Weekly Log: 5.11.15-5.17.15

Monday - East Providence, RI - 8.7 miles

100 push-ups (standard) 20/20/20/20/20

I did almost nine miles of trails yesterday and I had the desire to match the distance on the roads today.  I wanted to see if I could map out a big loop that took me up to Pawtucket over the river and then back down the Blackstone walking path.  I had done it before in the other direction at around 11 miles but I wanted to tighten up the route for a lunch run.  Strava mapped it out at 8.5 miles which sounded good.

It was mid-afternoon and hot as balls when I set out (84 degrees accordingly to the web).  I had chilled a handheld in advance which was wise.  I went out way to fast and dropped a few 7 minute miles and soon felt the mistake as the hot sun beat down on me.  The pace dropped as I went and I tried to stay on the shady side of the street.  I had to stop a couple times to regroup.  I went through the Blackstone trails and at that point I was wiped out and glad to be almost finished.  This heat wave has come on so suddenly that I had forgotten the tenants of summer running.  I'll need to make sure I take it slower in the future.

Tuesday - Seekonk, MA - 6 miles

After two 9 mile days I went back to Caratunk to do an easy trail run.  I didn't spend much time in the preserve before taking roads over to that new atv trail network I found last time.  This trail network was much bigger than I had thought with wide dirt trails following a long powerline stretch.  Before I knew it time was flying by and I had to get back to work.  However I was pretty far from the car if I backtracked.  I ended up circling a hidden pond and coming out behind some businesses.  Luckily I was able to recognize the roads and get back to the car with no issues.  A new fun place to run!

Wednesday - Providence, RI - 7.3 miles

I was shocked and shagrinned when I went to change into my running gear and realized I had forgotten shorts.   I was thinking about how I'd fit in the miles the rest of the week when I remembered I had some cargo shorts in my desk.  But I couldn't really run in them.  Thankfully my coworkers goaded me into giving it a shot and out I went.  I stuck to my plan of taking the most direct route to the far side of College Hill and doing a couple hill repeats.  I scaled the steep end three times which was good for about 700 feet of elevation gain.  I didn't push it particularly hard up them.  This should be a weekly occurrence for me - it will make me strong.

Thursday - Charlestown, RI/East Providence, RI - 12.8 miles

110 push-ups (standard) 25/30/25/30

I got some new kicks last night - last year's version 4 of the New Balance 890s - and tried them out with the dog in the early morning.  Love that it's so light so early now.  Pace was slow and I was feeling all the recent miles in my legs.

I wasn't planning on running during the day but then decided to jump over to the dirt road/trails along the river.  They're only a 1/4 mile from the office but they are filthy - littered with trash and pollution from the oil refinery next door.  I decided to take the train tracks over the bridge to explore a little further than I had been before.  There was a big open area along the river.  At one time there must have been buildings here.  Now it was just trash, grass and bits of brick and stone.  Legs still didn't have much life in them.

I had a gig at the Parlour that night so after work I decided to hit up the Ten Mile River Bikepath for run #3 of the day.  The lot was packed!  I'd never been here after work and the place was filled with little league games.  As soon as I started running my legs felt great and the pace was much faster than the previous two outings.   I took the bike path down to Slater Park, mixing in some trails along with the pavement.  Good run!  This was supposed to be a low mileage day but it ended up being anything but.

Friday - 0 miles

Saturday - 0 miles

Sunday -Charlestown, RI - 16.2 miles

After two days off I was ready to get in an honest long run.  I plotted out a course which I thought would net me about 15 miles.  I decided to take Route 1 over to DuVal.  It was 6 AM so the highway was pretty quiet and stress free.  I ran most of the DuVal trails including the new lollipop trail and then took the dirt road over to the Sand Dunes.  I remembered a trail I found past the dunes and explored where it went.  It led down to a swampy section and eventually revealed itself to be a loop.  Another more prominent trail led me back to the dunes.  There are definitely more trails here I need to explore.  Then I passed through the old folks neighborhood and took the Heart trail back over to Browning woods.  Then it was a few quick road miles back to the house.  Calves were getting sore towards the end but overall a great long run.

Weekly Mileage: 51.1 miles

Year to date: 647.7 miles

My first 50+ week of the year.  Not bad considering I took two days off.  Feeling good and ready for more long stuff.

Weekly Log: 9.15.14-9.21.14

And now begins three weeks of high mileage and hard training.  Suddenly it feels like fall and suddenly I feel completely unprepared for the Bimbler's Bluff 50k which is only five weeks away.  No point in worrying about it now.  I'm going to try to run as much as I can up until the NipMuck Marathon on the 7th and then I'll take my foot off the gas and coast all the way to Bimbler's.  Here we go!

Monday - Providence, RI - 5 miles

I had been meaning to incorporate some hill repeats over one of the College Hill roads for a while but I knew it meant driving closer to the hill in order to fit it in at lunch.  The east side of Providence is a goddamn mess with construction that's been going on for months - you never know which road will be ripped up and shut down.  Anyway, I finally drove over there and after a mile warm-up I reached Jenckes Road which has a pretty gnarly hill and a popular Strava segment.  I didn't think I had a shot at the segment so instead I just focused on honest efforts on this tough hill.  I had intended to do five but threw in one extra.  The first couple weren't bad but the 4th and 5th hurt.  I ended up 7th out of 37 for the Strava segment - there's definitely room for improvement there.

