Weekly Log 23-Dec to 29-Dec-2019: Christmas

Monday:  8
'Twas the night before the night before Christmas, when all though the Garvin 'hood,
Bright lights on houses twinkled, and put our septet of runners in a festive mood,

A clear warm night did await us, for our 8th annual Christmas Light Run,
Despite Jonny's threat of wearing a red speedo, the night was second to none,

Runners Matthew, Gazelle, Jonny, Mikey, Puddin', and even FiveK
Made the long and arduous journey to join Chris way over in SK,

The window candles, how they shone, the lights how they glistened,
The holiday spirit burned strong, as we ran, chatted, and listened,

Despite Chris' odd talk of evisceration,
It was quite the holiday celebration,

After completing the chatty six mile run,
Chris invited us in to cheerily continue the fun,

Thanks to the warm hospitality of Katie and Chris,
This was such a fun night we're glad we didn't miss,

I heard Chris exclaim, ere we drove out of sight,
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

(With apologies to Clement C. Moore)

Fortunately nothing gaudy like this in Chris' neighborhood,
but rather a lot of classic holiday light displays.

Tuesday:  10
Christmas Eve morning run around the pond with Tommy and Matthew.  Pretty spirited pace with my average being 6:37/mile, with theirs a tad faster reflecting that we separated for the last two miles and they were both ahead of me.  Happy with this brisk holiday run.

Enjoyed Christmas Eve at home.  Being Christmas, we entertained everyone's individual dinner requests, with Mark having a steamed lobster, Matthew home-made beef stew that Jana cooked, and the ol' folks enjoying delicious salmon on the grill.  I made pumpkin bread, baked acorn squash, and added mashed potatoes to round out an eclectic but satisfying meal.

Brady was none too sure what to make of Mark's lobster
walking around on the floor.

Christmas Eve at home,
while watching the classic "Christmas Vacation" post-dinner

Wednesday:  9
Unfortunately no white Christmas this year (I heard that statistically RI only enjoys a white Christmas once out of every three years).  Relatively balmy 43 degree and sunny weather for our Christmas Day mix run.  Out to Avondale to run grass trails, next to the beach where Brady sprinted around crazily in and out of the ocean, ran Winnapaug Preserve where it was cool that the Westerly Land Trust had two huge wreaths on cairns deep into the preserve, and finished up in Glacier Champlin Preserve, where there were a surprising number of hikers (and one other runner!) on the trails for Christmas Day.

For Christmas, my gifts included a few good reads, some delicious chocolates
to make me fatter, trainers that I'll probably run Boston in,
and a gift card to one of my favorite post-run coffee joints and Rhody sponsor (Dave's Coffee).

While we don't have any kids left in the house to exhibit the magic
of Christmas, this house guest sure seemed excited to get new toys ...

... and a bone.  He finally calmed down a bit after being all wound
up Christmas morning with the flurry of activity.

Thursday:  12
Newport Cliff Walk.  Same basic run Matthew and I did last Boxing Day, but with better results this year.  Last year I ran it in 23:58, and this year somehow took exactly one minute off in 22:58.  Ran the first two miles pretty consistently at 6:24 and 6:28, before the more technical sections where I dropped off into mid-7s.  Meanwhile Matthew lowered his own PR and FKT on the 3.4 mile Cliff Walk.  Tiring but fun.

Friday:  9
With Brady, from Wahaneeta.  100% trails in Wahaneeta, Woody, and  Bradford Preserve.  Since we weren't going on roads and I expected we wouldn't see many people, I opted just to leave the leash in the car.  Brady was completely fine the whole way.  Saw two mountain bikers late in the run, and then as we were finishing up, saw Tom Beattie working on a new bridge in Wahaneeta.  He called Brady over and was remarking on how dog-friendly Wahaneeta was as leashes are not required as long as you can control your dog.

Saturday:  8
Ninigret Park with Tommy, Matthew, Riley, and Brady.  Easy conversational pace run.  Felt fine.

