Weekly Log 26-Dec-2016 to 1-Jan-2017: Closing Out Another Year

As I write this on New Year's Day, I'm trying to avoid a post-holiday funk as start un-decorating and get ready to go back to the rituals of work and school.  Key to keeping my interest level up will be to get out running goals for 2017, which I expect to post in the next couple of days.

Monday:  20!
Longest run since my last marathon in May.  Ran 5.5 solo from Dave's Coffee south throughout Quonochontaug, then back to Dave's to meet up with FiveK and Mikey for the balance.  Rest of run was north through the Charlestown hills.  The legs were a little sore afterwards as we sat down for coffee at Dave's, but nothing terrible.  Happy with this accomplishment.

Tuesday:  5
Downtown Providence run.  Matthew had 3 hours between events, so I thought I would take advantage of the downtime and sunlight to get outside for a run.  Ran from Providence Career & Technical Academy ("PCTA"), where most indoor meets are held in RI, out to Brown University, and back a different route to make a loop.  The run varied from scary locations to busy downtown to dodging pedestrians on sidewalks on the East Side to pleasant running through near-deserted Brown campus.  Managed to take one CR ("Governor Street") as a plus.

Wednesday:  8
Workout at Ninigret Park with Tommy and Mikey.  This was one that Tommy had put together.  warmed-up with Matthew, and then he branched off as the rest of us went on for 4 x 400 on grass, 10 minutes at HMP on bike path (I ran 5:55 pace), and then 4 x 200 on grass, before cool-down.

Upon arriving at Ninigret, Mikey informed me that a headlamp or
parking lamp might be out on my car.  Kudos to him for noticing.  My headlamp
lenses had become so incredibly oxidized that I couldn't see through them.

Spent more than an hour later that day cleaning the lenses with a 3M
headlamp restoration kit, including progressive sanding disks and polish.
Incredible how they cleaned up, as seen in "after" photo here.
Mikey was right - the parking lamp (lower, slightly off-center to the right) was burned out,
but until this moment I couldn't even tell that there were two bulbs in this
headlamp.  This has got to have a positive effect on night visibility.
Maybe I'll hate driving at night a little less!

Thursday:  0
Nasty rain day.  Ended up taking a zero.

Friday:  11
Scone run!  Run with Tommy and Jonny from The Bakery in Charlestown.  Got both legs into the ocean trying to get past a pile of rocks in front of a house in Green Hill.  The ocean water ran out of my shoes pretty quickly, but was left with a fair amount of sand in my shoes for the rest of the run.  Warm scone and coffee hit the spot!

Saturday:  10
Group trail run from Ashville Pond to Beach Pond.  Met Jonathan Short at Beach Pond, where I dropped my car and he gave Matthew and me a ride back to the start (Ashville Pond), where we met up with Crutch, Jonny, and Muddy.  The first few miles were very technical, and while enjoyable, I was glad we were not returning through here.  North of north road, the trails were much more runnable.  We broke up a few times, but always regrouped.  North of Hidden Lake up to Tippecansett was the only part I hadn't run before, but Crutch helped me us on track.  My least favorite part was the double-track north of Route 138, as it went on much, much longer than I anticipated.  Overall, a good through run that I had planned for a while, and was fun to execute.

Saying farewell to the old year at a bonfire
at Ninigret Park, Charlestown,
while catching up with Tommy and Jonny and their families.

As the conflagration settled, the roman numerals (lower left)
for the new year appeared.

Sunday:  7
Back to technical trails again!  From Voluntown on the Green Falls Pond Road, ran up to the dam and then around the pond clock-wise.  Very technical!  At one point, in a rock garden, I got my foot caught under a rock outcropping somehow, and down I went.  My shin smacked onto a rock, and then my knee was next.  That smarted.  Got up as quick as I could and continued, trying not to focus on the injury.  Took Narragansett Trail out to Dinosaur Caves and the blue/yellow blazed trail hugging the CT/RI border.  Ran Hidden Lake clockwise (Matthew ran it counter-clockwise)

Weekly mileage:  61

Weekly synopsis:  Second consecutive 60+ mileage week!  Also, banged out my first 20-miler in a long time.  Granted, having these two weeks off was very helpful in getting me here.  Now let's see if I can manage to keep it up as I return to work next week and get deeper into winter.