Weekly Log 15-Feb to 21-Feb-2021: Another Winter Wonderland Week

Monday:  7 run, 2 walk

AM:  Every wake up in the morning and can't make up your mind about where you're going to run?  Preference was trails, but there was a lot of snow and everything was melting and wet and the temp was above freezing all night, so that's out.  How about a beach run?  Looked up the tide chart and found we're just coming up on high tide.  Ugh.  Ended up running local roads with Brady, doing my best to pick quiet back roads wherever possible.

PM:  Having the day off (Presidents' Day), I figured the three of us (Jana, Brady, me) could go for a walk at one of the local preserves.  We did, despite the drizzly weather, and wet sloppy snow.  It was near deserted at Barn Island, likely due to aforementioned conditions.  The downside to Presidents' Day is my next holiday off from work isn't for 3 1/2 months:  Memorial Day.  A VERY long stretch.

Tuesday:  7

Post-work mixer.  Roads out towards Watch Hill, and beach back.  A balmy 45° afternoon!  On the beach on the return part of the run, I could see something in his mouth and I feared it was a dead animal or something, but it was a tennis ball he found!  I figured that just like sticks, he'd end up dropping up pretty quickly and abandoning it.  I was wrong.  He carried it for the two miles or so of the rest of the run on beach and roads, all the way home.  So when did he finally drop the ball?  As soon as we got into the yard, as he was indicating to me he wanted to play catch.  Fair enough!  I guess he earned that ball.  

Wednesday:  3

Aborted my run after slipping awkwardly on an ice covered trail in Champlin Glacier Preserve.  Lower back felt it, and I just ran easily to get out of the woods and then head home.  In the hundreds of times I have run in Champlin, this was the first time ever that I saw people playing pond hockey on a kettle pond, so that was pretty cool!

Thursday:  7

3+ inches of fresh snow.  Got out late afternoon.  Stayed on roads today after yesterday's mishaps, and avoided snow plows by running mostly on back roads.  There was one road in Misquamicut where Brady and I had to run up on someone's yard to stay far away from a plow, but otherwise, it was all good.  Not a soul on the beach today.  Go figure.

Friday:  5

An additional 2" of fresh snow!  It's actually been snowing for about 36 hours, but just so light.  Snowshoe run in Champlin Glacier Preserve.  About 5" of fresh snow.

Saturday:  4 snowshoe hike, 1 walk

AM:  Westerly Land Trust snowshoe hike in Crandall Preserve.

Making fresh tracks in the snow.

Just beautiful out there with the all the fresh snow.

PM:  Avondale Preserve walk with Jana and Brady.  Snow packed down nicely there.

Sunday:  9

Off to George Washington Management Area in Glocester, RI to get in another Border Patrol Challenge.  Had no idea what to expect with conditions, but it turned out to be quite favorable.  Did a very short warmup just to get my bearings on where I would be starting, first trail turnoff, markers, and return trail, and then put on the YakTrax and got to work.

Not actually part of the course, but right near start/finish.
On the frozen Bowdish Reservoir.  Since snowmobiles
had been on recently, I figured it was safe for Brady and me.

So much snow in the woods here!  I estimate at least one foot.
This section was a little soft, but most of it was packed down
quite nicely.

A nice packed down section near the start.

Ran a cool-down on snowshoes on the road.
It was well packed down with vehicles, including snowmobiles.
I wish we had roads like this around my house!

What a great run!  It was 21° at start, but I was quickly sweating like a pig out there with my heart rate up working hard on the run.

Weekly mileage:   38 run (6 on snowshoes), 3 snowshoe hike, 3 walk

Weekly synopsis:  As I mentioned last week, I'm less concerned about not hitting my mileage in recent weeks, and have no desire to sacrifice winter snow runs just to achieve an arbitrary mileage goal with no road races in sight for me.  I'm really enjoying this extended winter snow cover here in RI, and lamenting the upcoming week's forecast of rain and temps up into the 50s.

Weekly highlight:  Today's George Washington snow run, for sure.  One of my best snow runs ever.  Deep snow out there, but overall well packed down.  Just beautiful!

Weekly lowlight:  Slipping awkwardly on ice covered trails midweek.

