Zoo Loop

Time: 40:00
Distance: 5.75 mi.

Easy morning run with Max and Pat Murphy looping through Rock Creek Park and the Zoo. Hip flexor tight by the end.

Glover Trails

Time: 62:30
Distance: 9 mi.

Easy run in the Glover trails from George's house. The trails were a little bit sloppy, but we got in a decent effort. And I raced George at the end... We're still waiting for the determination from FAT timing.

Easy City Loop

Time: 63:00
Distance: 9 mi.

Evening run with Peaches, Ozzie and Ben Clark. We looped around a bit through the city, ending up on east U St. and ran back through Shaw and up to Petworth.

Bryn Mawr

Time: 30:00

Easy morning run with Ozzie and Tushar from Tush's place in Bryn Mawr. A bit tired and dehydrated, but excited to head to Heps at Penn. Moderately tight, but nothing out of the ordinary these days.

Stretching: Umm...

Rock Creek Park

Time: 31:13

Easy loop through RCP. Hamstring was tight the whole run. Hip flexor okay.

I haven't been stretching enough this week.

Downpour

Time: 30:20

Easy run through a rainstorm. Just what I needed.

Adams Morgan / Zoo

Time: 34:51

Easy afternoon run through Adams Morgan and the Zoo with Peaches, who just moved back to DC over the weekend.

Stretching: Hamstring

Mt. Pleasant Loop

Time: 30:43

Easy loop dipping into RCP and around Mt. Pleasant. Felt okay, considering I was running early to miss the harder rain that hit the District later in the day.

Stretching: Hamstring stretches with the rope.

Midas Run

Time: 26:00

Morning run down to Midas near Mt. Vernon Square, where I had some break work done on the car yesterday. I felt much better than the morning run earlier this week, though I was still a bit tight.

No stretching, headed right to work.

Columbia Heights/Adams Morgan

Time: 25:52

Easy run around the neighborhood. Pain/soreness on-par for recent days.

Stretching: Hamstring stretches with the rope.

Saturday Morning Jog

Time: 22:56

Easy morning jog with Nick towards RCP and on the Piney Branch trail. Hamstring and hip flexor both tight and a little sore.

No stretching, because brunch was a bigger priority.

Columbia Heights

Time: 21:05

Easy jog after work. Colin added on after his workout for the first half. Hamstring sore.

Stretching: Hamstring stretches with the rope.

North on 14th

Time: 22:26

Easy jog north of Columbia Heights on 14th. Hip flexor seems to have responded a bit to the massage. Hamstring sore.

Stretching: Hamstring stretches with the rope.

Piney Branch

Time: 21:35

Easy evening run around Piney Branch Park and the neighborhood. My right hamstring and left hip flexor were about as tight/sore as they have been recently, but I didn't start to feel the hip flexor until about 15 minutes.

This was a pretty good day to get mentally started with the come back, as I got pumped up watching the Boston Marathon this morning at work. I was happy to see Nick Juravich ran a PR (2:51:32). Taylor caught the end of the race in Boston and got this great shot of Ryan Hall:

Hamstrung

Time: 49:18
Distance: 7.25 mi.

In the minutes, hours and few days following the marathon, my right hamstring was tight and very sore. In fact, I spent most of the race day using a long squeegee as a cane. I wasn't particularly surprised that it hurt, but once I wasn't using it in the last few weeks off, I didn't really feel it. I didn't do anything to try to address whatever was wrong with it though, and after just two days back I can see that it isn't in great shape. Fairly quickly in this run it was very tight and sore again, and I had to take it very easy on every hill along the way. I was clearly compensating for it, as my left hip flexor and right calf got pretty sore as well.

Other than that, it was a decent run on a fairly nice afternoon. I ran up through RCP to Broad Branch, then took Brandywine out to Connecticut near Van Ness. I followed Connecticut (and the Red Line) back to the Zoo and then ran straight home.

NW DC Loop

Time: 38:33
Distance: 5 mi.

Easy evening run with Colin. This is my first run in 17 days, which is the longest I've taken off as long as I can remember. The weather is finally starting to return to normal, and I'm hoping this is the last run I go on this winter in long pants. And by return to normal, I mean that we had a blizzard last weekend and this weekend it is supposed to be over 70 degrees both days this weekend.

Mizuno Wave Creation 10

I succumbed to getting some everyday running shoes that are more supportive of my feet than the LunaTrainer. I will keep them around for some faster efforts, if those happen at some point. After wearing a bunch of different models around at the Georgetown Running Company, I went with the Mizuno Wave Creation 10, as they don't carry the Nike Elites that I have worn for a long time. I am very wary about getting in new shoes, but I don't have much of an option at this point. They felt fairly good on this short effort, and despite feeling some tightness, my foot didn't really hurt. My right hamstring, on the other hand...

Wednesday-Saturday

I wanted to stop over-thinking everything I could the week of the race, so I stopped really paying much attention to recording or worrying about exactly how much running I could get in. In this span, I ran twice or three times, including a nice pre-race run in Austin the day before with the crew in town for the race.

Echo Hill Loop

Time: 45:11
Distance: 6.5 mi.
Map

Easy 45 minute run in Amherst through Echo Hill. I was neurotically thinking about how my sesamoid felt and I did sense a bit of tightness, but there was really no pain during the run.

I loaded up the iPod with some Ratatat beats to try to keep my mind clear.

Opulence Run

Time: 42:00
Distance: 6 mi.
Map

Easy evening run with Colin on his "opulence run." My foot was a little bit sore towards the end of the run and afterwards, indicating that I should probably keep things below 8-10 mile days through the marathon.

Zoo Loop

Time: 34:50
Distance: 5 mi.
Map

Thirty five minutes of running completely pain free. Maybe I've been being too cautious, but I feel good now and that is a whole lot better than the alternative. I'll get in another easy jog this afternoon with Colin.