No race this weekend, nice break after 4 weekends straight racing. A few good training runs in there with visits to Mount Greylock and Hunter Mountain (in the Catskills) to have 17 mile+ runs with 4,000+ feet of elevation gain.
Monday: 17 Miles- Cheshire, MA
Mount Greylock run. Had wanted to come back ever since I got the highpoint in April 2018 but wasn't able to experience any views due to thick fog. There's a lot of trails in the state reservation and opportunities to run over several other peaks.
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| Auto road from the South- nice vegetation |
Started at Jones Nose trailhead- quite a bit up the auto road starting at 2500'. Made it a better loop although a little weird going downhill before uphill. Nice viewpoint right away into a steep climb of 400' over half a mile. Legs felt super flat/tight immediately and I was wondering if it was going to be a long day. Then a mile and half of runnable narrow trail with a lot of roots. Saw a porcupine here and followed him for a minute before he stepped off the trail.
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| Jones Nose |
Repassed the auto road before a mile and half on a smooth dirt road- gradual downhill and then gradual uphill before coming out to "Stony Ledge" with a very nice viewpoint of Greylock. Long and moderately steep descent going from 2600' to 1100' over 2 miles into a nice and sunny field. Then gradual gain up to 1400' along a nice river.
Now the real challenge began- 1200' of elevation gain over the next mile back to 2600' to top of Prospect Mountain. Just a long tough scramble on a very low-traveled trail (leaves still covering everything). Gradual descent along the ridge, although still on a primitive trail (narrow and not well traveled). Nice viewpoint before turning into the AT- moderately steep climb up Mount Williams but able to alternate a run/hike. The next 2.5 miles were quite runnable on the Greylock ridgeline AT- all gradual climbs on a pine forest rooty singletrack. Last bit opened up and became steep. Summit was packed, contrasted to seeing few people on the trails. Climbed the summit tower, nice views. Refilled water.
Next trail descending to 2800' on overlook trail was awful- washed out rocky doubletrack for 2ish miles. Ran a tiny bit on the auto road, then back to the AT ridgeline singletrack- runnable and nice in the pines again before the last steep descent back to the car. 17 miles with 4300' gain, good run and held up pretty well. Good today to have views as this was a scenic run.
Tuesday: 6 Miles- Westerly, RI
Recovery run before work through Ice Pond and Misquamicut. Some of those roads are surprisingly really busy after 7am. So frustrating when drivers not only don't move over at all (with no driver coming the other way), but actually swerve into the shoulder and make you have to prepare to jump off the road if needed.
Wednesday: 11 Miles
AM 5 Miles- Charlestown, RI
First fun run day, so that means doubles on Wednesday. Easy Burlingame trail 5 mile with Dad + Brady. So happy to be able to go into the pond post-run again.
PM 6 Miles- Westerly, RI
Warm-up 2 miles/5K fun run/1 mile cooldown for 6- probably ramp up this later, but good for now. Felt really achy and out of it during the day partially due to poor nutrition choices, so thought I'd go out no faster than 5:45 and pick it up if I felt good. Hadn't run anything hard on the roads since Pittsburgh Half (24 days) so I wasn't sure how easy tempo/moderate pace would feel.
Went out faster than I expected in 5:28 for first mile but just ran in the lead pack of Jake Serra, Jonny Eckel and someone visiting from Indiana. It was really nice to run in a pack of 4 as I don't think I've ever had that in the fun run before. Felt pretty smooth and just maintained for Mile 2- dropping Eckel and Indiana Boy during the hill portion. I didn't plan on picking it up past a smooth 5:30, but surged up the hill just for fun and was surprised to get some ground on Jake. Decided right there that I wanted to win the fun run and kept the ball rolling with a harder effort. Definitely sacrificed feeling really comfortable as the third mile felt hard. But it was hard to judge how far back Jake was so I kept the pressure the whole way and even kicked a little bit without going quite all out- 5:02 final mile and 16:36 for the win. Nice opener and a clear indicator I'm still in pretty good aerobic shape.
Looked back at the results and this is my 16th win here and 11th sub 17.
2015: 1 win, best time- 18:11
2016: 7 wins, best time- 16:46
2017: 3 wins, best time- 16:21
2018: 2 wins, best time- 16:07
2019: 0 wins (didn't show up, injured all summer)
2020: 2 wins, best time- 16:16
2021: 0 wins, best time- 16:34
2022: 1 win, best time- 16:43
Best Times:
1. 07/11/2018 16:07
2. 07/15/2020 16:16
3. 07/26/2017 16:21
4. 07/29/2020 16:26
5. 06/02/2021 16:31
6. 06/21/2017 16:34
7. 06/27/2018 16:34
8. 05/31/2023 16:36
9. 08/03/2022 16:43
10. 07/20/2016 16:46
11. 06/09/2021 16:58
Thursday: 6 Miles- Westerly, RI
Two champlin perimeter loops as I wanted to run soft surfaces. Legs were heavy and the trails being somewhat challenging didn't help. Starting to get fairly humid out there.
Friday: 4 Miles- Westerly, RI
Planned 6 as I don't need much mileage mid-week with the two longer runs. Was going to run the moonlight loop, but felt horrible early and cut it short through Rockridge. Nothing in the tank today.
