Category Archives: 06mi

Make or Broken

0, 06mi

Start Time: 5/27/08, 7:00am
Location: Arlington Boulevard Trail
Distance: 2 miles & 4 miles
Average Pace: 10:01min/mile & 8:14min/mile
Total Miles For May: 46 miles

After my previous two make-or-break runs were mostly downhill, or on a flat track, I decided that I needed to be a little tougher. So, the plan was to run on the Arlington Boulevard Trail, where the first mile of the 2-mile repeats would be uphill (as well as the cooldown run), while the second mile of the 2-mile repeats (and the warm-up) would be downhill. And… oooooof. That kicked my butt, big time. Specifically, the uphills; I could just feel myself running out of energy. Each time. I’m glad I did it, though, now that it’s over. Clearly I need to add hills back into my running life. Here’s how the breakdowns ended up:

warm-up: 9:52
first 2-miler: 8:23, 7:48
second 2-miler: 8:47, 7:59
cool-down: 10:10

Beautiful Sunday

0, 06mi

Start Time: 5/25/08, 11:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 2 miles & 4 miles
Average Pace: 9:51min/mile & 8:23min/mile
Total Miles For May: 40 miles

Fred had warned us that yesterday’s run might leave us a little sore today. I wasn’t feeling too bad—my glutes are a little sore, but other than that I was feeling a-ok, which is good because the schedule has a run scheduled for today. I headed out onto the trail, which was clogged with fair-weather runners and cyclists, and did a warm-up mile (9:54) before picking the pace up a bit. It went well; I was a little tired towards the end, but I think I kept pace pretty good (8:35, 8:11, 8:22, 8:23). That said, I sure was glad I was only running 4 miles at that pace instead of 5 because I was a little bit tired. (Some leftover from yesterday afternoon/evening’s super-heavy tiredness?) I did my cool-down mile (9:48), stretched for a bit, and went home.

Make or Break, Track Edition

0, 06mi, indoor track

Start Time: 5/20/08, 4:00pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles & 4 miles
Average Pace: 9:52min/mile & 7:50min/mile
Total Miles For May: 31.5 miles

It was pouring on Tuesday when I woke up, so I decided to postpone my “Make or Break” run until after work. I actually ended up leaving a little early, but there were still dark clouds overhead. More rain? I decided not to chance it and instead ran on the indoor track (ho hum). It went well, though. 9:50 warm-up, then two good sets of 2-milers (7:56 & 7:55, 7:45 & 7:43), then a 9:54 cooldown. Of course, when I left? Not a cloud in the sky. Argh. I hope everyone else who enjoyed the good weather appreciated my sacrifice!

(No run on Thursday, I instead set up and used my Wii Fit for about 45 minutes. Fun!)

Up and Down Capitol Hill, Again

0, 06mi, 10k, pr, race, statistics

Capitol Hill Classic 10K
Start time: 5/18/08, 8:30am
Location: Washington DC
Distance: 6.2 miles
Finishing time: 52:30
Average pace: 8:28min/mile
Miles for May: 25.5

I missed the Capitol Hill Classic last year; I had an injury that had prevented me from running anything. So I had a lot to really prove for myself, because this was my first 10K since May 2006.

I made one small mistake this year; I ran into Emma early on and stuck with her until about mile 2.5. As Emma is normally faster than me, it meant I was starting to run out of gas. Fortunately I realized the error of my ways and slowed down a bit. It went well after that, aside from a misplaced Mile 4 marker that made me really wonder what the hell was going on, and running completely out of gas and walking for about 30 seconds up the long, steep, Capitol Hill. UGH. Not proud of that. But otherwise it went well, and I got to see a whole bunch of my old fellow AIDS Marathon staffers—Rick W, Rick C, Karen K, and Emma. Good times, good times, good times.

(8:19, 7:52, 8:14, 10:17, 7:11, 8:55, 1:33 for the .2. And yeah, that marker was definitely off for that fourth mile!)

And hey! Check out my age group placing!

2005: 315/386 (81st percentile) (30-39 group)
2006: 166/233 (71st percentile) (30-34 group)
2008: 98/192 (51st percentile) (35-39 group)

Make or Break?

0, 06mi

Start Time: 5/13/08, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 2 miles & 4 miles
Average Pace: 9:43min/mile & 7:55min/mile
Total Miles For May: 19.5 miles

Today is what Fred calls a “make or break” run; run a mile warm up, then run two sets of 2 miles at a good clip, then a mile cool down. So, off to the W&OD and its handy mile-markers, plus a lack of crossing any roads once I’m there. I had a good easy warm-up (10:08), then kicked it up a notch for two good miles (8:17, 7:47) for an average of an 8:02. I wasn’t entirely sure how long one should rest, so I decided that normally we walk around the track once and that takes about 4 minutes. Then it was back off again for two more good miles (7:39, 7:55) for a solid 7:47 average. Finally, the cool down on the way back went a little faster than planned (9:18); I just find it hard to slow back down if I still have some energy, even though I keep telling myself that I’m supposed to be taking it easier…

It was a little windy and cool at first, but it turned into a really beautiful run. I’d put this one in the “make” category. And now, for lunch, I undo all the good the run may have done with a trip to Elevation Burger. YUM.

