Cross Country skiing/ice skating

When you get to the 20 mile run, you pray for good conditions and healthy legs. Thankfully, I had one of the two. I had my new custom-made inserts to help keep my knees and feet in line, but the ice chunks and choppy course definitely wore me out. The worst part was that our fastest mile was two minutes slower than my normal mile and the average mile was three and a half minutes slower! There wasn't a single mile that didn't have us running on ice or snow or jumping over mounds of ice or crossing dangerous slick hills.

The course had us running on trails that would have been gorgeous on any other day...but not with this weather. I doubt that there were any good trails out there this weekend.

Total miles: 20 (though felt like more with all of the side to side)

Doing the ice dance

We only had time for 3 miles, but it was a very careful down and back to the Jefferson Memorial since it was the only path with clear sidewalks.

Total miles: 3

ice pellets

Icey sloppy yucky stuff falling from the sky. Schools and the feds all closed early. No Pacer's for me tonight.

mix it up

Monday lunch-time run. We had a little more time and tacked on an additional 1/2 mile to do a nice 4 mile run on the mall area. We discussed the impending snow, but for the first time in a few weeks it actually felt warm outside.

Total miles: 4

Hills in DC

Rox is back. She kept saying she was out of shape, but she's doing great. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to train for an Ironman. We did the same loop I had done the week before during lunch, throwing in that State Dept hill. Though my shins are hurting, think it's time for new shoes.

Total miles: 3.5 miles

too cold to run

I have a rule, it's hard to stick to it, but if it's below 20 degrees, it's too cold to run. The cold air stings in my lungs and I end up with this "runner's hack" for the next few days. I gave up my Tuesday night run with Pacer's since it was 17 degrees with a windchill that made it feel like it was in the single digits

Hill Training...on a long run?

The National Marathon has a big hill that we have to climb around mile 19 so this long run had a few BIG hills thrown in to add the extra challenge. I don't mind hills too much, I tend to attack them, but they certain take their toll on my knees and hamstrings.

This long run took us through Del Ray and Old Town, all familiar territory for me. Jo met up with us to to do the last five miles. We ended up doing 6 miles before the rest of the group got there, so we cut the tail end of this course short and turned around at the Wilson Bridge.

Total miles: 18