I was pretty happy after my epic (for me) Sunday run around the National Mall. I celebrated with a beer, brat and ballgame with the Nats and Braves. Monday and Tuesday were wall to wall meetings, from 8 am to getting back to the hotel around 11 pm both nights, so running was truly not an option. I wasn’t really that bummed, as I wanted to rest my legs a bit as well as my wonderful new blister.

Wednesday just happened to be National Running day and I was ready all of these wonderful posts of how people got out and ran all day while I was sitting there listening to Committee Chairs for the House Commerce related to the wireless industry (yawn). Having been required to be there at 7 am, leaving my hotel at 6 am, the morning run was just not in the cards. I got back to the other meetings around 1 pm, to which I had to co-chair, so once again, I was stuck looking at other blogs enjoying a nice run.

Finally, around 3:30 pm, I was able to break free and get geared up. I only had around 30-45 minutes, so I headed down to the treadmills in the hotel. I was still a bit sore from Sunday, especially my blister, so I put on a Dr Scholls Blister Treatment, which is a nice product, covering the blister and being extremely sticky. I wore these most of the week to prevent infection and further damage.

Treadmill

So this does not come close to what I actually did, hence I think there was issues with my nike pod. My run started out miserable. My legs felt like I was running through a marsh at first. I was scheduled to run a 20 minute easy run and that just was going to be painful. I would have thought that by taking a couple of days rest that my legs would be fresher.

So I ran the 10 minutes at 6.7 mph and after an accidental pause of the treadmill, I ran the second 10 minutes at 6.5 mph. After my run on Sunday, I was getting rather bummed. This made me come to a stupid conclusion: I needed some strides. What the hell right? My legs were sore and my blister was even worse, why not punish myself, right?

So I did the next 10 minutes as a

• 1 minute 4 mph – 2 minutes at 8 mph
• 1 minute 4 mph – 2 minutes at 8 mph
• 1 minute 4 mph – 3 minutes at 8 mph

This actually seemed to get the kinks out of the muscles. As I walked around the waterfront of Alexandria for dinner, neither my legs or my foot was bothering me.

Trails

So the next day I wanted to run outside, but had no clue on where. I had reached out to the few people I actually knew who lived in the D.C, but got no real lead. I looked instead on my iPad and saw on the map nearby what looked like a trail along a small creek. My training called for 30 minutes of hills, so I concluded that where there was a creek, there was bound to be a hill. Damn, got that one right.

About 075 miles in, there was a serious downhill segment to the creek. On the maps it shows that it was a drop of 302 feet to 75 feet in about 0.5 miles. Glad I ran hills late last week at elevation. At the bottom of the hill at a little over a mile I had to stop for a traffic light and realized I wasn’t even breathing heavy. Love sea level!!!

At the bottom I found the entrance to the trail. It was quite wooded, which was nice as the wind was picking up a bit. Seems a summer storm was heading my way and I realized I needed to hurry a bit. I was seriously trying to take it easy though, as my plan was to actually go past 30 minutes to allow to see if I could get to 30 before I had to get back up that silly hill I just ran down.

The path was quite serene actually, with this slow flow, sort of like the rivers in Wyoming. The path was empty and with my music going, i was really enjoying my choice of taking the run outside.

I then came up to a tunnel, which definitely was a first. Not too many paths I have run have a tunnel. Some a bridge, but never running under an interstate with a tube like tunnel.

I had a question on the 5000. I hoped that wasn’t how long the tunnel was, however I could see the end in the distance, so that was not likely the situation. It was a bit eerie and I had to avoid a guy walking his bicycle, but I made it out unscathed.

I continued down the trail and it turned to cross the river and then back on the other side. It was rather flat, which was not according to the plan, but hey, storm clouds were brewing, so I was focused more on the clouds than the slope.

I made it around another half a mile and then turned around at a little 21 minutes. Then the clouds opened up for my first run in the rain in about 20 years. I don’t know why it has never happened in the past 18 months, but just never been out in the rain. It was quite refreshing actually and did a great job of getting me energy for my run up that damn hill.

Then I hit that hill. Wow. My legs were just not ready for the hill by any means. About half way up they basically said stop and I obliged. I walked about 100 yards or so and took up the jog again and did so once more near the top. This half a mile was a bear and it was kicking my ass.

I finally made it up to the top and put a bit of a kick in on the flat part, hoping my strides the day before could help me finish this run. I didn’t really have a goal in mind, however I did want to keep it around the 9’30″ pace that my goal is for a 10k.

Well the pace was a bit slower, however I was impressed that with a few moments of walking I was still able to keep it right around my goal pace.

I also like the new layout of the new Nike+ mapping, which shows you a lot more data and gives you solid ways of moving day to day.

So my week in D.C. was a pretty good running week. I got in about 14-15 miles and lived through my blister, so getting to sea level was a great boost to my ego. I was able to tour the National Mall, get in a couple of baseball games, met with a Senator and 4 Representatives and had a great week of meetings.

We now get to see if all of the built up red blood cells have left my body and I suffer from altitude.