Sunday, December 2, 2007

Once More

This weekend there were two races I wanted to do, a club half-marathon on Saturday and a metric marathon today. But since I didn't want to pay $40 for the metric marathon, and I like to do the worst first, I flipped the races and ran them both as virtuals yesterday and today.

The club Half would have been free for me since I'm a club member. Can you imagine, a free supported Half-Marathon? For non-members, it's $5. You can read the metric marathon account (and splits) in my last post.

That's a lot of running for me for a weekend, 16.3 miles and 13.1 miles back-to-back. I lay in bed a long time this morning feeling cozy and warm before I finally arose, laced up my Brooks Addictions and headed out to MP 7 on the W&OD Trail behind my house. After my virtual metric marathon of 2:19:58 (8:36) yesterday, I was sore and listless today. No energy. (Left: MP 7 on the W&OD on the bridge. Beyond, the blue & red sign in the second storey window is one of the two Bikram Yoga studios in the DC area. Once you do your 14 miles by running to the trail's head and back, you could go over there to get relief for your aches and pains by doing deep stretching routines in Hot Yoga.)

That was immediately apparent as my splits today started out about 30 seconds slower than yesterday's. Going to the turnaround at the trail's end, I ground out 8:30, 8:38, 8:38, 8:44, 8:44, 8:30 and 8:49. 1:00:35 (8:39) for seven miles, 3:19 slower than yesterday.

Coming back was just a slog. I felt like I was deep in the throes of a marathon and I worked on resisting the urge to walk. 8:57, 8:47, 9:07, 9:02, 9:14, 9:19, 9:14, with a finishing time of 2:04:19 (8:53) for 14 miles. A slippage of 4:37 from yesterday. My pace was off by 20 seconds per mile a day after running 16 miles. (Below: Looking WB on the W&OD Trail in Falls Church.)

Along the way, I passed by my virtual half-marathon finish line in 1:56:05 (8:52). Too bad I couldn't claim the time I passed the same line yesterday, 1:51:40, but yesterday I was working on my virtual metric marathon and you can only do one race at a time.

I just wanted to break two hours for the half today. I also wanted to see if I could do two long races, albeit virtuals, in two days. I have run thirty miles for the weekend and dropped nine pounds since Friday. I'm going out for pizza now.

8 comments:

Danielle in Iowa in Ireland said...

Gees, I don't run that much in a week! Enjoy that pizza!

Rich said...

9lbs? Wow!

Sunshine said...

Ah! The pizza cure! Should be effective. Do you have a weight-objective?

Yes, I love the snow too... and the 5 inches we got yesterday is going to be a keeper. We should have a white Christmas.

Rainmaker said...

That is some serious running for a single weekend, congrats though on pushing through!

Perhaps even more important than the Yoga place, is what's not exactly visible in the photo but also occupies that same space - the smoothie place! I usually by there after a long ride/run. Good stuff.

Rhea said...

Nice times! Your training is going better than mine. We missed you in Tahoe the other week. I'm counting on you doing Leg 6 next year ... the race is only 6 months away!

nylisa said...

Wow that is a LOT of running over a weekend! Kudos! Hehehe, and pizza makes it worth it!

ShirleyPerly said...

Sounds like great training for the Disney Goofy Challenge! Are you doing it in January?

Thanks for stopping by my blog. My next marathon is Louisville, KY, in April. I've enjoyed running and cycling along the W&OD trail 2 yrs ago. If I'm up in DC again, I'll contact ya.

Enjoy the pizza!

David said...

Sounds like you were a quart low. I hope the pizza gave you some buoyancy.
That's some serious mileage.