28 more minutes of hell

0, 04mi, hell

Start Time: 7/15/08, 6:45am
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center Half Mile Loop
Distance: 2 miles & ~2.85 miles
Average Pace: 9:46min/mile & ~9:49min/mile
Total Miles For July: 41 miles

It had been a while since I’d run “28 minutes of hell” so I gave it another stab this morning. It was actually kind of nice out at first (only 70 degrees) but just like yesterday morning’s trip to the gym (rowing and elliptical), I was yawning before I even began. I ran Sunday’s half-mile loop for the course, since it meant I didn’t have to dodge traffic at all. That’s a good thing. Part of me wished I’d pushed it up to the “48 minutes of hell” workout (where it’s 3min, 2min, 1min for the splits) but who am I kidding, I wasn’t up for that just yet. Maybe next week.

All-in-all, not bad. I’d like to push a little harder next time; I should’ve (even with 14 of those 28 minutes being walking) gotten a full 3 miles in. Ah well. As an added bonus, a lot of runners there this morning. It was nice to not be running where the only company is traffic whizzing by and people walking to work (hello, Arlington Boulevard Trail).

warm-up & cool-down: 10:13 & 9:19

Doing Things By Half

0, 05mi, meter repeats

Start Time: 7/13/08, 11:00am
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center Half Mile Loop
Distance: 2 miles & 3 miles
Average Pace: 9:43min/mile & 7:44min/mile
Total Miles For July: 36.5 miles

Ok! On Sunday I vowed that I’d get back into my full running schedule (since Saturday’s run went well-enough). The schedule had a quarter-mile repeat workout, but I didn’t feel like going to Washington-Lee to use their track. So instead I picked the next one on the list, which was the half-mile repeats, and headed over to TJ since I’d recently discovered they have a half-mile loop on their grounds: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2080706

What’s nice about that loop is that about half of it is shaded, so when the sun is bright, you aren’t constantly in it. The schedule said to run 10 half-mile repeats, but I accidentally slept in a little too much and the heat had gotten up to the point where I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to hit that. So I ran my mile warm-up, then decided that I’d keep running them until I hit 4:05 or slower… which turned out to be 6 of them. Considering after the second one I wanted to pack it in, I was happy.

It was blazes hot out, and one odd thing? When I got there at 11am the loop only had a couple of runners. When I left at noon? Right around then, a whole bunch of runners (and they weren’t in a group so far as I could tell) had shown up. As stupid as I felt for starting at 11am, starting when it was even hotter seemed rather insane.

warm-up: 9:35
half-miles: 3:41, 3:47, 3:52, 3:50, 3:59, 4:05
cool-down: 9:52

Out of the Woods?

0, 12mi

Start Time: 7/12/08, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 12 miles
Average Pace: 9:30min/mile
Total Miles For July: 31.5 miles

Well, after missing my planned runs on Wednesday and Thursday (just wasn’t feeling well, alas), Saturday morning I was back out there, and I’ll admit a little worried on if the nasal steroid was really going to help or not. Thankfully, it seemed to; my nose was definitely not as bad as the last few times and I had an easier time with my breathing. Still wasn’t at 100%, but it was a real improvement.

Laura’d had a couple of weeks off of so we decided to take it easy and stick together, letting Paul and Donna zoom off. Our first four miles were really consistent, right around a 9:30 pace. The fifth mile dropped a bit, and that was around the point that Laura decided she was going to just run 9 miles today. So, we stuck together until mile 7, at which point she turned around to run two miles back, and I kept going. It was also around there that we saw Paul coming back, which seemed a bit off (was he really 3 miles ahead of us?) and it turned out that he’d turned around too early on the second leg of the course. (Start at marker 5, run to marker 2.5, turn around and run to marker 8.5, then back to marker 5.) He went to get some water, and I kept heading on, picking up the pace a bit, although the mile after that was the return of the Hill of Doom, which meant slowing down a bit.

