It doesn't get better than this

I worked a little late Tuesday night and didn't have much sunlight left to hit the Pimmit Run trail for an hour, so I took it as far as I could- out to Bryan Branch, then back via Old Dominion and New Virginia Manor for 10 miles at about 7:00 pace.

Wednesday I had my ritual steak and eggs breakfast in advance of the evening's workout, which I had high hopes for- 5xmile starting at 5:15 and speeding up five seconds from there. When we got back from our warmup, the high school meet on the track was still raging, so we had to look at our options. We decided on the Capital Crescent Trail, which had half mile markers and a one-mile stretch between Connecticut Ave and the tunnel. The drawback is that heading north means going downhill and south is back uphill.
We started out downhill and finished in 5:08- I started a little late and caught up. It seemed too easy. The second was 5:11, but it was tough. The third was 4:58 and easy again, but the fourth was a struggle. I went out in 2:32, but fell back over the second half when my turnover wasn't quite there and finished in 5:17. By then it was pretty dark, and I spent enough time worrying about whether I would trip in the myriad of ditches and holes in the trail, so I retired to the track, which was just about to clear. That fourth mile busted me, though. I started to do some miles on the track, but had no sense of pace and went 70 seconds for a first lap, then jogged around a bit. I decided to try again, but felt wasted after a 75 quarter. I met up with the guys who finished the workout on the trail and we cooled down on the track while watching Diddy put some miles away, getting as fast as 4:23.

Thursday morning I woke early to head to the office so I could run among the cherry trees on Hains Point. It was miserably humid and I wasn't thrilled to do a second loop, so I headed back and just did 10. The cherry blossoms looked okay, but the real feature was the fog- I couldn't see Virginia from the west side of Hains Point. Not before I saw a guy who looked like Neal Hannan running. It turned out, however, to be his twin brother, Veal.

Looking at the forecast, Saturday morning looked rough, so I decided to do my weekend workout Friday morning. That meant an early wakeup -- 5:30 -- so I could get some water and ease into it. I headed out to McLean High School in the dark. I passed a few other runners, and wasn't feeling too spry, myself. The track was shrouded in fog and I didn't waste any time getting started with 20 minutes aiming for 5:30s. I was a little slow, though, running 5:31s, and was feeling awful. Part of me wanted to go home, but then I set myself straight. I woke up early, and I certainly wasn't going to be falling asleep again if I went home, so I might as well finish what I started. Also, this was my last chance to get an ambitious workout in that would contribute to my race at Cherry Blossom, so run I must!

I made it 14.5 laps in 20 minutes, and took an easy mile for recovery, but then the fog had lifted and the sun was all over the place. I figured I had nothing to lose from giving it a shot and running 80 second laps as long as I could. I was a little fast- 78 for the first one, and slowed only slightly as I came through my splits exactly on time- 5:20, 10:40 (with a 79.99 eight lap) and 16:00. I was a little slow on 13, but picked it up for 14 and 15 and finished in exactly 20, giving me an even 1:20.00 average. Beautiful. I thought back to the last time I did this workout successfully and remembered that I wasn't terribly sharp in the first segment, then was fine for the second. I felt like I was definitely running much harder to hit 5:31s than to hit 5:20s. When running 80s, every time I came through the 200, I threw in threw our four quick steps to keep turnover from slipping, and I think that helped. I did a longer cooldown on Westmoreland and felt magnificent. I took photos of the average split time to relish them, but I can't seem to get them off of my camera, so, no art for this post.

Saturday morning I ran all of the Pimmit Run Trail in a light rain. I finally saw the rest of the downstream section. Once I got to the end, I went up Glebe, Old Glebe, Glebe again,Williamsburg and through part of NVM to Orland, then I walked in from Longfellow for 14, no need for 15. I totaled 91 for the week and felt strong. Unfortunately, at some point on the trail, my right leg rubbed some poison ivy, to which I had just lost my immunity last year.

Sunday morning I went out for a new variation on my Brook loop. It was slightly misty in the mid 50s and felt very comfortable. I started out with a  6:15 for the first mile, but then ran 6:00 for the next. That was going to be the way things shook out. I wrote the names of the new streets I would be running on my warm, but the ink was already running seven miles in when I was supposed to turn on Daleview. I saw a "no outlet" sign, so I figured that much be the wrong road. Then I looked closely at my arm and realized it was right, and I would take my chances that the sign was full of it. I came across some fancy new houses and caught the right roads and figured out what the sign meant- there was an outlet, but drivers were discouraged from taking it because it looked like a driveway- one car wide. I then came across what might have been the nexus on the universe- the intersection of Old Tolson Mill Road and Old Tolson Mill Road. It looked like running ahead would take me into a yard, so I took a left and down a hill to a creek then back up the hill...into someone's yard. I turned around and went back, sure now that the mile markers I had committed to memory were not at least a quarter mile off. I came out on Bellview and was right in the middle of some rough Great Falls hills. It only got steeper when I crossed Old Dominion, and I was smelling lobster just about nine miles in. I didn't let that bother me, though, and took it as a challenge to push through it.

