Chasing Miles: S#!*%'s Gettin' Serious! Week of 4-28 to 5-3

It came down like a hammer a little while ago (precisely the moment when Eric B. loaded a 31 mile run today.  Turned out to be a bike ride after a few minutes, but it got me thinking...) that I have exactly 5 weeks to go until the CT50, and it's been suggested to me, in a rather unsubtle way, that my mileage isn't what it should be.  Correct.  I monitor my mileage like an old, obsessive accountant, so I'm not hearing anything I don't already know (although I do thank you for caring enough to be concerned).  My counter to that was the big uptick in vertical gain I've been racking up, but I think I'm gonna need a couple (at least!) good, long runs to set my mind at ease.  With that in mind, gonna go after something really good this week and see if I can pull it off.  Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn't?  Time will tell...

Monday, 4-28 - 0 Miles - Bathroom renovation day. - I had a shitload of stuff to do after karate class, not the least of which was prepping and repainting the downstairs bath, along with replacing the baseboard heater, and generally making it look fantastic.  Glad somebody got out for a run in my neighborhood, anyway...

Tuesday, 4-29 - 3-ish miles (Hike/Trail Maintenance) - Wrapped up the bathroom project, and then armed myself with a saw, loppers, and a bucket of paint supplies and spent some time clearing and reblazing about 2 miles of the Narragansett Trail.  After that, raced home, changed up dropped the child off and met FiveK at Stonington High School to help officiate their track meet.  COLD!!!  Had a great time, super fun at those events, but holy cow was it windy and chilly.  I got to officiate the long jump and triple jump events, and watch FiveK nervously firing a starter gun.  Really talented kids, too!  The SHS track and athletic fields are incredible, by the way, and I'll be back there for another round next week!

New paint and a new baseboard.  Baseboards are a pain in the ass...

Wednesday, 4-30 - 0 Miles - Full workday tearing out a bathroom.  Ripped up tile to find that the owner (or previous owner) had thrown a thin layer of subfloor over linoleum before tiling.  A slow drip off the toilet valve allowed water to seep into the floor and spread out across the room.  Worst case of black mold I've ever seen, crazy.  The subfloor below the linoleum was so wet, if you pressed on it with your shoe, water would come up from the wood.  Gross.

Thursday, 5-1 - 0 Miles.  This is not going at all as planned...home projects central up in here, and finally gave up on getting any miles in at all...

Friday, 5-2 - 15 Miles (Road/Trail) - Local roads to trail, local roads to finish.  Finally!  I was finally able to get out for a good run, and decided on running from the house to the CT/RI border, and hopping on the Narragansett Trail.  Depending on what kind of time I made, I could go shorter or longer to get home to meet the bus.  Once I hit the trail, I realized I'd be getting very wet, and very muddy.  The heavy rain we had a couple days ago has all the streams over capacity, and the trails are very soggy.  Crossing Green Falls River was interesting, thigh deep and I could feel it pushing against my legs.  Nothing dangerous, just a bit sketchy.  Great thing was all the waterfalls were in hyperdrive and looked so cool:

Crappy picture, but the water basically bursts from the rocks, great place :)

I got all the way to Route 49, and realized I'd never get home in time if I continued on trails, so I zipped back to the house - Lori not home, twenty+ minutes before the bus, let's round it out to fifteen miles with a run up Fowler to close it out, and put me over 1K for elevation gain.  Now I just have to follow it up with more hours on my feet tomorrow!

Saturday, 5-3 - a.m. - 3 Miles (Trail) - Lantern Hill, looking for the "FKT Crew."  So I knew Jonny and Muddy were going to run the Narragansett Trail this morning at 5:30 to set a "Fastest Known Time" (distance runners most likely all know what this is), but when I checked the FKT website (http://fastestknowntime.proboards.com/board/9/northeast-ma-ct-ri-me) over my a.m. coffee, I saw a post by Muddy that said he was running with two people.  Hmmm...Galoob has a race, Gazelle's on the mend, who could it be?  A quick mental roll call and blog check, and it's Seth!  Decided to hop in the car and drive over to Lantern to see them coming in.  Based on their start time, I estimated they'd come in around 3 hours 15 minutes.  Got to the parking lot, and no cars?  Hmmm...maybe they rescheduled?  Decided to go looking anyway and brought my phone, figuring if I did run into them I'd be able to snap a few pictures.  Got 1.5 miles in and was about to turn around, when...were those voices?  Other than the ones in my head?  Yup, sure enough, I see three people trucking up the trail, one in trademark WTAC colors.  Got to run the last bit with them and get some good shots of the finishing stretch, photos here:

https://www.facebook.com/michael.crutchley.94/media_set?set=a.750242031686647.1073741827.100001025723425&type=1

                 p.m. - 6.6 Miles (Trail/Dirt Road) - Pachaug State Forest.  Such an awesome day, perfect weather, and the girls decide to go shopping.  I, sadly, do not shop.  So I got a bunch of things done at the house, and took off for Pachaug.  Wanted to check out a bit of the trail along Lowden Brook, where I was greeted with scenery like this:

Why wouldn't I want to do another run, with this right up the road?

Cool set of waterfalls...

Sunday, 5-4 - 0 Miles.  Met up with Muddy and FiveK to review scholarship applications.  Our Westerly Track & Athletic Club gives out two scholarships each year, one male and one female, to local students.  Using a grading rubric that covers everything from participation in local races, to letters of recommendation, to volunteering in the community, we select the most well-rounded students to receive the award, this year in the amount of $1500 each.  Some excellent candidates this year!

My wife had planned a huge family meal that we'd be hosting, so my chances of a run went out the window.  Odd, only two run days this week but I felt like I got my moneys' worth?  I also got props from Ben Nephew in his blog for helping him with course recon before his huge Narragansett Trail run a couple weeks ago, pretty cool!