Monday: 5
Christmas Day. Woke up to loud rain changing to freezing rain changing to snow. Crawled back under the covers, and got out of bed to find a White Christmas! More like a coating of snow, but I'll take it, especially as I've read that statistically here in southern RI only 1 out of 3 Christmases is white.
While it's been years since we had the magic of Christmas with the boys getting up early and excited to see if Santa had come, I still love Christmas. For me it's not about the presents or even the specific day, but rather a whole season of get-togethers with friends, family, and co-workers, holiday lights and trees, and maybe a little more goodwill than the rest of the year.
Made waffles for the boys and opened presents before going out on a rather brisk (for me) 6:44 average pace on a 5-mile loop to Avondale and the beach. The afternoon and evening was at Mom's, where we caught up with 2 of my 3 brothers and their families, and enjoyed some food and Mom's spiked mulled cider and Gluhwein (a traditional German hot mulled wine drink popular at Christmastime). Came home and watched "The Grinch".
Interesting reads in the local paper Christmas day:
Despite an offer from Tommy, I missed my window of opportunity to run in the morning, as I was really tired from an uncharacteristically late night. Went with Matthew to the Mystic Y in late afternoon, and ran roads on Mason's Island while Matthew did some pool running. Finished my run, and came back into the locker room, where a man unknown to me was showing me a coin he had in his pocket: an 1897 US $5 gold coin. Really cool!
Temps on the run and highs today were about 28 degrees. For some reason, though, I felt rather cool running today. I'm guessing it's because it wasn't sunny and was breezy. I better get used to it, as we have a few very cold days in store, with temps over the next 10 days projected to dip into the single digits and not reach freezing.
Wednesday: 11
Boombridge loop with Tommy. Temps in the teens; I ended up running in tights, which I am not enamored with, as they make me feel constricted. Averaged 6:50 pace, so a decent pace given the hills and cold. I was feeling it towards the end, though. I've got a ways to go to get myself into marathon shape.
Thursday: 7
Ninigret Park roads and trails with Tom and Mike. Frigid 7-degree run. At times I felt warm with the sun in my face and other times just down right chilled to the bone headed into the wind. Finished up with a nice stop at WTAC sponsor Dave's Coffee for some hot beverages, where Mikey was still trying to get warm.
Friday: 6
After another fun but tiring night of holiday celebrations (this time a holiday party at our house for extended relatives on my Dad's side), I slept in really late, which was just as well as temps were near zero.
Being off all week and wanting to try another go at the Baker Pines North-South Trail segment, I opted for an afternoon run, when it warmed up to 18 degrees and I could wear shorts and not feel constricted on the run. I parked at Browning Mill Pond, and ran the Arcadia (yellow) Trail to where it connects to NST and the segment starts. Pushed it hard on the segment, and while it felt slow in snowy and icy sections, one advantage I had this time over my initial foray is that all blowdowns except one had been cut and cleared. When I got to the dirt road section, I near sprinted it, and was getting really tired by the time I passed the upper Roaring Brook bridge. When I got home later, I was ecstatic to find I had taken five minutes off my previous time on the 3.4 mile segment, and took first place.
Saturday: 15!
Longest run in a couple of months. Mix of asphalt and dirt roads in very rural Richmond and Exeter, with Tommy. 10 degrees at the start and about 900' of elevation, almost all in the back half. We went almost 10 miles before we saw the first car! Nice to be able to run and chat and not constantly have to worry about traffic.
We finished up our run, came in to the Arcadia Y, and the woman working the front desk was dumbfounded that we had been out there running almost two hours in these temps. She raised the wife's tale of the danger of freezing your lungs, but the reality is your lungs are well protected and you're more at risk of frostbite when you get down to zero degrees or so.
Sunday: 8
Final run of the year. At Arcadia with my faithful trail compadre, Jonathan Short. Snow covered trails were a joy to run on. A lot of places we were making fresh tracks, but with just 2" or snow, it was quite easy to run in. Split between half of the run north of 165 on Hudson and trails around Breakheart Pond, and half on trails south of 165 that I'm not familiar with.
Weekly mileage: 58!
Weekly synopsis: Highest mileage week since October. Had a number of consecutive really low mileage weeks, some due to a minor health issue and some due to laziness. Let's hope I can muster 50+ going forward. I've said this before, but I'm interested in a spring marathon and need to put together some plans. I have some interest in the Providence marathon, but a marathon in May always raises the specter of a warm run, which is not my forte.
This was a great week to have off. No complaints on the weather. While I might prefer 20 degrees to single-digits, I'm happy to see some snow and will take this anyday over 30s and rain.
Weekly highlight: The 15-mile weekly rural run with Tommy, followed by the snowy trail run on New Year's Eve.
Christmas Day. Woke up to loud rain changing to freezing rain changing to snow. Crawled back under the covers, and got out of bed to find a White Christmas! More like a coating of snow, but I'll take it, especially as I've read that statistically here in southern RI only 1 out of 3 Christmases is white.
While it's been years since we had the magic of Christmas with the boys getting up early and excited to see if Santa had come, I still love Christmas. For me it's not about the presents or even the specific day, but rather a whole season of get-togethers with friends, family, and co-workers, holiday lights and trees, and maybe a little more goodwill than the rest of the year.
Made waffles for the boys and opened presents before going out on a rather brisk (for me) 6:44 average pace on a 5-mile loop to Avondale and the beach. The afternoon and evening was at Mom's, where we caught up with 2 of my 3 brothers and their families, and enjoyed some food and Mom's spiked mulled cider and Gluhwein (a traditional German hot mulled wine drink popular at Christmastime). Came home and watched "The Grinch".
