Running Commentary

Rolling country hills

I continue to be baffled by the difference in run quality from one day to the next. Today was rather hilly and all on roads and I felt...pretty good. Not free of every issue, but pretty good. I ended up running without my colleagues because they stayed up too late having fun, while I was a dork and went back to my room on the early side. It was probably for the best since I didn't have to worry about anyone else's pace.

The place we were staying was gorgeous--lots of open fields and gorgeous views. There weren't a lot of roads around, but I knew there was one long road leading to the (very cute) downtown Middleburg strip, so I just headed that way. I had thought at the last minute to bring my iPod so that was great. In fact, I felt like country-appropriate songs came on more than usual (Dixie Chicks, etc.) so maybe my iPod is psychic.

The hill down to the main road was a bit steep and I took it slow both going down and coming back up. Otherwise it was rolling, which is generally my favorite since it mixes it up and forces you to focus on your pace. It was pretty chilly but perfect for me. The two things that bothered me on the long, windy road were a pair of dogs behind a fence that went nuts each time I went by and traffic going way too fast for a road like that. But we weren't all that far from Washington, so I should expect it.

I'm not sure how long the run was exactly because I had an issue with my watch. I think I was running for about an hour and despite crawling up the hill leading to the resort, I did not feel that dead. It was a good run.

We spent most of the day "retreating" and then headed back to the big city after lunch. I spent a couple of hours in the office and then was on schedule for my usual gym visit. I wasn't feeling super motivated but I did a decent amount of lifting.

I have another trip scheduled for tomorrow--a day trip to Chicago for a meeting. I hope to get in a workout before having to leave for the airport and it will be quite early. Matt is in LA again, or on his way, I guess--we keep missing each other! I look forward to his return this weekend.

Playing it safe

I was planning on running this morning (it was a cold one) but I noticed that the inside of my knee was still sore when I stepped out of bed. I took it as a sign that it wouldn't be a terrible idea to take an extra biking day. I am really hoping to have a decent run tomorrow morning with a couple of my colleagues at our retreat--although the hotel's location leads me to believe our route will be hilly--so I told myself this would increase the chances of that. (Knowing my knee, it probably won't, but I am trying to be positive!) So I lowered the heat, opened the window in the basement (brr!) and cranked out a good workout. I watched two teenager-focused shows, "Gossip Girl" and "90210". I have never watched them back-to-back but I noticed a lot of (silly) similarities! As for my knee, it did not bother me and I did my usual hill workout. I hope the "rest" pays off.

I am skipping the gym tonight since we'll be en route to our retreat in the late afternoon and then having dinner. Being social is always a good choice in these situations!

Irritated

It was cold this morning--not cold enough to wear pants, but longer shorts (and gloves). Actually, I think it is a lot colder tonight than it was this morning because the wind is howling.

I don't want to dwell on the fact that my run wasn't so great this morning. Actually, I felt pretty good on the run--out and back on the Capital Crescent Trail--but I had a few telltale knee twinges that I knew would mean that my hot spot would be irritated for the rest of the day. It's just kind of the way it goes and I can't seem to predict when I will irritate it. I could bike for days and then have it happen, or I could do a longish run and feel great. And it's not like the pain is unbearable, but I am reminded every time I get up from sitting for a few hours after the run.

Anyway--aside from those complaints, I had a good day. Work flew by because we were crashing on a bunch of stuff, and then I went to the gym. The heat was blasting in there but you could only feel it in certain spots (where the vents were, I guess). I think there was one over the bike I was using--note to self to use a different one on the next cold day.

Matt is back from his quick trip to New York but I am gone tomorrow night on a work retreat and then Matt is off to California again by the time I get back on Thursday! And I am in Chicago for the day on Friday for another meeting. We are busy bees!

Beloved Monday

I woke up pretty easily this morning and I thought, maybe today won't feel kind of slow and blah like my recent Mondays. But then I looked in the mirror and saw a big sty under my eye--lovely! It has gotten better throughout the day but is still a little itchy. Of course it didn't interfere with my biking/television-watching ability: as long as I could get my contacts in, I was good to go. In fact, I think I biked pretty hard today, judging by the way my legs have felt the rest of the day. I didn't even hear Matt yell goodbye when he left! (He went to New York.) I was also watching a rather bloody "Dexter" episode, so I think I was distracted. I balanced that out with a less-gruesome "Grey's"--but definitely some heavy shows for the early morning hours.

