Monday: 0 Miles
Planned day off for shin rest. Glad that this was the only day off this week, if I'm not trying to run higher mileage I honestly don't mind running 6 days instead of 7.
Tuesday: 7 Miles
Easy Haley/Bluff lollipop that I do occasionally (wide gravel trails out to bluff, 3.5 mile fire road loop in bluff, same gravel trails back). Pretty nice out, always enjoy running here. Mild shin soreness but felt pretty good overall. A little bit of achilles soreness, I think it's the higher heel of the kinvaras that caused that.
Wednesday: 13 Miles
Franconia Ridge mountain run with Slants and Jamie. Pretty nice loop ascending Mt. Lafayette via Bridle Path/Greenleaf trail, and over to Lincoln and Lafayette on Franconia Ridge. Descent was down Liberty Springs followed by 3 miles on Pemi Trail/Franconia Notch Bike Path to return to the parking lot. I had actually done most of the route last year in a hike, minus liberty springs trail as I had included Flume in the loop and gone up Flume Slide instead. Got up early and got through the drive. Ran with the guys for about a quarter mile before taking off. Was a bit too aggressive and while feeling strong/fast running through 1.5 miles, my stomach was hurting and I was beginning to feel the effort. Took a short pee break before continuing with the intent on hiking the steeper portions. The hiking breaks broke up the long climb nicely and made it feel pretty manageable. You'd have to be an absolute beast to run the entire trail so I'm not too ashamed of it. Got into a fun rhythm doing some hiking on the steeper stuff then running the less steep trails. A decent mile to a mile and half above treeline that was nice, and while a bit chilly, that felt good compared to the mid-day summer heat in lower elevations.
I realized I was pretty close to the CR pace for the segment for the full ascent so I decided to keep going until the summit before waiting for the other guys. My hike-run rhythm was disrupted as the last .6 miles to the summit were pretty steep and rocky (no scrambles though) but I held an aggressive hike and ended up getting the segment. Got to the top just over an hour not feeling too beat and ran just past the summit to make sure I had it. Waited around for 10 minutes for the other guys, we were concerned the ridge running would not be enjoyable since it was foggy/cloudy at the summit and hard to see but as soon as we started the descent the rest of the ridge was clear. The 1.5 miles on the ridge was excellent and somewhat runnable. Still 12 minutes pace and few scrambly sections that slowed stuff down but really cool to be up on the ridgeline in this colder weather with panoramic views, very windy as well. Regrouped on each major summit (Lincoln and Little Haystack) before heading back under treeline. Fun mostly runnable section besides some awkward scrambles all the way to Liberty. Regrouped at the nice Liberty summit before Descending. I had hoped to bomb down this descent, but it wasn't very runnable. No super steep sections or scrambly terrain but consistent medium sized rocks that were everywhere. Impossible to get in even a half stride on this and quite uncomfortable to have to be so focused on footing for a while while having some hip discomfort from getting in such an awkward stride. Fortunately at a big stream (where I drank lots of delicious water) the trail became quite runnable and I was finally running sub-10 pace. Fun down there until we hit the bike path, I waited for another 10 minutes which was a little surprising since we had only gone 2.5 miles this time as opposed to the 4 from before and with far less elevation change. Run back should have been the easiest on mostly flat (slight incline) trail and bike path but fatigue finally caught up with me. We stayed together on the mile on the pemi trail which none of us enjoyed as it was rooty, narrow and poorly marked so we switched to the bike path which was more pounding and that last 1.5 miles felt so long.
Overall an awesome run on a fun route. Hopefully not my last mountain run in the whites this summer. I ended up getting a handful of segments, some on the ascent and some on the ridge although I was sadly way off on the descents (although those seemed the most competitive). Ben Thompson took 4 of those back with his recent Pemi Loop FKT. Felt the shin a tiny bit on the descent, felt achilles and some knee aching on ascent but no serious issues.
Thursday: 9 Miles
Easy Vin Gormley loop from Kettle Pond in the evening. Felt shin a little but really not bad at all, pretty good for post mountain run. Downpour throughout kept pace pretty slow, trail was flooded.
Friday: 8 Miles
Nice Ninigret loop, usual stuff starting from the tennis courts and doing the perimeter trail route in the wildlife refuge. Started around 10am which was way too late as it felt pretty hot.
