I read an online article this week about the nine things that tick off runners the most. The two below, while not serious enough to boil my blood (like drivers texting or on phones, and not paying attention to runners, or unleashed dogs barking at me), were ones I could well relate to:
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| Not that I'm on the track often, but I find more often than not, when I go to the track at Needham, there are people walking in Lane 1, sometimes two abreast talking. Can't they use any of the other SEVEN lanes? I certainly do when recovering, warming up, or cooling down. |
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| I like this differentiation. Yeah, why is it that I feel offended when someone calls me the dreaded J-Word? When a colleague recently and innocuously said she saw me out jogging, another colleague stepped in and said, "Jeff doesn't jog; he runs" before I could get my feathers all ruffled up. |
Monday: 0
Tuesday: 6
Went to Barn Island for my lunch break. I can think of worse things to do. So neat that it's even possible to get away for a trail run at lunch, shower, and come back to work. Certainly was not possible while working in downtown Boston.
Wednesday: 10
AM: 5 miles easy around Winnapaug pre-work.
Noon: 5 miles. Continuing my lunchtime trail theme, went over to Burlingame Campground to help me decide whether or not to run Brrr-lingame race this coming Saturday. Had so much fun running the single-track that I'm in! Not for a race so much as to make it part of a needed long run.
While likely no edition of this race will ever be as exciting as the 2013 Snowy Sufferfest version, I do enjoy getting out there for the trail race every year.
AM: 5 miles, pushing the local hills in No Bottom Pond and Chin Hill neighborhoods.
PM: 5 miles in Bradford Preserve and Woody Hill, inspecting the soon to be cleared WHS XC course.
Friday: 8
Mystic run in the rain with Matthew. Ran a counter-clockwise loop on both Stonington and Groton sides of the river, then some segment hunting on hills that Matthew found. (He took the CRs, but I placed decently.)
Saturday: 22!
Started out with a solo run on Li'l Rhody course. Finished that run and picked up my Brrr-lingame race bib just in time to go out for a warm-up on the trails with Jonny, Muddy, and Jackman. Their warm-up was intentionally short and I continued on to get 11 miles just before the start of the race.
75 runners toed the line for the start; 50 in the 10-miler and 25 in the 5-miler. Lined up about 3 rows back and after the run across the field, found myself in about 20th position. After 1/2 mile or so, it was just Leslie O'Dell, a NH runner I had just sort of met on the warm-up, and me. Went past Colburn on the ridge, who said the lead pack was just ahead, but I never anyone ahead of me or behind (except Leslie right behind me). I felt good on the first loop, but was really getting winded on the 2nd loop. The only silver lining is that crossing the start/finish line to start the 2nd loop, I didn't have the usual mental block of having to start another loop, like I do when I am racing it. The hills, ridges, and bogbridges just wore me out by the time we re-entered the campground, as I was on Mile 19. Leslie came up to take the lead and I welcomed her on, saying how strong she looked. The race ended, I somehow came in 11th and won my age group, but I had another 1+ mile to get to my long run goal of 22 miles. Oh, that was tough, even at a snail's crawl. So happy to finish. Caught up fellow WTAC'ers post run, including Elise with a grapefruit-size swollen ankle, Crutch, Paul, Denise, CarolAnn, and Beth.
Sunday: 8
Easter Sunday. Matthew wanted to run Great Swamp, so off we went to Kingston. Fortunately, this was primarily dirt roads because that was enough for my warn out legs to endure. Had never been down to the hangar on the shores of Worden's Pond, so that was interesting.
Weekly mileage:
Run: 65
Weekly synopsis:
After two consecutive weeks of less than desired mileage, was really happy with this high-mileage week. I am cognizant that "high-mileage" is quite subjective (Muddy would probably be disappointed), but this was a very good week for me. I think running 65 miles on roads would be mentally tough for me, but breaking it up with different terrains and different locales kept it interesting.
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