Weekly Log 17-Feb to 23-Feb: Presidential Recovery Week

Monday:  8 run, 2 walk
Presidents' Day holiday!  The bank I work for is quite generous with both holidays (11 per year), plus vacation time and work/life balance.

It was a beautiful sunny and warm 47 degrees today.  Yes, I think we should have snow instead, but since we don't, I'll take today's weather.  Went to Haley Farm State Park, and I think for the first time ever, I ran entirely within the Haley Farm property.  This was good, as it forced me to try new trails, and I didn't really care where I ended up since I had the whole day off.  The trails up to Fitch HS were a bit overgrown and uninteresting, whereas the trails opposite the tracks from "Amtrak sprint" segment were just a blast.

Crappy picture on my crappy phone,
but we did find a few short technical sections out there!

King of the hill.  This was a neat trail.

Nice view of the cove on a warm February day.

In the afternoon went to Kimball Preserve and hiked with Brady, Jana, and neighbor Beth.  The latter two had never been to the tower near Kettle Pond Visitor Center, so I took them there.  Beautiful views of Block Island this afternoon.

Tuesday:  0 run, 700 yard swim
Back to work.  Yet another rainy bleak February day.  Swapped my usual swim lunch break to today.  Effort is getting easier.

Wednesday:  3
Just didn't have it today.  A planned run from Arcadia Y got nixed when the planned meeting there got moved.  Went to the Barn late afternoon and oddly just never got into the run, despite it being 40 degrees and sunny.  Circled back to the car and called it a day.  It happens.  Fortunately not often.  My more usual culprit is that I don't start the run in the first place.

Thursday:  10
AM:  5 with Brady.  Winnapaug Farm Preserve and Champlin Glacier Preserve.  20° and sunny.  Went down pretty hard early in Champlin, with my knee hitting a rock and my shoulder another rock.  I was thrilled again that my companion immediately retreated to check on me and stay with me when I went down.  My shoulder still hurts as I write this twelve hours later, but I'm confident it's just bruised and will be fleeting.  Maybe some Vitamin I before I got to bed, and hopefully good in the morning.

PM:  5 solo at Napatree.  Chilly in just a shirt (well, and shorts too) but enjoyable circumnavigating the peninsula just before sundown.  Nobody out there.

Friday:  5
Avondale on a chilly February afternoon.  Solo and easy after work.  Several dogs there getting some exercise.  All were very friendly.  One came up to me and wanted to run with me.

Saturday:  16
Solo long run from Arcadia Y in Richmond.  Very rural country roads up into Exeter, and back through Hopkinton.  I like this route because many of the roads are so quiet that you can just run in the middle of the road and not worry about cars or exhaust.  Some of the roads are dirt for miles at a stretch.

There are two climbs of 200' or more, and they came late in my run.  Couldn't help slowing down to 7:30 pace on those, but overall was really happy to just eke out sub-7 on average for the whole run.

Man's best friend:
Took a short post-run nap, and woke up to find this thing
on top of me sleeping!

Sunday:  8
Run with dog at Woody Hill.  25 degrees at start and warmed up quickly.  Trails dry and in great condition.  CW loop starting from Fallon Trail, through Wahaneeta, up to Bradford Preserve property, and back along the east side of Woody Hill Marsh.  Fun run and good end to the week.

Weekly mileage:  50

Weekly synopsis:  Planned lower mileage "recovery" week.  Turned out just fine.  Time to ramp it back up a bit next week.

Weekly highlight:  From a fun factor, the Presidents' Day run at Haley Farm.  From a getting it done perspective, the hilly 16-miler on Saturday.

Weekly lowlight:  The fact that I tried really hard to run 6:40s or so on the hilly long run, and ended up just barely breaking 7-flat overall.  Yes, there were more hills there than Boston, but it didn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling on pace.  Two months to go.

Weekly Log 10-Feb to 16-Feb-2020: Getting it Done

Miscellaneous ramblings:

• When are we going to get snow?!!
• I'm disappointed to learn that the Boombridge Road bridge is finally going to get replaced and re-open to traffic.  It's been closed for 10 years (due to being on the state line and requiring 4 agencies to agree and co-plan:  State of RI, State of CT, Town of Westerly, Town of North Stonington).  Personally and selfishly, I love that it's closed, as it makes for perfect traffic-free running.
• While changing at the Y mens' locker room, I heard "I weigh too much".  I look over and see one rather large guy naked on the scale, and no one else in the room besides me.  I glanced at the scale:  315 pounds.  Now, I also think I weigh too much, but this is on a totally different scale (pun intended).  I think hard, but can't come up with a single positive thing to say that won't sound trite, so I just say nothing and hope that he was talking to himself and not me.  
• The Mystic Y Tri is cancelled this year.  It was never my favorite tri, as the ratios were not runner friendly (.75M swim, 12M bike, 2.7M run).  Still, it's sad to see it falling fate with so many local tris I've done that are now gone (OCY Tri at Misquamicut, Rhode Warrior at Misquamicut, Crabman in SK, FirmMan in Narragansett, Amica Ocean Beach Tri in New London, Oh My Goddard in Warwick/NK).  What's left locally?  I think just Block Island and the new Wave Tri in SK?

