Weekly Log 5-Mar-12 to 11-Mar-12

Monday:  0
Rest day

Tuesday:  6 miles
Westerly Hospital loop.  Cold 19^o run, as winter made a brief return.  Saw a runner ahead of me on Beach Street, and sped up.  Why do I always do that?  Is it a competitive thing, or I'm just curious to see who else is out running?  Anyways, glad I did, as it was Mary Griffin, age group winner at Surftown and WTAC member.  Ran and chatted with her a bit before continuing our ways.  Easy 7:40 pace.

Wednesday:  0
My place of employment woke me up at 2:30AM to work on issues.  Running clothes put out the night before didn't have a chance to get worn today.  Stay away from me today; I'm not a happy camper L

Thursday:  5 miles
Barn Island, CT.  After working 2AM to 7AM for a second straight day, I took the rest of the day off to sleep and then needed a good stress reliever.  Drove out to Barn Island late afternoon, tried running some new trails, including single track along the marsh, then satisfied my curiousity (and I think Jonny's) by running out to Greenhaven and taking the trail we saw last week leading off Greenhaven Road at the Amtrak bridge.  Turns out it ends up right on the first single track trail we ran last week.  Followed that in reverse back to the marsh, then tried a different trail back to the cove.

Friday:  0 miles
Okemo, VT.  Fun day of skiing.  Cold in the morning, but warmed up nicely by early afternoon.

Saturday:  5 miles

Mogul skiing at Okemo

Brownsville, VT.  Easy pace on rolling hills in VT with an odd running partner.  Tough running up a hill on a dirt road covered in light snow from last night, but fortunately my training in ascents up the Weekapaug Bridge prepared me well.  Saw a sign for the "Sport Trails of Ascutney Basin", and followed a meandering hilly trail through the woods when a white animal jumped across the trail in front of me.  Figuring for sure it was a mountain lion and knowing that they eat gazelles, I stopped and froze in the middle of the trail.  The "mountain lion", which turned out to be a mid-size white dog, also crouched and froze staring at me.  After a short time we both figured out neither one was going to eat the other and I continued on my way running, and the dog joined me.  I ran on trails, dirt roads, and paved surfaces, and the dog stayed with me for the remaining 3 miles of my run.  When I returned to the lodging, a girl asked if me if "my dog" was friendly!

Matthew in moguls

Skiied another full day at Okemo.  I started out telling myself to ski conservatively the day before a big race, but by the afternoon I was having too much fun bounding down trails, small jumps, and mogul fields that I decided to live in the moment.  My thighs are screaming tonight, and I don't know how that will affect racing tomorrow, but man I had a blast!

Sunday:  9 miles
Spring Forward One Hour Trail Race.  See separate write-up.

Weekly mileage:  25
Between too many sleep-depriving interruptions from work and a long weekend away skiing, this was an ultra low mileage week.  The winter trail race series is over, and will now be focusing on ramping up for Providence Cox Marathon.  Looking to run 20-milers every other week for a total of 3, starting with next weekend.  Hope to incorporate long runs with WTAC partners into this.