Monday: 0
Planned rest day.
Tuesday: 13
AM: [5 miles] Roads and fields at an easy pace with Brady.
PM: [8 miles] Wahaneeta and South Woody with Matthew & Brady. First time ever that I've seen the parking lot at Wahaneeta full. Pretty much the same at the DEM parking lot in South Woody off Fallon Trail. It was pretty clear that taking a route of lesser-traveled trails would be in order, and that worked out quite well, as we barely saw anyone at all. Pushed the last two miles or so.
Wednesday: 0
Unplanned. The day just got away from me with a busy, hectic work day.
Thursday: 8
Fun early morning run at Tillinghast Preserve, West Greenwich. I couldn't keep up with Matthew or Brady, but fortunately for me Matthew tired a bit in the last few miles. Started from the Hazard Road - Shepards trailhead. Absolutely no one else in the parking lot; saw only a couple of fisherman at the pond. Definitely one of my favorite trail systems.
Friday: 4
Late afternoon run with Brady. Sunny and 70° may sound nice, but not for running and especially in mid May when the body is far from acclimatized. Kept it very slow and short given how uncomfortable I felt, nevermind Brady. If there was one silver lining, it was that we're into singlet season.
Saturday: 15
Epic 2+ hour tri-state trail run. It actually took us over an hour to go to another place inside RI (Burrillville)! (Excepting Block Island, of course, there are likely few places in RI that take more than an hour from anywhere.)
I had no idea how the crowds would be on a warm day in an area that I'm not familiar with. While we saw 20+ people there, they were mostly spread out over our run. On the North South Trail, this was tight single-track, so near impossible to perform social distancing with the very few that we encountered, but once we gave a verbal heads-up that we were coming up on people, they were always really good of stepping off to the side of the trail. Almost no one wore a mask, and indeed our RI Governor said we do not need to wear a mask when running outdoors. One seemingly odd situation was when running the Southern New England Trunkline Trail, a wide dirt road, three people walking towards us all had face masks on, went to the far edge of the dirt road more than 10' away from us, stopped, turned away from us and hunched over towards the ground. No criticism, as whatever works for people, but it was an odd scene.
Sunday: 5
Since I dragged my favorite beast to get prodded and poked with a rabies shot in the morning, the least I could do was bring him out to enjoy the trails on a beautiful day. Easy recovery run at Burlingame, with plenty of stops to wade in streams and ponds and chase sticks.
Weekly mileage: 45
Weekly synopsis: Pretty good week. Mostly trails. Felt good.
Weekly highlight: The tri-state run. Tiring for sure, but fun exploration of a new area.
Weekly lowlight: Two zeros.
Planned rest day.
Tuesday: 13
AM: [5 miles] Roads and fields at an easy pace with Brady.
PM: [8 miles] Wahaneeta and South Woody with Matthew & Brady. First time ever that I've seen the parking lot at Wahaneeta full. Pretty much the same at the DEM parking lot in South Woody off Fallon Trail. It was pretty clear that taking a route of lesser-traveled trails would be in order, and that worked out quite well, as we barely saw anyone at all. Pushed the last two miles or so.
Wednesday: 0
Unplanned. The day just got away from me with a busy, hectic work day.
Thursday: 8
Fun early morning run at Tillinghast Preserve, West Greenwich. I couldn't keep up with Matthew or Brady, but fortunately for me Matthew tired a bit in the last few miles. Started from the Hazard Road - Shepards trailhead. Absolutely no one else in the parking lot; saw only a couple of fisherman at the pond. Definitely one of my favorite trail systems.
Friday: 4
Late afternoon run with Brady. Sunny and 70° may sound nice, but not for running and especially in mid May when the body is far from acclimatized. Kept it very slow and short given how uncomfortable I felt, nevermind Brady. If there was one silver lining, it was that we're into singlet season.
Saturday: 15
Epic 2+ hour tri-state trail run. It actually took us over an hour to go to another place inside RI (Burrillville)! (Excepting Block Island, of course, there are likely few places in RI that take more than an hour from anywhere.)
I had no idea how the crowds would be on a warm day in an area that I'm not familiar with. While we saw 20+ people there, they were mostly spread out over our run. On the North South Trail, this was tight single-track, so near impossible to perform social distancing with the very few that we encountered, but once we gave a verbal heads-up that we were coming up on people, they were always really good of stepping off to the side of the trail. Almost no one wore a mask, and indeed our RI Governor said we do not need to wear a mask when running outdoors. One seemingly odd situation was when running the Southern New England Trunkline Trail, a wide dirt road, three people walking towards us all had face masks on, went to the far edge of the dirt road more than 10' away from us, stopped, turned away from us and hunched over towards the ground. No criticism, as whatever works for people, but it was an odd scene.
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| Start and finish of our run. Pretty sure this was my first time ever here. |
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| Early on, on the North-South Trail. Water AND sticks, what fun! |
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| Fun single-track along Wallum Lake |
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| NST in RI was very well marked with usual blue blazes, plus these sequential markers. |
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| RI/MA state line. End of the North South Trail (78 miles, from the Atlantic Ocean) Start of the Mid State Trail (92 miles, from RI to NH) |
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| The first few miles of the Mid State Trail were quite wet in spots. I didn't mind the water, but the trail terrain here was rocky double-track, not my favorite. |
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| Plenty of cooling off spots, especially important for Brady in the 70° heat. This is 10 miles in now, as we're getting ready to leave MA into CT, via the Southern New England Trunkline Trail. |
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| Soaking my feet in a nice cool stream, with Brady balancing on a tree |
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| Tri-state marker: Conn / RI 1883! Wow! There was a 200' tough climb to get up here, and at 11 miles in, plus the heat, it just completely wore me out. I needed a long break to get my breathing back under control. |
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| Other side of marker: Mass / Conn |
Since I dragged my favorite beast to get prodded and poked with a rabies shot in the morning, the least I could do was bring him out to enjoy the trails on a beautiful day. Easy recovery run at Burlingame, with plenty of stops to wade in streams and ponds and chase sticks.
Weekly mileage: 45
Weekly synopsis: Pretty good week. Mostly trails. Felt good.
Weekly highlight: The tri-state run. Tiring for sure, but fun exploration of a new area.
Weekly lowlight: Two zeros.
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| I had been avoiding retiring the old steel wheelbarrow for years. It was decrepit, rusting out, and the tire needed to be inflated every 10 minutes or so, but the old workhorse got it done and I continued to pinch pennies. --- This past week I got out the wheelbarrow after sitting all winter, loaded in the tools to get started on hedge trimming, edging, bed mulching, etc., and it just plain gave out and literally collapsed. Got out my mask, headed to Ace Hardware, and got a bigger, sturdier wheelbarrow. I didn't even have to pump up the tire! Sometimes, especially now, you have to look for the simple positives in life. Happy New Wheelbarrow! |
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