Needs Work

I bought a number belt yesterday to make a bellylamp.  Well, I tried it out on a short 3-mile run in the fields.  Right now, I'd choose putting it back on the original strap and running with a headlamp.  We'll see if I can get it right before Stone Cat.  It's not like I'll need it very long, but I'd still like to get it right. 

WNR

I couldn't make TNR; Because of work problems, Rick couldn't get home to let Spot out.  She didn't know her dog walk was at the cost of my run.  I could have gone out after, but she also deserves some company.  I put out a message on the TMR forum asking if anyone was interested in a run at Fore River Sanctuary or Twin Brooks after work.  Emma was the first to say she could make TB.  I had to tell Zak that I already was headed there; he could have run Fore River, but now I know there are options during the week!

Emma had planned on six miles.  I thought maybe I could squeeze in six, but definitely the usual five.  Emma had Kip along.  It was obvious that he was very happy to be included; I think he had more enthusiasm than on TNR.  We covered the upcoming Stone Cat first.  I think there are at least five TMs doing the 50 and seven or eight running the marathon, a pretty strong group.  Then we caught up on all different topics.

The trails were their normal muddy fun.  I swear that mud almost becomes a part of your skin.  I scrubbed with a pretty firm brush to get it off and it never really washed out of my toes completely.  I did stop after 5.3 miles, but Emma headed on to finish all her six.  Thanks, Emma and Kip, for a great WNR!

Behind Three

So.  I'm more behind on other stuff...Here's my last three runs:

Thursday, Oct. 20th:
I still don't really have the night running down.  It is better than not running.  Last night I ran the road for a bit; I had to take care of an up-the-street neighbor's kitty so I incorporated that into the run.  The headlamp still disorients me.  I realized that, even without the light, it is easy to follow our road.  It's especially nice since it was just repaved last summer.  Any time there were no cars, I'd turn off the light.  That was also weird; I felt like I wasn't moving forward at all.  That weird was a fun weird.

It didn't take long before I decided I didn't care that I had my road shoes on (really, really old road shoes); I headed into the fields.  Well, not 1/4 mile in, I let out a loud scream.  Some sort of winged creature took off right in front of me.  In the darkness, I felt like it was a pterodactyl.  More likely, it was a dove.  Adrenaline pumping, I picked up the pace and finished up with 3.6 miles.

Saturday, Oct. 22nd:
I planned on running 18-20 miles.  I hadn't planned on waking up with a pretty sore back.  The nerve was causing pain in my ankle, calf, and knee.  The spasmed muscle was painful in my right-side lower back.  I hoped it would loosen up.

I had just pulled into the parking lot (of course, at the Brad!)at 7:30am, when Jeremy came running in from the mountain side.  Yay!  I don't think I'd gotten to run with Jeremy since Mindy's 40-4-40.  We headed out for the connector.  All our chatter helped keep my mind off my back.

When we ran back into the parking lot, many of the TMs were finishing up their runs.  I had fun visiting, but soon was starting to get a chill and asked if anyone else was looking for more miles.  Blaine was up for a little more.  Then it dawned on me to ask the actual time cause I was meeting Mindy and Dora at 9:30.  Only 8 minutes...might as well just wait.

Great smile :D

Blaine stepping in front of Jeremy

The intended shot

Nate A, Four's cousin, George, and Four

Mindy and Dora arrived within seconds of each other, right on time.  We also picked up Steve T who was looking for just over 2 hours of running.  Mindy was thinking 10 miles, her longest since the post-40 LLL troubles.  Dora had the same mileage in mind.  We opted for the east side.  For the first few miles, Mindy and I caught up (I have been in SoA withdrawal) while Dora and Steve conversed.  Somewhere along the way, maybe with a pee break, the order of the runners got shuffled.  So I talked with Steve and Mindy with Dora for the last miles on the east side. Oh!  It was also fun to cross paths with TMs, Kate and Christine (with ? ...crap.  someone I'm sure I should know :( ) on their run.  Mindy was feeling her lack of miles.  My back was getting grumpier.  My calf was both burning and stabbing.  The lower back pain was starting to include the left side as well. I suggested that we head back to the parking lot and then reassess our plans.

