Weekly Log: 6.1.15 - 6.7.15

A new week, a new month.  I'm without my beloved spacewatch this week.  A new one will hopefully arrive by week's end.  Until then I'm going to have to map out runs/guestimate my distance.  First world problems, indeed.

Monday - East Providence, RI - 7 miles

I parked further south along the East Bay bike path so I could explore further.  The section in Riverside was in rough shape from the previous night's storm - lots of rocks and debris on the path.  It was overcast and cool but the rain held off - perfect running weather.  The last time I was on this path was during the 2012 Providence Marathon so my memory was hazy.  Down into Barrington the path runs alongside a beautiful pond/marsh landscape.  Unfortunately it was time to turn around at this point.  Nice area and I'll be sure to return again.

Tuesday - West Greenwich, RI - 6 miles

200 push-ups (standard/military/wide) 30/25/25/30/20/40/30

Cold and rainy morning.  Amanda wasn't working so I was able to run before heading up to Providence.  That meant trails even though conditions were shitty out there.  I opted to stick to the dirt roads of Big River.  It made for a relaxing morning run once my hands warmed up.  Instead of my lunch run I went to donate blood - always a good thing to do.  And another family milestone - Em got her driver's license today.  Watch out world!

Wednesday - Providence, RI - 8.1 miles

Elbow planks (in seconds) 47/54/62/55/43/53/66/52/62

Planks!  The great equalizer.  Did some of these in the office today and oof, that'll do it.  I've been slacking off about doing push-ups in the morning so this little office sessions seem like a good alternative.

Beautiful day for a lunch run so I went over and did a loop through Providence.  Early on I took a path behind East Side Market to an old railroad drawbridge that's no longer in use.  A guy was running down the tracks pops out of the woods and introduced himself - turns out it was Warren Angell and he recognized me from our mutual friends.  You never know who you're going to meet on a run.  Then I continued on through India Point Park and over to Kennedy Plaza but heading back to the office through Brown.  A fun run and the legs felt good.  This mid-distance runs seem to be doing the trick!

Thursday - East Providence, RI - 4 miles

180 push-ups (standard/wide/decline) 30/25/20/30/30/20/25

Dropped the car in the morning off nearby for an oil change and ran the mile back to the office.  In the afternoon I ran back to pick it up but went and checked out the new "Linear Park."  It's the rebuilt bike path along 295.  It's actually pretty nice and there's a separate walking section from the bike lane for most of it.  Not sure if it makes it any faster for me to get over to India Point Park but it's a nice alternative.  Very easy day overall.  And my new Garmin Forerunner 210 arrived at home - looking forward to trying it out tomorrow.

Friday - Seekonk, MA - 10 miles

Ab Ripper X (15 minutes)

My new watch is here!  The Garmin Forerunner 210 is a streamlined watch with less info displays.  But since I never used the 305 for setting up fancy workouts, this one should suit me just fine.  Decided to try a loop that incorporated Caratunk, a bunch of country roads and then those dunes I discovered nearby.  It's spring and Caratunk is in its glory - tall grasses and plenty of flowers and creatures.  From there I followed the powerlines to where I bushwacked through the woods to a super fancy neighborhood with the swankiest of the swank houses dwell.  I was now in familiar territory and took these roads for a big loop which eventually led to the dunes.  I wanted to do a loop around the pond before taking another potential shortcut back to some roads.  Guess I was a little cocky 'cause I got pretty turned around in there.  It ended up adding an extra 1.5 miles to the run.  Looking at Strava, I should have stuck to my guns because I turned around right before the trail I was looking for.

The trail around the pond was busy.  First I had to skirt past a giant old fashioned van two stoners had driven down a dirt trail that barely fit it.  Once I got past Fishbowl McGee and Smokey Joe, I soon came upon a couple more respectable teen fishing in the pond.  The shortcut I was looking for worked, I came out in a neighborhood but it was still another 1.5 miles back to the car.  I'm sure with some snooping I can find a more direct shortcut back to Caratunk.  Anyway the watch seemed to work well and as a plus it's very wearable as an everyday watch.

Back in business!

Saturday - South Kingstown, RI - 2.5 miles

In what was less of a run and more of an excuse to mess around with the new spacewatch, I stopped over near Matunuck Schoolhouse Road to check out a few (very) small trail sections.  The first was an Art Trail with about 24 different exhibits along it's very short route.  Then I continued on to a management area that led to a field with very tall grass.  Looked like tick central so no thank you.  Then I found a found down a utility road of some sort.

Sunday - Charlestown, RI - 9.9 miles

I was planning a long run but we made a last minute decision to attend the Backroads Ramble 5k at Camp Wachaug.  I still went out in the morning but cut the run short.  I did two loops in North Burlingame on the main dirt roads.  Got six miles out of it and my legs felt tired.  How would I race in a few hours?

As it often is, the legs loosed up and felt much better by race time.  I'll have a separate report on the race itself soon enough.

Weekly Mileage: 47.6 miles

Year to Date: 786.4 miles

Another solid week of running ending with an unexpected race.   Legs are feeling the miles so I plan to ease off a bit next week.