Monday, 12-22 - 4+ Miles (Trails) - Devil's Hopyard State Park. - Amidst my "Shop for the wife" day, I snuck out to Hamden and scored a few miles at the Hopyard. Actually saw people out there today! I started with the wet and slippery Red trail, which is a really nice uphill/downhill loop, which ends along some of the streams that feed into the Eight Mile River (Eminem says you could "Lose Yourself" there, haha). Then on to the Orange trail, which wasn't as wet but was still slippery! Made the climb to the vista at the top, and cruised back to the truck.
Orange trail vista :)
Great day for a run, temps approaching 50 degrees, overcast and really nice. I've decided, since I'm around 5,000 feet of vertical gain from hitting 80,000 feet for the year, that I'm going to hit lots of hilly terrain to close things out above 80k. It's a plan, anyway!
Tuesday, 12-23 - 5.6 Miles (Trails/Footpaths) - Lantern Hill trails, Mashantucket trails/footpaths. Dropped my daughter at B-ball practice and hit Lantern Hill. Very slippery today, so no sub 4-minute descent from top to bottom, but I did manage my 3rd fastest ascent from the bottom to the top. From there, cruised over to the museum and ran their purple trail, and looped back to the car. Drizzly, overcast and warm? Heck of a good time-killer...
Also, I mentioned this in my Strava post: For the last couple of weeks, my left knee has been, as Seth puts it, "janky." It's odd that it doesn't bother me when I run, but at the house when I'm going up and down the stairs it's like I'm 100 years old. Go figure. The first comment I got was "Stay off trails!" Sorry, that just ain't gonna happen...I can hear Mike B. now...
...and I'll keep an eye on it.
Wednesday, 12-24 - 2.6 Miles (Roads) - Short, rainy spin in Mystic. Shopping complete!!! And just enough time to squeeze in a short run in the rain down in Mystic. Not really working hard and got my best time on one of the hills leading out from the river. Cut the run shorter than I would have, as it's Christmas Eve and I didn't want to push my luck with the family. Coming up? Traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner, with accompanied overindulgence...
Thursday, 12-25 - 0 Miles - Merry Christmas, ya animals! I was fortunate enough to have an excuse to take a zero today, although my wife green-lighted me to go out, and got me a subscription to Trail Runner magazine, and a GoPro Hero 3 camera...so there'll be some fun shit to record down the line, on land and in the water. I already have a helmet cam, chest cam, and a clip-on cam, and will be shopping for a surfboard cam this evening! Awesome!!!
Friday, 12-26 - 4 Miles (Trails) - Devil's Hopyard run with Jim H. Jim hasn't been running in a while, but we had a great time on a perfect winter morning at the Hopyard. I saw that there was a segment on the "Devil's Oven" ascent, and I wanted to give it a shot. 1/10-2/10 of a mile, 33% grade, 140' vertical gain. Super fun and steep, and it took longer getting down. Gave it a good effort and recorded the first part with the GoPro, but I didn't like the way it came out. Stopped at the oven (small cave) to shut it off, then continued around the cliff and up to the top, which turned out to be the full segment. Got it by over a minute, so I was pretty stoked about that!
Chapman Falls
More Chapman Falls
Jim coming up
Not a rolling stone...
Super green!
Jim, after a good climb and ready for some downhill!
Saturday, 12-27 - 4 Miles (Trails) - Lantern Hill double. Dropped the child at B-ball practice again, and hit Lantern Hill for some cruisin'. Gorgeous day, 50+ degrees and sunny, ran in shorts and a t-shirt. Tons of people out, I stopped a bunch of times to pet dogs and chat briefly with some fellow nature lovers. Lots of dogs, including my 2 Mastiff/2 German Shepherd group, who know me now and come right over! Love them! 3300' left to snag before 12/31...
Sunday, 12-28 - 0 Miles.
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