Weekly Log: 8.26.13 - 9.1.13

Monday - Ryan Park, North Kingstown, RI - 7.1 miles

Started off the week with an easy run at Ryan Park. Wore the super minimal MT00s as I'm considering them for a 5k up at Bryant in a few weeks.  The race is on mostly grass and I think these'll work well. Pretty standard Ryan Park run. Ran the trails/paths on the west side and then ran the stuff on the east side. Really tried to push the pace on the Root Run segment on Strava. I could feel my ankles wanting to roll on a couple of the roots in the MT00s - careful buddy. Managed to tie Jonny for 2nd on this dicey segment.  No bugs today and coolish. Fall is on its way.

Tuesday - 0 miles

P90X Legs & Back (60 minutes)

Wednesday - 0 miles

P90X2 Yoga X2 (65 minutes)

Thursday - North Smithfield track - 8.7 miles

Time to get back on the track! Upper legs are soooore from Legs & Back. Take a few weeks off from that one and you feel it. Nevertheless, I wanted to get some speedwork in today. Weather was ideal - overcast and just barely spitting. North Smithfield high track was deserted and my leg soreness faded after a few warm-up laps. I decided to try a ladder workout - 2 x200 / 2 x400 / 2 x600 / 2 x800 / 2 x600 / 2 x400 / 2 x200 with half the distance jog in between each (ex. 200m after the 400s, 300m after the 600s.)  Good workout, pretty brutal by the end. The second set of 600s was probably my least favorite. I probably should've worked out exactly what times I was going for instead of just working hard but I felt spent by the end so mission accomplished.

Splits:
200s - 39 / 39
400s - 1:21 / 1:23
600s - 2:03 / 2:05
800s - 2:48 / 2:50
600s - 2:05 / 2:08
400s - 1:22 / 1:23
200s - 39 / 37

Friday - DuVal Trail, South Kingstown, RI - 6.3 miles

Ab Ripper X (15 minutes)

Off from work for the day and in the afternoon I got over to Perryville to put in some easy trail miles.  Not much to report - took a couple diggers and scratched up my knee pretty good.   Met a lone kid who was mountain biking out there.  The bike seemed huge for him.

Saturday - Grills Preserve, Westerly, RI - 12.3 miles

Wasn't sure where to run today but then Grills popped into my head and I thought, "yeah, that'll do."  Had a brief encounter with Muddy as I drove down towards the parking lot.  The only other time I was here was a few months back when he and Crutch gave me a tour of these various land trusts.  I repeated most of what we ran that day except I did it in reverse.

First I did trails south of the Pawcatuck.  Ran up the big hill and admired the lookout.  Crazy to think how close to the water and town I was but all I could see is trees.  I ran into a family with a big unleashed dog who ran straight at me while its owner assured me that "he's very friendly" and immediately thought of Jonny.  Stopped at that beautiful new bridge to eat my last RLRC and then took the very hillish trails up to a scenic vista.

Then it was time to take the white diamond trail into the nether reaches of Grills.  The sign at the beginning of the trail tells users that the Tommawhatsit bridge isn't finished yet and clearly that dissuades most people because this trail has seen very little traffic.  It's rooty, steep and I really enjoyed it.  But I knew that soon I'd reach the end of the trail.  Two options: Head back or try to bushwack through the marsh to the where the trails continued.

Muddy would be proud.  I made it across with only a few scratches and muddy shoes (though I did lose my right shoe in the last jump - had to pry it out of the muck.)   Then I ran the trails north of the Pawcatuck, passing a family of hikers several times as I went back and forth.  When I got to the lot I ran the roads back around to my car but decided to hop back on the trails for a couple more miles before wrapping up.  So my "long run" for the week was only 12 miles but it felt like a lot of work with the hills and the swamp traverse.

Sunday - 0 miles 

 

Weekly Mileage: 34.4 miles

Year to Date: 1,229.3 miles

202 miles for the month!  Happy to hit 200 for the first time but looking forward to getting back into racing over the next few weeks.