Category: Run

Sorry – work’s been a ton of fun, t-ball is a riot, I had a whole year’s worth of GMT (Gross Misuse of Time/General Military Training) to do prior to drill, and I’m awful fond of sleeping…

Tuesday, I had yet another run for the ages. Parked at Fort Wetherill on the way home, strapped on the sneaks, and hit the road. Just over 5 miles, and they flew past. The tunes were good, the weather was beautiful, and the miles were good. 5.1 miles in 43 odd minutes.
After the run, I walked down the boat ramp and waded into the water. It wasn’t nearly as cold as I’d feared, and I thought about taking an actual swim. But, there were a bunch of jellyfish in the water, so I didn’t. I don’t think they’re stinging, so I should have.

Skipped Wednesday. Thursday, I headed out from the office a bit after 5, intending to do about 5 miles on the Navy Base. Went through the gate about 5:10, and realized that they closed it down about 5:30. Crap. So, I pushed until 5:20, made it back to the gate at 5:30 before it closed. After I was back on the side of the fence with my car, I tried to slow down a bit, but man – I was bushed. Called it quits, even though I was only at a bit less than 26 minutes. Was shocked when I plotted it into gmaps pedometer and found it was 3.6 miles – can’t think of the last time I did 7 minute miles.

So, here’s wishing everyone a great weekend!

So, as good as Friday was, Saturday may have been better. Wake up, the wife makes her specialty French Toast (whole wheat cranberry-pecan loaf dredged in cinnamon-vanilla egg mixture, served with some real maple syrup), the boys and I putz around in the yard for a while, and about 10, Missy says “Hey, before you take a shower, why don’t you wash the dog?”

I say, “OK, but why don’t I run first?”

She says “Sure!”

I think “Man, I got the better end of those wedding vows…”

So, I lace up the sneaks, head up the hill through the neighborhood, and enjoy the absolute best Saturday morning run probably ever. Head down Cow Hill Road, bypassing the part of the hill that finally got Warren, and just kind of cruise down to the river. All cylinders are firing, the run is pure – no iPod, no watch, no heart rate. Not much better than this at all.

The cyclists pass me, head down, elbows pulled in, feet churning, and, for once, I’m not envious of them. Something’s snapped inside, I think I may be a runner after all (chances are more likely that it’s just that I’ve hit Mach-S and couldn’t be bothered with envy.

But everything was Holiday Weekend Perfect – after the foggy run yesterday, the sun was blazing, the humidity was up around 90%, and everything was set to get me in the mood for summer. 5.3 miles, pretty reasonable time (I’m guessing about 40 minutes based on the clocks in the house). Not sure if it’s the shoes or what, but for some reason, the body’s clicking. And the scale – after French Toast and the run – told me I was at 165, which I haven’t seen since September or October.

Oh, and in the continuing story of the T-Ball team, practice today was absolutely outstanding. Started off a little inauspiciously – only about 2/3 of the team showed up, which isn’t surprising given the holiday. Warm-up catch and the fielding drills were only middling, but when we plopped the kids out in the field and started hitting and fielding, something clicked, and the boys were digging it. No fights for the ball today at all, the kids were starting to back each other up, and there were a couple of cases where the ball actually got lodged in the mitt to count as a catch.

Technorati Tags: connecticut, Mystic, running

Wrapped up work a bit after 3 on Friday. Called the wife, told her I was grabbing the kitchen pass for dinner. Grabbed the keys to a friend’s apartment, told him I’d be back to the office to pick him up for supper around 5, and headed for a run in downtown Newport on the holiday afternoon.

The weather was absolutely perfect – cool and foggy; the last, desperate gasp of winter prior to the regularly scheduled arrival of summer on Memorial day weekend, and the legs were there. Rocked Prince’s new album on the iPod; eagerly anticipated the arrival of Nike integration, and the miles just seemed to slip by.