My knee didn't bother me while I was biking, but I noticed on my walk from the car to my office that the back of my knee was achy. This is something that has plagued me off and on for years and I've gotten several different diagnoses, from popliteal tendonitis to a hamstring injury to "that's just where you are feeling your arthritis." It's not really painful; it just feels like I need to put my leg up on something and stretch, if that makes any sense. Anyway--I am keeping an eye on it and it didn't bother me tonight at the gym, so that was good. I did one new chest thing tonight and I have a sinking feeling that I am going to be very sore in the morning.

Matt is at a very cool event tonight: 24 Hour Plays on Broadway (http://www.playbill.com/news/article/123379.html). It is a benefit which, according to Playbill, "attracts some of entertainment's biggest names as they join forces to participate in a rite of extreme live performance: writing, directing, and performing six original short plays, all in just 24 hours." When they say big names, they mean it--everyone from Julia Stiles to my personal faves, former "ER"-ers Maura Tierney and Julianna Margulies. He is under strict orders to secure autographs for me at the after-party. Next year I am going to plan better so I can go too!

Better today

I let myself sleep in this morning and felt well-rested (for once) when I finally did get out of bed. I heard the wind howling, though, and I had a feeling that the temperature would be significantly lower than it was during yesterday's run. It was definitely on the brisk side, but only because of the wind. I would much rather fight the wind than the humidity.

My legs definitely felt more normal today than they did yesterday, although my knee bothered me a little bit and I have a feeling that the bruising from the fall contributed. It's hard to tell since it's all in kind of the same area. But paying attention to my form (i.e. clenching my butt) helps that area, too--so at least there was that. In general I felt slow on the (minor) hills and pretty strong on the flat parts. I ran mostly in Chevy Chase and wondered where all the stray leaves were--I guess leaf cleanup is more precise in the tonier neighborhoods!

The rest of my day was pretty relaxing, except for the 20 minutes I spent in Whole Foods. I don't know why I go there in the middle of the day on the weekends. It was extremely crowded and there were way too many people walking around pushing their carts aimlessly with one hand and holding their cell phones to their ears in the other. Aaargh!

I biked tonight while waiting for my lasagna to cook. I don't think I ate enough all day though and didn't feel too energized. But I did get to watch another episode of "Gossip Girl" so I can't complain too much...

Too humid for Nov.

I had been looking forward to today's run all week because I planned to meet up with Liz (my idea--she agreed to slow down for me). Although I enjoyed the company, today just wasn't my day. First of all, it was super humid and already 65 degrees at 9 am. Not my kind of weather. Second of all, my knee has felt better in recent days than it did today. Thirdly, I slipped on some leaves and wiped out, right on the inside of my knee where all my other issues are! It was just a little cut and bruise but I wasn't happy about it. Otherwise, we had great conversation and I was definitely glad to be distracted from some of my complaints. We started our run in Georgetown and did the loop I used to do with Camille on Sundays. The last few miles were on the Canal which was chock full of muddy puddles! It would have been kind of fun to dodge them if my legs weren't feeling like lead and my knee wasn't hurting me. Ah, the joys of a sub-par run (but thanks, Liz, for not noticing too much!) I will try and remember to ice both the new and old aches tonight.

The rest of my day went by quickly. My stomach has been bothering me a little ever since I got home from running--I think I am still a little dehydrated from the humidity--but I rallied to have lunch with a grad school friend in town for the weekend. Then I drove out to Dulles to pick up Matt and we took the opportunity to swing by a nearby Wegmans. We could spend all day there--it really is a huge store. We finally got back home around 6 and plan to stay in tonight. Although I didn't do anything too strenuous today, I am pooped!

Rainy run!

The Jets pulled through and won a big one over the Patriots last night, but not before the game went into overtime. That meant I was up a lot later than planned, so it was not easy to get up and outside into the rain this morning. But it was actually only misting a little and it was quite warm. I wanted to stay on the bike path as much as I could to avoid traffic lights as I got a bit of a late start! So my loop was really more of an out-and-back but I had my iPod and I was feeling okay so I didn't mind. My knee was a bit twingey today and it was probably good that a lot of the run was on gravel/dirt. I tried to take it really easy so that I can hopefully have a couple of decent runs this weekend as well--we'll see.

Since I didn't get a chance to lift yesterday, I went after work today. A bit out of the ordinary for me on a Friday, but Matt is still in L.A. so I was making my own schedule tonight. The gym was definitely a lot quieter than it is on weeknights! I didn't do a whole lot and now I am looking forward to a couple of hours of catching up on TV...if I can stay awake!

