Monthly Archives: July 2003

Running: 5 miles

Start time: 7/29/03 and 7/31/03, 5:45pm
Location: Local neighborhood
Activity: Running
Distance: 2.5 miles & 2.5 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Average pace: 13:12min/mile & 13:30min/mile

Oops! Clearly this is what happens when you get out of the habit of doing your maintenance runs during the week—you forget to post the updates! Both days I had people I had to meet that evening (and had decided to sleep in), so I did the short loops and just two and a half miles. Tuesday’s run was near perfect; I felt really great at the end of the run and ready to do more. (If I wasn’t already a little late I would’ve probably done at least another half mile, maybe a full mile more. Ah well.) Today’s was good, and I’m feeling pretty confident about Saturday’s run now.

Running: 8 miles

Start time: 7/26/03, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Activity: Running
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1

Well, it’s been two weeks since the last report, and you’d think I’d have a lot to say. Nope, not really. Went to San Diego, probably walked about 40 miles (minimum) in the five days I was there, but didn’t do a lick of running. Nor when I got home. So it had been two weeks since I’d gone running (a 7-mile recovery run) when I got up this morning for the 8-miler.

We had a pretty small group; Julie was there but just water volunteering to let her knee rest from last week, and a bunch of other group members were also MIA (Madelyn, Michelle, Asha, Dave, John… you get the idea). So it was just six of us that headed out for this week’s run. The temperature was pretty hot, but not unbearably so. We went down to five members pretty quickly since one group member was still getting back up to speed from an IT-band injury, and Mary decided to drop back to a slightly slower group for the rest of the run.

The remaining five of us hoofed it pretty well, though. After about half of the run one of my leg muscles felt a little stiff (from non-use) so I made sure I didn’t push it too hard. I happily Scott and Beth take the lead and they blazed a good trail for me, Lisa, and Lindsay to follow. By the last quarter mile I was feeling beat enough that the final hill was too daunting to run up, so I walked it instead, but other than that had a strong-enough finish for my books considering I’d been a real slacker.

Next week will be concentrating on getting back up to speed (where has my drive gone this year?) and preparing for the 18-miler. Woohoo! In the meantime, check out the newly-updated pictures section of the website and enjoy!

Running: 7 miles

Start time: 7/12/03, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Activity: Running
Distance: 7 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:2

Another recovery run, another short week to report—aside from big thanks to Derek Barnes for helping support my fundraising this year!

After my uncomfortable 14-miler last week I took it pretty easy this week. I was watching my parents’s dog all of this week, so he was at least going for a very short walk every day, but otherwise I have to admit it was spent with me sitting on my butt a lot. The run site on Saturday was pretty deserted; I think some people are taking these short “recovery” runs for granted. We only had five people in our group, but Julie and I were the only ones in good shape. John was recovering from his fall two weeks ago, Lindsay just had some soreness issues that were being worked out, and visiting from another group was Lisa who is having what’s called IT Band Syndrome. I think our group should’ve been renamed “walking wounded” this week!

We ended up going a little slower in deference to the rest of the group, but John and Lindsay decided that discretion is the better part of valor (which it is) and after the first three miles decided they would just walk another two miles and call it a day. Julie and Lisa and I pushed on, and while a coach recommended that Lisa call it quits early, she pushed her way through with us.

Next Saturday I’ll be out of town (in the first three weeks of July I will actually have been at home for all of five days!); I’m tenatively going to try and make up the missed 16-miler that following Tuesday, but a lot will depend on how I’m feeling that morning. (If I do try and make it up, I’ll be doing half in the morning and half in the evening, which my coach last year swore works just fine.) If not, I’ll play it by ear. I’m good at that.

Running: 14 miles

Start time: 7/5/03, 6:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Activity: Running
Distance: 14 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1 (and then 3:2, and then 2:2. Yeesh!)
Average pace: hahahahahahahahaha

Big thanks this week go out to S.L. Viehl, who is my latest sponsor. Thank you so much!

Welcome to Washington DC, home of the world of humidity and heat. That’s perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but it doesn’t feel like much of one. This weekend has been unbearably hot; which made me look forward to being able to start at 6am this Saturday for our 14-mile run.

Except, of course, even at 6am it was still really hot. I have to remind myself that the actual day of the marathon (at the end of October) will be much cooler and more pleasant to run in, because otherwise the thought of doing it would be discouraging at best. We had a small group this week, what with yesterday being Independence Day and all, so just five of us headed out to have a practice run that would be just over half a marathon.

The first six miles went pretty well, but it was right around then that we lost all of our shade and things started heating up in more ways than one. Some of us were dragging more than others, and around the 8.5 mile point, we’d already shifted our running pace down a bit in an effort to keep from going splat. We lost Madelyn about three quarters of a mile later, though, who decided that she was going to catch a group behind us and come in at a slower pace. I’m wondering if I should have done the same, because by the time we hit our second turn around (10 miles in), I was starting to really drag. Nothing was hurting, thank goodness; I was just feeling extraordinarily tired. I kept pushing for two more miles, and then we changed our running ratio again, which kept me going for another mile. With one mile to go, I told my group to just go on and I was going to walk it in.

I’ve heard more stories about “hitting the wall” than I can count, but I don’t think I’d ever actually done so until today. I’ve had a handful of bad running experiences where I felt run-down and needed to slow down a bit, but this was different; this was “I’m going to walk because I can’t run”. So that’s what I did. I stuck my face in a water fountain about half a mile into that last stretch, and it felt absolutely heavenly. Towards the very end of that final mile, I even ran a small stretch just to try and boost my spirits up, because they were pretty low. But all in all, it was a pretty downbeat experience.

In two weeks I’m going to be missing the 16-miler due to being out of town, but hadn’t planned on making it up. Now I’m trying to come up with alternate plans to do so because after such a dreadful 14-miler, the last thing I want to do is have a bad 18-miler as well. Ugh.

Oh well. The last time I had a running session this bad, the next long run went perfectly, so here’s hoping history repeats itself! (And cooler weather, while we’re at it. That would be nice.)

Running: 2 miles

Start time: 7/3/03, 9:00pm
Location: Parents’s treadmill
Activity: Running
Distance: 2 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 3:1
Average pace: 13:00min/mile

So, starting today I’m watching my parents’s dog while they’re on vacation for the next week and a half. I figured after tonight’s “Amazing Race” I’d go running. It’s a safe neighborhood, I’ve got no fears with running late at night through it.

I forgot to pack shorts. Oops.

Oh well, it’s not like the dog will care that I’m running on the treadmill in my boxer briefs. (I really loathe running on the treadmill, though. Decided two miles was more than enough under the circumstances.

Running: 1.5 miles

Start time: 7/1/03, 7:30pm

Location: Local neighborhood

Activity: Running

Distance: 1.5 miles

Run:Walk ratio: 3:1

Average pace: 13:00min/mile

Nothing cuts a planned 3-miler in half quicker (or speeds up that home stretch) than a potty emergency. Oh well.