Admittedly, I haven’t been nearly so good about running regularly during the week as I’d like. Pitiful, even. But, there’s something that’s still clicking, some reason why when given the chance I’m blowing out epic runs. I’d like to be on more of a routine, but if this is what I’m stuck with, this is what I’ll take. Plus, the brain’s in a good spot.

Coming off of the Cliff Walk, I spotted a friend up ahead. Surprised her, and we walked a couple blocks to her stylist’s place. Finished the run blowing back through downtown, feeling sorry for folks who don’t live near the ocean. Running in the fog is about the greatest thing ever.

6.75 miles, 53+ minutes.

Technorati Tags: newport, running

Finally did it for the first time since the marathons.

Ran until I woke up sore the next day. 8.5 on Thursday. 7.5 on Friday. And Saturday was the perimeter loop with Mac, the guy who ran the Marine Corps Marathon, and Ron another guy from the unit who just happens to be our PT coordinator. Both of the guys apologized to me before the run in the event they weren’t able to keep up (the marathon thing carries a lot of weight, apparently), and proceeded to run me into the ground.

No, actually, it was a great run. We all stayed conversational, even over the steep, steep parts of the perimeter road, pushed hard, but not injury hard, and had a great time. Kind of a confessional of sorts between us, admitting that indeed, we all loved to run, and were even closet hippies in that there were times that we wished we could lose the cages and quit burning fossils for transportation. Not a bad way at all to spend an afternoon.

This morning, I woke up with the familiar tightness in the thighs, and the good tightness in the calves. Stretched a bit, stopped for a Tim’s on the way to the office, and decided to be happy with my 20 miles for the week and declare victory.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend. The first t-ball game went better than expected – only had one kid (somehow not mine – I’m still aglow as a proud father) watch a ball roll past while he was digging in the dirt, and only had one fight over who got to catch the ball. But all-in-all the kids were amazing. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. There was the whole “Can I hit first? Can I? Can I?” and the “Oooh, Oooh, can I play pitcher?”, but I count that as pretty much my fault for not making lineups ahead of time.

But I’m excited – We even started working on the concept of “backing up” the teammates – letting the guy closest have the first shot at catching the ball, and the next closest go a couple of yards (meters) behind in case the ball or the throw gets through.

Nobody got hurt, there were no tears. And, the wife remembered to go and get Snack, which, of course, is the most important part of the game!

Today I had a flashback.

Back in high school, Junior and Senior years, I had math classes for fifth period. Fifth period was always a dangerous time for me – long enough after lunch that food coma was starting to kick in, not close enough to the end of the day to have the bus as incentive to stay awake. Plus, I was good at math, and generally would work through the book in the first couple of months of class.

So, come springtime, I was bored out of my tree during fifth period.

The math classroom I’m thinking of was in a late 60’s vintage public school – low cinderblock buildings with lots of windows, and radiators along the wall. In early spring, the heat would still be running through the radiators to knock the chill off in the morning, but by afternoon, the windows would all be open to let in the breeze. With the windows came the sounds of birds playing, the sweet smell of freshly cut grass, and the coolness of the breeze.

Even better, I sat in the back row, right along the radiator. By fifth period, the sun was just beginning to come in through the window, at a shallow enough angle that I could lean back and have my whole desk in the clean light, leaving the rest of the room a dark nothing, the teacher drowned out by the hum of the radiator, and the distant rumble of the lawnmower trying to keep the honeysuckle from overrunning the schoolyard.

In other words, it was hardly my fault I’d spend most of the class dozing off, waking up only when called on, and irking the teacher to no end by being able to solve the problems on the board even when roused from REM sleep.

Today was one of those days at work. By about 3, there was no way I wasn’t going to leave early and get in a run. So, I did.

Waffled for a bit over where to go, and finally settled on the Cliff Walk. Parked at First Beach. Excellent choice – the student body of Salve Regina was out in force, with finals behind them or in progress. THe breeze was blowing, the birds were singing, and the sun beat down on my ears. Like yesterday, I set out sans anything battery powered, and ran.

