Monday: 0
True day off. Not planned but will likely be taking Mondays completely off for a little while until I feel I can run without any issue with the shin.
Tuesday: 16 Miles
Yeah, this was a bit too much but felt okay at the time and I don't regret doing it.
AM: 11 Miles
Breakheart Trail FKT, OAB in 1:05:10. I had done a decent amount of strava segment hunting this spring but eventually grew tired of it. There aren't enough people interested in segment hunting to make it really fun (when people take segments, no one really cares and likely you will have the segment for a long time). Plus my speed for the shorter distances is lacking these days as I'm more geared for aerobic efforts and trail running. I've somewhat shifted my focus to FKTs, taking the Arcadia trail FKT a few weeks back. I had wanted to do a mountain run with Aiden but he had to cancel because of knee pain and I didn't feel like driving far for a solo run, so I decided on a local FKT instead. There's some in CT that are possibilities, but are mostly in the 14-18 mile range and doing Breakheart trail in Arcadia management area which is around 10 mile seemed more appealing.
I had done Arcadia trail first as the course/trail seemed straightforward/simple to follow and I was confident I could take the FKT. Here, the pace was almost 2 mins/mile faster than the Arcadia FKT and the directions on where the trail started/ended were confusing. My fears were unfounded as the trail is much faster than Arcadia trail as despite being more hilly, it's a lot less technical which explains the much faster pace. I also found it to be much better marked or at least easier to follow than Arcadia trail, likely because it didn't overlap with many other trails and there weren't many intersections.
I arrived/started just before 9am. I walked over the bridge to scope out the start and was immediately confused by yellow blazes going down a dirt road from the start but also in a different direction on single track. I checked some strava routes on my phone and confirmed the singletrack trail was J.B. Hudson trail and the dirt road was what I was to follow. Stretched, tied my shoes and lined up behind the bridge. It was unclear where the exact start was there as there was no double blaze indicating the start/end of the trail. Jonathan short had said he started on the bridge which was confusing so I just started at the end of the bridge and ran over it (to be clear, it's a small bridge and the difference between starting at the end of the bridge versus the center would be minimal). I started my watch and was off. My goal was to run sub-7 pace if possible. The route is described as 10 miles but Jonathan Short and Steve Levandosky (current FKT holder, since Jonny Hammett didn't submit his FKT) both measured it around 9.5 so I figured my watch would display around that. FKT pace would be roughly 7:20s, so I wanted to be well under that to give myself a nice cushion.
The first half mile is on a dirt road, albeit a rocky one and I was able to get the pace rolling in the low 6s off the bat. It quickly changed to narrow trails but was never technical enough that I had to really slow down. I went through 2 miles shortly enough still sub 7. There are 2 decently sized hills at about 200 feet each and I slowed a bit going through a rock garden before the first hill. I felt awful on this hill and really struggled to keep the momentum going. I got my energy/smoothness back on the downhill. Struggled on the ups through the halfway point, otherwise felt pretty smooth and solid. Some heaviness though. Hit plain road turnaround in 32:00, well ahead of FKT pace. I'd only need to run 40 minutes on the return to break the FKT, which even if I blew up, was unlikely. The next climb was by far the worst for me. I think I was 9 minute pace on this uphill in what was my slowest mile of the day. Just not smooth at all and hurting a bit. Every part of this FKT run felt pretty good except the uphills which just felt awful. This uphill in particular was the worst, though. Besides the agony of the ascent and my fatigue/lack of speed, I tripped and landed on my knee on a wooden step. At the top of the hill, I went to the right of a fallen tree before realizing there was no way around it and had to backtrack. Eventually got into that rhythm again but that hill added some serious time and was definitely the low point. The next hill wasn't great either and my pace came dangerous close to being over 7 minutes. After being around 6:45 pace at the turnaround I was disappointed to have been so much slower going back in what was only a moderate effort. Turns out I had just forgotten how fast the last two miles were. After the final slow section in a rock garden where I awkwardly twisted my ankle (not a slowdown, I ran through it and it felt normal after a few minutes), I picked it up the pace considerably. I took a wrong turn coming back on the dirt road for the final stretch which cost me maybe 20 seconds. I almost panicked when there were suddenly no yellow blazes and when I turned around I couldn't remember which direction I had come from. I certainly did not want to go back out the original direction. Fortunately, I did go the correct way. This was probably the only section of the trail that could use some better marking (it was clear going the other direction). I picked it up a bit and finished strong but still had plenty of gears left to shift into that I didn't need today. My legs were really tired at the end of Arcadia trail, but were feeling really fresh today. Likely the 4 mile difference and coming into this much fresher. Hit the end of bridge in 1:05:10. Not thrilled with the positive split, would have been a little closer had I not made a few wrong turns and fallen. Happy with the time however, took 7 minutes off Jonny Hammet's unofficial FKT and 9 minutes off Steve Levandosky's. I'm sure a few RI guys could take some more time off or out of staters. I'd love to see this get broken. I enjoyed this run, and unlike Arcadia, it went by pretty quickly. 1 mile cooldown, felt the shin a little bit.
