Start time: 3/18/07, 11:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles & 4 miles
Run:Walk Ratio: 6:1 & none
Average pace: 10:31min/mile & 9:18min/mile

One last long run before the half marathon on Saturday… I headed out down the W&OD Trail with Carla, MJ, and Randy for a nice four miles. They were pretty consistent, and thanks to running through their last walk break because of a bathroom stop at mile 4, a good final mile. (10:29, 10:49, 10:45, 9:58)

They were going to run 10 miles, so I turned around at that point and dropped the walk breaks for a slightly faster four miles back. It went ok, but I was running right into an amazingly strong headwind (my hat started lifting off several times!) and I started to feel like I was struggling the further I went. Hopefully it was a matter of the wind (or just not feeling the run) and not a bad omen for the race on Saturday. (9:05, 9:20, 9:25, 9:20)

Fingers crossed!

Start time: 3/15/07, 7:30pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Rec Center
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:21min/mile

It’s raining and the temperature is dropping significantly, so instead of going to Pacers I decided to head to the gym. I worked out for a bit on the weight machines with various upper body workouts (twice in one week? What is this world coming to?) and then decided to run 3 miles on the indoor track. The track is only an eighth of a mile, so my game plan was to hit my chrono every other lap and take quarter-mile splits home with me. This was about consistency, something I feel like I’ve lost in the last month and something I’d had back in 2005 thanks to speed workouts with Rick Weber. So, here’s how the three miler broke down:

Mile 1: 8:27 (2:03, 2:08, 2:09, 2:07)
Still finding my sea legs (so to speak). The big question would be what the next two miles were like, though.

Mile 2: 8:17 (2:05, 2:06, 2:01, 2:05)
A nice surprise; speeding up a bit but not feeling like I was going to collapse, and more importantly a lot more on the mark.

Mile 3: 8:19 (2:05, 2:04, 2:04, 2:06)
Really, really happy with this. Now we’re talking.

I may have to see if I can start incorporating this into my workouts again. I’ve missed it.

Start time: 3/13/07, 8:00am
Location: Clarendon, Court House, and Rosslyn
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 8:44min/mile

It’s been a while since I’ve run this route—up to Clarendon, down through Court House and Rosslyn all the way to the river, and then back up and around to home. Then again it’s also been a while since I’ve run in the morning on a weekday. I’m now thinking I need to find a new route that doesn’t involve me plunging down into Rosslyn; partially because I really loathe that hill coming back up, partially because that’s the hill I hurt myself on in May 2006. Maybe just keep going west past Clarendon into Virginia Square and Ballston? Oh, how I wish they’d finish construction on the bridge over Washington Boulevard so using the Arlington Boulevard Trail was possible again!

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=521173

Start time: 3/10/07, 9:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:53min/mile

So, the idea was to go run a quick 6-miler and call it a morning. I started an hour late, though, so I figured I’d have to play it all by ear. The first mile went fine (9:14) and I thought, “If I can keep this pace I’ll be good.” Well, halfway through mile 2 I ran into my 2004 pace group buddy Deborah, so I stopped and talked for about 10-15 seconds before heading on. “This second mile will be a little off,” I told myself. “No big deal.” Well, yeah… it clocked in at an 8:52. Wait a second… As I headed into mile 3 I was feeling tired and decided that it was time to slow down, and maybe even stop when I hit mile 3. (I’d planned on going a mile and a half out in each direction.) Well, the huffing and puffing was explained when I hit the marker at 8:29. Oops. No wonder I was feeling like I was going to keel over. I decided I’d run one more mile but deliberately try and slow down; that way I was at least out running for more than half an hour. It got finished up in an 8:54 (and my right foot was starting to fall asleep—tomorrow I’ll have to check and see if it’s time for new shoes!) and I called it a day.

Now, off to cut my hair, shave, and get ready for Julie’s wedding. Woohoo!

(I’d say she’d kill me for taking the time out to do this, but she won’t see this until afterwards.)

