Running (Street & Trail Commute) 1:35:48 [3] 11.9 mi (8:03 / mi) +245m 7:34 / mi
slept:5.5 weight:178lbs
From 12th and Independence Ave., SW, Washington, D.C. 15th Street to the Jefferson Memorial, across the 14th Street Bridge, up the Mt. Vernon Trail to the Key Bridge, down to the C&O Towpath, to the Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) at Fletcher's Boathouse, to Woodmont Ave. to Edgemoor Ln near the Bethesda Metro Station. I started today with a fair amount of trepidation. I had been avoiding the run back to Bethesda with all the recently bad weather but with it being a sunny, nice day (upper 40s F starting out) and needing some milege to make up my deficit from being sick, I set out on it. Since I needed miles, I decided to extend the more direct route by crossing into Virginia first; extending it was perhaps going overboard. I didn't feel very strong after the long orienteering race yesterday. I did feel that I was going a little slowly for the first few miles. The 14th Street Bridge and Mt. Vernon Trail were busy with cycling commuters. Once I got back over the river on the towpath, I took off my gloves and soon started feeling better. It may have just been the darkness setting in, and not seeing how slowly I was going. On the paved CCT, I moved better yet. Once again there were lots of cyclists coming in waves. My flashing orange jacket drew praise from one of the cyclists and I was going only marginally slower than him heading up the hill. After the MacArthur Blvd. tunnel and Dalecarlia, I started slowing more. It was getting colder and I was stiffening-up a lot. The last mile wasn't much fun; I felt like I was mashing my feet into the ground with each step. Upon finishing I stretched for a while and was still cold a while after getting home.
