Monday: 4
Westerly, RI. Short and easy recovery run late afternoon with Brady. From Wahaneeta into Woody Hill and back. Legs tight from yesterday's 20-miler, but not terrible.
Tuesday: 6 run, 2 walk
Westerly, RI
AM: 3.5 miles at Grills in a light coating of snow. Just enough time to get this in before meeting for CCC.
AM: 2+ miles monitoring three different WLT properties: Whitely, Anderson, and Wildwood.
PM: 2.5 miles at Champlin with Brady, sandwiched between late afternoon meetings.
Not what I planned to get done, but just tight constraints today. Back at it tomorrow!
Wednesday: 8
Hopkinton, RI. Late afternoon run at Grills Preserve. Started from Chase Hill Road trailhead and arrived at top of Big Hill just after sunset, with a neat orange glow on the distant horizon. The price to be paid was finishing in the dark. While I did bring my headlamp, I left it in the car, and it turns out that isn't very helpful. The toughest section to navigate in the dark was the technical single-track section of Tomaquag Trail between Polly Coon Bridge and Tomaquag Brook Bridge. I asked Brady to lead in this section, given his far superior nighttime trail navigational skills, and fortunately I had at least remembered to put orange on him, so I could follow his orange buff around his neck instead of his black fur in the dark!
Thursday: 12
Narragansett, RI. After taking care of some death-related tasks in Narragansett, I needed some uplifting and took the opportunity while here to run somewhere different. I parked in the plaza next to Brickley's Ice Cream, and followed a mapped out route through Bonnet Shores first. Temps about 25° and sunny, but felt brisk along the exposed shorelines. Even with navigation, I had trouble finding an unmarked trail connecting Bonnet Shores neighborhood with South Ferry (otherwise you'd have to run on busy Route 1A). Finally I found it, and it was a short and not terribly established trail, but it did the trick.
In South Ferry, ran down to the URI Oceanography Campus and promptly got confused on roadways there and ran an extra circle before properly following the route on my watch. Made note of an "Aquarium" building; I wonder if that's open to the public. Hill climb up to South Ferry Church (where one of my brothers was married many moons ago) and then continued across Route 1A into Pettaquamscutt Lake Shores, as I was trying hard to avoid busy roads. Down Middlebridge Road before working my way back on quiet roads on the east side of the river. Middlebridge River? Felt pretty good throughout, and ran an average 6:41 pace.
Friday: 0
Ugh. My early morning into mid-afternoon was tied up with work meetings, but then I had a few hours free. I had planned out an 18-miler, but between my penchant for underestimating time commitments and some more unplanned death related tasks, I lost my entire window for running. Rather than sulk, I recounted how well yesterday's run went and delighted in the heavy snow forecast for tomorrow. I need to remind myself to keep focusing on the positive.
Saturday: 7
Westerly, RI. Blizzard of 2022! Woke up to maybe 3" of fresh snow on the ground and lightly falling. Time for a run! With roads closed in the state today per a ban from the Governor, it was obvious I would be running from home. Decided to head to the beach, and made it up from there. Just as I was passing Keith's house, he was going out for a run, and thus joined Brady and I. It was good to have company on the run.
On the roads, I was overdressed and warmed up quickly, but once Keith flipped around to head home and Brady and I went on the beach, I no longer felt so toasty in the very exposed winds. Ran out towards Watch Hill, but after a few minutes realized this wasn't the fun I imagined. The ocean had breached the beach in a few places, so had to awkwardly go up very high in places. Then I didn't see a snow-covered breach, and both my feet went ankle deep into the water. (Hint: the ocean is not warm in January.)
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| Deep snow drifts at the dunes, Misquamicut. |
Headed back out on the roads, and stayed on the roads for the rest of the run, where my feet gradually warmed up. The snow and wind were really starting to intensify towards the end of my run.
Made several passes of shoveling the driveway during the storm, as I didn't want to leave it all until tomorrow. Brady came out with me each time.
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| Not the best frisbee-flying weather, but he got his frisbee out of the garage, and insisted on playing, and even kept himself entertained with burying it in the snow and digging it up again. |
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| His eyes are somewhere in there! |
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| After several hours of being out in the storm (yes, hours!), the snow was so matted into his fur like I've never seen before. I figured he'd be cold, but he did NOT want to come in! I guess he's not a Florida dog anymore? |
My best estimate is that we got 18" of snow. I tried measuring it, but with the blowing snow, the depths in my backyard are anywhere from 13" to 26". 22" was shown for Westerly on Channel 10 weather, as reported by National Weather Service, so I guess I'll go with that.
Interesting tidbit on the weather reporting that only four municipalities in the state officially had a blizzard: Providence, Westerly, New Shoreham, and Newport. Which, of course, begs the question of what specifically is the definition of a blizzard. According to the National Weather Service, a blizzard is:
Blizzard criteria is three consecutive hours with winds sustained or frequently gusting at or above 35 mph with blowing or falling snow reducing visibility to a 1/4 mile or less.
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| While I knew there was a wind component to the blizzard criteria, I had also thought it included a specific minimum of snow. As my grandmother also said, try to learn something new everyday. At least for today, I succeeded! |
Sunday: 5
Finished shoveling out my driveway, and noticed the single Mom across from us was just getting started shoveling and had heavy and deep snow banks (more than 2' deep). Momentarily thought I've had enough already from shoveling my own driveway from deep snow and that I'll go inside and have breakfast. Nah, breakfast can wait. This is a good opportunity to be neighborly. Went over with the snowshovel to help her and her son, and before long, my next door neighbor came over to help as well, saying I was making him feel guilty. My grandmother often used the adage, "Many hands make light work", and while the snow was anything but light, figuratively the work was much lighter for sure.
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| End of our driveway, with my running companion. Not much snow in the middle of my driveway, but huge drifts at both ends. (that snowbank is taller than me). 18° at Noon, but actually felt warm running with the bright sunshine. |
Westerly, RI. I put the shovel aside and it was time for a run with Brady. Surface varied from dry and heavily salted (Shore Road) to wet roads (Winnapaug Road) to nice snow hardpack (Misquamicut back roads). Still slow going overall, but good to get out.
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| Kept the run reasonably short, as besides being pretty tired and sore from all the shoveling, it was time to go sledding with my nieces! (one in background, while Brady in foreground is wondering what am I up to now) |
Weekly mileage: 42 run, 2 walk
Weekly synopsis: Lowest mileage week since Philadelphia Marathon recovery in early December. A long run just wasn't happening with the blizzard this past weekend, and I zeroed on Friday with unanticipated life (or death) issues.
Weekly highlight: The blizzard! I just love snowstorms. Running wise, the 12-miler in Bonnet Shores was fun to run in a different area.
Weekly lowlight: Yeah, the low mileage. Life goes on.
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