Start time: 3/3/07, 10:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 12 miles
Run:Walk ratio: none (miles 1-9), then 7:1 (10-12)
Average pace: 9:23min/mile

Apparently everyone decided to take advantage of the nice weather today; I managed to see no less than four people I knew while out running. I saw Katie and Julie about 4.5 miles into the run as they were getting into their cars, Noel was coming around the bend a quarter mile later, and Laura D. from work was out riding her bicycle (with one of her daughters strapped in on the child seat) around mile 10. Fun!

Oh yeah, the run itself. I definitely went out of the gate too fast; it probably didn’t help that because of my roundabout route (start at marker 3.5, run to marker 2, turn around and run out to marker 8, then back to 3.5) the first mile and a half are a slight downhill grade, meaning that those got hit pretty quickly (8:58, 8:57). From there, things fell into a groove and I was pretty consistant through mile 6 (9:19, 9:10, 9:03, 9:15). Since the farthest in the past month I’ve run at this particular speed was 5.4 miles, it really shouldn’t be surprising that I then began to run out of gas. I pushed through three more miles (9:34, 9:39, 9:39) and then decided to see what would happen if I started adding in some walk breaks. I figured the first mile would go slower, but future miles would then benefit from the brief rest. Sure enough, the final three just about hit that pattern (9:56, 9:28, 9:36).

Had this been the actual half marathon? Well, if you added on another 1.1 miles and went with a pessimistic 10:00min/mile speed, that would’ve landed me a finishing time of 2:03. So still a PR, not a sub-2. I’m still mulling over various plans in my head for what to do for the race itself. If I can find someone to pace off of early on so I can save the fuel for the end, that might help. But alternately I can always just plan to shift into adding some walk breaks as need be for the second half. Either way, at this point I’m not concerned about hitting sub-2. Coming off of an injury a month ago, I’m delighted to hit the speed I am. (Still, looking back at the end of December’s 12-miler it’s easy to lament what might have been. Oh well.) Hopefully a PR is still in the stars, though!

Start time: 2/24/07, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 9 miles
Run:Walk Ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 11:00min/mile

Continuing my comeback from the injury, the plan was to run 10 miles with my old pace group. Their 11:00min/mile pace would be perfect for me to pick the distance back up again, and then in theory I’ll be set for giving the old college try at the National Half Marathon four weeks from now. Well, DC is still in parts covered in ice and snow. Specifically, running trails, as it turned out. I headed out with Ali, Carla, MJ, and Randy out by the Vienna Community Center. VCC is halfway between the 11 and 11.5 markers on the trail, so we walked to 11.5 and began our journey. Everything went great until somewhere around ~14.75 on the trail, at which point the path was completely covered in a never-ending sheet of ice and snow. Crap.

So, we turned around and decided we’d head back to the VCC, then go back out the other direction. This was a slight mistake (we should’ve just stuck with the portion of the trail that we knew was clear) but hindsight is always 20-20. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so we made it back to the VCC, dropped off Randy, and had just 3.5 more miles to go. So I figured we’d keep running and hit marker 11 and that would be 7 miles. Then we could turn around at marker 10, go back to 11, and be done, right?

Did I mention that it is bitterly cold out with nasty freezing winds? My only excuse is that my brain had frozen because that is clearly 9 miles, not 10. As it turned out we really needed to turn around at marker 10 anyway because another huge sheet of ice and snow was further along the trail. (Yeesh.) Between markers 11.5 and 10 it was primarily tiny little trails in huge icefields that caused us to slow down a bit, so it’s really just as well that I can’t count.

Still, a very good and enjoyable time despite the freeze, and since Carla’s knee was starting to hurt towards the end it’s really just as well that “math is hard”. Even better, no pain once again, and I felt most of the time like I could’ve sped up a great deal. Hopefully next weekend will have good enough weather that I can knock out a 10-12 miler and pick up the pace a bit. I don’t think I’m going to get my sub-2:00 at this point, but we’ll see. Fingers crossed!