8 Miles - Hains Point, Tidal Basin, Lincoln Memorial and the Mall

It was another beautiful day. I started at the Smithsonian "castle" building, ran to the Capital and then down to the Lincoln Memorial, over to the Potomac River and around the Tidal Basin to Hains Point and then back to the Smithsonian "castle". I tried to maintain a good, fast pace and managed that pretty well.  My overall pace was 8:45/mile and I ran negative splits pretty consistently.

Tomorrow I'll run 5 easy, slow miles.  I may have to tie my shoelaces together to force me to slow down.  ;-)

7 Miles - Hains Point and the Tidal Basin

It was a beautiful, cool and crisp morning with little wind. Except for having to navigate traffic lights in the first mile it was a wonderful run. 

4.3 Miles on Local Hills

Funny, I used almost this exact same title for a run on May 17th.  But on that day I had a better time.  Today I totally ran out of gas and started cramping up (abdomen) after 4 miles.  What was the problem?

Well, first of all I decided rather spontaneously to run this afternoon. I didn't plan for this run by fueling up in the morning. And I headed out at the height of the mid-day sun, running on pavement with no shade. And I decided to run 5 miles of hills after having run 20 miles on Friday.

Still, I like running the local hills and will try this again at a better time and with better preparation.

And good news... no pain in my extensor tendons like after the last time I ran hills in Lodi, NJ.

Below... a picture of one set of hills on Grant Street.  And then the charts for the first 4 miles (leaving off the .3 miles since that was mostly walking).

20 Miles on the W&OD

I took today off from work just for this run because tomorrow we're expecting a nasty bit of weather with hurricane Irene coming Saturday night. It was worth burning a vacation day for this run!

This morning at 6:00 am I parked at the Rt. 28 parking lot by the W&OD trail.  It was very foggy this morning, like a bad werewolf movie from the 50s.  And the fog didn't break until nearly 8:00.  But that made for a cool run that was a bit humid but still very comfortable.  I paced myself pretty well, keeping to my 9:20ish pace goal. My only issue (if you can call it that) came in mile 19 when I had to stop for a potty break at the Smith Station rest area. I guess this is normal for distance runners, but I really was hoping to do the run without any stops.  All-in-all the break took about 2 minutes (not reflected in the chart as I stopped my Garmin).

By the way, the Smith Station rest area is quite an oasis on the W&OD with TWO port-a-potty stations!!!

After that it was all downhill to the finish!

Along the run I had two gulps of Costco brand sports drink every two miles starting with mile 3. I had one GU at mile 9 and another at mile 13.

Last night I had a roast turkey sandwich (lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapeno, mustard and pepperjack cheese on whole wheat toast) and baked potato wedges, followed by a bowl of whole wheat cereal and then later a bowl of low-fat frozen yogurt. In the morning I had a cup of coffee (decaf), a ClifBar, a Costco mango drink and some water. Fuel was not a problem during my run.

8 Miles at Hains Point w/ Intervals

Today was another beautiful day for running.  I had 8 miles on my schedule for today.  I decided to try running some speed intervals with one mile marathon pace, one mile 10K pace.  However after the 4th mile (the second mile of 10K pace) I had a slight twinge again in my left knee.  I decided to run the remaining 4 miles at the slower pace.  However after the next two miles my knee felt great so I ran one more mile at 10K pace before finishing with a marathon pace mile.

By the way, marathon pace = 9:00/mile (approx) and 10K pace = 8:10/mile (approx).

5 Quick Miles at Hains Point

This morning was beautiful... cool and crisp and little wind.  Perfect for running!

I ran a nice negative split 5 miles.  I felt strong and enjoyed this run very much.

10K on Local Trails with my Lovely Wife Handan

After yesterday's long run I was happy to enjoy a slow run with Handan again today. 

Last night we were invited to a party thrown by one of her co-workers.  There was an amazing buffet of Afghan food that was put out at 10:00.  By the time we ate (at 10:30!!!), socialized and danced a little we didn't get to sleep until 12:30am.  This was all not good for the run.  Also we started the run too fast and Handan really lost her mojo in the last few miles (as the chart shows).  Still, she finished the 10K almost a minute faster than last weekend's run, so that's good.