Sunday:  16
Charlestown long run with Matthew.  Counter-clockwise loop from Dave's Coffee, with half the run in the hills north of Route 1, and half on flat Quonnie roads.  First of many long runs to come this winter.  Can't say I did great on this one at all.  Sure, there were some hills early on, but I can't use that as an excuse, as even on the flat sections in Quonochontaug in the latter half, I was dogging it and couldn't pick up the pace.  Really glad I got this in, despite struggling a bit.

Post-run, I was intrigued by the snow globe
on our table at Dave's.  Had these as kids when they
were popular, and seldom see them now.

Weekly mileage:    72!  (versus training plan of 58)

Weekly synopsis:  Super happy with the mileage.  Being off all week for Christmas holiday made fitting in runs a lot easier. 

Weekly highlight:  Wow, really had so many good runs this week that it's tough to pick a favorite.  If I had nailed it or felt great on the 16-miler, that would count, but I didn't.  Loved the Christmas Light Run and ran surprisingly well on the always fun Newport Cliff Walk, so that's as far as I can narrow it down.

Weekly lowlight:  None.  Even though I was struggling on the 16-miler, I got it done.

Weekly Log 16-Dec to 22-Dec-2019: Shooting, New Car, & Long Runs w/ Brady

Monday:  0

Finally got around to putting up the tree.
An 8' concolor fir.  I think it looks good even with
just the lights on.

Tuesday:  10
Planned run with Matthew and Brady on 2019 Rhody course at 6:30am.  Woke up to dark and freezing rain.  Ugh.  Honestly, if I were running solo, there would have been a high probability of me bailing.

Got out of the car in the cold, freezing rain.  The first mile on Sanctuary Road I felt very cold, mostly on my bare legs, and had doubts of us finishing.  In my mind, I was thinking of ways to detour and make a shorter run.  On the road dodging puddles, Matthew said he couldn't wait to get off the road and onto the single-track.  I agree!

Fortunately, once we got into the trails, it was truly much better.  We were no longer directly exposed to the nasty weather and were starting to warm up.  Also, for the most part, we didn't have streams and puddles to avoid.  Before we reached the Bog Bridge Trail, I had warmed up nicely and felt fine and my doubts about finishing had vanished.  About 1/2 way on the run, Brady was no longer bounding out ahead of us and sometimes even dropping behind us on VG, so I wondered if we had made the wrong decision to take him out for what would be the longest run of his life to date.

We followed the 2019 course to a tee, and turning off onto the more technical Sammy C's trail, Brady got a second wind.  Matthew and I naturally slowed down a bit, and Brady would sprint ahead of us, especially on the uphill rocky sections which he mastered with ease, and then would wait for us slower runners to catch up before taking off again.  I wore my waterproof GoreTex trail shoes, and they kept me dry for the first eight miles until we hit several unavoidable calf-deep puddles.  Cold water filled the shoes, but they drained pretty quickly.  Stayed warm until the final mile when we were back on the exposed road again.

Wet and cold at finish.  The parking lot at
Burlingame was empty for some reason, but also
had a veneer of ice.

Brady's tail also had a coating of ice by now!

Wednesday:  11
First time running Boombridge Loop in a long time.  Squeezed in a run before a slew of afternoon meetings.  37 and sunny, very comfortable out there.  Glad I opted to forego the quarter zip and hat.  This is a nice quiet loop as the bridge crossing into CT has been closed for 11 years and that cuts traffic to nil.  I saw more cows than people on this run.

I finished up the run, got back to work, walked across the street and back across the state line (Bogues, Pawcatuck, CT) and immediately saw my 7th and 8th grade English teacher Mrs. Bozek.  And she remembered me by name!  Had a really great conversation with her, her travels, and memories from double sessions at Chariho back in the late 70s.