Drivers on Georgetown Pike were mostly (all but two) generous with a little space on the lack of a shoulder, and I gave so many thank you waves that I worried they seemed insincere after a while. After crossing the beltway, I ventured into the neighborhood north of GTP and liked what I saw-- rolling hills and not much traffic. Some middle-aged woman running along seemed annoyed to have to share to road with me, though I had given her a wide berth. As I wound through the neighborhood, I realized that I was doing exactly what I loved, and it couldn't get any better than this. I got back down to the rental car neighborhood (Mayflower and Enterprise) and nearly fell on my face after slipping in mud, but kept cranking. I hit 1:45 and decided to keep it up and crank it on Rupert and Lemon. I passed two hours at Crutchfield and finished up in 2:04 flat. I mapped it out to be a little more than 20.4, for a 6:03 average. A lot faster than I had planned, but it's hard to measure just how much pleasure a run like that gave me. More than anything, it gave me the confidence to head into the last month or two of my spring season with assertiveness. I can't wait until after Cherry Blossom, when I can let loose and work the miles for a few weeks. If I don't earn a Pittsburgh half entry, I'm seriously considering Cleveland, which will certainly give me a few more weeks to train.

Monday I ran an easy 8 at 6:30 pace on the Westmoreland loop. Tuesday I came home with every intention of running 10, but instead I lied around and didn't run. Wednesday's trip to the track was somewhat unnecessary, because I had my own plans and would not really get anything at BCC I couldn't do at home. I did three moderate miles- 5:12, 5:16, 5:14 and called it a day with a long cooldown. Thursday morning I did an easy reverse Westmoreland at 6:31 pace. I'll run nice and easily this afternoon, an Oak tomorrow morning with a fast 9th mile, then an easy Park++ Saturday. Sunday, I'd like to start no faster than 5:20, speed up a little over the next few miles, but really attack miles 4-9, then smell the finish line. I'm thrilled to be able to run this race, a month ago I wasn't sure it would be feasible. Even after I started running again, my quads felt like they were tearing apart. Luckily everything has tied itself up nicely.

I'll miss the Spider Relays and Monument Ave 10k, a bummer indeed, but I want to be sure I'm rested for Sunday.

Meanwhile a new Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Pittsburgh will kick off in August 2013. Though its scheduling was done with regard to the Great Race in October, holding it in early August is dubious, at best. I have confidence that it won't have the same fly-by-night, generic marketing act that 2009's Spirit  of Pittbsurgh Half Marathon carried, but at least those buffoons had the wisdom to run it in the fall. 

Also, the Richmond Marathon has a new sponsor-Anthem health insurance. As the Times-Dispatch article describes, the finish line will move for all three races. 

No lobster tonight

Jason and I drove to Richmond Friday afternoon, got our bibs (and saw the JARRINs, Benford and Nicol), dinner at Pasta and Such and made it to Emily's. We checked the forecast- it was supposed to be about 30 at 7 am, and when I unpacked I realized I had forgotten my long running pants. FACK.

I slept pretty well and got up at 5:15, and we drove down to the start. It might have been cold, but I didn't really notice. We warmed up, changed out shoes and headed to the starting line. I saw Ryan Lee, Pat Love and Paul Myer wearing the sharp new Richmond uniforms. Some dude in Vibrams tried to sneak up to the elite start, but he was appropriately shooed back. I mean, this guy's standing here, wearing little rubber toe shoes, expecting to be taken seriously...

The masses started fast, but things settled down within a minute and I moved into a nice pack with a tall VCU runner and a shorter Galen Rupp. We cruised up a slight hill heading west on Broad Street, watching the Afro-centric pack ahead of us and thankful we weren't trying to keep their pace up. We came through the mile in 4:57, though with the delayed start it was actually

4:55, and I felt pretty good. It was nice running with a pack. An African dropped off the lead pack and I pushed the pace to catch him. We got him right around two miles, crossing in 9:57. He tried to struggle and take the lead a minute or so later when we turned on Mulberry and Grace streets, but eventually he fell back again. Shortly after this turn, the tall and short guys pulled away from me slightly, along with a guy in black. I held on as much as I could, but I was losing ground.

