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!

Foot Pursuit Week - Week of 4-21 to 4-27

Going to try to get some good trail runs in, an early-to-midweek long run, and have some gas in the tank for the Rhode Island State Police "5K Foot Pursuit" race, one of my favorites and my 5th time running it.  My training schedule for Cayuga is pretty much out the window at this point, it just hasn't lined up with what I can do on any given day.  I give Beth a ton of credit for sticking to hers so faithfully, I haven't even come close...but hey, looks like the weather's going to cooperate this week as well!

Previous Foot Pursuit 5K results below:

2010:  190 of 417, 26:17 @ 8:28
2011:  333 of 692, 27:20 @ 8:48
2012:  226 of 759, 24:30 @ 7:55
2013: 164 of 847, 23:39 @ 7:37 (The day after blowing up at the TARC 50K)

I can do a bit better this year!

Monday, 4-21 - 4.4 Miles (Trail) - Mount Misery run.  Good spot, and I saw several people out there today hiking the trails, always nice to see on a sunny day!  Snagged more miles, and almost 500' of elevation gain, which is something the training schedule I had been using didn't mention?  Feels great to comfortably run in shorts and a t-shirt, have I mentioned that?

Tuesday, 4-22 - 5.2 Miles (Trail/Dirt Road) - Pachaug Forest trails and service roads.  Sunny and 65-70 degrees!  There are a ton of options in Pachaug, and while I've done lots of trail runs there, I'm still not 100% comfortable with where some of the roads and unmarked trails lead.  I don't mind getting lost sometimes, but if I need to meet the school bus in the afternoon, the last place I'd want to get turned around in is Pachaug.  With that in mind, I decided to start on a section of trail I knew pretty well, and then run service roads for the middle part of the run.  Easy pace, one good hill to climb, and I increased my knowledge base of the forest just a bit.  Oh, and Happy Earth Day!

Wednesday, 4-23 - 0 Miles.  Planned 0, 1 hour karate class, and some weights/stretching.

Thursday, 4-24 - 10 Miles (Trail/Dirt Road) - Pachaug again.  This time I added the Fire Tower service road, which loops around the back side of Mount Misery and gave me a chance to add some extra vertical feet.  The original plan was to get out there early, use my truck as a home base/refueling station, and do as many loops as possible before I had to be home to meet the bus.  Unfortunately, I had a lot of things to do at home (namely clearing and mulching the flower beds), and got a late start.  So 10 miles it is.  Success would be following that up with another medium/long-ish run tomorrow, then dialing back on Saturday to allow for a good showing at the race on Sunday...

Sunny and breezy Mount Misery

Our friend LeNan's wedding favor was a bag of flower bulbs, coming in nicely!

Signs of good weather ahead!

Friday, 4-25 - 6.7 Miles (Trail) - Pachaug/Nehantic Trails with Jim.  Haven't run with Jim at all since he switched to first shift, and as I was tied up with projects from morning until mid-afternoon, I shot him a quick message about going for a run.  He drove up to meet me and we made the short drive to Pachaug, where I wanted to expand the loop I've been running to include more trail/less road.  Having not run in a couple of weeks, Jim said he was up for 5-6 miles anyway...so we ended up adding an extra section of the Nehantic Trail and subtracting Cutoff/Fire Tower roads.  Cool stuff, and next up is going to be the Pachaug/connector/Quinebaug/Nehantic loop?

Saturday, 4-26 - 0 Miles - Home projects day.

Sunday, 4-27 - 5+ Miles (Road) - Warmup, cooldown, and RISP "5K Foot Pursuit," Narragansett.
Result:  22:22 @ 7:12, good for 81st out of 770.  (1:17 faster than previous best time)

Picked up Colburn and his friend Tom and we made the drive down to the beach.  Noticeably cooler and cloudy, and I was happy I'd packed a long sleeve shirt in the bag.  Ran into a lot of WTAC team members before the race, but decided on a solo run/pit stop on trails across the street with little time to spare.  At the true "shotgun start" I lined up 4-5 rows back, and tried to get a good, steady pace going.  At the first mile mark, I was pretty sure I'd beat my previous best time by a fair amount, but wasn't going to PR.  No worries.  And hey, there's Jeff Walker snapping pictures!  Ran with Steve for the first mile, but he'd biked from Westerly before the race, and had to stop briefly to massage out a leg cramp.  Mile two was pretty uneventful and my slowest mile overall, and mile three is really nice, along the ocean and sort of into the wind.  And there's Jeff again!  I tried to look less fatigued for whatever pictures he got, not sure how I did...

