Ha, nope not me -- but I'm sure that was PaxVelo Sunday Afternoon Ride (SuAR): Details they posted about it beforehand: . Location: Food Lion Parking Lot - Callaway, MD . Time: 2:00 PM . Distance and Pace - 35-40 miles - 17-18 MPH average speed . Weather forecast - 55-57 degrees/ Partly Sunny / 4-5 mph winds . Post Ride Coffee at - Callaway A & W I had a nice 5K race at Solomon's (CAASA) on Sat, and Crystal and I ran the course again after everything was over as a warmdown -- and we were both tired. Sunday I risked a moderate distance run -- 10mi with a couple ppl on Solomon's, then watched most of the NYC mara online, then added a couple unplanned miles when I saw my neighbor Rebecca out running and joined her briefly -- and found that she is definitely running Jingle Bell, so I definitely want to run Jingle Bell too -- and see if I can pace off her for most of it (then of course I would like to accelerate the end, if I can -- I love doing that when I can).

Yesterday evening I did my traditional race eve eve moderately paced 10k. Now, I thought I'd have superb illumination to run by --- what with it being the night of the FULL MOON and all --- but to my dismal surprise, I had to run through the deepest darkness ever. Though the rain had all but ceased, the skies remained thickly overcast, and as the temperature stayed warm, an impenetrable fog consumed the humid surface air. Street signs and mailboxes --- silhouetted by the fog-fractured beams of light from houses --- took on shifting, wraith-like forms. Nothing was quite as it seemed in that murky gloom. And whenever a car approached me, my whole field of vision disappeared in the blinding, fog-amplified glare of its headlights. As I approached the remote, wooded end of my neighborhood, I looked up a hill and saw two undeniably human forms just standing there, framed by eerie light. Then, mere moments later when I passed by again after making my U-turn, they were gone!

Have fun at St Mary's City Prediction Run

Crystal went out and ran some intervals on Saturday before I got ready, so I went out and ran a warmup that turned into a tempo 5K (first mi @ 8:06 to 3rd mi @ 7:23), then ran some intervals myself. I wanted to do 6min/mi pace on some quarters to practice the pace. I did two quarters at a little faster than that (5:50 and 5:42 pace), and I felt very tired, so I decided to do one more -- so I pushed that one (5:11). Then I was exhausted and did a slow 1.5mi warmdown. (Have to give paces not times, b/c they were all just a bit over 0.25mi.) Got home and found out that Crystal had done four quarters all faster than 6min/mi pace. Then I felt a bit disappointed that she managed four at below 6min/mi, and I had only managed three. My plan is to try some 800s at 6min/mi once this coming week, in hopes I can get accustomed to the pace -- before Jingle Bell.

I don't have a goal time per se. Of course it would be fun to PR (beat 18:41), but I'm planning to try to start out with Rebecca and then go by feel.

Three weeks ago when I ran 17.5 miles around Piney Point and St. George's Island, I felt strong throughout and even had a fast finish. But yesterday's long run was almost traumatically miserable. Perhaps it was due to soreness from those three recent 5ks or my low weekly mileage over the past couple weeks --- or just the bitter cold. I mean it. The temperature had remained in the 20s all morning, and when I arrived at Greenwell around 1 p.m., it was hovering right below 33 degrees. Oh, and I had of course taken the day off from work. I was almost deterred from running at Greenwell upon arrival. Shortly after turning left onto the dirt road leading to the pavilion, my car's path was halted by a barred gate --- padlocked. I have no idea why they'd so adamantly want to section off that ... section of the park, but I just parked beside it and walked the rest of the way to the 5k course start/finish. The grass and dirt turf was frozen hard as pavement, my breath rose up in visible jets of steam, and I knew I was in for a cold one. At least there was bright sunshine. Anyways, my intention was to run the 5k course six consecutive times so as to amass 30 kilometers or 18.75 miles. Even during the first 5k, however, I felt oddly weak and clunky --- as though I were sick when I otherwise felt highly healthy. After completing the course twice (so as to make the workout more psychologically manageable, I was thinking of it as a trio of 10ks or a sextet of 5ks rather than one monster 30k), I started getting despondent over the monotonous notion of having to complete the same 5k course four more times. Thus I did something bold: I eschewed the course, followed the gravel drive back to the park entrance, turned left onto Steerhorn Neck Rd, and headed for parts unknown! Isn't that what the Forerunner GPS watch is for? Though I had no idea when exactly the road would dead-end, I tentatively kept following it until I achieved 9.4 miles --- at which point I U-turned and headed back exactly the way I'd come, thus rejoining the park's 5k course start/finish at 12.5 miles and granting me an on-road interlude to the workout's middle 10k. I desperately needed the change of scenery! Steerhorn Neck Rd is fine for running, too, with minimal traffic and grassy shoulders. And after cutting through some farms, the road runs right along the Patuxent River, providing clear views of the Solomons bridge and some of St. Mary's County's most grandiose McMansions. Back at the Greenwell course start/finish line, with one 10k left to go, I stopped for the first time and ate the banana half I had in a ziplock bag stuffed into the velcro pouch of my water bottle holster (I'm getting accustomed to taking solid fuels during the course of a long run) under the now overcast sky. I started feeling frankly fatigued during that fifth 5k, which surprised me since I was still well under the distance of my previous long run. Therefore I broke again after completing the course that time (15.6 miles) --- taking my one and only "bathroom" break --- and fervently I tried to psyche myself up for the final 5k. One mile in, I was dying. Seriously, I don't think I'd known such a grueling sensation since around mile 24 of the full marathon last March. And it wasn't just fatigue; all the joints and muscles in my legs were in brittle, locked up pain. Despite all that, I forced myself to complete the peninsula loop --- the one portion of the Greenwell course that doesn't repeat --- before coming to a shattered stop by the "crossroads" picnic table. I was at 17.65 miles. After taking a good breather, I walked briskly for a couple hundred yards (with my watch on pause) and then carefully resumed running for another 0.35 miles, after which I stopped for good (that final segment conveniently took me almost all the way back to my car). So overall I did 18 miles in 2:30:59 (8:24/mi). Good enough.

The St. Mary's City trails as in the paved paths that wind around the historic buildings --- or do you mean wooded trails that I'm unaware of? I can't imagine hunters being allowed to shoot right around the historic state house or the Dove.