Weekly Log 8-Feb to 14-Feb-2021: More Fun in the Snow

Miscellaneous ramblings:

• I feel like I'm in a rut with really mundane office work.  Spent many hours recently on a lengthy annual report submission of compliance of Sarbanes-Oxley controls, with references out to four places  (e.g., 15f.2.4.1), and got it returned to me for reworking.  What am I doing?  It was as if I had forgotten to include a cover page with my TPS report (Office Space reference).
• Midway through a recent meeting where about ten of us were delving into some inane minutae of management fees and what methodology we should use to calculate, an e-mail came across from the head of our division stating that the wife of one of our colleagues had just passed away today at age 53 from cancer.  An SVP reached out to me in a chat immediately and said that she feels none of these project details matter anymore.  Bingo.
• I received a video call from HR this week that started out with "Jeff, I'm afraid we have some bad news for you.".  Sounds ominous!  No, I didn't get let go, but it turns out I'm a victim of identity theft and someone filed a fraudulent unemployment claim with the state using my name and info.  What a pain to file state police reports, put freezes on your credit, etc.  Apparently RI unemployment fraud is sharply up recently, as for compassionate reasons, the RI Dept of Labor changed their unemployment process during COVID to immediately pay out unemployment funds once a claimant submits a request, instead of waiting for their employer (former employer) to confirm, so there's a much higher chance of scumbag fraudulent claimants receiving money.  I hope the illegitimate claimant on my account was at least forced to submit a cover page with his/her claim.
• For the third time in two months, a graduate of my high school class has died.  We had 318 in my graduating class, so the percentage isn't huge, but what's going on?  I'm in my mid-50s, not mid-80s.  Life is short indeed.

Monday:  6

Snowshoe run in 5" of new powder!  After last week's debacle of getting the car stuck in an unplowed DEM dirt road, I needed to be smarter about where to park.  Ended up parking on street at the end of a plowed road (Fern Drive) just before the gate going into Woody Hill.  This worked well.  Our entire run was all virgin snow; tough going but beautiful!

Just gorgeous out in Woody Hill today!

Tuesday:  3 snowshoe hike

Yesterday was 18° at start and today was 21°, so I dressed the same.  But yesterday I felt fine and today I just got so cold out there.  My toes and fingertips were just frozen the whole time.  What gives?  Ah yes, yesterday I ran and I today I walked at a very easy pace, and with a group of ten, there were a number of stops as well.  What a difference.   I enjoyed my time out there with the Land Trust, but I sure learned a lesson of dressing not only for the weather, but also for the activity.  Makes complete sense, but it didn't dawn on me until after.  I felt cold for most of the rest of the day.

Wednesday:  5

Avondale Preserve late afternoon with Brady.  Mix of roads and hardpack snow trails.

Uh-oh.  This isn't looking good.

Fortunately, some tactical surgery,
with crude implements of a bowsaw and shovel, gave him a new lease
on life and kept him going for the rest of the
week plus.

Thursday:  6

Another snowshoe run in Woody Hill.  This time parked at Bradford Citizens Club and ran in.  Just another gorgeous morning out there in the solitude of the woods.

Friday:  1 walk

Lost my window for running with stupid work stuff, and then lost interest.  Took a post-work walk with Brady and Jana in Avondale Farm Preserve.  On the plus side, it's still light out until about 5:20pm.

Saturday:  7 run, 3 hike

With a lot of snow still on the ground, especially on the trails in the woods, for more than two weeks now, it was time to resume the Border Patrol Challenge.  My last BPC was just over two weeks ago in the snow at Tillinghast, and my last BPC run on bare ground was three weeks ago at Tri Town Preserve.  Obviously my times are going to be much slower in the snow, but as I mentioned in last week's blog, I'm also running out of time with 6 weekends remaining to get 9 challenges completed.

So which course should I run, knowing what I know will be a slower comparative time to others running it on dry ground?  Mathematically the longer courses would make sense, as their formulas (using exponentiation) penalize runners-up less than the points separation on the shorter courses.  Example:

Very little points spread on the long courses.

I probably overthink these things, as the obvious flip side to Tippecansett today is having to run 20 miles in the snow with who knows what conditions.  After bantering about different options, I ended up deciding that with unknown snow conditions, I would err on the side of choosing a shorter distance and set my sights for the 5.5 mile course at Old Furnace State Park (Killingly, CT).

Drove for 50 minutes to get there, as I'm just pulling into the parking lot, I see two runners in the snow about to set off.  Wait a minute - I know those two runners.  Against implausible odds, I'm pulling into this relatively obscure state park an hour away exactly as Bob Jackman and Zack (Zach?  Zak?) Kudlak are starting their run.  I rolled the window down and yelled out.  No, of course I didn't "roll" the window down, but I'm so old that that's the way we used to do it before power windows.  But I digress ..

The two were nice enough to wait up for me, and this was a huge win for me.  Probably a drag for them, as they were just starting.  Beyond the coincidence of meeting up just at the start of their run, this was the the run that I needed some guidance and companionship the most, as it was confusing labyrinth of a course on a property that I'm not at all familiar with.  Bob and Zach had actually marked a number of the intersections!!  