End-of-Year Catching Up

0, 01mi, 02mi, 06mi, 08mi, explosive, indoor track, meter repeats, speedwork

Oops! Whole bunch of updates here.

Start Time: 12/13/07, 6:30pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 6 miles
Average Pace: 8:49min/mile

Start Time: 12/15/07, 8:00am
Location: Washington-Lee High School
Distance: 1 mile & 4x200m & 3x400m

Start Time: 12/17/07, 6:30pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles & 8x200m

Start Time: 12/22/07, 3:45pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 8 miles
Average Pace: 9:16min/mile

Start Time: 12/24/07, 9:30am
Location: Washington-Lee High School
Distance: 2 miles & 8x200m

Start Time: 12/25/07, 4:00pm
Location: Vienna, VA
Distance: 5.8 miles
Average Pace: 9:12min/mile

Continue reading End-of-Year Catching Up →

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Running

0, 05mi, 06mi, 11mi, tempo

Start time: 9/20/07, 7:30am
Location: Wilson Boulevard (Courthouse, Clarendon, Virginia Square, Ballston, Bluemont)
Distance: 6.25 miles
Average pace: 8:54min/mile

I was scheduled for an 11-miler today, so I mapped out a 6-mile run for the morning. The problem was, I’d never actually just run down Wilson Boulevard beyond the 1.5-mile mark. So while my route was great in theory, the reality? I had not realized there was a massive, massive, massive hill in mile 3. I mean, we’re talking so huge that when telling a friend where I’d run their response was, “Um, that’s really hilly” and they only drive that area. I actually ended up walking on that hill for about 30 seconds to catch my breath, which is really bad. Still, I picked it up on the way at the end, which was nice. (9:08, 8:49, 9:21, 8:54, 8:58, 8:35, and 1:48 for the quarter (an 8:03min/mile pace).)

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1332567

AnticipationStart time: 9/20/07, 7:15pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 8:34min/mile

What a beautiful evening it was tonight. Nice and cool, a gorgeous sunset for inspiration, and after a long day at work it felt good to blow off a little bit of steam. I figured the last two miles might slow down because the last two miles were uphill, but that wasn’t a problem this evening. One normal warm-up mile, then four that just went slightly faster and smoothly. Well, aside from no less than four bicyclists who were riding on the wrong side of the trail and almost ran me over. For two of them I felt the bike whiz by about a millimeter from me. Nice. (8:53, 8:28, 8:36, 8:31, 8:23.)

A graceful and easy tempo. Hurrah!

Old Familiar Territory

0, 06mi, tempo

Start time: 7/1/07, 8:00am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 6 miles
Average pace: 8:34min/mile

It’s been ages since I ran across the National Mall to the National Gallery and then back up to Georgetown, so that was a nice surprise this Sunday. We were supposed to run a tempo run for this 6-miler, so an 8:30pace was my approximate time I was shooting for. The group in front of us shot out of the gate really fast, and Zack and I made the mistake of trying to get around them. Oof. We hit our first mile way too fast and spent the rest of the run paying for it. The other four caught up to us around mile 2, and we were just a couple feet behind them until mile 4, at which point they made it across the light at 17th Street and Zack and I narrowly missed it. A solid minute later and then some… yeah, there’s no catching them at that point.

But a very, very nice run even though we were both more than a little wiped out at the end… but in a good way. I think.

Miami

0, 06mi, 07mi, 13mi

Start time: 1/6/07, 8:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 7 miles & 6.4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1 & 7:1
Average pace: 11:33min/mile & 9:37min/mile

Today I decided to run with mai_neh in his final training run for the Miami Half Marathon, a 14-miler. The first half of our run was with his two pace group members, who were training the full marathon so they were at a slower training pace. They were supposed to be running an 11:30min/mile, so we hit that really well. On the way back, with about mile and a quarter left to go I was starting to feel beat and I could tell that mai_neh was raring to go. Since I’m not training for a race and he was, when we hit 4th Street I told him to keep going, and hooked a right-hand turn to go directly back to home base. It lopped off just six-tenths of a mile, but it was nice to get back a little quicker and to be done. Since he finished up his last two miles at an 8:30min/mile average, I’d say I made the right decision to cut him free of my anchorness! 🙂 We saw Chris S. on the trail heading out as we were zooming back, which was fun, and it was nice to see all the other staff members as well. Good times, good times.