My third mile split was 5:14, and I was not pleased with it. As the course started rolling, I put on a long surge to try to catch someone so I'd have a race on my hands at the finish. Every now and then, little Rupp would come back a little, but I couldn't close the gap. I was pleased to see my pace move back the way I wanted it with a 5:11, but I was hoping to be under 5:05. We made our turns onto Cary Street and I really made my move a little early. By the time I reached the .4 mile downhill stretch to the finish, I was kind of floating.

Spectators were cheering for Georgetown when I ran by,and it killed me not to be able to correct them, let them know I was a Spider. That compounded my frustration with the end of the race. I heard Emma Berry and Erin Lunny cheering halfway down the hill, but I wasn't kicking the way I expected and hoped to. You can see in the video both little Rupp and the guy behind me charging into the line, but I just kind of float. It's aggravating to watch. I just kind of stopped when I crossed the line, turned and watched people come in. Jason PRed by 20 seconds and Nicol was chasing him down, running 26:35.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed when I finished. From the four mile mark to the finish, I only ran 4:55, with a downhill like that I was expecting to be in the 4:40s. I feel I could have broken 25, and I blame it on my third mile- that's when the other guys, who did run in the 24s, got away from me. I'm not great at sprinting by myself, that's why I was pushing so hard to catch up with someone else for that last stretch. That all said, it was a 56-57 second PR, from my 2003 YMCA Turkey Trot. I can't believe it took almost eight years to break that PR, but I did it. I never slowed past 5:14, even when I was hurting, and I don't want to try to run faster than that next weekend. As fast as I ran relative to my previous PR, I wasn't exhausted at the end, and I definitely wasn't smelling lobster, my body's signal that I've pushed myself to exhaustion. I hope that means I have room to improve based on my overall training. If I smelled lobster under 25 minutes, I wouldn't be worried, but if I did at 25:18-19, then I would be a bit concerned about my chances to run fast for 13 miles. I left the race feeling pretty good, and the cold never bothered me.

We drove back to Emily's and cooled down from there, running out to Monument Avenue to watch the marathoners pass. Dave Miller looked pretty good at this point, but he was on his own. Of all people, I saw former Spider Sam Beese, then bumped into Julie Rechel, who was waiting for her roommate to run by. I jumped on the course after I ran out of grass median and joined the runners until they got to Cary, then I turned back and headed to Emily's. The weather was gorgeous, and even though I don't want to run a marathon, I think it would have been a good year to run Richmond. I couldn't stop smiling, regardless of my own race, to be in town for such a great day. I've thought this since 2009, but when it comes time to run a competitive marathon, Richmond is it for me. I love racing down here. I'm almost positive I will do the Monument Ave 10k next year, rather than the Cherry Blossom race. It will mean back-to-back weekends down there, following the Spider Relays, and I can't argue with that. I'll definitely do this 8k again.

The Spiders were at the regional meet, and it obviously didn't go as well as last year, but things are looking up.We had three freshmen in our top seven, and Ryan Lee redshirted. He had run 24:16 at the 8k, so he should be ready to go next year.

I headed over to campus to replace my hate that I left at Wiggy's in May and he apparently fed to his turtle. Then back to DC that evening.

The next morning, I was up just in time to grab my stuff and bike and get to the metro so I could watch the Veterans day 10k. I biked from

the first mile mark to the 5k, then back to the finish to watch the GRC go at it.

Around 3:30, I headed out for a longish run and did a shortened Brook. I was averaging under 6:00 pace through six miles, and I started to feel some intense abdominal pain. I slowed down a bit and jumped into the woods at mile seven to alleviate that pain, then got back to work, keeping things under 6:00 pace through 10 miles. Traffic got a little tight for a while on Old Dominion, as it always does, and I slowed a bit. I also missed the turn I wanted to make onto Mayflower and instead took Dolley Madison to where it crossed Mayflower. As I ran through the neighborhood between Westmoreland and Great Falls, I thought my timing must be off, and I must have slowed significantly, or really gotten lost. I hit the point a mile from home in 1:25 and thought I had slowed down completely. I jogged in, mapped my route, along with my intended route that was not much different, and I realized that I had mapped a 15-mile loop, not 14. Oops.

Monday evening I did a pretty sedate eight miles around Westmoreland. Tuesday I planned to do a peppy 13 miles in Annandale. Things were going pretty well, faster than 6:10 pace through six, then I hesitated and turned back when I wound up on a street that turned out to be correct, and added an extra mile to the loop. I knew I was way off and didn't a second longish run, so I stopped when I got to Grove and walked the rest of the way home after running 13.5.