Thursday:  0
Weird day.  After an early morning in MA, had planned to run at Noon today, but for the first (and hopefully last) time in my life I was kept inside in a lockdown.  Selfishly mildly inconvenient as I felt trapped inside and had to skip lunch and a run, but definitely better safe than sorry.  I was already long ago so sick and numb from the near daily shootings in this country.  (In fact, to date in 2019 there have been on average more than one per day.  Source)  Now to have this come to my town of residence and workplace is just appalling.  Mark actually knew the daughter of the woman who was shot to death.  Pretty scary to hear of an active shooter incident in Westerly just a mile away.

Scene on the streets of Westerly this Thursday.
Not a scene I'm at all comfortable with.

On a more pleasant but wallet lightening note, the reason for our visit to MA was to replace the totaled Volvo for Mark.  While we had earlier advised Mark that the Volvo was the last car we would provide him, a combination of parental softness and realization that he's a broke college student nullified that precept.

43 mpg wagon (diesel), well priced,
certified pre-owned with 2 year unlimited mileage bumper-to-bumper warranty

Adding to our family of German cars.
Mom would be proud.

Last time Mark acquiesced to my offer of taking my old Volvo wagon with stick shift,
fast forward 1.5 years and this time he actually chose this car with manual transmission
over two similar cars with automatic
---
As Muddy recently remarked, It's like driving the car as opposed to
being driven in the car.  Yeah, that makes sense to me.

Upper right in this display (to right of time 11:17):
It took me a while to figure out that " ↑ 4 " was suggesting that I upshift to 4th gear.
Hmmm ... never heard of such a feature.

Friday:  5
Late afternoon sunset run in Watch Hill, including East Beach and Napatree.  Easy rambling pace.  Finished in the complete darkness without a headlamp, but since I was running on hard sand along the shore, it was just fine.

Saturday:  15
East Bay Bike Path, point-to-point.  Drove with Matthew to India Point, Providence, which would serve as our terminus today.  Fortunately this was right across the street from a Hilton Garden Inn, so we were able to use the facilities before our 30-minute Uber trip down the west bay to Bristol.

Start of the East Bay Bike Path.
We would be following the western shore of Narragansett Bay
for much of our run today.

Our Uber driver dropped us, and we were off.  The first few miles through Bristol and Warren went by quickly with nice water views, before a long stretch through Barrington.  We had some long straightaways that were boring and would have dragged on more if it weren't for mental games we were playing (e.g., rating states, vacations, desserts, etc).  I was getting pretty tired by the time we reached the hilly sections of East Providence, and happy to finish up.  With the legs pretty sore at finish, I walked around a bit to hopefully help recovery.  Coffee and delicious bagels and lox at Brewed Awakenings in Cranston.

Back home in the afternoon ...
What is Brady bringing out of the woods?

That stick is longer than him!

Sunday:  12
Trail run with Matthew and Brady from Green Falls Pond, Voluntown.  Went north on Pachaug Trail (CT) up to Beach Pond, and then back on the RI side via Tippecansett Trail.  The first few miles were very technical, but Brady just scampered right up rocks, jumped downed trees blocking the trail, etc.

There is a rock crossing of a river about five feet wide, but it was underwater due to the recent rains and snow melts.  Matthew went both feet into the water to cross, while I went downstream to try and cross on an icy log and keep the feet dry.  No dice, as Brady was whimpering and indicating that he wouldn't be able to cross on the log.  OK, back up to the underwater rock crossing.  I jumped awkwardly and somehow kept one out of two feet dry, but my efforts were for naught as on subsequent water crossings both went in.  It's amazing how shoes drain and your feet eventually warm up, even when soaked and temps just above freezing.

The Pachaug Trail was a bit overgrown and had quite a few blowdowns, while the Tippecansett on RI side was much better maintained and in better shape.  My legs were talking to me by the time we reached the dirt road with 1+ miles and Brady appeared to have slowed a bit as well.  He was keeping up with us just fine, but running right next to us as opposed to the earlier bounding ahead and waiting.  I really like running in here.

