Here I go again!

Biked from Chevy Chase to the office (10 miles), all the way on the CCT, on a very crispy morning! For the first time since I've been riding that trail, a lot of bikers past me... I don't mind when the hard-core looking bikers pass me, (I could beat anyone if I had a road bike!), but at least nobody that's a commuter biker like me passes me... Plus I was carrying a heavy pack! Anyway, it was a great ride.

Ran after work around Dumbarton Oaks/Glover Park - feeling awful, like my blood pressure is down or something...  I had to walk a lot. I thought I was going to faint - even though I ate all day long...

Had a granola bar at the office and biked home (5 miles).

Biked to the office in the morning (5)

Ran to Dupont to meet with Camille, did 4.5-ish miles with her on the trails of Rock Creek Park... she is getting really fast!  Afterwards I ran back to the office to get my bike and bike on the CCT to Bethesda (10). Awesome day!

Lazybum... Biked to the office in the morning, was going to run later but didn't... it was raining... and and and... rain scares me...

Rainy day - Metroed to the office, did the long bridges run (Key bridge to Mt Vernon trail to 14th St/395 bridge, also known as "Jaws Bridge")... probably a bit less than 7 miles. Still raining but not very hard. Picked up my bike back at the office and biked to Chevy Chase on the CCT (10 miles) - My entire body and face were covered in mud after the ride, it was not a pretty sight.

Still raining! This must be a record year for rain in DC, fo sho!

Ran from Chevy Chase to the office, trying a different route... Connecticut Ave. to Nebraska to Reno Road, around the Observatory and back on Wisconsin and Georgetown - the last mile is a nice downhill. Took it easy but feeling good in the nice, colder weather.

If I had gone running even for a little bit, and if it had been a little less cloudy this would have been the best day ever e-ver, period.

Will took me to Blackwater wildlife refuge in southern Maryland. One of the most beautiful places I've seen in the East coast. Absolutely gorgeous! We biked 40 miles on the almost empty roads, a very flat ride but we were going fast. Then we kayaked for an hour or so, we were pretty tired... Will bikes on his mountain bike the whole time, so he gets a great workout!  Too tired to run when we got back, tomorrow I'll get a good run, hopefully with Mr Montelepsy!

Eleven and something nicely-paced miles with the unique, ineffable, (and indeed handsome, Rachel!) Montelepsy!  A perfect day in DC, gorgeous weather, sunny, a bit warm but nothing compared to Iraq, right?

Mike and I met up at my office in Georgetown and I showed him almost all my favorite runs: we went up 28th into the trails of Dumbarton-Oaks park, then over into the trails of Glover Park down to the C&O canal... I got disoriented at one point and wasn't sure we were going the right place! Poor Mike, he had to put up with me going back and forth on the trail, until we found the way. We went to Fletcher's Boathouse on the canal, then back on the Capitol Crescent trail, up to the Key Bridge and into Roosevelt Island, one of my favorite monuments in DC, then back onto the bridge on the canal to my office.

Poor Monte, he had to put up with me talking nonsense the entire way.

I do think he put something in my water though, cause after we finished the run I spent a lot of time in the ladies room...  That, or the 50 peanut butter cups I ate before the run didn't do well in my tummy...

Before the afternoon run, I went to Hayden's park near Potomac, MD to take part in a huge festival that Kids Enjoy Exercise Now organized. I showed up my volleyball abilities and then was in charge of making sure the kids didn't kill each other in the big inflatable obstacle course. So much fun but so much work! Some of those little devils went around me so fast, I didn't even have time to stop them from going when it wasn't safe... too much fun.

What a day! Very exhausted now, I was trying to show off with Monte by going fast and now I'm paying the prize... We'll see what he writes on his report. I even wore pearl earrings to impress him so he'd write a good "review" about me, ha!

I have yet to meet a blogger that's not one of the nicest people out there. Aaron, Jill, Ben, and now Mike, too cool to be in here with them!

So nice to run with you Mike! Good luck this week and enjoy your visit with the family!

Going to sleep now... tomorrow is Monday... NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Montelepsy and the Rocket being silly

And showing off our muscles....

And this one is for Eric...

Ran 2 miles to my colleague Allison's house on the Palisades, picked her up, showed her the way from her house to the C&O Canal, ran to Fletcher's Boathouse with her (did some walking), then dropped her off at home and ran back to the office, then metroed home. Lucia's door-to-door service :) 

Super busy day... went to a briefing about the future of freight transportation on the new Capitol visitor center, I hadn't been in there, very cool. Good information.

Then I came to the office and had to move offices... I have my own office now, with not one but TWO windows, my own round table with two chairs to have meetings... although my nice view of the green trees of Rock Creek Park is gone... I still have a view, but it's mostly of the tops of buildings... The big plus is that it's a lot more quiet, less distracting. In the other office, I could hear my boss on the phone, having conference calls on speaker phone all the time, plus my office mate Hank had to listen to hearings on the TV, plus I could see everyone going into the bathroom and that was distracting. I'm going to miss my office mate though, he's such a nice person, I enjoy our impromptu conversations about anything... he's only a few feet away, but still, it's just not the same.

