Running stats:
Miles run: 297.6
Elevation gain: 17,927'
Weekly miles (for weeks ended in month): 80, 60, 69, 80
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| February saw the highest monthly run mileage for me in a year, and that's in a short month! |
Primary running surfaces: Roads (145 miles), trails (136)
Primary running locations: Charlestown (128 miles), then Westerly (31), then Hopkinton (23)
Primary running locations: Charlestown (128 miles), then Westerly (31), then Hopkinton (23)
Other disciplines:
Walk / hike: 13 miles
- Another great month of running!
- I only got three Border Patrol Challenge runs done this month, but they were some of the longer/harder runs. I'm at 13 out of 20, so with seven to go in just 19 days before Spring Equinox, and me avoiding the BPC challenges close to race days, I'm not sure I'll finish them. But that's fine, as race training has always been my priority anyway. Stay tuned ...
- Speaking of race training, I got three quality long runs in.
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- Charlestown long run, Charlestown, February 3. Besides being the first time in 13 days that we had a mostly sunny day, this was a fun combination solo / group run. 14 miles solo, and then 5 with a few WTAC friends before we all had breakfast at the Beach Rose Cafe.
The owner of the Beach Rose Cafe later told me she loved that
we stopped in and also posted this on FB. - South County Bike Path workout, South Kingstown, February 8. OAB on the bike path, with two sub-6 miles.
- Arcadia roads snow run, Exeter, February 14. More fresh snow. Zero traffic on largely closed roads.
- Burlingame in the falling snow, Charlestown, February 17. 11 miles with Brady in the falling snow. So serene.
So beautiful out there! Really enjoyed the snow runs in February. - Quinebaug in the snow, Plainfield, CT, February 18. I hate Quinebaug Trail, right? Well, usually pretty much. But at least the snow hit much of the rough washed out jeep road sections. Besides, snow always put me in a great mood. 17 miles in the snow with Brady, Matt S, and Justin P. On the way out, we stayed together for much of the run, but towards the half-way mark and then on the way back, ran with Brady (usually leading) and Matt, as Justin was having some trouble. Fortunately we all finished it. Baker's Dozen for replenishment!
Nice to get to the turnaround point at southern
terminus of Quinebaug Trail. I don't like OABs,
but if you have to do them, there's something nice
about reaching the turnaround point.
These new signs are great!
Snow was up to 6" deep in places.
Brady did a lot of waiting for us
(Matt in blue, Justin in orange) - George Washington in the snow, Glocester, February 22. Sensing a pattern here with the snow? With rain and a significant warm-up in the near term forecast, I figured this might be my last chance for a while (or maybe for the whole winter season?) to get in a snow run. There must have been a foot of snow here! Similar to when we tried and failed to run here with Matthew in January, I made the identical wrong turn about two miles in. But this time, what helped us is there had been a number of folks out snow-shoeing prior, and the trail was easier to run on.
So much snow here! - Mindless meandering in Ninigret, Charlestown, February 23. For a run that I made up as I went along, this turned out much better than I expected. I had to improvise as I went along, as the bike path was really slushy, and the roads had puddles. Ended up running a lot of the run on the only place that was dry: the "crit" (criterion bicycle path). 20 miles at an average 6:44 pace! I'll take it!
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Races:
King of Pain (Feb 11):
Glastonbury, CT
First time running this 10 1/4 mile hilly road race. Found this blurb on a race report by my AG competitor in the race, Scott Livingston:
"Kudos to Rob for catching back up to me and then catching a very strong Jeff Walker (59 years old!) who took the 50-59 age group win. For the first half of the race, I would catch Jeff on the uphills, only to lose contact with him when the road tipped down. He was fast."
Yeah, exactly as Scott described. And I love the exclamation mark after my age! Can you imagine someone that age is still running?! This blurb re-affirmed my downhill road skills, but I truly feared he was going to catch me in the latter half.
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Miscellaneous:
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| My comic of the month. I'm with Poncho on this! |
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| Feb 8 hike that I led: Mt Misery I was wondering if I chose a place too far away and/or too rugged for the "target agile seniors" group, but we got a great turnout! |
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| I later learned that Bill Bentley was part of a group that built this shelter! Small world. |
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| Another area I was concerned about: the Cedar Swamp, flooded and iced over. I thought about re-routing to avoid this part, but participants said they loved it, found it to be surreal, and asked if I could repeat leading this hike again in the future. Ok then! |
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| Feb 13: in last month's blog post, I was lamenting I hadn't been able to build a snowman in two years now. Finally we had not only 4" of snow, but it was wet snow good for snowman building. --- Several of my neighbors said they really liked our snowman. What I found disappointing was that while the 59-year old retired guy was out playing in the snow most of the day, other neighbors including teenage kids who had the day off from school never once went out and played in the snow in their yard, and we had snow on the ground for over a week! Sign of the times? Get outside! |
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| Feb 21: excuse my shadow. The snow had disappeared from our front yard eight days later, but I was able to periodically patch and keep this (now skinny!) snowman going for over a week. |
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| It was fun to track the progress of my VJ Xtrm 2 shoes from Helsinki to Westerly. |
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| VJ Xtrm 2: So far I'm loving them! They don't have the narrow toebox issue that I had with the VJ Ultra. |
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| NB 1080v12: My foray into this trainer didn't go well, as they rubbed against my ankle bone area and broke the skin. Will have to wait until it heals, and then try both BodyGlide and better socks. |
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| NB Rebel 3: at least my 3rd pair. I love these shoes; they feel great and springy right out of the box. |
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| In the "learn something new" department, I initially panicked when I finished my run in the snow in Glocester, RI and found my car key FOB battery was dead and wouldn't unlock the car. I was guessing I would have to ask Jana to drive the 1 hour+ here with a spare key, as modern cars don't have traditional key locks. |
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| Or do they? It turns out the locks are there but just not exposed anymore, since you seldom need them. Well I'll be darned. Usually I lock my cell phone in the car when I run, but fortuitously I had my phone in my pocket to take pics in the snow. Which enabled me to Google and find this valuable info! |
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| This dessert seems made for me! Actually, in today's politically-correct world, I'm surprised someone hasn't found it offensive and required it to be renamed. |
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| I chuckled at this bumper sticker on a car parked at King of Pain race. We've all had longer runs due to missed turns. |
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Looking ahead to March:
Two races on the docket:
- PLR ShamRock and Roll 5K, New Haven, March 2. USATF-CT championship race.
- New Bedford Half Marathon. USATF-NE championship race. Will use this as a marathon tune-up
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Monthly highlight:
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| Any of the fantastic snow runs, really. But I'll single out this one in Burlingame in the beautiful falling snow from February 17. |
Monthly lowlight:
February was really a great month, so I'd be grasping to guess at something. Melting snow? Dead mice in the basement? Onwards to March ...
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