Hot Summer in the City

The trotter team should sign up as local weather forecasters! Why, you ask? Well, due to a variety of reasons, we canceled this week's run as we could not get a quorum. As it turns out, if we had run Saturday, our 6 week streak of perfect running weather would have been broken, as it was 80 and muggy Saturday in DC. However, since we did not run -- The Streak Lives On! However, team members did not just sit around all day. Kent and Kjersten hopped on their bikes and rode through all 50 states, and still found time to take a nap in the middle. (And no, they did not mess with the space - time continuum) Let's just say the district of columbia has a stately way of naming states. And we are pleased to welcome our newest team member -- Sarah Knoll and the family dog. (still checking if dogs are legal in the Baltimore Marathon). Assuming no injuries, we should have our full complement of 8 runners for the relays. (only 7 weeks to go!)

Who is the rabbit?

As regular readers of the First Trinity running blog know, we have been having an ongoing debate over who among our group is consciously (or unconsciously!) leading the group to record setting times. At various times everybody has been a suspect. Well, this week, for the first time, Kent was missing. (some lame excuse about training for a triathlon at 7am) And the average time for Wendy, Sarah, Kjersten and Greg was a 10:25 per mile pace. (the slowest pace so far). As they say in Dragnet -- "Just the facts, ma'am" This week we were down along the potomac in yet again perfect weather. If running wasn't enough, Sarah and Kjersten very generously offered the group the chance to participate in some cross-training after the run. I wasn't able to participate, but it seemed to involve lifting boxes and going up and down stairs. We'll have to get the complete report later.

mid-week...

It's true - injury/inflammation persists, however, thanks to Sara and her organized Runner's World articles, I've got some stretches and strengthening for this annoying IT Band problem. I'm hoping to be back out there running with you all soon. In the meantime, I'm working on recruiting a couple of other runners to join us on Saturday mornings. They seem to be put off by a 9-minute mile, however! Yet, this would seem to disprove the speculation that I was "the rabbit" a few weeks ago:-).

Having a Ball on the Mall

The trinity trotters had to place Pastor Wendy on the 1 week disabled list earlier this week due to soreness in the IT band. She is listed as day to day. According to an unnamed source, she suffered the injury "when I was on the treadmill earlier this week, and it had nothing to do with the trinity trotter training. It will not effect my pastoral duties." As if to prove the point, Pastor Wendy posted her first blog entry Saturday morning. Other members of the team carried on without Wendy, as we did a run around the mall, from the capital, past the Washington Monument, to the Lincoln memorial, and back to First Trinity. Our streak of perfect running weather remains unbroken, as it was sunny and 75 Saturday morning. Due to the perfect weather, we picked up the pace and registered a 9:00 minute mile for the first time

Putting the "Rock" in Rock Creek

Without Greg's sweet mapping watch, I can't post a map or accurate times, or anything all that cool, but the First Trinity runners were at it again this weekend. We were a smaller group, with many members off on vacation (hopefully still training) but Pastor Wendy, Kent, and myself (KJ) tore up the paths of Rock Creek park on Saturday morning. Saturday was a scorcher, but the morning actually started out as a pretty pleasant day for a run. We started at picnic area #6 and headed south to Pierce Mill road, we think it was about four miles round trip. There is some discrepancy in the time it took, so we have yet to determine if Pastor Wendy is the cause of the really fast days. My watch said we completed the run in 20:08, whereas Kent's said 41:22. I think the truth is closer to Kent's time, though I may continue to claim having set a five minute mile pace. Kent suffered a brief wardrobe malfunction at the turn around point, but luckily disaster was averted when we noticed the malfunction and Kent was able to re-tie the shoelace in time to prevent the shoe from going in the creek. We also returned to the topic of tow chains, reminding me once again that these Midwesterners have a different style of life than this Southern California girl is used to. All in all training seems to be going well, and we should be tearing up the street of Baltimore in October. Next week I think we're headed back to the mall for another one of those classic "only in DC" runs.