Weekly mileage:  52 (this week's goal 54)

Weekly synopsis:  Disappointed that I only ran five days instead of six, but somehow pretty much got my training plan mileage in anyway.  Two runs on roads, two on trails, and one on hard sand was a pretty nice mix.  Even though I'm officially starting training for a road marathon, I "need" to mix up the terrain and routes to keep lethargy at bay.

Weekly highlight:  While I was glad to have two medium long runs on the weekend, they were both draining to me towards the end.  Thus, I give the nod to the Burlingame 10-mile Rhody course run, even in the freezing rain!  A lot of fun running with and watching Brady; I think he's quite the trail runner now.

Weekly lowlight:  The shooting tragedy in town.  Just awful.

Christmas 10K

Newport, RI
Sunday, December 8, 2019

This is definitively one of my favorite road races of the year.  Yes, this time of year you are subject to the whims of the weather, and I've endured a few adverse weather Christmas 10K events, including cold rain, frigid temps, bone-chilling winds, seaweed-strewn roads, and plumes of salt water jumping over the walls at the ocean and onto you.

Fortunately, none of those tribulations would befall us today.  While we woke up to temps in the teens, by race start at 10am the temperature had risen to about the freezing mark, and we were also rewarded with sunshine and a dearth of wind.  After a short solo warm-up on the course, I shed my outer layers, joined my WTAC comrades on the starting line and was ready to go.

First, second, and third for WTAC today.
Nick Alge, our newest WTAC member, on far right in yellow.
(Pics courtesy of Jana)

Pre-race antics:  Jonny (67) is really enjoying the feel of his new winter beard.
I (193) apparently think this is a zombie run.
Kevin (directly behind my left shoulder) is trying to escape my stench by covering his mouth and nose.
Chris (right-most green WTAC singlet) is either whispering sweet nothings into the blue guy next to him (204)
 or he's nibbling on blue guy's shoulder, but either way Ian in BISS singlet (5) wants nothing to do with his antics.

WTAC and Christmas 10K newcomer Nick Alge asked me if the course was flat.  In a gross oversimplification just before the start, I told him the first two miles were slightly downhill, the next three flat along the ocean, and the final mile slightly uphill.  So here's my account of those six miles today:

Mile 1:  After running in the USATF-NE mountain series this summer, truly this entire course is just so flat.  For comparison, in the final two miles of the championship mountain race (Waterville) you dropped over 2,000', while the maximum elevation during today's race was about 55' above sea level, thus no single drop more than 50'.

Nevertheless, between the euphoria of a race start and the ever-so-slight downhills, I went out for my fastest mile in a 5:44.  By the end of the mile, the lead police car and lead runner (Bronson) were well out of my sight, as were the top five or so overall runners.

Turtles to the left, WTAC to the right, here we go
(a poor rendition of the line "Jokers to the left of me, clowns to the right, here I am ...")
---
Note a surprisingly very overdressed Dave Schaad to Jonny's right.  I remember racing against him in singlets
and short shorts in the coldest of February Super 5Ks not that many years ago.

Mile 2:  After running on my own pretty much thus far, a trio of competitors comes up on me.  Surely Jonny is amongst them.  But no!  It is a guy in gray striped shorts, a tall BISS guy (who post-race introduces himself as Ian), and Jackman.  All three go past me, and I latch on.  Jackman is pulling away, and I go ahead of the other two and stay right behind Jackman, but alas I can alone run that for 1/2 mile at most before he pulls away for good.  The end of Mile 2 is a slight downhill for the start of three miles of gorgeous oceanside views.  Mile split 5:53.

Mile 3:  This is the most beautiful mile of the course.  Ocean Avenue with expansive view of the ocean, out to Brenton Point.  Pancake flat.  The gray striped shorts guy seems to drop off, but Ian and I battle back and forth, exchanging the lead as we both maximized the tangents here.  Mile split 5:58.

