I'm working construction gigs at the beginning of this week, so I'll take that as my workout, and do some running mid to late week to prep for the Mews Tavern "Gear n' Beer" 6.9k road race. Used to be a 5k, but they have 69 beers on tap at the restaurant so it makes sense! Total party atmosphere, tons of people, food, BEER and a great time! Last year I froze my ass off with FiveK, Woolley, Galoob, Seth and a ton of other runners, and came in #318 out of 2000 runners. I even wrote a review of the race for Bob Jackman's "Sweaty Beer Tent" blog:
http://sweatybeertent.blogspot.com/2013/11/mews-tavern-beer-n-gear-5k.html
This year? Things are different. I'm coming off a PR and no long races, and 6.9k is actually a better distance for me...so here goes!
Monday, 11-17 - 0 Miles. Bathroom demo in Essex. Nothing like hauling out tile, drywall and pieces of cast-iron tub in the pouring rain! Good times!
Tuesday, 11-18 - 0 Miles. Essex again. Really need to get over there for a run sometime, such a nice town...
Wednesday, 11-19 - 3.6 Miles (Mostly road/some trail) - Run to the Mashantucket Reservation, Lantern Hill area. Finished a dump run, and being right at Lantern, decided to get a few miles in before running back to the house to meet the bus. Ended up running trail to the road, and running past the Pequot Museum onto the "Reservation," which is basically a gated community of high-end homes set on a hill to the west of Foxwoods. Good hills, and I need to do more exploring around there...it was cold but not ridiculous, breezy but not frigid. I'd call it 34 with a wind chill of 25? Fine!
Thursday, 11-20 - 5.5 Miles (Trail) - Hartman Park, Lyme CT. I've had a map of these trails printed out for a while now, which sat in a stack of potential "sort of close" locations to scout out. The weather was windy, especially on the ridges, and the trails were leaf-covered and fairly technical, but otherwise pretty well-marked and cared for. After an initial climb, the trails rose and fell from small ridges to creek beds, and there were some cool features, as pointed out on the map:
Rock cairns at the Lookout on the orange trail guide the way
Appropriately named "The Snout," along the red trail
Offerings at the "Fairy Circle" on the green trail
"Fairy Circle"
Cool thing is, there are two more preserves to the south of Hartman that have trails to connect all three. Of course, I totally missed the connector off the Hartman trails, so I ran down Gungy Road to the Young Preserve/Waldbridge Woodlands trails and made my way back to the green trail, and back to the truck. Great trails! Here's the maps I used, which were pretty much spot on:
I have my eye on a couple more places out there...
Looking sweaty and burly...
Friday, 11-21 - 0 Miles. Cold! And lots to do. In my travels, though, I stopped by TJ Maxx and scored the only (yes, only: I looked for more but that was it) pair of Under Armour Infrared leggings (tights) left in the store. MSRP of $69.99, got them for 30 bucks. Score!
Saturday, 11-22 - 4.4 Miles (Road) - Mews Tavern course preview. Went to Wakefield to pick up my race bib and related swag, and grabbed a course map. Drove the new course first, then threw on some gloves and a hat and set out to do a run on the new "6.9k" course. My goal was to cruise the course pretty slowly, but I felt good (after the initial hill) and gradually increased the pace throughout the run. Gradual uphill the first half, gradual downhill the second. Windy and chilly but not horrible. Mews was packed!
Gear!
Sunday, 11-23 - 15th Annual Mews Tavern "Gear 'n Beer" road race.
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