More birds, fewer stones

When running 90 miles a week first became routine, I was at the start of a humid, uncomfortable, unforgivably hot summer, and doubling was crucial to keeping myself alive and hydrated. Now, the weather is such that I can handle 90 miles in singles with no problem.

Tuesday I put together two long, hilly roads with bike lanes in Arlington- Military Road and Williamsburg, and convinced Outlaw and Murph to join me prior to having pancakes. The run was nice an even- 6:56 pace for 12.1 miles, but the line for pancakes was ridiculous, so pizza sufficed.

Wednesday I managed to keep my stomach together for a pretty successful workout- two miles, 1.5 miles, one mile and 800m. I stuck behind Dickson and we came through the two mile a little faster than we had planned at 10:20, with even 5:10 splits. That alone convinced me that if I wasn't facing strong winds that I could handle a sub 16 5k. The 1.5 mile was even better- 7:36-- 5:06 at the mile, a little slow, so I pushed ahead. I led the mile and admittedly was way out of control after 400- 70 seconds, so I cooled it and slowed to 4:53. I went out in 70 again for the 800, but as soon as I hit 500m, I tied up like a mother. Things got better after jogging 100m, so I charged in, but only ran 2:28. Though I could be disappointed with 100m of my hard running, I can't be with the other 7900m. I ran quickly over a variety of distances and only felt stressed when I matched the fastest of my short-distance speeds. In fact, had I easily run that 800, I would question how well my turnover workouts had gone.

Thursday evening I ran 13 miles on the Double Pimmit loop, averaging 6:30s after seven miles, a good bit faster than I would have liked. I tried to slow, but ended up averaging 6:40.

Friday after work, I did some quarters on the Mall- the third rectangle of grass from the Capitol is 400m in perimeter. I did five warmup miles averaging 5:52, then gave it a shot. After 200 meters of trying to sprint on the Mall's gravel path, I initially planned to give up, because I would likely hurt myself slipping. After a 200m jog back to my starting point, I realized I would cut off very little if I ran on the grass instead, so I gave it a second shot, and it was a lot more successful, almost too successful- I went 68 for my first one, and 67 for my second. I figured that would do, and ran 69, 69, 70, 69, 69, 69, 71, 70, 69, 69. I would have liked to have run four more, but my intestines were rebelling.

Saturday I dragged myself to the metro and up to Bethesda run and watch what ended up to be a very successful tempo. Outlaw picked me up at the Rosslyn metro and we got there a little late, ran around for a while and watched the guys who were working out really crank it on the track. I got another 5+ miles with Karl, Diddy, Dave Burnham and the Hurricane (Dave Nightingale-force winds) on the CCT, meandering between 6:00 and 6:15 pace. I had, generously, four hours of sleep, so to finish 12 miles that fast feeling as good as I did was rewarding.

I had to work at our legislative conference Sunday, so I waited until I got home to go out and do 14 miles in the 40-degree rain. The wind was pretty miserable during the first mile, but things calmed down after three or so. I altered my Sleepy Hollow loop to replace Columbia Pike with a winding detour through some neighborhoods, and it turned out great. I was cold for a while, but I just stopped letting it bother me. I didn't worry about the time, because I have more quarters coming up Monday night, but I wound up averaging 6:30s.