Finished up and was able to find Beth in the last 2/10 mile and run with her to the finish.  She did awesome, and came in well under 30 minutes.  Quick cooldown on the Canonchet Trail before the afterparty and checking everyone's results.  Seth PR'd, as did Shara, Garvin took 2nd and Tommy 3rd, and overall everyone did really well today.  WTAC took the Men's and Women's titles too!  Big post-race cookout, good time chatting with everyone, and then we headed out.  Great day at a great event, and Trimom did a fantastic job running it.

Overall I'm happy with the result.  I haven't been doing any speedwork either, should probably fit that in somewhere...?

No Scheduled Races, and School Vacation Week!

The kids are off this week for Spring vacation - we're going to take my daughter and nephew to NYC to the museums and shopping, and I'll have them the other days, which means either super early runs, or late afternoon/early evenings.  I anticipate a lower-than-average week for mileage, but I'm hoping for a big finish on the weekend, hopefully with a nice, long trail run...

Monday, 4-14 - 0 Miles - Full work day, and straight to pick up the child after that...

Tuesday, 4-15 - 0 Miles - Torrential rain and very windy + child at home = no run today.  Got some stretching and light weight training in, and look what arrived in the mail, can't wait to get them good and dirty on some trails this week:

NB Minimus Zero V2 Trail...check out the lugs on these...

Wednesday, 4-16 - Run #1 - Run to top of Fowler with the dog.  He's making improvements daily about staying by my side during our runs, just off the pavement, and has no problem adjusting his pace to stay with me.  So far he's good for about 2.5 miles at a 9:30 pace :)

                                Run #2 - 5.5 Miles (Trails) - Grills muddy splat-fest solo...I wanted to break in my new awesome trail shoes, which are more like a hybrid trail shoe/soccer cleat.  Sweet!  Grippy and quite comfortable.  I went to the Grills Preserve, on the Ashaway side, and ran to the Bradford side, looped around and back.  Totally convinced that 10-15 miles in the preserve is possible, without doubling up on trails...good info.  I even tried to "Gazelle" a couple downhills in his honor, although I'm not the guy to do that :)

Tomaquag...Gazelle would go!

Mud and trails = awesome

Thursday, 4-17 - Run #1 - 2.2 Miles (Road) - Dog Jog, to the top of Fowler.  The dog is loving these runs, and passes out immediately after...nap city :)

                           Run #2 - 2.7 Miles (Trails) - GoPro video testing at Green Falls.  Had to wade through thigh-deep swollen creek (river?) water twice, but what a short, fun trip around Green Falls Pond!  Chilly, and I got soaked and filthy :)

Friday, 4-18 - 4 Miles (Road) - Mystic segment hunting.  There were three segments that I wanted to try my hand at.  The first, the Clift Street run from the river to Allyn Street, straight uphill all the way.  Strava gave me the CR for the segment, although when I looked at it, I matched the record to the second with the dude who had it.  The second segment started on Ashby street (or so I thought) and continued to the top of the hill, but I started it totally wrong and didn't get it.  The third, a flat, 7/10 mile loop around Cottrell and Main streets I'd need to run a mid 6 average for, and I got it...sweet!  Segment links below:

http://www.strava.com/activities/131615321/segments/2977117656

http://www.strava.com/segments/5141861?filter=overall

Overall, I was really happy with this run.  I gave the hilly section a good effort, this being the same hill John Kelley (Boston Marathon winner, Olympic Marathoner, Mount Washington RR winner, etc...) used to run, as confirmed by a homeowner at the top who I stopped to chat with.  He used to see John a lot on that street years ago, and is even a contributor to the Kelley statue fund (as is the WTAC!).  The flat loop?  I started steady and slowly increased my pace, and ran it smartly.  Success...and I'll head back soon to try the one I screwed up!

