South County Trails: Weekly Snow Log: 2-9-15 to 2-15-15

Just keep plugging away....

Monday: 0 - snow day, no school or work for my wife. I made it in to the office and then left in the afternoon once I had all my work done as the roads in NK were in bad shape. Back home, I did get outside before dark to do some shoveling and then I snowshoed (hiked) a track on my property with my kids for about a half an hour. I hope to run it sometime this week. Should be fun and challenging.

Tuesday: 0 - surprise sick day. Stayed home as I woke up at 3AM to a runny nose that didn't quit until I went to bed at 9:30PM. I did get the energy to shovel off the flat roof on our house and then did some wood stacking.

Wednesday: 13 miles on two runs. My cold was feeling much better and I stopped at the track on my way to work. I have an idea of a mixed R and I paced workout I want to do, but I did not have the strength in my body to even try it. Instead I just ran easy, although I didn't feel that great. 2 miles in 14:28, then reverse 2 miles in 13:22, then reverse 1 mile in 6:46, then reverse 1 mile in 6:47. 6 miles total in 41:29. In the afternoon I headed out to Ryan Park for a snowshoe run. Again I didn't feel that energetic, but the snowshoe conditions were awesome and I had a lot of fun. 7 miles in 1:00:35.

Powerline trail. The snowmobile track was hidden by Monday's new snow.

Belleville Pond dam

The packed trails look like a luge at times. So much snow.

Thursday: 14 miles on two runs. Again I stopped at URI on my way to work. My body is feeling better, but my lungs were burning on the track. I'm still not ready for a speed workout. Instead I just made up a mini-workout as I went along. There was a bit of traffic on the track (I did have lane 1 though) so I didn't think it was appropriate to run in the wrong direction. This is what I did - 3 mile progression, 1 mile recovery, 1 mile with 8x100 strides. Results: 6:51/6:09/5:51/7:08/6:25. 5 miles in 32:27. In the afternoon it was back to Ryan Park for more snowshoe running. It was warmer than I thought (35 degrees by the time I finished). The conditions were much different today. I believe today is what the snow connoisseurs would call "mashed potatoes". A little slow and my tights did get wet (and cold by the last 20 minutes). I mixed up the route and explored a new side trail (slow going) that leads out to the southwest corner of the pond. I ran briefly on the pond, but I'd rather not be alone doing this. I then rejoined the main trail and thought I would break trail on the "middle trail" since it is apparent the snow will be sticking around for some time, so why not make all the trails accessible? Punching through the wet snow was annoying. It is still deep, even after settling for two weeks. I hit the Rte 4 trail junction and jumped on that, abandoning my plans of breaking the majority of the middle trail. Rte 4 trail was in okay shape. At the end, I headed back down the field trail and then broke trail across the field to connect with the pond side trails. Super deep snow here! I rejoined the rail trail with thoughts of a cross pond finish (where I had seen ice fishermen earlier). There was no one on the pond, so I stayed on the trails. I'm calling this 9 miles in 1:18:19.

Mashed potatoes?

Super deep snow in the field. Where's my showshoe?

Friday: 5 miles - URI Indoor Track workout solo in the AM. I was feeling strong enough for a workout and decided to do some R paced intervals. I didn't want to do the same distance over and over so I came up with the following plan: sets of 600/400/200 with equal recoveries. I figured I would do at least two sets, possibly three, or maybe add something different on to the end of it. I didn't have a lot of time and was planning on a double today, so I didn't do much of a warm up and no cool down. The workout went well and felt relatively smooth. I ended up doing two sets and then 4x200 @ R at the end. This gave me two miles at this pace. Results: 1:53/74/36/1:53/74/36/36/36/35/35 (targets: 600 - 1:52, 400 - 75, 200 - 37). Total time: 34:17. I ended up doing a bunch of errands in Wakefield and ran out of time for a planned snowshoe run at Old Mountain Field. Oh well. Officially acquired a new space watch - the Garmin 620. I like it better than the 610.

Saturday: 18 miles - midday long run with Muddy in Chariho. I had to run early because my wife was working and the weather looked scary. Luckily, Muddy's wife was happy to have my kids over later in the morning so that we could run when it wasn't so cold (-10 in Richmond when I woke up). We ran easy from his house over some hills and gobbling up a few side roads for his running project. I felt uninspired today and I wasn't looking forward to any speed stuff during the run. Eventually it was time to jump into so marathon pace work. The plan was 7 miles, but we both agreed we could cut it short. We began from Meadow Brook on Pine Hill Rd heading east. It was uphill for a half mile and I was working very hard to try to get my pace into the marathon pace zone (6 teens). After two minutes, it didn't seem remotely possible that I could run for almost 45 minutes at this pace. I kept chugging along and by the time the first mile was over (ending with a nice downhill), my watch showed 6:09. Too fast! Oh well. It was beginning to flurry and the roads were super busy with cars. Where was everyone going? It was infuriating at times. On Rte 91 passing Kings Factory Rd, a kid in a truck rolled through a stop sign and almost hit me (I was paying attention so it wasn't that close). He was on a cell phone too. I began shouting at him and then so did Muddy. I was wearing a fluorescent yellow shirt to be as visible as possible. This gave me an adrenaline boost. We finished up the seven miles with the following splits: 6:09/6:13/6:16/6:15/6:06/6:12/6:20. We then stopped briefly to eat Gu and drink Gatorade Muddy had stashed. We then had two huge hills and three miles to go back to his house. Torture! Fun to finish and nail the workout. Total time: 2:03:29 for an average pace of 6:52.

Sunday: 6 miles - snowshoe run in the fresh snow alone. I headed out from my house as the snow was winding down. It was super windy out though and only 20 degrees. I wore my balaclava and was fine. My road hadn't been plowed which was good for snowshoeing. The fresh snow was extremely powdery and easy to run through. I reached Burlingame and headed down trails to Watchaug Pond at North Camp. Galoob had told me that a lot of the trails had been tracked by fat bike group rides and a couple of snowmobiles. The going was decent thanks to these packed trails and just the few inches of new powder on top. The woods were beautiful - the trees still holding snow. I made it down to the pond and planned to take a track across it to another trail (as described by Galoob). The blowing snow on the pond obscured the track, so I just ventured out on the ice a bit and took some pictures and video. I returned on the tracked old camp road and then took VG over to the old double track that leads to the bottom of my road. Hard work going up hill and I resorted to some walking a short breaks. I finished on my road and then did a loop on my property that my kids and myself tracked a few days ago. Fun stuff! Total time: 54 minutes.