Saturday: 18 Miles- Lexington, NY
Never actually heard of Lexington, NY but that's what the location shows on strava. Long catskills loop with 3 new high peaks for me- West Kill, SW Hunter, and Hunter. A big chunk of the loop was on the Devil's Path- kind of the long hiking trail/major traverse of the Catskills (akin to Presidential Traverse/Adirondack Great Range Traverse for their respective regions). This is the 4th straight year of going to the Catskills in late May/early June- it's a good time of the year for it before things get too hot/buggy but allows for longer climbs/challenging mountain terrain when things in the White Mountains still have some snow on their trails. Here's what I did the last few years (I hadn't been to the Catskills before 2020):
May 25, 2020- 13.5 mile hike with with 3,800': High peaks (3): Sugarloaf, Twin, and Indian Head, very nice conditions, good and very difficult route
June 6, 2021- 17 mile run with 4,400': High peaks (4): Windham, Blackhead, Black Dome, Thomas Cole, brutally hot conditions and sprained ankle, route was just okay
June 11, 2022- 14 mile run with 4,400': High peaks (3): Wittenberg, Cornell, Slide, excellent route in good conditions
2022 was the only one I could make a "clean" route out of- 2020, 2021 and 2023 all involved at least 3 miles on paved roads to make it a loop. The catskills are generally hiked OAB which I don't love and going forward, I don't think there are a lot of loop options for the remaining high peaks so I may take a break until I finish the NH 4000 footers.
Started out with 3 miles of road running- slightly downhill and felt pretty good- quite pleasant. Went by very quickly. Got out to the trailhead and started climbing off the bat. The climb to the top of West Kill Mountain (3800' or so) was 2000' over 4.2 miles. Jumped up 200' right away but the rest of the mile was pretty flat although quite technical. Recent rains made it very humid, especially above 2500' and it was like running in a cloud. So no views today. The next mile was the steepest in the climb with 1,000' gain and I started to really struggle. Legs tying up and my heart rate would spike every time I tried to run anything steep. Had to stop a few times just because it felt like my heart was going to explode out of my chest. This seems to be the frequent problems I have early in mountain runs- legs getting super tight and HR/breathing out of control on the early climbing. Then somehow everything fixes itself and I feel better going forward. The last two miles were much more runnable and mostly on a ridge. Interestingly when I got closer to the summit the terrain got less and less technical- very runnable on pine needles.
Summit was unremarkable in a pine forest. Took my first fuel/gels of the day and then a moderately steep although mostly runnable descent- 1500' down in 2.5 miles. Moderately technical and way more people than going up (I don't think I saw anyone going up). Finished the descent and refilled my water in a large stream- got to try out my new filter flask which is nice as it means I don't have to stash water or bring extra water as any water source will do.
Steep climb back up to the pine forests- 1200' over the mile. I felt surprisingly really strong up this and had a good system of alternating running and powerhiking. Super rocky (couldn't see the ground really) and I was glad I wasn't going down this. It levelled out for a bit and the spur to SW hunter came up. A bunch of the catskill high peaks don't have maintained trails and are considered bushwhacks. However, some of those have "herd paths" which have a more primitive trail going to the summit. This one was fine, although quite narrow with plenty of roots and branches sticking out. I felt good on this flat OAB until I got the final steep pitch up to the summit and was completely bonking. Got to the top and stopped for a refueling break. Finished up the spur going back.
Now just 500' over 1.5 miles to the Hunter Mountain summit- quite runnable and with plenty of switchbacks. Felt great on this part and was quite nice in the thick pines. Even became a flat, manicured gravel just before the summit. Switched off the devil's path with a mile to go. Hit the Hunter mountain summit and walked up the fire tower although the top was closed off and no views anyway due to the thick fog. This peak is just over 4,000' and one of two 4000 footers in the Catskills (high peaks are over 3500')- so it also counts as a Northeast 4,000 footer.
I had been looking forward to the descent off Hunter mountain all day- it's essentially a dirt road which I thought would be a nice break from the technical terrain. Instead at about 700/800 feet loss per mile, it was steep and quite uncomfortable to run down. I managed 7:30s here but the guy who has the FKT for the hunter mountain loop (essentially the second half of my run) ran 5:30s which is quite impressive. Anyway, the grade was uncomfortable the whole time and my legs were getting wrecked- glad to finish up.
Good run- held up super well despite feeling kind of crappy the first climb. Loop was decent but nothing special, would definitely recommend last year's loop of Wittenberg-Cornell-Slide for best Catskills route. Brings me to 13 catskill high peaks of 33 and will likely take a break for 2024. I want to get the NH 4000 footers done with and the rest of the catskill routes likely won't be very exciting.
Sunday: 9 Miles- Charlestown, RI
VG + North camp recovery loop with Dad + Brady.
Weekly Total: 72 miles (with 10,000' of elevation)
Weekly Highlight: Getting in some quality training runs- felt pretty strong on both Greylock and the run in the Catskills. Always great getting to explore various trails in the mountains as well. Fun run also went very well and I feel like I'm in a good place fitness wise right now.
Weekly Lowlight: Struggling at the beginning of both mountain runs. Not a big deal as I felt good for most of both, but haven't figured out how to feel good on those first climbs yet.
Movies Watched: None
TV Watched: Black Bird S1
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