Wednesday didn't go as well as I would have liked. Karl isn't running Philly anymore, so now I will have to latch onto strangers if I want to run in a pack for the half. I was looking forward to helping him pace the first half of his trials attempt -- having his goal in mind would have given me extra motivation to stay with the guys running 5:17-5:18, and it would have been fun. I still should be able to find people with whom to run who are staying loose in the first half of the marathon. I went to BCC to do my now-solitary race-pace run. I planning initially to do three miles, then when I came through the first in 5:16, decided to do 3xmile. I got in the back of the B pack when they started a mile, but didn't really feel like fighting to the front of the group and stopped after a lap. I didn't feel like running, said that to Jerry, and he said in that case I probably shouldn't be running, so I cooled down and headed home. On and off I started feeling some discomfort along the outside of my right foot. It's the first time I've felt anything like that, and though I immediately assumed the worst and decided it was a stress fracture (like I diagnosed with my right hip the days before I went to Oregon), it's probably just the hypersensitivity that comes with tapering and focus for a big race. Luckily the scheduling technicality makes this the penultimate race, decreasing a little pressure.

Philadelphia's Saturday night low is 43, a little warm, but after Chicago, I can't complain. No rain is in the forecast as of Thursday afternoon. Then again, I did fine with rain at the Freedom's Run race. As much of a breakthrough effort as that was for me, and the fun I had doing, I am looking forward to running a pretty fast course with other people this weekend. I, for one, am happy the half and full marathons use the same course for 13 miles, though I'm sure the marathon runners won't be pleased to see the half guys splitting off and heading home.

I guess I'll just run home

I finally had a good night's sleep Sunday night, so good that it was hard to wake up Monday. I dragged myself out and ran a Westmoreland pretty smoothly, though I was definitely dragging. That afternoon I joined Elyse, Will, etc. at Lululemon in Logan Circle for a little more than six miles around the Mall. I hadn't run there in months, I can't even remember the last time- probably June while courting the Striders for the Father's Day race. It was clear and in the low 80s, which made for a pleasant run, though I was feeling pretty dehydrated and was thrilled to stop at the water fountain on the north side of the Capitol. It was a nice change from all of the times I ran with them from the store that dare not speak its name and just ran out to the Arlington Bridge and back.

Tuesday morning's temperatures were in the high 50s, and I was a little more excited to get out and do a longer morning run- 13 miles on the Thomas Loop, another I had neglected since June. There was barely any traffic on Williamsburg, more on Military, though I got really really thirsty around mile nine and slowed significantly.

I was planning to go home, run and easy and get to work on my section of the Pimmit Run Trail. Then there was this earthquake. The metro slowed to 15 mph and the roads were jammed, so I went for a third option and ran home after work. I just had a pair of racing flats in my office and no socks, so I walked to City Sports in Chinatown to buy some, but my debit card, bent by an overzealous clerk, did not work, so I had to walk back to the office to get some cash. With my socks finally purchased, I started on my way home, cut to about 10.5 miles from my normal 13 mile route. I had to carry my phone with me in a plastic bag because I was expecting a call from someone in California at 8 p.m. I ran to K Street, over the Key Bridge and along Route 29, which was a lot more pleasant than I remembered. I like the section in miles two and three of the Marine Corps Marathon, but unfortunately the fellow called me around then, 45 minutes early, and I tried, for a while, to interview him while running. It worked well, for the most part, but I got a little sweat in the speaker, so it was hard to hear and I eventually had to stop and talk to him standing still. Afterward, I went back on my way and found 29 to be a lot more agreeable than the last time I ran that section- January 2010 when I missed my turn from Glebe onto Williamsburg, when I was still new to the area. I stopped when I got to the East Falls Church Metro and rode home, getting another 8.25 miles for 21.25 for the day.

Wednesday morning I felt as though I had run many more miles than I had the day before, and my Fisherman's 3.25 wasn't much fun.

I guess I should fill in the two weeks I haven't documented...

Accidental near marathon

Saturday afternoon's run was a return to the short network of trails in Washington Park, for about four miles. Sunday morning, however, was my long run, my first real effort at a serious long run in about a month, thanks to the heat. I had a 22-mile route mapped through Forest Park, the 5,000 acre collection of trees and stuff on the northwest edge of the city.

I woke up at 5, but worried it was too dark to navigate trails in the woods, so I waited a half hour for the light to spread a bit. It was raining, which didn't exactly thrill me, but to have temperatures in the low 50s for a mid-July long run was too lucky to give up. Within two miles I had missed some turns, but I figured out where I was and recovered before I did any damage, lukcily I was running pretty slowly up the stead hills to the park. I found the Leif Erikson Drive trailhead and was delighted to find mile markers. A quarter mile later, I was even more delighted to find quarter mile markers. It was steadily uphill, but I rattled off 6:30 miles for a lot of the climb. Thanks to Portland Monthly's handy Forest Park Guide, I knew I would hit a water tank at some point so I was anticipating sucking down the goo packet I brought with me.

