Miscellaneous ramblings:
And now onto the week in review ...
Monday: 0.5 mile swim, 1 mile walk
Monday is my typical day off from running. I've been saying for the past few weeks that I'll get back to cross training on Mondays, and today I finally made good on that. Swam 1/2 mile at Watchaug Pond, from the picnic area beach to the buoy and back. Didn't start off well, as I was angered by seeing all the trash left by inconsiderate weekend visitors, and then I was having goggle issues, and finally I kept swimming to the left (as opposed to in a straight line) and into shallow water.
Much, much better on the return, and I was enjoying myself out there. When I finished, there were two young (late teens?) busy picking up bag after bag of trash, but they took the time to say "Good morning" to me. On my way out, I drove past them picking up trash in the parking lot, and stopped to tell them they were doing a great job to make our parks clean.
Another much too warm day today, with temps inland hitting over 90° and about 85° in Westerly. Waited until almost sunset to go out for a neighborhood walk with Jana and Brady, and it was STILL over 80°. Ugh.
Tuesday: 5
2-part run: 1) 3-mile loop in Burlingame north, back to car for water break for Brady, 2) 1 mile south to North Camp beach, quick dip, and return.
It was time to try out the Deerfly patches. Crutch had mentioned these a few years back, and I procrastinated, and Steve Servidio recently recommended them to me. Very cheap to buy on Amazon, and this was their inaugural test. The deerflies were absolutely horrific on most of the run, so it was a good test. I knew it was going to be bad, while sitting in the car in the parking lot and they were bouncing off the windows. Then the only other person I would see bounded to his car, wearing a beekeeper type outfit of long pants, long sleeve shirt, and full mesh head covering, while swatting deerflies. I waited until he drove away, lest he admonish me or think me a fool as I got out of the car in short shorts and a thin singlet.
As to the efficacy of the patches, I wouldn't say it eliminated the deerfly bites, but it sure cut way down on attacks on my neck and shoulders. It made the run mostly bearable for me, but I felt guilty for Brady as at times he must have had 40 deerflies swarming around him. With his thick fur and his on and off sprints, it's harder for them to bite him then me, but when we stopped I killed one on his face and one on his ears (both very little fur of course), and both were bloodied. Horrible useless creatures!
At North Camp beach, I stopped in full sunlight, as there were only three deerflies left annoying us at that point and no more would be joining in the full sun, I took off my hat, let them land on me, and then happily bashed them to kingdom come. The fallacy in my thinking of safety in the sun was that they summoned their evil cousins, the horseflies, to extract revenge. Did not stay there long, and returned to the safety of the car.
Wednesday: 4
Paltry mileage today. Fun Run only, plus a mile warmup. Air was so thick today. Ran a 19:19, a bit slower than last week, but given the humidity, I'm surprised it wasn't much slower than that.
Thursday: 10
Very early (5am) low tide beach run with Tommy, Matthew, and Brady, from Charlestown Breachway. I tried to Google if Charlestown has the same beach dog rules as Westerly (allowed on beach in summer between 6pm and 8am), but couldn't find anything, so when Brady got up and followed me around the house, I just winged it and hoped for the best. It's not as if there would be DEM or Charlestown beach personnel on the beach at that hour.
We knew we would have to get off the beach for a short jut out around protruding rocks at Green Hill, but what none of us had anticipated is that there would be rocks on the other side that made continuing almost impossible, certainly for Matthew and I barefoot, and at least difficult for Tom in running shoes. Scouted around and opted to just return and then add on the second half on roads. Fortunately I did have socks and running shoes in the car, as did Matthew.
Made a road loop to finish, and that salvaged the run. It was a clear lesson that the Westerly beach shoreline is much more runnable that the Charlestown/SK shoreline east of Charlestown Breachway. Bonus finishes to the end of the run were a dip in the ocean, and a stop at The Bakery for scones and coffee.
Friday: 8 run, 1 walk
AM: Humid run at Ninigret with Matthew and Brady. Mix of grass fields and roads. Got Brady in for a swim in Little Nini Pond at the end to try to cool him off, but the water was lukewarm.
PM: Neighborhood walk with Jana and Brady. Only saw one other person outside. Do the majority of people just stay indoors all day long?
