Monday: 9 miles - Rome Point trails alone. I wasn't super motivated to run after a busy weekend and a frustrating day at work, but the pre-run iced coffee perked me up. I took it relatively easy today and there was nothing out of the ordinary to report. Total time: 64:50.
Tuesday: 10 miles - Ryan Park trails 2 x 5M alone. A repeat workout from a couple of weeks ago. For some reason I really enjoy running the 5 mile course hard, stopping briefly at my car for water, and then running the 5 miles again. My legs felt pretty good today, so I kept a swift pace and then ramped it up on the last 3/4 mile straightaway (old rail bed). My speed seemed to be faster than my 400 efforts on the bike path. My first lap clocked in at 33:29 - 6:40 pace. I'm thinking that this 5 miles may be a bit long based on recent results. My second lap again began as a recovery run, but after a few minutes my body worked itself back up to a nice pace without any thought on my part. After two miles, I felt like I was flying again. I did a good job of sprinting the last 3/4 mile. 2nd lap - 35:41. Total time: 69:10.
Wednesday: 8 miles - Saunderstown hilly roads solo. I began my run from the Rome Point parking lot instead of the park and ride. This made for a nice 2 mile flat warm up. The radar looked ominous, but it never really rained while I was out there. The hills felt easy today, but I was going a little slower than normal. I couldn't figure out the best way to end the run (more roads or maybe trails?), and ended up just stopping when I reached my car again. No point in overdoing it. Total time: 61:45.
Thursday: 10 miles - Ryan Park trails alone. I wanted to keep it easy today and opted for trails in case it rained. I ran the 7 mile course, but started from the pond to mix things up. Instead of repeating a portion to get to 10 miles, I explored some side trails (mostly just re-finding dead ends I had found years before). One of these dead ends was an awesome technical single track I had somehow missed. I would like to incorporate it into my routine, but the set up tent and campfire chairs I saw spooked me. This coincided with a darkening sky and then rain. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. By the time I reached my car, I was hearing the first rumbles of thunder. Total time: 1:17:39.
Friday: 9 miles - 9x400 workout on the Quonset Bike Path with Calf Pasture Point cool down alone. I wanted to do a track workout for once and drove over to the local high school to do it. Unfortunately, I was greeted by a couple of intimidating signs warning me not to use the track. I'm pretty sure the public has the right to use it, but I wasn't looking to be a rabblerouser, and I drove over to the Quonset Bike Path. The streets were lined with cars, as the annual air show is this weekend, and the locals know that Friday is the training run day - same planes, less crowds. I couldn't help but get angry though as I watched birds and animals move around frantically, horribly stressed out by this spectacle. Don't get me wrong, it is really amazing to watch. But it is incredibly loud - like the end of the world loud. Back to the running. I have an iphone for work now. I read in a coworker's magazine about a running app that seemed interesting to test out called Runkeeper. This was the perfect opportunity to measure and time real 400's on the bike path. The GPS signal was strong, so I think it was accurate. The trick was stopping at 400 meters - a couple of times it stopped at .41km, so I subtracted a second from my time. Is that fair? The results: 85/82/82/84/84/86/85/84/82. I usually opt for a full recovery, but this time I was having so much fun playing with the app that I cut the recovery jog short. After the 5th one I wished I hadn't done that. I wasn't even going to do a 9th one, but I'm glad I was able to put together another 82. The cooldown was more enjoyable than normal, even though the tide was too high for me to get very far on the beach. In the woods, I decided to run up the large high rocks (50ft elevation gain - rest of park flat). I heard a large animal rush to get out of my way. I was a little alarmed, until I noticed it was a cute, white spotted baby deer. I don't know why it was hanging out on top of the rocks, but the scary loud planes probably are to blame. Total time: 66 minutes.
Saturday: 1 mile - South County Bike Path with my family. I thought I would run alongside my son on his bike for a nice little recovery run from Friday's workout. Unfortunately, my son was not in the mood to ride very far, and took frequent whining stops. It was still a nice day to be outside (the sun!).
Sunday: 6 miles - Gravelly Hill out and back trail with Jon. A nice morning run before the sun came out. We started pretty easy, but before long we were crusing along at a good clip. We reached the end of the trail (3 miles) in 23:01. We kept up that pace for most of the way back until slowing it down a tad at the end. Surprisingly, we were about a minute faster for a total time of 45:08.
Overall: A fun week of running. I'm excited to do the long Arcadia Loop with Boj on Monday!
Weekly Total: 53 miles
Last Week: 48 miles
Year to Date: 1119 miles
Yet another great week going!
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