Weekly Log 11/26 to 12/2

Monday, 11/26 - 0-  But Happy Birthday to me, one day early!!!  I'm so glad my wife supports my habit, as she hooked me up with some much-needed gear:  New Balance 1010 trail shoes with "Rockstop" plates in them (had tried them before and didn't like a design feature, but it's been addressed), and NB1400 road racing flats...

...can't wait to get out and try them!  Over an hour of intense karate training this morning and some weight training at the house, and I'm scheduled (tentatively) for a 9-ish mile trail hike tomorrow.  It's supposed to snow overnight a bit, should be interesting!!!

Tuesday, 11/27 - 0 - Birthday Slug.  My hike got cancelled, I got my favorite grinder from Pasta Fresca in Mystic, and just chilled...

Wednesday, 11/28 - 0 - Karate in the morning and some light weight stuff in the afternoon.  Hitting the trails Thursday morning with Jim H.

Thursday, 11/29 - 4 (Trail) - Taking a few days off, I felt like such a slacker.  Met up with Jim H., my enthusiastic new trail runner, and we dropped off a car at the Wyassup Lake boat launch, drove over the Narragansett trail point on Ryder Road and did that stretch of the trail.  This is going to be part of my section of the trail to maintain, and I wanted to get more familiar with it.  Awesome stretch of trail, starting with a quick ascent from the road to the top of the hill...

 ...then follows the ridgeline and then drops down to the Yawbucs Brook and follows that through some really cool pine forest:

 over to a pond with a beaver lodge:

 along the waterline for a bit, and ends at Wyassup Lake.  The pictures kind of suck, but I was trying to take them as quickly as I could.

A great stretch of trail, crosses over the stream in several places and has a good mix of technical/non-technical single track.  Oh, and the shoes!!!  My awesome new trail shoes!  I can't believe I've been torturing myself for so long.  The New Balance MT1010 shoes I just got are fantastic.  I didn't have a single rock jab my feet today, and they felt great, light and just the amount of protection I needed without losing the minimalist aspect.  Can't wait to lace them up at the Old Mountain race!

Friday and Saturday - 0 - What the?

Sunday, 12/2 - 14+ (Road) - With Mike K.  So Mike calls me up a couple days ago and says "Let's do a run from my place in Ledyard.  Down to Mystic and back."  I needed to get a long run in to make up for slacking all week, and this would be perfect, and Mike had the route all mapped out.  We started out running down Route 117 to 184, over to Cow Hill Road in Mystic, and all the way into downtown Mystic at the Bank of America.  Back up some hills that I believe were among John Kelley's old stomping grounds (near where the Memorial statue is going to go?), and out to Cow Hill Road again.  Mike didn't tell me this (probably to spare me the mental anguish), but when we got to Pumpkin Hill/Lambtown, the hills were brutal...then looped back onto 117 to the start.  A great workout, and 45-50 degrees on December 2?  I'll take it!