A bit of a more normal week, with no big weekend mountain activity. Possibly going to shift focus to road races and track time trials, practice starts next week so I'll have to see how my body holds up to more road running and workouts. Still kept it mostly on trail to stay healthy, but mixed in some roads to test out my foot.
Monday: 0
Tuesday: 10 Miles
Ran after waking up from apartment. Explored a new route going into Rollingsford, some pretty quiet and scenic country roads in the middle. Felt really good after a few heavy miles and averaged 6:32 pace.
Wednesday: 11 Miles
Mid-day trail run from A lot, as I've been doing the last two weeks as well. Ran out the same way, but added on extension loops of Dino farm (Demerritt hill farm, but everyone on the team calls it Dino farm because there's a dinosaur nature trail with a lot of dinosaurs cutouts), Major Powder Farm (not entirely sure what this land is but saw this sign leading up to it), and a mountain bike singletrack loop. Ended up getting an extra mile and feeling beat at the end. I officially do not like running on mountain bike twisty singletrack. Slow and just doesn't feel good or smooth at all. I'll take very technical over very twisty any day (okay, not on a wet day).
Thursday: 11 Miles
8 AM miles, parked at Madbury town hall like last thursday but this time I ran north into the kingman farm trails. Felt very low on energy (despite eating the same breakfast I've felt great many times on) early on and accidentally looping back to the start at mile 2 when I meant to do 7-8 miles before returning really killed my motivation. Was able to find the route for the most part after that but wasn't feeling the last two miles and cut it short. Decent trails, nothing special but not a bad place to run either.
3 miles PM post-lab. Was on campus for the second time this semester so it was convenient to run after. Forgot my watch and had to run around with my big phone which was a pain. Was going to do 4 but every field was being used and I didn't feel like running an extra mile anywhere else. Mostly in college woods.
Friday: 11 Miles
Planned out this week to have 2 road runs with 2 trail "rest" (for my foot, not doing any runs specifically hard or easy right now) days in between. Roads again, this time ran to Dover Point with Andrew. Went a little too quick the second mile then felt smooth and went with it, resulting in another fast run that felt good, 6:31 pace. Cool scenic section near the bay with some great views, including running on a bridge for a little bit.
Saturday: 15 Miles
Really didn't need a long run this week as I've been doing longer runs everyday, but I've enjoyed the long trail efforts over the last few weekends and wanted to run in a new area. Was between running in Pawtuckaway, Bear Brook, and Agamenticus. All seemed good, but Pawtuckaway was especially appealing as a perimeter loop came out to 15 while the other two had about 25 mile perimeter loops. Started from Fundy Boat Launch, just before noon. I decided not to bring or stash water as the high was 61 and I figured I would be fine. Started with a mile of smooth doubletrack, followed by 2 miles of fairly technically and slow singletrack on shaw trail. Took a left towards south mountain, followed by a steep climb to the "summit" (these are more like hills). Walked up the fire tower, decided I would ignore the sign not to continue to the top as it was open and I wanted to get the better views, then awkwardly turned around when I ran into a park ranger. Ran down the mountain, and took some trails up to and over North mountain, another steep climb. Got confused a few times and went the wrong way but was able to reorient myself with adding much extra mileage. It really helped that there were trail maps at many intersections. Felt very sloppy on all the technical ascending and descending all day, shoes are getting worn out and there's a noticeable lack of traction on loose pine needles. Found the views off North mountain to be better in March than september which is not a usual opinion for me. Actually I generally enjoyed the place much more in march. But maybe that's due to weather (not hot today but felt warm with low 60s versus 40s in march), lack of traction, my fatigue today and the place being very crowded whereas I saw two people in March (probably at least 100 today). Was pretty gassed after North mountain 9 miles in and was hoping the climbs and technical trails were over. Got a treat of smooth downhill double track for the next 3 miles which got me to 12 no problem. After that, the next 2 miles were on a twisty, technical and rolling trail in dense woods that really wore me out. Tired, low on energy and dehydrated at this point. Slogged my way to the finish and was happy to be done. Some old guy told me I should be wearing a mask.
Sunday: 9 Miles
Only needed 11 to hit 70, but I've never done 70 on a 6 day week, and now doesn't seem like the time to push it. I'll go for 70 mile weeks when I'm running all 7 days. Wanted to run easy trail and the majority of the trail options within 45 minutes are all quite hilly (and likely technical). Was between a road/trail mix in Portsmouth and Wells (ME), the one in Wells was further but seemed less confusing to memorize. Parked at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, lot was very crowded and I got lucky as there was one spot open (I didn't have a backup plan). Ran the mile loop in rachel carson which had great marsh views in many points and was on a flat, manicured gravel nature trail that was fun to run on. Unfortunately, it was also extremely crowded, had to pass a lot of people which most didn't seem happy about. Ran a mile on roads before entering Wells Estuarine Sanctuary, which has probably 4-5 miles of nature trail, this time with more variety, some gravel, some grass, some dirt, some boardwalk. Really cool place, ran what I thought was a perimeter loop (missed a decently long trail section) before exiting. Place also crowded although nowhere near as congested as Rachel Carson with more trails to spread out on. Came out to the beach and decided to run on it for a little bit. Really great views, but the best beach running I've ever done. Wide smooth beach, all very flat and hard with no soft sand around (several hours past low tide as well). Was running low 6s and admiring the awesome ocean views. Maybe Southern Maine has the best beaches in New England. A few miles back on road, still nice and quiet except for a brief stretch on route 1. Really fun route, would love to come back here and run more of the Estuarine trails and more on the beach (or go further south and run Wells beach/Ogunquit beach).
Weekly Total: 68 Miles
YTD Total: 2,404 Miles (should be between 3300-3500 on the year, depending on whether or not I up my mileage or stick with low 60s)
Weekly Highlight: Wells run was great, felt good and enjoyed exploring this new area. Also pleased with a better mindset towards mileage, 10 per day makes it a lot easier to hit mileage goals and makes the weekend more relaxed as I don't have to backload a bunch of mileage. Hoping to mostly continue this, been a while since I've run higher mileage.
Weekly Lowlight: Generally feeling really tired on runs, specifically Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Could just be cumulative fatigue from trying to run a little more, but not feeling great on 50% on runs is not ideal when it was 10% or so this winter.
Poll of the week (trying something new out):
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