10.9.13
1,000 Miles - BOOM!
Just passed the 1,000 miles mark for the year. The count includes running, walking and 'elliptical' miles. The break down is 882 running miles and therefore $882 saved towards a new floor, 50.2 miles of walking and 73 "miles" on the elliptical. My goal for the year is to run 1,000 miles. At first I was all "I'll never make it" but apparently I forgot about marathon training. I've got almost 100 miles left to do for training and the race. Perhaps next year I'll set a loftier goal for both running and savings. To celebrate, here's some of my favorite running moments from this year:
9.9.13
Capital Bike Share - What a Good Idea
Last week I was heading to our nations capitol for some parts vacation and some parts learning at a conference. The conference hotel was in Crystal City. Plan was to fly into town and take the hotel shuttle. After that, I'd myself with a considerable amount of free time Wednesday night and Thursday morning. I checked the maps and couple websites and found the hotel is super close to the Mt Vernon Trail, and also fairly close to the National Mall and Memorials. Close in biking or running terms but too far to walk outright. I knew DC had a good reputation for it's bikeshare program as well as bike friendliness in general. I found Capital Bikeshare online with no problem and did some pre-planning.
Capital Bike Share - for beginners like NiceRide in Minnesota or CitiBike in New York City, these are bikes that can be rented for short trips. Riders can pay a daily fee, three day fee, or a yearly fee. After the rental fee, the first 30 minutes of the trip is at no additional cost, and every 30 minutes after that adds to the cost. There's a real incentive to move the bikes from one location to another, and then do sight seeing on foot. Bikes come equipped with a basket and front and rear lights for night riding. Riders are encouraged to wear helmets.
For my trip to DC, I chose a 3 day pass. For each trip, I just swiped the credit card that I'd used to make the initial purchase, no additional charges were added, it's just how they recognized me. I'd get a code to unlock the bike from the docking station and head to the next place on my list. There were no less than five Bikeshare docking stations in walking distance from my hotel (no joke) and they are in several places around the sights I wanted to see.
DC is Bike Friendly. Coming from a bike friendly town, I was impressed with DCs biking infrastructure. In my short trip I found some beautiful off road bike paths. In addition to Mt Vernon, I was on the Custis Bike Trail for a time and found it lovely, and the Capital Crescent Trail was a backup trail for long run day. There were also protected bike lanes within the city, something Minneapolis seems determined to avoid, some sidewalk level bike paths in tourist areas, and some roads with bike sharrows as well.
Plan ahead. Capital Bikeshare is a really well put together program, but I'm glad I did my research on this one ahead of time. It took me some time to map out which stations I thought I'd use in which places, and then doing some research via an app and GPS about the distance between stations, which ones are full all the time and which ones seem to be perpetually empty.
GPS is my best friend I say this more as a tourist. There were maps at the bikeshare stations, but anyone who's ever tried to navigate our nations capital knows it's confusing as hell. Roads don't follow a grid, nothing is oriented in a direction that makes any sense. Sometimes finding the bike station would be a challenge because it'd be on a weird corner, or tucked away in a place that wasn't super obvious from the bike paths I was using. Siri and I made friends on this trip.
SpotCycle is the most useful app ever. Spotcycle had GPS and a map, but also information on how close I was to a dock station, how many docks were available (if I had a bike out), and how many bikes were available when I wanted to rent one and head to my next destination. This app is mentioned on the Capital Bikeshare web page and works with bike share programs in other locations as well, including Minnesota. There were a couple times I was close to one dock or another that had no bikes, or only one bike left when I was a 10-minute walk away. I don't like to take chances. I was able to see what docks always had bikes as well, and make my way to those.
Station Popularity - I didn't do very much of DC on a bike, just the touristy spots, and by my hotel. Crystal City has tons of bikes. Sometimes too many. The Jefferson Monument perpetually has 2 or 3 bikes, maybe. The dock near the Washington Monument is much better appointed, as well as the docks near the Capital Building. The dock near Washington is the only dock on the mall itself, all the others are a couple blocks north or south and not visible from the mall. See why I was loving my GPS and Spotcycle?
