Training Log Archive: cmorse

Event: Mt Tom
 

White course coaching Jackson.

With Jackson picking up white controls and some of the yellows. Sun sinking fast and cooling down quickly..

Red course - time lost on #2 (control stand and flag knocked down and didn't see it first time through), #4 (looking to high on the hill), #6 (drifted a bit downhill and made parallel error near circle and #8 (slightly meandering route choice) See splits for more detailed postmortem

Red - Splits

Well, yesterday's aborted plan was to go out and run at least a half, but not a full marathon at something close to my Nipmuck PR pace. I had originally thought I might shoot for Bolton Notch as it would involve some trails, some dirt roads (rail trail) and some pavement. But yesterday's plan got screwed...

So up this AM and its snowing, with the promise of sleet, freezing rain and just plain cold rain for the rest of the AM. Yummy.... By the time I got the boys on the bus around 8, there was a coating of snow on the grass and down the road I went. Figured I'd head in my originally planned direction and see how I felt.

Down the road about a half mile to the intersection of Grahaber and SLR which is an on-road section of the Shenipsit Trail, complete with freshly painted blue blazes. Down to the Snip, then picked up the old Rockville Trolley line trail towards Rockville. This segment also part of the Shenipsit Trail. Once I hit 74 I lost the blazes but headed toward the highway as I knew the trail picked up again by Walker Reservoir. Stopped by the Shell station for a Dew and Powerbar. Was really snowing hard (stinging the face) as I fought AM traffic under I-84. Legs not feeling real lively, I figured I'd try to get to Belding, or optimistically to Valley Falls.

Once in the woods again the cold wasn't so bad, but I was quite wet and fearing how chilled I'd get if I was forced to walk for any great distance. Hit Belding WMA at just around an hour. Nice running through there although the snow plus fallen leaves made any incline very, very slick.

Got to Valley Falls where they conveniently still had a couple Porta-John's open so made opportune use of those (I've been battling a low grade lower GI bug for a couple days now). Had been planning on turning around here, but after emerging from the loo, I decided to push on to the Notch, what the hell....

Once up on the rail trail got into a nice stride but the snow now mixing with sleet, got up to the notch and sat down on a rock in the tunnel under I-384 to get out of the weather. Had some powerbar and Dew. Only sat for a couple minutes as I didn't want to get chilled and knew I had some mileage before me still as there wasn't any bailout options. Good pace on the gentle downhill back to Valley Falls with convenient 1/4 mile markers and opened my stride up a bit on a couple of 400's.

Very slick going down the slope back to Valley Falls but no incidents. Had been listening to some Radiators on the I-Pod (one ear only) but the I-Pod died on me in here (maybe water, maybe just battery - not sure). Pretty uneventful back to the highway except that my outbound tracks were now non-existent (about an inch of wet snow), stopped in at the Shell for another Dew, feet really cold now as the road running in this section consisted of a lot of slush and deep, cold puddles where the drains weren't working.

Back to the Trolley line still feeling pretty good but part way down here (about 3:15 into the run) my legs started to complain. Hit the pavement back on SLR and my legs refused to run so walked the asphalt for a while, picking it back up to a slog (aka slow jog) once back on the dirt section which was still snow covered.

Back up to the house in fine shape - pretty well wiped with numerous numb body parts but no lasting damage. And enough distance to know that I can comfortably finish VF next month in a respectable, if not great time.

A quick frozen pizza for lunch, then taking my cue from the cat, I will endeavor to curl up in front of the stove for a nice winters nap.... Fine indeed...

Approximate Route

C • man... 5

Some days life just sucks... 3 days off (and the kids at school) so I was in the process of getting dressed for a long run and the phone rings. Radiator burst in one of the tropical houses. Not an uncommon occurrence, but this one happens to be under a 33 foot long (too heavy to move) transite bench (asbestos, can't cut it away).

So now its off to work to figure out how the plumbers are going to be able to fix the radiator without a major hazmat remediation.

Maybe we'll try again tomorrow.... sigh....