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| I love this year's 14' tree. It's one of the fullest tall trees we've ever had, but it's also a fair amount of work, and it's away from our living room area. Between both boys going away to college next year and our favorite Christmas tree farm closing shop, we'll have to figure out whether to continue the "Christmas Vacation" sized trees or not. |
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| On a lighter note ... It would be fun to see how our boys would react to a yak dung Christmas gift! My intuition says it wouldn't go well. |
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| 20+ of these snowy owls are in our town?! Wow, I would love to see one of these! The article explains that they hail from northern Quebec, but with their favorite food (lemmings) in short supply this year, some have been visiting southern New England. |
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| While the article was much longer and chock full of interesting empirical examples, this snippet here really sums it: For generally improved health and reduced allergies and asthma, GET YOUR KIDS OUTSIDE!! Same goes for adults. |
Tuesday: 5Despite an offer from Tommy, I missed my window of opportunity to run in the morning, as I was really tired from an uncharacteristically late night. Went with Matthew to the Mystic Y in late afternoon, and ran roads on Mason's Island while Matthew did some pool running. Finished my run, and came back into the locker room, where a man unknown to me was showing me a coin he had in his pocket: an 1897 US $5 gold coin. Really cool!
Temps on the run and highs today were about 28 degrees. For some reason, though, I felt rather cool running today. I'm guessing it's because it wasn't sunny and was breezy. I better get used to it, as we have a few very cold days in store, with temps over the next 10 days projected to dip into the single digits and not reach freezing.
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| Made the annual Christmas pilgrimage. Merry Christmas, Dad. (and grandparents) |
Wednesday: 11
Boombridge loop with Tommy. Temps in the teens; I ended up running in tights, which I am not enamored with, as they make me feel constricted. Averaged 6:50 pace, so a decent pace given the hills and cold. I was feeling it towards the end, though. I've got a ways to go to get myself into marathon shape.
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| Post-run, at Matthew's request, we went to the Pequot museum. Had been years since I last visited. It was near deserted, but pretty interesting. |
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| Neat dioramas depicting Native American history and culture. |
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| Fort Griswold, Groton, CT. Another request of Matthew's, which I'm very glad for. I had never been here! Felt very ignorant of my history, as I had no idea there was a Revolutionary War battle so close to home, and one that claimed 88 American lives and 51 British. Would love to come back here in the summer when the museum and tower are open. |
Thursday: 7
Ninigret Park roads and trails with Tom and Mike. Frigid 7-degree run. At times I felt warm with the sun in my face and other times just down right chilled to the bone headed into the wind. Finished up with a nice stop at WTAC sponsor Dave's Coffee for some hot beverages, where Mikey was still trying to get warm.
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| The boys (l-r: Mikey, Tommy) rightly ribbed me for breaking out tights this morning. 7 degrees is below my threshold for shorts. Frigid! |
Friday: 6
After another fun but tiring night of holiday celebrations (this time a holiday party at our house for extended relatives on my Dad's side), I slept in really late, which was just as well as temps were near zero.
Being off all week and wanting to try another go at the Baker Pines North-South Trail segment, I opted for an afternoon run, when it warmed up to 18 degrees and I could wear shorts and not feel constricted on the run. I parked at Browning Mill Pond, and ran the Arcadia (yellow) Trail to where it connects to NST and the segment starts. Pushed it hard on the segment, and while it felt slow in snowy and icy sections, one advantage I had this time over my initial foray is that all blowdowns except one had been cut and cleared. When I got to the dirt road section, I near sprinted it, and was getting really tired by the time I passed the upper Roaring Brook bridge. When I got home later, I was ecstatic to find I had taken five minutes off my previous time on the 3.4 mile segment, and took first place.
Saturday: 15!
Longest run in a couple of months. Mix of asphalt and dirt roads in very rural Richmond and Exeter, with Tommy. 10 degrees at the start and about 900' of elevation, almost all in the back half. We went almost 10 miles before we saw the first car! Nice to be able to run and chat and not constantly have to worry about traffic.
We finished up our run, came in to the Arcadia Y, and the woman working the front desk was dumbfounded that we had been out there running almost two hours in these temps. She raised the wife's tale of the danger of freezing your lungs, but the reality is your lungs are well protected and you're more at risk of frostbite when you get down to zero degrees or so.
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| Saturday night: psyched for snow and getting the snowshovels out. (Yes, I'm a traditionalist.) Love the way the Christmas lights looks in the snow. Can't we just extend the holiday lights season and make them winter lights? |
Final run of the year. At Arcadia with my faithful trail compadre, Jonathan Short. Snow covered trails were a joy to run on. A lot of places we were making fresh tracks, but with just 2" or snow, it was quite easy to run in. Split between half of the run north of 165 on Hudson and trails around Breakheart Pond, and half on trails south of 165 that I'm not familiar with.
Weekly mileage: 58!
Weekly synopsis: Highest mileage week since October. Had a number of consecutive really low mileage weeks, some due to a minor health issue and some due to laziness. Let's hope I can muster 50+ going forward. I've said this before, but I'm interested in a spring marathon and need to put together some plans. I have some interest in the Providence marathon, but a marathon in May always raises the specter of a warm run, which is not my forte.
This was a great week to have off. No complaints on the weather. While I might prefer 20 degrees to single-digits, I'm happy to see some snow and will take this anyday over 30s and rain.
Weekly highlight: The 15-mile weekly rural run with Tommy, followed by the snowy trail run on New Year's Eve.
I run by Fort Griswold nearly weekly and have yet to be in it!! Good on ya!! Excellent prodding by Matthew. And definitely local history is important. Your lights are beautiful in the snow and I agree 'light season' should be extended until daylight reaches 7 p.m. it would be so much nicer plus the benefit of removing lights when it's not freezing! Happy New Year!
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