Monday:  0 run, 700 yards swim
My usual planned cross-training day.  Pool was super crowded so every single lane was split.  I really don't like split lanes, not because I don't want to talk to people to have to ask them to share (well, maybe that's part of it), but because I'm always concerned about hitting the lane buoys (I did that 3 times today) or drifting into the other guy's/gal's 1/2 of the lane.  Got it done.  Arms sore as usual.  I'm such an upper body weakling.

Tuesday:  11
Second day in a row of just rain, rain, rain.  Really depressing.  Especially in February when we should be getting at least some snow.  The alarm woke me up at 6am to go for a run, but being dark PLUS hearing the rain coming down killed any interest I had in running.  Set the alarm for another 90 minutes of sleep, and went back to sleep.

Fortunately, I did manage to get out at Noon time for a quiet, rural run (Boombridge into North Stonington and back).  I can't really say it was enjoyable, as about 40 degrees and a light, but steady, soaking rain.

Wednesday:  14
AM:  6 miles.  Hale Reservation, Westwood, MA.  Slow and easy pace on tight legs, hips, and lower back.  Not sure what gives, but just made the best of it, as it wasn't painful, but just a tad awkward.

PM:  8 miles.  West Thompson Lake, Thompson, CT.  This 1,800 acre parcel in the northeast section of the state is actually on federal land, owned by US Army Corps of Engineers.  There were a number of young people playing at the frisbee disc golf course, and then a few people walking dogs on the trails right near parking lots, but after that, really quiet and I went for miles without seeing anyone.  Unlike last time, when I had trouble finding and staying on the trail, this time I had no issue at all, so other than a few spots I remembered, I think the signage (especially on orange trail west of lake) has increased.

Nice view of the lake along the trail

A few fun stream crossings.
In case you're wondering, yes, I did make it running
across that log, but not very gracefully.

Lots and lots of single-track covered in pine needles,
which I love

Thursday:  5
Another gray rainy morning.  Brady came up to my bedside and nudged me to get out.  Oh, OK.  Of course, once I got out there, I was fine, and Brady was excitedly running sprints on the trails at Champlin Preserve.  At one point, I was running along and noticed I didn't see Brady anywhere.  All of a sudden, I was startled by the noise of some animal making quite the commotion from inside a kettle pond.  I looked over into the pond; oh, there's the Brady dog!

In the afternoon, I FINALLY got my car back after being without it for nine days.  It took a while for the Audi dealer to get the parts in.  The ignition lock cylinder had completely seized up and needed to be drilled out, replaced, and reprogrammed.  The car's been great for a while (going on two years), but now having two 4-figure repair bills in just 2 1/2 months, both requiring dealer work, has given me pause.  Surprisingly, instead of trying to talk me into a new car, the repair technician just said sometimes with older cars you'll go through a few expensive car bills in rapid succession, but my car is in great shape, and I could go another couple of years without another major repair bill.  OK, that's encouraging.  He then said if I ever did decide to part ways with the car, to please come see him first, as there are a number of employees at the dealership that are car enthusiasts and won't drive anything except a manual transmission Audi, which are becoming scarcer.  Good to know!

Good to have my car back again.
Fun to drive.

As another employee brought my car around for me and was opening the door, he said to me, "Wow!  You don't see many of these anymore!"  You'd think he was talking about a Model T or something, but he meant an Audi hatchback with manual transmission.  He encouraged me to take really good care of the car.  (I'm guessing he was one of the employees so described.)

Just got the car back in time to head to our monthly WTAC board meeting.  A lot of early planning for the 40th annual Clamdigger, plus finally resolving distance for Li'l Rhody 2020.  We had a lot of good discussion at both the January and February meetings.  Many runners of our 2019 10-mile course (which we changed for USATF-NE trail championships to match previous USATF-NE distances) wrote in to tell us they loved the course (as did I, although obviously biased!), but for every runner that liked the 10-mile course, it seems we had an equal number of runners express that they much preferred the classic 8-mile course, some even vowing not to return if we kept the 10-mile course.  Add to that the USATF-NE members running the race didn't bring in anywhere near the draw we had hoped, as they numbered only 23, with about 10 of those being past runners of the race anyway, plus all the confusion over the awards, the extra work required, and nearby USATF-CT members feeling left out.  Against that backdrop the board voted to return to the classic 8-mile course for 2020.  (For those that loved the Sammy C's single-track, final 3 miles of the trail section, I would highly suggest to run the YMCA's Back Road Ramble 5.7M course on June 20.)

