Plowing ahead, and getting caught up! Weeks of 10-3 to 10-9 and 10-10 to 10-16

This should be interesting - legs are good, knees fine, and I'm getting yet another forced helping of low mileage in the weeks leading up to this ultra.  I do know that once I settle into my "comfortable pace," I can pretty much just go and go and go, which is what I plan to do.  It's all good!  Just feed me from time to time, and I'll keep moving as long as I can!

Monday - 0 Miles.

Tuesday - 4 Miles.  Walden Preserve, Salem.  Two miles from my current jobsite, and a pretty nifty Nature Conservancy property.  I set out on some grassland trails, which took some time to figure out as they went in 50 different directions!  Finally hit some good single-track, and made my way to the Pierce Arrow trail, where I thought to myself, "Hey, there used to be an awesome touring car called the Pierce Arrow," then came around a turn to find this:

Pierce Arrow!

Continuing on, I made my way to the two scenic ponds that tie this property together, which are really gorgeous and contain active beaver lodges:

I covered about 20% of the trails here, from what I can tell.  Some very well marked, some not at all, and the Pierce Arrow trail was very overgrown but totally worth the effort!

Wednesday - Friday - 0 Miles.

Saturday - 13.1 Miles.  Course Marking, Warmup, Run For the Pumpkins Race, Course Clearing.  #67 of 126.  Perfect trail race weather!  I arrived early to help mark the course, with the thought of just starting my watch and letting it run until we were finished.  Great turnout and a really fun course, and I ended up getting 4 loops of the 5k course in, plus some extra, for a total of 13.1.

Sunday - 0 Miles.

Monday - 6.2 Miles.  Groton X-Town trail with Faith.  Great time on this trail system.  We dropped a car on on end and drove to the other, and had a great run in cool, breezy weather.  We're gonna have to talk BLS into joining us for this one soon!

Tuesday - 6.3 Miles.  Airline Trail, Colchester.  Awesome rail trail line that runs through a bunch of towns, is very well marked, and lots of people were out enjoying the crisp Fall weather and changing leaves.  Turned into a progression run for me, unintentionally.  Just felt too good not to!

Wednesday - Thursday - 0 Miles.

Friday - 4 Miles (Surf!) - K38/39, Point Judith RI.  Thanks, Hurricane Nicole, for bringing perfect chest-high surf and offshore winds to Rhode Island!  Caught 25 waves in 2 hours, according to my Strava data, and I'm torn between getting a run in tomorrow or milking the last bit of this swell for all it's worth...

The "K", bright and breezy and uncrowded...

...and the new trail shoes I won in the Kismet Cliff raffle came in!  La Sportiva Bushido model, can't wait to try them out!

New trail shoes!  Winner winner!!!

Saturday - 2 Miles.  Testing out the new shoes at Lantern Hill.  While they may be a bit snug, and I'd probably trade up a 1/2 size, I'm gonna give the Bushido model from La Sportiva a big thumbs-up.  They felt sturdy, grippy and otherwise well-suited to the technical terrain that I enjoy.  Great shoes!

Sunday - 8-ish miles.  Borderlands Dark Sky Trail N-S with Jim.  Dropped a car at the Canonchet Preserve trailhead, and drove to the state line, where the Narragansett blue-blazed trail merges with the yellow-blazed trail portion in Rhode Island.  Easy pace, and I needed to stay there, although I'd love to try this section of trail again at a much harder pace after next week.  Aside from the 1/2 mile or so of Long/Ell Pond, it's very runnable...aside from that, I told Jim it was 5.5-6 miles, and it ended up being almost 8, and his longest run ever?  Sorry (not sorry), Jim!  Hey, the weather was perfect and the foliage is awesome, so the longer the better.  Ha!