Saturday: 5
Charlestown Moraine Preserve, and then a few Burlingame trails, with Brady. Best part was going for a swim in Watchaug Pond and once again, randomly catching up with the Bousquet family.
Sunday: 11
Blessing of the Fleet virtual race. Separate write-up coming soon to a theatre near you.
Came home and mowed the lawn in another day in the heat wave. Spent a lot of time outside in the hot sun yesterday and today, and I'm feeling week from the heat.
Weekly mileage: 45 run, 2 walk, 1/2 swim
Weekly synopsis: Yet another week of close, but no cigar with respect to my weekly goal of 50 miles per week. It's all good.
Weekly highlight: Finishing my 18th annual Blessing of the Fleet. Humid as all hell, and very different this year, but got it done.
Weekly lowlight: This heat wave. I am just not a heat person. We get some relief living one mile from the ocean, so it is very rare here to hit 90°, but upper 80s yesterday and today was no picnic at all. Two more days before we see some relief.
- Slowly, but surely, a few races here and there are starting to come back to RI. We got our USATF sanction this week for the Bottone Mile, there is a 5K and half-marathon in Smithfield on August 9, and the RI State Police 5K fall edition opens registration on August 1.
- VCM just cancelled. I guess not a surprise, but I was loosely considering that as my 6th New England state marathon, and I've never run it because it's usually too late in the season for me (Memorial Day), so the postponed date of late October sounded great. Too good to be true.
- I've been losing a lot of Strava CRs recently. Par for the course. I lost my Avondale mile CR at 5:28 pace, I lost my only CR in Texas - a 2-miler who ran it at 5:40 pace in 96-degree heat and proclaims himself as a 2:29 marathoner, and lost a 1/4 mile uphill CR that I didn't know I had in Stonington. The first two are definitely legit, so I made sure to kudo them. As to the third, I think it's flagging time:
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| 2:00 pace? Uphill? I don't think so. |
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| To give him the most benefit of the doubt, I looked at his "run". Half on roads, half in the water, with a maximum 12:22 pace? Yeah, no good. |
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| Rough week for Garmin. I think this is Day 4 as I write this (Sunday). I'm surprised how many posted manuals, instead of uploading directly from watch to Strava. I hope this outage and ransomware issue doesn't affect their long term viability. |
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| I find this image to be very moving. I assume that the bridge name, location in upper right, and caption at bottom tell it all. But if it doesn't resonate, I highly suggest to watch the historically accurate movie "Selma". |
And now onto the week in review ...
Monday: 0.5 mile swim, 1 mile walk
Monday is my typical day off from running. I've been saying for the past few weeks that I'll get back to cross training on Mondays, and today I finally made good on that. Swam 1/2 mile at Watchaug Pond, from the picnic area beach to the buoy and back. Didn't start off well, as I was angered by seeing all the trash left by inconsiderate weekend visitors, and then I was having goggle issues, and finally I kept swimming to the left (as opposed to in a straight line) and into shallow water.
Much, much better on the return, and I was enjoying myself out there. When I finished, there were two young (late teens?) busy picking up bag after bag of trash, but they took the time to say "Good morning" to me. On my way out, I drove past them picking up trash in the parking lot, and stopped to tell them they were doing a great job to make our parks clean.
Another much too warm day today, with temps inland hitting over 90° and about 85° in Westerly. Waited until almost sunset to go out for a neighborhood walk with Jana and Brady, and it was STILL over 80°. Ugh.
Tuesday: 5
2-part run: 1) 3-mile loop in Burlingame north, back to car for water break for Brady, 2) 1 mile south to North Camp beach, quick dip, and return.
It was time to try out the Deerfly patches. Crutch had mentioned these a few years back, and I procrastinated, and Steve Servidio recently recommended them to me. Very cheap to buy on Amazon, and this was their inaugural test. The deerflies were absolutely horrific on most of the run, so it was a good test. I knew it was going to be bad, while sitting in the car in the parking lot and they were bouncing off the windows. Then the only other person I would see bounded to his car, wearing a beekeeper type outfit of long pants, long sleeve shirt, and full mesh head covering, while swatting deerflies. I waited until he drove away, lest he admonish me or think me a fool as I got out of the car in short shorts and a thin singlet.
