Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Weekly Log 3-Feb to 9-Feb-2014

With the Super 5K behind us, I'm looking forward to the next race:  Belleville 10K on Sunday, then taking a long lull before racing again.  No idea what the weather or ground cover will be like by Sunday, but I'm up for it as long as driveable to get there.

Monday:  5
Afternoon snow led to a cancellation of Mark's swim meet in Woonsocket, and thus brought me home early.  Shoveled quickly, so I could get out in the daylight to play in the snow!  I love winter!  Seriously.

Stripped off my snow pants down to my shorts (don't worry; I stopped there - this wasn't a repeat of Chris' perceived sausage show at the indoor meet).  Went for a run in Champlin; with shorts on of course!  At one point, I wiped out on a turn and lay there for a while with snow on my bare legs.  Hurt?  Nah.    Cold?  A little.   Fun? You betcha!  I just laid there and laughed hysterically; fortunately no one was there to witness the affair and whisk me off to the nut house.  On the run home in my neighborhood, I threw snowballs at one of my neighbors while he was shoveling out his driveway.  Yeah, someday I probably need to grow up and act my age, but TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY.
I brought this spruce tree home in a bucket from Home Depot
about 10 years ago.  The snow on this tree and the ones in background
make the beauty of winter snow look like magic to me.
Running the trails in Champlin Glacier Park.
Many gazelle-like moves needed to skirt around
the bent over boughs and branches.

Tuesday:  7
Lunch time:  Nashua NH Y.  Started to get changed into my running gear, when I realized I didn't bring the right running gear.  Hey look - my swim trunks and goggles are in my bag; thus salvaged the visit with 900 yards in the pool.  Beautiful facility.
Late afternoon:  Ran Moonlight hills and past Tom's parents' house.  I'm going to have to e-mail them my running schedule so they can set up refreshment stations as needed.

Wednesday:  7
Another day, another snowstorm.  Asked if Tommy could come out to play, and fortunately, he took the bait, although Muddy did not.  Ran 7 miles in 6" of snow covered trails in Woody Hill.  Slow going, but fun, no plows, no slush, no sliding cars, no humans at all.  Quite the workout especially on three hill climbs.
FiveK with the frozen pond in background
At Woody Hill Marsh

Me, same scene.  Looks cold, but really quite warm as long as kept running.
Thursday:  13
In East Providence for a WHS swim meet.  Although it's my home state, running options looked terrible here due to busy roads and ugly strip malls.  Opted to go just over the MA border to Seekonk and run from the Newman Y to give me a place to change and shower.  Don't know this area at all, so I mapped out a run on mapmyrun.com and printed it out to carry with me.
Started on busy and ugly Route 44, but only for a 1/4 mile, and the rest of the run was just beautiful:  back country roads, rolling hills, and snow covered farmlands, all with very little traffic.  A few of the roads were still snow covered, but on those, I was able to run in the middle of the road.  Finished in time to get back to see Mark win two of his events.
With a name like this, I had to run this street!  (Rehoboth, MA)
Friday:  13
Lunchtime:  5.  Beach run with Crutch.  Felt great with the sun shining.
Afternoon:  8.  FiveK took Mike B and I for a beater workout in Watch Hill:  6 x Surftown Hill pops (actually improved my times on these as went along, from 57 seconds to 48), followed by 5 x (1 minute hard, 1 minute easy) on Ocean View Highway, and wrapped up with 5 x (30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy).
Was just jogging back to the cars when we heard someone yell to us from an open window in the Ocean House.  Mike B and I thought it was someone heckling us fools out in shorts, but then we heard "Tommy FiveK"!  Turned out it was Woolley on the sunset of his bachelor-hood, as he gets married at Ocean House this weekend. 

Saturday:  5
Easy five on local roads.

Sunday:  9
Belleville Pond 10K.  Separate write-up shortly.  Promise!

Weekly mileage totals:
Run:   59
Swim:  x 1, 1/2 mile

3 comments:

  1. With regards to Monday -- Never grow up! Never, ever, EVER grow up! It's friggin' overrated.

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  2. Totally agree with Muddy's comment, and I love that you're keeping that spirit alive. However, a truly childish person wouldn't have stopped at the shorts. Now you know for next time.

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  3. Agree with Muddy and Chris on the growing up, don't!

    ReplyDelete