Weekly Log 24-Apr to 30-Apr-2023

Miscellaneous rambling:

• I used to think certification of road races was unnecessary.  Indeed, I was not in support of spending the club's money to certify the two Clamdigger courses back in 2015.  But after running several short courses myself, my views have really evolved on this to the point where if the course isn't certified, I'll do more research and possibly not even run it myself.
• Newport 10-Miler is one such course that I likely will never run.  Very scenic, seemingly well run, but so many runners have labeled this as a short course and with GPS less than 10 miles (GPS is not 100% accurate of course, but generally in road races, runners will come up with more than the actual distance due to short course factors and inability to perfectly run tangents.
• Last weekend the Deerfoot 5K was held in nearby Charlestown.  While I try to support local races where possible, seeing a fellow Strava poster label his race "Deerfoot 5K (ish)" with 3.04 miles recorded myself means I will add this to the list that I personally won't run.
• I had always thought that in the song "Limelight" by Rush, there was a verse that referenced "Living on a fish island", but just learned it's really "Living in a fisheye lens".  Despite my ignorance, I'm kind of disappointed.  Wouldn't it be cool to live on a "fish island"?
• I use my carbon fiber shoes sparingly, pretty much for races and dress rehearsals.  These are my first two carbon fiber shoes ever (NB Supercomp Pacer and NB Supercomp Elite V2), but at just 115 miles the Pacer shoes are pretty worn already (pic below).  The Elite V2 has just 91, and I'm planning on running Providence in those, but those still look and feel great.  I know the mileage you get out of carbon fibers is less than other shoes generally, but isn't this really on the low side?  Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what mileage you are getting out of carbon fiber shoes.  Maybe I'll relegate these to workouts and really short racers.  Take a look at the wear.  Notice how the tread on the left is completely worn away:
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  For some reason, I was very surprised to see these on
  the supermarket shelf.  They really still make these?
  I ate more of this junk in my early 20s than a person
  should eat in their lifetime.

  
  
  

  

  Yum!  Don't those ingredients sound wholesome?
  Maybe I should've read the ingredients and nutrition facts
  before eating these back then?  Or were they not listed then?
  
  

  
  

Monday:  7 run, 1 walk

AM:  Charlestown, RI.  Easy run on Burlingame dirt roads and trails.  With Matthew and Brady.  Midway through, I rolled my injured right ankle.  Ever so slightly, and it was more scary than any actual damage.

PM:  Westerly, RI.  Walk with WLT Acquisition Committee fellow members (I'm the newest on this committee), surveyor, and land owner on a possible 8-acre donation in a more "urban" portion of Westerly.  Still a pretty interesting property and almost no dumping issues.

Even comes with a cool pond and brook.

Tuesday:  1 walk, 10 run

AM:  Westerly, RI.  CCC.  Helped a clear new trail at Grills.  Runs from the new long boardwalk on orange, parallel to white trail (to be closed seasonally due to mud and swamp issues) and terminating at the dirt road near the rotary.

PM:  Exeter, RI.  Dirt roads with a little bit of trails.  Again, with Matthew and Brady, as Matthew has most of the week off from work.  I should say "with" Matthew and Brady, as the truth is I lagged way beyond them, especially on the dirt road climb on that horseshoe on Plain Road just west of Ben Utter Trail start.  Somedays you feel good running.  Today was not one of those days.

For some reason, came home to a swollen right ankle. Again.  Ugh.  When will this fully recover?  It's been over two months now!  Iced it for a while.

Wednesday:  16

Westerly, RI.  Solo "early" (8am) morning run.  Dropped off the car for inspection and a slow leaking tire (they pulled out a 5" bent nail), and opted for a 16-mile run instead of a more direct 3ish mile run home.  Average 7 minute pace.  No issues.

Thursday:  2 walk, 10 run

AM:  Westerly, RI.  Another trail walkthrough, this time at Bradford Preserve.  Switching hats yet again, and wearing my WMLT hat (Westerly Municipal Land Trust trustee, as I was recently appointed by the town council for three years).  Much of the lower portion of the "XC Up" trail has been closed for two years now to any organized activity (think no Middle School home meets, High School home course modified to double back on itself with fastest people running into slowest on bi-directional course) and modifications to Run for the Pumpkins trail race.  This closure has been due to a wetlands violation complaint.  A possible and hopeful resolution may be in sight, as the surveyor and environmental scientist have mapped the wetland and come up with a proposed trail reroute.  I walked, flagged, and mapped (below) this with the scientist today.  Cautiously optimistic.

PM:  Charlestown, RI.  Late morning run at Burlingame with Matthew and Brady.  With about 1/2 mile to go, I had a painful roll of my right (injured) ankle.  I may have dropped a few loud obscenities.  Thought I was done and out of running for a while.  Fortunately, Matthew (who has had more than his fair share of ankle injuries) was correct in his assessment, and no more than two minutes later the pain was gone and I resumed running without issue.  (The ankle swelled again, nothing like original injury two months ago, and I resumed icing.)

Friday:  9

AM:  Richmond, RI.  6 miles.  After a meeting in Richmond, parked at Carolina check station and ran a CCW loop basically Switch Road south and NST north.  It had been years (decades?) since I had been out to the stone bridge on the Pawcatuck River in Carolina South, and since I needed to map that for the trail map project I'm working on, I went out there.  Pretty cool place.

On the way back, I stopped at the Kenyon cemetery from the mid-1800s.  Of the reported 15 gravestones, I found it sad to quickly note at least five that died at age 12 or younger, 4 to of those five to the same parents.  When the sun appeared, it made the cursive scripts much easier to read.  I'm not a spiritual person, but I also can't imagine losing a child so young, and two of the tombstone inscriptions stuck out to me:

Lena Kenyon, died 1871 at age "2 years and 10 days":

"A flower of love

That blossomed only to die"

Elsie Kenyon, died 1890 at age 1:

"Budded on Earth

To bloom in heaven"

PM:  Charlestown, RI.  3 miles.  Easy run on Li'l Rhody 4-mile course, basically to get campground site information for mapping purposes, before the campground gets too busy and I can't run through the sites anymore.  Just like yesterday, with less than a mile to go, on a pretty smooth section of trail, I rolled my bad ankle.  Argh!  I didn't drop any obscenities today, and just went over to a nearby boulder and sat down for a while.  Frustrating.

Finished up and found this amusing bumper sticker on a
car in the lot.  I'm of the opinion that we live in a nice
state, but well, there are other places to see outside
of Rhody.

Saturday:  5

Charlestown, RI.  Ninigret easy run with Brady.  

Sunday:  8

Narragansett, RI.  RI State Police 5K.  Separate write-up to follow.

Weekly mileage:  66 run, 5 walk

Weekly synopsis:  Good week overall.  Decent mileage, pretty good race, and my last long run before Providence.  

Weekly highlight:  RI State Police 5K.  Fun time with the team.

Weekly lowlight:  Continued ankle instability and periodic swelling.  Really thought this would be long healed 2 1/2 months now post injury.  Pretty frustrating.  Mildly concerned about my ability to run in upcoming trail races in June and July.