Here I go again!

Just entering my morning weight... I am only 4 lbs away from my target weight.

Will run this afternoon after work. Getting excited about the race Sunday, it's so nice to see my co-workers exercising and having fun! Happy Friday!

Official results: 37:27. Finished 20th out of 136 women, and 7th in my age group, out of 32.

Team results are wrong, they forgot to put my time there!!! Cheaters! Once they fix them we'll be in 10th place, out of 13 corporate co-ed teams, not last place... last year we were 2nd, what's up with that? In any case, it was indeed a fabulous race in the rain! Team Roadbuilders had fun, I got a PR, I beat two former co-workers that always always used to beat me... 

I felt ok the first 3 miles, but my breathing seemed too hard... I kept pushing anyways... Legs felt ok, right shin slightly tight. I was doing just a bit slower than 7:30 miles, which is about what I was looking for. Around mile 4 I thought I saw Brent and Amy, former co-workers that are super fast and always beat me! I started thinking how cool it would be to beat them... impossible... maybe not? Let's try! So I passed them! Brent gave a little bit of a fight but I pushed harder and sprinted as hard as I could, down a hill and up the hill and my breathing was so hard, I was wheezing, almost passed out! Never pushed myself harder, that last quarter mile was eternal but I crossed the finish line before Brent and Amy! So happy! (they weren't really training for this race as I was, so it shouldn't count, but I'm happy either way)

Ok, back to the books!

So proud of Bonnie for doing so great in Eugene!!! Very cool!

No running... Slept 2 hours last night, kept getting up to review something for the final exam...

Went to work and went to school. The final exam was 10,000 worse than I could have possibly imagine... Ok maybe I'm exagerating a bit, but it was bad. I understand that they want to know how much we can do, but introducing a new concept in every single problem is just not right. They are measuring not what we learned but how fast we can think under pressure in a crowded room... some of us just don't do well there. That's why most classes have problem sets or papers that you turn in, so you can prove that you know the material even if you are not good at taking tests. Unlike in the midterm, every single person in the room stayed till the very end. We all got out of the classroom and looked at each other in disbelief. All those long hours, weekends studying. All for nothing.

There's a chance that everyone did as bad as I did and he'll curve the grades... But there's a big chance I failed. I should know by next week. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my freedom. Thanks everyone for your good thoughts!

After work I ran on the C&O Canal to Fletcher's boathouse and back. It has been raining so much, the trail was pretty wet but doable. Except for one little part... there was a lot of water, but there was a wooden beam in the middle of it... So I thought I could jump on top of the beam and be ok... I forgot the beam would be slippery, so I slipped and fell and my right lower leg landed on the beam. I have a beautiful bruise. But, like my 20 years younger twin Maddy, I got up and kept on running! No big deal. I'm getting better at falling, ha!

Other than that it felt good. No pain!

Same as yesterday, this time the trail was a litle less wet. Felt good!

Got up and thought it was too late to run to the office, so I turned on the shower... then I realized I had time to run to the office. So I packed my little backpack and I ran. Felt good! It rained hard all night, but thankfully it didn't as I was running, though the humidity must be close to 100%. Is there such a thing?

For those of you interested, Saucony has a contest called "We know", you have to come up with a catchy phrase, like "We know pain is relative because we run", "We know life is good because we run", etc., and you can win $1,000  in merchandise. I came up with three lame ones... "We know giving up is not an option", "We know there's beauty in exhaustion", "We know the finish line is only the beginning"... Who knows, maybe the person choosing them thinks they're cute... I'll have to come up with something cleverer...

http://www.saucony.com/we_know_contest.aspx

Still cloudy and rainy here in DC, we haven't seen the sun since last Thursday, I think!!!

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Ran home after work, feeling good.

Ran a little bit after work before heading to a friend's birthday party. Nice and easy on Rock Creek park.

I ate too much last night so my weight was terrible today... need to continue watching myself...

Ran the Pacer's half marathon pacing my friend Ashley - My goal was to get her to run sub 2-hours... her goal was just to finish... I didn't hit my goal but she hit hers, and got a 1-minute PR. It was nice and slow, I was so glad I didn't try to push myself to PR... though it would've been a nice course to do it... It's hard being a pacer - you don't know how to motivate your runner... you don't want to push too hard but that's also what you're there for, so it's finding the right balance... A fun day with a fun friend, and I talked to some other running friends at the finish line. There should be several nice running pics of me this time - I need to find ONE good picture of me running other than the one from 5 years ago and the one when I had my mouth wired!