Friday:  8
Pre-work run with Brady.  29 degrees with full sunshine.  Felt great.  Out to Avondale, where we ran the field trails, then ran on the beach for a bit, and then home.

Finished up the run, and upon entering the house,
here in the mudroom, what is he eating?

Oh, somebody left him a bowl of strawberries!  We don't spoil him too much!

Really?  They have Valentine's Day cards "From the Dog"?!
And apparently they're popular, as they were sold out!

And, of course, Brady got a Valentine's Day gift,
which he is still very excited about.

You can see it clearer here.  He throws it around,
catches it, and brings it to play with you.

Saturday:   6
Got up in the morning, looked at the temperature (12F), and bagged a morning run.  By the time afternoon rolled around, the long run was out, and an easy trail run with Brady was in.  Burlingame campgrounds.  Still only 23F in early afternoon, but felt fine once I got going.  Almost no one out there.  Each time I go recently it seems there is more trail work done.  This time chicken wire had been stapled on top of the bog bridges on the "Bog Bridge Trail" (NST just before it connects with VG).  I liked the roof shingle idea; the jury is still out on the chicken wire.  I'm assuming it was to reduce slipperiness, but I do hope they stay stapled down hard, otherwise could be tough on Brady's paws.

Sunday:  20 run, 1 hike
Had planned out a 20-miler in Charlestown and set the alarm for 6:30am.  The alarm clock went off twice, and I kept hitting snooze.  Took Brady out for his duties, and as I felt cold in the wind, I was starting to make excuses.  Maybe I'll cut the run short.  Maybe I'll just run from the house.

Fortunately, I slayed these obstacles that were in my head, brought Brady back inside, and headed off solo to Dave's Coffee.  4 mile warm-up in flat, but chilly, Quonochontaug, and then got to work.  4 miles at "MP" (target 6:30 - 6:40, actual 6:38, 6:40, 6:51, 6:28, varying with the hills heading up Klondike).  Repeated the same (4 miles easy, 4 miles MP), except for the 2nd and final MP stretch, both the hills and periodic headwinds were taking a toll on me, and I was running closer to 7-flat than 6:30s.  During the last four, I felt a few odd twinges here and there, but since I have to get back to the car anyway, just kept going.  At run's end, treated myself to a Dave's iced coffee and a cranberry/cinnamon scone while checking up on what everyone else was doing on Strava.  (Treat on Matthew actually, thanks to a gift card from Christmas).

Finished up the day with a short hike with Jana and Brady
at Tillinghast Preserve, West Greenwich.  My left quad was
quite sore after the 20-miler, but I think it did me good to get
out and walk.

Weekly mileage:  65

Weekly synopsis:  Finally, a week I'm totally happy with.  Had the usual excuses, but pushed through them all for a change.

Weekly highlight:  From an accomplishment standpoint, the 20-miler through hills today.  From a fun factor, the 8-mile trail run at West Thompson Lake.  Those are my kind of trails.

Weekly lowlight:  Just the dreary weather and lack of a real winter.  No running disappointments this week!

Weekly Log 3-Feb to 9-Feb-2020: Lazy Slug

Monday:  0
Day off

Tuesday:  4
Not sure what I had last night that didn't agree with me, but the run was abbreviated as it was punctuated by multiple PM attacks.  Don't worry, I'm not going to describe consistency or color, but it wasn't pleasant.  It was the reverse of me waiting for Brady to do his business, as he had wait for my stops.  Fortunately, I was close to home with plenty of woods.

Wednesday:  5
Work and car woes meant I had no daylight window for running.  (The work woes are contract deadline for a new project starting up in New Haven that I'm responsible for.  The car woes are I couldn't turn the key and the car had to be towed; the local shop can't fix it, so it had to be towed to the near Audi dealer [New London], who has a 5-day estimate and 4-figure bill to replace and reprogram the cylinder lock in the ignition.  Ugh.)

Barn Island Management Area.  After-work run in the dark, with Brady.   I feel like I know most of those trails like the back of my hand, but it sure was humbling in the dark.  I followed my usual CW perimeter loop, or so I thought.  I must have missed a turn (or taken an erroneous turn) somewhere, as I came up to a 2-way trail intersection and had NO idea where I was.  Turn left?  I guess?  Eventually ran into familiarity, but later had trouble finding trail turnoffs that are easy to find in the daylight.

