Fact of life in DC: Sometimes the Secret Service will have to detonate suspicious packages outside your office building.

Perk of my job: I was teleworking yesterday and missed all the drama.

Turns out there was a suitcase on the corner of the street my office is on containing what appeared to be a pipe bomb. In the end there wasn't one, thank goodness. I'm pretty glad I was at home, I probably would have jumped out of my skin if I heard them detonating that package.

In less life threatening news...

The weather continues to be amazing in DC. The temps are cooler in the mornings, there's virtually no humidity. It's perfect for running.

And it's also the perfect time to push the speed a little bit.

I set off on this morning's three miler hoping to maintain a 9:10 pace. Nothing too crazy, but I wanted to push myself a little bit more than normal.

I was doing OK, but my pace was kind of all over the place. I would be on a downhill and absolutely flying (faster than 8 minutes per mile) and then I'd hit an uphill and my pace would drop drastically. I found Garmin to be really valuable on this run because if I noticed my pace dropping too much I could kick it up a notch and get the speed to back up before I settled into that slower pace.

I was absolutely spent after this run. My legs were screaming, my lungs were heaving, but man did I feel great.

I plugged Garmin in to check my splits and my jaw practically hit the floor:

Mile 1: 8:47
Mile 2: 8:43
Mile 3: 8:32

Uhhh not only did I run way faster than I expected, but I managed negative splits too. Craziness.

I've got to thank the perfect weather for helping with those splits. I highly doubt I would have been able to do that well if it was hot and humid.

Here's hoping that as my training progresses I'll be able to extend those fast times to longer runs.