Next weekend is the Capitol Hill Classic 10k, I want to PR on that one. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

Have a great Sunday! The sun is out in DC after being gone on vacation for almost 10 days!

Slow recovery run after work, but hilly - I need to get used to hills if I want to PR on Sunday's 10k and crush fellow fastrunningbloger Eric!

Went up 28th to R, then into the park, then up Massachusetts to Wisconsin, then down to the park again and up the Dumbarton Oaks hill.

Nice and easy run at lunch in sunny - yes, I said SUNNY DC! Finally! Went on the canal to Fletcher's Boathouse and back to the office. Did a couple of faster intervals. Tomorrow I'm planning on doing a few Capitol Hill repeats.

I mapped the profile of the hill with this awesome website:

http://www.heywhatsthat.com/profiler.html

and it says the hill is slightly longer than 0.4 miles, and climbs 112 feet, 4.8% grade on average... I know it doesn't seem much, but for some reason it kills me. I think the main problem is that you go down it first, and as you go down you see everyone struggling up it on the other side of the street... if you went up it first and then down it, you'd be thinking "Ok I just need to get up there and it's all downhill from there" but noooooo, after you are up it it's all flat till the .5-ish mile to the finish line...

What do you think, is it a hill worth mentioning, or am I being a sissy?

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Pictures from this weekend's race - You can tell by my big smile that I did not run very hard!

Ran from the office to Capitol Hill after work, and went up and around the hill 3 times before running home. First I tried to run up really fast... and 10 seconds later I realized that wouldn't work... So I slowed down a bit and made it up as fast as I felt it was feasible (which was pretty slow)... The first time up took me 1 minute 44 seconds, the 2nd I couldn't measure cause I didn't hit the right button on my watch, and the third took me 1 minute 43 seconds... So it sounds like it's OK hill training, about what Bonnie suggested... I feel a little better prepared to run up the hill on Sunday's race.

So, this morning, I woke up, showered, and weighed myself... 4 times... I tapped the screen thingy to make sure it wasn't a 7 instead of a 1... nope, it's a 1... I hadn't seen a 1 that wasn't following a 4 in about 5 years...  Sooooo, I ran into my closet and dusted off a bag that has an old pant suit that hasn't fit me in 5 years... and sure enough, it fits! Happy, happy, happy.

To celebrate, I ate 2 cup cakes from my office mate's birthday party.... smart, ha?

Ran to the office from home in the morning. Very humid but not too hot, a very nice morning. Felt tired... probably should've waited more time before running after doing the hill workout yesterday.

I wonder how well I'll do on Sunday... it's supposed to rain; I hope that doesn't slow me down too much. I've been training more than last year, I'm less heavy than last year, and should be better mentally prepared for that last hill... but the course is not as fast as the Veteran's day 10k where I PR-ed last November... I think I can knock off 2 minutes from last year's time, so I'd do 48 minutes and change...

My last race was an 8k at 37:27; my last 10k was 48:52 in February, and my 10k PR was last November at 46:51. The McMillan Running calculator says I should be able to do 47:12... And I hadn't entered my 8k time there as I usually do after a race to find out what my equivalent marathon time would be: it says 3:41:31... I am not that far from that BQ after all!

Biked to work on Bike to Work day! Lots of more bikers out there. I had the bad idea of sending an e-mail letting everyone in my office know that it was bike to work day... you can imagine all the smart behind responses I got...

I planned on leaving work in time to get a short run in before heading to an International Dinner Party that my friends organize every month, but my boss had something else in mind. I hate having to stay late on a Friday! Biked home and went to the dinner... no running....

Easy miles to loosen up the legs before tomorrow's race - ran to the bank to make a deposit, then ran down Capitol Hill, then up on the other side, into the school that organizes tomorrow's race to pick up my bib and t-shirt, then ran to the Eastern Market farmer's market, got some fresh strawberries to make some ice cream for my friend's graduation party, and walked home. It was supposed to rain today but so far nothing, it's very muggy and humid, hot but not too bad. I can't wait to see how everyone did in the Ogden Marathon today!!! Wish me luck for tomorrow!

I was going to wait till tomorrow to post this to give it more suspense... but decided against it... I can't do that to poor Eric!

