Uphill Battle

Welp, this weekend's long run was challenging...I have to say I felt good afterwards, but met some rough patches during the run.  It was a 12 miler, so I wanted to find a safe, interesting, and FLAT route here in DC.  I was successful in all all categories, except the whole flat part...FAIL.

Originally I wanted to run a route through the National Mall, but its only a 3-4 mile loop and on my long runs I prefer one big loop vs. having to double back.


I decided to just head from my apartment down to DuPont and the first 5 miles were great, because they were basically all downhill.  I ran past all the Embassies and did some people watching in DuPont circle, but by mile 6 when I rounded through Georgetown and back uptown, I was hating life.




For some reason my Motoactv said this was 12 miles - but MapMyRun has it as 12.58....interesting

Lessons learned:
1) Never, ever, ever, ever for any reason what-so-ever run through Georgetown in DC.  Just don't.  There are 7 million people and traffic up the wazoo, especially on a weekend.

2) Weekend afternoons (4-5pm) may be my new favorite running-outside-in-the-summer time.  Its still warm, but there's a really nice breeze and still enough people out and about for good people watching and to make a single female runner feel safe.

3) The cool thing after the long runs, at this point in training, is that they are all the longest distances I have ever ran, so that's a great feeling of accomplishment :)

Mileage is on the rise from this week forward.  Pretty soon the 3-milers that have become rewards during the week, will exist no more and will be replaced with 4-9 milers.  Here's a look at where we are so far...My first half marathon ever looms over head for this weekend...

WEEK	MON	TUES	WEDS	THURS	FRI	SAT	SUN
1	REST	3 m run	3 m run	3 m run	REST	6	XTRAIN
2	REST	3 m run	3 m run	3 m run	REST	7	XTRAIN
3	REST	3 m run	4 m run	3 m run	REST	5	XTRAIN
4	REST	3 m run	4 m run	3 m run	REST	9	XTRAIN
5	REST	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	REST	10	XTRAIN
6	REST	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	REST	7	XTRAIN
7	REST	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	REST	12	XTRAIN
8	REST	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	REST	REST	½ MARATHON
9	REST	3 m run	7 m run	4 m run	REST	10	XTRAIN
10	REST	3 m run	7 m run	4 m run	REST	15	XTRAIN
11	REST	4 m run	8 m run	4 m run	REST	16	XTRAIN
12	REST	4 m run	8 m run	5 m run	REST	12	XTRAIN
13	REST	4 m run	9 m run	5 m run	REST	18	XTRAIN
14	REST	5 m run	9 m run	5 m run	REST	14	XTRAIN
15	REST	5 m run	10 m run	5 m run	REST	20	XTRAIN
16	REST	5 m run	8 m run	4 m run	REST	12	XTRAIN
17	REST	4 m run	6 m run	3 m run	REST	8	XTRAIN
18	REST	3 m run	4 m run	2m run	REST	REST	MARATHON DAY!!