Monday: 0
Tuesday: 3 run, 1 walk
Westerly, RI. Ran from the house with Brady. Mix of roads and trails in Champlin.
Westerly, RI. CCC. Clearing a wall at Mastuxet North WLT property. Followed by our annual CCC holiday party. This year it was at Wahaneeta Preserve in the cabin, with the fire going, and plenty of home made soups, sandwiches from the Cooked Goose, and goodies.
Wednesday: 3 run, 14 ski
Hartford, VT. Spent the night in White River Junction, with my son Mark and his friend Lucas. Nice coincidence that right near our hotel was the Hurricane Forest Wildlife Refuge Park, complete with trails. Or so I thought. I figured I'd run 5 miles or so, but the going was just too much with a foot of frozen snow and without packed down trails. Ran 1/2 mile in my Yak-Trax Run before switching to snowshoes. The latter was a little better, but oh so much hard work. I went up a 300' hill and that just about did me in. Breathing so hard and heart rate racing, so decided to call it a day.
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| Pretty in the woods, but tough to get any kind of momentum running. |
Killington, VT. Met up with my cousin Dave and his son for about 2/3 of a day of skiing. Temps got up into the low 20s, but it felt much warmer than that with no wind and lots of sun. Beautiful day out there. Plenty of cover on most trails, but those that weren't groomed had a number of dirt spots.
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| Beautiful snow-kissed trees |
Thursday: 6 run, 21 ski
Killington, VT. It was in the teens when I got up, but I bundled up and was fine. Didn't see any other runners or even walkers out on my jaunt. Downhill to start on the main Killington road. This can be a busy road, but not at 9am when the lifts don't open for another two hours. Of course, after a long downhill, I would need to make the uphill trek, and just after mile 3, I had a 500' continuous climb. I knew it was coming, so I just slowed and got into a rhythm and it was fine. Taxing for sure, but fine. The hardest part was a 1/2 mile or so section of road that was not clear, as I slipped a bit in the snow. Good run overall.
Final day of skiing, and that worked out great, as the next day's forecast called for rain and high winds. Skied mostly on open slopes in the morning, but I much prefer the challenge of moguls and glades. Fortunately, my cousin Dave prefers that as well, so that's when we split up from the younger guys and skied glades.
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| My cousin David (further back), and his son David (tan snowpants) amidst snow-blasted trees |
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| So much fun skiing in the glades, picking your way through the trees (This was the Tin Man trail) |
Friday: 0
Though about running. Woke up and looked out the window to see several inches of slush on the road, snowplows out working, and a pouring wind-driven rain. Yeah, I'm good. Packed up and headed home.
Saturday: 8
Charlestown, RI. 10°F and about 20mph winds. With Brady. My first of 19 Border Patrol Challenge runs, a series that has to be done between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox in mid-March. This was the Li'l Rhody Runaround course. Started/finished from Buckeye Brook Road, as I knew the traditional picnic area start/finish would be so exposed to wind off the pond. It was a still a cold start, but warmed up in the woods. After a rainstorm and subsequent temperature plummet, there were both flooded and iced over sections, which I tried to avoid. Brady avoided the ice but went through the flooded sections, which resulted in his legs and underside being laden with ice.
Pretty bad that I couldn't even break 57-minutes here today (ran 50:20 last month), but that's a combination of being bundled up in the cold and also tough to race solo.
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| Thawing out his icy whiskers on the ride home |
Sunday: 9
Westerly, RI. Christmas Day! 'Round the Pond loop, making sure that the Atlantic Ave portion was going with the wind. Sunny and toasty with the wind, a bit chilly on return. It was nice to see some snow and flurries on Christmas Day, even if just a coating.
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| While I love the Christmas season, most of the magic of the day itself is for children. With our own children grown up, this guy is the closest that we have to a child now. |
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| And he was very excited and wound up with his new toys. |
Weekly mileage: 29 run, 1 walk, 35 ski
Weekly synopsis: Lowest mileage week in eight months. Tempered by traveling, skiing, and Christmas, it makes sense. Let's just not make it a pattern.
Weekly highlight: Glade skiing in Vermont.
Weekly lowlight: Not much running.
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