Miscellaneous ramblings:
Monday: 0
First core workout since PMR rendered me pretty much immobile over the summer. Definitely weak, but you're got to start somewhere.
Tuesday: 11
AM: 5 miles. With mid-morning planning meetings in Providence, I decided to venture somewhere different and run the Arcadia Baker Pines NST out to Roaring Brook, then Arcadia Trail back. I really like these trails and wouldn't have known about them had it not been for Jonathan Short's Strava segment challenges two years ago. There is some overgrowth in swampy sections, but that'll likely be gone after a frost next month. Challenging, technical, hilly trail fun.
PM: 6 miles. First of two WHS XC home meets. Met up with Schane and Eric D to mark the course, and then Justin P joined in to get in a short run with me and help break down the course. How does that old adage go? Many hands make light work. I think that's it. Top time today was 17:27. Westerly boys went 1-2-3 and won the meet overall. Westerly girls won as well. The top boys were telling me the "sand" (stone dust) now covering root/rocks sections actually slowed them down as it's soft. Hopefully some rains will solidify the stone dust a bit.
Wednesday: 4 run, 1/4 swim
Should've gotten up and out early. Shoulda. Coulda. Woulda. I had planned to run 5 miles in Burlingame and swim 1/2 mile in Watchaug Pond, but I was up against a hard stop for a training session at work, and due to my procrastination had to cut down both the run and swim. Very humid on the run this morning, and thus the short swim felt especially good, save for the wardrobe malfunction. Try as I may, I just could NOT get my wetsuit zipped up. I felt like I was just stuffed like a sausage into the suit. I ended up swimming with the wetsuit unzipped, which didn't exactly work well and rubbed a lot, but it served my purpose of seeing whether I had the mobility to swim for the first time this summer (fortunately, I did).
You know, I really do like open water swims, even if I'm slow as a tortoise; hope to return to tris next year. Didn't I say the same thing last summer?
Thursday: 6
I have a new work project for a subsidiary in New Haven, which will require me to work in New Haven occasionally over the next four months or so, including three out of the next four business days. It's actually a very easy commute: three mile drive to Westerly train station, a comfortable ride on Amtrak to New Haven, and then an easy 1-mile walk (or I suppose Uber if raining). One of the principals of the firm is a big runner and also just signed up for Boston. He was kind enough to take me out for a running tour of New Haven today. I'm truly fearful of running on the busy city streets, and he's a pure road guy, but he humored me by running on a trail and then a bike path for much of today's run. Great to get out and run in a different place, and a nice break-up of the day after a three-hour vendor meeting and demo.
Friday: 6
Took the train from New Haven back earlier today, and hit the Westerly Town Beach by 4pm. Fun, barefoot, shirtless run on the beach. Mostly at about 8-minute pace, but ran the last mile hard in 5:49.
Finished my run, jumped in the ocean (refreshing!), and as I was walking back across the beach pavilion en route to my car, an older gentleman engaged me in conversation that went something like this:
Him: How was your run?
Me: Pretty good. I felt great out there.
Him: Man, oh man, were you moving!
Me: Thanks! I was trying to recapture some of my lost youth.
Him: Well, you're doing a really good job of it!
I'm pretty sure I had a wide smile the whole ride home and then some. Isn't it nice when someone goes out of their way with compliments? He certainly made my day.
Saturday: 7
Redeemed a raincheck from Chris from two weeks back. This was to run in Great Swamp. It might have been two years since I had last run there. So nice not to be bothered by the deerfly inhabitants. A great run and catch-up on everything from families to injuries/setbacks to deerflies to 529 plans to of course, running.
Sunday: 9
Trails to a Cure. Separate write-up forthcoming shortly.
Weekly mileage: 43
Weekly synopsis: The mileage is inching up! I'm really feeling very good both in general and on runs lately. My plan is to continue gradually ratcheting up the mileage. I'd like to have a sustained base of 50 or so going into Boston training at the end of December. Don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but looking very achievable at the moment.
Weekly highlight: Trails to a Cure! Just awesome. More to come.
Weekly lowlight: My laziness on Wednesday cutting my running and swimming short. No one to blame but myself.
- After two years of solid gains for TF Green Airport attracting additional carriers and non-stop locations, more and more are pulling out. Some are over the Boeing SuperMax groundings, but regardless, it's a loss. Recently, Norwegian pulled out, ending all direct flights to Europe, and just this week (after the summary below was printed), Sun Country ended all service, including new direct flights to Nashville, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and New Orleans. Ugh.