Anyway, despite that, when I was on the trail, running tight single-track through the trees was such a blast and exhilarating in the dark.

Thursday:  11
Alarm went off at 6:20am to go out for a run.  Dark, 34°, raining.  No thanks.  Wimped out.

The weather wasn't all that much better when I left work at 3:30 and went for a run.  40°, gray, drizzly.  Ran from the Y on the 1st half of the Boombridge loop, and then looped back through Old Hopkinton Cemetery Road.

My faith in humanity ebbs and flows.  At the intersection of Chase Hill Road and Route 3 in Hopkinton, I stepped into the crosswalk and waited for a car to stop.  Not one, not two, not three ..., but TEN cars went by without stopping.  I was in the roadway, standing in the crosswalk, it was light out, and I was wearing bright neon yellow clothing, so they did see me.  BTW, it wasn't that the eleventh car stopped for me, but rather that there was enough of a gap before the 11th car that I went for it and bolted across Route 3.  I know, you just have to let these things go, but it was frustrating.

Maybe there should be more highly visible signs like this at crosswalks?
Or would it matter?

About a mile later, a Westerly police cruiser completely crossed the center line to drive on the opposite side of the road for me, and then finishing up my run and re-crossing Route 3 near downtown Westerly (Grove Street), a car promptly stopped for me at that crosswalk.  So a modicum of faith restored.

Friday:  0
Another zero.  Pathetic.  I have my reasons, but it's always easy to find excuses, isn't it?

Saturday:  14
WTAC/WLT group run, Grills Preserve, Westerly.  Group of 14 showed up for a run CCW navigation of Grills.  Sun was out and temps in the high 20s.  Gorgeous views from the top of Big Hill.

Sunday:  20  12
Planned out a 2-loop run the night before:  8 solo 'round the pond, followed by 12 with Brady and part of the Run While You Can crew.

Alarm went off at 6am, and with it dark and cold outside, the pansy side of my brain convinced me that I should reset the alarm for one hour later, go back to sleep, and then simply reverse the order of two planned loops.

The 12-mile loop went fine.  Ran with Mikey B for 5 of the 12 miles, and Brady for all 12.  Brady was having a ball and for the few miles we ran on the beach, he repeatedly would dart in and out of the ocean and then sprint on the sand.  By the time we got back home, I was getting tired already and with Brady having so much sand in his fur now, decided giving him a bath was a good idea.  After that, I was feeling a little sore and had lost all interest in going out for another 8 miles solo.

Some post-run (and post shower and bath) downtime
with my canine friend.

Finished out the day with the three of us going out of a hike at Burlingame - North Camp.  Not the mileage I was looking for today, but still an enjoyable day with plenty of fresh air.

Weekly mileage:  47

Weekly synopsis:  Pretty pathetic, actually.  Low mileage and no long run at all.

Weekly highlight:  The group trail run at Grills Preserve.  It was beautiful weather, the trails were [mostly] dry, and I felt good introducing a number of runners to Grills who had otherwise never been there.

Weekly lowlight:  Pure laziness and excuses.  Mind over matter should be pretty easy, right?  I've got some work to do in this department.

Weekly Log 27-Jan to 2-Feb-2020: Long Run Increase

Monday:  0 run, 600 yards swim
Will try to keep up Monday as a cross-training day.

Tuesday:   8
Changed plans twice due to laziness / apathy.  Left work an hour early and ran from the Y, making it up as I went along.  Ran along both the CT and RI sides of the Pawcatuck River, running on many streets I had either never been on before or was unfamiliar with.  That did help time pass.  Uninspiring, uneventful run.

Wednesday:  11
Mid-day run on one of my favorite loops:  Boombridge from the Y, across the closed bridge into North Stonington, CT and past sleepy cattle farms, up to Ashaway, and return on the RI side with some good hill climbs and descents.  Mid-30s and sunny.  I overdressed with a quarter-zip and gloves, and felt it a few miles in.

Ran 4 miles at target MP pace.  I was shooting for 6:25.  Don't know if that will be realistic come marathon day, but you have to a goal, or at least an "A" goal, right?  Was kind of all over the place with rolling hills, but now that I look back at my GAP pace, I think I hit it pretty well:

Thursday:  5
Early morning (6am) run with Brady, before a long day at work.  Entered the darkened trails at Champlin, and promptly went down hard on the frozen ground.  Brady was running ahead of me, and ever the loyal dog, came back to check on me and stayed right with me until I got up and got moving again.  I've had worse injuries for sure, and there wasn't even blood, but my knee hurt for the rest of the day.

