A faster four

The workout plan for Tuesday at B-CC fell apart so I decided to do a work workout in DC. Since i haven't hooked up my bike odometer, I don't have the miles marked on Hains Point, but a careful measurement with mapmyrun.com showed me a 4.02 mile loop, starting at the Ohio Drive Bridge and looping to the parking lot near the south end and back up and along Buckeye Back to the bridge. So I decided to do a tempo, aiming for between 5:20- 5:30 pace. I jogged over, tried on the old Puma Completes and was off. The west side wasn't bad- I had to move for a few cars and bikers, but since I was facing traffic it was easy to see them. Turning at the parking lot, rather than the tip of the road was a big help, but as soon as I turned onto the east side, the wind was in my face. I leaned as much as I could to cut into the wind. When the road split into two lanes, I moved to the left to continue to face traffic, and the turn onto Buckeye was a blessing. I picked it up and tore around the last turn and held my form back slightly past the bridge to finish in 21:28. For 4 miles it was 5:22 pace but when I measured the course again I came up with 4.02, so it's 5:20 pace. Just what I wanted. The cooldown back to the office took forever, and my sweat-soaked shirt chilled quickly in the breeze, but once I got off the Mall I got back with no problems. A solid solo workout.