Wednesday, August 18, 2010

My New Go To Run Spot

Since this week has been relatively normal – work, eat, train, sleep, repeat – I decided to document one of my favorite runs so you can see what I do each week. Ever since moving to my new place in Dupont, I’ve been exploring as much as possible to find new routes and new areas to run in but I always come back to this one for some reason. It’s my trusty 4+ mile run that takes me from the annoying street lights of the city to some top-secret hidden trails, then back again. Please excuse the hazy photos.  I blame that on the DC humidity and my sexy habit of dripping sweat as soon as I step out the door to work out. 

I start by heading away from my house towards the embassies. It’s not the most glamorous stretch of the run but there’s always a guarantee of inviting smells as I pass by the Dupont restaurants.


Then, it’s only a more open stretch of sidewalk running as I pass by countless unknown country flags and head towards to bridge. Did I mention I'm afraid of heights?




And finally, I’m out of the bustling noise of rush hour traffic as I duck into the single track paths of Rock Creek Park.


Here is where I have the most fun weaving in and out of cool trails and enjoying both some technical downhill spots and heartbeat raising uphills (OK, really there are only two baby hills but they are still hills). Below are some of my favorite parts of the run.



After a little less than a mile of that, I climb up a deceptively steep hill and hear that familiar noise of cars and people. Notice the view from the top of the hill (you can see the small single track path in the distance).


Now it's back to the mean streets of Georgetown and Dupont.  It's basically a maze of nice houses, classy establishments (picture of great wine bar), and old cemeteries (spoooooky) before crossing another bridge and making my way home.




The last things I get to see are an oddly huge buffalo and the Argentina embassy (shout out to my FAVORITE SISTER LIVING IN SAN JUAN and best friend in San Diego).



It's not the most glamorous route but it gets the job done and takes me away from the bustle of the city and into the solitary trails when I'm in need of a short and fast run. 

Friday, August 13, 2010

Focused

Nothing in depth, nothing funny, nothing newsy today. This is my first free weekend and I’m going to take full advantage of it by enjoying some good old hard work. Since June, this will be the first Saturday-Sunday stretch where I have no plans to imbibe, no soccer to play, no events to attend, and where I have a [relatively] pain/sick free body.

So, simply put, it’s time to go to work. The marathon is 11 weeks away.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Futbol in Virginia Beach

Dear Marathon Training,

I’m so sorry, but I had to cheat on you yet again. You know I love you dearly and I’m committed to you [for the next three months] but when the beautiful game comes calling, I have a hard time saying no. Don’t worry I didn’t do anything stupid that would ruin what we have. I promise. You just have to understand that soccer is my first love and you can never forget that first true love.

Sincerely,
Justin

Phew, now that that’s out of the way, I can get to the good stuff. Virginia Beach – soccer, townies, soreness, fun.

That’s right folks, I spent this past weekend playing a little soccer and enjoying the always-wholesome Virginia Beach. One of the teams I occasionally play for asked me to join them for an annual soccer tournament and I jumped at the opportunity to get some touches on the field. I knew it probably wasn’t the greatest idea since I always come back from long soccer weekends with way too many bumps and bruises, but I promised myself that I’d take it easy and tone down my competitiveness so I could come back healthy .

So with that, my baby bro [oh yea, it was a Nunez party] and I drove down Saturday morning and took the field with a quality group of guys and gals. Now, I have to be honest, even with my toned down attitude and aggressiveness, I figured we would easily walk away with the tournament win. Call me arrogant, but I’m just not used to losing and certainly not when I have a relatively strong core of players around me. Unfortunately, about ten minutes into the first game, all hopes of winning the tournament were dashed when the most unathletic team I’ve ever played against put a cheap goal in our net and never looked back. Ouch!

And thus ends my discussion about the soccer in Virginia Beach. I would love to go into more detail but like I said, I didn’t come into the weekend with my usual uber-competitive and uber-aggressive mindset so I wasn’t my normal upset self when we didn’t win.

The rest of the weekend was a collection of great stories, good people and countless townies. I mean come on, when you get about a dozen North Carolinians (yep, this team was stacked with players from the best state), a city that has arguably more townies and cheesy/awesome bars than the Jersey Shore, and a few whiskey shots and/or beers, you know you’re in for a good time.   


 
the Saturday night crew... before the shenanigans

 
the Latino flavor of the team 

 
bags on the water = greatest bar ever
(not to mention the 75 year old men rocking the dance floor and numerous "working" coeds)


  
the squad