

Start time: 03/12/06, 9:00am
Location: Washington DC
Distance: 8 kilometers (4.97 miles)
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 8:58min/mile

Today was one of those “glad it’s over” sort of races, but for no real definable reason other than “I never found my groove.” (Paging Stella.) It didn’t go badly, don’t get me wrong… but I just never really felt into it. I was a little tired before we even began (and darn it, I was in bed last night at a reasonable hour), and that’s never a good sign.

The course was crowded but full of eager runners, but it was crowded enough that I never saw the first two mile markers. (Julie said she never saw them either, but could hear other people seeing them.) I really wasn’t sure at what pace I was really moving, and good ol’ self-doubt showed up several times in those first three miles. This was also only the second race I’ve ever run entirely by myself (the other being the Worst Organized Race Ever), which was a strange feeling. I know, most people have the reverse, but it’s what you’re used to.

Anyway, I hit mile marker 3 at 27:05, which meant that I’d been averaging 9min/miles for the first three. That’s good. Unfortunately, I was also starting to lose some steam when that’s when I wanted to begin to pick it up a bit. That groove was nowhere to be seen as I hit marker 4 in 9:32. Hmph. I buckled down at that point, threw out the last scheduled walk break, and tried to just keep moving forward. The final two-block stretch of the race was me playing my “I’m going to beat… you!” game where I picked a runner up ahead (in this case a tall leggy guy with a bright orange shirt) and made it my mission to pass the object of my determination. It worked well, and I finished the last mile (well really the last 0.97 miles… stupid 8Ks…) in 7:57, for a finishing time of 44:35. I’d say “and I got a PR!” but really, since it was my first 8K just finishing is a PR. But it was an 8:58min/mile pace, which was faster than my last 10K pace and that was the important thing.

Julie did well too; she lost a couple of minutes when someone in front of her wiped out hard and she helped him up and over to the sidewalk and then gave him some Advil before police finally came over to assist. She’s far nicer than I. Even with that delay her finishing time was a 55:12, which is very respectable indeed.

Oh yeah; once again, right foot going slightly numb around mile 3. I’m thinking more and more that my shoes shrunk slightly after getting washed from the Mud Extravaganza last month and that getting new shoes will nip this in the bud. Sometime this week, Metro Run & Walk will be very happy to see me.

And now that I’ve gotten home, scrubbed out the fish tank, put in some new water, and emptied the trash… time for a shower. The best part, by far, about a race is the post-run shower. Ahhhhhhhh.

Running away from home

0, 05mi, travel

Start time: 03/04/06, 9:00am
Location: Yulee, FL
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 9:45min/mile

I managed to leave one or two things at home before coming down to Yulee, Florida–and naturally, one of them was the GPS unit so I could track my running, and my parents’s home is new enough that it’s not on Google Maps. Oh well. I’m putting in my best estimate until I can determine otherwise; it may’ve been a little faster but I think that a 5-mile, 9:45min/mile pace is a safe bet. It was nice to just get outside and run by myself or a while.

(Three people waved hello, one confederate-flag sticker on a car, two people who gawked, one other runner.)

Three, three, three updates in one!

0, 04mi, 05mi, 06mi

Start time: 12/22/05, 6:00pm
Location: Custis Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:13min/mile

Start time: 12/24/05, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 6 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:55min/mile

Start time: 12/27/05, 6:00pm
Location: Custis Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:25min/mile

Oops! I’ve been a little remiss in updating here. The only big news is that the Custis Trail is hilly. Very very hilly. Julie and I have continued to run on it for our weekday runs and we pushed through an additional mile on Monday… yep, more hills. It never looked that hilly from my glimpses of it as I drove by along I-66, but perhaps that’s because my attention was better focused on, oh, the road.

