NH Mountains and First Fun Run- Weekly Log: July 6 to 12

Behind on the blog again, what's new? Pretty good week- Tuesday and Wednesday mountain runs, Wednesday first fun run and Sunday LR.

Monday: 0

Tuesday: 11 Miles

Planned a short trip to New Hampshire so I could cross off a couple peaks and make a few FKT attempts. Cardigan Tuesday evening and Cannon Wednesday morning with an overnight stay at Lafayette Place Campground. Nice to sleep in late on a day where I do a mountain run. Left at maybe 1ish for the 3hr45 minute drive to Cardigan. The downside of sleeping in is that there are a lot of cars on the highways, as opposed to virtually none at 4 or 5 am. Anyway, usual central NH Hampshire drive taking 95 to 3 to 93 to Concord, before taking some roads I hadn't been on before as Cardigan is Southwest of the Whites. Last hour was extremely rural, I had no service and the last 20 minutes were on some very rural dirt road. I arrived just before 5, maybe a half hour later than planned.

Today would be a hard effort, as I wanted to give the Cardigan Mtn Loop FKT a shot. It seemed fairly fast as it's been rewritten 5 times since the inaugural FKT in May 2019 and taken down 42 minutes. I probably had a good shot at taking some of the earlier FKTs and figured this was out of my wheelhouse, but until you learn how difficult a route is, you can't really predict a time for yourself. I did a short warm-up of .4 miles and took the time to use the bathroom. I wanted to do more but every direction past the parking lot was either a steep incline or decline and I wasn't willing to trash my legs before I even started. I also would have liked to stretch more, but I was already running later than planned and a lone deerfly was bugging the hell out of me and made me itching to get away from it. Filled up my pack and started at the Trail head. This route goes on many trails and passes many intersections, I wrote down the trail names and where to turn but tried my best to memorize it so I wouldn't have to check my phone. I also left splits, the only two I remembered were the half mile split and summit split.

Start of Route

The parking lot is at 2,000 feet and climbs up to 2,800 in just a mile- very steep. I ran hard and noticed instantly I was extremely tight and uncomfortable- something likely caused by not warming up properly. I was 20 seconds behind at the first turn 0.4 miles in and shortly after just got extremely tight. Gave up on the FKT half a mile in, caught my breath and stretched. The rest of the ascent wasn't pretty but I got it done and it was cool to break treeline just at the mile. The views here were phenomenal and I was glad not to be racing anymore as it would have been terrible not being able to stop. Mile 2 brought sharp descent of 400 feet followed by a 300 foot ascent of one of the sub-peaks of the mountain. More great views and some cool exposed rock to run on. Mile 3 dropped all the way back down to base, dropping 700 feet. However, it was still steep enough that it was challenging to run anything fast on.

Above treeline early

Cardigan in distance 2 miles in

Ridge running

AMC Lodge, I believe at the lowest elevation of the route

Miles 4 and 5 dropped another 600 feet and were much more runnable. It was nice to make some progress after the run had felt really slow so far. 6 and 7 were gradual ascent on an easier trail regaining that 600 feet. It was pretty runnable and a nice way to get some of the elevation gain going up Cardigan done with. Miles 8 and 9 brought me to the top of Firescrew mtn, another subpeak of the Mountain close to the actual. These miles had some runnable stuff but also regular climbs over 20% that I hiked. Mile 10 was very scenic and despite being entirely on rock, the ground was smooth and rounded which made it fairly runnable. Stopped at the Cardigan summit which had breathtaking views in every direction, truly one of the best mountains I've done in terms of views and summit. It was really rewarding to experience the summit at 7pm, cool out and no sun. Lingered for a few minutes before heading back down to the parking lot on a steep but mostly runnable trail. Camping was not fun that night, setting up solo, in the dark, with only McDonalds in my tummy.