Mile 4:  Continuing mostly with ocean views here.  Ian drops back and I'm in no mans land.  Where is Jonny?!  I hear a loud foot-slapping runner coming up on me.  That can't be him.  Nope!  It's a guy in a RIRR orange singlet.  He easily goes past me, but I keep up my sub-6 effort (barely) to close out the mile in 5:58.

Flashback to 2012 Christmas 10K:
I can't tell exactly which mile this is in,
but Scott Mason captured this nice shot
somewhere in the middle miles along the ocean.
(Apparently I tucked my singlet in back then?)

Mile 5:  Final mile along the ocean.  At this point, we've rejoined the walkers who are on a shorter 3.5 mile loop.  In some years, a few of them were in my way, but with the numbers down quite a bit lately (200 running finishers today vs exactly double that in 2012), they were never an issue.  Towards the end of Mile 5, Jonny catches me and gives me a slap on the shoulders as he goes by.  Finally.  With just a mile to go, I hang pretty close to him, as we turn off Ocean Ave and head to the finish at Rogers High School.  Still sub-6 with a 5:59 mile split.

Mile 6:  I remember in years past this seemed like a long mile, but the advantage of familiarity after all these years is that really goes by quickly.  With maybe 1/2 mile to go, someone comes flying up on me.  It's Zak Kudlow.  He quickly goes by me, and chasing Jonny just ahead of me, as we turn left, for the final dash to the finish.  A short downhill and he's right on Jonny's tail.  But there's still an uphill to go and I'm happy to see my teammate widen the gap and finish ahead of him.

Jonny holds off Zak, winner of 2010 edition.

I am a fashion connoisseur, with my clash of colors:
green singlet, blue shorts, red gloves, and bright yellow shoes.

Feeling pretty good finishing up.

Yes!  Happy with this finishing time.

Final results:  36:37.  10th overall out of 200.  2nd in age group.  Full results here.

Jonny bests Zak by four seconds, and I'm ten seconds behind Zak.  I'm surprised to learn that Ian is just seven seconds behind me, as I hadn't seen or heard him in the final two miles.  That's why you always have to keep your game on, and I wonder if I subconsciously slowed a bit after Zak went passed me.

Regardless, I'm super happy with my time, and my 2nd fastest 10K ever.  One second faster than last year, and just 15 seconds off my PR in 2012.

After a long hiatus from my initial foray in 2004, I've run most years since then.
If I continue this year's trend of taking one second off the prior year, I will beat my PR at age 71.  Yeah, that will happen.

Went for a nice 3+ mile cooldown with Steve Brightman, Jonny, and Chris (and first mile only with Ian).  One mile on hilly, sometimes techy trails across from the high school, and then three on the road.  Still got back before the much delayed awards ceremony.

Boxes upon boxes of famous Allie's Donuts awaited us post-race.
I have 1/2 doughnut.  That was tasty, but enough.  Quite sweet.

My award:  a "lapdesk" to support my laptop and mouse while
sitting on couch at home typing this blog,
and a funky extension cord / power pack.

WTAC won 2nd team (TNT was 1st).  We got two cases of mixed Budweiser beer, and it was hard to give away.  I took a few for an annual family holiday party we host, and other team members took a few, but I think Chris got stuck with most of it.  I picked up my individual award, and then about ten of us headed to the Brick Alley Pub for libations and food.  Another great day out in Newport for the Christmas 10K!

Weekly Log 9-Dec to 15-Dec-2019: More Snow Runs!

Miscellaneous Ramblings:

• Overheard from a couple dining at the next table:  "I've had enough of this winter already."  Well, I hate to break it to you, but winter hasn't even started yet.
• Before test-driving a car (for Mark to replace the totaled Volvo) recently, the salesperson asked me twice, "Are you sure you know how to drive manual?".  I'm thinking most people my age know how to drive them, but few people Mark's age.  Am I wrong?
• At a separate dealership, the salesperson randomly asked me, "Have you turned 60 yet?".  I can't say I'm that far off, but do I really look that old?

Monday:  0
Planned break after Christmas 10K.