The mud was flying, and I was soaked and filthy--I was loving it. I kept climbing, and wondered if I even wanted to go downhill. I didn't even care that there wasn't a dry spot on my body, I was too focused on moving ahead. It seemed like I'd see another half mile go by before I knew it. Then, about 9.25 miles into the trail, I got worried that I hadn't seen my turnoff, which was supposedly a significant road. I climbed a steep, single-track trail for a while, but when I saw it intersect with other trails that were nowhere on my map as I rememebered it, I turned back. I was starting to get worried that I wouldn't get any fresh water and miss any chance of having the goo. I retraced more than three miles of Leif Erikson to the Saltzman Road trail, down a long long hill to Mt. St. Helens Road, in the industrial section northwest of downtown. I was back on track, but knew I had a long way to go. I was starting to wonder if I could make it back to my hotel in time to shower, get to the convention center and eat a decent breakfast before the first workshop I had to cover.

Photo from austinmarathontraining.blogspot.com
It was just plain flat, and I was starting to weigh the consequences of running fast and getting back quickly, or running slower and not going overboard or hitting the wall with miles left to travel. I considered hitchhiking, but I didn't even see many drivers, early on a Saturday morning in a non-residential part of town. I did notice that my form was immaculate, which concerned me because my most significant worry was getting lazy and hurting myself with sloppy form. Despite running for well more than two hours, I was probably running faster than when I started. Running was a natural state, and the only thing that would keep me from continuing was my impending work day. I was worried about making it back just because my sense of professionalism told me to be, but at the same time I was confident in my ability to get back. I went a long time without seeing numbered road signs, having started at 56th and aiming for 6th. As it turns out, the addresses were about 10 blocks off, but I was overjoyed when I hit Vaughn and saw 27th street, knowing I was closing in on my hotel. I saw a bar open for breakfast and stopped in for a glass of water so I could have the goo. I probably would have made it back without it, but the full day of work I had ahead of me probably wouldn't have gone too smoothly. I continued east toward 6th, running along several Simpsons character's namesame roads- Lovejoy, Flanders, Kearny. As I approached my hotel, I check my watch- 2:49. In a little more than a minute, I would break my personal record for longest duration run. I coicidentally finished up at 2:49:18, my marathon PR. I didn't really feel like running another minute. I got up to my room and took my shower, noticing the ridiculous amount of mud, sand and a few pebbles that worked its way into my shorts. I never noticed when it was bouncing around in there for what turned out to be 25 miles, but I sure noticed it when I turned the shower on and the water hit the raw skin on my inner thighs. I averaged 6:46 for the run, though I left my watch running when I went in for water, so I ran a little faster.

It's a run I would never have been able to do in Virginia the same day, where the temperature was much higher. Suffice to say, it's been a good trip.

And my shoes were pretty filthy when it was over, and this was after six miles of running on pavement during which the dirt could come off.

Lost again

The conference wrapped up Tuesday afternoon and I headed back to my room for a nap. I woke up and took a six-mile spin around the river trail again, careful to mind the bums throughout the park, out and back to the main street downtown. It was pretty hot and dry. When I came back to the hotel, our new president’s inaugural ball was in progress, and when my coworker told me about the food selection- delicious roast beef and a variety of vegetables, I hurried upstairs to get dressed for it.

I had a delicious White Russian that hit me pretty hard, thanks to my dehydration. That, plus my post-exercise euphoria and boosted energy thanks to my nap made me positively giddy, AND THEN I discovered the ice cream bar. I loaded some melty vanilla with tiny m&ms, strawberry sauce and chocolate and went toward town.

I woke up early the next morning with a route written on my arm to get me 14 miles and up onto one of the surrounding foothills to the south. I ran clockwise around the Reno-Tahoe Airport until I got to Mira Loma Road and followed it to the neighborhood surrounding the Hidden Valley Country Club. I followed the road there south and looked for the intersection with Alexander Lake Road, which would take me into Huffaker Hills, where I could get my view of the city from a hilltop. I moved away from the neighborhood and onto a remote looking road, and figured I was right on track. Then, the houses started popping up again. I saw two familiar-looking walkers, and then a sign for Mira Lorma. I knew that road ran south, so I thought perhaps I had gone too far, but as it turns out I had run around the circumference of the golf course and was back where I started. It was too late to keep exploring—an ice bath was probably out of the question and I would need to rush back to be ready for my flight.

