Monday: 15 ride, 6 run
AM: Westerly, RI. Easy spin on the usual CCW route through Avondale, Watch Hill, Misquamicut, and Weekapaug. Interesting how there are also bike/pedestrian lanes now along the state beach portion.
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| New bike/pedestrian lanes along Misquamicut State Beach |
Also stopped and checked out Surftown new course start/finish markers. It is an interesting course change for Surftown this year in that it runs west first to Watch Hill, including the Larkin Road hill for the first time, and then the final portion is the easternmost section (Weekapaug) before finishing at Wuskenau.
PM: Westerly, RI. Wahaneeta and Woody Hill run with Matthew. Pretty hot, so left Brady at home. First (and second) deerfly kills of the season.
Tuesday: 5 run, 2 walk
Westerly, RI. Pre-CCC OAB on Atlantic Avenue from Weekapaug Breachway.
Westerly, RI. Grills white trail clearing. So overgrown already. Used both a bladed weed-whacker, and a gas hedge trimmer. Seemed effective, but will it reduce the annual fall overgrowth clearing at all? Time will tell.
Wednesday: 14
AM: Charlestown, RI. 10 miles. VG in reverse with Matthew and Brady, plus Burlingame Trail tacked on to bypass the campground. Two more deerfly kills. Cool-off in Watchaug Pond.
PM: Westerly, RI. 4 miles. Fun Run week #3. Had no specific plans, but ran fairly hard with Thomas McLaughlin and Jonny Eckel for the first mile (5:46). Went ahead of both of them running down Kathleen Drive, the only hill on the course. I figured at least one of them would catch me on my weakness, going back uphill, but neither did. 5:50 pace for Mile 2, and picked it for the final mile at 5:42 pace.
Thursday: 11
West Greenwich, RI. Workout from Stepstone Falls. This was physically and mentally tough. I suppose that's the sign of a good workout?
Matthew planned this one out. Parked right near the falls. Had never driven there before. After a 3-mile OAB road warm-up, we got down to business:
- 5 x Falls River Road climb, approximately 250' ascent over 1K on a dirt road
On the second ascent, I was thinking of a way to get out of doing all five, but fortunately I stuck to it. I felt like I was working hard, despite all of my efforts being north of 9-minute pace. We took the final downhill hard, but due to some watch or Strava error, my effort was recorded at 14:37 pace! I was just curious if my true pace was sub-5 or not, but I guess I won't know unless I try it again.
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| Dirt road we ran on |
Finished up with a trail cool-down on the Ben Utter Trail, and then a short soak in the river just above the falls.
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| Where we cooled off post-run, just above the falls |
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| River is flowing well! |
Friday: 7
Charlestown, RI. With Matthew and Brady. Parked at the Kings Factory Road trailhead, and ran VG / Sammy / Lenny / North Camp / VG in a CCW direction. Deerflies were the worst yet, with 8 DFKs. Stripped down to my running shorts and dove under the water at North Camp Beach. Felt good.
Saturday: 4
Stony Point, NY. No, driving 5 hours round-trip to run 4 miles was not the plan. But not all plans go according to script. The plan was for a 15-mile mountain running adventure with about 4,300' elevation gain.
After arriving, loading our packs, and planning to meet again at the summit of Bear Mountain, we were off. Running up the relatively technical Major Welch Trail, Matthew was soon out of sight. Or so I thought. I don't know exactly where it happened, but it was early in the run when I came over the crest of a hill and saw Matthew sitting on a rock and hunched over. Uh-oh, this can't be good, I thought to myself. It wasn't. Whatever transpired between his right foot and uneven ground on the trail resulted in a very visibly swollen ankle. After stopping for a while, Matthew got going but unfortunately was unable to run. We made it to the top of Bear Mountain with me running and taking breaks and him walking. While I generally eschew auto roads on mountains, in this case I was happy there was one as it meant I could run down and drive up to save him from any further agony or injury aggravation. I don't regret not being able to finish my run, but just regret the temporary damage to Matthew's ankle. Let's hope he recovers quickly.
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| Near the start of our run |
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| Disgusting creatures |
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| It wasn't THAT rugged and steep. It was just about all runnable, and moderately technical. |
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| Nice views from the top. |
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| Unfortunately access to the tower at summit was closed and locked. |
Sunday: 11
Westerly, RI. Couldn't make up my mind on what to do. Preference was for a long trail run, but waking up at 6am to steady rain meant the trails and rocks would be wet. Defer that to tomorrow, as tomorrow is a holiday, and run local today. Ran to Avondale and met up with a smaller RWYC group that was running today. Ending up running the first 5 miles of the route with Simon, as everyone else was running 8 minutes/mile or slower (nothing wrong with that of course, but just doesn't work as well for me). Anyhow, Simon seems kind of quiet and I did most of the talking. It's funny how for an introverted person I really enjoy talking with others during runs. I even talk to Brady quite a bit when it's just the two of us. Brady talks even less than Simon.
I turned off at my usual spot (East Beach, Watch Hill) to run the beach home. It was at this point that I regretted bringing Brady, but this time of the year dogs have to be off the beach by 8am and it was closer to 9am at this point. Took off my shoes and ran barefoot for two miles on the way home.
Weekly mileage: 58 run, 15 ride, 2 walk
Weekly synopsis: Another good week of running hit my goals (minus a long run), plus the return of bike rides.
Weekly highlight: Stepstone Falls workout. Did much better than I feared.
Weekly lowlight: While the return of deerflies is pretty nasty, I'm more sorry to see Matthew injured. Again.
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