Tuesday:  0
Unplanned, but with a day of pouring rain, just wasn't in to it today.

Wednesday:  4
4" of fresh snow!  Took Brady to Bradford Preserve, and he loved it!  Lots of sprints in the snow, while I started setting up for tomorrow night's Jingle Bell Run, by flagging before the ground re-freezes.

Brady sprinted in the snow, while I put down flags.

The snow was coming down pretty good.
Neat contrast of white flakes against his black coat.

He was having fun back in the field

Thirsty at the end of the run.  This collapsible bowl is great.

Thursday:  5
2 miles setting up LED-lit signs with Kevin, and then 3 miles on the Jingle Bell Run itself.

Fun evening afterwards with WTAC running community.

Friday:  10
AM:  2 miles.  Final sweep of Jingle Bell course, and picking up piles of signs and flags that Paul had dropped.  He did an awesome job sweeping the course last night.

PM:  8 miles.  Battle Road Trail at Minuteman National Historic Park, Concord, MA.  Stopped here and ran with Matthew on drive back from UNH.  Ran here a few years back, and Matthew and I had planned to run it again, but just never seemed to work out.  Until today.  Most of the trail was snow covered, which made it a little slow going in spots, but still really fun.

Saturday:  8
Carter Preserve, Charlestown.  Run with Matthew and Brady.  Drizzly 55 degrees.  Wore a singlet in this crazy warm weather, but took it off mid-run when I started to get nipple chafing?  TMI?  I said I would stay out of trails during shotgun season, but no shotguns allowed in Carter.  Bow hunting only.  The only other person we saw was a woman out walking her own Lab on the Grassland Mile section.

I hadn't been in Carter in quite a while, and I had forgotten how cool this preserve is.

Sunday:  10
Point-to-point run with Matthew from Kingston station to Narragansett Pier.  7 miles on South County Bike Path, and final three on roads.  Just under 7 pace overall.  Struggled a bit on this run, and after Matthew dropped me on last two miles (I certainly don't want to hold him back), I managed to pick it up a bit to 6:40, but that was all I had.

It was fun to run point-to-point on this route.  It was interesting to see that the bike path has actually been extended a little bit in Narragansett and now appears to end at Sprague Park.

Weekly mileage:  39

Weekly synopsis:  A really low mileage that was planned that way, as tomorrow I commence my 18-week marathon training plan.  A fun week overall with snow runs and a mix of runs I hadn't done in a while.

Weekly highlight:  The run in the falling snow on Tuesday.  There's no run like a snow run!

Weekly lowlight:  Seeing the snow go away.  I wish we had consistent weather with snow staying on the ground.

Weekly Log 2-Dec to 8-Dec-2019: First Snow Runs of the Season

Monday:  2
Ran/walked the steep sections with chainsaw.  Took out a huge blowdown on the HS cross-country downhill section.  Mountain bikers had made a makeshift detour around the tree carnage, and I often like their twisty detours better than the original trail, but in this case it went under the large trunk section that will only fall further, so I don't think that would pass muster for a high school course.

Went to take out a smaller block on Pumpkins Connector (start of 2nd loop on 8K course), but the chain came off the chainsaw and I didn't have enough daylight to fix it.  It's passable for now; I may come back another time to clean it up as well as a blowdown on the rock on Hansel & Gretel.

Tuesday:  7

Snow!  About 4" here in our backyard.
Brady wasn't too sure what to make of this at first.  Stepped out of
our garage into the snow and immediately turned around and came back in.

After a while, he was fine and having fun running on the beach
and through fields at Winnapaug Preserve.

In the woods (Champlin Glacier Preserve here), he was
frolicking and even putting his face in the snow.
I just love snow runs as it is; running with Brady today for
his first snow run was a special treat.

Wednesday:  5
Progression run on Richmond roads in the dark.  Had some time to spare between work and a holiday party in West Greenwich, so I went to Arcadia Y and ran from there, as easy to shower and change afterwards.  With pulsating front and rear lights, I can't imagine cars not seeing me.  Good seeing holiday light displays.  Makes the season bright.

