Another sweaty summer

I neglected the hell out of writing for the last three months, here I go:

After a spring where I ran whatever pace I wanted with little resistance, once June weather began in earnest, I eventually had to relent to the elements. Try as I might, I can't change how my body dissipates heat, which is to say not well at all. I find the limit to mind over matter. I think about the late Sammy Wanjiru, who was able to hold a pace others thought to be a stunt in the 2008 Olympic Marathon's hot and humid weather, yet he came out on top in a huge Olympic record time. Why can't I do that? We had divergent experiences at the 2010 Chicago Marathon, the only time I raced him (I gave him a few seconds of a head start by starting several rows back), but I always wonder if I can push myself harder. I can't, but it was not for lack of trying.

Aside from a few days in March and the regrettable warm weather in Cleveland, I was lucky to not have to deal with too many hot days this spring. That's coming to an end, though to be fair it's actually Summer now.I took two days off after I couldn't manage one Sunday, but found much nicer temperatures Wednesday night (June 13) I set out for what would be my last New Virginia Manor loop. To say I was aggressive would be fair, I was out close to 6:00 pace for the first two miles to get to the loop, then let loose and ran fast enough for the two loops to average 5:50 for 10 miles. It felt like that was my natural state. I knew it might be the last good run I have in the summer and in northern Virginia for a long time. I absolutely relished all 12.5 miles of it. I took the next day off, then ran a strained three miles Friday (June 15) evening down to the W&OD and back up through the metrobus road. My mom was in town for a wedding, so I took her to Lake Accotink for some running Saturday (June 16), and I tried the place out for the first time without running the six miles from Vienna. I liked it, though it was pretty warm and I insisted on running with some mountain bikers as long as I could. I went clockwise then counterclockwise plus a little extra for 8.5 miles. The next morning (June 17), after a day of shuttling stuff to my new house, I went out to Arlington to run the Little Falls loop that I didn't do nearly enough. It was unremarkable, though it was a worthwhile option to have.

Monday (June 18) evening, I continued my farewell tour with a Steelers loop at 6:30 pace. It was cool and pleasant. I took Tuesday off, then Wednesday (June 20) fought the evening heat to run a Westmoreland one last time. By five miles, I was in trouble, and I bailed out on Haycock and finished up with 6.5. With the temperature pushing 95, I didn't need to make myself hate running.

The next night (June 21) I finished my move with a van full of furniture and ends (no odds). Another hot, but dry, day- 98 at one point. When I took the van back to the West Falls Church, I decided to get my last run in and make it functional- I'd run the nine miles between my homes. I started out well- clutching a squeeze bottle of gatorade I would earn the right to drink. I slightly altered a Williamsburg and made it four miles at 6:30 pace, then cruised along Glebe feeling like a million bucks. The steep downhill to the Chain Bridge pushed my average to 6:21 for the first 5.5 miles, and I gulped the Gatorade when I crossed the Potomac and bid farewell to Virginia. I ran along Canal, with little traffic to hassle me, and turned up Arizona, about to tackle the 2.3-mile climb to Tenleytown. As I shot up the hill, though, everything crashed. I couldn't see, my heart started racing but feeling weak, my lungs began to hurt, and I had no recourse but to sit the hell down. I'm not sure how long I was there, but when I summoned the strength to resume, I jogged gingerly. After a few minutes climbed Arizona, it became apparent I would have been unwise to continue. So, I walked, still light headed. I kept walking until I reached Rockwood- a flat mile from the house. I jogged slowly but surely and finished the job, collapsing into the first-floor bathtub to rinse myself cool. I downed two quarts of gatorade and went about trying -- and failing -- to carry my stuff upstairs. I gave up soon and went to bed, waking up four hours later, falsely panicked that I had overslept.  The next day at work, my head felt like it was cement, and my arms could barely function. I think I am pretty much ran myself to exhaustion the night before. I think it was the most miserable I have been while running, and I probably pushed myself harder than I ever had before, though it was a bad idea to do so. I took the Friday off, smartly.

June 23- I slept in and ran a little too late to beat the rising temperatures. I headed off on what I'm calling my bad ending loop- around to Connecticut, down to Dupont and back up Massachusetts and Wisconsin. I made it halfway up Massachusetts before I overheated and decided to play it safe, in case I had done myself grievous harm Thursday night, and walked the rest of the way after running 5.75 miles.

June 24- Sunday morning I slept in a little bit too much again and resigned myself to an easy 5 miles on my Fordham loop that I adapted from my AU workout warmup.

July 4 I headed up to BCC to run around the track while some of the guys worked out. Ran around with Wiggy a lot and had a total of eight miles. In the afternoon, Witty and I went out and did a Hannay's Gate and I had to stop several times in the fifth mile to let me heart rate slow down.

July 5-6 Thursday and Friday I ran the same Partial Stefan loop, up Wisconsin to Somerset, then to the CCT and down to Albemarle, and back home. Thursday I was on my own and Friday I finally had a run with both Sam and Ryan.

July 7- I was up early Saturday to avoid the 106-degree heat, starting at 6:30, and even then I felt like I had slept in too much. Luckily I had only 9 miles to meet my 60 mile goal for the week, so I simply did a Rockland, stayed on Western to Chevy Chase Circle, came back on Nebraska then headed down Wisconsin to the Hearst field, did a few laps then came back.

July 8- Sunday afternoon, I wanted until the rains were supposed to come in the late afternoon. I set out around 5, with the temperatures still in the 90s, and journeyed down Porter to the Western Ridge Trail and eventually Beach Drive. When I hit Beach, the wind picked up as a thunderstorm brewed, and my first crossing of Rock Creek was greeted with a dramatic thunderclap. The temperature was more bearable and I braced for rain that didn't come. I turned up Bingham and then a long climb up Nebraska home.

