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| A view of DC on the Mount Vernon Trail |
For my long run this last Saturday, I did TEN whole miles! I probably shouldn't have, but I was scheduled to do 7 on the training plan, but missed last Tuesday's morning run (I didn't wake up for the run - FIRST time ever missing a training run from oversleeping!) which called for 3.5 miles, so I wanted to combine them to get all the miles in at once. PLUS, no better time to do it while on vacay in the DC area (Arlington)! I'm visiting my BFF who just had a beautiful baby girl. They live right near an awesome bike/running trail - the Custis Trail - that goes on almost as long as you want to go and connects with other trails as well.
I did a 4-miler on the trail on Thursday. I went west on it for about 2 miles and turned around. The trail is mainly a bike path, so runners have to be aware of speedy bikes that fly by. Especially if you need to pass a slower runner/walker... you seriously have to check your blind spot before you pass. I didn't need to do that too many times because I was going pretty darn slow! The trail is very hilly and my Savannah trained body is not conditioned to hills like this. I love it though. Makes things more interesting and challenging. I tried to fly down the hills to make up for my time, but my body didn't let me – well really, my knees didn't like the downhill, so I took it easy. Damn 30s!
The morning of my 10-miler started out cloudy and I expected the clouds to stay and even get a bit of rainfall. Nope. It got sunny! Which was bad because I didn't put any sunblock on my face or tattoo. But even though it was sunny, it never got too humid - not Savannah humid anyway. The weather was awesome. I decided to do a warm up walk to the path (about half a mile) so that I could do a cool down walk back as well to add another mile to my distance (so I covered about 11 miles, but I am not counting the warm up and cool down to my PDR).
I decided to try heading east on the Custis trail this time, because I knew it merged with one of my favorite trails - the Mount Vernon Trail, which runs along the Potomac River. It even hooks up to the Wilson Bridge trail that Joel and I used to run when we lived there (I didn't go THAT far). The first half of my run was awesome and I felt great. Probably because most of it was downhill. I decided into my run that I'd take a 5 minute pit stop at the 5 mile turn around and eat my Honey Stinger chews and stretch. A bad idea. The stopping was good for catching my breath, but I don't think the chews or the stretching helped at all. :( I might have eaten too many, too fast because after I started back up again, my tummy felt weird. (Not so bad that I had to make a pit stop, though) And the stretching didn't help because I started feeling my hips get a bit sore on the way back.
So I went about 3 miles on the Custis Trail and 2 miles on the Mt Vernon Trail. On the last 3 miles of the Custis Trail is where I pretty much fell apart / gassed out / wanted to stop. The beginning of the 8th mile was ALL uphill. I tried to just keep a running motion – even though I felt like I was going super slow – but my thighs were not feeling it. So at some points I had to slow down and walk. The uphill didn't really let up until the beginning of the 9th mile where there were some declines and somewhat level ground. I ran out of water at this point, so I stopped my watch and mooched some A/C and water from a Giant that was on the trail. I started the watch again when I got back on the trail and had one more mile to go. This one wasn't so bad, although at the VERY END was a huge ass incline. On the uphill I was chanting to myself, "dig, dig, DIG!" Then finally I heard that sweet Garmin "BEEP" and reached the top of the hill and stopped my watch for T-E-N miles!! WOO!!
Despite my crappy last miles, I am pretty damn proud of myself for accomplishing this distance!!! I even had negative splits on the great first half of the run! Then it was all uphill from there. It really was an AWESOME trail. I would LOVE to train on this trail. I actually overheard one girl in a running duo say to her partner, "So we've done at least 13 miles, right?" And they just kept going and chatting as they passed me. I ate their dust. Awesome. I want to be able to run an EASY 13 miles and be able to have conversations while doing it! ONE OF THESE DAYS!!!
It's taper week next week with the training group. I sure as hell NEED it! I also start a 5-week CrossFit class on Wednesday... looking forward to getting my ass kicked! :)
