Friday, November 27, 2015

Weekly Log 16-Nov to 22-Nov-2015: A Week of All Trails

Monday:  8
Fresh off my big PR at Rhody, I was very happy to perform my annual ritual of a second sweep of the course and facilities.  The course was in great shape, thanks to master sweepers Tammy and Mandy; the parking lot not so much.  Most runners are awesome.  Why a few thought it would be cool to leave behind soup bowls and cups, a few now ant-infested, is beyond me.

Tuesday: 6
Lunch time loop in Woody from Bradford Preserve.  Awesome fall day in the woods.

Wednesday:  9
On my way up to Wellesley for work, decided to try out a new (to me) trail system:  Adams Farm in Walpole, MA.  It was a chilly morning right around the freezing mark.  The hat and gloves that I took out the night before and absent-mindedly left on my nightstand would not help me now.  Took a quick look at the map at the kiosk, and got moving.  The trails in Adams Farm proper were well blazed and a lot of fun; once crossing the power lines into Patten Forest, not so much.
Neat frost covered field,
where I saw a pair of coyotes running (they wouldn't stop for a pic)

Some trails were well established

Some not so much




















Thursday:  5
Lunchtime run in Wahaneeta.  Didn't eat my Wheaties; was feeling very weak.

Friday: 0

Saturday:  11
Barn Island:  biggest group run ever!  Ten of us came out to run with Mike B, who was returning to group runs amidst a personal tragedy of losing his father.  Ran 6 miles including Perimeter Trail and out to the Barn Island entrance off Stewart Road.  On the way out, deep in the woods we came upon a hunter up in a tree stand and surmised that he must be hating us.  Looped back to our cars, where Seth and Crutch dropped out and the rest of us sauntered on.
Do we look like we are ready for a run or the firing squad?
(Photo by Crutch)
We were at a trail juncture where the rest of the group was continuing on double-track gravel road to finish and Muddy and I were taking a twisty single-track (Shot Shell Trail).  Jonny kept looking down the single-track with wide-eyed glee, and when I told him the two trails would reconnect, he took off like a flash on the single-track.  Alas, we parted ways with the group and Muddy and I tacked on a few more miles on double/single mix.   In the end, Muddy had 10.7 miles on his watch, I had 11.0 but when I uploaded it, Garmin Connect retained the 11.0 but Strava reduced me to 10.8.  Odd?

Epilogue:  Fast forward to about 9pm that evening at the Bridge over dinner and drinks with some of my friends from high school.  I'm telling them about my run with running friends early that morning at Barn Island, when a diner at the next table interrupts me to ask, "Were you with the group of runners on the trails at Barn Island about 7am?".  I said, yes, I was in the front leading a group of ten runners, all dressed in orange, why?  He said, "Actually, most of you were in orange, but one guy was in yellow.  I know because you ran past me when I was up in a tree stand."  Oops.  Awkward.  The long story short is he was fine with us, he never saw any deer anyway, said runners sometimes flush out the deer, and we ended up buying drinks for each other's tables.  (They were drinking $2 Narragansetts; we were drinking $12 single-malts and bourbons, but that's another story.)

Sunday:  0
Rain in afternoon and low 40s.  No motivation to run in that weather.

Weekly mileage:  39
Wasn't my intention to run all trails all week, but that's the way it shook out.  Suspect that will change as we move into shotgun season starting Dec 5.

 

1 comment:

  1. Gamin and Strava must have bets going to see which best messes with miles. The 2/10 of a mile range is frustrating. Odd. Looks like you guys had a great group run. Glad the hunter didn't pick off Jeff!

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