Perhaps the biggest sign of its hills is the difference in our pace between running on the Custis Trail versus the W&OD Trail. Julie has moved that Custis is now called “The Billy Goat Trail” and I’m all for that. Hopefully I’ll get to go running on Saturday because I think I’m going to unavoidably miss running between now and then due to other commitments. One final run before the end of the year sounds good, though.

Rolling Hills and Prickly Feet

0, 05mi, leftfoot

Start time: 11/16/05, 7:50am
Location: Arlington Boulevard Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 9:53min/mile

I finally forced myself to get up early on a weekday and go running. Sure, I do it on the weekends all the time, but the last time on a weekday where I went running before work rather than after? Apparently March 22nd, 2005… which is also noted as the only time in 2005 up until that point where I’d run before work instead of after. Yeesh.

I decided to give the Arlington Boulevard Trail a try since it was actually daylight; I don’t know how well lit it is at night and wanted my first experience to be one that I could walk away from. Well, I’ve driven up and down Route 50 may times before but it seems the one thing I never noticed is that it’s full of rolling hills, or at least in the portion between 10th Street and Hudson Street. On the whole it went well; the on- and off-ramps for Washington Street didn’t get me killed like I feared, and running back and forth twice on a 1.25-mile stretch that I’d mapped out felt almost like old times. (Even down to segment #2 being the slowest: 11:56, 12:37, 12:31, 12:18.)

I actually had two concerns while out there. The first is a minor one: I need new headphones. My old running headphonese broke months ago and while I’ve been trying to give those earbuds that all my iPods come with a whirl, they just don’t stay in very well. Hopefully a stroll up to Myer Emco will fix that. The second one was a little worrying; around mile 3 it felt like my left foot was on the verge of falling asleep. This is a problem I actually had back in 2002, where it was determined that I have several blood vessels clustered around a nerve in my left foot and when I ran they were expanding and pinching the nerve. The solution turned out to be wearing wider shoes so there was a little more room for my foot in there. Hopefully this was just because I wasn’t wearing thin-enough socks this morning, because the idea of wearing 4E shoes is a little terrifying. (Cue up the circus music.) Fingers crossed!

Oh, and Amy Ray’s “Blender” (from her second solo album Prom) is one of the all-time best running songs ever. Just thought everyone should know that.

600+

0, 05mi

Start time: 10/17/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:30min/mile

Start time: 10/19/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 9:59min/mile

Monday and Wednesday were both without Julie, alas, who is still letting her broken pinkie toe heal as much as possible. Monday also had Mark with a mysteriously sore calf, so we made plans to turn around/stop early if necessary. Naturally, that never happened. On Wednesday, things seemed much better for his calf, and based on our finishing time (49:55 without really trying) I’d say so. This bodes very well for our plans to shift up to a 10min/mile for miles 11-20 of the marathon. It was a gorgeous day to boot, lots of people out on the trail, and I just felt like we could run for the rest of the day… well, aside from the fact that it was getting dark. This bodes really well for good running weather for the marathon itself.

More importantly, Wednesday’s run put me at 600.4 miles for the year. Yay! It’s pretty cool to hit that number without having even run the real marathon just yet.

Ouch?

0, 05mi

Start time: 10/12/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:19min/mile

I was originally going to try and run yesterday, but starting yesterday afternoon I got a mystery ache in my left foot on the top of it, right near the ankle. It’s odd because I would understand if it’d started first thing Tuesday because with the new bed and all I slept uncomfortably Monday night (not being used to the new height and such). But no, it started Tuesday afternoon. I’m starting to think that Julie dropped a concrete block on my foot when I wasn’t paying attention.

The ache continued into today, but I decided to go running anyway with the understanding that if it bothered me I would call it quits. Sometimes I get aches if I don’t run for a while and I was hoping that was it. So, Mark and I headed out into a chilly, overcast, always-threatening-to-rain sort of day. My original plan was to just take off my glasses before running in case it rained, but after about ten steps I decided Plan B was the new course of action and put on a hat instead. I wish I’d dug out my long-sleeve running shirts, it was a bit brisk out. Any doubts I had about buying a new running jacket from the MCM this year have been dashed; I was going to ask for one for Christmas but now I’m thinking I’ll want it before then and should just buy it myself.