Since the start was only 1 mile away from my house, I decided to get up only 40 minutes before race start... which wasn't such a good idea because I wouldn't have much time to digest breakfast... I got dressed, had a piece of toast and a little coffee, and off I went - jogged 1 mile to the start line, it was drizzling a little... My stomach wasn't liking it too much but it held up alright. I really liked that jog by the way, I'm going to start doing it for every race. It really loosened up my legs so I felt stronger during the race. I found my friends Mai and Guy at the start line, this was their 2nd race and they are becoming great runners, very exciting. Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time the race started. I forgot to start my watch, but I remember the first mile was almost exactly 8 minutes, the second about the same, the third was faster, like 7:30... and then it was down and up the hill, miles 4 and 5. I was ready... I flew up it feeling great, and ran the last mile pretty fast towards the finish line. Clock time was 47:58 and chip time 47:40, much better than my previous time (50:23) - not my 10k PR, but for a hillier course it wasn't too bad. 57th place out of 1,143 women, and 9th out of 274 in my age group, hey, top 10, that's not too shabby for Lucy!

The elite guys are going to be mad though - at one point during the race one of the course marshalls wasn't paying attention, and we got on the way of the elite runners! People coming in were supposed to stay on the left side of the road and the faster guys coming out after the hill were supposed to stay on the right - someone screwed up. I hope it wasn't too bad, I'm sure we'll read about it on the washington running paper - this race has been going on for 30 years, very strange they don't have everything figured out.

Will was supposed to meet me at the finish line but he got lost. He grew up here and he's never been to the library of congress or the Arboretum, and he gets lost in the city. Go figure. I ran home and we went to brunch - banana crepes with nutella and whipped cream, yummm!

Now I'm at work getting things ready for this week's conference, and going to also read the race reports for all the Ogden runners! Happy Sunday!

Nada. Conference for work, too much going on, too lazy...

Ran to the office. Gorgeous day. Feelin' good.

Ran to the office. Gorgeous day. Feeling great.

Still working on conference - fun but a lot of work! Exhausting! It's over tomorrow after lunch, thank goodness. I have 3 pairs of running shoes in the office now, from running here but going to events after work so I don't take them back home!

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Ran home after work! Sooooo nice out!!!

Ran to the office. Checked the distance with the new Gmaps pedometer map, it seems more precise, and you can check a box for runners or cyclist. It doesn't have all sidewalks, but works for the most part. Will try to get 4 miles more before heading home tonight.

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Ok, so I told my boyfriend that I was aiming to qualify for Boston in October and he laughed! He wasn't being mean, he just thought I was actually joking... He's ran several marathons (his fastest time 3:40 I believe) so he knows it's not easy, but still... well, it made me think about it... my first and only marathon, October 2006, was 4:08... the 10k I ran last week was 48:40...  the McMillan running calculator translates that time into a 3:48 marathon... Can I shave 2 minutes off my 10k and 8 minutes off that marathon time in 4.5 months??? I ran a 46:30 10k in November... so I think it's possible... I need to do some speed work/hills in the next few months... a lot of it!

Does anyone know how accurate the McMillan calculator is in practice?

What do you fellow runners think, am I dreaming? I don't want to get my hopes up too much and then be disappointed... I rather be realistic... doubt sucks!

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Ran 3 miles to Clarendon to get some dulce de leche at the latin american store and ran back to the office. Felt very tired and hot. Metroed home and made ice cream for my friend Diego's graduation party. Made dulce de leche, and earler this week I made strawberry.... yummm!

Woke up early and metroed to my friend Sangeeta's house - drove her to the hospital to get surgery to remove a cyst from her tailbone. Poor thing. It was actually sort-of fun being in the hospital when someone else is getting surgery and not me!

The surgery was quick, and I drove her home, picked up some pain medication and went back to her place. Didn't run... partly for being lazy and partly I didn't want to leave her alone the day of surgery... But she was feeling ok, was able to walk and everything...

Stayed with Sangeeta last night to make sure she was OK with the pain killers and all... she was, so this morning I metroed home. Her sister and some other friends were coming over to see her today, so I knew she'd be ok. I was planning on going backcountry camping with Will and some friends, so I got home and packed for 2 hours, had everything ready for when Will picked me up... the rest of the group was already in Shenandoah, we were supposed to meet them at the backcountry site. Will got to my house and told me he really shouldn't hike with a heavy pack at all because of his injury (he needs to get surgery on his feet for an issue the doctors can't tell exactly what it is but think surgery would help...) - he had told me he couldn't hike "very much", but I asked him how much is too much and he said 3 miles would be OK... but then his macho man retreated and his reasonable man came out and realized he shouldn't hike at all. Grrrrr, why didn't you say so before I wasted my time making all those plans and packing? Water under the bridge... so we went mountain biking instead, to Schaffer Farms, GOR-GEOUS! Had a fabulous time, didn't fall, got tons of bruises though, not sure how. I was able to get over most roots, rocks, and logs, but a few I can't do yet... Fun times!

We went back to Bethesda and I ran 4 miles on the Capitol Crescent trail.