Firescrew mtn summit

Reminded of Monadnock, but much smoother rock at summit 

Wednesday: 13 Miles

AM run: 5 miles

Planned to do Cannon and Kinsmans loop and go for the FKT, which would be much easier (than Cardigan) as the guy who has it did it entirely as a hike. Once again, I was uncomfortably tight on the first climb through the campground on Lonesome Lake trail. It didn't take long, having turned on the High-Cannon trail, for the grade to get very steep and unrunnable. Most of the first two miles were a tough hike, gaining over 2000 feet. 

Start at Lafayette Place

Brutally steep and rocky ascent

The last 0.2 miles or so, up on the Kinsman ridge trail was very runnable and fun, however the ground was pretty wet which I need to be cautious with as my shoes don't have good traction and a fall in the wrong place could spell disaster. I stopped at the Cannon summit- 4000 footer #17 - and reflected. My legs were trashed, it was humid/foggy with no views from the tower/observation deck, and the terrain was wet. 3 great reasons to call it there and cut the loop short. I'm glad I did as the section of Kinsman from Hi Cannon intersection to Lonesome Lake was extremely steep and so technical. Just huge boulders, completely unrunnable even in dry conditions. While I was disappointed to cut off the other 4,000 footers, one look towards the Cannon Balls was all I need to confirm my decision (steep, wet and technical). Lonesome Lake trail was also pretty steep, although not as much as Hi-Cannon or Kinsman (I can't imagine going down Hi-Cannon, no sane person would do that). The trail was the most wet on this section and still being fairly technical, I took it extremely easy in order to avoid a fall. I was looking forward to getting to Lonesome Lake, but it was still so foggy I couldn't see the lake 10 feet away from me. However, the rest of the route was finally runnable and after struggling to even be sub-20 average pace, it was nice to be able to stride normally. Last mile was much faster and fun. 

Nice AMC signage

Cannon summit tower- unfortunately no views in the fog

Boardwalks around Lonesome Lake

Wanted to swim in Echo Lake but you have to go pretty far south before you can turn back towards it, and the added time wasn't worth it to me. 

Noontime run: 5 Miles

Stopped in Minuteman on the way back to get some more miles. Hot out and I felt terrible, slow going tired miles.

PM run: 3 miles

First fun run. Planned a lighter pace, but respectable enough that it wasn't recovery since I was at the fun run. Instantly abandoned that minutes into the run and went out just behind Jake and Sebastian. Tough to run 5:30s as legs were heavy and I was tired, but weirdly got more into a groove the final mile and dropped a 5:13, seriously cutting down the gap and nearly catching Jake in a fast finish. Pleased with a low 17s, not at all what I was expecting.

Thursday: 10 Miles

Another nice early beach OAB: Weekpaug-Watch Hill-Weekapaug. Great early morning run, a summer classic. Beach was more runnable this time. Arch pain at points and blistering.

Friday: 8 Miles

Slow Ninigret run, didn't feel especially good. Humid and sweaty. 

Saturday: 8 Miles

Slept in late, too late to do any long run. Carter run, was digustingly humid and we suffered.

Sunday: 16 Miles

Groton long run, great mix of coastal roads and trails, both easy fire roads and twistier/more technical singletrack. Hot one, made the decision to stash gatorade and water at mile 10 which was a real treat. Was pretty tired the last 4 miles or so. Tried to push the last mile on road, but legs were dead.

Weekly Total: 68 Miles

YTD Total: 1,775 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Cardigan for sure, great mountain with awesome trails. Wish it wasn't so far away or remote.

Weekly Lowlight: Nothing bad this week, but humidity an issue.

Taconic Rim- Weekly Log: June 29 to July 5

Another week of mostly easy trail runs ending with a long, challenging mountain run.

Monday: 0 Miles

Tuesday: 8 Miles

Evening Ninigret run with Dad. Felt pretty good although it was a bit hot. I knew I wanted to do something hard since I was feeling strong and pushed the fishing access trail. Watched showed 4:48 pace for .3 miles, so not sure why the segment only credited me with 5:20 pace.