July 9- Monday was dramatically better, and it showed in my pace. I ran up Nebraska to Connecticut, to the CCT. I started taking splits at the two-mile mark and marveled as I went 6:10, 6:00, 5:30 for the three miles before I eased up for a mile then was back up those dang Albemarle hills and off for home on Butterworth, a slightly better alternative to Albemarle. I ended up hitting 10.1 miles at 6:30 pace, my fastest in a while.

July 10- Tuesday morning's run to work was a pain. It was humid, I was tired and my knees hurt. Military Road has no sidewalk to speak of, and that made crossing Rock Creek Park a lot less pleasant than I had anticipated. By the time I got to Fort Totten Park, I was feeling beaten up, so I ran to the Brookland Metro and took that the rest of the way. I still got 6.5 miles at 6:55 pace. In the evening, I set off for a run in Somerset and hit a rainstorm less than a mile in, which was fantastic. It felt refreshing to have the water all over the place, blinding me at times, cooling me off constantly, providing entertainment. I ran some turns that had calf-deep torrents running down the hill. After my shoes were completely soaked, the knowledge that it couldn't get any worse released me to enjoy it more. I ended up getting 6.25 miles at a little under 7:00 pace for 13.75 total.

The next morning I headed out on my own to run a 10 mile loop in Somerset. It was incredibly humid and I was soaked within 20 minutes. It was a decent neighborhood for running, with little traffic, and I can easily see a road race working in there, assuming cooperation from the residents. I ended up averaging 7:30s, which

Friday morning I was in Pittsburgh and running eight miles around Chatham Village before taking a nap and heading down to my hotel for a conference. The weather was cool and dry and it looked like I'd have a good stint of training while I was home.

NOPE The next morning, I was up at 5:30 to warm up for my organization's fitness 5k. It was humid as all get out. I got down to the Convention Center and we were off. I burst out into the lead and passed by my department director, who was directing participants, and pointed out that that's why they hired me- to win the fitness 5k. I cruised over the Allegheny to the North Shore and ran alone out to the casino- 8:30 out. I turned and crossed paths with a variety of delegates and staff members and waved to them. I chose one of the bridges, bounded up the steps and back over the river and back to the convention center. I saw the organizer. Oh hello! Surprised to see me here? Yes, she was, because apparently the run finished on the lower level. I ran even splits for 17:00 on what I believe to have been 5k+, because there was no indication of when to turn around. I went out on the jail trail to finish up 12 miles.

I slept in the next morning and ran in the afternoon. It was pretty damned hot. I took Second Avenue out to Hazlewood Avenue and climbed one of the more miserable hills in recently memory. I must have been out of practice running in Pittsburgh. By the time I got to Schenley Park, I opted out of my golf course loop and headed back down the Panther Hollow Trail and back on the Jail Trail. I was pretty beaten up and ready to be done after 12 miles.

I took Monday off. Tuesday evening I headed out from the William Penn to Penn Avenue, then Butler until One Wild Place, then wound up the hill to Negley, then Penn until Children's Hospital, then Liberty. I had a life-sustaining drink of water near the Church Brew Works and continued my cruise down Liberty, totaling 12.

Wednesday morning I did five miles around Chatham Village in the morning, then eight around Fox Chapel in the evening. Climbing Guyasuta from Squaw Run was no joke. Thursday morning I did an easy five around Squaw Valley Park, and eight in the evening in Mt. Lebanon. Both were really tough, weatherwise.

Friday morning I struggled through wretched humidity in Frick Park and was lucky to get about seven miles in. I supplemented that with five around Chatham Village that evening. I took Saturday off to get more rest, because I clearly needed it. Sunday, I headed back to Frick and actually got a solid 10 miles in.

I finally got some new shoes, I realized only after looking up my old order confirmation e-mails that I had been wearing the same two pairs, aside from workouts and some long runs, since early January, almost 2,100 miles.

I'm not quite sure what I did for a while, and I won't delay in finishing this up just to figure that out. There was a lot of doubling and I steadily increased my mileage: 80, 85, 90, 96, and 100 the week ending when I went out to Steve's cabin. I do remember a lot of struggle against the heat and humidity and dissatisfaction with running in northwest DC. It's not to say that it's bad. It's the best part of the city in which to live to be a long distance runner, but in comparison, it's terrible compared to what I had in McLean. The traffic relegates me to the sidewalks, which are crowded with people. Though I have mapped and explored extensively, I have yet to find anything that compares to even my middling loops before. The climbs uphill at the end of every run might be making me stronger, but I don't need them every day. I'm a few miles from Rock Creek Park, but in the summer, it's so muggy and bereft of wind, it's miserable. When it cools down, it will get dark too early to be able to safely run there. And every time we have a heavy rain, trees come down and block trails. Despite all of this, however, I've been able to run decent mileage.

Possibly adding to my frustration is the savagery with which the summer beat me. I don't want to belabor the point, but I'm going to. I should just stop trying to run fast during the summer. Nothing good comes from it. I'll be fine when the weather cools, but for two months, I'm useless faster than 7:00 pace. So, as long as I live here, I won't even plan on racing in the summer.

Friday night, Sam, Beth, Drea and I drove out to Pembroke to Steve and Lori's cabin for an abbreviated training camp. We drove out to Pandapas Park Saturday morning and ran about 10.5 miles on the Poverty Creek Trail, out and back. The climatic change from DC was remarkable, we were running at 10:30 am and feeling great. That afternoon we ran to the War Spur overlook, gingerly, thanks to all of the rocks on the trail. The view was magnificent, as (almost) always. We tried to eat three dishes at Kal Bee among the four of us, but my resistance to pork was our weak spot, and we yielded.

That night, we got to bed significantly earlier than the night before, but woke much earlier after a sudden rain shower hammered the tin roof like thousands of gunshots. Earplugs fixed that. Later that morning, we headed up to the Mountain Lake hotel to meet the Richmond team for its preseason camp long run. At noon, it was still 59 degrees, with a wet chill. It was absolutely ideal. I caught up with a bunch of the guys and met the freshmen as we headed up the gravel road past the lake. We took a detour to see the overlook but the group split up later on. Sam and I continued on the road, climbing like crazy, then turned. On the way back, Sam wanted to let the thing be pressed and I went with him for a while, until my knee started to get sore. he was going less than I was anyway, and I decided to explore the dirt (mud) trails for a while. I ended up getting 2:12, which I equated to 20 miles.