I followed the rest of my route clockwise around the airport, and at times seemed to be going way out of my way, but it was a certain way back to the hotel. I ended up running 1:43, but had to wait until I got home to find out how far it was. It turned out to be a little over 16 miles, so I averaged 6:28.

This is how the road was supposed to look...

I also had a chance to look at a more detailed map when I was on my computer. It turns out Alexander Lake was connected to Short Lane and Hidden Highlands Drive. I passed Hidden Highlands, but to the right, it looked as though it ended.

After another day of traveling (I made my flight), I got back to humid, stuffy Virginia, with its trees and shade that does no good in stopping the moisture. I did an easy four miles at 7:28 pace and hit the sack.

Thursday morning I ran 6.75 at 7:58 pace around the Park ++ loop. It was rough, running in the brunt of the humidity. All told, I ran 83 miles in the five days I was in Reno, and that wasn’t bad. Now it’s time to test my legs at the Crystal City 5k Saturday night, help pace Pokey in his half marathon, hopefully add enough distance Sunday morning to make 20 miles, and see if I can keep this volume up when I don’t have dry air making it seem so easy to run.

Favorite Runs Outside of Pittsburgh #3

Hickory Hill
I moved back to Richmond after graduating in 2004 expressly to live with Jon Lauder and Tim Caramore and train like beasts. I got a job in November and moved after Thanksgiving, which coincided with my taking a lot of time off of running hard. When I started up again, Tim was in relatively poor shape and Jon was pretty much training a lot because he didn't work steady jobs.
In the meantime, I became incredibly involved in my job. I was one of three reporters at a weekly paper based in Hanover County, all of whom were 22.
Our editor was hired to replace the late publisher who lead the Herald-Progress to prominence in local news reportage. The new editor was not quite up to the task of continuing the high performance of the paper, nor was the new management. After buying the H-P, management fired the photographer and wore down two reporters until they left. News coverage was in shambles, and the editor was in over his head.
After a few weeks of orientation and getting to know the county, I started getting more aggressive and ambitious about how the paper would work. With an editor who was a few months longer tenured than I, I didn't have the luxury of institutional knowledge on which to rely. I took bound copies of prior years' papers home with me to study in the evenings and on weekends.
I started experimenting with photography and found, for an amateur, that I had an eye for it and the patience to find the right shot. I dusted off my layout skills and started designing more dynamic pages for the paper. Before long, I was scouring the county, writing the news, shooting the sports photos and putting the paper together. In the face of 60-70-hour weeks, running wasn't a realistic pursuit, and what running I did manage was on my own and usually in Hanover.
Sometimes I'd run in Ashland, sometimes I'd run elsewhere while waiting for appointments, but it was almost always more as a chance to clear my head when the responsibilities I was taking seemed daunting. I didn't have to do all I did, but I found it hard to not try my best to make it a great paper. That's what the readers came to expect for years before. It was hard to hear people decry the drop in quality, even though it was true. It weighed on my self-valuation, and if I wasn't working hard enough to fill the paper with diverse and relevant stories, I was failing.
I immersed myself in the county, and luckily for my running, I saw how many viable routes there were to get away from traffic and people and just run.
Reber Dunkel, sociology professor at Randolph-Macon College, Green Party congressional candidate and limited-growth advocate brought to my attention the huge undeveloped 3,200-acre Hickory Hill property east of Ashland and the threat that it would someday be subdivided. I lacked the basic comprehension to figure out how big it would be based on numbers alone, so I had to see it for myself. On foot. Running. There was a train station there, for goodness sakes!
Chances are it's private property, though I think the signs refer to the land on either side of the road. People who have seen me running there haven't said anything to me, so they either don't care, don't have any authority, or else they wanted to try to take me by surprise.
Wickham and Hickory Hill Roads eventually degrade into gravel and dirt, so the footing gets softer.
From the Hanover County Information Officer Tom Harris: The Hickory Hill plantation spreads more than 3,000 acres between Ashland and Hanover Courthouse and is still owned by members of the Wickham family, who built it in 1820. Trees on the property are believed to have been brought from Japan by Commodore Matthew Perry as a result of his historic visit in 1854. General William H.R. "Rooney" Lee, son of Gen. Robert E. Lee, was captured by Union soldiers on the property but his younger brother escaped capture by hiding in the plantation's famous box hedges. The property is the largest still in the hands of one family in Virginia. The main house of this plantation includes an 1857 wing and an 1875 front section built to replace an 1827 section that burned.
I left the Herald-Progress in July 2005, to work at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. I feel like I gave up a little bit, because I knew nobody would put in the kind of work I once did, and the readers would begin to accept, then expect less from their paper.
Sunday after the Monument Avenue 10k, I headed up to Ashland to run Hickory Hill with some changes to make it 18 miles before I took a train back to DC. I managed to get lost, however, taking the wrong turn on Wickham, and ran 19.6 miles instead.
Emily Ward was waiting for me at Ashland Coffee and Tea, planning to follow my route backwards if I did not make it back in a little more than two hours, so I'd be ready for my train. Realizing I was five minutes slower than I would have run the first nine miles at 7:00 pace, I stayed relatively on pace on the way back, not wanting to be scooped up by the sweeping car. I made it.
For 26 minutes as I ran along Old Ridge Road, I saw nobody- no walkers, no dogs, no cars. It was eerie, but great, because I could run down the middle of the roads.
Afterward I grabbed a copy of the current Herald-Progress. I was unimpressed.