Wednesday: 8 Miles

Morning roads from the house w/5 x Ice Pond Hill repeats. Despite feeling good on the 4 mile warm-up, I felt very stiff and tired during the hills. Slower on almost every one, just didn't have much in the tank. Bailed on a second set and cut off 2 mile. Worsening shin discomfort is not a great sign.

Thursday: 12 Miles

Carolina run in the morning with Dad and Brady, not very fun due to overgrown trails and the 1 mile or so on dirt roads of NST was covered in manure and swarming with flies. Disgusting, slippery and stinky.

4 miles in the evening at Bradford Preserve, stayed local on fields and the XC course. Thought it'd be really nice running short but actually felt hot and tired. Lots of deerflies.

Friday: 8 Miles

AM Burlingame south run with Dad and Brady. Pretty humid.

Saturday: 9 Miles

All three Grills Preserve with roads inbetween. Some of the route 91 trails were really overgrown and had to change the route up a little. Deerflies were pretty bad. Run went by quickly. In the evening.

Sunday: 17 Miles

Taconic Rim run point to point from Bash Bish Falls to Guilder Pond, going out Bash Bish Falls trail, South Taconic trail, Mt. Frissell trail and Appalachian trail with a few connector trails I don't know the name of. Mostly in Mt. Washington State Forest of the Southern Berkshires in Southwest Massachusetts, with some portions in CT and NY. Here's a list of landmarks and peaks we would run over, with elevation as well as climb length/elevation change stats. To be clear, the climb length/change/grade measures those statistics for the climb up to that peak, from the moment the trail begins ascending towards that summit (does not include downhills coming off another peak). Those give a good indication on how steep/long each climb was, except for Alander which is misleading as most of the elevation gain was concentrated into one steep mile followed by much more gradual running.

Dropped our bikes off Guilder Pond which would involve a mile down a steep beat up dirt road- not fun for road bikes. However, at 17 miles and 5000+ feet elevation gain, we weren't looking to add extra mileage, especially non-trail mileage. Stashed water for pack refill and Gatorade for mid-run refueling. Headed over to Bash Bish State Park to start. I had been to this region in 2018 for CT highpoint and Bash Bish falls and in 2019 to do Mt. Race and Everett so parts of the route were familiar to me. I thought there was a second parking lot in MA for Bash Bish that wasn't actually there so we ended up doing an out and back to the falls. I was running with my full pack (50oz), 3 GUs + phone and keys. 

We ran the short trail down to the falls, great views down there and headed back before another very short OAB (maybe added a tenth of a mile) to a scenic view. The next part of the run would be the trickiest navigation wise. I had mapped out the route in strava maps and the trail we need to get take to get to S. Taconic Trail, a 21 mile white blaze trail weaving in and out of NY and MA that is maintained by New York state, was called connector trail but did not appear in any state park maps which worried me that it would be hard to find. However, the only other option would have been to add an extra mile or so and skip Bash Bish Falls (or add even more to include it and add road running) which I didn't like. There was nothing resembling a marked trail at the edge of the parking lot where this connector trail was supposed to be, only a dirt access road with a no trespassing sign. We assumed this was in and ran down it. After a short river crossing, we found an unmarked trail with faint remains- it clearly was not  mantained. This trail was very steep and we had to hike most of it. I found it challenging to follow the trail, but fortunately Dad is a better navigator and led the way. We ignored lots of trail closed/trespassing signs as we needed to go this way to get the route. After a mile of hiking, I saw a NY state white circle marking a trail and initially thought we were past the closed portion before looking closer and seeing we were on the South Taconic trail. We went the wrong way back towards Bash Bish for a short time before realizing we needed to go left. We parted ways here. The trail was much more runnable and gradual, but very tight and somewhat overgrown. I took it for a while before coming out to a more open area that I thought might be the mount alander summit where I waited up for Dad. We "false summited" a few more times before coming to the real summit, which had some great views and was mostly open. We were surprised to see that Brace Mountain was still 4.4 miles away (it was more like 3.7) as we thought it would be 2-3 miles. 