The next evening, Witty and I went out for a run through Rock Creek Park via Calvert. It began pouring and we just relished it.

Thursday evening I went to Falls Church to see my barber and get a decent run. I ended up doing a Slate Run and reveling in the empty suburban streets and I had all to myself.

Saturday I went out to Bull Run Park for a potential long run. The humidity and my fatigue from a long week of not sleeping well doomed me, and I ended up only getting in a little more than 90 minutes for 13 and another 100 mile week.

Sunday morning, I slept in and ran down to Rock Creek Park and around the Western Ridge trail until I got to the field off of Military where I planned to do a fartlek. Only, I didn't want to anymore. I ran some lame laps around the field and headed home for a total of eight. That afternoon, I did the Connecticut loop until I hit the Massachusetts Bridge, and instead took the trail down to Rock Creek Park and ran to the Melvin Hazen Trail for 12.

Monday morning I did the Van Ness Street loop Scott and I did a few weeks ago for eight, then in the afternoon ran to the Donaldsons Run Trail with Billzzz for another eight. It was a little too warm and the park had no water fountain.

Tuesday I did a partial Stefan in the morning in wretched humidity, which drained me down to my lowest weight in years. It was about 90 degrees after work when I did a Potomac loop, extended around the Capitol, and I was really feeling parched by five miles. 13 total.

Wednesday  (Aug. 29) I did a Hannay's Gate five miles easy in the morning, then went to BCC for a workout. I was feeling great after a 2:32 800 warmup. I stuck in the middle of the pack first the first mile and went through in 4:59, then 4:55 for the second, feeling like it was natural. Then, on the 400 jog after the second, I started feeling like I couldn't get a deep breath in. I didn't make it 100 meters in. I came back and started the 5:04 mile with the B group, but was a second slow at the 400 and wasn't feeling up to the rest, so I got off the track and cooled down.

Thursday (Aug 30) I did another Hanny's Gate in the morning, then a Nellie Custis in the evening for 18 total.
Friday morning I woke up without any interest in running, so I didn't. It was my first day off all month, but after 413 miles, I figured why not.

Saturday morning I woke up to hear Molz, Guy and Andy talking about how humid it was. It couldn't be anything worse than what I've felt this summer, I thought. YES, IT COULD. It was awful. It wasn't just uncomfortable, it was hard to breathe. Lauder and Dana picked Hunter and me up a little while later and took us to Pole Green Park. I hadn't been there since 2005, while working for the Herald-Progress. I took off on my warmup around the course and started to feel a stabbing sensation under my shoulder. I joined Watson for a bit and wore my 10-year-old spikes, at which Rhue continues to amaze that they are still in one piece.

I lined up on the far end of a field of 70-some and judged my chances for success. Earlier in the week, I wanted to run as close to 5:00 pace as possible. With the humidity as bad as it was, that was unfeasible. I decided I might as well see how long I could hang on and just have the race kick me into action. I wouldn't be in the same shape as last year, given that I'm a month behind in my training, so I didn't want to set even moderate goals without extremely favorable conditions, lest I lose the results in a cloud of frustration.

Instead, I was lost in a cloud of runners as we ran across the field at Pole Green Park. The last time I was here, it was covered in booths during the Hanover Tomato Festival. I was shocked I was able to run across the grass as fast as I was- during my warmup I could barely jog. It must be the adrenaline of my first race since May. I just kind of sat back in the lead group for a while and followed Kyle and Adam. I realized after most of a lap that I had been running pretty fast for a while, but had no idea how long of how far we were on the course. We came back into the open field and soon enough I found out how fast we were going- 4:51 for the mile. Lauder reportedly said "he's going to pay for that." I kept pushing, but I was starting to feel the combination of thick air and the fastest mile I had run in months. I hung on for a while, but started to fall out of the pack and then was on my own. After what I guess to have been eight minutes, my breathing was a wreck, and I was just pushing for the heck of it, to finish the race. I went through the second mile in 10:10 and just couldn't wait for it to be over. People kept passing me and I had no motivation to stop them. I hoped some animal would come out of the woods and tear me to pieces so I didn't have to finish the race. Not soon enough, I got to the last stretch, and Lauder yelled to "use your weight on the downhill." I tried to kick, but two chaps caught me at the end as we crossed the line and ran right into the finishers waiting to have their numbers recorded. I ended up running 16:05, surprising, given how dead I was at the end. Looking back, I could have pushed more, if I was ready for that kind of pain. I paid lip service to cooling down, but not very much. I was going to enjoy the rest of my day off.

Until I woke up from my nap when Benford showed up to run with Molz. he had my shoes with him, and I figured I might as well go for another run to clear out my legs, after wearing spikes. The first 10 minutes were a rough sequence of belches and back cracks as I dealt with my only-recently-digested lunch, then  an ankle turn. I shook it all off, though. We ran through Byrd Park's Northbank trail, new to me, and over the Lee pedestrian Bridge for a loop of Belle Isle before heading back over the Nickel Bridge and back to Molz's. I hit 10 miles in  61:50, for 6:11 pace, most of that made up in the second half. I found out later that the temperature was in the 90s, but I felt a lot better than I had in the morning. And I ended up getting my 100 miles in for the week, to boot.