Let's go BACK to the Mall!

My second week of 75 miles went deceptively easy, considering I worked four of the days, whereas I only worked one day of my first 75 mile week. Not that the extra five miles is terribly hard, only about 33 minutes more throughout the week, but the whole effort is worthy of pause. I went to the store looking forward to a nine-mile jaunt through Northwest, but ended up getting much more. We ended up running around the Mall and Hains Point, but despite running some of the same route the day before, it was great to have a big group Saturday morning.
In honor of the Spiders, I wore my Richmond singlet under my t-shirt, but less than a mile into the run realized I had to be more public with my support, so I put it on over my shirt. To note, Matt Llano ran 14:37 to win the 5k with splits of 457, 442, 423, and Tim Quinn nearly PRed with a similar first-mile split. Unreal. Here's an interview with Llano on my coach's blog. To think, Hannay's 15:07 outdoors was noteworthy in 2002... It was also a homage to pretty much every running movie I have ever seen- the athletes seem to train in their uniforms. Why is Mac Wilkins, a thrower, running around campus with his Oregon singlet on in Prefontaine? Karl brought up a good point- it's good marketing for the program. It reminded me that Hampden-Sydney never gave us any paraphernalia with the the team or school name on it. It was just as well, because we were kind of embarrassing and it matched the way the school felt about us. I do have a t-shirt from the Parents and Friends 5k, which was odd to have a shirt for that but not for the team in general.
Karl also gave me another idea- charging to the front at the end of the run, to be the first one back to the store and represent my school well. I was in. What I didn't realize was how far we would end up running.
After a loop around the Mall, we headed down the west side of Hains Point, and kept going to the tip, despite being at 56 minutes at the cross road. For some reason I pushed ahead with Karl, not that it was a problem. The east side was now clear, so we returned up that side, and I kept pushing into the wind. Heading back on Ohio, the pack turned left when I was headed right, so I fell back a little there, but picked up ground. Once we hit the rock creek trails and I made the unfortunate decision to end up running through a lot of snow, I was much farther behind and soon would relent and forget about the finish, until Karl reminded me to go for it. I put on about a mile-long surge to the front, took the long way around an interchange under Whitehurst Parkway and kind of overcompensated for the extra distance. It felt good to be able to put on a burst, no matter how silly, after nearly an hour and a half of running. Jake Klim sprinted to catch up to me and I eased up, but again Karl's encouragement propelled me up the icy steps and across M street to the GRC.
We ended up doing a little over 14, so I would up with 80 miles this week. Oh well.
I'm liking the shorts-worthy weather...
In other news, I am into the Pittsburgh Half Marathon, and I'm pretty pumped about it.

Surprise! You ran kind of fast!

I planned to run a 10 mile progression to bounce back from the last few miles of the long run.
I was amending a Woodley 8 to become a Woodley 10, but somewhere in the presdiential streets, I lost my way. I wound up on Arlington Highway and had to adjust. I noticed my right quad was rather sore, and I was pretty bummed to find most of the roads still slippery with loose snow. This is where I ended up going.
When I calculated my pace for the run, it turned out I wasn't as slow as I expected- rather, I ran 6:30 pace for 11.2. Not bad, even though it wasn't what I had planned.

MUCH BETTER NOW THANK YOU

Things got a little better Tuesday. I went out for a 10 mile run, Pimmit-Idylwood, with plans to try an alternative to the end on the W&OD trail by going through a parallel neighborhood. I started feeling a little sluggish, and I took a a few splits when I hit different intersections and later found out I was averaging 6:17 for the first six miles. I picked it up to 5:50 pace for the rest of the run, though once I entered the new neighborhood I forgot the names of the streets on which I was supposed to turn. I ended up running more than a mile extra, but kept the pace up. My legs didn't hurt at all, which was great. I felt excellent from about five miles on.

