Training Log Archive: piutepro

Running up Mount Beacon to the reservoir. I enjoy the long climb (400 m up), find a good rhythm to go uphill. Than I pick a small trail on the north side of the mountain to the old casino on top of the incline. Some minutes of stretching and breathing to get ready for the downhill run on the old ski slope. Lots of rocks, I am racing a mountain biker, can hold him off in the rocky section, he finally passes me when the trail gets smooth.

Cool running, great sunlight, beautiful views over the Hudson and west.

Some stretching, breathing and more arts while enjoying the top of the mountain. Great reddish light in the leafless trees. I imagine the old casino up here. Must have been the perfect sunset dinner place.

Run in the dark, but the moon is out and I don't need the headlamp, which sleeps in my pocket, just in case. Without the light I see much more of the surrounding. Good run, I like the winter for that: Long runs and rambling wherever I want to go when I run. Not much thoughts about building or tapering or whatever purpose training is supposed to have.

The "Sweet Potato Pie Calorie Burn" loop. I focus on using the pie calories while keeping the turkey calories. Still have to experiment with targeted calorie burning. Great clear sky, the moon cuts through the barren black trees.

The "Rain eats no turkey" loop. Rain and coldish, and Main St and everywhere else in town wide open and empty. People are hiding or eating.

Canada Hill from South Mountain Pass. Run up the AT, orange fiery sunset burns through the trees. Turn on the headlamp on top of the hill, the trail is faint. It gets wider once I reach the Osborne loop. Pass a lonely hiker in the middle of nowhere. Go as far as last week's run at the Osborne Reservation, turn around to follow the trail along the hill to Manitoga. See some reflectors at a bridge crossing the stream, but as I come closer, they disappear. Fox? Raccon? Don't see the actual animal.
Lose the trail, the blue blazes are hard to see. Scramble through light mountain laurel, not to pleasant, then I hit the trail again, as it was indicated on the map.
Why am I running with the fuzzy hiking/USGS map? Because the sketchy quality forces me to use whatever little information I can get from the map. It takes some intuition and sometimes there is the suspense of not knowing but doing the right thing and hoping it all works out fine, the way I imagine it should be.


Stay on the trail, sometimes it is very slow, when I look for the next trail marker. Run up to Canada Hill and back on a wider trail. Good hill running, but there is more undergrowth in this area than farther north on the same hills.

The "Write the truth and beyond" loop. Not enough energy spread into the universe to get a sense of valley domination, so I spend some time mixing the leave mulch and the compost to produce the fiery mix of green & brown which will turn into compost in almost no time, meaning two or three weeks.

For some reason I have no interest in fast running, so I do some slow running. On Denning's Point I take time to remove some fallen trees from the trail. I know they otherwise are there all winter and I don't like to go around into the swamps. The fallen trees remind me of the classic middle age movie scene, when the bad guys or Robin Hood hides along a woodsy trail. When the travelers come, a tree falls in front of them. They turn around and a tree falls behind them. The bad guys come out of the woods and steal everything. Kind of only happens in the movies, I guess. Same as when you see people eat in period movies of the same dark ages: They slurp, burp and smear their ugly faces with the soup and the fried birds and whatever. Anyway, the trails are cleared and the waylaying danger is not there anymore.

Run for a while on an old (retired) train track. For some reason the distance between the ties never matches the length of my steps. So I run in the gravel and imagine it strengthens my ankles.