Station Planning: The other station related issue I had is the distance between stations in DC and Crystal City. Between the Jefferson Monument and the next closest bike station in Crystal City is 3.5 miles (I know because GPS). I could see a slow rider easily taking the entire 30 minutes and then some to get there, especially if there's a stop to snap photos of the Potomac or of the planes taking off from the airport. Looking at the map, there's a couple other holes like that in stations. There's actually a park in between the Jefferson Memorial and Crystal City, along a bike path, seems like it's crying out for a station.
Safety and Comfort. The bikes are 3-speed bikes with hand breaks. The chain, derailleur, and break devices are all encased within this protective bike shell. The bike itself weighs more than any bike should, but it's one of those that's super easy to pedal so it doesn't matter that it weighs sixty pounds. All bikes are 'girls bike' style of cross bars. I sometimes found the brakes inadequate (why am I not stopping!?!) but perhaps I ride faster than most rental riders. I also had a giggle imagining someone who'd never used hand breaks before trying to break with their left hand and flying over the handle bars. Thankfully I didn't see that. Also they have bells to ding at people when you want to pass. I love the bells! (For those unfamiliar, the bells are a really respectful way of saying 'passing on your left' and generally seen as less annoying than yelling at someone ahead on the trail.)
I am grateful I come from a biking community up here. There's lots of etiquette on bike paths, trails, and city cycling. I was imagining Mom or Dad going out for a ride with me and realizing a lot of this would have been really hard for them. For example, the trails are really narrow and crowded so bikes need to pass quickly and ride single file for the most part. There's places where the bikes are on a protected bike lane at street level. Even though we don't really have them up here, I can recognize them and know how to behave. Then there's times when the bikes are in the roads with cars, and the roads have sharrows painted on them clearly. What the hell is a sharrow? Sharing the lanes with cars was actually the part I imagined would be the hardest for my parents, or any tourist who isn't used to bike commuting.
Would I do it again? Heck yes. And any other trips I take now, I'm going to check ahead of time to see if they have bike share programs there as well.
Capital Bike Share - for beginners like NiceRide in Minnesota or CitiBike in New York City, these are bikes that can be rented for short trips. Riders can pay a daily fee, three day fee, or a yearly fee. After the rental fee, the first 30 minutes of the trip is at no additional cost, and every 30 minutes after that adds to the cost. There's a real incentive to move the bikes from one location to another, and then do sight seeing on foot. Bikes come equipped with a basket and front and rear lights for night riding. Riders are encouraged to wear helmets.
For my trip to DC, I chose a 3 day pass. For each trip, I just swiped the credit card that I'd used to make the initial purchase, no additional charges were added, it's just how they recognized me. I'd get a code to unlock the bike from the docking station and head to the next place on my list. There were no less than five Bikeshare docking stations in walking distance from my hotel (no joke) and they are in several places around the sights I wanted to see.
DC is Bike Friendly. Coming from a bike friendly town, I was impressed with DCs biking infrastructure. In my short trip I found some beautiful off road bike paths. In addition to Mt Vernon, I was on the Custis Bike Trail for a time and found it lovely, and the Capital Crescent Trail was a backup trail for long run day. There were also protected bike lanes within the city, something Minneapolis seems determined to avoid, some sidewalk level bike paths in tourist areas, and some roads with bike sharrows as well.
Plan ahead. Capital Bikeshare is a really well put together program, but I'm glad I did my research on this one ahead of time. It took me some time to map out which stations I thought I'd use in which places, and then doing some research via an app and GPS about the distance between stations, which ones are full all the time and which ones seem to be perpetually empty.
GPS is my best friend I say this more as a tourist. There were maps at the bikeshare stations, but anyone who's ever tried to navigate our nations capital knows it's confusing as hell. Roads don't follow a grid, nothing is oriented in a direction that makes any sense. Sometimes finding the bike station would be a challenge because it'd be on a weird corner, or tucked away in a place that wasn't super obvious from the bike paths I was using. Siri and I made friends on this trip.
SpotCycle is the most useful app ever. Spotcycle had GPS and a map, but also information on how close I was to a dock station, how many docks were available (if I had a bike out), and how many bikes were available when I wanted to rent one and head to my next destination. This app is mentioned on the Capital Bikeshare web page and works with bike share programs in other locations as well, including Minnesota. There were a couple times I was close to one dock or another that had no bikes, or only one bike left when I was a 10-minute walk away. I don't like to take chances. I was able to see what docks always had bikes as well, and make my way to those.