It was around there that Paul caught me, and we ran the rest back together, although after mile 10 I decided to slow down a bit, and offered to head back by myself but Paul said he was running out of fuel too.

Not a great run in terms of, “Wow, I was really flying” but it was good in that I did the whole thing with no issues. What a relief to be, perhaps, out of the woods.

(9:32, 9:29, 9:26, 9:34, 9:55, 9:49, 10:05, 9:08, 9:31, 8:45, 9:20, 9:24)

New Route, New Breathing?

0, 05mi

Start Time: 7/8/08, 7:00am
Location: Arlington (Clarendon, VA Square, Ballston, Bluemont Park)
Distance: 5.6 miles
Average Pace: 8:43min/mile
Total Miles For July: 19.5 miles

I had my doctor’s appointment on Monday and I’ve been given a nasal steroid to see if that helps matters. I’ve also got some more tests scheduled for next Tuesday, and a follow-up appointment the Tuesday after that. In the meantime, though, I can feel my belly getting more and more huge with each passing moment, so off for a run I went. I changed up my normal “run down Wilson Boulevard” route a tiny bit; I started on 10th Street (less people but also less traffic to worry about) and took it to Wilson Boulevard, and then once I got to George Mason Boulevard instead of sticking on Wilson, I finally took the mystery trail that I was pretty sure would eventually take me into Bluemont Park and the W&OD Trail.

I’d glanced on a map last night and was thinking if I did that route, it would be about 5 miles. So, I strapped on the Garmin and headed out. The run itself went not too bad; it definitely heated up a lot in the time I was out there, but nothing energy-sapping. The Garmin went fairly berserk, though; I’m pretty sure that neither of my mile splits were in the 7- or 11-minute range. When I got home I mapped the route out on the Gmap Pedometer and it turned out the actual distance was 5.6 miles. A nice surprise! That averaged out to an 8:43, and I am just fine with that. Breathing wasn’t too bad, although I’m not sure if that was placebo effect or not. I know the packaging said it will take about 10 days of regular use to get the full effects, so we shall see.

Try (Not) To Breathe

0, 05mi

Start Time: 7/5/08, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 5 miles
Average Pace: 8:52min/mile
Total Miles For July: 14 miles

Well, I’m glad I have a doctor’s appointment for Monday morning. Just like last Saturday, I was having real problems catching my breath while I was out running. Is it allergies? Exercise-induced asthma? Something entirely different? I have no idea, but fortunately I’m not not the doctor. Really, really frustrating, though. It sucked to stop after 5 miles (it was supposed to be 10) but I did the right thing. Maybe I could have toughed the rest out, but I might have just as easily gone splat. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, to use an old chestnut. (8:45, 8:45, 8:51, 9:06, 8:52)

Getting Back into the Groove?

0, 04mi, 05mi

Start Time: 7/1/08, 5:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Average Pace: 8:37min/mile
Total Miles For July: 4 miles

Start Time: 7/3/08, 5:00pm
Location: Clarendon, Virginia Square, Ballston
Distance: 5 miles
Average Pace: 8:54min/mile
Total Miles For July: 9 miles

Last of the catching-up posts, honest! I’ll try and be better about this so it isn’t a flood of posts again.

Tuesday my original plan was to run 3 x 2miles at a fast pace, plus a mile warm up and another cooldown. I was tired before I even began, though, and halfway through the warm-up I knew that it just wasn’t going to happen. So, instead, I just turned it into a 4-mile progressive run, and that went a-ok. (9:02, 8:52, 8:32, 8:02)

On Thursday I was thinking about running a 6-miler, but I’d forgotten that it was extremely hot out. (I know, a whiny trend. I need to get better about the heat this year.) Still, I would have been all right had I not realized around mile 3 that I was already almost out of water. Whoops. Where’s a lemonade stand where you need it? I ended up truncating to five miles with a parched mouth and an empty water bottle for the last three quarters of a mile. I really should plan this a bit better. Still, not a bad run; my goal was just a 9:30min/mile pace as I ran through Arlington, and my splits were distinctly less, even with me halfway through mile 3 deliberately trying to slow down. (8:48, 8:46, 8:57, 9:01, 8:56)