PM: 5 Miles
I suppose one FKT for the day wasn't enough, today seemed like a great day to double and I'd had wanted to run in Nehantic state forest for a while. There aren't many trails in Nehantic so it was a nice time to do as opposed to a time where I wanted to do a full run. There was a short blue-blazed trail (3.4 miles) there that had recently been established as an FKT. However, there was no male FKT, just female and mixed-gender ones where the times weren't too fast.
Nayantaquit Trail FKT, 25:29. After a mile warm-up on the dirt road, I lined up behind the double blazes marking the start/end of the trail. A few guys had set out before me, I was wondering if they were going for it and gave them a few minutes head start. I set out soon after, set a somewhat aggressive pace without hammering. This trail was technical in spots but very hilly, pace was much slower than this morning. I quickly caught the guys ahead of me who were walking a technical section and blew by them. Pace lagged on some very steep uphills that got up to 20% grade. Powered through these and through the loop. Smashed my knee into rock on a tighter section but aside from some bleeding/a little pain it wasn't much of a slowdown. Short downhill followed by a tougher ascent that got really steep, I almost started walking before "summiting" the hill and going down on a very steep downhill. It was actually hard to run too fast on it since it was quite steep and there were some sharp turns. Twisted my ankle again, I keep doing that but at least no sprains. Slowdown in a very muddy section before finishing up and turning back to the start. Got confused as I thought I was back on the loop again and turned around before realizing there was no way I could have taken a wrong turn and quickly got back on track. Finished it up. Such a fun trail, especially to run hard. Unfortunately this is probably to short to attract attention, but it'd be really cool if my time got taken down. Feeling the shin a lot in the cooldown.
Wednesday: 7 Miles
Not a good run. No pain but increasing shin discomfort, just didn't want to deal with that anymore and cut the last mile off. Not in good spirits after this. I was concerned I had a stress fracture, but I really don't think that is the case now. Wahaneeta and woody trails.
Thursday: 0 Miles
23 Mile bike ride in the evening, was concerned after Wednesday's discomfort and didn't want to take any unnecessary risks. It had felt pretty similar to 2019's shin injury but wasn't at the point where things were very serious yet and I wanted to prevent it from getting too bad.
Had planned a ride in the morning, but being the lazy person I am, I slept in and pushed it back to the evening. Dad went with, decided to try something new and push Atlantic Avenue hard and Noyes Neck. Both I started comfortable then got heavy and struggled towards the end. I think Atlantic was just under 20mph (some rough sections of road undergoing construction though) and Noyes Neck just under 21mph. Next mile or two after Noyes Neck was super slow then got back into the regular groove. Typical ride route of E-W beach in Charlestown and up Klondike, avoided rt 1 on the way back and came back Dunns Corners-Shore road. Ended up hitting 17.3mph average which after checking, is my fastest ride ever. Pretty pathetic for real bikers, but I'm pleased with this, some days I feel like I really pushed it and end up being under 16. I'll never enjoy biking enough to do it as a primary sport (or at least not anytime soon) but every once in a while is kinda fun.
Friday: 5 Miles
Ninigret easy in the morning. Going to be careful with the shin until discomfort has been gone for a while, which means easy runs are on flat, soft surfaces until then. Ninigret is one of the best places for that, did a loop on all the non-paved wildlife refuge trails. Some slight but mostly infrequent shin discomfort, didn't bother me too much but was definitely there. Really humid out and generally didn't feel great.