Bash Bish Falls

Alander Summit views

After a tenth of a mile of open, exposed ridge running (really awesome), we went back into the woods and took another wrong turn missing the white blaze over a rock that wasn't obvious. Got back on track and had another cool short section of open running. Steep downhill off the mountain dropped us down to 1500 feet. The entire climb up Brace was very gradual and runnable. Unfortunately, a lot of it was boring double track that may have been a dirt or access road at some point. Also unfortunately, after having the cool NY white plastic markings, the marking became white blazes and then there were no markings for 2-3 miles which was frustrating. There were few intersections so it wasn't a huge deal, but the intersections that were there were confusing and we had to basically guess which way to go. How guys who are doing these routes (Tri State U, Taconic Loop) during an FKT navigate is beyond me. Eventually we got higher up and the dirt turned to grass. It wasn't long until we hit the Mount Brace summit. I had read that people who had done similar routes thought this was excellent, but I was a bit letdown and thought Alander had been more scenic. Short turn around back to the Mt. Frissell trail which was a little to find. We had thought parts of the S. Taconic trail were overgrown, but the Mt. Frissell trail was horrible. Constant brushing against leaves up to your waist. It wasn't all terrible but it was quite frustrating. Shortly in, we came up to the Tri State marker, which oddly didn't have CT listed on it. A steep climb up to the CT highpoint, Mt. Frissell south slope, we signed the summit register. Mt. Frissell was shortly after that, there was a nice view in between although Frissell is a wooded summit. Very steep descent off Frissell on rock slab with some technical stuff was difficult and Round Mountain awaited shortly after. Not completely wooded like Frissell but no views either. Descent off Round was much more enjoyable and the end was fast, runnable and finally not as overgrown. Got out to the stash, which we had put in the perfect place as I had just run out of water on Round and it was getting very hot/sunny. 

Brace summit 

View from Brace

Couldn't find Bear Mtn Road like I wanted, so backtracked and searched for bog trail, which was unfortunately closed, so we took a short trail to the AT and had to do an OAB up and down Bear Mountain which was steep and I hiked it. Decent views off Bear with some nice signs that incorrectly identified it as the CT high point (dated 1800s). Headed out to Mt. Race on the Appalachian trail which would be last long stretch between summits of the day, but we had a long albeit not super steep climb ahead of us as the trail descended to 1300 feet. The descent off Bear was pretty fun, followed by a a flat section of trail along a river with many rock gardens. Started to get hot again and poured some of the stream water on my head before crossing the border into Massachusetts for the final time. Made steady progress up Race for a while before bonking and overheating a bit and walking some of the climbs. Felt pretty bad there but pushed onto the summit, slowly, with walking. Came out to a excellent view and the AT went right along the ridge/cliff which was really cool. Eventually got out to Race summit where I waited for Dad and regained a lot of energy. Summit had lots of flies though, pretty gross.

Bear Mountain views

Bear mountain views

Bear Mountain summit marker

AT along the cliff

Viewpoint just before Mt. Race

Mt. Race summit: Rock slab surrounded by trees

Last section of the day, steep 400ft drop of race, followed by a short but very steep climb up Everett gaining 600 feet. Felt pretty good going down Race, but once the climb up Everett got steep, I completely bonked again, but much worse than going up Race. I walked for a little bit, felt extremely weak and stopped and sat down at a Cairn for a few minutes and closed my eyes. I had also run out of water, which wasn't a huge deal since there was only a mile left. Sitting around did the trick and I was hiking again soon. The elevation went by quicker this time and soon I found myself at 2500 feet, only 100 short of the summit and the last bit was gradual and runnable, so I ran again. Stopped briefly at the summit to catch my breath and get a photo before running the last half mile out to Guilder Pond. Horrible bike down the dirt road afterwards. 