Station Popularity - I didn't do very much of DC on a bike, just the touristy spots, and by my hotel. Crystal City has tons of bikes. Sometimes too many. The Jefferson Monument perpetually has 2 or 3 bikes, maybe. The dock near the Washington Monument is much better appointed, as well as the docks near the Capital Building. The dock near Washington is the only dock on the mall itself, all the others are a couple blocks north or south and not visible from the mall. See why I was loving my GPS and Spotcycle?
Station Planning: The other station related issue I had is the distance between stations in DC and Crystal City. Between the Jefferson Monument and the next closest bike station in Crystal City is 3.5 miles (I know because GPS). I could see a slow rider easily taking the entire 30 minutes and then some to get there, especially if there's a stop to snap photos of the Potomac or of the planes taking off from the airport. Looking at the map, there's a couple other holes like that in stations. There's actually a park in between the Jefferson Memorial and Crystal City, along a bike path, seems like it's crying out for a station.
Safety and Comfort. The bikes are 3-speed bikes with hand breaks. The chain, derailleur, and break devices are all encased within this protective bike shell. The bike itself weighs more than any bike should, but it's one of those that's super easy to pedal so it doesn't matter that it weighs sixty pounds. All bikes are 'girls bike' style of cross bars. I sometimes found the brakes inadequate (why am I not stopping!?!) but perhaps I ride faster than most rental riders. I also had a giggle imagining someone who'd never used hand breaks before trying to break with their left hand and flying over the handle bars. Thankfully I didn't see that. Also they have bells to ding at people when you want to pass. I love the bells! (For those unfamiliar, the bells are a really respectful way of saying 'passing on your left' and generally seen as less annoying than yelling at someone ahead on the trail.)
I am grateful I come from a biking community up here. There's lots of etiquette on bike paths, trails, and city cycling. I was imagining Mom or Dad going out for a ride with me and realizing a lot of this would have been really hard for them. For example, the trails are really narrow and crowded so bikes need to pass quickly and ride single file for the most part. There's places where the bikes are on a protected bike lane at street level. Even though we don't really have them up here, I can recognize them and know how to behave. Then there's times when the bikes are in the roads with cars, and the roads have sharrows painted on them clearly. What the hell is a sharrow? Sharing the lanes with cars was actually the part I imagined would be the hardest for my parents, or any tourist who isn't used to bike commuting.
Would I do it again? Heck yes. And any other trips I take now, I'm going to check ahead of time to see if they have bike share programs there as well.
7.9.13
Napping is greater than running
True story - at some point in my life I read about one of the great distance runners of all time skipping workouts to nap instead. I can't remember who, just that it was an African born runner who may or may not have been running for USA at the time. Today, I tried the 'don't run, just nap' training plan myself. I'll let you know how it works out.
I did make it out for my daily mile, just not the full distance I had scheduled. The mile per day streak continues. While I was out there, it was roughly 90* but still didn't feel as hot as running in DC because the humidity was under control. Know what's not under control on my street though? The amount of shit I pull off the road when I'm running. Thing's I've pulled off the road in the past include machine screws, wood screws and roofing nails. WTF? Today's find was impressive too.
I did make it out for my daily mile, just not the full distance I had scheduled. The mile per day streak continues. While I was out there, it was roughly 90* but still didn't feel as hot as running in DC because the humidity was under control. Know what's not under control on my street though? The amount of shit I pull off the road when I'm running. Thing's I've pulled off the road in the past include machine screws, wood screws and roofing nails. WTF? Today's find was impressive too.
6.9.13
16 Long, Slow Miles
It's a good thing that I had some nice runs last week because this run sucked up and down. Looking back, I had two problems.
First, I worked out yesterday and didn't refuel properly afterwards. I didn't go to bed hungry, but I hadn't really eaten enough for a long run the following day. My fault. Those strawberries and cream were good, although they left me near tears around mile 13 when my body ran out of fuel and chomps just weren't enough.
Second, I had no plan for the run, and tried a couple different plans in the middle which were just silly. I had no idea what I wanted to do for pace, and wasn't paying any attention to pace in the beginning, when I should have been. By the time I thought about pacing, or intervals, or anything really, it was already too late. So I was really slow.
