Training Log Archive: Fanatic

Event: Soapstone Mountain Trail Races
 

The last time I ran Soapstone was in 2009, and as is usual with my racing, I have no idea if I had a good run, or not. The records show that I ran it in 2:35:11, so my low-key goal was to try to run 2:30:00. That goal sounded a bit ambitious when PG told me he hoped to run 2:45, but, then again, Peter is one of the better sandbaggers around. :-)

I decided to try something different for this race--carry no water, but take along about three gel packets that I would consume at the three aid stations along the way. I ate about a half an energy bar before the start, along with as much water as I could tolerate.

And then I tried to keep the pace mellow for as long as I could; and for the most part, I did manage to do that. At the halfway point, my time was 1:20, so I knew that 2:30 was out of the question.

The rest of the way in, I tried to pick up the pace, or at least keep running up the hills, at whatever speed I could manage, which wasn't always that fast. It probably helped that there was a young woman who had passed me on an uphill and I managed to reel her in. After a lot of back and forth, she dusted me on paved road off of Soapstone Mountain and the rest of the way into the finish. Oh well.

I had some cramping once past Soapstone, so I had to back off the pace, but I did keep running to the finish. My final time was exactly one minute faster than four years ago. I'll take that.

Peter was in at 2:29, only 15 minutes faster than he predicted.

C • I had a good run. My legs f... 9

Just an easy stroll through the neighborhood. Highlight of the walk was the overwhelming scent of the Lilac trees along the route--of which there were many.

Since I'm running Soapstone on Sunday, I'm in taper mode, so I thought that an easy hike would be plenty today. I headed to the west end of Kennedy Park and parked on Reservoir Road. From there I would take the bike trails to the south of the road up to Yokun Ridge and back. I've run that trail numerous times, as it never seems to have anyone else on it.

As I was returning to my car, with about a mile to go, I heard a deer bounding away and looked up to see it before it disappeared. It wasn't moving very fast, just getting out of the area. I thought I might spot it again, as they are curious animals and like to see what you are doing. And, sure enough, after I had gone about 30-40 yards, I stopped to look around and not 30 feet away, there it was, perfectly still and looking at me. I tilted my head to get a clear look at its head and the deer also tilted its head. We stood there staring at each other for 15-20 seconds before it moved on. I wasn't sure if it was just bored, or appalled at the color combo of my blue cap and brown T-shirt.

As I continued in my revery about the deer and my clothing while shuffling along the trails, I noticed something unusual in my peripheral vision--a large black area. Hmm, I knew instantly it was probably a bear and when I raised and focused my eyes, yes, it was a large black bear foraging for food. I was only 20 feet from the bear and was astounded that I had gotten that close to it without its hearing me. I stopped and watched it for 10 seconds or so, fully expecting it to see me and run away, but it was so intent on whatever it was searching for in the ground, that it never looked my way.

OK, so what should I do? Make a noise and hope to scare it off? That usually works 99.9% of the time, but I thought that being so close, perhaps I shouldn't try that--maybe it would be better just to back up. So that's what I did, but I hadn't taken more than four steps before the bear heard me and took off running. Fine, I thought, that's what they always do. But, it only went about 10 yards and came to a large tree, where it stood up on its hindquarters and reached up as though it were going to climb the tree! Well, I've even see that before--I had been running down a trail fast one day and scared a bear that was foraging at the base of a tree--it promptly jumped up the tree, about 4-5', before it jumped down just as quickly and disappeared in a flash--I mean it was really hauling--easily 30 miles an hour.

But this bear, didn't climb--it just stood there and looked at me. It was, btw, well over 6' tall. Hmm, what to do? I decided to continue walking backwards. The bear came down and stood there next to the tree, just watching me. I kept retreating until I was 50 yards away, although I could still see it through the trees from time to time. Finally I just turned around and started to continue my walk away from the bear. Wait, I thought, it could think I'm now trying to run away from it, so I turned around to face it again. Silly, I know, since black bears don't do that, but brown bears do. Finally, I just headed out to Reservoir Road and walked down to my car, leaving the trail to the bear. It must have been some delicacy that it was enjoying, not to leave the area after I intruded.

So, a great walk--two wildlife encounters within a minute of each other. Had I been running, I'm sure I wouldn't have seen either of them.

C • bear 2

The group run was being moved from Kennedy Park to the Pittsfield State Forest, but I didn't want to drive that far, so I opted to do the usual loop that we would normally run in KP.

Tried out a new pair of EE wide Mizuno's, which helps with my ongoing problem on the little toe of my left foot--the extra width takes the pressure off and means relatively pain-free running. My only wish is that Mizuno could make a trail shoe in EE with lots of cushioning, too. Am I asking too much? :-)

The Berkshire Natural Resources Council organizes many hikes on their various properties and a recent email from them listed a hike tomorrow at the Monterey Land Preservation Trust land on Mt. Hunger in Monterey. Unfortunately, I could not attend the hike, but I thought I'd wander over and do some running on the trails. There is map of the property on the BNRC website.

In my eagerness to get there, I left the map(s) at home, but no big deal--there were only a couple of trails and woods roads shown on the map and I had studied them already.

I parked at the designated parking lot and proceeded to hit the trail. Only thing I noticed was that the 'trail' really wasn't a well worn trail at all, more like a wide cutting that had seen some foot traffic, but not a lot. The good news is that there were blue blazes on the trees. Before long I was at the summit of Mt. Hunger, which offered only a narrow glimpse of the hills to the north. Oh well, I decided to carry on and found, with some work, the blue blazed trail off the east side of the mountain, which as I remembered would lead to a 'woods road' that looked promising, although on the map it stopped at the edge of the Preservation Trust's land.

And, after running on what I'd best describe as a well abandoned logging road, I came to some private property and a house, so it was time for plan B--just head back up the hill through the woods. The woods were fairly open, but with a lot of brush from previous logging operations. I just angled toward the highest point that I could see and on my way back to the summit, I passed a very secluded beaver pond, with lots of resident ducks. I felt sorry for upsetting their tranquility. And just behind the pond, were some nice 30-40' cliffs, which I decided that I was not going to climb, so I slid to my right to avoid them. However, as I was doing so, I spotted a beautiful little notch that I could easily walk up. A short distance more and I was back on a blue blazed trail to the summit.

Since my trail run was pretty short, and involved some bushwhacking, aka walking, I thought I should at least do another three miles along Mt. Hunger Road, as I had never run there. There are some very nice houses along the road, with great views to the west, so those helped pass the time. I ran into Mt. Hunger Estates, but I only saw two home in there, both with great views, and some really nice stone entrance walls.

A pleasant road to run on, as there were only a couple of cars that drove by, and they were well restrained speed wise, so the dust was not a problem. I'll have to go back and poke around that area some more.

Not very motivated to get out the door, but I did. Easy run to Woods Pond and back. Surprisingly chilly--and I had on windpants and a jacket, too.