The next morning I went off on my own over the Nickel Bridge again to Forest Hill Avenue, then pretty much went backwards on the marathon course. I passed Kyle and Conor heading the other way, but wanted to stick with my route rather than go with them. I was cruising along uncomfortably fast for the humid morning when I got to Stratford Hills and chased a guy down five miles in before heading up Rockfalls. The trip down was bereft of the normal breeze I enjoy so. I followed the detour from Riverside Drive up to Hugenot, then down the hill and over the new bridge to Panorama and through campus. I stopped at the track for water, 10 miles in, and headed up Towana and along Tree Chopt to Grove. I stopped at the mercifully-placed cooler and had a few drinks and gave myself an absolutely necessary splash of ice water in the face. The rest was just miserable. I was hitting the limit for the heat my body could handle and get rid of. When I got to the Boulevard, I stopped and walked back to Molz's. I got 14.25 and later that day decided against doubling.

I checked out the Google streetview of the Hugenot Bridge and saw this dude running

Labor Day morning, I ran from the line with Dickson, Murph, Fox, Tex, Outlaw and Seamus. It was again muggy, and my plans for 13 miles were quickly quashed by my general misery. I ended up getting 11. That evening, I headed down CT to Rock Creek, via Calvert, and headed up the trail toward Ridge Road. As I passed the zoo, though, I saw someone I thought I knew and for the rest of the run was unsure if I was going crazy or not.

Tuesday night I ran a Partial Stefan, but was having a rough time and barely finished seven miles. Wednesday I ran up Nebraska to Oregon and took Western back. That was difficult too, the humidity was killing me. The track workout was over quickly. I led the B group through 3/4 mile and felt the stabbing sensation in my lung, so I dropped out.

Thursday, I struggled through something in the morning, but then joined Witty for an hour out and back on the CCT via Somerset. I felt much better after that. I took Friday off.

Saturday I did an easy 63 minutes from the line with Jake and Sam, without a doubt the most enjoyable run from the line for me, ever. In the evening I did a CT-CCT with Bitz after a storm and relished the cool air. I had been waiting months for that. The run in the mountains was a tease, because I'd have to come back to DC weather. Now, it's getting reasonable to expect this weather.

Sunday morning I woke early to run up to BCC and warm up around the normal loop so I could see the guys finishing the Parks Half. I missed them, though, but got back to the track and was right on schedule for my 2x20 workout. I started slow, 83, but quickly got ahead of pace and averaged 5:26s, feeling really relaxed. I had to take a break during my recovery jog to attend to my intestines, but was right on time to start the second set. Through the mile alone in 5:19, Dickson and Fridge joined me for their three miles at 5:20. Dickson led superbly and I was through 3.75 in 19:53, with no major distress. Given the problem I had digestively, I was even happier with what was on paper my best 2x20 workout ever. Ahead of pace and relaxed. The cool weather does wonders, even though it was still incredibly humid. I didn't have a long cooldown in me.

Monday I met up with Scott for a morning run, then went off into RCP on my own in the evenings, down the Soapstone Valley Trail, along the Western Ridge to the line and the Valley Trail, then the trail between Beach and Ross drives, and up the Melvin Hazen Trail for a total of 20 for the day.

Out of the pool and onto the roads

Thursday morning, (March 1) I PRed for aqua jogging with 2:30. I did about an hour of biking in the afternoon, then set off on a path that evening that left me too tired to even think about waking up early on Friday to get to the pool.

When Saturday came along, I thought about the smell of an indoor swimming pool and figured I would take my chances running, rather than risking having the smell of chlorine torment me. It felt like it had been months, rather than 12 days. That said, it had been 18 days since I had run from home, the longest I had gone since living here. I went off on an extended Idylwood and felt great, going a little too fast in the beginning (11:45 for the first two miles) and tried to balance my excitement that I was running again with some restraint. I ended up averaging 5:58s for 6 miles.

I took and nap and went right back at it- a reverse extended Westmoreland, ended up averaging 6:30s or so. That first run was a little traumatic, though my quads felt like I had run a marathon earlier in the day. Afterward, I had trouble walking down steps and off curbs.

I had to work at our legislative conference the next day, which meant lots of standing around and little relief for my sore legs. When I got home, I started on an Irvin, switched onto Cottage from Gallows and came back from Vienna on the W&OD, my quads basically numb. It was pretty soon to do a long run, but I got in 14 miles at 6:27 pace.

Monday I ran from the Chevy Chase store but got lost on the route I planned and ended up heading to the Line, then the Western Ridge Trail and back to the store for 9 miles. The quads felt better.

I felt pretty miserable Tuesday, so I took the day off.

I had no idea what I would be able to do when I got to the track Wednesday. I decided to just give the workout a shot and see how it went. The goal times for 8x800 meters were 2:32, 2:30, 2:28 and 2:26. I started in the back of the pack for most of them, and frequently moved up throughout, so I ended up fast for all of them- 2:30, 2:29, 2:27, 2:27, 2:26, 2:26, 2:24, 2:23. I would have liked to have done two more, because Saturday's Van Metre race was a last-minute adventure to give me the feeling of racing I didn't get when I scratched the RRCA 10 mile, but I wasn't feeling like those additional 800s would be successful. As soon as I was done, though, my whole body started feeling awful, and my quads, fine during the track work, were now in terrible shape. Things didn't get any better during a long meeting afterward, and I soon felt pretty cruddy.

Thursday I knew something was going wrong, but I was always just able to keep going. Karl and Mike wanted to run in Vienna,and I wanted to give it a shot, so I went out there to meet them. We kept about 7:00 pace out to Hunters Mill and headed back, but then stopped for gyros on Maple. We walked back to the cars while eating, and when we returned I was pretty cold, despite the sweat drying. I changed into long clothes and went to the Metro, then started shivering violently. I got home and took a hot shower, hoping to stabilize my temperature, but it delayed for a while before shooting way up. I went to bed hoping I could somehow just get a few hours of rest for this all to calm down. I felt like I was on the brink of death until I got about two straight hours of sleep. From then on, it was on and off, but the fever was gone. I realized I was no longer in danger of dying, so I started thinking about my next priority- the Van Metre race, where my participation could affect our team prospects.