Also today I found out one of my favorite people in the office gave notice, he's leaving in 3 weeks. I don't work directly with him, but he's one of those super smart guys that is also humble and can talk to anyone about anything, very personable. He was also my supplier of girl scout cookies!!! Things are changing so much around here!

We had super strong thunderstorms and rain here in the afternoon - I stayed in the office till 7, by then the rain was not so strong so I ran up to the Chevy Chase circle, where Will picked me up cause I didn't want to do too many miles since I have the race Saturday. I love my new route, by the Observatory, the Cathedral, Reno Road which is very green, lots of trees. Very hilly but that's good for me. A good run!

Ran from Chevy Chase to the office. Beautiful morning in DC! My legs felt tired the first 2 miles, then much better.

Four easy miles near my house during lunchtime - very humid out, hot. Hopefully it prepares me for Saturday - last year during the race it was so muggy and hot!

I wonder how I'll do Saturday at the 10k... last year I finished in 48 and change, this year I feel much stronger, but I haven't been doing a lot of speed work... I would be so happy to finish around 46! Last year, a month before the Lawyers Have Heart 10k I ran the Capitol Hill Classic in 50 minutes and change... this year I cut two minutes off that course, finishing in 48 and something... so maybe I'll cut two minutes from LHH too? We shall see... anyone wants to try to guess my time? Don't forget I'll be wearing the beautiful Mexico headband, that should make me a whole lot faster!

Biked from Chevy Chase to the office... passed lots of people so that was good, but my legs felt super tired... i did not taper properly for tomorrow's race...

Had my review with my boss - it was good... next is a meeting with our president and ceo, who is the only one that discusses pay raises... hopefully he'll give me one, at least a little one...

Went to dinner with my friend Sangeeta and went home to pack for the race and for the beach!

The weather was much better today than last year! Cloudy and hot but not too bad. Woke up early, ran to Eastern Market, picked up my zipcar for the weekend, drove to the office to meet up with my friend Annie - the race was only a few blocks from my office so it was super convenient. Took a few pictures with my super cool Mexico headband....

Annie is a fast girl but not too fast for me, so I thought I'd be able to keep up with her and she could make me run faster... I think it helped. They had two waves for the 10k, one for runners faster than 50 minutes and the other for slower. We felt like studs by getting in front with the fast people, very cool! Annie and I started together but agreed not to run side by side and go our own pace, and if we found each other good if not whatever. We stayed together the first mile, then she started going faster and I couldn't keep up with her. She stayed within sight the entire time though, so I felt good about that. She was my rabbit.

Felt like I was struggling the whole time, but I thought it's because i was going very fast... not quite... After the turnaround I saw my co-worker Mike running a few minutes behind pushing his twin girls whose birthday was today in a stroller, very cool. Made it the first 4 miles and then I told myself I could push super hard and risk fainting, or keep a decent pace and not faint. I chose the latter. Annie was about 50 feet in front of me... She finished in 47:02 and I finished in 47:16. She is training for the Twin Cities marathon in Minnesota, that's where she's from, so maybe we can do some training together since we run similar paces.

Usually I try to hide from the cameras, but this time I wanted to have proof that I ran the whole thing with the headband, yet every time I saw the cameras it was already too late! I think at the very end one of the photographers took some good ones, or so I hope. I looked absolutely ridiculous with it. Thank you Eric :)

So I finished 147 out of 1754 women, and 53rd out of 607 woman in the 30-40 age division. That's within the top 10 percentile, not bad!

Here are some pics.

In this first ones you can see part of my new office and my new orchid which I will probably kill soon...

The second one shows how thrilled I was of having to wear the Mexico headband...

The third one shows fast beautiful girl Annie

So the lesson learned is that I need to taper better for these races so my legs don't get too tired. I guess Eric won the bet, 47 something... everyone else said 46 and change, I think. Sorry to disappoint :( ... but thank you for the support and encouragement!

Sorry about the delay posting this my fans, I took off to go to the beach right after the race, and wanted to get there as soon as possible to enjoy the sun, which I did! I hope you all had a great weekend! I know at least Marion did!

In Rehoboth Beach, Delaware - drove up yesterday after the race, to my friend Tricia's house. It's her birthday weekend and her parents let her have friends at their beach house. A great group of people, we had too much fun, made great food, ate lots, danced lots, got too much sun, not enough exercise. Weather wasn't too great but could have been worse. Some swimming yesterday too.

Three miles barefoot on the sand, slow, recovery jog. Walked lots on the beach too. Drove back in the evening, traffic wasn't bad thankfully.

No running today, legs feel tired! Biked to Chevy Chase after work on the CCT, great weather, headwind but that makes it for a better workout!

Biked to the office from Chevy Chase in the morning, great weather, super fast ride, love it!

Biked around the city at lunch to run some errands, but didn't run...

