103 miles and a 24:03 5-mile

Tuesday was another long double going 7 and 13 on the CJ trails.  It was so nice to run on those trails.  I was still tired and a bit sore from less sleep though. 

Wednesday was a track workout.  I did a long warm-up and then did a 2K-1600-1200-800-400 workout with Sam and Burnham in 75s, 74s, 73s, 71s, and 68.  We were a couple seconds fast on most stuff and it felt extremely easy. Closed in 64 and it felt like we were jogging.  Nice and easy tune-up workout for the race that weekend.

Thursday was a short double totaling 12.  Felt tired but relaxed.  Had a great St. Patrick's Day dinner afterwards at the Irish Inn in Glen Echo with Lily, Em, and Em's parents.  Ate corned beef and cabbage and had a couple Guinness at the place where we had our rehearsal dinner!

Friday was a longer double getting in around 15 or 16 for the day including some real nice miles around Old Angler's Inn in Potomac.  Amazing trails and the best part of the towpath!

Saturday was the Van Metre 5-miler.  Despite feeling a little tired, I ran pretty well.  It was windy out and I ran behind the leaders for the most part.  I tried to lead my share but the others found my lead a bit too slow.  I lost contact at points but ran tough to get back in it.  I ran 4:37 for the last mile to finish in 24:03 for second place behind Nightingale (http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?rsID=106019&orgID=234639&pubID=2), ending my undefeated 2011.  I was really happy with the time as this was the best race I've had yet for GRC, but bigger and better things to come soon I hope.

Sunday was a point-to-point 18-miler on the towpath.  Great team run and we got moving well at times.  It was fun and my legs felt good besides feeling tired from not enough sleep.  I was a little sore afterwards but nothing too bad.  This gave me 103 for the week on 10 runs with a decent race in there.  I'm pleased with the work but need to try to get better sleep.  I usually do a down week now but I have Cherry Blossom in two weeks so I'll adjust the mileage a bit to run well there.  I'm really excited about racing soon.  (BTW, Emily ran an "easy and fun" 1:33 half in NYC, running with her sister Beth, very impressive for both).