Ran down to the ABC. Ran up to the Cliff Walk. Ran the cliff walk. Past Ruggles. Past the section where they’ve newly installed handrails, narrowing the path and taking away the tantalizing threat of being dashed on the rocks below (stupid lawyers). Ran the big rocks. Ran past the furthest I’d been before, and decided to run to the end.

Great choice. The miles just passed beneath my legs, and the parts where I had to scramble on glacier scoured rocks … well, they rocked.

Finally made it to the southernmost point of Acquidneck Island (Sorry – not quite the southernmost, but the farthest south on the peninsula with the spectacular mansions). The last mile before I headed back, there were college guys on rented bikes – looked like they were having a blast trying to go all singletrack on the hybrids. Proving again that the bike is an amazing machine, dependent largely on the rider.

The run back was interesting – Spent a decent time wondering if I were completely lost. Luckily, I wasn’t, and I rolled back to the car after about 7.5 miles.

Which is good – even with missing Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I’m within spitting distance of 20 for the week. Didn’t swim or bike, but hey? Who needs the QuickieMart?
Continue reading Cliff Walk

Man – Last night was one of those nights where everything’s about as close to perfect as it could possibly be. I got out of the office at a decent hour, had a great chat with a friend, and made it home in time to get the yard mowed.

For the record, that’s twice for the year. I know someone is going to give me grief. But, if 30 minutes pushing the mower gets me a week’s worth of happy wife, it’s a burden I’m willing to share.

After I finished the yard, there was still a decent amount of twilight left, and Hey! I was all dressed to run, and sweaty to boot. So I headed upstairs, told the boys G’night, told the wife I’d be back in time for “My Name is Earl”, and headed out to do my bit to try to be a better person.

Dunno what it was about last night – maybe it was just the results of my unintentional “taper” (I hadn’t run/biked/swam since Sunday), maybe it was just residual stress from work (he he!), maybe it was just the full onslaught of a 70 degree sunny day after two days of rain (Check out Seth Dillingham’s post. Or, maybe it’s just that I’m a runner…

In any case, I headed down towards Old Mystic, and, given the choice between River Road and a 5 miler, and Main Street on the Stonington side of the river and a longer-than-five-miler … well, Ladies and Gents, I took the long road.

No iPod. No Forerunner. No HRM. Just shoes, shorts, socks, shirt, and the music of Spring Peepers filling my ears.

Ran through Old Mystic. Ran past the hotels and resturants right off the interstate, hoping to snag folks tired of sitting in traffic on their way to Cape Cod.

Ran past the Cemetary, and wondered if it would be respectful or not to go wander about on a warm spring day, thinking about the people planted there and their roles in building my community.

Ran past the fried seafood shacks working the bugs out of the fryers for the summer.

Ran past the tumbledown wharves and piers where the people in the cemetary built the ships that carried American commerce around the world.

Ran past the Seaport where they’re trying to keep those skills alive. Saw the guy who runs the planetarium getting out of work for the evening. Wondered briefly if he marks the end of generations of navigating with the stars in an era of satellite navigation and GPS watches. I tried the celestial thing, and other than being able to find Polaris at night, and tell east from west during the day, I’m lost.

Looked across the river on a still night at slack tide and wondered if the people living in the town reflected on the water wondered about those of us living in the air.

Ran across the drawbridge and thought happy thoughts of hearing the whistle at 40 minutes past the hour from now until the end of October.

Passed the ice cream shop. Thought about stopping.

Passed the coffee shop. Thought about stopping.

Passed the pub. Was pleasantly surprised I didn’t think about stopping.

Ran up River Road. Had the debate with myself over how to go home. Passed another runner, and decided to take the long way home.

In Old Mystic, about mile 7.5, I broke down and walked a bit. Not due to being in pain, or really being out of breath. In hindsight, I don’t know quite why I walked. But I did.

Ran the last half mile, including the awful hill. Walked in with the smug sense of satisfaction that a good, long run brings.

Showered, shaved, sat on the couch with the wife.

All is well with the world.