the Way of the Turtle

8.3 Mile Run in the Albany Pine Bush
Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Tonight was a good night for a run... cool but not too cold (until the end, after the sun went down!) and the trails were nice and soft from the rain we had recently. I haven't been for a run in the Pine Bush for a while, but over the past 10 years I've run there so often that it always feels a bit like coming home when I'm back on those trails again, even with all the changes that have happened over the past few years.

Since I expected to be out after dark I didn't bother with my camera... in once sense that was a good thing, since it let me concentrate on running, but it was also light long enough that I probably could have gotten some decent photos. Just as I was starting out a large bird flew off from some of the pines - couldn't tell if it was a raptor or an owl. And later in the run I saw a large group of deer (twice, actually... once when I scared them into the woods, and then later when I startled them running through the woods they'd run into.) The frogs were also singing a froggy mating chorus when I came back through in the dark - they quieted right down as I got close, but I could see them head for the bottom of their vernal pool when directed my headlamp toward the water.

Started out tired with somewhat fried quads (presumably a result of four tough days of snowshoeing, running, and riding at the end of last week!) and things didn't improve much, though I did end up running further than I thought I would, in part because I headed off on some trails I don't run very often... that added both extra interest and made it a little bit tougher to end the run early. Right now it's hard to imagine the two race weekends I have coming up in April - Merrimack (10mi) and Great Bay (half marathon) in a little under two weeks, and the Flower City Challenge in about a month. I'm expecting slow times at all three, and I suspect they're going to hurt more than a little... but hopefully they'll help keep me on track for getting ready for NIPMUCK at the beginning of June.

JMH