Kate and Christine were in the lot when we arrived.  Steve decided to head out on the mountain.  Us girls chatted a bit while Kate massaged her sore pieces on the bumper of her Fit.  Mindy decided to join Kate on her remaining 2.5 miles.  Dora was going to stay with me for another 5 to bring my total to 20.  Dora and I went back out on the connector, again filling the air with non-stop chatter.  By the time we reached the quarry on Tyron Mountain, my back was more than grumpy.  The climbs were definitely more of a problem than the flats or even the downs (usually it's the downs that bother my back/pf, but this was a new issue).  Dora was very supportive and more than willing to walk when I needed to.  She told me about the Thera Bear that she had won at a seminar she'd attended the day before and offered it to me.  I may have made some attempt to turn it down, but, the back won out.  Smart back.  It ended up really making a difference.  Thankfully, that meant it was just muscular and not the disk.

Mindy and Kate were done when we got back.  Mindy was able to do her planned 10 after all.  I like how that works.  You think you're done, but you give yourself a chance, telling yourself you can drop if you need to; then you don't.  I was at 19.4.  I had no interest in getting in that extra 0.6 to bring it to 20.  I had no interest in anything but my shower.  I spent most of the rest of the day nuking Bradly Bear and getting warm bear hugs.  He even came to bed with me.

Sunday, Oct. 23rd:
Rick and I went to the Brad to get in 10 miles.  My back was stiff, but not painful.  We opted for running the east side.  I took any path that I felt like it, trying to avoid running a race course.  Of course, in order to get in any kind of miles, we had to include trails that races covered, but not in the same order and we included trails not in any Bradbury dirt series.

By the time we'd run 7 miles, by back felt like it did at the start of Saturday's run.  I was glad to finish without feeling any worse. We even got in a little extra mileage for 10.8 (and that was without the Island or O).  We drove Sam back to WPI almost immediately after showers.  I wore a Theracare wrap for the trip.  It worked, but not with as much love as the bear.



 

2nd TNR

It seems, from my big two night sample, that TNR gets a good turn out.  I know for certain that Ian, Jeff, Nate A, Four's cousin (George?), Erik, Christine, Erin, and Blaine ran.  There may have been more.  Again, I started out with the front runners.  I was happy to stick with them for 3.5 miles, almost a mile more than last week.  Ian was going to drop with me, but I saw headlights not far behind and assured him I'd be okay.  I didn't run very long by myself before Erik and Blaine picked me up at an intersection where I stood pondering left or right (it was right and I would have been, too).  Blaine was just off his stellar performance at MDI, but you'd never know it.  So we ran together the rest of the way.


Though I stuck with the first group longer than last week, turns out I didn't run any faster overall.  The pace had been slightly slower than last week.  In fact, the average pace was 8 sec/mile slower.  Oh well. 

Karen and Allen were with the finishers when we got in.  Karen was trying out teen little Inov8s from the back of Ian's Honda.  This time people seemed to have hung around a little longer.  I would have too, but I needed to get back to drive with Sam, who has a driving test Thursday.  We never did get out; I fell asleep after dinner.  Mmmmm...sleep.  I haven't been able to do that in a while.  Felt very good.

Connector Ambassador

I love this title bestowed upon me by Mindy.  I take it quasi-seriously (ok, I take it with lots of jocularity).  I just love showing the path to people that haven't run it yet.  So far, I've introduced George, Mindy, Rick, Julia, Danielle (with Ian's help), and, now, Dora. 

After my last 36 hours, I really needed to run.  It was a big plus to get to share that run with Dora.  We met up with the goal of running 10 -12 miles at the Brad.  I had already warned her I needed to bitch a lot.  She willingly lent her ear and gave me creative control of the run.  Since she hadn't done the Connector and we could easily get our mileage that way, we decided that would be our run.