Friday:  6
Finally Friday!  Just seemed like the workweek would never come to an end.  Lots of meetings, deadlines, deliverables, and contracts I needed to have finalized by January month-end.

Finished up about 3pm and called it a day.  Stopped home to change, pick up a black dog who was crazy excited to go out for an adventure, and headed to Wahaneeta.  Kept it shorter and slower knowing I have a long run tomorrow.  Wahaneeta to Woody Hill to Bradford Preserve, then return using different trails.  Didn't see a single soul out there.

End of the warm and nearly snow-less January.  236 miles for the month of January.

Saturday:  21!
Welcome to February.  How did that happen?  New month, new facial look (Christmas/January beard gone), new long run distances.  The last time I had run 20+ miles was the Myrtle Beach Marathon 11 months ago.  Time to have at it again ...

Planned out a flat coastal road run on the streets of Charlestown and a wee bit in SK.  Isn't MapMyRun great?  Lollygagged in bed longer than I planned to, but finally got out there and got started about 8am for my long and lonesome run.  Parked at The Bakery, as a carrot for me to finish.  Roughly half of my run went west through my former neighborhood of Tockwotten and out to Ninigret Park.  Was tempted to call it a day twice passing a sign for a pancake breakfast at Cross Mills Church to benefit locals.  Good, I don't have any money with me.  After I re-approached (but by design my route did not actually go past my starting point), I contemplated just coming back to the car to finish 10 miles and run long tomorrow. I just told myself, remember, no long run finish, no stop at The Bakery. It worked!

Continued south bypassing my car and ran out to Charlestown Breachway and back before heading east to a loop in Green Hill.  I could really feel that mere 50' hill climb in Green Hill in Mile 17, but still kept it in the 7:20 - 7:30 pace.  No, that won't fly for the marathon of course, but again, this was my first (of several) 20+ milers in a long time, so I've got time to ramp up both the hills and pace.  Happy to finish this one!

And now time for iced coffee and a warm scone.  Yum!

Sunday:  8 run, 3 hike
Fun run:  Had planned to run a 12-mile classic loop in Arcadia, but was feeling really sore.  Headed to Tillinghast instead, where I could easily bail or run shorter loops.  About 1/2 mile in, with soreness in both knees and compensating for it with a weird gait, I had prematurely made up my mind I would run a 2-mile loop and call it a day.  While I felt sore the whole run, I did feel better as I went along and kept extending the loop.  Good day out there!

On the trails at Tillinghast Preserve.
Lots of fun pine forest trails.

Doesn't really look like a mid-winter scene.
Wimpy winter of 2020.

Mean dog hike:  Spent some time in the yard in the afternoon playing ball with Brady, and then Jana and I took him to Grills for a 2.5 mile hike.  Great to get outdoors on a reasonably warm (42 degrees) February day.  We ran into exactly two other couples out there; both also had dogs but they weren't friendly like Brady.  Fortunately both were leashed.  In fact, the very first couple told us right away their dog was NOT friendly.  Wow, if an owner says their dog is not friendly, you know that's the case.  The little thing just barked and growled incessantly while showing its teeth.  Brady wasn't on the leash, but made a wide path around that thing and its owners to avoid them all.  We heard the second dog long before we saw it.  It was a big dog, and even though leashed, its owner was really physically straining to restrain the snarling dog from coming at us.  Yikes!  We leashed Brady as a precaution before going around them, but once we passed far wide of them, I unleashed Brady and he bolted further away from all of us before waiting further up the trail for Jana and me.  I can't imagine having such a mean dog; it can't be a pleasant experience for its owners either.

I know, just numbers.  But still the date looks pretty cool
with all twos and zeros.  Will never happen again.
---
Follow-up:  I just thought the date looked interesting,
but then I read on the 'Net that today is "Global Palindrome Day"
(using the full 02/02/2020) and was the first time this happened in 909 years,
since 11/11/1111 (that was even before I was born)

Weekly mileage:  59 (against plan of 68)

Weekly synopsis:  Mixed.  On the one hand, I executed on my plan to get a 21-miler in, albeit with much soreness and mild pain the next day.  However, I am way off my weekly mileage goal.  It's easy to make excuses, so I'm not going to go there.  I think for next week I have to try to hew tightly to the day-by-day plan in order to meet the overall goal.

Weekly highlight:  Don't think it was my most fun run, but my 21-miler on Saturday was an accomplishment and confidence builder.

Weekly lowlight:  Too much apathy and wishy-washiness.