I'm proud of the effort she put out to finish the run when she was really struggling at the end!  Way to go sweetie!!! :-)

Here's last week's chart for comparison...

13.1 Miles on the W&OD

This was a step-back week. Last week's long run was 18 miles (woo hoo) and this week's long run was 13. I'm also supposed to do an 8 mile pace run this weekend, but I'd really like to run with Handan tomorrow, and that means 6 slow miles.  So I decided to run 13.1 (half-marathon) and run it at marathon pace to see if I could beat 2 hours. I tried for a pace of 8:50 but ended up running faster than that.  My final time was 1:53:21 (unofficial of course) which is a pace of approx. 8:38/mile. I felt really good, and the surprising thing for me is that after my iPod quit after mile 3 I actually didn't mind running without music. I may have to try that again. :)

Last night I had a great dinner prepared by my exceptional wife Handan.  It was Salmon with green lentils, served with baked potato wedges.  I followed it up with a big bowl of low-fat frozen yogurt (black cherry and dark chocolate).  I think it must be the perfect pre-race meal because I felt so good running today with no digestive issues at all.

2.8 (out of a planned 5) Miles on the Mall

Again I wanted to run fast on my shorter run week.  So I was pushing myself to run 8:30 miles and after 2.6 or so miles my left knee got a twinge of pain.  I stopped for a while, tried running again and it was still there.  When I walked there was nothing, but running it came back.  So I stopped altogether and walked the 2 miles back to the office.

I iced the knee at my office and I'll rest for a couple of days.  I'm sure I just pushed my speed too much this week.  I'll got back to running a slower pace and see what happens.

Here's today's pathetic graph...

5 Miles on the Mall

This morning I ran 5 miles from the Capital to the Tidal Basin, past the Jefferson Memorial, through the FDR Memorial, past the Lincoln and WWII Memorials and up to the Washington Monument and past the Smithsonians.  I enjoyed the run, but I got stopped at some traffic lights which is why I much prefer my morning runs in Hains Point park.

My pace wasn't as fast as yesterday (I couldn't do that two days in a row), but it was a good pace and a little faster than my marathon goal pace.  I finished strong in my last mile...

5 Quick Miles at Hains Point

This is a low-mileage week, so I decided to run today's 5 miles as fast as I could.  I wanted to see if I could maintain a fast pace throughout.  Turns out I couldn't.  In the 5th mile I ran out of power, but I was still able to run under my marathon goal pace in the last mile.

And running fast felt good.  I think it gives me a different kind of exercise than the long, slow runs.

10K on Local Trails with my Lovely Wife Handan

Yesterday I had a long run of 18 miles, so today was a perfect day for a nice slow relaxing 6 mile run with my beautiful wife Handan.  We drove to the Rt. 28 parking lot by the W&OD trail and headed west.  It's a nice straight path without many street crossings (2 in the 3 mile out-and-back path) with a gentle up and down series of slopes.  Handan ran really well, finishing strong and fast.

18 Miles on the W&OD

I finally made my 18 mile run.  Woo hoo!!!

It was, however, a pretty crappy run.  Literally.

Apparently the three slices of pizza I ate last night for dinner, along with the bowl of cereal and frozen yogurt for dessert didn't agree with me.  At mile 9 I had to leave the trail and drop my shorts in the woods.  And then again at mile 12.  And then at mile 13 I finally found a port-a-potty and stopped again for a little clean-up.

Lesson learned... no pizza the night before a big run!

Other than that, it was a pretty good run.  My legs felt good and strong and I had no other issues.

Next week is a step-back week.  Then on to a 20 mile run in two weeks.  Eek!!!

 

This chart shows actual time for each mile, including my bathroom breaks.

 

 This chart shows times for each mile excluding the bathroom breaks

 

This chart shows the elevation change on the 18 mile out-and-back trail.

5 Miles Hains Point

It was another nice morning with cooler temperatures in the 70s, a slight breeze and the humidity wasn't bad at all.  I ran my 5 miles as negative splits again, ending with a good sprint in the last mile.

I had a slight twinge in my left knee for the first mile and a quarter.  Nothing bad, but it was there nonetheless.  I'll have to keep an eye on that and see if it hangs around.

