Recovery ride...

Going for a nice short (20 miler) recovery ride. Tried out a new route, heading out 224 then back on 225 to Indian Head before heading back home. Felt pretty good suprisingly considering how terrible I felt last night after that abomination of a run yesterday. Got nice and loose and maintained about 19 mph, so nothing too terrible.

Long run in DC - 14.5 miles

Going for my long run. The plan was to start at the National Zoo, run along the Rock Creek Trail toward the Lincoln Memorial, then down towards Haine's Point, over to the Jefferson Memorial, on up to the Washington Monument, through the mall up to the Capital and then back by the White House and the Ellipse, then continuing up to the Watergate Hotel and the Kennedy Center and boat house then finally back along the Rock Creek Trail up to the Zoo. The run started off with issues with my GPS not keeping my mile splits, then I started to cramp. I got some water at the boat house and then again at the Jefferson Monument, but forgot to hit start again so I missed a bit of the run, screwing up my splits more. THen at the end of the mall the GPS didn't register me hitting start again so I missed more of the run, all in all missing a total of about a mile and a quarter. Either way, the run up Pennsylvania was frustrating as I had to stop pretty much every block for a light and my legs did NOT like the stop and go. Got up to the Boat House and the start of the Rock Creek trail and got some water, but from then on out had some issues and had to stop a couple times to walk. I did run into my buddy Mike Papantonakis on the run and he ran with me for about a 1/2 mile or so which helped, but in the end it was a really tough run overall.

Four mile tempo run

Went out on the Accokeek 4 mile loop attempting to beat my PR time. Felt pretty good most of the way, but had two mini dauchsaunds chase after me so I had to stop to pet them and let their owner come and get them about 1/2 way through and then I had a bit of a rough time getting back into pace. Overall it was a good run, even if I did miss my PR time by about 20 sec. Have my 15 miler on Saturday morning, so will be taking tomorrow off or really easy to keep the legs fresh for that. Hopefully will be doing that run up in DC around the monuments!

Fartlick workout.

In an effort to replace the track workout I missed yesterday, I ran a fartlick workout. I started around lunch time from the NRL gym, running into the Oxon Hill Farm park. I got in a 1.1 mile warmup at 8:21 pace, then doing four 1/2 mile intervals hard with a 1/2 mile easy rest between. Got the 1/2 mile intervals in at 3:42, 3:53, 3:35 and 3:31. Followed it up with a easy 0.6 mile cool down at a bit over 9:12 min/mile pace. Overall, felt pretty good, not great, but good. The second interval started up the hill, but didn't go up the entire way. Hoping I am back in good shape for my 15 miler on Saturday!

Family run!

Went for an early morning family run. Betsy and I got on the road, with me pushing Cole in the Bob Ironman jogging stroller. Unfortunately, Trinity is still recovering and may actually have really hurt herself, so we couldn't take her along. It really kills me to think that her days as my running partner may be at an end. Anyway, Betsy and I got in about 3 miles together to start, pushing out a 9:12, a 9:00 and a 9:05 min miles, before I took off to finish with a 8:27 and an 8:14 min miles. FInally finishing the last 0.24 miles at 8:00 min pace. Felt pretty tired and tight, but that is par for the course these days! Anyway, tomorrow is a track workout I think, we will see, it might just become a run...

Indian Head Metric Century

Was supposed to meet a couple people first thing in the morning (7am), but nobody showed so did the ride on my own. We couldn't have asked for better weather, nice breeze, probably low 70's and sunny. GORGEOUS ride. They had ham, egg and cheese english muffins at rest stop 1, tomato sandwiches at rest stop 2 and hotdogs at the finish. Finished in 3:26:14 for an avg of 18.3 mph. Fairly hilly for the region, but still a great ride. Felt great until the last 5 miles where my energy started to peeter out. But finished strong nontheless. This is by FAR my favorite organized ride I have ever done... anywhere....

Another Family Run!

After Hurricane Hannah blew through, the weather cleared up and was absolutely gorgeous, so Betsy, Cole and I grabbed the jogging stroller and hit the pavement for a nice short run. Went 3.2 miles at a nice and easy 8:45 min/mile pace. It is really nice to have my running partner back, even if only for some of the shorter and slower runs, plus now we have a new addition to the team. Our previous partner, Trinity (the Rottweiler) has been coming up lame and we fear is developing some arthritis, so she didn't get to go. Oh how dissappointed she was. Hopefully something can be done, as runs are always way more fun with her! Anyway, have the Indian Head 100 tomorrow, can't wait!

"Long" Run... only 6 miles

SO I was supposed to do a 10 mile long run (recovery week), but with how busy I have been at work and it not getting light until at least 6:30, I had to shorten it to 6 miles. Felt rather eh for most of the run. Still pretty sore, mostly in my hips at the front of my legs. Finished the 6 miles with an additional pinky toe blister to boot! Overall, kept the pace about 8:20/mile, so not terrible. Tomorrow I am supossed to do a 4 mile run, however I am pretty sure that Hurricane Hannah will be putting a damper on those plans. If so, will probably do some bike trainer work. Until tomorrow!

Trainer work - Recovery

doing a trainer workout with Betsy! Got on and did the Spinervals Recharge workout. Workout is essentially made of three sets, the first is five 3 min efforts at various gearings at a high cadence, then five 1 min efforts at the same gearings then finally three 30 s buildup efforts. Felt good and being able to watch little Cole the whole time makes it really fun!

Abebe Bikila 1/2 Marathon - OUCH!!!

Abebe Bikila 1/2 Marathon on the Mt. Vernon Trail. Started off at a pretty quick pace (7:45 or so) and felt really good to start, but this was stupid as I knew the pace I wanted to maintain was around 8 min/mile and then to try and kick it in for the last couple miles if I had anything left. Unfortunately, intelligence didn't win over my pace, so I ended up dying out over the second half. Overall, it was still a pretty good race, pacing my miles in 7:41, 7:48, 8:04, 7:56, 8:13, 8:03, 8:21, 8:05, 8:20, 8:06, 8:16, 8:17, then a terrible 9:11 before finishing the final 0.18 mile at an 8:48 pace. Finish time was 1:47:58, not my best performance (about 4 min off of personal record pace). Didn't help that they started the race at 9am when it was already too hot... Thank God today wasn't too hot of a day.