Thursday:  8
Morning trail run at Woody Hill with Brady.  Crunchy snow.  Never saw a soul out there, but it looks like I just missed WLT president Sheilia finishing up a trail run there herself.  Brady's longest run ever.  He came home and promptly crashed in his dog bed.  Uh-oh.  Did I take him too far?

Googling how far a dog can run, not surprisingly, the response is that it depends on breed, age, and health of the dog.  However, it stated that the "average dog" can run between two and five miles, but a person interviewed who walks and trains dogs professionally said she has taken a mixed-breed 60 pound dog on 20 mile runs.  The article also said running is good for dogs, they enjoy it, and while they can run asphalt and sidewalks, running on dirt and grass is better for their joints.  Labs and retrievers were mentioned as good for long runs.  "The biggest limitation for physically fit and well-built canines is temperature rather than distance."  OK, I feel a little bit better.

Today we moved from the red line to the blue line (graph above).  Not exactly an early adopter, eh?
Do any others still have landlines?
For my entire life until today, I had a landline phone in my residence, but the time to cut the landline had been overdue.
We justified it for when the kids were in Westerly public schools, with announcements, etc., but what is the
purpose anymore?  We were paying ~$500 annually for calls which were well over 90% junk.
Landline only usage is down to about 5% in the USA now; ironically, I know some of those people.

The good ol' rotary phone with that stretched out cord
was what I grew up with.
-----
You actually rented these things from Ma Bell, and they were hard-wired.
When my great-aunt passed away in 2003 at age 94, I (as executor) was astonished to learn
that she was still renting this behemoth monthly from AT&T.  Some people cleaning her
house thought they were doing the right thing by cutting the wire and tossing this
relic into a dumpster, but it had to be retrieved and returned!

Remember the StarTAC flip phone?  No?
Well, I do.  When I got this in the 1990s,
I thought life just can't get any better than this.  Slick!

Of course, I also had the very suave hard case as pictured above left.
I proudly attached this to my belt and wore it pretty much
everywhere so that I could show everyone else just
how cool I was with my flip phone.
And important.  Yes, very important.  Somebody call me.
Anybody?  Please?

Friday:  8
Adams Farm, Walpole, MA.  Significantly more snow fell here than in Westerly, and I would estimate there was still a good 6" of the white stuff on the ground.  For the first two miles of running, I was slipping a fair amount, so I came back to the car and put on my YakTrax Run for the first time this season.  What a difference!  Continued on in a mix of double and single-track.  Very slow going on the untouched trails, but on a few trails some fat bikes had already gone through and packed it down for much easier running.

Someone had the ingenuity to assemble a small snowman
on the railing of a bridge!

Most of snow is melted back in southern RI,
but a lot of snow still here 

Nice hues just after sunrise

Looks like people had been out on XC skis as well

In the evening, I hustled back to Westerly, as I was inducted into the Board of Directors of this
fine organization that has preserved 31 properties, 1,700 acres, and
approximately 25 miles of trails.  Truly a great group of people
doing a lot for public conservation and access.

Saturday:  5
Easy shake-out run with Brady in Mastuxet Greenway properties and Champlin Glacier Preserve.  Ran into two other labs on the trails and the three of them played for a few minutes before sauntering on.

As most know, I don't have a FB account, but one of the FB-like features
popped up on my phone from my Google Photos app:  "Memories"
----
Ironically, it was a year ago today that I met Brady and took him for our first run.
Lady Byrd Park, Arlington, VA, December 7, 2018

Sunday:
Christmas 10K.  Write-up to follow.

Weekly mileage:  46

Weekly synopsis:  Just another good week of running!  Felt great out there, with no issues.  More trails than roads this week, but that will flip now that shotgun season just opened.

Weekly highlight:  Christmas 10K!  Good running, great weather, and fun with friends.  What more can you ask for?

Weekly lowlight:  None!  Seriously.