Happy weekend to all--enjoy tracking the NCAA regionals if you are anything like me!

Entertaining myself

I thought about adding one more running day in this week instead of biking today, but am glad I didn't (although it would have been nice to have a rainy run as I can't remember the last one). I think I was attacking the hill intervals really hard (too hard) at the beginning of my workout this morning because my knee started to bother me all of a sudden. Nothing too terrible, but enough to remind me that I didn't need to kill myself in order to get a good trainer workout.

I watched two extremely different shows today on the bike--"Gossip Girl" and "Dexter." Talk about polar opposites--but both are entertaining in their own way.I think I did a good job of keeping my heart rate up throughout the workout, but since my actual heart rate monitor needs a battery, I can't really be sure. Effort and sweat level are good gauges for me.

I would normally be leaving work to go to the gym for my second workout of the day right about now, but I am actually heading home soon to host some football watching. The Jets (Matt's favorite team) are playing the Patriots (his cousin's favorite team) tonight so the aforementioned opposition is coming over for dinner. Sadly, Matt will be en route to his home-away-from-home, L.A. But we hope for domination anyway!

Moving, but not too quickly

Today was another running day for me. The house was chilly when I woke up, but it was not nearly as cold as yesterday when I got outside--the gloves were off after a couple of miles. I did some hamstring strengthening yesterday so maybe that was why my legs felt like bricks this morning...my knee was doing well but I felt like I was running in quicksand at times! I think we all know (and love) that feeling.

I did my route that sort of circles around American U. and definitely noticed a couple of their fast men on their morning runs. Other than that I saw mostly cars and people walking their dogs--no exiting sights to report. It's been so long since I ran downtown, let alone on the Mall or near the Capitol, where I hear they are setting up the Inauguration platform. I don't mind the 'burbs and love having easy access to the Capital Crescent Trail, but I do miss some of my quintessential Washington runs.

My day went quickly, which was surprising considering it stayed pretty dreary all day--something that usually makes for a sleepy stretch in the afternoon. There was lots of talk in the public health world about this article in the New York Times about Google's new flu surveillance system. Interesting stuff-Google always comes up with (and finances) the good ideas.

Aside from more shenanigans from the trainers at the gym (standing on top of a stability ball for minutes at a time), things were pretty status quo. Just another 6 weeks or so until the onslaught of New Year's resolution folks...

The watch never lies...right?

I must admit that it was a little chilly stepping outside this morning. But once I got going I was perfectly happy with the temperature. Unfortunately once the temperature drops below 50, I start getting chapped from my salty sweat, so my face has been burning all day. That is one thing I always forget about the weather that I prefer.

I was very confused on my run this morning. I did the exact same route (at least according to my memory) as last week, but the times on my watch at various checkpoints were completely different--like 5 minutes off. I probably approached the trail in a little different way today and that added time, but the rest of the route was an out-and-back. My turnaround wasn't where I expected it to be, but I also didn't want to be too late to work. And right when I was wondering about all this, a black cat ran right across my path! Eeek! That cat was the only other runner I saw--probably a combination of chilly weather and the Veteran's Day holiday for federal workers.

My office-mate (we are very much like roommates after almost a year together now!) took advantage of a quiet day to go jean shopping at lunch. Well, she wanted jeans. I knew I would just get down about my body after trying on a bunch of things that didn't fit--and that's exactly what happened. No matter how proud I am of being a "fit" person, I have never accepted that my body type will never look like a traditional "runner." I have lots of muscles and hips that remain no matter if I am doing more or less running. I should accept what I've got after almost 32 years but somehow every time I get into a dressing room, it's like I am trying on bathing suits in high school again. So that's my rant for the day.

Speaking of muscles, I was of course back in the gym tonight doing my thing. The trainers were showing off again by setting up ridiculous circuits and bragging about how they can do 90 pushups in a row. At least I can rely on them for entertainment!

Monday morning usual

Ah, Mondays. Gotta love them. Actually, I am probably the most awake on Monday mornings because I've gotten a decent amount of sleep. Last night I tried really hard to stay awake long enough to finish the book that I'm reading and I just could not do it. I have so few pages left though that it would be really sad if I didn't finish it tonight.

So anyway, I don't have anything too exciting to report from my bike workout this morning, unless of course you are a "Gossip Girl" fan. I am totally into that show and love that it is really filmed in New York and not on a studio lot in L.A. My knee didn't feel amazing today--I had a few twinges--but I got through my usual hill intervals just fine.