15-ish miles mountain biking.

Went to Annapolis and did a 30-mile road biking loop along the bay and the famous town of St. Michaels. Took a short ferry ride to get across one part of the bay, pretty cool. Tendon hurts. grrrrrrrr. Biked to the thai food restaurant to pick up some food and biked back, 2 extra miles for me!

Biked to the office from Bethesda, 10 miles. Did some work I had left from Friday - nice being in the office when nobody is around! In the afternoon I ran to Ballston to see my friend Sangeeta and how her recovery was going. Hot and muggy... felt really tired, went really slow. Not sure why I'm so tired lately... need to watch my food better. May be the heat, but it's not that bad yet... maybe I need to get used to it.

Note to self: stop making stupid bets or you'll end up having to run wearing all sorts of colors and statements...

Bridges run after work, 4.5 miles, rainy and cool, perfect running weather. Took a detour in Georgetown and made the BIG mistake of stopping at the Lululemon store... their running tops and shorts are soooo cute but soooo expensive! But soooo cute... I had to have one... my only vice: running stuff... I have NEVER paid that much money for regular clothes... 

Went back to the office, got my backpack, ran 1 mile to the Dupont metro, metroed to Bethesda, ran 1 mile on the CCT. The CCT was dark and very dangerous, I won't do that again alone...

Before work: 1 mile on CCT to Bethesda metro, 1 mile from Dupont metro to office

After work: 4.5 miles from the office to check on Sangeeta (Ballston)

2.67 miles from Sangeeta's to the Rosslyn metro

Was planning on taking the metro home but the metro broke down on me, so I transferred and went to Union Station... was going to take a bus but it looked crowded and i was sweaty, so I ran home. I got home at the exact same time as the bus. It stops almost on every block, it's ridiculous! Make people walk a little, right?

2.1 miles from Union Station home.

Total: 11.27 miles. Feeling good.
 

Ran to the office, 5.5 miles in the morning. Weird, no matter how slow or fast I think I'm going, I always get to the office in 45 minutes.

May do more in the afternoon, not sure.

Help me decide which headband to get:

Vote for #1: http://www.ctchoops.com/product_info.php?products_id=194

Or #2: http://www.kucharikclothing.com/headband-mexico-p-266.html

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Ran from the office to Chevy Chase circle, a very hilly run around nice residential neighborhoods. Feeling tired but not bad. Shins hurt a bit - next week it'll be a taper week...

From Chevy Chase to the Bethesda metro (1) and from the Dupont metro to the office (1).

Walked from the office to the other end of Georgetown to get a belly dancing costume for a party tomorrow, then from Georgetown to Dupont. No running... lazy me...

I really shouldn't put zero here... but technically, I didn't go running... Once or twice a month I volunteer with an organization called KEEN (Kids Enjoy Exercise Now), playing sports with children and teens with cognitive disabilities. Oh boy, kids have so much energy! It's only a couple of hours, but by the end you are truly spent. I participated in the music program this time, so we did lots of singing, playing with different musical instruments, and dancing. Every once in a while one of the kids took off running so fast, I wanted to hire him as a coach! You would've thought we were torturing them, cause they were trying to escape all the time... Too funny...

After that I volunteered as course marshall at a local race, the first Capitol Striders 8k, on the Capitol Crescent trail. As soon as I got to the start line, the course director asked me to get on a men's road bike with an odometer, holding the mile marker signs on one hand, and stopping and posting them every mile... Why he asked me to do this knowing about my luck with bicycles, I don't know... But I did it, and survived. Then monitored the course to make sure the bikers knew there was a race going on, and took some pictures. Boy were some bikers mad! Ridiculous. It was a fun time. I should've ran before or after the race... but didn't.

Went to an Arabic-themed party at night, so much fun! My costume was very conservative so I'd post pictures, but in all the pics I'm dancing with girls that were not embarrassed to show their "talents" :)

A girl from Colombia and I were laughing cause we had trouble learning some of the moves, because they are so specific... Latinas are more used to moving everything at the same time, like when you dance salsa or merengue. But they said I didn't do so bad. Need to practice more!

What a day! Gorgeous out. Beautiful. Will picked me up and we drove a loooong way to Olney, MD, and did a great, tough, hilly 1-hour ride, mostly in a farm-like setting/residential area. It's funny how you are so exhausted when you're going uphill on a bike (or running) and you think "man, we should've picked a flatter route", but then you get to the top, or finish your ride, and it feels so good! In the afternoon I ran on the trails of Rock Creek Park for a bit less than 1 hour. Nice and shady. Lots of people out.