Legs are still beat up from yesterday's 19 mile rolling hills run, but it's a holiday (Labor Day) today, so might as well get out and do something to stretch the legs out. I figured Ninigret would be perfect for a recovery run, with flat surface and grass fields, but unfortunately (for me at least, and it's about me) the annual Rhythm & Roots Festival was going on and taking over much of main area.
Parked across the highway at the US Fish & Wildlife's Kettle Pond Visitor Center, and ran easy on the Burlingame and Kimball trails. Campground was in full swing, but the trails were very quiet. Humidity was an awful 97%, and Brady sure seemed to appreciate the stop at Watchaug Pond and went right in to soak.
Tuesday: 10
Solo 'round-the-pond road run. Ran in new shoes. Was looking for a pair of road trainers, and while not exactly what I was looking for, found a clearance pair of NB FuelCell Speedrift ($180 retail, sold for $50). The initial feel was uncomfortable, but I often have that wearing a new pair of shoes, so I'll need a couple more runs in them before I can assess. Lacing was different and tightened up much easier. The run itself was great on a beautiful day.
Today's weekly hospital visit went really well. As in fantastic. The wound continues to shrink dramatically, and in fact is 74% smaller than just last week! I hesitate to get too excited, because I've seen rapid wound size decreases all of a sudden stall and reverse twice now.
Vermont City Marathon, my planned marathon for the fall, just announced today that they are changing the distance to Half Marathon for 2021, reportedly due to COVID spikes of the Delta variant in the Burlington area. Ugh. This is the second time in as many years that I was signed up for a full marathon and well into my training regimen only to have the marathon canceled due to COVID. I only registered for VCM because the original and typical Memorial Day weekend race got moved to the fall in the first place. Memorial Day seems too late in the season to me and can be quite warm (they had to close the course and shut down the race due to heat in 2016).
Options provided by VCM (and my initial thoughts in parentheses):
- Select a virtual option (Yeah, right)
- Switch to the half (but I'm training for the full!)
- Defer to Memorial Day weekend 2022 (see above heat comment)
- Switch to the Mad Marathon on 9/12 (that's FIVE days from now! No taper?)
- Switch to the Adirondack Marathon on 10/3 (have an RD commitment that day)
- Switch to the Hartford Marathon on 10/9 (have a conflict that date, and that would be a compromise on training)
Another marathon training season interrupted by COVID. Now what? Another option is to run the half, but then run another marathon later this season (like Philly)? No need to make a rash decision.
Here are what some other registered VCM'ers had to say:
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| Oh yeah, I already have hotel reservations in Vermont as well. Plus the next two days after that. Not refundable. |
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| People are upset. Luke is funny. |
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| I get the frustration here, but I'm trying to take a deep breath and not get myself upset over something I cannot change. |
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| That is a very good point (the first part about training) |
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| Well, Philly is 4 weeks later, not "a couple", but point taken. Just makes a very busy fall race schedule for me and might mean I couldn't race Grills or Rhody. (I could tell myself to run easy at both events, but would I really?) --- As to MCM, I ran the half last year (first half of full course) and just revisited my Strava comments of "relentless hills" and fatigued from hills. No thanks. |
Wednesday: 10
We were originally scheduled to return to the office this week, albeit part time. I'm glad that didn't happen! It's a silver lining of COVID that working from home or at least a hybrid work environment will be the way of the office for a long time.
Went to a much safer place than the office: Arcadia Management Area! There is no COVID out there in the woods and even when people show up, we know it's much safer outdoors than inside. Ran my usual loop, but took the "Penny Cutoff" to reduce mileage just a bit. Someone, presumably DEM, cut and cleared an awful lot of blowdowns on the Escoheag Trail. Much appreciated! In fact, there was only one blowdown (not counting the ones you just jump over) on the entire route today, and that's a blowdown on Mt Tom that has been there since the summer.
Cold wade into the water at the swimming hole at Frosty Hollow. Brady was in before I even got my shoes off.
Thursday: 6
Short and slow run in the rain at Woody Hill with Brady. Not another soul out there.
