Walking is even lame

So last week I missed my Wednesday run due to crazy having to drive from one side of DC to the other. Instead I saw Transformers with a very late night showing. And then I slept with my air conditioner on. It was amazing. Quiet. Fresh. Un-sticky. Whatever, that wasn't the point of my post.

I went for my 8 mile run late on Friday evening, except it was 8.5 miles by the time I got back to where I needed to be. I did a little walking from out of my apartment, then did a warm up from...some point, to 16th and Euclid. I did my awkward "stretching in public" thing at that corner, and from there, I launched through DC. I'm embarrassed to say that living here for over a year, and passing it, if/when I drive...I hadn't seen the White House in person. So, I remedied that. I ran to the side that faces 16th, then around the other side. And I kept going. All through whatever park that it, to the Lincoln Memorial, along the Reflecting Pool, around the Washington Monument, across the Mall, to the Capitol. And then back up to 14th street. It had rained earlier that evening. I had eaten 3/4 of a box of macaroni and cheese. It was humid enough that just walking out of my apartment made me damp. But it was AWESOME. Like, really AWESOME. I enjoyed it on so many levels - the monuments are at their best after dark. There were fewer people out (and far fewer people riding or running, come on, it's Friday night). And probably what saved me - the mall is a good mixture of gravel and pavement. The gravel walkways were close to muddy. I don't know how well my knees would have taken the beating if it had all been on pavement. Given that the run was significantly longer than my norm, I wore my brace and I think that helped a lot. I was able to conserve my fluids a little better than usual (and I did take my watered down Gatorade in the camelbak instead) so that was excellent. It was sort of like setting beverage goals - get to where Obama lives, take a sip, get to the Lincoln, take a sip, and so on. Immediately following, I was pretty sore.

I went to yoga on Saturday morning, hoping to lengthen my ouch a little bit. It was good, but there's always so much emphasis on the working part of the yoga exercises - I just wish there were more stretching! I miss the old Saturday instructor.

I rode to Adams Morgan to pick up spare inner tubes for my bike (so now my bike it all kinds of equipped but if I ever actually need to change my tires, I'm hosed cause I still haven't sat down to learn how to do it...). My friend and I went out to Crescent Rock to climb in the late afternoon - it was less humid but still really hot. Her fluffy, big, black dog was not impressed at the lack of air conditioning. All in all, a good Saturday.

I ran around so much on Friday and Saturday, that Sunday almost fell too lazy. The hike and climb into Crescent had left me really sore, so come Sunday morning, I could hardly walk. My initial plan had been to ride out to Washington's house in Mt. Vernon but that didn't work out. Instead I rode to the Dupont Farmer's Market, picked up good stuff... I came home, did some work and then back out to Whole Foods on wheels. I needed sugar and strawberries to make sour cherry + strawberry jam. Twas good. I had cheese and crackers with jam for dinner last night.

Depending on the hour I get home tonight, I'd like to do an easy five miler. I want to make that effort to keeping my hard run on Wednesdays and my middle run on Mondays. But I'm still pretty sore from Friday. We shall see.

That is all.