Weekly Log 18-May to 24-May-2015: Warner Trail and NSEF

Monday: 0

Tuesday:
6 miles spent with minor tweaks to the Pumpkins course.

Wednesday:
6 miles.  Warner Trail, Foxboro to Wrentham, MA.

Single-track on the Warner Trail
within F Gilbert Hills State Forest

Dam at Crocker Pond

On my way to Wrentham State Forest, decided this was just
too much water and chance of falling in the drink before starting
 my work day.  Turned around here; will have to come back on a drier day.

Not sure this picture does the terrain
justice, but this is screaming downhill
with loose rock

Thursday: 0

Friday:
9 mile.  Around the pond loop.  Return run via the beach at low tide was awesome!

Saturday:
7 miles.  NSEF 5K.  North Stonington, CT.  18:10.  2nd place of 127.  Full results here.

I have some history here, dating back to when it was a 4-miler, but today was not to be a day for the Jeffs.

This course is almost all hills.  After about 1/2 mile and the first hill climb, I had moved into 3rd place.  The first guy was so far out in front I never saw him again, but the guy in 2nd was in my sights.  At the turnaround on this out-and-back course, I had caught up to about 10 yards behind him.  I quickly reeled him and passed him on a long hill climb.  From there I picked up the pace and held it to the finish line.  Splits:  5:56, 6:06, 5:39.  The pace is erratic, because the hills are.  Happy with my time.  For a cool-down, Crutch led me on some neat trails, including Bicentennial Trail and Tipping Rock.
20 miles.  Ride to and from NSEF.

Sunday:
35 mile group ride put on by Mike B, from Westerly to Mystic.  Chris and his friend Mike Vance joined us for the fun and coffee stop in the borough.  Pysched that fun runs start up there in 1.5 weeks.

Weekly Mileage Log:
0 miles
55 miles
29 miles.  Great week for riding.  Not so much for running, but you can't do it all.

Weekly Log 11-May to 17-May-2015

Signed up for a few more races.  I am trying to balance races and just free time for group runs and rides, but at this point, looks like a possibility of five consecutive weeks of races coming up.

Monday:
2 miles.  Woody trail maintenance.

Tuesday:
7 miles.  Yep, all in Woody.

Wednesday:
14 miles.  Fun one in the morning running 7 miles exploring Wilson Mountain Reservation for the first time (Dedham, MA).  Afternoon run with Muddy in Woody, and showing him the new pieces of the Pumpkins trail.  Watch out for those ticks; picked a couple of those vile things off me.

Thursday:
6 miles.  Woody.
600 yards.  Easy short swim.

Friday: 0

Saturday:
13 miles.  Running in another of my favorite places, Barn Island.  Mike B made his return to group running by joining us for the first seven, and then Muddy and I finished it out.

Sunday:
OK, this one started out weird.  A bunch of us WTAC runners were out for a casual run on the trails.  At one section, there was a deep hole in the middle of the dirt trail, but we just proceeded to jump over it, or at least most of us did.  I heard a yell behind me, and we all went back to see what happened.  Oh no!  Beth fell into the hole!  I way underestimated the depth of the hole, as I peered down and saw BLS laying at the bottom of the hole about 40' down.  Seth and I were discussing whether we should get ropes and come back, when all of a sudden, the alarm went off.  It was 5am and time to get up for the group ride.  I was relieved when I saw Beth's 50+ bike miler on Strava later that day.  Somehow she got out of the hole.

40 miles!  Chris organized this group ride.  Originally Mike B was going to join us, but he had stayed up until Midnight for his wife's birthday (the elderly don't usually stay up late).  FiveK and I met up at Chez Garvin for a fun ride through SK & NK, and a PeaceDale coffee stop.
5 miles.  Evening run in the Town Forest with Matthew.  Disappointed to see the place getting a little overgrown.


Weekly Mileage Log:
0.4 miles.
40 miles.
47 miles, almost entirely on trails.

Weekly Log 4-May to 10-May-2015: Illinois Running

Monday:
2 miles.  Trail maintenance in Woody.

Tuesday:

7 miles.  Continued trail maintenance, plus five miles out to Rock Ridge and back Shore Road.  6:45 average pace.  Fast for me; would have been a walk in the park for FiveK.

Wednesday:

10 miles. 

Schiller Park, IL:  First run ever in the Land of Lincoln



The trail started off
nice and dry ...

Then got a tad muddy

Well, good morning! Would
you care to join me on my run?

Cool stone bridge trail crossing.



Yeah, turned around here. Only
brought one pair of running shoes.
Is this their wet season?

Sections I traversed seemed pretty clean to me.

Thursday:

8 miles.  Downtown Chicago. The conference held a Fun Run 5K (well, more like 2.7 miles) and more than 100 attendees signed up for the 6:30am start.  While waiting for the start, the talk was about business, but once it got started the talk turned to running.  Yes!

The organizer announced that he would be leading the front group at about 8:30 pace, but it was closer to an 8 pace.  OK, not bad.  The ten or so of us at the front were chatting away about where we were from, marathons we had run (Note to Chris:  they were "real" runners - they had run marathons), etc.  Being an out-and-back course, at the turn around, we didn’t need the leader anymore and the pace picked up markedly to mid-6s.  The pack thinned quickly down to about 4.  With just less than a mile to go, the pace picked up again to mid-5s and for some reason all conversation ended.