So off we went.  Bob was in the lead.  Well, except when Brady would sprint past him, and then drop back for me, and then sprint past him again.  The snow was deep but well packed, but I could only see Bob in sight for a mile.  There was one intersection where there was no flag (how dare they!) and I paused for a bit, hoping Zach would catch up and point me the way, but then just acquiesced to the way Brady chose, hoping that he was doing that based off Bob's scent.  After a while, I saw a flag at a hard right turn, which Brady, leading the whole way, took correctly, so I'm assuming he had picked up Bob's scent.  Good.

There was some deep, soft snow out there!
At this point of the course, I slipped backwards (even with YakTrax)
before eventually getting a grip and making my way forward again.

Packed down sections like this were much quicker to 
run on

Was doing well following the course until we came to a wide open area (a closed parking lot covered in snow) and trails diverged in many directions.  Brady didn't know where to go, and I certainly had no clue at all.  I probably lost two minutes trying to figure it out until I remembered I had loaded the route onto my Strava account and brought my phone FOR THAT VERY PURPOSE.  Took out my phone and quickly figured the direction, and then validated I was on course.  I had to do that phone based reconnaissance probably four more times during the run, but that and Bob's occasional flag kept me on course for a less than intuitive route.

Hike later in the day, with Jana and Brady, back in Westerly (Woody Hill).
The snow was in such great shape that I wanted to get out there
again, as who knows how long it'll last.

Sunday:  7

Every wake up in the morning and can't make up your mind about where you're going to run?  Preference was trails, but there was a lot of snow and everything was melting and wet and the temp was above freezing all night, so that's out.  How about a beach run?  Looked up the tide chart and found we're just coming up on high tide.  Ugh.  Ended up running local roads with Brady, doing my best to pick quiet back roads wherever possible.

Weekly mileage:  32 run (of which 11 on snowshoes, 7 on YakTrax), 2 snowshoe hike, 3 hike

Weekly synopsis:  My weekly running goals are out the window as long as the snow is on the ground.  Not that I am complaining at all, and I could easily change up to all roads and get more mileage in, but what's the point?  Winter is short, I'm enjoying my snow runs, and it's not like I have a spring marathon I need to train for or anything.

Weekly highlight:  Truly so many fun snowy runs this week, but I'm going with the Old Furnace Border Patrol Challenge run.  It felt more like a race with Bob and Zach out there at the same time, and was reminiscent of past Snowy Sufferfest races in the Galoob era.  Good stuff!

Weekly lowlight:  Work stuff, but no running complaints.

Weekly Log 1-Feb to 7-Feb-2021: Snow!

Monday:  4

Normally I take Mondays off from running, but with a snowstorm today, I couldn't resist getting outside to play.  Set my work status to "Out Shoveling", which had truth to it, but when finished shoveling, I switched into trail shoes and got Brady to come out with me.  Since the roads hadn't been plowed in a few hours, I put on my snowshoes and snowshoed down the middle of our road!  Snowshoed around Winnapaug Farm Preserve and Champlin Glacier Preserve before returning home.

The snow was coming down!

Winnapaug Farm Preserve trail to the pond 
("middle trail").  Awesome!

Back at the ranch, since the snow was heavy and
sticky, might as well put together a snowman.

I wondered if it was odd for a old man in his mid-50s,
with no kids remaining at home, to be building
a snowman, until my Mom sent me a picture
of the snowman she made at her house!  The moral to me is
you're never to old to get outside and build a snowman!

Someone bit off part of the snowman's "arm"
(a stick) and was very happy to lie down in
the snow (8" we got!) and chew on it.

Tuesday:  2 snowshoe, 1 walk

Snowshoe hike at Grills with three other Westerly Land Trust guys.  Since CCC was cancelled with the snow and I had already had the time blocked on my work calendar, when I saw the invite go out for snowshoeing, I quickly opted in.  We snowshoed for about an hour in the wet snow, and then went out for coffee, scones, and conversation at Fresh Cup Cafe, where they are open for indoor socially distanced seating.  The other three guys are all retired; I'm just jealous but also glad I was able to make this work for me.  I'm fortunate that my employment is so flexible with hours, especially in the COVID era when the entire company is working from home indefinitely.

Sloppy, wet conditions on our snowshoe hike today.
(I'm farthest back on bridge.)

Groundhog Day today. 
Above caption seems plausible, but let's hope not.

Wednesday:  4

Late afternoon soft snow "mashed potatoes" run.  It didn't start out well when I got my car stuck not once, but twice, on a failed attempt to reach the Fallon Trail trailhead.  I got to the start of the dirt DEM road, and while I saw it was unplowed, I also saw that there were vehicle tracks down the road and foolishly thought I could do the same (in hindsight, presumably the vehicle was a truck or at least an AWD, whereas my car is merely FWD).  

