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At 7:30am a woman in black is doing a runner's stretch against the rear bumper of a mini-van in the downtown Bethesda parking lot by the Capital Crescent Trail. As I drive by I wave tentatively, and tentatively she waves back. Is it Sara Crum? Park, gear up, trek back, and discover that yes, indeed it's Sara — and she wasn't sure of my identity since she didn't expect to ever see me arrive via automobile. A few minutes later Rebecca Rosenberg runs up to join us, having leapt out of her friend An's car at the nearby traffic light. Out and back ~2 miles we trot, enjoying the freezing morning temperatures. Gayatri Datta appears heading the other way, with Mary Laux. They started running ~7am. We return, do an out-and-back again with Gayatri and Mary, then join Ken Swab, Barry Smith, Emaad Burki, and some other friends of Emaad's. One of them, Alyssa Smith, admires a passing hunk and whispers that she's going to rush home to surprise her husband with her enthusiasm.
"I'm de-layering," Rebecca says, as the morning warms and we rejoin the trail after a break at Fletchers Boathouse. During final miles good conversation ensues with Barry and Rebecca about books and movies including The Right Stuff, Lost Moon, and excessive gung-ho risk-taking that gets people into trouble when conditions become tough. I note intermittent feelings of weakness in my right quad about mile 13. Is it nerves, or electrolyte imbalance, or ...? The GPS trackfile claims 15.25 miles at ~10.5 min/mi pace, but since I stopped it for the rendezvous at 8am and again when we took a porta-john break the actual overall pace is rather slower.
^z - 2012-02-08
Crescent Moon near Venus peeks through the clouds. It's Wednesday evening, the first day of the new semester at the University of Maryland. Parking lots are full, guarded by police auxiliaries. I cruise along hoping to find a place to stop near Paint Branch Trail, but no luck. So back it is to the scene of 2012-01-04 - Northwest Branch Icy Night Trek but this time starting near the strip mall at University Blvd and West Park Rd. I run until the first water crossing, whereupon I decide to turn back. No wet feet tonight — Taco Bell awaits. GPS trackfile splits: 8:10 ⇒ 7:49 ⇒ 7:32 (pace for last 0.6 mile).
^z - 2012-02-06
| After a wet day and an overnight freeze, wisdom dictates a late Sunday morning start. Cara Marie Manlandro has early afternoon work to do, so she stays indoors and attacks the treadmill. At 9:30am I trot cautiously from home on icy roads and paths to Candy Cane City. I arrive on time for the 10am rendezvous but nobody else is around, so I experiment in GPS graffiti by making a scraggly "MZ" on the baseball field, as the illustration shows (against a summer grassy background). Rebecca Rosenberg, Ken Swab, Gayatri Datta, and Jennifer Wieland soon join me. In parking Gayatri almost backs her car into Ken's and Jennifer's but stops in time. Down Beach Drive we all proceed, and thankfully nobody slips or falls on the nicely cleared pavement. Betty Smith and a variety of other runners are out doing their weekend long runs here too. Rebecca's fleece jacket provokes my usual color-question: is it hot-pink, fuchsia, or some other shade? We pause at the restrooms near Military Rd and turn around at the car barrier-gate at Broad Branch Rd NW. I share a frozen stroopwafel with everybody. During the return trip Jennifer tells us about varieties of woodpeckers and spots one high in a tree. Gayatri and I get dizzy trying to see it. At the cars Rebecca, Gayatri, and Ken jog a bit extra to make 10 miles for them. Jennifer and I prepare for another excursion: we eat miniature Snickers candy bars that I've brought in my cache, and I take a couple of Succeed! e-caps. Even at near-freezing temperatures I'm sweating out lots of salt. (I lose ~2 pounds during the run, as usual for me, in spite of refilling my water bottle twice.) Jennifer's feet are hurting after all that distance on the asphalt, so when we get back to the DC line we take the Western Ridge Trail down to Military Rd, turn east and pause to view the ruins of Fort DeRussy, and proceed along the horse trail back to Beach Dr. There we join the Valley Trail and run along it back to Maryland, with walk breaks as appropriate on hills and when side stitches trouble Jennifer. (Was it the Snickers I gave her?) Total distance for Jennifer is ~17 miles. She gives me a ride home. |
(GPS trackfile, ...) - ^z - 2012-02-04
Crimson cardinals flit brilliant across the gray afternoon snow near Rock Creek. A lost driver, confused by weekend road closures, stops to ask for directions to the National Zoo. Barry Smith and I encounter almost no cyclists, a few runners, and multiple dog-walkers along Beach Dr as we trek from Maryland down into DC, turn around at Park Police Hqs, and return.