Wish all summits were marked with Elevation

Viewpoint just past Everett summit

Finish at Guilder Pond

Pretty cool run overall. Not as epic as something in the Whites or Maine, but pretty cool for smaller peaks in Southern New England/New York. Also mostly runnable, averaged sub-12 pace which doesn't seem terribly slow for 5000 feet elevation. Appalachian trail was definitely the highlight, other trails were either too poorly marked, overgrown or unremarkable. These long, challenging trail runs are addicting.

Weekly Total: 63 Miles

YTD Total: 1,707 Miles (on track for: 3,331 miles)

Weekly Highlight: Sunday's run, no hesitation. Glad to pull the trigger on a bucket list run and get that much elevation gain.

Weekly Lowlight: Shin still not quite right on roads. Also the Carolina run was pretty bad.

Watched first 2 seasons of Narcos, pretty good stuff. Playing God of War which is fun.

Talcott and Quinnipiac- Weekly Log: June 22 to 28

Way behind on the blog these days. Big run Saturday.

Monday: 0 Miles. Mondays off has truly become a regular thing now. Hope to resume 7 day weeks at some point. It's harder to hit mileage goals with the day off, but at the same time it's nice to take the rest day.

Tuesday: 11 Miles

Trail run with Aiden with a few miles of Road to finish. We were going to a point to point run on the Metacomet trail from West Hartford Reservoir to the North end of Penwood State Park, but halfway through Aiden realized he didn't bring his keys so we had to turn around. Pretty hot day, we waited a little too late. Easy running on the wide manicured trail of the reservoir, decent climb up Talcott Mountain (not a real mountain, just a ridge) where Aiden absolutely smoked me. Fun, fast descent to the Penwood parking lot where we had some water that Aiden stashed which probably prevented me from overheating. The way back wasn't as fun- Tower trail back up Talcott followed by mediocre road running. Some nice views along the ridge.

Wednesday: 10 Miles

Vin Gormley plus Burlingame trail with Dad and Brady. Humid and lots of deerflies but a nice run. Post-run pond dip, I enjoy these.

Thursday: 8 Miles

Carter Preserve in the PM, went a little further in on the more challenging trails since my shin isn't as bad as before. Didn't feel great and was a bit hot. Tested out my new camelbak, first time running in a pack. Felt comfortable enough, but annoying sloshing throughout. Turns out there's an easy fix to this, Greg Hammett let me know in a strava comment which was very helpful.

Grassland trail 

Friday: 10 Miles

Full westerly beach run, from Weekapaug Breachway out to East Beach in Watch Hill and back. Definitely one of the best local routes, it's really nice to be along the ocean the whole time. Despite running at low tide, there were some slopes that made the pace kinda slow, especially the way back. A fun run. Had some occasional moments where my arch started to really hurt and I had to stop and massage it, but fortunately it went away. Makes me miss Florida beach runs I've done in the past.

Saturday: 20 Miles

Was between attempting Menunkatuck FKT and Quinnipiac FKT, Quinnipiac seemed a bit harder and more interesting so I went for it. The times by Jeff Grant and Neil Clauson seemed really strong so I knew that there was a decent chance I wouldn't get it. Headed out around 7 or so for the 1.5 hour drive to central connecticut. Dropped by bike and a water and gatorade at the end of the trail, which would have been a horrible place to start since it was a busy stretch of road and there wasn't parking. Drove over to the start, bathroom stop, stretching and set everything up. It felt weird wearing the pack on the road, had some discomforts at the beginning but fixed it before starting. I had 50 ounces of water (my pack capacity) and 3 GUs, I hoped it would be enough but it was a hot day and I was starting pretty late (9:15). Had to warm up out to the starting point (.75 miles) on road since there's no parking at the road start. Started my phone and watch and got going. Was just sub-6 entering the trail which was actually a bit challenging as there was a decent hill and it just feels weird running that fast with a pack (it was comfortable for the rest of the run, however). The steep 200ft climb at the start of the trail was difficult but I was doing well and got through fine, however the average pace slowed significantly as expected. I hadn't written down any splits but knew the FKT pace was about 9:30 so I just wanted to stay ahead of that if possible. The run went pretty well for about 2.5 miles, I felt good and maintained a pretty good pace. Lot of steep up and downs, downs were actually pretty technical so it was hard to run through them too fast. 