Biked to Chevy Chase on the CCT after work, another great ride though I felt I was going to pass out but didn't want to slow down... headwind was pretty strong... Two days with no running, that's not good, but my legs feel tired still, not sure why... I think I need a taper week...

Biked to the office from Chevy Chase. Awesome bike ride.

Ran after work from home on East Capitol down and around the Capitol reflective pool and back home on East Capitol. 45 minutes, so about 4.5 miles, pretty sure I was doing 10-min miles or so. Felt pretty good.

Ok so check this out - the "Before" and "After" pics...

This is from last year's Lawyers Have Heart 10k...

"Camera? Which camera, I don't see anything... I'm just smiling cause I'm happy to be running!"

This one is from last week's LHH...

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/PLg7zYwTRFCaK6TgHIEQxQ?feat=directlink

Not sure why it won't work...

Check out those muscles! MrFit watch out, the Rocket is coming!

Now the critical side of me says why do my hands always look weird in race pics???

Office to Chevy Chase, 1 hr 06 min - after the rain, I was hoping the air would be nice and light, but it was quite muggy... not too hot though at least. A good run, took it easy. Tried a new route and went through a new neighhborhood in Maryland called Martin's Additions. Beautiful houses, so quiet... very nice.

My route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2931636

From Chevy Chase to the office in an absolutely gorgeous morning. Sunny, not too hot, just perfect.

Had some trouble with mid-section cramps... not sure why, I've had a lot of that lately. This morning was worse than before, I had to stop... I wasn't going very fast, and it happened mostly when I was going downhill. Tried slowing down and taking deep belly breaths but didn't work too well. They went away after a few minutes, but still it was not fun.

My route this morning, a little shorter but not as scenic:

URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2930134

Funnest. Race. Ever. Period. Everyone needs to do this race next year.

The Quantico marine base is only open to the public a few times a year, and this was one of them. The 4-mile trail course was super tough, very hilly and difficult. The obstacles were great, there was a tire dash, some hay steeplechase, lots of mudpits to cross, a muddy part of the trail that you had to crawl under a tarp, a steep part that you had to rapel down (that one kind of sucked, it wasn't steep enough), and by the end they had a fire truck with a hose to clean you up.

I ran with my co-workers Hank and Mike, they had a blast too, though we went very slow cause Hank is just back from an injury.

One for the books indeed!

Biked by Sugarloaf mountain with Will. Perfect weather.

Biked from Chevy Chase to the office in the morning... was going to run in the evening but I gave in to peer pressure and went to a going away happy hour instead.

I've never been happier to be a biker - You probably have heard by now that two metro trains collided this afternoon, crazy... I cannot imagine being in one of those trains... Hopefully they won't find more victims; it's hard to believe from the pics that only 7 people died in such horrible accident.

Biked home.

Ran from home to the office - a gorgeous morning, super clear blue skies. Side stitch on the right side bothering, not too bad...

I am so lucky to be able to bike or run to work!

My dad called me this morning, very worried about the metro train collision. I guess they'll never know what happened... the operator either had a heart attack, tried to kill herself and cause the accident, or was very distracted, because it was during the day and she should've been able to react to avoid the collission. So horrible...

Ran home after work, it's getting hot around here...

Ran from home to the office on another gorgeous morning, a little hot. Feeling a bit sluggish, but pushing on... Is there a better commute than a run commute?

Google maps says it's 5.5 miles. It takes me 43-45 minutes (stopping the watch at stop lights), it really doesn't feel like I'm going 8-minute miles at all, so there's something fishy there...

Biked from Chevy Chase to the office in the morning (10 miles)
Ran after work - did the loop that I have labeled as Montelepsy loop (without the excursion to Virginia), down c&o canal to Incline back to Glover park through Dumbarton Oaks. It's a tough, hilly trail so I'm thinking probably about 6 miles.

Biked to the store and got 2 new pairs of trail runningshoes, they had buy one get one 50% off... I'm going to Glacier NP next week to do lots of hiking and backpacking, so I needed them! Let's put it this way: for less than the price I would've paid for a Garmin 405, I got a Garmin 305, two pairs of shoes and a pair of nice socks!

Ran from home to the office, the shorter way (Virginia Ave. by the Watergate). Feeling really sluggish, very exhausted, almost fainting the entire time. It's hot and humid but not that bad! I think I should eat something before heading out in the morning... though some days I'm perfectly fine, why is that?

Helped my friend Sangeeta move...  hard work, sweating lots! Didn't run... but trust me, it was a workout...

Biked with Will from Chevy Chase to my house in Capitol Hill and back. Went via Capitol Crescent trail / M street and came back on the Mall and up Rock Creek park... feeling without much energy.

After work, ran to Clarendon to meet with my friend Duygu, who brought me some fabulous baklava (Sp?) directly from Turkey! Delicious! We had some dinner and then I ran to Rosslyn and took the metro home.

I had a very bad stomach ache from eating all that baklava last night... ughhhh... so I didn't run, I don't think... Too busy at work finishing things up to go on my trip!