- After a seven-year hiatus, I'll be returning to Boston in the spring. No, this will not be an annual pilgrimage. My fellow quinquagenarian colleague and New Haven running host is already talking smack with me that his goal is to finish physically behind me (gun time) but finish ahead of me in chip time (his qualifying time 3:07 and I know he can run faster vs. mine at 2:57).
- Do you think the USA will ever modernize and move to the metric system? In my lifetime? In my children's lifetime? We can't decide if we're on the outdated British imperial system (which they themselves have officially long abandoned) or if we want to join the rest of the world and use the metric system.
 |
| Only THREE out of 195 recognized countries in the world still do NOT use the metric system! The other two are third-world countries: Liberia and Myanmar. Embarrassing. |
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| The drink menu from my AA flight last week. Look at the silly disparity in unit of measures above. US Congress passed the Metric Act of 1866 (yes, 1866!!) and much later US Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 to make the metric system the "preferred system of weights and measure for commerce and trade in the US", yet we continue to use substandard medieval measurements. End of rant... for now ... |
First core workout since PMR rendered me pretty much immobile over the summer. Definitely weak, but you're got to start somewhere.
Tuesday: 11
AM: 5 miles. With mid-morning planning meetings in Providence, I decided to venture somewhere different and run the Arcadia Baker Pines NST out to Roaring Brook, then Arcadia Trail back. I really like these trails and wouldn't have known about them had it not been for Jonathan Short's Strava segment challenges two years ago. There is some overgrowth in swampy sections, but that'll likely be gone after a frost next month. Challenging, technical, hilly trail fun.
 |
| Chilling to see this newspaper on the ground at the start of my run from Baker Pines. If there's a "bright spot", at least it's from New Jersey, and not here? |
Wednesday: 4 run, 1/4 swim
Should've gotten up and out early. Shoulda. Coulda. Woulda. I had planned to run 5 miles in Burlingame and swim 1/2 mile in Watchaug Pond, but I was up against a hard stop for a training session at work, and due to my procrastination had to cut down both the run and swim. Very humid on the run this morning, and thus the short swim felt especially good, save for the wardrobe malfunction. Try as I may, I just could NOT get my wetsuit zipped up. I felt like I was just stuffed like a sausage into the suit. I ended up swimming with the wetsuit unzipped, which didn't exactly work well and rubbed a lot, but it served my purpose of seeing whether I had the mobility to swim for the first time this summer (fortunately, I did).
You know, I really do like open water swims, even if I'm slow as a tortoise; hope to return to tris next year. Didn't I say the same thing last summer?
Thursday: 6
I have a new work project for a subsidiary in New Haven, which will require me to work in New Haven occasionally over the next four months or so, including three out of the next four business days. It's actually a very easy commute: three mile drive to Westerly train station, a comfortable ride on Amtrak to New Haven, and then an easy 1-mile walk (or I suppose Uber if raining). One of the principals of the firm is a big runner and also just signed up for Boston. He was kind enough to take me out for a running tour of New Haven today. I'm truly fearful of running on the busy city streets, and he's a pure road guy, but he humored me by running on a trail and then a bike path for much of today's run. Great to get out and run in a different place, and a nice break-up of the day after a three-hour vendor meeting and demo.
Friday: 6
Took the train from New Haven back earlier today, and hit the Westerly Town Beach by 4pm. Fun, barefoot, shirtless run on the beach. Mostly at about 8-minute pace, but ran the last mile hard in 5:49.
Finished my run, jumped in the ocean (refreshing!), and as I was walking back across the beach pavilion en route to my car, an older gentleman engaged me in conversation that went something like this:
Him: How was your run?
Me: Pretty good. I felt great out there.
Him: Man, oh man, were you moving!
Me: Thanks! I was trying to recapture some of my lost youth.
Him: Well, you're doing a really good job of it!
I'm pretty sure I had a wide smile the whole ride home and then some. Isn't it nice when someone goes out of their way with compliments? He certainly made my day.
Saturday: 7
Redeemed a raincheck from Chris from two weeks back. This was to run in Great Swamp. It might have been two years since I had last run there. So nice not to be bothered by the deerfly inhabitants. A great run and catch-up on everything from families to injuries/setbacks to deerflies to 529 plans to of course, running.
Sunday: 9
Trails to a Cure. Separate write-up forthcoming shortly.
Weekly mileage: 43
Weekly synopsis: The mileage is inching up! I'm really feeling very good both in general and on runs lately. My plan is to continue gradually ratcheting up the mileage. I'd like to have a sustained base of 50 or so going into Boston training at the end of December. Don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but looking very achievable at the moment.
Weekly highlight: Trails to a Cure! Just awesome. More to come.
Weekly lowlight: My laziness on Wednesday cutting my running and swimming short. No one to blame but myself.
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