Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Weekly Log 18-Dec to 24-Dec-2017: Fun in the Snow

Monday:  5
Big River lunchtime diversion.  Worked in Providence in the morning, and the lunchtime ride back to Westerly afforded me an opportunity to run before showering at Arcadia Y and returning to the office.  The snow covered trails were a blast to run.  Most were packed down by cyclists tracks and made it very easy to run.

Tuesday:  0
Tightness and a busy work day killed my motivation to run.

Wednesday:  5
Annual Christmas Light Run.  Tommy estimated this was 6 years of running the event, which has alternated locations over the years.  This year Mikey hosted and his neighborhood was very well decorated.  We had six runners tonight.  In addition to aforementioned and myself, JV, Paul, and Chris joined us.

It was a warm night for me in the mid-30s, but cold enough for some to wear tights.  I find it interesting the really big difference in temperature comfort and preferences amongst runners.  For some reason I'm very comfortable running in shorts at 20 degrees or even colder while others will be quite bundled up, and conversely runners like JV love running in the 80s, while I wilt.  Apparently this also extends to indoor temp preferences, as I was as shocked to hear JV say he keeps the heat at 73 degrees at home (that's a sauna, right?), as he was shocked to hear that we'll crank the heat up to 64 degrees in the evening, but keep it at 58 for sleeping and generally colder in the morning  (54 - 56 degrees). 

Thursday:  [15 miles alpine skiing]
Loon Mountain, NH.  Spending a couple of days here with my oldest son Mark and his friend Lucas.
Mark wanted to take this dog home with him.

Loon has a real train to ferry people from parking lot to lodge.
Pretty cool!

Hmm... seems a little extreme.
I'm sure most could care less about my 26.2 bumper sticker,
but hopefully they don't envision shooting me down.

From the top of Loon Peak. Upper Walking Boss (top of Loon Mountain
Run, tops out at 41% grade) is on right.  Stunning winter beauty.
At 1:00 in this picture, you can see Mt Washington, ensconced in white.

On wide groomed trails (like pic above this pic), the youngsters would be
out ahead of me.  But much like trail running, give me
a trail that is narrower with obstacles (like this one),
and the old man holds his own.
Friday:  5 mile road run, 6 miles XC ski, 5 miles snowshoe run
Wall of Ice Castle I passed on run.  Undergoing construction.


XC skiing.  Trails well marked.
And thank you for using the metric system ("1.4KM" in diamond).

Stunning winter beauty on XC ski and snowshoe run.
Making first tracks in the virgin snow.

Despite temps in the teens, I quickly overheated while XC skiing
and snowshoe running, as both were quite a workout in the fresh snow.
Still not quite warm enough to swim in this river to cool down!
You can see the snow falling in this pic.
Saturday:  zip
Pretty sore from yesterday's trio of snow activities, and a nervous ride home at night through snow, ice, and freezing rain.
Today's highlight may have been eating at Pink Basil
(Mystic, CT) for the first time.  This Tom Kha (coconut soup)
was delicious.

Sunday:  7
Christmas Eve morning with Riley and FiveK.  7 mile run on non-technical Burlingame campground trails.  Riley was crazy with excitement but calmed down after a few miles.  Fun run.

Weekly mileage:  28

Weekly synopsis:  Another low mileage week but augmented by snow activities in NH.  Yes, at some point soon I need to ramp it back up, but apparently this wasn't the week either.

Weekly highlight:  Snowshoe run in NH, followed by the group annual Christmas light run.

1 comment:

  1. Interestingly, my thermostat settings are nearly identical to yours, but my exercise temperature comfort level differs greatly. I’ll wear tights in the 40s but can happily run in the 90s. In short, we are the same AND different. Profound, eh?

    ReplyDelete