The trails were very wet.  We kept the pace pretty easy.  She let me vent till I was done, offered all the welcomed sympathy, and then caught me up on her three weekends of pretty awesome events.  The connector required some degree of attention since it was pretty leaf covered, but we had no wrong turns. 

We got back to the parking lot with the Garmin reading 10.8 miles.  I knew when the data was adjusted, we'd probably have at least 11, but we extended the run to make the Garmin read exactly 11.  Yay!  So good to have a great friend share with.

Hotel Dreadmill

I was able to leave a few hours early from my last day of my first week of work so that Rick and I could make it to his niece's soccer game in R.I.  She's starting as a freshman for LaSalle and were playing URI.  The plan was to pick up Ryan and Nori on the way.  Well, the drive to Brown should take 3.5 to 3.75 hrs, but we were thinking 4 or maybe a little over given the rain and rush hour traffic.  It ended up being more like 5.5.  Since we were so late, we didn't stop for food, only to pick up the kids.  The drive to Kingston (where URI is) wasn't much better.  The forecast had been for the rain to lighten then stop.  It never did.  In fact, instead of lightening we had lightning!

We met up with Rick's dad and sister.  The game had gotten underway, but they pulled the teams off the field to wait out the storm.  It never happened.  So, instead, we all went out to dinner.  Rick and I drove Nori and Ryan back to school.  We then had to get back on the highway to get a hotel; Brown and RISD were both having parents weekend.  I think we were in our rooms by 11:30pm.

Oh, yeah, this is about running.  After a hotel breakfast, I hit the hotel treadmill.  It was the typical workout room:  treadmill, elliptical, stairclimber, and some free weights.  An older man, a grandpa visiting his granddaughter at RSDI, was just finishing up on the treadmill.  When it was my turn, I quickly ramped up the speed and elevation and then quickly turned it off.  It was soooo noisy.  The control console and bottle-holding assembly was not put together very well and the vibration was surprisingly loud.  I tried to see if it could be put together more tightly or if the bottle-holder could be removed.  Nope.  OK, I'd just bump the volume of the TV.  I couldn't make it loud enough without being obnoxious.  I settled for holding the assembly with one hand to dampen the vibration.  I did this on and off as my tolerance for the noise would run out or my arm would get tired.  I got in 4.5 miles before I was done of the set up.

From there is was up 146 to pick up Sam from WPI.  They finished finals this past week for their first term.  The ride was so much better than Friday's.  What we were greeted with when we arrived home....I'll just say Spot's GI track was extremely messed up.  UGH!  My run at the Brad today is very necessary.

Adjusting

I'm still adjusting to running with the headlamp, but you throw in some misty rain...Weird.  My eyes kept wanting to close from the bright objects coming at them.  The fields around the house looked pretty funny.  The clover, which there's a lot of, looked like some strange aluminum (that's aluminium to some) space plant.

I was running out the farmer's field, after the little stream crossing, when some type of animal made some type of noise.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything too big, but, not being able to see it, I decided that was a good turn around.  I had time for a just a bit over 5K.

On another animal front, I saw two separate groups of three deer on the way home.  One was safely in the field; the other threatened to run across in front of me, but turned back and ambled off.

TMR TNR

So I run Tuesday nights now.  I was always a little jealous of the TMR TNR group.  I'm glad I get to join, but I have a lot to learn; I have to eat more on Tuesdays.  Fortunately for me, Ian had brought some cookies for post-run and let me have one pre.

I had fun going out with the big dogs - Ian, Jeff, Blaine, Jim, Zak, Nate, and Scott (oh, and the real dog, Kip!).  I was going to try to stick with them for the whole run, but started to get a stitch.  Fortunately for me, Erik, Brenda, and Django were right where I dropped off.  There pace was pretty crisp, too, but slow enough I could recover from the stitch. It was probably the longest I'd gotten to chat with Brenda before.  Luckily for her, I'd gotten all my Dr. Seuss recitation out of my system by then!

