Training Log Archive: Fanatic

Bruce Shenker wanted to run on Mt. Greylock, from Jones Nose parking lot down Old Adams Road and up the Cheshire Harbor trail to the AT and then down Jones Nose to the parking lot, and I agreed to join him.

For some reason, Bruce thought the trails would be dry, but I knew better. :-)

And they were pretty wet and the early part of Old Adams Road has considerable erosion from all the recent rains, making the pace slower than expected, which was fine with me, since I was still tired from yesterday's outing.

The climb up Cheshire Harbor seemed to take forever, for me at least. But even Bruce walked a bit more than he normally would--the result of his ongoing recovery from plantar fasciitis.

The parking lot was a welcome sight.

It was definitely too hot for my originally planned run of 16 miles on the Long Trail in Vermont, so I dialed it back considerably and opted to try something closer to home.

Since I had to go to Great Barrington for some lab work, I decided to drive down Route 41 into Sheffield and to hike/run up Race Brook Trail to the AT and then head south on that until I'd had enough.

In the woods, the heat was very noticeable, but somewhat tolerable. But when I go on the bare rock at the top of the ridgeline, it felt 20 degrees hotter than under the trees--brutal. Fortunately, that section isn't too long.

I had forgotten my GPS, nor did I have a stopwatch, so I just turned around when I felt like it.

As I got back to my car, it was exactly three hours of hiking and slow running--good enough for me, given the heat.

Over to Kennedy Park for an easy, short run. The legs felt terrible right from the start, but I expected that after yesterday's hard run.

The temperature was about 12 degrees higher than yesterday and the humidity was definitely noticeable, too.

Just did not have any energy for the run, but I hope that it helps my recovery---you just never know about that though--perhaps a rest day would be just as good.

I drove to Great Barrington, as I thought that I had a dental appointment at 4 p.m., but it turned out that the appointment secretary made a mistake. Rather than let the drive be a complete waste of time, I decided to drive a bit further north to Housatonic, where I could run on the very flat bike trail. That route is well shaded, the footing is excellent and there is hardly much traffic of any sort on it, although it is used by hikers, runners and mountain bikers.

I started at the St. Bridget's Cemetary just south of town and headed north to Main Alford Road, passing by the Sportman's Club just before the turnaround point. The trail basically follows Route 41 north.

I started way too fast, probably venting my frustration from driving from Lee to the non-existent dental appointment, but I worked hard to keep the pace up as best I could. Certainly one of the faster runs that I've done recently, since I have mainly been running on technical trails, rather than nice flat trails. :-)

Over to Kennedy Park to do a recovery walk. I felt better than I thought I would, so I tried to keep up a decent pace--the cool sunny weather helped with that. And there we no bugs either, so very pleasant.