Monthly Archives: January 2012

Up the Hill Again

Start time: 1/31/12, 5:48am
Location: National Mall, Capitol Hill
Distance: 6 miles
Average pace: 9:51min/mile
Total Miles For January: 84 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 84 miles
Current Shoes: 117 miles

Rounded out January with one more run up and down Capitol Hill. Also realized I forgot to reset things like my auto-lap function every mile on the Garmin, but it didn’t run out of power 45 minutes in and did what it was told to, so no complaints, right?

Ker-Zap

Start time: 1/28/12, 8:00am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 8.21 miles
Average pace: 10:21min/mile
Total Miles For January: 78 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 78 miles
Current Shoes: 111 miles

Another zap of the Garmin dying back on Saturday, but Steve gave me the overall distance and time from his watch. On the bright side, it is now fixed (or appears to be); the new firmware is in place, and after a couple of recharge cycles it appears to be back to normal.

Beats Me

Start time: 1/26/12, 5:46am
Location: National Mall
Distance: ~6.1 miles
Average pace: no idea
Total Miles For January: 70 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 70 miles
Current Shoes: 103 miles

Garmin battery died halfway through the run yesteday. Bah. Now having major issues with it getting recharged and following some advice from people on their forums (since this appears to be a known issue) but we shall see…

Bad Ice/Good Ice

Start time: 1/24/12, 5:46am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 6.25 miles
Average pace: 9:57min/mile
Total Miles For January: 64 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 64 miles
Current Shoes: 97 miles

Scrubbed Saturday’s run due to the ice/sleet, but happily it’s all gone now. Think I pulled a calf muscle today, though. Time for the good kind of ice.

Thursday Thursday

Start time: 1/19/12, 5:49am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 6.12 miles
Average pace: 10:57min/mile
Total Miles For January: 58 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 58 miles
Current Shoes: 91 miles

Another Tuesday run missed; this one because I was sick for Tuesday and Wednesday. Took it easy today just to play it safe (fortunately the bug appears to have passed), with just me and Ben out there. Winter sure is setting in now, too. Brrrr. Grabbed an extra layer in the form of a light jacket and I’m not sure I would have survived without it!

Not Worrying

Start time: 1/14/12, 8:00am
Location: National Mall, Foxhall Rd, Tenley Circle, Mass Ave, Mt. Vernon Trail
Distance: 18 miles
Average pace: 11:09min/mile
Total Miles For January: 52 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 52 miles
Current Shoes: 85 miles

Old Greg would have probably been trying to speed up a lot on this run, looking at his watch, and worried about mile splits.

New Greg, however, is not that concerned about finish times and more concerned about the enjoyment overall. Nothing wrong with Old Greg’s strategy (it’s a lot of fun to try and break your PR, and do really well, and so on; I respect people a great deal who are going for it and perhaps for another race I’ll re-embrace it) but at least for now, it’s not a high priority, or in fact much of a priority at all. Makes a big difference.

The run itself was good; Foxhall Road kicked my butt (it’s about a 400 foot climb over its length) but in a good way, and the company was nice. Rolled my ankle a tiny bit at mile 11 (oops) but it held up just fine for the rest of the run.

Also, it’s really cold out. Very glad I had that extra jacket on.

Generic Run

Start time: 1/12/12, 5:50am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 6.21 miles
Average pace: 9:56min/mile
Total Miles For January: 34 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 34 miles
Current Shoes: 67 miles

Back to New Mileage

Start time: 1/8/12, 7:00am
Location: National Mall, Capitol Hill, LeDroit Park, Rock Creek Park
Distance: 16 miles
Average pace: 10:30min/mile
Total Miles For January: 28 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 28 miles
Current Shoes: 61 miles

Well, it’s been a little over two years since I’ve run anything over 14 miles… so all things considered, not too bad. Took it nice and easy with Ben and Steve; we were supposed to meet some others 6 miles in but one cancelled due to sickness and the others were strangely a no-show.

But anyway, nothing out of the ordinary to report. Finished it off and now, in an hour or so (after making sure to move around for a bit longer), time for a nap. Best part so far.

Running + Old Ladies

Start time: 1/5/12, 5:48am
Location: National Mall, Capitol Hill
Distance: 6.31 miles
Average pace: 10:03min/mile
Total Miles For January: 12 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 12 miles
Current Shoes: 45 miles

Mostly an un-noteworthy run (well, we did add on Capitol Hill), except for the very end, but I detailed that elsewhere. (But in short, run came a tiny bit short to help a little old lady acros the street. And then some.)

Breezy New Year

Start time: 1/3/12, 5:48am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 6.24 miles
Average pace: 9:44min/mile
Total Miles For January: 6 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 6 miles
Current Shoes: 39 miles

Sadly, there is not an “easy” missing in the subject line here. Breezy this time equalled a very cold and bitter wind blowing towards the east. So half of our run was frigid, the other half actually wasn’t that bad. But even though after my run involved driving to the gym, changing clothes, and rowing for 45 minutes, I still had “cold red belly” syndrome when I was done. Brrrrr!