Patriotic Runs

I know I have been bad about keeping you updated on my training. Life and work has been pretty busy lately so when I do have free time, the last thing I want to do is write about how busy I am :)

I am officially in taper mode now after a successful final week of high mileage ending with my final 20 mile long run and 57 miles for the week. Overall feeling strong and looking forward to the cut back weeks of taper.

Last week my taper was a little more than I would have liked, but weather and travel plans forced me to skip a run and shorten another. I made sure to get in my important runs though....an 8 mile track workout with 5 x 600m repeats with 90 second recoveries. The repeats averaged 2:34 and I was okay with that.

On Friday, I headed down to our nation's capitol to visit Bryan who was there for work. Two things I didn't realize before heading down there....(1) walking around all day is exhausting and (2) its still freakin' summer down there! It was much hotter compared to Boston and oh so humid. We spent Saturday walking around downtown and spent a lot of time in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. That afternoon we went for a nice 5 mile run in a hilly park near where he was staying.

Sunday we got up early and heading to the National Mall for my long run of the week. Bryan ran the first 5 miles with me and then I set back out on my own. I had my phone in my pocket in case I got lost but I also used it to take pictures of where I was running. These are just some of the sights I ran past.....

The Capitol Building.....our Senators and congress people were hard at work on the bailout plan

World War II Memorial

Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool....even with the clouds you can see the reflection

Lincoln Monument

Washington Monument (up close)

I was supposed to run 16 miles but stopped at 14....I was drenched from the humidity, thirsty, and tired (all that walking around sight seeing!). We headed back to shower and did some more sight seeing in the afternoon. Overall a great trip to DC and a good first week of taper!