Spring Break- Weekly Log: March 11 to 17

Week of spring break with the rest of the florida trip and some running at home.

Monday: 7 Miles

Morning run in Key West, tried to explore the area east of the hotel this time which was less exciting and scenic. Found a shaded path but still 80 degrees and I felt pretty awful on this run. Would have liked to do more just having a rough time even getting to 7. Several stops where I just wanted to call it a day. Funny how running on vacation is tougher than running back in New England.

White Street, Key West

Tuesday: 4 Miles

Finally went to Miami and crossed it off the bucket list. Not a city person but this has always appealed to me, and I really enjoyed running here. We got to a really late start and had to shorten this run significantly. Ran from Margaret pace park, a green area on the water downtown (near Biscayne Boulevard, route one) to an out and back on Venetian causeway. Great water views and views of the city, great run overall. Brought my phone on this one, hopefully the photos will make this log more interesting.

Start of run, Margaret Pace Park on left. 

Views on and along Venetian Causeway.

Plan was to double back later on trails but I randomly got really sick in the afternoon. Got back from a (hot) day in Miami beach with an upset stomach and as soon as I exited the car at the hotel, I threw up multiple times. Felt increasingly terrible after that (a lot more throwing up too), probably the worst pain I've ever been in before (for just 2-4 hours or so). Slept from 5pm-7am the next morning (while waking up every 15 minutes with aches and stomach pain). Terrible night, bummed I had to miss the run.

Wednesday: 3 Miles

Is 3 miles better than 0? Wanted to get in a run, we went to the trails we had missed the previous afternoon. I felt extremely weak and achy, and while I didn't have the horrible stomach pain of the previous day I felt really horrible. Slogged around, called it at 3. Everything hurt and ached.

Thursday: 8 Miles

Ninigret Park, disappointed about missing mileage and seeing cool venues but felt good, and ran a normal distance and pace, so that was good enough for me. Definitely a quick turnaround from feeling like I was about to die to normal running. Pretty usual route, trails were muddy. Kinda sluggish but overall solid. Got the last couple miles sub-6:30 even though the effort felt like 7:00. Can't remember the last time I went to Ninigret and had a run that was anything less than good, it is by far my favorite place to run.

Friday: 7 Miles

Burlingame, felt really sluggish and clumsy but fun to get back out the trails as I haven't been in a while. Scrambled for mileage in Kimball and Kettle Pond, fun trails but got kinda boring/repetitive after a while.

Saturday: 10 Miles

Another enjoyable local route, parked at Green Hill and we ran the Kerri Loop as well as the Trustom Pond trails which are always fun. Prepared for just an easy pace again, felt really good and ran effortless 6:30s. Legs felt terrible although it wasn't enough to keep me from feeling smooth. The trail broke things up really nicely and made getting to 10 go by a lot quicker. Last mile coming back on Mautunuck Schoolhouse seemed really long but I still felt good and picked it up for a 5:44 last mile. Enjoy fast finishes on easy runs, its too bad I can only do them during low effort/high mileage periods. Great weather, although pretty windy in spots.

Sunday: 12 Miles

Richmond road/trail mix, trails in Carolina which was nice because I hadn't run there in a while. Felt similar to yesterday- smooth but heavy. Ran much slower though and it was much colder. First two miles felt really cold into the wind then felt smooth for the rest of the run. Had to do awkward out and backs to get 12, hate coming up short.

Weekly Total: 52 Miles
YTD Total: 594 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Pretty solid week overall. Went by way too quickly, but I enjoyed most of the runs back in RI and obviously a highlight to get down to Florida (even if it was way too hot) and cross Miami and Key West off my bucket list. Tuesday's run was probably my favorite of the bunch.

Weekly Lowlight: Getting sick, feeling terrible and the lost mileage that comes with it. Not thrilled to take a combined 7 miles for two days, especially when I was looking forward to exploring new places. Wish my weekly mileage had been a little higher overall.

Going to introduce a new item to the weekly log: movies watched. Haven't been on top of my movie watching game in a long time, but I enjoy watching them as much as possible in my free time, so I figure it's something worth adding and should vary things up from the strict running only format.

Movies Watched: Mile 22, Bad Times at the El Royale, Hotel Artemis, The Old Man and the Gun, *Bridesmaids, *The 40-Year-Old Virgin, *Knocked Up
*Denotes a movie I've seen before

Following up from getting into Mount Washington Road Race, I also got into the Beach to Beacon 10K which is in Early August. This one didn't have the same lottery chance but rather a general registration that you needed to sign up for right at 7AM Thursday or miss signing up entirely. Waited patiently, pressed buttons when they popped up and eventually was confirmed to be in. Not the great joy I experienced upon received the Mount Washington email but excited for this one as well.

Now having gotten into these two prestigious and exclusive races, I think my three hard efforts of the summer will be Mt. Washington, Blessing and Beach to Beacon. There's plenty of room for other races in there, specifically some early Mtn races I'll have the chance but most other stuff will be low-key or moderate efforts.