Land of Confusion

For some reason I keep invoke song lyrics as titles for posts, and I hope to put an end to that soon.
That will probably happen as soon as I decide on my fall marathon. Initially, I was gung ho about running New York, mainly after watching Run for Your Life. Then I recalled that the race is in New York, which is a huge downside. Considering the arrangements that go into running the race, it doesn't seem as attractive. Plus, it's in New York.
Watching Richmond pumped me up for a competitive, but not overwhelming, race in a city I enjoy. Seeing Molz, Emily, Watson, and the Hannay race fired me up a lot, but unfortunately, it's the same weekend as the NCAA Regional meet, and I may want to watch Richmond race.
Other options include Chicago, in early October, which a number of GRC guys are doing; and Philadelphia, in late November. Both of those offer pretty fast courses, though I was less than thrilled with Philly when I ran with Lauren in 2007. Of course, Marine Corps is the easiest to reach and I like 80% of the course, but that last five miles is pretty boring.

Saturday morning, I Metroed and biked out to Joketon to the Difficult Run Stream Valley Trail, part of Fairfax County's cross county trail. There were a few paved stretches, but for the most part, the six-mile stretch I ran was dirt and wonderful. It was muddy at times, but that comes when a lot of snow melts.
It took me a while to get in a rhythm, but I enjoyed it. Once I figured out exactly where the trail went, I just kind of enjoyed a longish run in the woods. My watch battery died and I have yet to replace it, so I have no idea how long it took, but time was not my concern.

I took the Metro out to Landover to watch Klim, Karl, Mike and Pat Reeves run the 3k on an indoor track, and was delighted to see part of the Richmond team up there for the race. Only a few distance runners I knew- Nicol, Beth, Emma, Carter and Rachman, but I got to catch up with Lori and see Chris York run the 3k. Karl and Jake did pretty well in the fast heat, and watching them race was fun, and the experience told me three things.
1- I was glad I didn't decide to join them for this race. Not only am I out of shape for racing, but I hate indoor track air. I have never handled indoor races well, and the air is a big part of it. I am totally uncentered, even watching a race, indoors.
2-I do want to race soon, if just to get the feeling of competing again
3-There's no room for extra body weight if you want to have an efficient form.This was exaggerated coming around those tight turns, but it's a huge factor.

I hit 60 miles for the week, despite taking Tuesday off when my leg hurt. It hasn't bothered me while I run lately, but when I walk is a little different.

Sunday- I got a text from Towpath at 3:45 that he wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be running with the GRC in the morning, and I wasn't motivated enough to try to get a ride from someone else, so I slept in and waited for the rain to abate. When it didn't I decided to just go for it. I tried out a new route that took me north, almost to the Potomac River, up a steep hill from the Chain Bridge onto Glebe and back south. Unfortunately, I missed the turn and added about 2.5 miles.
My clothes were soaked and got pretty heavy, and I was tired by the time I finished and rather hungry. Even so, I am glad I didn't take the long trip for a run, the guys who went were pretty miserable.

Monday- Ran 10 miles at the Line with a bunch of GRC dudes, had a chance to get to know Patrick Reeves a little, whom I've been told I resemble a good bit. Those people are right. It's a little weird, to be honest, but he's a good fellow. I ran hungry, wishing I had somehow capitalized on my desire for a cheesesteak the night before. I still want one.

I make some new friends for about five minutes, but manage not to alienate any of them immediately

After weeks of missed opportunities and conflicting schedules, Melissa and I got together for a run, our first since my disastrous sleep study in late October. I planned a seven-mile run- a mile and a half from my office to the Smithsonian, four around the mall with Melissa, then the run back. I ended up running 12 miles

After a sedate but enjoyable jaunt around the Mall, we neared the end of our run and we came across a group of athletic-looking youngsters. Melissa suggested I go for a run with them, and when a representative of the group reacted favorably, I figured, why not. Well, after four miles of 8:30 pace, my legs were itching to go, even if I convinced my mind that the day would be entirely social. After bunching up with at a traffic light, I wound up in the front, running with a fellow named Tony and his friend Susannah, I think. When I looked back, I realized we left everyone behind, and soon Susie was gone, too. So I chatted a bit with Tony and I stretched the sum of my city running, headed back to the office to grab my clothes and meet the people I with whom I did but didn't really run for dinner. I had the second-worst calamari in my life, the worst being at Olive or Twist March 3, 2007.
Then I got tired and went home, having met some new people, but not terribly optimistic I'd see them again. It happens...