Saturday: 6 Miles
Carter Preserve in the late afternoon. Usually, I'll do a perimeter loop but since the eastern most trails are somewhat technical and hilly, I stayed solely on the western side, starting from Kings Factory road like usual, but only running River trail, Narragansett loop and Grassland trail. First are two are singletrack but not hilly and technical whatsoever, whereas grassland is a wide grass trail. Didn't feel the shin at all for the first mile, then very infrequent and very mild discomfort after that. It's hard to not to think about my shin issue when I don't know how it will feel on any given day, but today was the best day since hurting it a week prior and I was able to enjoy to the run. Felt good today, saw a turtle on the grassland trail.
Sunday: 0 Miles
15 mile hike in Crawford Notch with 6000+ feet elevation gain. Planned out a loop with some short OABs to get some summits starting in Crawford Notch on route 302. This was an ambitious day hike, but I was confident I could get through with recent trail adventures, both hikes and runs, proving I was fit. Alarm went off at 2:58AM which is likely the earliest I've ever gotten up. I can never just fall asleep when I want, so despite going to bed before 7PM feeling tired, I don't think I fell asleep until 11. 4 hours of sleep is probably the absolute minimum amount I could stand for, if I found myself awake much later I'd be really concerned and considering cancelling.
I felt horrible waking up. I heard cold showers help greatly with early wakeups, so I tried it. Got my legs/lower body wet easy enough but I could not bring myself to put the rest of the my body in there. I eventually did, and it was pure agony. Instantly shut the water off. I may have been more awake, but I felt even more terrible. Some cereal for breakfast before heading out around 3:40ish for the drive. The reason for waking up this early was that the hike was planned to be between 15-18 miles and could take up to 10 hours (very conservative estimate).
Shortly after, besides a slight tiredness, I felt completely fine the entire drive. Because it was so early and there were hardly any cars on the highway, it was a very enjoyable drive. The time breezed by and before I knew I was stopping at the Hooksett rest area on I-93 to use the bathroom and get a coffee. The coffee was not a good idea to have alone, it tasted great but I felt very weak for the last hour of the ride. Got to Webster-Jackson trailhead around 7:20AM, got out and instantly had to rush into the woods to use the bathroom, probably also a result of the coffee. I noticed that it was pretty cold (high 40s) and somewhat windy, so I opted to start the hike with a light jacket and pants on. Got going towards Jackson on the Webster-Jackson trail, which would be my first summit of the day. It seemed very foggy and I was doubtful this would clear up. I felt okay going up Jackson, passed a few hikers in the first half mile, then I was alone with the woods. I never stopped and made steady progress, but what felt like very slow progress. After 2.5 miles in a little over an hour, I reached the Jackson summit where the fog was still thick. There was no summit marker but a nice big rock slab that was open completely in one direction. Took the trail down to Mt. Webster where it didn't seem there was much gain. Mt. Webster had a semi-open summit but there were still no views. I had found that the trail had been boring up to this point, but I enjoyed the rest of the Webster Cliff trail back down to route 302. It was open in parts, technical and rugged in parts. I started to get really weak after Webster summit and ate the sandwich I brought which helped with that. The trail was gradual and fairly easy, which was enjoyable. I noticed part way down that I could see some trees in the distance that were surely on the other side on the highway, meaning the fog was at least clearing up at the lower elevation. I had been miserable up to this point in the hike as it felt long, I was felt weak, there were no views and it was extremely humid and felt disgusting. However, the potential of having views on the next summits was incentive enough to keep going. I had felt so bad on the top of Webster that I was considering just walking back on the road.