When I woke up, I decided to see how running would go. I started with a lap around my complex, but 1:15 in, I was walking and heading back in. I started thinking about when I had felt that bad before. I recalled 2010, right before the Monument Ave 10k, when I had to take a day off, and I realized I wasn't suffering from a cold I had caught from one of the county officials visiting for the legislative conference, I was getting hell from the pollen that was hitting the air earlier this year, thanks to the unseasonably warm weather. I then got a lot more confident that 24 more hours of recovery was all I needed and that I would be able to race Van Metre after all. I went to work and took it easy, then came home and rested some more.

When Liz Elk-oh-yeah and I headed out to Ashburn in the morning, I felt dramatically better. I still had no assurances I would perform the way I wanted, or even be able to run more than 75 seconds, but it was a beautiful sunny day and I was going to a road race, so that was enough for me. Breezy would be able to pick up the slack if I died or something. Then I got a call from Karl- he was headed out to run after all.

The three GRC men went out for the warmup and I was thrilled to be able to go much more than 75 seconds. I wasn't feeling great, but hopefully I could grind out a decent five miles.

I managed to hit the bathroom once more and get to the line, where the crowd looked a lot smaller this year. Also, the start was moved back about a block, which was odd. We got started, slowly. I was in the lead, despite taking it pretty easy. Two Thopians were hanging around. I stuck next to Karl for about two more minutes, then realized how quickly the pace could escalate, so I dropped back. The wind, which was so bad during the warmup, was calm as we wound up a lot hill during the first mile. They went through in 5:15, me in 5:24, and I was pleased with that. I figured I would crank it up in the last three miles. I was in no-man's land pretty soon. I hit the second mile in 5:32. I was hoping to be a little faster, just because I wasn't going uphill anymore. I hit the long out-and-back hill and tried to push, but felt my quad aching return and disable me to a point. I had a little trouble making the turn, I tried to follow some barrels that went the wrong direction. I tried to hammer down the hill, but my legs weren't responding and my lungs weren't helping. After what seemed like forever, I hit mile 3 in 5:44, and I wasn't happy with that. I was starting conservatively and getting slower. It was worse after 4- 6:01. Jesus...  and I was smelling lobster, so I was going all out for that.. So much for not losing much fitness. I cranked it a bit in the last mile and finished with a 5:34, but it took a lot more than it should have to run that fast. 28:17, pretty bad. Very bad. I tried cooling down my my quads weren't having it, so I headed back and stretched. The results were all fast- they said I ran 27:47, but my watch would seem to be the right source for the duration of my race. It was disappointing, but again I was glad to be able to run. Breezy, Maura, Susan and I all won $50 gift certificates to the Glory Days Grill, so we went there for breakfast. It was generally low-grade dog food, but it was free. I did six miles on the Seaton loop that afternoon, which went decently well, though not thrillingly.

I figured the best way for my quads to recover on a run was somewhere soft, so I went out to the Pimmit Run Trail. I was determined to finally get to the downstream portion. I tried to get there once last summer, and wound up just running a few laps around a nature preserve before heading back. I skipped it this time and went right to the street from which I could apparently find the trail -- Maddux Lane -- and took a chance on a sidewalk-like path that lead me to a stream. With a few jumps over some rocks, I was on the other side and finally exploring the downstream portion. It was a lot softer and I was thrilled to see where it went. It eventually dumped me off on a private drive off of Kirby with some ridiculously nice houses, then led me back to a trail when eventually ran parallel to the northern portion of George Washington Parkway, which I have always thought would be just the greatest place for a trail. Unfortunately, I had to turn back and head home because of time constraints, but that also means I get to explore more, later. I planned to do a second run that evening, but instead, I didn't.

Monday evening was the second day of extra light in the evening, and I headed out for an extended Oak loop with a few fast miles in the middle. The first came a little more than two miles, once I hit Shreve Road. I started off pretty smoothly, but evidently came through the half in 2:32, much faster than I expected, and finished the first mile in 5:09. After looping around 29 and Gallows, I got to Cottage and let loose, splitting 2:32 again, but facing a long uphill afterward. I managed only 5:23. The next mile was going to be much worse- a long stretch on Oak, but then turns and a steep uphill. I stopped when I hit the beltway for a half mil in 2:40something. By the time I got to Idylwood Park, I had to go to the bathroom, which rendered my last mile useless, and I stopped after a minute and jogged home.

Tuesday after work I ran around Hains Point. The pollen was a little rough, and I was struggling for most of it, averaging 6:47s and not feeling like I was moving that fast. There was some isolated rain when I was on the east side.

Wednesday night didn't promise much. I felt wrecked and was coughing up most of what was in my lungs during the warmup, and I felt beaten before I started. I joined the weekend racing group for nothing too taxing- miles, however many we wanted to do. The first was 5:30, and it was pretty rough. We went 2:50- 2:40, but the 2:40 actually didn't feel so bad. 5:25 for the next one,and that got better. Then I led through 5:20 and 5:15, before Miler offered to take us though 800 at 78 pace. We almost hit 79 for the first, then 79.99 for the second, with me passing in the last 50 to take the lead. Then I went 70 and finished in 72 flat for 5:01, and suddenly I was feeling a lot more optimistic about my Cherry Blossom chances. Back in early Feburary, I was looking at sub 52. That might be out of the question now, but I can still run a fast 10 miles if I am under control early on. Now almost two weeks after coming back from my time off, I realize it haven't lost too much, but I'm nagged by my allergies. If I follow my pattern, though, I should be adjusted very soon. The next 13 days will be big for me- I need to nail my long workouts, get plenty of rest and recover well.

I met up with Jarrin Thursday morning for some time on TRI, my first trip there since 2010. It was good to catch up with him and hear what's new, the most notable thing being the impending first birthday for Iris. I got about 12.5 miles in, and given the quick turnaround from the workout the night before, I was pretty happy with that.

Friday night I headed out to McLean High School for the Spider workout, but grew worried when I saw the packed parking lot. When I got around to the track, I saw a crowd watching a lacrosse game and headed home. I was a little light headed by the time I got a mile away, and I declined to make an attempt at doing the workout on the road.