Two things worked right on this run. I learned from last week to take pictures while running, and perhaps that didn't help my pace splits any and I should calm down. Second, the fueling method continues to work. I'm taking half a serving of chomps at mile 5, the second half at mile 6; then again at miles 9 and 10; 13 and 14; etc. This is based partly on science and partly on where the water stops are for the marathon.
There's some pictures below of Lake Harriet, Calhoun, Cedar, and the Greenway (which is not technically under construction itself, just conveniently located for water pipes from other construction), the most badass dog walker ever, and me collapsed after the run. Sigh.
First, I worked out yesterday and didn't refuel properly afterwards. I didn't go to bed hungry, but I hadn't really eaten enough for a long run the following day. My fault. Those strawberries and cream were good, although they left me near tears around mile 13 when my body ran out of fuel and chomps just weren't enough.
Second, I had no plan for the run, and tried a couple different plans in the middle which were just silly. I had no idea what I wanted to do for pace, and wasn't paying any attention to pace in the beginning, when I should have been. By the time I thought about pacing, or intervals, or anything really, it was already too late. So I was really slow.
Two things worked right on this run. I learned from last week to take pictures while running, and perhaps that didn't help my pace splits any and I should calm down. Second, the fueling method continues to work. I'm taking half a serving of chomps at mile 5, the second half at mile 6; then again at miles 9 and 10; 13 and 14; etc. This is based partly on science and partly on where the water stops are for the marathon.
There's some pictures below of Lake Harriet, Calhoun, Cedar, and the Greenway (which is not technically under construction itself, just conveniently located for water pipes from other construction), the most badass dog walker ever, and me collapsed after the run. Sigh.
5.9.13
Running Washington DC
I love to run on vacation. I know it sounds strange, it's vacation after all. When I go for a run, it's like I know where everything is. I've scoped out all of the scenery before anyone else has had breakfast. This vacation was no different. Before I even left Minneapolis, I'd already found the bike and running trail closest to the hotel (and it is super close) and as a bonus, all of the Capital Bike Share stations. (I think the bike share deserves it's own post because it was a blast too.)
I was feeling a little down on Wednesday as I left town since I didn't get up early for my scheduled long run, but I made some packing changes, added some clothes and some nutrition as well as a bottle I could carry, and thought I'd give a long run a try on Thursday morning, then see how running went the rest of the vacation. Things that worked well for me on this running vacation were my attitude of 'take lots of pictures and don't really think about pace' and my sight seeing desires. The hand held water bottle worked much better than I could've imagined and I was glad I'd had it for both of my longer runs.
Thursday - 12.25 miles. This was my second favorite run of the trip. My attitude was fairly healthy: run at least a mile, then keep running some, it's okay to walk some, and take lots of pictures. I woke up at the crack of dawn, eastern time, and it was already hotter than fire. I only got lost once, when it turned out I needed to cross a channel but instead wound up on some path that just ended all of a sudden. I didn't quite have a turn around point picked out other than "mile 6 or so". I got past mile 6, and was almost to the top of some monster hill, so obviously I had to go all the way to the top before turning around. I knew it would be worth it since I love running down big hills. Miles 7 and 8 were pure joy. Obviously. On the way back, it became relevant I'd found that path to nowhere because I was needing a place to crawl in the bushes and it was perfectly appointed. The bushes stop didn't help quite as much as I thought, so I was pretty slow the last couple of miles. I took lots of pictures along the Potomac, and some of the planes taking off from Regan. That photo is taken from the bike path; yes it's that close to the runway. There wasn't a lot of sunshine on this run, which seems like a blessing but I'd kept hoping for something to burn off the humidity, so there was a downside as well.
Friday - 4 miles in the HEAT I was too tired to get up early and run on Friday morning, so I ran around 1pm. It was roughly 90* and 85% humidity. The run felt hot and slow. Looking at the splits, I was actually moving fairly fast but everything hurt. I can't imagine where in this course I hit a 5:16/mile pace, that's probably why it hurt. This was my least favorite run of the trip. I didn't take pictures. I'm glad it's over.
