Weekly Log 21-Jan to 27-Jan-2013

Monday:  20!
Usually my rest day, but with being a 3-day weekend, Muddy and I opted to go long Sat and Mon.  The downside is we missed out on some Pachaug epicness yesterday with some of our WTAC brethen, but the upside is we got in some serious mileage and long run "fun".  Met up with Muddy and Mike C at the Westerly Y at 6:30.


Part I - an easy conversational pace 3.5 mile pre-sunrise run on roads through Pawcatuck and out to the Barn.
Part II - 8 miles of trails in Barn Island Management Area.  A mix of fields with birdhouses, coastal marshes, carriage road double-track and lot of snaking single-track through the woods.  Led the guys through some of the eastern part of the 1,014 acre tract that I had only recently explored.  To liven things up a bit and make sure nobody got bored, we pushed the pace at near-sprint on three very short but very twisty segments.  At 8.5 miles into our run, we took a break at a water and snack drop.  At this point, we bid farewell to Mike, as he started his trek back to RI.  Muddy and I soldiered on for 3 more miles of trails, including a brief stop at Wequetequock Cove.
Part III - Here's where things got tough real fast.  As we're both running Boston, we ran 5 miles continuous on roads at a target marathon pace of 6:20 - 6:30, intentionally after already running 11 miles.  Muddy asked me to pace us in this range using my space watch.  I failed, but in a good way, as here were our splits:  6:13, 6:20, 6:05, 6:06, 6:07.

That we were able to maintain the low 6 pace was all the more
surprising to me, because the hills on Greenhaven were rolling
and just kept coming and coming

Soul crushing hill profile for the 5-mile low-6-pace portion
of our run - climb to the top of a 100' hill, immediately drop,
and repeat

Part IV - 3.5 mile cooldown run back to the Y, including a short trail change of pace out to an overlook of the Pawcatuck River.  We pulled into the Y parking lot with 19.7 on my watch, and I pulled a Galoob by marching us on for a short loop to the back of the lot and a small section of Wilcox Park to get that "20" to show on the watch.
Good but tough and exhausting run.  My legs are toast!

Tuesday:  0
Needed rest day after yesterday's long run.

Wednesday:  5
My hopes of a morning run were dashed by unexpectedly working 7 hours overnight.  Ugh!  At least I was able to squeeze in an afternoon run.
Went for a chilly 18-degree snowy romp in Grills Preserve.  Hadn't been in here since Muddy led us on a run last spring, but it seemed quite different with a cover of snow on the ground. 

View from appropriately named "Big Hill" today
only deer and gazelle tracks up here

This is one is called, yep, you got it - "Big Rock"
The preserve here is awesome, if not the naming committee!

Thursday: 4
4 / 4 / 4:  4^o, 4:44AM, 4+ miles.  Coldest morning of the year?  Fellow WTAC runners may know that even in the mid-20 degrees, I typically wear shorts running, but that didn't cut it today.  Added tights, running jacket, and a balaclava to the mix.  Don't mind the cold, but feel constricted running wearing so much.  Quick Tom Harvey loop.  How come I didn't see anyone else outside today?  It couldn't have anything to do with the time of day or temperature, could it?

A quick check of the temperature before heading out on this
morning's run:  4 degrees

What a great week for Mike B's plans to resume running; we'll have to check in with him to see how that's   going.  Should be interesting running the Belleville 10K Sunday, although it looks like it won't be quite as cold and unfortunately not much snow in the forecast.

Friday:  6+

"warm weather" running today at Woody Hill

The warm weather returns!  24 degrees for a late afternoon trail run with Tom.  Back to the comfort of shorts and a single layer shirt!
Parked in Woody Hill Management Area, ran snow covered trails a roundabout way over to and through Wahaneeta, a quick stop at the ledge, and then back into Woody Hill for the rest of the run.  Ran the single-track trail behind the new development, and then CCW through the marsh and around.  By this time, it was getting just dark enough and the trails looked just different enough in the snow that I had to pause at each trail junction to figure out the turn.  We hoofed it on double-track on the last mile back at a pace in the mid-6s.









Saturday:  9
17 degree run through Champlin and Mastuxet.  Met up with Eric, Yvonne, and Mike C by running to Eric's house and into Champlin from there.  All the trails were snow covered, but not slippery like when Mike and I were in here a couple weeks back.  There was no wind and the sun was out, so I warmed up quickly.  Good run.  Ready for Belleville tomorrow.

Sunday: 7
Belleville Pond 10K.  Separate write-up to follow.

Weekly mileage total:  51 miles

Week wrap-up:
High points:
6 days of trail running, 5 of them in the snow!  I'm actually loving running in the winter cold and snow - I know this is to be short lived.
20-mile long run and speedwork in the middle to boot.
A 50+ mileage week!

Low points:
Only that I didn't run faster at Belleville 10K.