I arrive early and decide to run a few miles as hard as I can, which turns out to be a sprint from the Boundary Bridge parking lot to Picnic Area #9 and back, with GPS-based mile splits of 8:32 ⇒ 8:11 ⇒ 8:16. At the car I take out a windbreaker and add it to the other layers, then stride about until Barry phones. He parks ~2/3rds of a mile upstream at Candy Cane City. We jog toward each other and meet in the middle, then head downstream together. Our splits: 11:17 (including a stop at my car to drop off his keys) ⇒ 10:27 ⇒ 10:15 ⇒ 10:42 (with a pause at a dysfunctional water fountain and the break for Zoo clues) ⇒ 9:35 ⇒ 9:39 and a final half mile at 9:57 pace.
(cf. GPS trackfile, ...) - ^z - 2012-02-02
Urban roosters crow the dawn. Two children wrapped in blankets follow their mother across the street, to finish their sleep at a caregiver's home as their parents go to work. Today is the flight back from my Austin visit, so at 0630 it's time to trot to the local high school, with a long pause at the traffic light to cross Manor Rd on the way. I've got the track all to myself. It's too dark to read a watch for the first few steps up the speedwork ladder, so the GPS trackfile records splits of the 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 lap pattern in lane #2: 1:57 ⇒ 4:00 ⇒ 6:03 ⇒ 7:51 ⇒ 5:52 ⇒ 3:49 ⇒ 1:45 with ~2:15 recovery walks for half a lap between each. Texas temps are already in the 60s. A cool puff of air catches me by pleasant surprise in the middle of the ladder. A few minutes later a low fog rises with the sun over the grassy ballfields. The GPS thinks the distance around the track is 0.26-0.28 miles so it shows my pace as a trifle faster than the lap times would indicate. Maybe it's a quarter-mile track and not a 400m one?
(cf. 2006-07-15 - Final Texas Heatwork, 2009-08-10 - Beep, Beep, Beep, ... , 2010-07-15 - LBJ Ladder, 2010-09-21 - LBJ High School Track, ...) - ^z - 2012-01-31
During the pre-dawn drive in my Mom's car to Longhorn Dam in Austin Texas the country-music station plays Chris Young's "Getting' You Home". The song triggers musings on how hard it would be for a computer's natural language system to understand the meaning of the lyric, "When your black dress hits the floor." There's rather a significant amount of context required to parse that! And my processor in turn loops momentarily during today's run around Town Lake. when I espy painted on a trash can the mysterious legend:
| COA PARD |
What language can that be? But after a few seconds I agnize (ha, another archaic-new word! it means "understand") that it's an acronym for "City Of Austin - Parks And Recreation Department".
Temps today are ~30°F warmer than they were on Saturday morning two days ago, when I started at the same time and it was freezing. A truck delivers new porta-johns to the baseball fields on Riverview St near the old power plant. I pause to enjoy one during the first mile. A pod of cheerfully-huge pregnant strollers smile at me halfway around the loop. Soon another great-with-child rolls into view, but on closer inspection there's a moustache above the big belly — this "she" is a "he". Oops!