Saturday, 4-19 - 7.5 Miles (Trail) - Narragansett Trail, Lantern Hill to Cossaduck Hill out and back.  Bright, sunny day, and lots of people out enjoying Lantern Hill.  Great workout, hill city and technical as heck...unfortunately, I dropped my favorite hat at the turnaround, so I have to go back up there later and grab it...

          (Later that afternoon...) - .8 Miles (Trail) - Cossaduck Hill hat retrieval.  Had to be done...grabbed another 150+ feet of elevation gain, and some kind soul had hung my hat on a tree, right where I dropped it.  Success!  And an awesome day.

Sunday, 4-20 - 2.6 Miles (Road/Trail) - Easter dog jog up the street.  We got to the top of the street, where the road dead-ends and Pachaug State Forest begins, and I see the trail I'd been told about by a neighbor.  Unmarked, runnable, somewhat technical, and very worthy of exploration.  Henry and I went in to check it out, but as we were pressed for time, didn't get too far.  I believe this might be the trail to take across to Wyassup Lake road, which means that from my house, I only have to be on roads for about a mile before I'm on trails for as far as I want to go.  Awesome...

Overall, a great week.  After a double-zero start, I was able to rack up 2500+ feet of elevation gain in 27 miles of running, get some good runs in with the dog, mess around with the GoPro camera, and score a couple of segments.  This coming week looks good weather-wise, so I'm optimistic I'll get some good running in before next weekend's race...                                                                           

Week of 4-7 to 4-13

Monday, 4-7 - 3.1 Miles (Road) - After karate class, I decided to go down to Misquamicut and run the new, agreed upon Clamdigger 5K course, which is basically an out-and-back, with a short section on a side street.  My run turned into a progression run, and I think I can maintain a zippy pace for the 5 mile race.  If I can come in around 36 minutes, like a 7:10-7:15 pace, I'll be pretty stoked...

Tuesday, 4-8 - 0 Miles.

Wednesday, 4-9 - 3 Miles (Trail/Road) - Rock Spring Preserve, Scotland, CT.  I was on my way to a completely different trail system when I spotted this Nature Conservancy property and decided to check it out instead.  The trail basically winds downhill to the Little River, then it's all uphill to an overlook, with a bunch of side trails.  Great day to be outdoors!

Saw this on my way out :)

Thursday, 4-10 - 1.6 Miles (Surf!) - Surfed shoulder high Conant Avenue at Point Judith, with only a couple other people out.  Warm-ish, windy, and really nice to be in the water...felt loose and comfortable today.

Conant, clear lineup!  Nobody out...

In the evening, I joined some of the WTAC gang for a victory beer tasting/tour at Grey Sail Brewing in Westerly, RI, put together by club member and race director extraordinaire Mike Galoob, in honor of the team winning the Fourth Season trail race series!  Thanks Mike!!!  After the tour, we headed over to a local pizza joint for dinner.  Great time!

Celebrating the trail series win!  Photo by 5k's phone :)

Friday, 4-11 - 3+ Miles (Roads) - "Dog Jog" run plus "Return to Lantern Hill"...First run?  Our dog Henry is finally getting the hang of running alongside me, and not stopping to sniff things every 5 feet.  Went up Fowler Road from the house and back, a bit over a mile, and he did great!

Second run?  I'm back on Lantern Hill, wolf dogs be damned...I was sweating like a bastard up there today, and 2+ miles felt like a 10K.  What the Hell, I loved it anyway :)





Saturday, 4-12 - 1.6 Miles (Trails) - Short Lantern Hill jaunt.  After a whirlwind Spring cleaning session, including a dump run, dropoff at the Jonnycake Center, and relieving the Home Depot of a large portion of their mulch, I was able to fit in a short run.  The weather was picture perfect today, Lori and I even took a short nap in the hammock in the backyard!  It felt so nice out, we decided to have lobster and steamers for dinner.  Lori called in the order and I made for Lantern Hill before the pickup deadline.

When I arrived, a man and his two boys were just coming down.  I got to talking with them, and they offered me a few treasures from the Hill:

Two nice pieces of milky quartz, and a third (back right) I can't identify?