Beginning of Quinnipiac Trail, after .75 miles on Road 

Trail start from parking area

Start of FKT route on road


 

I came out to an intersection in Roaring Brook Park where there was a rock garden. I didn't look up for blazes since it was quite technical and followed the most obvious trail down a steep hill. Ran past some hikers and after a tenth of a mile going downhill, I looked up to see red blazes with no blue blazes in any direction. Backtracked and while I was going back I asked the hikers if they knew where the blue trail was. Unfortunately they had no idea that I was in the middle of hard effort and the guy pulled out his phone to show me a map and try and give to directions. The map was very unclear, but he basically said I was going the right way and the blue blazes would pick up on the next right turn. I thought that was super weird and asked "so the trail is red blazes for a little bit?" and turned back down the hill. He replied "no" which only further added to my confusion. Went down a little further this time before I was 100% sure I was going the wrong way. Backtracked all the way back up the hill, went back on the blue blazes a bit and finally found the intersection where I had taken the wrong turn. While I was back on the right route, this was a huge loss. I had extra distance, extra elevation and lost nearly 5 minutes. I was likely a few minutes ahead of pace and now was well behind. I even thought about just calling it quits on an FKT attempt but I went on anyways. I felt like trash up the 300ft climb up Mt. Sanford (not a mountain), in hard trail efforts I feel like I crush every uphill until I get tired or my legs tired and I was starting to hit that point. 

After the downhill, there was a 1 mile stretch of road. I had originally wanted to hit the roads hard and run high 5s/low 6s but I found I was only running mid to high 7s. I guess those trail sections really beat you up. I took the opportunity on stable ground to drink some water and take a GU. It's kinda awkward to do this while continuing to move forward. The next 5 miles or so went fairly well. I definitely was somewhat tired, a bit hot, and not moving as well as I was in the beginning but still a solid pace and far from feeling terrible. There were a few climbs and descents here and there but overall the second 6 miles were much easier and more runnable than the first. Took a hard fall on the top of a ridge and cut up my hand and hit my shoulder really hard on a rock (still healing 2 weeks later) but it mostly went by quickly. Climbs weren't terrible but definitely didn't have that same energy to push them that I did earlier in the run. It was exciting to see a tree marked R going right and Q going left as I knew I was at the Quinnipiac/Regicides intersection in West Rock Ridge State Park and only a few miles from Sleeping Giant which would be the last part of the day. Shortly after leaving the park, I took a wrong turn on Shepard Ave which wasn't marked at all (it was marked going the other way, however). After not seeing blue blazes for a while, I pulled out my phone and completely stopped to check the trail map (CT blue blazed interactive map). I had anticipated the road sections wouldn't be well marked and had taken screenshots at all the road portions. I didn't know what road I was on so it took me a while to figure it out, but I realized it was a left, not the right I had taken. This added another a few minutes to my attempt but I wasn't as upset this time. It turns out I had made up the time I lost on the first wrong turn and was just behind FKT pace before this wrong turn but was now minutes behind. I didn't know this at the time and for some reason, thought I was ahead. Got the last section before sleeping giant done and came up on the park. I knew this would the most challenging part of the route, there's a lot of technical and steep terrain in the park and the blue trail goes over that. 