I pause at Lou Neff Point to find the brick at the entrance to the gazebo with "Keith & Rita Zimmermann" on it, commemorating my brother's and his wife's donation to the park foundation. Burnt orange shorts, the University of Texas signature color, pull me along pleasantly for miles 5-7 until the wearer branches off to climb the stairs of Congress Avenue bridge and cut her run short. Splits by the GPS trackfile: 10:10 ⇒ 9:06 ⇒ 9:08 ⇒ 9:10 ⇒ 9:31 ⇒ 9:34 ⇒ 9:17 ⇒ 9:27 ⇒ 9:16 ⇒ 8:43 plus a short trot across Longhorn Dam back to the car (~0.38 mi @ ~9:31 pace) to get safely beyond the magic 10 mile total for the day.
(cf. 2006-07-08 - Town Lake Loop, 2010-07-16 - Lady Bird Lake Loop, 2009-07-18 - Austin Town Lake Loop, 2010-09-22 - Lady Bird Lake Loop, 2011-05-25 - Lady Bird Lake Loop, 2011-05-29 - Last Lady Bird Lake Loop, 2012-01-14 - Lady Bird Lake Loops, ...) - ^z - 2012-01-29
 | On Sunday morning I drive my Mother to her church, then go to worship at mine. Today's services are held at the Walnut Creek Metro Park, where the maze of twisty mountain bike paths humble me as they did when I first visited. (2010-07-19 - Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park and 2010-07-20 - Tangle of Trails) Following imaginary trails I climb a crumbling limestone cliff and suddenly discover that I've left the park and entered an ancient cemetery. Casting about for the way back turns up a barbed-wire perimeter fence. A biker waiting at the corner helpfully gets me turned around and directs me inside. From here onward marker posts keep me more-or-less on course. Westward past the "Tangle of Trails", down "Power Line Hill", across the detention dam to "Log Loops", then random-walk "Rock Bridge" back to "Endo Valley". Some heathens have left an empty TrusteX brand condom wrapper on the ground; it gets picked up and put in the trash. A deer crunches through the dry brush. "P" signs point to the parking lot. The closer it is, the more hikers carry vente lattes as they amble. Now it's time to go back and pick up Mom. GPS trackfile splits: 12:16 ⇒ 18:54 ⇒ 12:33 ⇒ 16:38 ⇒ 15:42 ⇒ 10:52 with that final mile accelerated by the easy path back to the car plus an out-and-back road sprint to make the GPS odometerdisplay a round number. |
^z - 2012-01-26
Son Robin and I fly to Austin Texas to visit family on Friday the 13th, and the first order of business on a frosty Saturday morning is to do penance in advance for all the salty, greasy Tex-Mex food that I plan to consume during the next four days. On the way to Town Lake (now called "Lady Bird Lake") I pass a neighborhood convenience store whose marquee reads:
| CHICKEN WINGS GIZZARD LIVER BURRITOS FISH |
A bit farther down Springdale Rd "Mr. Catfish" is closed at 7am. Decorative lights are shining, however, at "Planet K" on Cesar Chavez Blvd. From the outside it looks like a dance hall, but apparently it's a local chain "featuring the best selection of imported cigarettes, pipes, vaporizers, incense, underground books, erotica & more". Hmmm!