Soon enough got to route 302, and I was feeling better and more motivated. Legs were a little tired which was surprising for this early in the hike. I took my jacket and pants off after feeling warm and spotting hikers the opposite direction wearing shorts and short sleeves. Crossed the road and had to walk a short distance on road which was not fun. Got to the ethan pond trailhead and began the ascent up Willey. On the way up, I realized I had been on the Appalachian trail for a little bit (since Jackson i think) which explained the white blazes. I wanted to keep going and not stop until the summit of Willey at which point most of the ascent would be done with. The climb was a steady 15-20% grade or so but wasn't all technical so I was able to manage. That is, until I turned onto the Willey Range trail for the last mile which was at 35% average grade. To say this mile was difficult would be a massive understatement. I struggled so much mentally and physically. Body was aching everywhere and wanting to be done with. If there was someway to magically transport back to the car now, I wouldn't hesitate to take it. The trail got so steep there were ladders going up one section. After what seemed like an eternity of suffering, I finally got to the summit. I had planned to stop here but the summit was small and tree covered. The lookout was extremely foggy and there would several groups sitting on it. I walked just past the summit and found some rocks to sit on where I stopped to have a drink and catch my breath. This was definitely a low point for me and I was having difficulty just thinking about doing any more ascent. My body felt totally trashed and it just didn't seem possible. Mt. Avalon and Mt. Willard were both OAB that I had decided to omit long before.
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| Ladders up Willey |
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| Still foggy |
I eventually kept going, passing quite a few people. Fortunately the ascent up Field was pretty short and very gradual which kept me going. I took a short break at the summit just to take photos. The fog was finally beginning to clear at the higher elevations, but unfortunately the viewpoints were infrequent and obscured at this point. Still a decent view looking towards Jackson and Webster. Charged on to Mount Tom, body was feeling exhausted but my spirits were higher knowing I was almost done. Was quite happy to see Mt. Tom summit was only .6 miles away and just a short add-on. Fortunately this trail was gradual and the climb was pretty small (350ft), it didn't take too much out of me. Unfortunately, while the skies were pretty clear now, the viewpoints at the top were pretty terrible (obscured). On the way down on Avalon trail it was tempting to do Mt. Willard as it supposedly has great views and it'd be disappointing to leave the whites today without getting the fantastic views. However, this was a 3 mile and 1500 feet elevation gain add-on, it wasn't happening with the way I felt. So relieved to come out to the road and get out of there. After a brief mishap where I couldn't find my key (I had already unlocked the car, then misplaced somewhere in the car), I got out of there. Despite feeling like absolute trash during the hike, I felt completely fine on the drive home. Had planned to stop at Minuteman to run originally but I wasn't up for it anymore with the accumulated lower body fatigue I had taken on. Hike ended up being 15 miles with 6200 feet elevation. I suppose there are 3 reasons I struggled today: 1) 4 hours of sleep. I've done some hard hikes in the past, but most of my trips I had stayed in the area in prior night and got much better sleep whereas day only trips last year where I didn't get much sleep I was doing much easier hikes. 2) I didn't fuel well at all. I only had a bowl of cereal in the morning, the coffee and a sandwich earlier until about 5PM that today. That is obviously not sufficient and I could have benefited from eating some of the snacks I brought mid-hike, I just really didn't want to stop. 3) It's simply a hard hike. At 15 miles and 6200 feet elevation gain, it's my second longest and second hilliest hike behind the Presidential Traverse. However, what was more challenging was that since I returned to the road after 6 miles, I had a second long ascent to deal with. Usually, there's one long ascent in a hike then several small steep ascents if there's multiple summits. Having two long ascents (up Jackson, then up Willey) was just a mental and physical challenge I don't usually have to face. Even the Presidential Traverse, I believe, doesn't have an ascent after the intial long ascent up Madison over 1000 feet or so. I believe the ascent up Willey was 3,000 feet.
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| Wooded Mt. Field summit |
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| View from Field |
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| Mt. Tom summit |
In the end, I got 4 4000 footers, so my struggles were rewarded with mountain completions. Did some filming again, here is the link to my video.
Weekly Total: 34 Miles
YTD Total: 1,467 Miles (on track for 3,367 Miles)
I've really dropped the ball in the movie watching game.
Weekly Highlight: Varied and fun week involving two FKTs, a long tough hike bagging 4000 footers and a nice bike ride.
Weekly Lowlight: Dealing with the latest ailments and a pretty bad mileage because of that.
Next week, I hope to run 5 days instead of the 4 this week with a slightly higher average mileage per day, I'll maybe shoot for 45-50 miles. I have a mountain run planned for Wednesday, I'm hoping it won't aggravate my shin too much but I don't want to call quits on all my plans/harder efforts for the whole month or so. Only FKT on my immediate radar is Wachusett loop, I'd like to take a crack at that in the next few weeks as well, possibly next week if things are feeling good.
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