As to the efficacy of the patches, I wouldn't say it eliminated the deerfly bites, but it sure cut way down on attacks on my neck and shoulders. It made the run mostly bearable for me, but I felt guilty for Brady as at times he must have had 40 deerflies swarming around him. With his thick fur and his on and off sprints, it's harder for them to bite him then me, but when we stopped I killed one on his face and one on his ears (both very little fur of course), and both were bloodied. Horrible useless creatures!
At North Camp beach, I stopped in full sunlight, as there were only three deerflies left annoying us at that point and no more would be joining in the full sun, I took off my hat, let them land on me, and then happily bashed them to kingdom come. The fallacy in my thinking of safety in the sun was that they summoned their evil cousins, the horseflies, to extract revenge. Did not stay there long, and returned to the safety of the car.
 |
| Nasty, miserable, excuses of a creature. 52 of them on my hat. I hope they suffered in their deaths. |
Wednesday: 4
Paltry mileage today. Fun Run only, plus a mile warmup. Air was so thick today. Ran a 19:19, a bit slower than last week, but given the humidity, I'm surprised it wasn't much slower than that.
Thursday: 10
Very early (5am) low tide beach run with Tommy, Matthew, and Brady, from Charlestown Breachway. I tried to Google if Charlestown has the same beach dog rules as Westerly (allowed on beach in summer between 6pm and 8am), but couldn't find anything, so when Brady got up and followed me around the house, I just winged it and hoped for the best. It's not as if there would be DEM or Charlestown beach personnel on the beach at that hour.
We knew we would have to get off the beach for a short jut out around protruding rocks at Green Hill, but what none of us had anticipated is that there would be rocks on the other side that made continuing almost impossible, certainly for Matthew and I barefoot, and at least difficult for Tom in running shoes. Scouted around and opted to just return and then add on the second half on roads. Fortunately I did have socks and running shoes in the car, as did Matthew.
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| Not runnable, or at least not barefoot. |
 |
| Pretty sure Brady is asking, "Are you guys coming, or what?" |
Friday: 8 run, 1 walk
AM: Humid run at Ninigret with Matthew and Brady. Mix of grass fields and roads. Got Brady in for a swim in Little Nini Pond at the end to try to cool him off, but the water was lukewarm.
PM: Neighborhood walk with Jana and Brady. Only saw one other person outside. Do the majority of people just stay indoors all day long?
Saturday: 5
Charlestown Moraine Preserve, and then a few Burlingame trails, with Brady. Best part was going for a swim in Watchaug Pond and once again, randomly catching up with the Bousquet family.
 |
| When I pulled into the parking lot, with my distance vision issues, I falsely assumed the top sign picture was referencing no dogs. I'm fine with all the other restrictions! |
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| After the run and swim, and then helping my Mom to finish painting a few last spots on her house, it was off to probably my first party since the start of COVID. An annual clambake and family reunion in Exeter, which I wasn't sure would be held this year at all. When I heard it was on, I was all in, having a short drive being one of the few Rhode Islanders to attend, and being a lover of seafood and having a lot of respect for the host. My Mom wasn't sure as she's in a high-risk group, but she came and actually was my only blood relative there this year! That's due partly to the family getting smaller (the host's brother, my uncle, passed away last fall), but mostly due to COVID concerns. It was quite the spectrum of COVID concerns, with a distant (and elderly) relative from a higher risk state (MD) coming right up to me with a hug, as opposed to some of my New England cousins staying far away feeling it's not safe. |
Sunday: 11
Blessing of the Fleet virtual race. Separate write-up coming soon to a theatre near you.
Came home and mowed the lawn in another day in the heat wave. Spent a lot of time outside in the hot sun yesterday and today, and I'm feeling week from the heat.
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| Taking a break outside, relaxing with Brady. |
Weekly mileage: 45 run, 2 walk, 1/2 swim
Weekly synopsis: Yet another week of close, but no cigar with respect to my weekly goal of 50 miles per week. It's all good.
Weekly highlight: Finishing my 18th annual Blessing of the Fleet. Humid as all hell, and very different this year, but got it done.
Weekly lowlight: This heat wave. I am just not a heat person. We get some relief living one mile from the ocean, so it is very rare here to hit 90°, but upper 80s yesterday and today was no picnic at all. Two more days before we see some relief.
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