Tuesday - East Providence, RI - 7.5 miles

37 pull-ups w/ assists (4/3, 6, 6, 5/2, 7, 5/3, 4/4)
Ab Ripper X (15 minutes)

Big improvement with the pull-ups this morning - I tried to do them quicker which helped keep me from tiring.  The tricky part was avoiding too much momentum in my legs which pushed them closer to kipping pull-ups.  I didn't bother with assisted pull-ups for some of the sets since I was getting in so many real pull-ups.  Good stuff.

At lunch, I hit the roads with a vague idea of the area I wanted to explore.  Legs felt good and the pace was just over 7 minute miles.  Mostly I just ran through a bunch of East Providence neighborhoods, stopping briefly at a gas station to pick up a cliff bar.  Very positive run for me and an indication that Crutch and Greg were right a few weeks ago when they blamed the heat/humidity for bringing me down.  Upon review on Strava I learned there's a new mile segment near the office on a fast stretch of road.  I placed 5th.  This will not stand.

Wednesday - East Providence, RI - 5 miles

I wanted to run trails so I went over to the 10 Mile River Bike Path, intent on avoiding the path and only running trails if possible.  No issue with that, there's enough trails that run along and near the bike path to make it possible to reach Slater Park while barely touching pavement.

Thursday - 0 miles

220 push-ups (standard/military/wide) 40/30/40/40/30/40

Boss decided to buy us lunch to celebrate a colleague's birthday.  I can't say no to mexican so it looks like today'll be a zero.  I'm going to try to cram a shitload of miles into the next two days to see if I can hit 50 and take Sunday off.

Friday - Charlestown, RI/Seekonk, MA/Providence, RI - 18.7 miles

48 pull-ups (standard/chin-up) 6/8/5/8/6/9 - No assists!

Early morning dog jog in the dark.  Oliver wanted to stop and pee a lot.  Headlamp kept crapping out on me.  Otherwise fine.  Stretched it a little further since today's a big running day - 3.5 miles.

At lunch time, four easy miles in Caratunk Preserve.  Saw several couples wandering the trails, including a couple ladies deep in the swampy section.  You normally don't see any other folks back there.

After work I planned out a longer loop that took me through the East Side of Providence, up into Pawtucket and then back down into East Providence.  I had my eye on a couple segments.  The running path along Blackstone Blvd has several and while the top times were out of reach I still put in a hard effort on the path which netted me 7th out of 248 on a 1.6 mile segment.  Then I ventured over to the Riverside Cemetery and put in another hard effort on the nearly mile loop around the perimeter.  The cemetery dropped down towards the water which made the second half incline painful.

After that I was winded but kept the pace in the low 7s as I entered Pawtucket.  After I crossed the river and made my way back into East Providence I picked up the pace a bit.  I saw that my average pace was under 7 minutes and wanted to keep it that way.  I explored the roads on another cemetery before completing the run on familiar roads.  Fun run and the hard segments and overall snappy pace resulted in a great workout.

Saturday - Arcadia, Exeter, RI - 19.1 miles

Met up with Muddy at the Ranger Station at 6 AM to explore the trails of south Arcadia.  After 18+ miles yesterday and 5 hours of sleep I was just hoping to hang on and get through the whole 2.5 hour  run.  It was still pretty dark when we set out and as soon as we entered the woods the sighting was tricky.  I nearly bit it on a rocky section but stayed vertical.  After 15 minutes or so the visibility improved and we stayed on the North-South trail for a while, enjoying the rocky boulder section.  We explored a side trail that ran along Route 95 before returning the North-South/Yellow trail.  Then we took the long wooden walkway to the Browning Mill Pond Loop.  This was a fun loop - I had never been to this great little spot and will definitely need to bring the girls.

We returned to the Yellow trail and took it up to Route 165.  We were 1.5 hours in and I was still feeling pretty good.  But for how long?  We decided to set out on the Mt. Tom Trail and then take roads back down to the cars.  We followed the Mt. Tom Trail to where it crosses Route 165 and then took 165 back to Mt. Tom Road until we hit Blitzkrieg Trail (really a dirt road.)  We were at 15 miles and I was tired.  The next three miles of dirt road were at a sub 8 minute pace but I was ready to be done - my quads and hamstrings seemed prepared to revolt at any moment.  The last mile was Arcadia Road pavement but exhausting.  I was so glad to see the Smokey the Bear sign and our cars.  Fun run with great conversation though the last few miles were a grind.

Sunday - 0 miles

Calves are very tight after yesterday's long journey.  No running today for sure.  We went to see the Black Keys up at the Boston Garden.  Good show but getting home at 1:30 AM on a Sunday night is no bueno.

Weekly Mileage: 55.4 miles

Year to Date:  1,429.9 miles

Good week although cramming in 38 miles over two days really wore me out.  We'll see if I can keep it going for another week!