Anyway, we talked some more about potential race plans; Mark’s going to run the Frederick Marathon again the last weekend of April, which is a real possibility. Alternately I might just stick with some shorter races and maybe a half marathon in there somewhere. It’s all still very nebulous and up in the air, to be honest. Adding to the confusion, I’d finally decided that crowds (with the 12,000 fastest runners in the first wave half an hour ahead of everyone else) probably wouldn’t be a problem so if weather cooperated (ha ha) I wouldn’t need the Philadelphia Marathon as a back-up plan… except it turns out when Julie kicked the ottoman on Tuesday of last week, she did indeed break her little toe. Whoops. The podiatrist said that she can still run MCM on the 30th if she doesn’t mind the pain. So now I’m thinking that Philadelphia may still end up being back on depending on how she’s feeling, because if it hurts too much at that point I’ll run Philadelphia with her (since it’s three weeks later and by then it should be entirely healed).

Decisions, decisions.

Oh yeah, the ache is now almost entirely gone so I’m hoping it was just having a whiny foot that wanted to go running. Pfft.

Zoom Zoom

0, 05mi

Start time: 10/05/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:05min/mile

“Let’s take it easy,” Mark and I decided. So then… what happened? Was it the cloudy skies blocking the sun and keeping the temperature down? The (accidentally, honest) matching blue UnderArmour shirts we were wearing? Our concentrating on proper form during miles 3-4? Us talking about the Boston Marathon? The really hot cyclist who tipped his helmet at us?

Ok, it wasn’t the matching shirts. I do think that the form definitely had a lot to do with it; our slowest mile was mile #2, but even it was a 10:30. For not trying hard, we’re both quite pleased because this really bodes well. Neither of us were even breathing terribly hard, although I once more had far too much sweat going into my eyes during the last half mile!

One thing I’ve been thinking about for next year is what pace group I’ll end up in. Right now I’m thinking that 9:30 or 10:00 (which means the 3-miler at an even pace of 8:30 or 9:00) is not only within reach, it’s a natural. I like that idea.

Back in the Saddle

0, 05mi

Start time: 10/03/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

Mark and I decided we were ready to get back into the saddle yesterday, so after a short stroll to warm up, we were off. “Let’s just get distance and not worry about time,” we said. “There’s no need to aim for 11min/miles.”

Ha ha ha ha ha. Our finishing time? 54:57. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten so on the dot closer to an 11min/mile average. Lots of chatting about books, future marathon plans, and this-and-that. (Splits: 11:24, 11:04, 11:14, 10:59, 10:14.) We certainly looked (and felt!) a little stiff at the beginning, but by the end we were definitely back in the groove.

Last run of the month

0, 05mi

Start time: 09/28/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:40min/mile

My next run is scheduled for October 1st, so this closes out September for me. It’s been that sort of month where I didn’t get nearly as many miles under my belt as I wanted (I missed a handful of maintenance runs) but it was due to outside circumstances more than laziness on my part, at least. Even then, the total for September is 76 miles, which is the same that I got for June… only in June my mileage kept going up while in September there was only one “long run” (the 23-miler) since the final long run is October 1st.

Oh, the run itself was fine. Waved hi to butchinson, chatted about Gilbert & Sullivan with Mark (I’m not a big fan of their works), marathon plans, and plans for next year. More on those when I have time, honest.

Same old, same old.

0, 05mi

Start time: 09/19/05, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

Just me and Mark today, hitting the maintenance runs again after skipping them for a week. Lots of people were out today, probably enjoying the slightly cooler temperatures while they can.

Nothing terribly exciting to report. Wednesday morning I am going to try and go running in the new neighborhood before work. We’ll see if I actually succeed, mind you.