Mt. Greylock week! Week of 6-15 to 6-21

The Mt. Greylock Trail Race half marathon is this Sunday, and I'm excited about it.  I had a lot of fun at this race last year, and I'm hoping for the same thing on this go around.  Super fun climb to the top, and a great set of trails on the backside of the mountain.  Can't wait.  And now I have a time to beat!  Last year my time was 2:59, and I was happy to squeak in just below the 3:00 mark.  This year I expect to do much better...(Update, see below...)

In other news...I'm officially registered for the inaugural Cat's Tail Trail Marathon, set for October 3rd in Shandaken, NY, in the Catskill Mountains!  The race has prerequisites for entry, and is limited to 100 runners.  I somehow managed to qualify...more here:

Cat's Tail Trail Marathon

And there's somewhere between 7-8k of vertical ascent on this point-to-point course.  Sweet!  So this will be my big Fall race for 2015...I do love the Nipmuck race (same weekend), but I really wanted to give this one a shot...

= Awesome

And just like that, my "dance card" for 2015 is pretty well set!  Trail heavy, and leaning toward longer distance races, with some short road stuff closer to home.  More to follow...

Monday - 0.

Tuesday - 0.

Wednesday - 3.  Rocky Neck cruise.  Officially (sort of) done with the Old Lyme job, so I squeezed in a short run before work.  3 mile loop of RN trails, and I could feel the biting flies pinging off my hat as I blundered my way through the spider webs.  Ahhh, Summer!  Nothing like showing up to work a sweaty, hot mess...

Thursday - 3 (Not 2.5, Garmin!).  Perry Woods Preserve.  After work, and on my way to pick up the dog from day care (yes, we do), I swung by this Avalonia property, which has really nice trails and a bunch of unmarked stuff beyond their land.  I think my Garmin is screwing me on distance though, actually I'm fairly certain of it.  I was moving much faster than a 10 minute pace, and I felt like I covered more distance than it showed...

Friday - 3 - Lantern Hill run w/Woolley. - Got started too late for a medium-length run, but still got a good 3 miles in on Lantern, and I showed Woolley some of the good climbs to be had there.  We were looking for something longer but ran outta time.

Update:  The wife threw her back out today, and is walking crooked...speaking from experience, this is gonna last several days, so I'm smartly pulling the plug on Greylock this time around.  Bummer.  I'll run long close to home on Sunday though, and make up a good route for it...

Saturday - Possible NT maintenance hike with gear and blaze paint.

Sunday - Mt. Greylock trail half marathon aborted, long local run?

No scheduled Races! Week of 6-8 to 6-14

Yeah, I said that last week, didn't I...but as I'm headed to Mt. Greylock next week, I'm gonna take a week away from races, then see if I can shave 15-20 minutes off my time from last year's effort!

Monday - 0.

Tuesday - 0.

Wednesday - 4 - Rocky Neck State Park.  Got another run in at Rocky Neck.  This time, less segment focused.  I found a really cool pile of rocks/cliff-type thing to scamper up, and I did a bunch of loops on it, so much fun!  It was really warm out, and the thought of going after segments wasn't really appealing, but I tried the "Twisty" segment and tied Chris G. to the second...so of course I'll hit it again :)

Thursday - 8 - 2 Runs, Westerly/Watch Hill.  3 Mile run in Wilcox Park, while I waited for my truck to be done at the shop.  5 Mile beach run with the Gazelle from Taylor's place to Weekapaug.  Great day for a beach run!  Warm, tailwind, and lots of people diving into Summer.  It's here, ya'll!!!  Great day.

Friday - 3 - Rocky Neck Sweatshop.  Very warm and muggy, but I wanted to get a run in after work.  Still figuring out the segments, and screwed up on a couple, but I gave the Steeplechase segment a good effort and scored the CR.  Very happy about that!

Saturday - 0. - Knee is acting funky.  Going to rest it a few days, beach with the family, and pick things up at the beginning of the week.

Sunday - 0.

No Plans: Week of 6-1 to 6-7

No plans this week, except finishing the job in Canton, and starting the new renovation in Old Lyme, which means a 30 minute commute instead of 1:45 to 2 hours.  Woohoo!!!

Monday - 0.

Tuesday - 2 - Mile Creek Preserve, Old Lyme.  Finished the demolition at the new jobsite for the day, and I had just enough time to run a clockwise/counterclockwise loop at this small preserve up the street.  Rolled my ankle pretty good on a sketchy, rooty bog section, but a really cool little spot with multiple stream crossings.  Pouring rain, too - what's not to like?

Wednesday - 7.5 - Oil Change Special, Westerly/Pawcatuck.  A rare Wednesday lay day at work meant getting shit done, and I was able to get some easy miles in while the wife's car was getting fixed.  Happy National Running Day, everyone!

Thursday - 5 - Rocky Neck SP, East Lyme.  I found a parking area two minutes from the jobsite I'm working at for the next couple weeks, so I scoped out the Strava segments for Rocky Neck.  Turns out there are lots.  I ran marked and unmarked trails, got my bearings, and figured out where some of the segments began/ended.  I scored 1 CR out of 4 I tried, and missed the others by just a bit.  Fun time after work on a cool day!

Friday - 0

Saturday - 0.  Intentional zero, see below.

Sunday - 18.2 - Goodwin Forest 30k Trail Race, Hampton CT.  This was a last-minute decision, made Thursday night.  I texted fellow WTAC'er Ryan Woolley about the race, as he'd mentioned he wanted to start doing some distance trail stuff.  He was in!  I also texted WTAC'er Joe, who I'd heard was headed up there.  Woolley drove up with his wife and got there just in time.  Joe and I made the drive up and got there early.

This is a trails weekend race, and is part of the Grand Tree series, as well as the CT Blue-blazed trail race series.  Perfect weather greeted us: sunny skies, low humidity and 60 degrees.  I also ran into friends Gary and Carly, and after a short set of instructions, we lined up and were off and running!

Pre race instructions:  don't get lost!

Lining up for the start!

This being a 10k/30k, the mass start meant both distances crammed into the first few miles.  After the Governor's Island turnaround, us longer distance folks split off and headed toward the real "meat and potatoes" northern part of the course.

I had fallen into a group that included Joe and a friend of his, Carly, and myself.  Carly and I were chatting away, and ended up running pretty much the entire race together.  Nice to have somebody to talk to, when I'd otherwise have been in no man's land for quite a while.

I finished in 3:33, good for 48th place out of 77 runners.  Joe?  A few minutes and four places ahead of me.  And Woolley?  Won the whole damn thing in 2:03, a ridiculous number and one that Joe and I couldn't wrap our heads around on the drive home.  Crazy fast, and his longest run to date???

This is my log.  There are many like it, but this one is mine...