Friday, December 21, 2018

Weekly Log 10-Dec to 16-Dec-2018: Returning to High Mileage

Monday:  0 run, 650 yard swim
Man, are my legs sore from yesterday's race.  No pain, but definitely sore

Tuesday:   7 run
6:30am, 17 degrees.  4 miles on neighborhood roads, and then 3 roads/trails with Brady.  Brady got some icicles on his whiskers, but otherwise seemed fine.  We were running the trails of Champlin, and all of a sudden he froze in his tracks and crouched down, just as two deer bounded across the trail right in front of us.  Apparently this was his first time ever seeing deer.  Maybe he thought, "Those dogs are HUGE."?

Wednesday:   7
Trail run in Bradford Preserve / Woody Hill with Brady.  Except for one hunter, we had the 1,000+ combined acres to ourselves.  At one point, I was rock-hopping at a technical section across a swollen stream, and I was really curious to see what Brady would do.  He went full speed ahead through the water!  My kind of approach; he can run with me anytime!

Thursday:  13
AM:  5 miles. Blue Heron Trail, Cutler Park, Dedham, MA.  For my final working day in MA of the year, I planned out an 8-mile loop on the Blue Heron Trail.  Unfortunately, as soon as I parked, I saw a big sign warning that a portion of the trail was closed temporarily due to construction.  Argh.  The best laid plans of mice and men.  Made the best of it and got in 5 miles, but only with two and out-and-backs.
PM:  8 miles.  Jingle Bell Run at our club's annual holiday party.  Thanks to Jonathan Short for helping me setup and break down the course (Chris had some lousy excuse of being out of the country).  The course is all trails, and we mark the major intersections with LED-lighted trail directional signs.  We had 15 people sign up for tonight's run, and about 30 at the party itself.  Fun get together.  This year we added a slideshow of pictures of the year's running events, which was a little blurry against the textured background of the wall, but we'll continue to try to improve upon.

Friday:  16!
Longest run I've done in 14 months.  Local roads down to Weekapaug, through Misquamicut, and back, with a few hills added in on purpose.  Ran the first 12 miles by myself, and then came back to the house to get Brady to finish up.  (I tried to keep his mileage lower, as he had already run earlier in the morning with Jana, so this was a double for him.)  The last few miles I was really feeling it, and again thinking there's no way I could add another 10 miles to make a marathon.  But that's why you train and build up to it.

Saturday:  9
Take 1:  3 mile road run home from Midas, after dropping off the Volvo wagon for an oil change.  This is the one that Mark took down to Florida in May.  200,000 miles and still going.  I hope it lasts Mark for a while.
Take 2:  6 miles on campground trails with Brady.  Never saw a soul out there, although it looks like I just missed Muddy and Jonny running a near identical route, as well as Kevin Adams out there for a ride.

Sunday:  10
Run While You Can run in Avondale / Watch Hill.  One mile with Tommy, JV, and Erin Hub, then Tommy and I ran the rest together.  Was surprised to see our overall pace sub-7, considering a slower start and then quite windy.

Weekly mileage:  63!

Weekly synopsis:  Super happy with this week.  Longest run in 14 months, and highest mileage week in 14 months.  No pain, no issues.  Life is good again.

Weekly highlight:  The 16-miler on Friday.  While I was definitely feel it, if was great to get this in.

Weekly lowlight:  Construction debacle blocking the Blue Heron Trail.  Heresy!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like Brady is having fun! It is funny to see what they will do with 'obstacles'. All of ours, except Gizmo, loved to run through the mud and water. The deer, OMG wait till he sees horses. Glad he didn't decide to chase them, that's always fun. I was sure once I lost Giz and Diesel forever when they took off after some deer in Ninigret. Eventually they came back, but it took a while. Enjoy your granddog, sounds like he is enjoying his grandpeep.

    ReplyDelete