I'd bought a new headlamp at lunch.  It worked well.  I didn't start to get disoriented by it till near the end, about the same time I realized I had the strap on too tight.  When I find my garmin, I'll update with the actual data, but I think I saw at least 5.3 miles in about 50 minutes.

Three Days Worth

I better get caught up...Friday, I headed to the Brad to get in a long one.  Normally that's a Saturday activity, but I knew I'd be volunteering at the Craig Cup and wanted to get the miles in without taking up all of our weekend.

I think it was 9:45 before I hit the trails.  I planned to run another 4 hours, hoping to get in more miles than last week's 4 hour run since I wouldn't take as much time at the car in between laps.  I guess I shouldn't have brought the camera if I really wanted to run farther.  I even remember thinking I should drop the camera off so I wouldn't be tempted to take any more.  Everything seemed either beautiful, interesting, or of concern.  I ended up taking 48 pics.  Last Saturday I ran 18.4 miles in 4:02:XX.  Friday I ran 18.43 miles in 4:06:XX. 

I started with a Mindy's Loop.  It was way noisy on the backside near the boundary of the park and along Ginn East.  I don't know what construction was being done on the road behind the park, but there seemed to be some big vehicle backing up the entire time.  I was happy to get out of earshot.  Leaving Fox East onto the Snowmobile Trail, I was struck by how torn up the trail was.  There were big bulldozer-type tracks going up.  When I reached the bridge, there was a huge pile of dirt.  Then a tractor with a bucket appeared to take a load.  I ran past.  The smell of diesel hung in the air for most of the snowmobile trail.  I was happy to turn off onto Ginn West.

On Fox West, where it is right next to the Snowmobile and Fox East trails, I heard an extremely loud vehicle.  A dump truck, made for trail environments, emerged.  I was torn between loving the design and engineering of the vehicle and resenting it was there.  I worried about the reconstructive surgery Brad was undergoing.  I hope the scars they make are more than offset by the good they do.  I love the patient.

After that loop, I had a GU, refilled my Fuelbelt bottles with Nuun (cola flavored), and set off on the mountain side.  From the Boundary Trail, I took my new route on the trail that heads toward the Tote, but took the right onto the single track that pops back onto the Boundary by the big bench.  I went from the Boundary to the summit, to the Tote, including Krista's Loop, and back down the Ski Trail.  Back at the car, I ate a Honey Stinger Waffle and a few sips of Coke. 

Then I ran a mishmash of trails on the east side to get in the rest of the time.  I'd gone into the run with a sore back.  I kept expecting it to get better.  I do always brag how the Brad fixes me.  My back was actually pretty tender by the time I was done.  I did too much shoveling of wet mulch the day before.  Sabrina, of E&L fame, offered me ibuprofen with my soup.  I was sore, but happy I stuck it out. 

Oh, and here are some of the pictures from the run:

leaves covering the trail

innocent mushrooms

I took the old path for a change

Snowmobile Trail

dirt piles all over the place

the tractor

Brad seems to be decorating for Xmas early

the weird dump truck

again

Boundary

tenuous bridge

muddy goodness

Saturday, Rick and I volunteered at the Craig Cup.  It was a great day for a great event and always fun to see all our fellow TMs!  After, Rick and I were joined by Mindy and Pete for our own 5K loop.  We ran through mud, got bitten by nasty bugs, and had fun.  It was Mindy's first run in a while, but you'd never know it.

Sunday, Rick and I were back at the Brad.  We ran the connector out for four miles and added some extra mountain side miles to bring it to an even 9 when we finished up.  It was getting hot, but there were pockets of real cool in the shade and dampness of the mountain side.  Rick is on a steady improvement track and can push me up some hills now : )

Thorncrag Intensity

I ran out of time for the run I intended, but Thorncrag saw to it that I packed an intense run into a short time.  What a nice way to do hill repeats with no choice. 

