Run Report : April 9, 2007

I met up with Capital Striders for the second Monday in a row. Shelly and Kevin joined. It was nice to have familiar faces. Hopefully they’ll come out again.

I jogged from my office to the meeting place on the Mall. Perhaps because my backpack was heavy, or maybe because of the Old Rag hike, I started to feel shin splints in my left leg. I did a couple of stretches before the group run, but they flared up almost right away. By about 1.25 mi into the run, my left shin was on fire – I haven’t really been feeling it in my right leg. Around 3 mi, the shin splints were feeling better.

The regulars run faster than my easy pace, so I’m pushing myself to keep up with the pack. I think it’s good motivation though. I’m looking to work on speed, so here’s my weekly speed run. Right now a 9:00 min pace it’s a stretch, but I know that I’ve been capable of 8:00 within the past 6 mo. I think within a month I’ll be able to keep up for the most part.

The run was only 3.5 miles and took just over 30 minutes. When we were moving, our pace was probably 9:30 or faster, but we were stopped in several places because of street lights, so we averaged 9:45/min over the full distance. With the jog from the office, I did about 4.25 mi total. My Garmin 305 never caught a satellite signal, in part because I didn’t start it when we were hanging out before the group run. But it’s time to send it back. That top button on the right has never worked.

Afterwards the group went to Hawk n Dove. We spent more time eating and drinking than running, but I don’t mind. These are some pretty nice people to hang out with. They’re quite welcoming and it’s nice to have some people to chat with about running. The whole experience definitely turned my day around.