HQ - Hotel - Commuting & Running

The Tuesday tempo run today took me from the Ballston 'hood in Arlington, VA to the Woodley Park neighborhood in D.C. All on bike paths, no less.


Time: 1:09
Distance: 10 miles
Effort: Sorta Hard
Body: Good
Weather: Clear and cool

Second day in D.C. on a biz trip. Decided the best way to ensure I got in a solid run was to bring my shoes-n-shorts to work from the hotel and do the evening commute via foot.

Surprisingly, I was in the mood for a track work-out, which is a rare feeling. So, from the HQ, I warmed up via a half-mile run to the Washington & Lee High School, where they have a fine, new track. I didn't have much time due to impending darkness (left the headlamp in the hotel), so I hopped on the track and did a whopping 1x1 mile in 5:40. Those four loops sated my immediate desire to run in circles, so off I went to pick up the Curtiss Trail, which is a paved bike path that runs along I-66 through this part of Arlington.

Running a steady pace around 6:20, I ran over Key Bridge into Georgetown, hung a right in Francis Scott Key Park and jumped on the towpath along the last bit of the C&O Canal. This path took me to the mouth of Rock Creek Park.

With darkness settling in, I started the very gentle climb up through the park to the Woodley Park area, where my hotel was located. I tried to hold the pace up the last steep climb up from the creek to the bluff above where the hotel is perched, but ran out of gas about 20 meters from the top and jogged the rest of the way up. Average pace for the 7.69 run, including the warm-up and track mile was 6:45.  Finished things up with a two-mile+ cool down through the Embassy Row 'hood gawking at the huge houses tucked away in this quiet, wooded corner of the city.

Really enjoyed this run.