Monday - Ryan Park - North Kingstown, RI - 6.5 miles
Sickness! I woke up this morning and knew I was infected. In truth, I could feel it working it's way through me last night. I held out hope that my body would beat it back as I slept. No such luck. Woke up with a head cold and thought I might take a zero on the day.Felt better once I was up and about with some coffee and grape nuts inside of me. Stuck to my original plan: a nice easy run on the Belleville Pond 10k course. I took it slow. My legs felt fine at first but by mile 4 I was feeling the effects of yesterday's Big River adventure. Tried to follow the 10k course but like last time I took a wrong trail after the dirt bike mounds. No worries - I enjoyed exploring a few new trails before heading back down the old rail bed. I was feeling sporty and tried to push the pace during the root section to see if I can improve my Strava segment time.
Afterwards I felt great. Head was clear and my hoarse throat was gone. The healing power of running! Alas the sickness returned once I reached the office (coincidence?) I'm scheduled for P90X stuff the next two days so I may just take it easy and try to beat back this disease.
Tuesday - 0 miles
I got the Head Cold Bluuuuues.Wednesday - 0 miles
I feel much better today. Still a scratchy voice and a nagging cough but I think I'll be back on the run tomorrow. My P90X time took a hit this week - forgive me Tony! Looks like speed work on the track won't be happening tomorrow due to today's snow. Maybe a brutal hill workout instead? Hmmm.Thursday - Wolf Hill - Smithfield, RI - 5.3 miles
Ab Ripper X (20 minutes)I felt much better after a few days off and was looking forward to another run in the snow. My Thursday Track workout was cancelled due to snowfall so I opted to hit up Wolf Hill. I figured that running up its many hills in the snow would provide a comparably honest workout.
The snow was nice and crunchy and about 1.5 inches deep for the most part. Great for the Yaktrax. I made a real effort to push it all the hills I encountered and it made for a tough run at times. It was absolutely perfect out there. The snow was just starting to melt off the trees in plops and as the sun rose in the sky everything just glistened.
I did my usual Wolf Hill run, stopping at the quarry and Mercer lookout to take in the sights. Some of the trails had man and dog prints but most had nothing but critter tracks. It made for great running.
Friday - Charlestown, RI - 5.1 miles
FIOS guy was due at my house at some point in the morning. Not wanting to leave the premises I opted to steal a page from the Jonny Hammett playbook and run the hills behind my house. I've got a pretty good hill and there's a trail up there from when kids drove dirt bikes (they were an infestation we discovered when we moved in. Luckily we were able to drive them off.) I figured why let a good hill 'n trail go to waste?The small loop ended up being about 1/4 mile. I ran it a shitload of times in both directions for a total of five miles. This actually proved to be a good workout as the hill became quite demanding towards the end. The only negative was my neighbor's two dogs who ran up and barked at me every time I skirted their fence.
Saturday - Charlestown, RI - 3.1 miles
P90X Stretch (60 minutes)New shoe break-in run! I bought a pair of New Balance 730 road shoes. It has a lot less cushion and heel drop then my Asics Cumulus. The NB 730 is not quite minimal but definitely trending in that direction.
I took 'em out for a short run on the neighborhood streets. They felt good but I was starting to feel 'em by the end. I'm going to ease into these things because they'll certainly take some transitioning from my Asics cloud shoes.
My left calf was tight prior to and after this run. If I jog up the stairs I can feel it tighten up slightly when I reach the top. I think last Sunday's Sufferfest followed by this week's hilly trail runs has taken its toll. I've been going back and forth all day but finally decided to back out of tomorrow's Pachaug run, as much as it pains me to do so. Trying to run 2.5 hours in the woods with those fast hombres would probably do me in. I still planning on running tomorrow but it's going to be local and probably on the roads.
Nice job on the home loop! It's a challenge mentally to repeat the same short distance over and over. We just switched to FIOS - surprised they bothered to offer it to those of us out in the sticks.
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