Country music FM station KASE plays the catchy song "All Over Me" by Josh Turner. The refrain lodges in my head along with the tune for the first few miles: "Bring on the sunshine, bring on the good times, girl let me look at you, / Jump in the front seat, kick up your bare feet, honey let your hair down too". Ducks cruise near shore, dabbling and diving for breakfast. Dog walkers and training groups of runners greet me. Later some say, "Hi again!" upon our next encounter. A slightly-gibbous moon settles toward the western horizon as beams from the rising sun catch the tops of downtown Austin skyscrapers. Graffiti on the pillars of Longhorn Dam advise:
| RELEASE YOUR EGO MATERIALISM IGNORANCE AND REALIZE YOUR SOUL! |
You can almost read tops of some of the words on the current Google Maps street-view; perhaps I garbled them in my notes on 2010-09-22 - Lady Bird Lake Loop, or perhaps they've been repainted and changed over the years? GPS trackfile splits are encouragingly brisk: 10:42 (potty break) ⇒ 9:52 ⇒ 9:36 ⇒ 10:09 ⇒ 10:01 ⇒ 10:42 (water bottle refill) ⇒ 9:37 ⇒ 9:16 ⇒ 9:21 ⇒ 10:11 (another potty break) ⇒ 9:38 ⇒ 9:23 ⇒ 9:17 ⇒ 10:23 (water refill) ⇒ 9:27 ⇒ 9:24 ⇒ 9:23 ⇒ 9:30 ⇒ 9:30 ⇒ 9:33 ⇒ 10:03 with that last including a final back-and-forth crossing of the dam to add a quarter mile and reach a round number on the odometer.
^z - 2012-01-24
Venus gleaming low in the west reminds me of the Seneca Creek Greenway Trail Marathon in 2006 with Caren Jew. As evening dusk deepens two ladies share the Ludwig Field/Kehoe Track, each doing her own variety of intervals. Both carry iPods. One wears a bright pink shirt, the other is clad all in black except for a pink headband. Lines between the lanes of the track make me dizzy as I look along them down the straightaway in the gloom. A pair of gulls cry out as they cruise overhead. A police siren wails. I run through the shallow puddle of water in the middle of the north curve of the track, in a deliberate effort to spread it out so it will evaporate quicker. My duck-walk wet footprints are visible the next lap around, then fade. As the sky darkens into night a young man appears and sprints back and forth along one side of the stadium.
I arrive 4:30pm, with an hour until daughter Gray plans to finish work. Plan: ten 800 meters repeats, with half-lap ~2 minute recovery walk between each. The first few take ~3:45 and feel good. As the sun sets I feel chilly and push the pace. For the first four intervals I experiment with GPS set to take a data point every second, after which I change to "smart" recording mode. Jitters on the pace graph are visible for the more frequent data intervals, but overall accuracy seems identical. I stick to Lane #2, which according to various online sources should be 0.505 miles every two laps, i.e. ~407 meters/lap instead of 400 m, roughly ~2% long. The GPS trackfile says the distance is 0.52-0.54 miles, a bit longer yet. Splits by the GPS: 3:46 + 3:46 + 3:42 + 3:45 + 3:42 + 3:43 + 3:40 + 3:39 + 3:37 + 3:31. Does that actually forecasts marathon performance, changing m:ss to h:mm? I'm skeptical.
(cf. 2007-12-21 - Kehoe 800s, 2010-07-21 - LBJ 800s, 2010-11-21 - Ten 800m Repeats, ...) - ^z - 2012-01-22
The clerk at Taco Bell says, "I saw you running down Veirs Mill Road a little while ago!" I plead guilty: Cara Marie Manlandro and I have just finished enjoying a 14 mile loop around her extended neighborhood this morning, and I'm ordering a recovery snack. The GPS trackfile splits read 9:49 ⇒ 9:48 ⇒ 9:51 ⇒ 9:58 ⇒ 9:42 ⇒ 11:07 ⇒ 9:44 ⇒ 9:55 ⇒ 9:46 ⇒ 10:43 ⇒ 11:29 ⇒ 10:20 ⇒ 11:16 ⇒ 9:45. We take walk breaks along the way, especially during the climbs out of Rock Creek's valley, and pause to refill bottles at water fountains.
Our one disagreement: as we near the end of the trek I'm under the impression that we need to go at least a mile farther. I distinctly remember seeing "15" written on CM's wall calendar for today as I fill my water bottle in her kitchen. CM denies it vehemently and swears that this is a 14 mile day. When we get back we discover that we're both right: the long run progression does demand 14 miles but CM wrote the wrong number down. Oops!
^z - 2012-01-20