Got quite a way down the road when my car just came to a stop.  Ugh.  Was able to rock it back and forth until I got it going in reverse and just backed my way up.  Until it stopped again.  This time the wheels just spun no matter which direction I tried.  I'm a good 100 meters to the paved road, and don't have a snow shovel.  Not good.  Got out of the car.  Hmm.  No ice; just snow behind and in front of the wheel.  OK, good, kicked it as best I could with my feet.  Tried again, but the car still just spun its wheels.  Got out again, looked under the car, and then I saw the problem.  The problem wasn't with the tires or traction; it was with the clearance.  The snow was too deep and that cheap plastic engine splash guard started to pull off with all the heavy snow I was dragging backwards and was stuck.  Ripped the rest of it off; put it in the trunk, and this time I was able to back up the rest of the way and onto paved asphalt.  Hopefully I can put it back on myself; otherwise it looks like I can buy another one for $18.  I lucked out.  What a moron.  Two things came to mind (besides getting a new brain):  1) bring a snowshovel with me next time, and 2) since so many trailheads are not plowed, the next car needs to be an AWD (which is tough when I marry with my other requirement of manual transmission).

Now in a foul mood, I drove to Wahaneeta, found the same situation (unplowed, but vehicle tracks and ruts), but didn't take the bait this time.  I did find somewhere I could park on the deserted road, and went for a short run in Wahaneeta before I ran out of daylight.  Good thing; the mashed potatoes run was just long enough to drain the frustration and ugly mood out of me.

Thursday:  5

With the temps below freezing and snow crusty, trail running didn't seem an attractive option for me.  Ran roads and even regretted that with snowbank-narrowed shoulders and busy traffic on Shore Road.  Ugh, can't win.

Friday:  5

Course marking for our inaugural monthly group run.

Our intrepid course marking team today at Grills;
looking out from Big Hill.

Snow is still deep in places!
I'll take this over ice any day, though.
It was much easier putting the flags into snow than it was
into the frozen ground.

Saturday:  8 (1 warm-up, 5 group run, 2 cool-down)

Inaugural WTAC monthly group run.  This is something the club has proposed on and off again for the past several years.  It has its challenges with logistics, but this time it was finally a go.  The idea is that this will generally be the first Saturday morning of each month, and we will rotate different board members (or WTAC members) choosing and organizing a run of their choice of route and terrain.  Paul was up first and chose the Grills Preserve similar to what we did last February.  Now that we've had a group run at Grills two Februarys in a row, it seems a pattern is set for the annual February group run?

Had no idea what to expect with the snow conditions, and was
pleasantly surprised that got 15 people (and 2 dogs!)

Three of us ran together for the first two miles:  Steve B, Nick A, and me.  Steve put some distance on me on the steep (20 - 25% grade) but short 120' climb up Big Hill in the snow, and the three of us spread out a bit.  The conditions nearest the start/finish were the worst with many frozen footprints in the snow, but the farther we got from the start, the conditions got "better" as there were less or even no footprints in the snow to contend with.  I was nervous for participants not knowing what they got themselves into with conditions, but everyone did fine, no one fell, and everyone seemed to have a good time despite less than optimal conditions.

Cooled down with a 2-mile snowshoe run with Steve.

Sunday:  11

With another forecasted snowstorm for today, I opted not to drive anywhere and just run from the house instead.  Ran with Brady and joined up with the "Run While You Can" private group run for 3 of the miles, and the rest were on our own.  Mostly on roads, but two miles on the beach.  In Misquamicut as we approached two women walking, one started clapping (she made it clear it was for Brady, not me!) and saying what great shape Brady was in.  In the final mile, we encountered two women running, and one called out, "Is that the famous Brady out for a run?!".  (Jenn Lutz)

We got home just before the snow started,
and then we got another 5" of heavy snow.
My only other activity of the day was shoveling, but I can't
wait to get out there tomorrow and hopefully get some fresh tracks!

The snowbanks are getting higher!  Finished
shoveling the driveway before it all froze up.

And reconstructed the snowman,
of course.  He's 6' tall now.

Weekly mileage:  [a paltry] 36 run, 2 snowshoe hike

Weekly synopsis:  While I love snow, the heavy deep snow that we got Monday followed by rain just didn't make it conducive to getting a lot of mileage in.  Yes, excuses are easy to come by, but that's mine.  At this point, I'm less worried about getting my mileage back up than I am in being able to complete the Border Patrol Challenge.  This is the first week of the challenge that I haven't gotten any done, and I'll have to weigh getting in a very slow BCP run completed next week, versus missing a second week in a row.  I have nine challenges left, but only six weeks now in which to get them done.  So at least three weeks of doubles.  The ones I have left are either farther way (Burrillville, West Thompson, etc), longer in distance (20 miles, 27 miles), or both, so some planning is in order.

Weekly highlight:  Despite the frozen snow conditions, the inaugural group run at Grills Preserve in the snow.

Weekly lowlight:  Lowest mileage week YTD.