In the morning, I got up and headed to my office, the last place I'd want to spend Saturday morning. Luckily, it's in the right place that I was able to drop off dry clothes and head out to the National Marathon course. I ran out to the Ellipse and waited for people to come by- Marco, with Burnham in tow, Murph, then Breezy and Lavar. Then I headed up to mile 10 near Capitol and M and waited for them to all come by. I was heading back to my office to fill in the rest of my time when Lisa Sikora popped up out of nowhere- her dad, Joe was running and we were evidently right on time to see him. I ran a few blocks with him then finished up about eight miles before I headed over to see Murph, Breeze, Panther and Beth as they started their St. Patrick's Day celebrations. I went home for a nap, then did a Park++, though on my way back, a driver forced me into a car's sideview mirror and my forearm started swelling like a mother. I ended up getting 80 miles for the week.

Sunday morning, Dickson and Emily picked me up to go up to BCC for a long workout. We met up with Dickson's friend Stefan and headed off on a 16.5 mile run through Chevy chase, Northwest, Rock Creek Park and Bethesda. From the very start I was feeling like I was hanging on, because Stefan definitely liked to push the pace, but as the run progressed, I found myself up there with him, somewhat consciously trying to take the pressure off of Dickson, whose real work would begin when we got back to the track.I enjoyed the loop, which gave me a chance to see some of the neighborhoods where I will be running once I move (I liked them) and once we entered Rock Creek Park, I truly enjoyed Ross Drive for the first time, perhaps because it was the first time I was running it without a banana-toting chap in tow. I eased off a bit when we hit the trails near the Line, but got back into it shortly after. We got back to the track in 1:45, changed shoes and started a 10k. Dave O'Hara was there to help, and I'm glad he was, because I could be of much help to Dickson at that point. I hung on the back of our little pack as we went through the mile in a little under 5:35, but on that fifth lap I just fell apart and stopped. Considering my longest run in more than a month had been the 14 miles I did on my second day back after my layoff, getting to 17.5 was enough of a stretch.

I was disappointed to not be able to do the meat of the workout, and hung my head a bit while trying to watch Dickson run a solid 33 minute 10k. It seems to me like he'll be ready for Boston. I ran a while longer to get 20, then had a few burgers and a chocolate milkshake to prepare me for the mild consequences of what I had done to myself. I was pleased to feel none of the soreness in my quads that had been plaguing me. I hope this would be a big step toward eliminating that pain which I feel could affect me in long races; it certainly did at Van Metre. That evening I did an easy three miles.

Figuring I was already on pace for some significant mileage this week, I stripped down my Monday evening run to a progression and cooldown for a little more than seven miles. I did my usual loop, designed for 10 minutes at 6:00 pace, 10 at 5:45 pace and 10 of up to 5:00 pace, though I was planning for more like 5:10-5:15. It was warm and a little humid, but far less oppressive than my alarmist protege had warned. My right hamstring felt a little odd on my way home on the metro  but once I was dressed to run and ready to go, it didn't hassle me. I came through the half mile in 2:40- 20 seconds fast, the mile in 5:25- 35 seconds fast, and reached the end of my first segment a minute early, so I ran in circles until my 10 minutes were up. The 5:45 segment was 8 seconds fast at the half, 15 fast at the mile and not sure about the next intermediate point, but I was 30 seconds fast for the whole segment. The uphills on Virginia and Barbour helped temper me a bit, but I was definitely faster than I needed to be. On the fast segment, I hit the half+ in 2:32 pace, then the mile+ in 5:05. I think I slowed a bit when I had to start crossing streets in Falls Church, but I finished up feeling great (and likely hitting two miles in 10:10-15) and took a nice slow jog to get home, completely soaked with sweat but not minding too much. I have some solid miles coming up Wednesday, hopefully a good moderate run or Spider workout Saturday and some cruise miles Tuesday, then it's time to rest and get ready for Cherry Blossom.

Where my season will go after that, I'm not exactly sure. As long as I run something decent, I'll send it off to the Pittsburgh Half people to see if I can get a comp. I have a feeling I likely won't, so then the options spread out:
A.Convince the Pittsburgh people to let me pay to run, despite the race being sold out
B. The Frederick Half
C. The LEAD Strong Half in Maryland, on a trail
D. The Maryland Half Marathon, all May 6, or
E. Try to get into the St. Luke's/Runner's World/Lehigh Valley Half in late April.

or, I could do two halves, a few weeks apart, starting with the
Park to Park Half in Waynesboro, then
A. the Historic Half in Fredericksburg (May 20),
B. the Run to Dream Half in Williamsburg (May 20),
C. the MAC Half Marathon in Maryland, or
D.the Alexandria Distance Festival Half. (May 27)
or....Cleveland (May 20)

Those late May races could be pretty warm. The Alexandria course looks awful, but it's so convenient. I'll probably go with either the Frederick or LEAD Strong. Or maybe I'll give up on running.

Fundamental failure

I had an opportunity to run a great half marathon this morning and I blew it by not being aware of where I was less than three minutes into the race.

I took Thursday off when I came home from work feeling exhausted. I ran a solid 10 miles the next morning on the Steelers loop at 6:28 pace. Got to sleep kind of early, then up at 8 Saturday to do a Fisherman's loop. The trip to Philadelphia with Dart, then the Millers, went smoothly, as did the packet pickup and dinner. I got to bed at nine, slept well until five, and felt great when I got up and warmed up to the start. I jogged a bit with Drea, Dart and the Butcher of Damascus, then waded around in the maroon corral (who was it who kept pronouncing it "coral" last year?).

After an unexplained delay, we got started. I had a significant blockade of women in the way, so I swung out to the right to get around them, but I was somehow behind some stupid little guy with his hair sprayed to look like an eyetalian flag. I caught up to a pack of dudes and settled in, and felt nothing out of the ordinary. I saw Wager, so I inched up to him and whispered "send 'em" and we exchanged a quick five. I slide back a little, and suddenly saw the first mile mark and looked at my watch- 5:02. JESUS H. CHRIST.