I'm talking to this guy, and he looks up the hill and nods at a guy jogging down the hill with his son and says "Hey, he's going pretty fast, that's not very safe...", to which I replied "Um, I know who that is, he's fine..." and here comes Ben Nephew, total coincidence.  A short NT recon session for Ben, who's doing an out-and-back run on the CT section.  Chatted for a bit, and as I was trying out my nephew's GoPro camera, I realized I must have looked like a total idiot with it on top of my head.  Or maybe it was an improvement from my usual look...?  Either way, here's the descent (and it's my very first video upload, so don't bust my stones), which is also now a segment on Strava...Gazelle it!  Just don't slip, though, it's steeper than it looks!!!!

Clamdigger tomorrow :)

Sunday, 4-13 - 6+ Miles (Road) - Warmup, Cooldown, and the 33rd Annual Clamdigger 5 Mile Road Race.  My result in 2012?  79th place in 42:32 @8:30 pace...

Busy morning setting up, I met up with the WTAC crew just after 9, and we unloaded all the gear and got set up.  All signs pointed to a record turnout, with 139 already pre-registered for the races.  Once everything was set up, I went out for a very short, easy 1 mile warmup, and felt a slight stitch about a half mile in.  Hmmm...we'll see how I feel when the race starts.

We realized before the race started that one of the burners needed to heat the chowder wasn't working, and that runners would be coming in before it was warm enough...something to think about for 5 miles, which I did.

I was chilly before the race started, but opted for shorts and a singlet, and my fleece hat.  Looked around for BLS, who was MIA?  Hmmm...I'll get the lowdown later.  Once the race started, I settled into a low 7 pace, waiting for the stitch to return, but it didn't.  I saw Paul Gray up ahead, and caught up with him.  We stayed together for miles 2 and 3, and I slowly pulled away, in an effort to catch this dude in a grayish shirt who had passed me.  It took until mile 4.5 but I caught him, stayed with him until the last bit of the race and he pulled away again.  Crossed the line officially at 36:39 @7:20 pace, good for 29th place!  Shaved a big chunk of time off, for sure, and was able to PR nicely at this unusual distance...

Great numbers by the WTAC crew, and an awesome turnout of 220 or so runners and some walkers!

For the record, the chowder was awesome...

Big River Trail Half Marathon

This might be a bit wordy, but I had a great time today, soooo...

So I had a score to settle, right?  I was determined to not go off course this year, as last year's race gave me 9+ miles and an incomplete race, and Jonny and Mike had diligently marked the course 10 ways to Sunday the last two days, so it was a no brainer.  I got extra sleep Friday night,  had all my gear ready to go, and got on the road super early.  I was still a bit sore from Thursday's long run, but whatever.  I'd go out with no specific goal in mind, and get good and muddy on the trails.

On my way, I pulled over and texted Mike B. to ask if he was on his way?  His reply, "Yes, to the dump," meant he was out.  Must have had a major appliance delivery scheduled as well...

I arrived to find the usual WTAC crew gathering under partly cloudy skies.  Chatted for a bit, got my bib and decided to do an early warmup starting at the finish line and running the course backwards, as Beth was out chasing miles and I figured she'd be close.  Sure enough, a half mile in she comes trucking around a curve, a bit bloodied from some briars but otherwise smiling, and in good spirits.  I ran her in, and got caught up on the run, the course conditions, etc.

Monica and James showed up soon after with their friend Louis.  James was running his first Half Marathon alongside Beth, Monica the 10K, and Louis was running the 10K as his first trail race.  Sweet!

After another change of clothes (I'm too warm, I'm too cold, must have changed 3-4 times), I did one more short warmup and we lined up to go.  Paul Gray and I have had very close times at races lately, so I decided to try to stay with him for as long as I could.  At the start, everyone raced up the double-track, and made the hard left and quick right onto the single-track trail.  I'd made the decision to get wet and muddy right away, and .25 miles in, splat!  Right into the first boggy section of trail.  Now it didn't matter how much muck I came across, I'd just plow right through it.  Turns out, it was a lot!  Lots of standing water, mud, and swollen streams that required a plunge.  Awesome!

3.75 miles in, I came down a steep section, ran through a muddy puddle to an intersection, and into a group of almost 20 people coming from different directions looking for a flag.  Turned out, somebody had removed a bunch of flags before the race, and at a very confusing intersection.  I'd just passed a flag, ran back to it, and after some milling about somebody said they spotted a flag and we all took off in that direction.  In hindsight, we needed to go left up the hill, when we headed right then left.  Cut about 2/3 mile off the course, including the first water stop (sorry Matthew!).