Friday: 7
AM: Three miles solo at Barn Island. Easy shakeout mostly on dirt roads.
PM: Four, including warm-up and 34th annual Charlie Stavros Memorial On the Beach Run. Separate post to follow.
Saturday: 8
Today was supposed to be my 3rd annual Trails to a Cure, one of my all time favorite races, in Cockaponsett State Forest, Chester, CT. However, much to my disappointment, it was cancelled. I decided to do the next best thing and run the course anyway. Sure, it's not as fun as racing it, but it's still a really fun and challenging course.
Even during the race with adequate (not exemplary) course markers, I find myself at several points questioning whether I am still on course or have gone awry. Thus, running on my own (plus Brady, who seems to remember courses, but this was his inaugural run), I stood zero chance of running the course accurately. To solve that foreboding issue, last night I mapped out the course route on Strava using my race GPS from last year, and had that loaded onto my phone to use the navigation feature. I did go off course three times, but was immediately alerted and got back on track. It works quite well!
I caused two falls on my run today, only one of which was my own:
- A couple of miles in, I tripped on something and fell. But because I was on the edge of an embankment down to a river bank, I rolled down the embankment! It was a short embankment, and it was more funny than anything else.
- Heading uphill on a somewhat technical section ("Rocks & Sh!t" segment), we encountered two hikers ahead of us going in our direction. So as we got closer, I yelled out "Behind you". The woman in the back turned briefly, saw Brady and I behind her, and in an apparent haste to get off the trail, she went tumbling down off the trail. I felt bad and stopped as I came upon her. She was laughing, which was a good sign. Whew. She was totally fine with it, and we talked for a moment as she got up.
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| The water in the Cockaponsett Reservoir was beautiful and "calling" us. I cleaned up some of the mud off me while Brady swam a bit and put his head underwater. This was a good way to wrap up today's run! (As was the pumpkin scone and iced latte I got in Deep River on the way back) |
Sunday: 16
So until I figure out my marathon replacement (which nothing is jumping out at me as an obvious solution), I want to at least keep up my current fitness by running a long run on weekends. I suppose "long run" is relative and subjective, but to me it means 16 miles or longer. I knew the Newport Tri was today, so I figured, well, if I can't do a tri myself, the next best thing would be to go and watch a tri. So last night I planned out a 16-mile route from Second Beach (Sachuest Point Road, Middletown) and figured I'd watch the swim and start of the bike and then go out for my own run. Until I did the math: tri starts at 7am, so I'd want to be there and parked by 6:45, then back off an hour for driving and another 15 minutes for contingency, and I'd have to get up at 5am. Kudos to those that get up and get going regularly at 5am these days, but that's not me anymore.
Plan B. Jana said, "well, you could always go and run and watch Surftown". Oh yeah. That's right. That's happening on Sunday also. And I can wake up at 6:30am for that. Much more palatable. So that's what I did! I had an incident with the PM chasing me in early miles and thought this was going to be an issue, but fortunately there was a porta-jon on some rich person's lawn oceanside in Weekapaug, so I ducked in there and came out a much happier man. Fun watching the start of the half marathon come at me (I just ran up on the sidewalk) and then I ran out to Watch Hill, where I saw runners coming at me again, although obviously now much more spread out. I stopped and caught up with a few spectators I know, including Nick out in Watch Hill, and gave shout outs to runners I recognized on the course.
Ran in the Speedrifts for the second time. They felt very uncomfortable for the few miles, and the toebox very tight. Took them off completely in Weekapaug, took my time putting them back on and adjusting tongue and laces, and they seemed fine after that. Jury still out.
Weekly mileage: 62
Weekly synopsis: Mixed week. A good running week, a great healing week (the most important measure), and a poor week for marathon planning and work issues (the third candidate to accept a position with me this summer became the third candidate to subsequently back out).
Weekly highlight: Stavros Beach Run! More to come.
Weekly lowlight: The Vermont news. Small in the scheme of life, and I'll figure it out and move forward.
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