The Raccoon

On Monday, I ran an easy 6.5 from The Line in the afternoon. The ground was covered in 5" of the white stuff and it was tough going at times. Though, I have to say, the West Ridge Trail was as peaceful and as quiet as I've ever seen it.

On Tuesday, I ran a moderate 8 miles, 6 of which was with old Sam Luff who recently returned to running after 19 years of injury. It was good to see him back and it was hard to keep up.

On Wednesday, like I did last Wednesday, I ran 11 miles at a good clip. In fact, I ran the 11-mile loop a minute faster than last week and even hitting a sub-5:30 on the way home. Once I arrived at the Pig Trail, I stumbled upon a beaver which was cruising up Rock Creek. I stopped for a moment to watch, but with a quick flap of the tail, it disappeared. Moments later, further down the trail, I came face to face with a raccoon. S/he was ambling its way towards me, but it slowly did an about face once it realized I wasn't retreating. After a hiss of sorts, the coon stumbled down towards the creek.

On Thursday, I ran a very easy 8 with Jordan and Scott.

On Friday, I ran 9 with Scott starting from the Bradley Blvd entrance of Cabin John.

On Saturday, I met the Outlaw for a workout at Fletcher's Boat House. The goal was to run 2 x 2-mile with an easy half mile in between (10:20 then 101:10). After a 2.5 mile warm up and some strides we got after it. We traded the lead countless times hitting the mile a tad too fast in 5:06, but then settling into 5:10 pace. We ran 10:19 - right on the money - then looped around and prepared to do it all over again. After only a half mile in I was struggling pretty good. I hit the first mile in 5:13, but was having trouble running much faster. In fact, I slowed WAY down. Outlaw pulled away, but I rallied like heck to finish respectably, which took way too much out of me - 10:26. The times were not anything to write home about, but the effort was there. We then proceeded to run a 4 mile cool down in the Battery Kemble trails. By mile 3, I was seeing stars and clearly need food. An egg sandwich from Mimi's on MacArthur took care of that. 11 for the day.

On Sunday, I met Outlaw, Texas Paul, Scott and Karl...Dusen at Manassas battlefield for a run in the trails. The weather was down right miserable - cold and windy - and some of the paths were chopped up by horse hoofs, but for the most part it was great running. My knee hurt throughout so I decided to end the "long" run at 13, which felt far more like 15. 

That's 67 for the week.

I'm contemplating racing the Van Metre 5 Miler next weekend as it's one last chance to race before Cherry Blossom. It's not a super fast course, but I did run my PR (24:47) that back in 2010 so it's not slow. I also ran it last year (25:55ish) and it should be a good indicator as to where I stand.