Running home

So this year I have resumed my self-propelled commuting to and from work this summer.  This is the 4th summer in a row I have tried to commute to/from work using "Tammy Power" several days a week.

This summer I have been moderately successful with my husbands help who frequently drives me to work.  Then in the afternoon I jog home or jog closer to home and meet up with my husband somewhere (the local pool, the grocery store, panera bread company are among frequent meeting points).  Sometimes I bail on my run and actually hop a local bus, but this is a bit difficult because I have to figure out when the bus will pass me and potentially where on my various routes home (it's like a bad SAT question...Tammy leave's work at 4 p.m. traveling 5 mph, the 46 bus leaves Rockville traveling 20 mph, assuming Tammy needs a 15 minute head start to jog to get to the bus route, when and where the bus pass Tammy??).

Well today was my first time running all the way home from work since VT100.  I was pretty happy with completing this distance (I think today's course was about 7 miles because it typically takes me about 1.5 hours).  This followed Tuesday's "speed work" when I had to return abruptly to work 1/4 of the way to the pool because I forgot some items (aarrggh!).  

During my jog I nearly had a wildlife incident.  I was running along a major 4 lane road.  It was near some green acres including a marsh.  I heard a rather large commotion and large branches breaking in this area and of course my first thought was "Cougar", of course realizing I was not in CO, I realized it was more likely to be "Bear".  I was in a panic.  Finally I glanced over and saw a buck and two smaller deer.  I was no less panicked.  About 3 years ago, I nearly was charged by a deer in the fall along a different road relatively close to our house when I was training for JFK50 in 2006, you can read more at the following website:  www.restonrunners.org/JFK50/Articles/Massie2005.php).  And I thought DC was supposed to be an urban area!

Well after this, my run continued fairly uneventfully.  

Only 3 more days until the Columbia IronGirl.  My bike is resting comfortably at my friends house (no longer generating interest and taunting me by sitting in front of my office).  And today it was only about 80 degrees thus I deemed it too cold to swim.  Anyway after yesterday when my husband kept beating me at 50-100 meter races, I got a bit discouraged with my swimming capabilities).  Well at least the 3.4 mile in my tri should be a cake walk for me, right:-)