I immediately dropped back, terrified of the hole I had dug for myself. But in dropping back, I was firmly putting myself in no-man's land between the fast half-marathoners and the marathoners. This wasn't a situation like the GMU 5k, I made the right move in not trying to run with them. There were just so many guys up there, I didn't think they could all be running the half- I figured the majority of guys would be running the full to run 2:18. My plan was to just sit in a pack with them and cover real estate. I literally had no idea how fast I was running inthat first mile. I thought I might be cold and stiff from standing in the corral for so long and 5:17-5:19 was that fast. So, I ran by myself for four miles. 5:17, 5:19, 5:23, 5:31. I was pretty much on my five-mile goal time, but I got there the wrong way.

The group of guys chasing sub 2:19 passed me and I maybe hung on for 30 seconds, but I was tying up already. I hit another 5:31 and a 5:25 on a long straight. A pair of guys gapped me briefly, but I reeled them in and pulled away from them on a long uphill in mile eight, which I hit in 5:43. I was alone most of nine, hit that in 5:40, and thought I had a chance to at least match my 10 mile PR (54:24) with my 10-mile split, though my original pacing plan would have been more than 90 seconds ahead. Nope. Long uphill, mostly by myself, though I saw three guys in red ahead of me. Then, running down the road, with no pothole, my left ankle gave out and I yanked the hell out of it. I came though the 10th mile in 5:54, 54:50-- my second-fastest 10 mile, but not by much, and at this point, I consider my 10 mile PR to be my second softest, after the marathon.

The 11th mile was almost all downhill, but with my ankle probably sprained, I could bear only a 5:31. I came across a 180 turn, which, for some reason, this marathon/half-marathon had. That's ok in a little community 5k, but not in a metropolitan marathon, that's just lazy and unimaginative. I saw Curt Larimer, who I figured was doing the marathon, but did the half. Baressi passed me and I quietly encouraged him, but I was toast by this point. He was running the full, and him passing me was rough--he's very talented, but I should have been well ahead of most guys running the full marathon. I tried to hang, but it wasn't happening.

I thought maybe, with an 11-mile split of 1:00:21, I could keep things together for a pair of 5:30s and at least get in under 1:12. Nope. 5:48, 6:24 with the .1, and I lost ground to a guy in red in the last half mile. As it turned out, I had a healthy (90+) second lead over him at Freedom's Run.

It was just poorly done all around. One of the 13 splits was right. One was 15 seconds fast, the others were all slow. I was disappointed, but more embarrassed that such a stupid mistake, such unbridled enthusiasm led to my downfall. I was, for a while, a cockeyed optimist, thinking I could still run sub-5:20s on my own after a 5:02, but no. I tied up more and more as the race went on, and the last three miles, after stumbling, my calves got extremely tight, and following that, my shins. When I finished the race, I couldn't jog over to watch the marathoners go by.

Scott dropped out when I saw him, cramps forcing him to confront the misery of trying to push throug 13 more miles. We walked around, got some dry clothes and watched the finish. I saw Greg Byrnes, Brandon G., Michelle M., Dart, the Burhams, Mindy S., Katie Sheedy, Sam Howard (who qualified by a few seconds), and Jeff, though apparently I missed Cavanaugh, and left 30 secondds before Ali Belicose came by. I went back to the hotel, took a hot bath, packed and met the GRC people for a few minutes before Michelle Corkum and Andy picked me up. Michelle was eyeing a trials qualifier, having run 2:48 in LA earlier this year, but a last-minute cold left her feverish, achy and miserable and she dropped out at 13. Emily Ward thinks she broke her heel, and she was out at 14. Michelle M. felt the race slip away early and was out of it. Drea PRed in the half, and Dart PRed by more than six minutes, though she wanted to be two minutes faster. No men qualified, Kevin Pool once again coming close. In the marathon, the only person I think who made it was Sam Howard-- Liz Graham's protoge.

That all goes to demonstrate two things- Philadelphia is a hard course, and qualifying for the olympic trials is hard. As it should be. It's not something you can do on a lark, as a girl I met last year seemed to think when she said she and her sister were going to do it. You need to know exactly what you'll be dealing with as the race goes on, and I am positive that means overdistance training, a 30-mile long run. That all said, Hallinan and Blood ran under 1:05 in the half, which was pretty good.

That's disappointment right there

I rode in the backseat of Michelle's car, heading to Pittsburgh, knowing I let a great fall's worth of training, along with the summer full of misery while building my base, go to waste because I didn't figure out where a half-mile marker was so I could be sure I was going out appropriately. Part of what appealed to me about the race was that the marathon and half started together and shared the course for almost 13 miles. That seemed great to me, because I could run with Karl -- he'd have a good feel for the pace, and I could keep him company, help with the pace and he'd keep me calm. When he fell ill, the first thing I should have done was ensure that I had landmarks to check my pace, because I wouldn't know who was running 5:17s otherwise. It was simple preparation, and it was just as imporatant as the long runs, the track workouts, the moderate runs and progressions. A 5:02 mile, when I wanted to be runninr 5:17s, was devastating. I sat in the car, which was way too warm, wondering if I got too excited about club nationals after Richmond and lost focus, or if my heart went out of it when I found out Karl wouldn't be running--maybe I wanted to take responsibility for helping him out so I wouldn't focus on how easy it is to give up.

To be clear, I don't think I gave up, I think given what I did in the beginning miles, dealing with wind along the Delaware River in mile three, plus the trauma I put my legs through in mile nine, I was going about as fast as I could. And, in the end, I was 16 seconds off my PR. I should be happy that considering how much went wrong in several phases of the race, that I was a little more thana second per mile off my PR, but I just can't be happy with it. I was ready for more, much more, than I accomplished today. That PR, which I set when I was sick ,running alone in a cocurse that barely had a mile of flat stretch, let alone the 6.5 this had, in the rain, was from the hard 13-mile run Steve prescribed, it was more a time trial than a race, and I picked that course over Buffalo Creek because I wanted to be sure Philly wouldn't be harder and I would run faster if all went well. Getting congratulatory messages from well-wishers was tough, because if they took the time to care, I wanted to give them something worth seeing when the looked up my results.