I got lucky crossing a busy intersection, was able to go right across after a brief stop and not wait for the walk signal. For some reason, the FKT route skips a short spur of the Quinnipiac so I ran past the first few blue blazes leading off the road. After going a little too far, I realized the last blaze I skipped was the where the route picks up and backtracked out there. Entering the park, I started to feel hot and tired. I knew my FKT chances were slipping away, but as far as I knew, I was still in it and only had 3-4 miles left. I noticed I was really overheating and as I passed a stream, I couldn't resist the urge to stop and pour water on my head. Took a minute or so there, but surely the lost time would be better than heat exhaustion? The following half mile of trail is absolutely brutal. There's a short climb up to a cliff and lookout followed by a steep narrow descent that is sorta scrambly. There were several people in my way, and it's narrow and steep enough that if they got far enough down, I'd be stuck waiting for them to pass. Fortunately, they were at the very top and I was able to get around them before they blocked the trail. I definitely rudely cut them off but there's no politeness in time trials and I could have lost a minute there. Nearly fell down the thing but emerged unscatched. The following .3 miles is brutal. It's about 30% average grade up a steep a rock face. I walked the whole thing, as expected. However, I was expected this to be a nice break and regain some energy, but it just totally wore me out. Even when I got to the top, I was exhausted and weak and was walking some the uphills that were steep, but runnable that I certainly wouldn't have walked earlier in the day. Still did decent going down but quite terrible on the ups. Once again, looking at the ground and not the trees, I took a wrong turn onto blue/white instead of just blue. I saw the blue/white blazes but figured it just meant blue was shared with white for this portion. Came out to an intersection with no blue or no blue/white blazes in any direction and realized I had totally gone off the trail. Feeling absolutely horrible, I stopped and gave up. I had lost a ton of time in the last mile or two alone and my chances at still getting the FKT were gone.

Steep, scrambly descent where I could have been stuck behind people (taken from a video I took in December 2017)

I mostly ran to the tower after that, some walking here and there. I ran out of water at the tower and while my energy level were a little better, my legs were completely trashed. Just a complete struggle to keep moving on an incline or technical terrain. Walked 80% of the last 2-3 miles. Pretty miserable. I don't think I actually felt as bad as Cockaponset but my legs felt so much worse. After what felt like an eternity, I finally came out to the end in 3:24, over half an hour behind the FKT. Most of that time was either in lost turns and the sleeping giant portion, I did mostly well on the first 2/3. Was kinda disappointed but oh well. I think I was a little underprepared physically for the 4000 feet of elevation gain and was definitely hit hard by the heat again. Now that I know the turns I missed, I'd like to give it another shot. I'll have a window of opportunity in the fall/winter, with an extended winter break as UNH is sending us home at Thanksgiving due to the virus. Definitely would go better in cooler weather, I'll just have to make sure there's no ice/snow on the ground.

13 mile ride back on busy roads was unpleasant. There was actually a bike path parallel to the road I could have taken, I had no idea. Oh well, I'll get to take it when I do the route again. Really steep hill towards the end I walked my bike up. 

Sunday: 8 Miles

Very slow/easy in Haley/Bluff with Dad and Brady.

Weekly Total: 67 Miles

YTD Total: 1,644 Miles (on track for: 3,333 miles)

Weekly Highlight: Quality trail runs of Tuesday and Saturday. Sure, I kinda failed Quinnpiac but it's fun pushing my limits and hopefully getting stronger from it. Haven't gone that long in a while, and longest run on trails.

Weekly Lowlight: Learning the hard way that the heat is truly brutal and even when you think "I'll just feel a little worse than usual, I'll just hydrate more", there's still no getting around the serious slowdown it puts in most hard effort and high increase in chances of bonking.

Haven't watched a movie in quite a while, I think I watched Punisher Season 2 this week. Its been out for 18 months but I finally got around to it. Solid 8/10, not as good as the first season but still very enjoyable/entertaining. Disappointed this was the final season as it has some great characters and stories I'd like to see more of. Even if Disney + revived it, it likely wouldn't be TV-MA which would ruin some of the grittier/more violent aspects of the show. I also finished Middle Earth: Shadow of War this week. Mostly great game, not quite as addicting for me as Shadow of Mordor but a few upgrades such as better open world, sieges and better boss battles were nice, although the end really dragged.

I'd give an update on future mountain/FKT plans, but I really don't know what I'm doing. I still have a long bucket list of routes and will continue to check things off but there aren't any specific items that I feel the need to do right now.