At the end, after milling about for a few minutes and catching our breath, the three top finishers headed out for a cool down at an easy 7:30 pace:  Enrique, a 47-year old from Puerto Rico, Peter, 37 from PA, and me.  We ran about 3 more miles together, and then I tacked on two more.

1,020 yard swim!  Evening swim on the hotel’s 8^th floor.  Odd 20-yard pool.  There were only two lanes for lap swimming, and that was fine, since only two of us showed up for swimming.  The other was a very fit looking black gentleman in his mid-40s (?).  We chatted for a bit.  I’m not a city person, but I do like the diversity here.

Lost track of time and found myself late already for a business dinner across town.  Texted my colleague and host that I’d be late.  As I settled into a taxi for a traffic-jam ride, the first thing (of many) the driver felt the need to share with me was that he hadn’t had sex in over two years.  Oh boy, it was going to be a long and awkward taxi ride …

Friday:

11 miles. 

Even in the city there were
plenty of park-like "trails".

Found some softer running
surfaces as well.  Bonus!

Lakefront Trail popular with
cyclists and runners alike

With about a mile to go, I run into my new friend Enrique from Puerto Rico.  He’s running along the seawall (lakewall?), but when he sees me waving to him, he comes over to run with me.  We added another mile or two and chatted away at his “easy” pace of 6:45.

Nice view of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline,
running back towards the city

Something funny about this tree.
Can't quite put my finger on it.



Should I stay until the morning? Nah, time to come back to Rhody.

Saturday:

36 miles!  First group ride of the season, back in the Ocean State. Chris, Mike B, Tom, Jeff D, and I went on a tour replete with the Charlestown Hammett hills before a break at Dave's Coffee.  Great time.  Looking forward to biking season.
5 miles with Matthew.  Out to Rock Ridge and back.

Sunday:

6 miles.  Charlestown Beach with Matthew.  Can you believe they completely ran out of scones upon our return?
17 miles.  Afternoon coastal ride. Pushed two Strava segments (Ocean View Highway at 24.5mph, and Atlantic Westbound at 24.9mph), but not fast enough for a PR.  Finished the ride with a stop at FiveK's place (or as Mike says, "Shara's house") to check out his sweet new ride.  How am I going to slow him down now?

Weekly Mileage Log:
0.6 miles.
53 miles.
49 miles. 

Weekly Post 27-Apr to 3-May-2015

Monday: 0

Awful day for Matthew.  Got the call from the school that he had an injury playing football in gym, and we needed to bring him to the hospital.  (At least I'm working in Westerly now and not Boston; a key part of my job decision was based on being closer to home for the few years the kids have left before going off to college.)

While Matthew's injury was no doubt small in the scheme of life, as a parent it's distressing to see your son in pain.  By the time we got to the school, the nurse said he had almost passed out from the pain.  Looking at his grossly disfigured wrist made me want to vomit, but I tried to be an adult.  Spent the next few hours at the ER as he got an IV, x-rays, and eventually attached to some sort of hand-straightening torture device while the orthopedic doctor snapped his dislocated wrist back into place and then set his two broken bones.

Tuesday:
9 miles on the Blue Heron trails.  Actually passed a remnant snow bank on my run.  No snow on the trails, but a fair amount of mud.  At one turn, I slid and went down in the mud up to my thigh.  Just laughed and got up.

Wednesday:
7 miles.  Trail maintenance in Woody (running with pruning shears ignoring the "Don't run with scissors" rule), plus a 5-mile evening run along the beach.

Thursday:
11 miles.  More trail maintenance, plus 9 miles with FiveK.  Included a Hell Field workout:  6x400 (73, 72, 73, 75, 74, 73), 4x200 (32, 35, 34, 33). 

Friday:
9 miles.  All trail.   Continued trail maintenance, plus a run around Watchaug Pond while awaiting a Back Road Ramble race committee meeting at Camp Watchaug.  Come join us for the race on June 7th this year.  The waterfront will be open and included in race admission.  The water trampoline will be open, as well as free kayak and canoe rentals, and some type of bounce house for the young ones.  I just secured $50 gift certificates from Kelley's Pace for the overall winners, so a good chance for promotion for the new owner there as well.

Saturday:
12 miles.  Two runs:

Morning 9 mile fun run from Kelley's Pace.  New owner Jeff Anderson has been putting on these runs every Saturday, and Faith has been advocating them as well.  It was good for me to go on this day, as the run covered most of the Mystic Half course.  A group of about 20 came out for the run, but split up by pace pretty quickly.  Right from the start, long time runner Jim Roy came up to me and we spent most of the rest of the run chatting away at a high-7s pace.  That should be about the pace I'll be looking to run at Mystic in order to run a 1:45 goal pace.

Afternoon 3-mile run with Matthew.  Other than a couple of short test runs on the track, this was his first road run since the injury.  His gait just looked so unnatural as he can't bend his arm at all and the weight of the cast and wrapping was dragging him down.

Sunday:
6 miles.  Trail maintenance, plus a 4-mile road/beach run in Watch Hill with Matthew.  He had to stop a couple of times due to pain/discomfort.  Great perseverance in trying to keep up conditioning.


Weekly Mileage Log:
0 miles.
0 miles.
54 miles.  First time in months back in the top 3 mileage on the Strava WTAC weekly leaderboard.