Training Log Archive: Fanatic

Walk with Colette from the Kennedy Park parking lot on W. Dugway Road, just north of the Arcadian Shop on Route 7 in Lenox. We headed west on Dugway to W. Mountain Road and then up Reservoir Road to the gate. From there we took a trail, just to see how the footing was, but the trail that would have taken us to the bottom of Reservoir Road hadn't been hiked on, so back to the roads we went and back to our car.

A beautiful sunny day with the temperature in the low 40sF made for a welcome change from the frigid days before.

Clockwise loop from the condo--into Lenoxdale and then along Crystal Street and past Lenox WTF, before turning around and walking past Woods Pond and back home. Colette joined me for the last mile+ as she walked out to meet me. she had returned from her yoga class and running session at Simons Rock.

Drove to Woods Pond to walk on Woodland Road, which I was hoping would have had some 4-wheel traffic on it, or snowmobiles, so that the snow would be compacted. Well, it seems that only one vehicle had been down the road, so there was just a narrow tire track to walk in. Not that bad normally, but there was a lot of ice underneath the snow, hence a lot of slipping and slow going.

After a while, I decided that wasn't much fun so I backtracked and head out to the streets instead.

Finally enough snow so that I could snowshoe on the condo grounds. Snow wasn't too deep, so it wasn't too hard to make a trail.

Walk with Colette out past the black cows and back. Roads are almost clear and dry; too bad there's another storm coming.

Another walk with Colette but a bit shorter than the one this morning--only out to the black cows and back. A thin layer of snow on the roads now, with more on the way.

Drove to Greylock Glen to see what the trails were like and to see what kind of shape I am in. I opted for microspikes, which were the better choice, snowshoes being my other option; the trails had been compacted by skiers, snowshoes and other hikers, so the snow was minimal but there was a layer of ice underneath 95% of the distance that I covered.

Turns out that either I'm not in great shape, or that my back just isn't ready for hills this steep. It didn't take much more than a mile before the back was hurting, despite my attempt to walk with the best form possible. I only made it up to the Bellows Pipe Lean-to, or 1.5 miles, before I decided that was enough; so I stopped and had half of a sandwich before heading back along the same route.

The back was fine after that rest, so maybe I need to factor that in the next time I head up to Greylock.