Weekly Log 10-7-13 to 10-13-13

Post Nipmuck Trail Marathon my body was rather beat up.  My lower legs and feet actually felt great, but it was my upper legs/lower core and surprisingly my triceps and upper back that were most fatigued.  I guess I need to get back to pushups.  I'm also heading to the eye doctor for new glasses (scratched and bent my current ones during the race) and see if I'm a candidate for contacts (don't think so) or possibly lasik (expensive but tempting).  I ended up taking two days off after the race to let my body heal.  Monday I was too tired and too uncomfortable to run.  Tuesday I committed to errands I had put off for weeks.  I was feeling better and the weather was nice so that was a little annoying.  Back to chasing miles on Wednesday. 

Monday: 0

Tuesday: 0

Wednesday: 11+ miles - Ryan Park trails alone.  I was feeling good enough for an hour or so run.  I ended up feeling better as I went, so I stretched it out longer.  The wind from Sunday/Monday knocked down a lot of leaves, so the woods weren't as colorful as I hoped.  At least it was sunny and a terrific day to be outside. 



Thursday: 16 miles on two runs.  9 miles in the early AM with Galoob at the CCMS track.  It was pitch black when I began warming up at 5:45AM and there wasn't enough light to read my watch for another 30 minutes.  We talked the night before about following a MacMillan 10K workout schedule for our two upcoming goal races: Li'l Rhody Runaround and the Christmas 10K.  The first workout was 6 x mile at 10K pace.  This seemed like an ambitious start and since we have plenty of time, we just did 4 x mile today.  My target pace was 5:40 and we did 400 recoveries.  Results: 5:38/5:36/5:35/5:38.  I was pretty pleased with this, especially coming off the trail marathon a few days ago.  We probably could have pushed for another rep or two, but the miles are supposed to be under control.  They are also supposed to be at 10K pace not faster, so I could have taken it down a notch.  Fun nonetheless.  In the afternoon I headed over to the Queens River Preserve.  I was looking for flat easy trails and dirt roads.  I ran with my phone and used the Strava app in case there were some nice foliage photo opportunities, but no dice.  I think the GPS on my phone aggravates me more than my watch.  I'm tempted to call this longer than 7 miles, but I won't. 



Friday: 8 miles - DuVal Trail alone in the afternoon.  I kept the pace on the challenging side, but with tired legs, who knows how fast I was going.  It was rather humid and by the time I reached Red House Road I took off my shirt.  I then ran the long segment of single track between the roads hard, hoping to improve my PR (Galoob/Garvin Strava battle has made the CR unreachable for me).  I was happy with my consistent effort throughout.  I finished up the way I began for a fun hour. 




Saturday: 11 miles - Grills Preserve group run in the early am.  There were seven of us this morning.  It was still dark when we began, but the light filled in rather nicely.  We stuck to the wider double track at first and then made our way up and over Big Hill.  We cruised along the river on yellow dot before crossing the Polly Coon Bridge.  After a detour to the overlook we ran my favorite trail in this system - silver diamond.  It's rugged, hilly, and well done.  We lucked out at Tomaquag Brook/swamp as the new bridge is being built and there were planks for us to cross.  We ran the easy double track there and dropped off 4 of the guys on Chase Hill Rd.  Muddy, Seth, and I ran back the fun way through the woods.  An excellent WTAC adventure. 



In the afternoon I took the kids to the zoo (met friends there) and there were lots of pumpkins in addition to the usual animals. 

Sunday: 5 miles - quick north Burlingame loop alone in the morning.  I decided that 50 miles for the week would be good enough post marathon, but once I got going, I wished that I had more time.  The weather was a tad chilly, but perfect.  I encountered no humans and began late enough that I wasn't worried about large predatory animals.  The white dot River Trail was nice and dry and I need to go back there with some loppers to keep this trail alive. 



In the afternoon my wife and I celebrated our anniversary with a nice hike around Green Fall Pond and Dinosaur Rock.  Nice colors out there and a perfect fall day. 




Weekly Total: 51 miles
Last Week: 66 miles
Year to Date: 2530 miles