The rest of the race had me wondering how much we'd really shaved off the total.  I figured two miles, but after running for what seemed like forever on the last super-twisty section, it ended up being just a small amount.  So I ended at 12.03 miles, good for 34th place, and had a great trail race!  Results here:

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/14/ri/Apr5_BigRiv_set1.shtml

Super fun out there today, and I scored a cool pint glass as a 5 race finisher in the series:

5 race finisher's awards...yes!!!

Beth had run 7 miles before the race, and crossed the line for a total of 19.5 for the day.  I wasn't entirely convinced she wouldn't go back out for more later...

Special thanks to Mike Galoob and family for putting on such an awesome series, special mention to Ben Folsom and Jonny Hammett for going over and above in their support of the races, Matthew Walker for manning the water stop, and Scott Mason for taking insanely good pictures out on the course!

And another special thanks to Seth for bestowing upon me two bottles of his home-brewed beer:  the Choco-Nanner Stout, and the Chinook Session IPA.  They're chillin' in my fridge, awaiting the appropriate moment to pop the top.  Sweet...

Overall?  A fantastic day, and I've been at all 5 races the last two years.  They're permanently on my race calendar, and so much fun.  The most epic race tales of the last couple years have been at this series, and that says a lot!

Great results also by Greg, Bob, Jonny, Jeff, Muddy, Seth, Boj, John, Paul, Carol Ann, Beth, Monica, James, Louis, and everybody else who raced today.  That's a beast of a course, and I loved splashing through the mud, puddles, and stream crossings, can't wait to do it again!

Trail Half Marathon week! Week of 3-31 to 4-6

It's time for the fifth and final 4th Season trail race event, the burly Big River Half Marathon trail race.  I have a score to settle with this race, as I went off course last year and recorded my first (but probably not last!) incomplete race due to getting lost.  It was a gorgeous day, though, and the group I was running with kept things fun, and we all had a great time.  I'm doing construction all week with a friend, which is going to include deconstructing kitchens and bathrooms right down to the bare walls, and somehow attempting to get some trail time in, in the face of 5+ inches of rain and moderate flooding everywhere around here.

Monday, 3-31 - 0 Miles.  Destroyed a kitchen for 8 hours!

Tuesday, 4-1 - 0 Miles.  Destroyed a bathroom for 7 hours!

Wednesday, 4-2 - A.M. - 5 Miles (Roads) - Clamdigger course measuring with Gazelle and Mike B.  Between the three of us and our Space Watches, we've got the 5M course nailed down pretty tight as far as distance.  The 5K should be all set as well!



                          P.M. - 2.5+ Miles (Trail) - Perry Preserve, Stonington.  Mike mentioned this preserve, and I swung by on my way home to check it out.  Nice trails, some small hills, and of course I got lost on an unmarked trail and wound up on a hill overlooking I-95...very wet trails because of the rain, one trail was even a fully flowing stream.  Awesome time!



Thursday, 4-3 - 15.5 Miles (Road/Trail) - Local roads/Narragansett Trail sandwich.  I wasn't able to line up someone to help me drop my truck, and drive me to the other end of the trail so I could run the whole 21 miles, so I decided to run the 5 miles from the house to the Cossaduck Hill section, run the 8 mile stretch of trail to Route 49, then run back to the house.  Good fun out there today - I had to wade through several streams, partially fell into one, got a bit bloodied on some branches, and super muddy.  Lots of water on the trails, but the weather was perfect:  pushing 60, sunny, and a nice light breeze.

View from atop Cossaduck Hill today

Looking up at High Ledges

The trail along one of the streams (not the one I fell in!)

Muddy, and a nice war wound.  Probably should have taken my shoes off outside...

Friday, 4-4 - 0 Miles.  Sore from yesterday's antics, and need some rest before Big River...however, I did manage to print, fill out, and mail in my registration for the Pisgah 23K trail race!  I'm officially in!

Saturday, 4-5 - 13.5 Miles (Trails) - Big River trail half marathon (and trail warmup).  See separate writeup!