8 Miles on the W&OD

Today I focused on two things... running negative splits and running fast.  I accomplished both in a good run this morning at 6:00am.

I had plenty of fuel in my belly having attended training at Palantir yesterday.  They have the best stocked kitchen and pantry of any company I've ever visited.  If I worked there I'd put on 20 lbs. easily.

5 Miles on the W&OD Trail

This morning I didn't have to drive into DC for work as I have a training class in the Tysons Corner area.  Still, I woke up early (4:30) and went out running at 5:00.  It was darker than I expected on the W&OD trail and I could hardly see 10 feet in front of me.  There were little creatures scurrying around in front of me.  I got worried when I smelled skunk around mile 1, but I made sure to make a lot of noise (clapping and yelping) to give the critters warning that I was coming.

Oh, and bats were dive-bombing around me in one part.  That was scary!

The run was good.  My legs were a little tired after yesterday's 8 miles and Saturday's 16.  I focused on running progressively faster and that went well as you can see in the chart.

Diet-wise I still feel heavy after this past weekend's excesses.  But I'm not heavy... I'm the same.  My digestion is a little out of whack, but that will return soon enough.

8 Miles at Hains Point

I missed my 8 mile run yesterday so I had to get up early this morning and run it before work.  That's actually a good thing as I like running downtown in the early hours.  I started my run at 5:45am and looped around Hains Point twice.  The first mile was fast because it's mostly on sidewalks and there are a few road crossings, so I like to run it fast and get into the park ASAP.

I focused on running my pace and also on running reverse splits.  It was humid but I felt good and ran a good 8 miles at an average of about 9:04 miles (see chart).

The cake I ate yesterday at my friend Paul's birthday party helped to fuel my run.  Thankfully I also ate some nice healthy Thai Chicken Basil stir-fry last night and had ClifBar in the morning to help fuel the run.

16 Miles in New York City, Central Park

I was scheduled for an 18 mile run this weekend, and I was excited that I would do it in Central Park.  The loop around Central Park Drive is almost exactly 6 miles, so three loops would be a perfect run!  If only it worked out that way...

Problem #1 - We drove up to NJ on Friday after work.  We didn't get to the hotel until 11:00 and weren't asleep until midnight.  Then next day we woke up at 5:30 so that we could drive to NYC and run before it got too hot.  Not enough sleep.
 

Problem #2 - The night before my big run all I ate was some cereal with walnuts and craisins (no milk), a peanut butter sandwich and a ClifBar for dessert.  Not enough fuel.

Problem #3 - I was so excited about running in Central Park I started the run too fast.  And I kept running fast.  I was actually feeling good for the first two laps of the park.  The average pace for my first 14 miles was 9:09!!! My pace was too fast.

So all things considered I'm impressed I did as well as I did.  Next Saturday I'm going to run the 18 miles that I couldn't do this weekend.

Oh, and today I was supposed to run 8 but the drive back from NJ coupled with a friend's birthday party ruined that plan.  So I'll run that 8 miles tomorrow morning instead.  Then I'll get back on track with Tuesday's short run.

4 Miles on the Mall

The humidity was up around 90% this morning and there was even a light drizzle at one point.  Since today was a short run day I decided to run fast.  I started out too fast, in part because I was trying to get past some intersections before the lights changed, and I had to slow for the second mile.  Then I tried to run a bit faster each mile afterwards.

I ran around the Tidal Basin, past the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War memorial and the pond with the island dedicated to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, then past the Washington Monument and finally up to the Mall and the Smithsonians.  I love running in DC. :)

8 Miles - Hains Point, Tidal Basin, Lincoln Memorial and the Mall

This morning I woke up extra early because I knew it was going to be extra humid.  And it was.

I ran 8 miles around Hains Point and then past the FDR memorial to the Lincoln memorial and then past the reflecting pool, the WWII memorial, the Washington monument and finally back to the Mall.  I was absolutely sopping wet with sweat by the time I finished... but I did finish strong.

I think the chart shows a bit of where I waited for traffic in mile 7.

5.3 Miles at Hains Point

I started my run at 6:00am and the temperature was a comfortable mid-to-upper 70s with some humidity but not oppressive humidity.  My legs were a bit tired still from the long run on Sunday (17 miles) but I had a good "race pace" run for over 5 miles.