Saturday - 8.5 Miles with the best sights ever. Saturday was my favorite run. Based on sight seeing and other runs, the Lincoln Memorial was the only really big thing I hadn't seen yet, so I planned to run up the Potomac and cross at the bridge there, run down the district side, and then cross back to the hotel. I met some runners who were training for various east coast marathons and ran with them a couple miles before crossing over to Lincoln. My goals for this run were similar to the 12-miler: run at least a mile together and take lots of pictures. No one cares about pace on this run. I had an absolute blast. It was the right amount of running and picture taking and super fun to see Lincoln, the Reflection Pool and the Tidal Basin, as well as seeing Jefferson and Washington again and a couple of gorgeous views from the bridges over the Potomac.
Sunday - 4 miles, much better than the other day. Mercifully, the conference started a bit later on Sunday, so I could sneak in a short run even after sunrise. I did the 4-mile route again and it was a much better trip doing it at 75* than at 90*, and better for photography as well.
Monday - 1.4 miles of FAST. This is the most surprising run of the trip. Easily. This was seriously an "it's the last day of vacation, just get in a mile" kind of run. We were staying with this family, and the neighborhood was quite hilly. The last .4 miles were mostly down hill. As should be apparent from the pace information. Just wow.
I was feeling a little down on Wednesday as I left town since I didn't get up early for my scheduled long run, but I made some packing changes, added some clothes and some nutrition as well as a bottle I could carry, and thought I'd give a long run a try on Thursday morning, then see how running went the rest of the vacation. Things that worked well for me on this running vacation were my attitude of 'take lots of pictures and don't really think about pace' and my sight seeing desires. The hand held water bottle worked much better than I could've imagined and I was glad I'd had it for both of my longer runs.
Thursday - 12.25 miles. This was my second favorite run of the trip. My attitude was fairly healthy: run at least a mile, then keep running some, it's okay to walk some, and take lots of pictures. I woke up at the crack of dawn, eastern time, and it was already hotter than fire. I only got lost once, when it turned out I needed to cross a channel but instead wound up on some path that just ended all of a sudden. I didn't quite have a turn around point picked out other than "mile 6 or so". I got past mile 6, and was almost to the top of some monster hill, so obviously I had to go all the way to the top before turning around. I knew it would be worth it since I love running down big hills. Miles 7 and 8 were pure joy. Obviously. On the way back, it became relevant I'd found that path to nowhere because I was needing a place to crawl in the bushes and it was perfectly appointed. The bushes stop didn't help quite as much as I thought, so I was pretty slow the last couple of miles. I took lots of pictures along the Potomac, and some of the planes taking off from Regan. That photo is taken from the bike path; yes it's that close to the runway. There wasn't a lot of sunshine on this run, which seems like a blessing but I'd kept hoping for something to burn off the humidity, so there was a downside as well.
Friday - 4 miles in the HEAT I was too tired to get up early and run on Friday morning, so I ran around 1pm. It was roughly 90* and 85% humidity. The run felt hot and slow. Looking at the splits, I was actually moving fairly fast but everything hurt. I can't imagine where in this course I hit a 5:16/mile pace, that's probably why it hurt. This was my least favorite run of the trip. I didn't take pictures. I'm glad it's over.
Saturday - 8.5 Miles with the best sights ever. Saturday was my favorite run. Based on sight seeing and other runs, the Lincoln Memorial was the only really big thing I hadn't seen yet, so I planned to run up the Potomac and cross at the bridge there, run down the district side, and then cross back to the hotel. I met some runners who were training for various east coast marathons and ran with them a couple miles before crossing over to Lincoln. My goals for this run were similar to the 12-miler: run at least a mile together and take lots of pictures. No one cares about pace on this run. I had an absolute blast. It was the right amount of running and picture taking and super fun to see Lincoln, the Reflection Pool and the Tidal Basin, as well as seeing Jefferson and Washington again and a couple of gorgeous views from the bridges over the Potomac.
Sunday - 4 miles, much better than the other day. Mercifully, the conference started a bit later on Sunday, so I could sneak in a short run even after sunrise. I did the 4-mile route again and it was a much better trip doing it at 75* than at 90*, and better for photography as well.
Monday - 1.4 miles of FAST. This is the most surprising run of the trip. Easily. This was seriously an "it's the last day of vacation, just get in a mile" kind of run. We were staying with this family, and the neighborhood was quite hilly. The last .4 miles were mostly down hill. As should be apparent from the pace information. Just wow.
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