Miscellaneous Rambling:
- In addition to my own fall marathon (VCM) being cancelled, New Jersey Marathon, Marine Corps Marathon, Mount Desert Island Marathon, and Steamtown Marathon are now cancelled as well, all due to COVID. It makes it tough to plan.
- Deerfoot 5K (Charlestown) became the 2nd "local" casualty to cancel their race this fall. Similar to Trails to a Cure, they cited low registration numbers and that so many races have rescheduled to this time frame due to COVID. Not that either race is well promoted, but it will be interesting to see if they come back. (Deerfoot is now looking at a Spring 2022 date; Trails to a Cure next up Sep 2022.)
- Speaking of small local races, anyone know how the Charlestown Land Trust's "Try It, You'll Love It" 10K Trail Run went last weekend? I searched diligently for results but could not find any. While the race date has never worked for me, I do hope it doesn't disappear. There are so few local trail races!
- This does give me some concern on the WTAC Fall Races. We are fully aware we got more participants last year as we were the "only game in town" (and even had to turn away runners due to state-imposed COVID capacity limits at the time), but this year the numbers are coming in slowly due to aforementioned factors.
Monday: 2 run, 1 swim, 1 walk
Run: Wasn't planning on running at all today, but wanted to get a look at the condition of the XC course at Bradford Preserve in advance of tomorrow's WHS XC meet, especially the middle school section which will have to be used this year and was overgrown last time I saw it. (The course is in great shape, and the coaches had already taken care of.)
Swim: Ever since getting the "all clear" on my head wound last week, I wanted to get a swim in, if for no other reason than a mental boost and vindication of sorts. Since I did fine last week with a 1/2 mile swim, with the only effect being tired arms, I thought today I'd try for a full mile. Swam from the beach 400 yards out to the buoy, took a very short break (a few seconds), and then picked a point on the coast to sight just west of Camp Watchaug, swim that 600 yards, and then 400 back to the beach. Now being at 1,400 yards, swam double 100-yard OABs to get to 1,800 and complete the mile (1,760 yards). I got it done, but perhaps not surprisingly felt pretty tired the last few hundred yards. Still a great feeling of accomplishment!
Walk: Evening walk with Jana and Brady on the gravel (temporary) roads and grass trails at Avondale.
Tuesday: 13 run, 3 walk
AM: Solo run (5 miles) on the Clamdigger course on the last full day of summer. Parked and ran from Westerly Town Beach. Temps were in the mid-50s! Wonderful. Finished the run, grabbed my towel, and went straight to the ocean. For the first time this year, I ran and jumped headfirst into a wave. Felt marvelous and refreshing.
AM: Each of my Tuesdays mornings over the past five months were all booked at the Westerly Hospital's Wound Care Center. I joked with the hospital staff last week when discharged and asked, "Now what I will do with my Tuesdays?", to which the reply was, "Anything you would like.". Well, OK, then. I would like to return to the Coffee & Clearing Club ("CCC") arm of the Westerly Land Trust. It was great to catch up with the gang. After being gone for five months, there were a number of new faces I didn't recognize, but most of the "old gang" was still there. I was asked to lead one of two chainsaw teams to tackle the blowdowns which I had mapped a few weeks back in the aftermath of Hurricane Henri. Absolutely. Happy to. We got a lot of work done today, but lugging a chainsaw around for three miles definitely tired out the arms that were already tired out from a mile of swimming yesterday.
PM: (8 miles) Ran and marked WHS XC course with Kevin M. This would be the modified course, as we'll have to do with Run for the Pumpkins 8K course as well this year, as at least temporarily part of the course is off limits due to a wetland violation filed by a neighbor. One of the school teams was an hour late in arriving, so since I had loppers in my car, I used the time to snip some overgrowth in a few places on the Pumpkins course. Good to go.
Wednesday: 8
Ran most of the Grills 10 Mile course with Brady. The blowdowns cleared yesterday, plus mowing along the west side of the cleared field, made the trails much more accessible, but I noted areas to be weed-whacked and/or lopped (is that a word?) at next week's CCC session. There are a few areas needing some love on the Hopkinton side as well, and since I was asked to attend next week's Hopkinton Land Trust meeting to discuss the race, I'll bring up those trail conditions then.
This was my last run of the summer (fall arrives this afternoon) and the summer humidity was evident.
Thursday: 12
Burlingame trail run with Brady. From Kettle Pond Visitor Center, around the pond on Burlingame Trail, Vin Gormley, and a side trip down to North Camp Beach. Sticky, humid first full day of fall, and we made sure to stop at the pond twice to go in the water.
The only other creatures we saw out there were whitetails, which reminds me to bring orange for Brady.
Friday: 4 run, 3 walk
AM: Had thought about doing a long run today. That is, until we learned that Matthew's race got moved up three hours, and we needed to leave by 10am. Just too tight to get everything done in time. It worked out for the better anyway, as the weather would've been terrible for a long run and I would have had a high probability of bailing. Woke up to an overnight low of 73° (20° higher than normal) and 98% humidity. Actually felt tough breathing first couple of miles in the soup. Brady was dragging as well, so we just cut it short and returned home. Another day ...
PM: Franklin Park, Boston. 3 miles walking / spectating Matthew's Coast to Coast Beantown race.
Saturday: 9
Yawgoog and Green Falls trails with Brady. Made a fun, technical loop covering four ponds: Yawgoog, Wincheck, Green Falls, and Hidden [Lake]. Stopped and swam for a bit at Green Falls beach. Yes, I know the sign at the beach says "No Pets", but there was no one around, so I broke the rules. Scofflaw!
There were a few hikers out there, but pretty empty on the trails for the most part. Until I got to Camp Yawgoog, that is. I stayed out of there during the summer scout camp season, but was surprised to see at least three different campsites along the trail being used by big scout groups. I have no idea if dogs are even allowed through there, but I put Brady on the leash, and nobody seemed to have an issue. Some of the leaders and scouts clearly seemed happy to see him actually.
In the afternoon, went to a birthday celebration for a friend and had a great time catching up.
Sunday: 13 miles
Charlestown Beach, with Matthew, who was home for a short weekend, before taking the train at Noon from Westerly back to NH. Other than a mile of dirt, this was an asphalt road run. This was at what should be a comfortable pace for me (average pace 7:12, pretty consistently 7:05 - 7:20), but for some reason I kept dropping back. Not sure why; hopefully just a one day thing.
Our run ended literally on Charlestown Beach, as in at water's edge. The ocean temperature here is still right about 70°F, so it was very comfortable to go right in. So nice just to dive under the water! Finished up the morning by stopping at The Bakery for treats.
Weekly mileage: 61 run, 7 walk, 1 swim
Weekly synopsis: Mileage-wise, it was a good week. The mile swim was a huge confidence booster as well. But as another friend noted to me this weekend, "I haven't seen recent long runs from you on Strava." Yeah, that's what's missing. This was the second consecutive week in which I didn't run a long run. Last week, I can kind of excuse myself as I ran Jamestown Half, but no good explanation this week. The reality is with my marathon reduced to a half, while I ponder a replacement marathon, I let my training regimen drop. Two weeks with no long run isn't the end of the world, but time to put it back together again.
Weekly highlight: The mile swim. Not pretty, not fast, but accomplished!
Weekly lowlight: Lack of a long run and training breaking down. Get it together!
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