Tuesday: Zero.
Wednesday:
AM: 9.8 miles, 591', 8:08 pace. Easy on the normal loop.
PM: 8.9 miles, 1352', 10:57. Evening run in Pawtuckaway. Hot temps and a desire to not stress my achilles kept the pace slow and easy. At least the humidity was low. Decided to leave the dog home because of the heat.
One of my favorite things about trail running is the shirtless, windows-down drive home on a summer evening. There's something deeply relaxing about the sense of accomplishment combined with the feeling of warm, turbulent air drying off my skin. First one of the year in the books.
Thursday: Zero.
Friday:
AM: 9.7 miles, 591', 7:34 pace. Easy morning road run.
PM: 7.8 miles, 630', 8:08 pace. Easy lunch run. Mixed roads and trails. I may not be able to run this route for much longer; this is a route I've been doing for a few years with use windows in spring and fall when there's not too much snow or poison ivy.
Saturday: 14.4 miles, 1742', 9:37 pace. Bear Brook trails with the dog. The endorphins were flowing this morning and I felt like I was floating the singletrack trails through a leafy green tunnel with the sun just coming up.
Sunday: 15.7 miles, 4419', 12:57 pace. I tried to go for a fast time on the Squam Range Double Traverse but got suckered into a wrong turn and went a mile downhill in the wrong direction before I realized the problem. The junction is signed but a little confusing, especially considering that the blazes on both trails are yellow. Oh well, my legs felt kinda heavy anyway and I decided to call it a day and turn back at the summit of Mount Morgan.
Totals: 66.5 miles, 9564', 10h 57m. Not bad for a week with three zero days. Also probably not bad to cut back a bit as something weird is going on with my right leg. My achilles pain persists, usually mildly, but there are a bunch of other shifting pains on the back of my leg between my knee and glute. I'll see if some foam rolling helps.
Solid work going after the Squam Range, and bummer about that wrong turn. From strava it looked like you went down Prescott instead of heading up-ridge to Livermore...I've done the same thing myself before, partly because the fall Squam Ridge Race goes down that trail (it's pretty sweet singletrack, after all).
ReplyDeleteDoes Nephew still have the fastest time for the out-n-back traverse somewhere in the 5:20s? That's what somebody mentioned to me a couple years back. I was up there on Saturday and marveling at how well he must have negotiated the sections between Percival and Doublehead, which is fairly overgrown these days. Seemed like the trail was in good condition, though, with not too much mud, and lots of black flies to keep you moving briskly :-)
oh, and congrats on a solid run @ wapack, too! From the results it looks like newbould was absolutely on fire. It's cool that the shorter distance got some attention this year. best of luck gearing up for the canadian hundo!