Fall Feeling

I was going to run early at Bradbury, but ended up needing to go to S.Portland to turn in some paperwork and get my computer set up for work.  What I expected to take an hour or so took most of the day.  So, it was a late-day run instead.  There was a definite chill in the air when I started.  The ground was definitely saturated, but oh-so less wet than the last time I was there.

Filling his cheeks

fearless or oblivious

little 'shrooms

fun fungi

very cool

For about 5 minutes, I wished I'd worn long sleeves.  Then, even though a wind picked up and brought weird rain and sun for the rest of the run, I was happy in shorts and short sleeves.  It felt like fall.  Much of the trail was covered in golden pine needles.  It was quite beautiful.  I took pictures, but they don't do it justice.  The air was crisp and my running seemed to match it.  Yay!  I could have run for hours, but I only had one.

loved the moss-covered rock wall

missed the little chipmunk looking through the whole

new downed tree - on little loop off Ginn West

Running Water

Running water was everywhere and we were running through it.  I do believe that's the wettest I've ever seen the trails at the Brad.  Rick and I sat in the car for a few minutes trying get enthused about getting out there.  The rain was coming down pretty hard.  I'm pretty sure it's the first time I'd worn a long sleeve shirt this fall.  I'm sure I yelled as we started out.

The Link, leading to Lanzo, was one big puddle.  Lanzo was a river.  Every time I asked if it could rain harder, it did.  Still, about 10 minutes in, I was warm.  The run became fun.  I laughed a lot.  I almost fell a lot, but neither Rick or I did.  Besides being fairly cautious, going was slow just cause running through water is slower than not.

We got in eight miles, very happy with ourselves for getting out of the car.  Of course, warming up with Tuna Melts at E&Ls was a great way to reward us.

Time Flies

I have run lots and lots of long runs by now, but it still amazes me how fast the time can go.  I don't know if fast is even the right word.  It just is gone.  I planned on being out there four hours.  I wasn't sure what mileage that would get me; it includes stops back at the car, running slowly on the wet stuff (that fall last week has me a little overcautious), and ,well, everything once I hit start.

Erin was in her car in the parking lot when I arrived.  Blaine and Nate A. had already set out.  They had 15 minutes on me and were coming back to the lot to meet up with the 8:00 crew so I probably wouldn't see them.  Erin had run long yesterday so was waiting a bit to start out on her miles.  Almost on autopilot, I headed out on Mindy's loop.  Everything was wet and there were loads of puddles, but still not as bad as last weekend.  Somewhere on Ginn East, I met Alan, Ian, Blaine, Nate, Erik and Django running the other direction.  Someone yelled hop on, but I decided to stick with my plan and my pace.  Coming off the Bat Cave loop I met Erik again.  He and Django were cutting it short so I had their company till the Snowmobile Trail.

I felt pretty good after the first eight.  Ian, Alan, Blaine and Nate were hanging out in the lot when I came back in.  I refilled my supplies and chatted a bit.  Blaine was also running long so we joined up for the rest of the time.  Since I was going to meet Mindy at 10, we did a short loop on the mountain side.  Mindy and I always seem to time it right; she was pulling into the lot just after we ran in.  I realized I'd only had one GU and a couple of Newton Crisps so nibbled a few more cookies and packed another GU (which I forgot to eat).  Mindy was trying out the LLL, so I thought of a route that would give us around 4 miles.  The east side of the mountain was whole again.  We pulled in with a little over 4.6 covered.  Blaine and I went out to do a loop of Knight's Woods to give Mindy a chance to assess the LLL to decide whether or not to add a little more.  When we ran in, we all evaluated our runs - did we need more miles, time, were the parts ok?  Yup to all.  We just added a short piece to the start of the Boundary trail and back.  I had 4:02:48 with 18.4 miles.  My feet were sore, but, other than that I felt good.

We all went to E&L's to relax and enjoy the yummy, replenishing food.  The artwork was new.  Some were slightly creepy, but I liked them all and wouldn't mind having one or two of the pieces.