Ultramarathon Week! Week of 11-4 to 11-10

So it's time to break out the headlamps, hats, gloves and running tights!  It's getting dark at about 4:30 now, but the bright side is that I'm not getting my daughter on the bus in the dark anymore.  Didn't hit the elevation challenge's 1000 meter mark, mostly due to two races that, while I PR'd at both, offered zero elevation combined!  No worries, I had a great last week of running, helped a friend with her marathon training, saw some incredible scenery out on the trails, and ran two very good races.  Not too shabby.

The last day of this week, Sunday, is the RI 6 Hour Ultramarathon.  Put on by Bob Jackman and his crew at A Better Pace http://www.better-pace.com/, this is a closed-loop run in a park in Warwick, RI, and has a very simple concept: run as many miles as you can in 6 hours, and the person with the most miles wins.  My goal is 35 miles.  My game plan?  Go out slightly faster than my average pace target, and finish slightly slower, and hit 35.  There's not even really training for this I can do, although running Nipmuck and pacing Nicole for her 20 miles will have helped.  Normally I wouldn't be too excited about running the same route over and over, but I haven't done a race like this before, so I'm really interested in taking a shot at this!  And I'll be able to set up my own "aid station" of sorts, with some changes of shirts, my own gels, gatorade, hats, etc., in addition to the aid station set up by the crew.  Should be fun!

Monday, 11-4 - 0 Miles.  1 hour karate class.

Tuesday, 11-5 - 0 Miles.

Wednesday, 11-6 - 7 Miles (Trails) - Salmon River and Day Pond trails, Colchester.  I had a botched attempt in the winter at this Blue Blazed trail, and had wanted to get back to it for another go.  I knew that the initial part of the trail was uphill, but what I hadn't realized was that the first 2 1/2 miles were basically uphill...whoa.  Wasn't expecting that!  Great trails, and it's a lollipop-type setup:  2 miles out to the loop, 3 mile loop, and 2 miles back to the Comstock Covered Bridge, which crosses the Salmon River.  The views are spectacular, too, overlooking the river.  I knew there was a Strava segment on this trail, and I totally blew my legitimate shot at taking it by blowing past a sharp turn, and instead going 50 feet further and turning onto an unmarked power line trail.  I went up a few hundred yards and realized my mistake, and it gives me a good reason to head back there, because I'm pretty sure I had the segment locked up.

The event of the day for me?  I got to Day Pond, which looks really nice, and as I approached a small bridge there were two elderly women and an elderly man standing on the bridge looking at the lake.  The man was holding a retractable leash, at the end of which was a smallish dog, some kind of poodle mix?  I was making plenty of noise coming down the hill and I know at least one of the women saw me, but as soon as I hit the bridge, the dog made a beeline for me, jumped up with his front paws and scratched my leg, and tried to bite me.  Thankfully, he missed.  Must be my catlike reflexes...the man's reaction time was, let's say, a bit slow, and he finally retracted the leash, the dog giving me the stink-eye the whole time, little bastard.  They were all apologizing profusely and completely mortified, and I was a bit taken aback as well.  That's a first, and I never expected it to be a leashed dog that took a shot at me.  I'd have been pissed, but the looks on their faces said they were truly embarrased, and the dog was just being protective of its owners.  Do I really look that sketchy???

Anyway, apologies aside, I was good and got back to the woods, where I passed another runner!  A woman who was moving at a pretty good clip, too...exchanged a few words as we passed, and I remembered that the last leg of this was all downhill...awesome!  Can't wait to hit this trail again.  Sans dog encounters, of course.  Total distance, just under 7 miles, and 990 feet of elevation gain.  Good times!

Thursday, 11-7 - 0 Miles.

Friday, 11-8 - 6 Miles (Trails) - Group WTAC run in Wahaneeta/Woody Hill Preserves, Westerly.  Met Gazelle, FiveK, Muddy, Matthew and Jonny E. at the Wahaneeta entrance and got to it.  Easy pace, and I had it on my mind to go easy, with the race Sunday on the horizon.  Starting at 4 meant we were pushing our luck with the light, and thankfully the Gazelle has photographic trail memory and night vision, as I was running blind toward the end...great time out there though, but it'll be some time before I'll venture in there without a guide - great trails, but none of them marked, and criss-crossing everywhere!  The boys were out ahead of me and I almost lost sight of them toward the end, and had visions of taking a wrong turn somewhere and ending up lost in the dark...that would most definitely suck...great group run, though!  Got to talk to the crew for a bit, and shake out the legs before Sunday.  Tomorrow will be a big fat zero...although I am going to pick up my race packet in Warwick to eliminate that race-day micro-stressor, and check out the course, and might do the loop once just for familiarity?

So the week has two quality runs:  Salmon River and Woody Hill.  My bruising from the "dog attack" is almost down, but I took a "day after" picture, and I had a black/purple bruise from where he rammed into my leg that was the size of a tea plate.  No kidding.  Damn dog, and I can't even blame him...




Saturday, 11-9 - 0 Miles.  Planned zero today, but I was able to swing by Warwick City Park to pick up my shirt and bib, chat for a bit, and scope out the course...

Sunday, 11-10 - RI 6 Hour Ultra.  Separate writeup forthcoming...