Weekly Log: 4.6.15 - 4.12.15

With the Big River race in the rearview mirror, I don't have any races on the horizon.  At this point I feel like my janky knee is in pretty good shape with minimal jankyness.  I want to hit the trails as much as possible and work more speed/hills into my weekly runs.  Looking forward, I'm sure there's a challenge race out there for me but I'm not sure what it is yet.  It may be that I don't pick a major races until the fall.  Onwards and upwards!

Monday - Charlestown, RI - 6 miles

Ezri has a stomach bug so I was staying home with her.  While Amanda was still home I took the opportunity to head over to Carter Preserve at sunrise.  It's great to finally be back on clear trails.  There was only one spot with snow and it was just before the grasslands loop.  The snow there was surprisingly deep.  I ran most of the trails in the preserve and my legs were still feeling pretty tired from Big River.

Tuesday - East Providence, RI - 6.2 miles

I went over to the Ten Mile River bikepath.  It was drizzling a bit and cold.  On the way out I hit as many trails as I could before doing a loop at Slater Park.  I stuck to the path on the way back.  My legs still don't have much pep but they loosened up by the end.

Wednesday - Seekonk, MA - 4 miles

Now that spring is well and truly here I'm hitting all the trail spots near work.  Today I went over to the Caratunk Preserve.  I expected it to be pretty wet and it was.  The muskrat pond has overflowed and the trail that circles it is underwater.  There were water hazards throughout the preserve but I made my way around or through all of them.  Short run but my legs still felt taxed.  I'm guessing it's a mix of Big River hangover and just being generally out of shape when it comes to trails.

Thursday - Johnston, RI - 8 miles

I was able to get out of the house at 6 AM and I wanted to visit on of my old haunts from when I worked at Smithfield.  I've been seeing some Strava runs at the Snake Den state park so that prompted me to return there.  I knew it would be wet and I was not disappointed - there were some pretty dank areas and the connector trail was quite boggy in places.  My Garmin didn't have any juice so I brought my flip phone just so that I could keep track of time.  It was great running these trails again and the climbs up along the powerlines did not disappoint - great views up there.  It looks like folks had taken a chainsaw to one hangout spot and cleared a few pine trees to make the view truly stellar.  I ran for about 75 minutes so I'm calling it 8 miles.  Good to be back in these woods.

Friday - Charlestown, RI - 4.2 miles

Took the dog out for an early jog.  Luckily the rain held off until later in the morning.  We ran into a shitty German Shephard that my wife is always complaining about.  He was in the middle of the road barking at us.  I didn't want to deal with it so we went over to Mohawk/Kickapoo roads instead.

Saturday - 0 miles

I was out late from playing a gig at the Malted Barley.  It went well but four hours of sleep left me in a zombie state for much of the day.  Still got some stuff done though and an afternoon nap helped.  By evening it was time to do it again but this time at the Newport Sportsman Club.  Luckily a reserve of energy kicked in and we had a good show.

Sunday - Charlestown, RI - 12.5 miles
After getting home at 3 AM it was another lifeless day.  I dragged myself through it and manageable to get some chores done but as the afternoon crept along I didn't see a run happening.  Another nap helped and I finally made it out in the late afternoon and went over to Watchaug.  I was looking for around 12-13 miles so I did a counterclockwise loop which included Sammy C's, North Camp, Vin Gormley and a bit of the Brrr-lingame ridge trail.  Fun run and I felt good through.  As I approached North Camp I heard a couple dogs that sounded really angry.  I decided to avoid the hellhounds but as I still ran into unleashed dogs as I was heading away from North Camp.  The young women walking behind them couldn't even be bothered with the obligatory "Don't worry they're friendly."   People have no goddamn sense when they bring their dogs into the woods.  

Otherwise it was a fine run.  Plenty of mountain bikers out there and I even saw a couple guys climbing the steep rocks near Buckeye Brook Road.  I tweaked that nerve on the arch of my foot with about four miles to go and it was a pain to run with the rest of the way.  But eventually it settled down.  I was pretty tired by the end but I ended up with a few minutes to kill before picking Em up from work so I checked out a tiny trail network behind the Cross Mills library.  Not much to say about it other than it has some marsh, runs near Route 1 and does a fine job of identifying local trees.

Weekly Mileage: 41 miles
Year to Date: 436.3

Good week of running and fun weekend.  I'd like to keep my mileage in the 40s for the next few weeks.