Madeline suggested I peaked too early. Absolutely not, I feel like my training was spot on, but I just made the dumbest mistake possible, one that I had several opportunities to prevent, and the regret I feel going forward and the missed opportunity will go a long way toward ensuring I don't do it again. It will also haunt me until I take another crack at the half, probably in Pittsburgh. It starts on Thursday with the Gutbuster. As Mike Tomlin, whose quotations I relish for his locution, said after some boneheaded playing cost a few games in 2009, I'm about to unleash hell. That second loop is toast.

The fall is by no means a failure, I ran a great, strong race on my own at Freedom's Run and fough pretty hard in Richmond. If I had a blase attitude at all toward the race because I was looking ahead to nationals, well, time to seriously focus on that. It's a chance to make up for my failings in Philly.

Hot as bells

I don't deal well with heat. During college, when I lived in Pittsburgh during the summers and would visit my then-girlfriend in Centreville, I would try to run at the same time as I would in Pittsburgh and it was a total disaster. It was just so hot in Virginia. Well, I thought by living here in the spring I would adjust incrementally. To do that, however, I would need the temperature to ease upward, not jump to the mid-80s. Unfortunately, that is what happened.
Monday, I met up with Melissa for a jog around the cherry blossoms. The 1.5 mile jaunt from my office to our meeting place on the Mall, however, left me panting and parched. I invariably went too fast for the conditions, which she rectified, because she now only runs when we meet up. The heat was too much for her, too, and we truncated the run and I extended a little by running around east of the Capitol on shady streets that were thankfully light on traffic.
Tuesday I tried to explore Pimmet Hills for the first time since my awful December Saturday run. I first had to drop off a long-overdue book at the library on Leesburg Pike, so that part was pretty awful. I also had a weird sensation in my right hip, and that was making running uncomfortable. I ended up skipping one of the out and back loops and heading back to my apartment.
Wednesday, I foolheartedly showed up at B-CC for a 2.5 mile surge on the Capital Crescent Trail. After a warmup during which I really didn't feel like running and was already thirsty, we reached the appointed starting point- right in front of a bridge climbing over a road. Uphill starts blow. I tucked in between Klim, Murphy, Matias, Dirk and Mike and decided to just hold on as long as I could. They were shooting for 5:05s, I hadn't run that fast for one mile in months. Thankfully half-mile markers made the segmentation of the workout mercifully easier. We went through halves in 2:33, 2:30 (for a 5:03 mile, my season's best) then 2:33 again and about a minute before I started to drop. I was just so dry... I tried to spit but there was no fluid component and the detritus spread over my shoulder. Dirk encouraged me to stay focused, and I did, just at a slower pace that I would have liked. 2:35 for my next half, 5:08 for the second mile. Everyone else picked it up from there, so I lost a lot of my pack mentality, and they were too far ahead anyway, but even though my pace slowed to 2:37 for the last half mile, I dug in. I didn't run through the line as much as I would have liked, probably adding an extra second I really didn't need to be running, but I finished in 12:47. Lost in the agony of running in that heat was that it was technically a PR for an open distance, even though I obviously went much faster en route to 5ks, but the last time I ran about 2.5 miles was at the 2004 Peters Township 4k, when fueled by the fury of having gone off course the year before and maddened by the heat, I ran 12:51. I'll take it. The cooldown was brutally slow, and I was light headed as all get-out- stopping was always a bad idea on the way back.
Jimmy said his GPS watch indicated the second mile was long, so I had that going for me, which was nice, but he is a Delaware track alumus and thus an associate of my arch frenemy ELI, so it might be a clever ruse to lull me into a false sense of confidence..

Misery

Oh Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood. I'm so sick.
I've given up on the mouthpiece because it dried me out too much, and I hoped that would help clear up more sore throat, but son of a gun, I was just getting worse. I slept in Thursday to get a little extra rest and scuttled my plans to run to work, instead doing an extended Hains Point loop after work. When I hit the wind, I scrapped my plans to do a short fartlek to get me pepped up for the 10k Saturday. I also desperately had to go to the bathroom, but all of the portable toilets were locked. I made it to the bathroom on Hains Point then just kind of slogged on, though things got a little better when the wind was at my back. I decided against running 12 miles and cut it to 10.
Little good is going to come from trying to stick to my recent volume of 80 miles a week. At this point I'm just trying to get by, not keep my training volume up. I paid $50 for the race this weekend, more for the train ride, and have been looking forward to it for months. I've never run, nor even seen the Monument Ave 10k before, and what a time to see it. Last time I lived in Richmond, 16,551 people entered the race. Last year, almost 33,000 did. I'm not often hung up on numbers, because those people won't be adding depth to the race field where I focus, but man, that's a lot of people.
I took Friday off. I wanted to sleep more than I wanted to get a three-mile prerace run in. I might change my mind, go for a spin around noon, but I'm not sure if loosening my legs will do as much good as staying warm and dry right now. It's raining in DC. My train gets in to Richmond too late to do a run down there, because Emily Ward and I are going to dinner with her neighbors.
I think a nap will do me more good.
Jon Molz will be shooting for 30:00 tomorrow. I almost wish I could watch him go for it, rather than probably struggle in several minutes behind. Matt Llano will probably be running a minute and a half faster than that at the Stanford Invitational. Jesus.... Go Spiders!
In other Richmond Sports Backers-related news, I'm no longer doing the Patrick Henry Half Marathon in August. Joe Wildfire's wedding is that evening near Morraine State Park in Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Although I could possibly make it to both, it's not worth the stress. Although I would have liked to run the race, it's friggin' Joe. And he's getting married.