No race this week, tried to get in a quality training run at Bear Mountain State Park, New York.
Monday: 3 Miles- Westerly, RI
Intended on shuffling the 2.5 Newbury road loop, but felt better than I expected and did some OABs to hit 3. 7:22- feels like ideal recovery pace.
Tuesday: 10 Miles- Charlestown, RI
Burlingame trail + vin gormley 10 mile loop with Dad. Felt warm out there and was really tired by the end.
Wednesday: 13 Miles
AM 5 Miles- Stonington, CT
Didn't want to get out there, but did the Barn Island fire roads loop. Actually quite enjoyable and some nice scenic spots. Perfect time of the year where you can enjoy the lush green forest before the deerflies come out and it gets unbearably hot.
PM 8 Miles- Westerly, RI
Fun run with 3 miles warm up and 2 cool down. After having Andrew and Jonny last week and several guys the first week, I was a little disappointed Jonny let me go immediately and it was a solo run out there. Shirtless run in the rain. Kept it controlled 5:28 then fell off a bit with 5:38 feeling a little heavy. Made sure to get things back on track in Mile 3 and ran a 5:10 feeling more comfortable than the 5:02 close two weeks ago. Just slipped under 17 for 16:58. Felt strong on this.
Thursday: 11 Miles- Exeter, RI
Mixed Arcadia loop with Dad + Brady. Some dirt roads, some trails. Felt pretty tired on this one.
Friday: 7 Miles- Charlestown, RI
Easy Ninigret, first 5 with Dad + Brady. Felt pretty good although definitely warm out there.
Saturday: 18 Miles- Stony Point, NY
Technically not really in Stony Point but this is the closest town. Bear Mountain State Park in the Hudson Highlands of New York- my third time. It's a pretty large trail system, especially so when combined with adjacent Harriman state park which is simply massive. Bear Mountain SP is 5,000 acres and Harriman is 44,000 acres. For comparison, Burlingame SP is 3,000 acres.
2019 was my first visit- a 4 mile hike on Memorial day, disappointed with the crowds and views were not as good as Breakneck ridge. Last year returned for a 14-15 mile loop but sprained my ankle terribly just a mile in and had to bail. So I wanted redemption as last year's loop was pretty cool and I didn't get to check out any new terrain. Made up a similar loop but added some trails in Harriman to make a long run- 22 miles and just over 6,000' of gain- would be my best attempt to get close to QMT 52K's 32 miles and 7000' gain.
Alternated hike-run on a moderately steep ascent up the mountain on a manicured section of the AT. Got up okay although breathing was off and I couldn't stop thinking about how many miles I had left. Got through 3ish moving well on more runnable trail and then things went bad. Just felt really low energy and drive on the next climb, slight sore throat/mucus so possibly a little sick.
The rest of the day sucked. It's perfectly normally for me to have a rough patch, but I almost always come back and feel good. I never did on this day. Just low energy, sluggish and not into it at all. For some reason, despite feeling bad at just 5 miles I made the decision to continue to Harriman State Park which would guarantee a 16+ mile day. While the trail around the actual Bear Mountain peak were fairly crowded, everything else was less so. The trails in Harriman especially so, even had a 2 mile section all to myself. Some weird and sketchy road crossings sprinting across a highway to switch state parks.
The Harriman part was just as miserable feeling awful but at least it was a little more runnable. Was taking frequent, long breaks as I had nothing in the tank and caught up on race results for Mt. Wash and Grandmas marathon. Back in Bear Mountain SP, I forced myself up West Mountain and the Timp. I fully gave up on the latter (I was planning on giving up earlier, but had no service to create an alternate route- great service on the peaks) and made a new route while soaking in the great view (although fairly hazy). 4 miles back but 90% downhill and a lot on a dirt road, parts of which were really washed out and terrible.
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| Washed out dirt road, quite terrible |
Finished up and the parking lot was packed (only a few cars when I pulled in) and it was about 80 degrees. Definitely needed more water, which was a serious issues with only one stream on the route that hadn't dried up completely. This is a great park but not the time to attempt a long route- significant amount of overgrowth as well including parts where I just stopped to walk because it was so bad. Very rugged terrain, definitely underestimated that. Ended up with 18 miles and 4,500' of gain, so still on par with my longer efforts and got most of it done. That was not a fun one though. Not anymore fun sitting in I-95 CT traffic either.
Note I did take some video, but barely any as I felt terrible. Maybe I'll post this eventually but no plans right now.
So with Gunstock 10K in a week, here's the long run prep I've done for QMT. It's definitely not ideal, but I think I'm more prepared from an elevation gain/technicality standpoint than distance.
1. May 17- Blue Hills, MA: 16.5 miles, 3,400'
2. May 21- Holyoke Range, MA: 13.8 miles, 3,600'
3. May 29- Mount Greylock, MA: 17.1 miles, 4,300'
4. June 3- Catskills, NY: 18.1 miles, 4,500'
5. June 11- Mad River Notch, NH: 16.3 miles, 5,600'
6. June 18- Bear Mountain, NY: 18.5, 4,500'
Sunday: 8 Miles- Richmond, RI
Carolina recovery with Dad + Brady. Pretty warm again. Felt good other than some light fatigue from yesterday's effort. Pulled a really small white tick out of my shoulder, first time I've had a tick in me in a while.
Weekly Total: 72 Miles (6,700' elevation)
Weekly Highlight: Good effort at the fun run.
Weekly Lowlight: Absolutely suffering at Bear Mountain. Definitely would rather feel terrible on that than during QMT, but it was not a fun time. Didn't get redemption over 22's failed run.
Movies Watched: Surf's Up*, Superbad*, Raiders of the Lost Ark*, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom*, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse
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