Too Darn Hot, plus Treadmill Fiasco

0, 03mi, treadmill

Start Time: 6/28/08, 7:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Average Pace: 8:00min/mile
Total Miles For June: 57 miles

Start Time: 6/29/08, 7:00am
Location: Washington, DC
Distance: 3 miles
Average Pace: 9:00min/mile
Total Miles For June: 60 miles

Ugh! Saturday was a dreadful day to be running; already in the high 80s by 7am, and even worse it was so humid it was like breathing water. We had our 3-mile time trial, and it went really badly for me, there no way around it. I completely bonked on the last mile, and I felt so congested and hard to breathe that I actually have a doctor’s appointment about it on July 7th. Hmph.

On Sunday I was going to run a few miles on the treadmill at Charlie’s place, because it was still really darn hot out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the air conditioning unit to work properly (argh) and it was so stiflingly hot I gave up after three miles. Ah well!

On the Road

0, 05mi, 06mi, travel, treadmill

Start Time: 6/24/08, 5:00pm
Location: Long Beach, CA
Distance: 5 miles
Average Pace: 8:57min/mile
Total Miles For June: 48 miles

Start Time: 6/26/08, 8:00am
Location: Long Beach, CA
Distance: 6 miles
Average Pace: 8:44min/mile
Total Miles For June: 54 miles

I was in Long Beach last week for a business trip, and while Long Beach is lovely (in places), the part I was in… not so much. So I ended up sticking with the treadmills, both times doing a progressive run where I just slowly pushed up the speed over time. A nice time, all in all. Not terribly scenic, but there you go.

New Parks and Trails

0, 09mi, trail

Start Time: 6/21/08, 7:00am
Location: Arlington, Washington DC
Distance: 9 miles
Average Pace: 10:00min/mile
Total Miles For June: 43 miles

Catching up, here! Emma, Donna, Laura, and I ran a route that Emma mapped out on Saturday; we started at Iwo Jima, headed into Georgetown and then through Glover Archibold Park. This part was a lot of trail running, which slowed us down a great deal because huge storms had knocked branches and (at one point) an entire tree onto the trail. Fortunately we were able to crawl over the tree, and we continued, but it was certainly quite interesting. Eventually we exited near the Cathedral, then headed back through Mass Ave, Rock Creek, and then Memorial Bridge. Laura was slowing down a bit towards the end, and I hung back with her—it had been a while since either of us had run a 9-miler.

Out and About

0, 07mi

Start Time: 6/15/08, 8:00am
Location: Arlington, Washington DC
Distance: 7.5 miles
Average Pace: 10:08min/mile
Total Miles For June: 34 miles

Laura and I met up with Emma, Donna, Susannah, and someonewhosenameIcan’tremember for a planned 8-miler (or so) on Sunday. It was a group of varying speeds, so we decided we’d just take it easy. We had a walk break request, so on each mile we took a minute walk break and then trucked on. It was nice—we started at Iwo Jima, ran past Memorial Bridge down the 14th Street Bridge, then around a slice of the Tidal Basin and by the Lincoln Memorial before heading up into Georgetown, onto part of the Capital Crescent Trail, then over Key Bridge and through Rosslyn. Donna, Susannah, and the other person (sorry!) slowed down after a bit, but Laura, Emma, and I trucked through to the end. It all went really well…

…well, until we hit Rosslyn and Laura tripped on the curb and wiped out pretty spectacularly. From the sound of the thud, Emma and I were convinced she’d broken something, but thankfully it was just a scrape. Still, that was the end of the run for that day! Otherwise, though, it was a nice run with good company.