That said, I don't have any races scheduled until mid-July. Sooo...I might look for something in the next few weeks. If not, there's some exploring to be done, fun runs, and some surfing with Sophia if there's waves...
Monday, 6-16 - 0 Miles - 1 Hour karate class. Legs were sore but solid!
Tuesday, 6-17 - 2.5 Miles (Track) - Impromptu WHS track jog with 200's. Muggy. Dropped the cat off at the groomers in Westerly for his annual "Summer cut" and had just enough time to get the legs moving again. Driving by the high school, I noticed that the track was empty...so I did an easy jog, mixed in with 5 x 200m efforts, and one 100m at the end, which came in at 17s? I think I could do better with that, though, but the legs felt heavy today (I wonder why???). Good fun, though!
Wednesday, 6-18 - Hot! Wait, did I say that??? - (0-ish Miles) - 1 hour karate, full uniform and no AC, then light weight training, and I'm still trying to figure out where in Hell my "Driveway" segment begins and ends (curse you, Muddy!)...I'm pretty sure I destroyed it several times over already...love doing sprints in my driveway...no matter, plenty of time to play with that. Going to try to incorporate some speedwork into training now, I've heard that the Daniels' Running Formula is the shit, so I'll snag a copy of that and try some organized training, in the midst of my disorganized, free-flowing fun runs. Yin and yang? Thoughts? Meantime, I'm tentatively thinking about the Nipmuck South trail race this weekend (http://www.shenipsitstriders.org/nipmucksouth.html), which is the next race in the Grand Tree series. Less than an hour away, not crazy elevation but a good test, and the weather should be just right by Sunday...family first, though, so it'll be another game day decision!
Thursday, 6-19 - a.m. - 6.5 Miles (Road) - Westerly/Pawcatuck roads. Dropped the car off for an oil change and ran a big loop in the rain while I waited. Love running in the rain. Hammett sighting at the Westerly Y! So it's the first time I've done a road run in a while, and of course I almost got hit by a car, because looking BOTH WAYS before pulling out from a side street onto a main road is just too much to ask, right? I'm going back to the woods...
Friday, 6-20 - 0 Miles. Soph's first day of Summer vacation, so I was a good Dad and took her and a pack of her friends to the beach, then got them lunch, then took them to my sister-in-law's pool, then back to our place so they could chill...did get to watch the HON-ECU World Cup match, really looking forward to this weekend's matches...
Saturday, 6-21 - 5 Miles (Beach) - Summer solstice beach runs with Jim and some of the WTAC crew. 7 am start, and as the WTAC contingent were mostly doing the Oh My Goddard triathlons the following day, they went for a final prep swim before their races, so Jim and I did a 2-miler first. The 3-miler? Down to the jetty and back, perfect day and perfect way to kick off summer:
One of the best parts of Summer is walking up this ramp...
WTAC Tri- crew suiting up
Empty Misquamicut Beach!
Sunday, 6-22 - 14 Miles (Trail) - 2nd Annual Nipmuck South Trail Race. Last minute decision to jump into this race. Left the house and arrived in plenty of time to get bibbed up and do a short warmup right before the race. Ran into Michele Hammond and her husband Russell, our newest WTAC'ers Faith Raymond and Joseph Strafach, and Patrick Quinn from the TNT right before the race. I've done almost all of the blue-blazed trails in eastern CT, but not this section of the Nipmuck, so I was excited to check it out. I also decided to use my heart rate monitor instead of the timer, just like I did at Greylock, which worked perfectly. Keep a certain range (174-182) which means I'm working hard but not too hard for a distance race? It's working for me...
The gun goes off (well, the RD said GO!) and we all take off onto the trail. The Shenipsit Striders hosted this race, and they'd done a good job of tying blue streamers to trees whenever there weren't blazes. Only went off trail a few times! As an out and back race, it was pretty cool to see the lead pack flying toward us, and I was able to high-five Pat before I got to the turnaround. The weather was great for the race, although it was a bit humid and the Sun made it quite warm toward the end of the race. Hilly race in parts, especially the "50 foot cliff" hill, which went on forever. I learned after last week to hike the bigger hills, and I neither passed or was passed on them today, so everyone was on the same page.
My result? 14 hilly miles in 2:32, good for 52nd place. Results here:
Great day, and I unfortunately had to jet, but there was a cookout with burgers, watermelon, etc., and Pat was going to a cool brewpub in Willimantic, but I had to get home. Great to see everyone, though! Next up, trying to set a new mile PR at the Bottone mile this week!
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