The gym was very crowded tonight--must be because no one was that interested in the Monday Night Football game. I started a new book on the stationary bike and then lifted. I think my lifting routine is getting a little stale. I could ask one of the trainers who are often wandering around aimlessly, but I usually do better watching what strong-looking people are doing and then mimicking it, so I'll start keeping an eye out.

Re-learning to run tired

I must say that today was really a beautiful fall day and I was happy to be out there for a run. My knee didn't feel as great as it did yesterday, but I think I was probably a little tired from that run. My legs just need to get on board with running tired, something I used to be so good at!

I repeated my route from last Sunday, which is especially pretty on a clear day. It starts and ends on (different) main roads, but the middle is pretty quiet and there is that several-mile stretch where there are bikers on my left and the Potomac on my right in the distance. I also took a little detour into Glen Echo Park, which was a thriving amusement park from about 1900 to the late 1960s. Now they have art classes and pottery lessons and puppet shows and stuff but some of the old amusement park stuff is still there so it is an interesting sight. I think it would scare me a little if no one else was around.

My knee really wasn't too bad, but of course I hate it when it bothers me at all. And I usually know when it will be sore the rest of the day, and it was. I just have to remember that it could be (and was) a lot worse--and remind myself that my cross-training days are still necessary.

Speaking of cross training, I did do a little biking this afternoon. I am making headway with my backlog of DVR'd shows because I also watched while I was ironing for an hour yesterday! Matt was working most of the afternoon and I tried to be productive at Bed Bath and Beyond but it already looks like I'll be making a return trip (and I mean "return"). But all in all it was a nice and relaxing day.

Short day

I wasn't as productive today as I had hoped to be (shopping for curtains, etc.) but I did have a good run this morning. I did one of my longer weekend routes--the same one I did last Saturday, in fact. It starts out uphill and my legs felt really heavy for the first few miles. I stopped and stretched a bit and that seemed to help, as did the flat part of the course. The theme of today's run was definitely "fall" (as in the season, not the accident). The weather was warm and muggy, but there were leaves everywhere, and especially on the bike trail the last few miles, when I kept feeling them landing on me and then floating off. It made it very pretty. I haven't had too much soreness since I've been back from my run (I also biked a little bit as soon as I got home to hopefully loosen up the legs) and I'm happy with how things went.

I'm off to see Dar Williams shortly. Matt is opting out of the girly music and I am meeting a friend for dinner beforehand. Unfortunately one of my other friends, who I haven't seen for ages, is sick. We'll miss her but I hope the concert is a good one.

Trail blazing

I stayed up too late reading last night--usually this is impossible as I tend to fall asleep with the book open--and I was not happy to hear the alarm. Grrr. I finally made my way downstairs and out the door for my run--I wasn't sure how my knee would feel since it had been achy last night so I was a little apprehensive. I also didn't have a good route in mind and I usually like to have that set before I head out. So I kind of made it up as I went along. I added a little bit in the Glover Park woods I used to run in several times a week when I lived closer to them. I am super slow on trails and there were a few steep steps and downhills, but I was careful. In general, my legs just felt heavy and sore today--maybe from biking? My knee wasn't great but I've definitely had worse. I was bothered today mostly by the humidity--it was only in the 60s but the air seemed way too heavy for November. I hear the fall is supposed to return in a couple of days and I am looking forward to it.

It seemed like everyone in the office was working too hard for a Friday. We were all looking forward to the end of the day, I think. I am hoping to have a relaxing weekend including a Dar Williams concert tomorrow night. Happy weekend to all!

A trainer ride in two parts

As I was falling asleep last night (I did get to bed on the early side), Matt asked me if I could drive him up to the Metro in the morning at 7:20 am so he could make an 8 am train to Union Station. I knew that would be smack in the middle of my bike workout, so I wasn't thrilled, but it wasn't too bad. I got through an episode of "Gossip Girl" (my new obsession) and a little bit of an "ER" episode before I was called to come upstairs. I wrapped myself in a towel and headed out with Matt. He made the train and all was good. As for my workout, I came home to finish it and continued doing the hill intervals I had started. Both knees were a little sore but nothing to really complain about.

I don't have anything too exciting to report from work today...it was another warm-but-dreary day and I was less tired than yesterday but still feeling the yen for an afternoon nap that of course I couldn't take. Wouldn't workplaces be more productive if everyone had a mat to nap on just like in nursery school? I think so.

The gym was empty tonight. I was just about the only woman in the lifting area. Maybe everyone has started their weekend early? I'm certainly glad that the end of this long-seeming week is almost here.