Saturday: 10 Miles
Wachusett Mountain Loop FKT attempt. Was hesitant to do this as my calves had felt very sore post-Wednesday's mountain run but this seemed like a good opportunity that I didn't want to pass up and since Dad was going, I didn't even have to drive. Had to study the route somewhat beforehand as it went on quite a few trails, but once I realized it followed Mid-State all the way out to Balance rock it helped a lot. Essentially, starting from Wesminster road, the route followed Mid State trail up and over the summit (Harrington-Link-Mountain House) to Balance Rock (Old Indian-West Side-Semuhuenna-Old Indian). A little more ascent after the balance rock turnaround this time up Old Indian, and back across West Side. From there, the route follows Semuhuenna on a slight downhill back to Harrington/Link sections from before (short steep climb), Mountain house down with some short steep climbs/descents on Bicentennial trail, high meadow trail, echo lake trail before a fast road finish back to the start. Sounds extremely complicated but with a little bit of studying, several trail sections I'd run over twice, following the Mid-State trail all the way out, and extremely well marked intersections I rarely had to pause to figure out directions or hesitate to go a certain way.
 |
| Start/Finish of Loop |
2 mile warm-up with Dad on roads, felt a little weak but legs were loose and limber, I'd have the pop today. Had to get a few bathroom breaks out of the way before the run, and was hoping my digestive system could hold on throughout. Stretched on out the roads then got after it. Aggressive from the start as always. Tiring 200ft climb right off the bat but I got through and the next half mile was flat and very runnable/fast. Started to get a bit steeper towards the end of the mile but was surprised to hit the mile in mid-7s when one of the former FKT holders hit it in mid-10s. Was a little concerned to run past lower link trail until shortly after I turned onto link trail which is what I was looking forward. The next half mile up to the summit was steep and very technical. This would be the slowest and most difficult section of the run and it was tempting to stop and walk. I powered through it and shortly after arrived at the summit. I was a little confused at where to go from the summit but assumed it was one way which was confirmed after seeing some mid-state marker. Not a ton of views from the summit but a nice open area nonetheless.
Turned onto Old Indian trail to begin the descent. Pace was high 8s I think which I was feeling good about and hoping to really cut that down on the descent. However the descent wasn't very runnable at all- consistently very technical with large rocks covering the path and pretty steep. I did my best to push through it, but it's not a smooth trail and there was a lot of awkward rock hopping. Turned onto the west side trail which was technical for a little before it became quite runnable. Right turn onto semuhuenna which was surprisingly very wide (10ft) but still plenty of roots and rocks. More runnable than Indian Head but not super fast either. Eventually finished up the descent and got to balance rock, but it felt longer than expected and I awkwardly twisted my ankle at one point. I hit balance rock in 25:40 or so, almost 3 minutes ahead of Ben Nephew's split which had me confident that if I didn't blow up on the return, the FKT was mine. Climbed 500 feet up Indian Head, runnable at points very technical in others before returning onto West Side for that slight downhill and a nice slight downhill on Semuhuenna, a fun and fast trail. Short steep climb up link again before turning onto Mountain House trail for the descent. It was pretty similar to Indian Head- consistently technical large rocks at a steep grade that it was tough to be quick on. Got through it, some crowds towards the bottom but everyone was very good at moving out of the way. Some fallen trees that were quite awkward to get over. Surprised to turn onto Bicentennial trail and be greeted by a steep climb, was not expecting that. However it was fairly short. I was confused whether or not I was on the right trail as there were two trails going right from Mountain House so I asked a group that I passed who confirmed I was going the right way. I got momentarily confused turning onto High Meadow before going the correct way. This part was not technical whatsoever so it was fun to be able to go fast here. Emptied out onto dirt Echo lake road, followed that for a short amount of time before cresting a small hill on Echo lake trail which emptied me out to the final road stretch. I noticed that despite feeling the effort at several points in this FKT attempt, I had plenty left in the tank. Put in a hard kick which was short lasting due to me underestimating the length of the road left and having a slight uphill. Stopped my watch upon getting to back to the trail in 56:17, a new FKT by over 8 minutes. Quite pleased with the effort, always fun to set a new FKT but a different scenario as I wasn't just following one blaze, one I was running on much more technical and hillier trails than my previous FKTs, and I wasn't totally confident that it would happen due to not knowing the route and how solid the previous times were. Definitely a really fun effort overall. Updated FKT Here. FKT #5 in the books.
Sunday: 8 Miles
Easy run in Carter.
Weekly Total: 55 Miles
YTD Total: 1,512 Miles (on pace for 3,324 miles)
Weekly Highlight: Two mountain runs, moderate effort Wednesday (not really planned or intentionally pushing at any point, just from the sheer difficulty of the route) and hard effort Saturday both felt great and were a lot of fun.
Weekly Lowlight: None. Things went well this week.
Movies Watched: The Way Back, Doctor Sleep
No comments:
Post a Comment