the Way of the Turtle

SLOW GOING...
5.5 Mile Run in the Albany Pine Bush
Thursday, June 16, 2016

My plan today was to do a short run in the morning and a ride in the afternoon. I considered going over to Pittsfield for both, but in the end stayed a lot closer to home and headed over to the Blueberry Hills section of the Pine Bush instead. Just as well I did, because when I got there I discovered that I had idiotically left my knee sleeves sitting in the chair back at home. Rather than spend 45 minutes going back to get them, I decided to try to do the run without, meaning I'd be going very slow and being very careful. The soft surface of the sandy Pine Bush trails was definitely a plus in this case!

It's been quite a while since I visited these trails, partly because there's been a lot of work done here over the last couple of years (what used to be a mostly wooded area with breaks of open meadow is now mostly open meadow with a few wooded bits) and partly because I don't enjoy the new trail system as much as I enjoyed the old one. It's also tough to get more then 4 miles without repeating some sections.

Saw a couple of snakes and saw or heard about 5000 chipmunks (at least it seemed like that.) Knees held up OK. I miss all the woods that have been stripped out, but it is what it is. Legs felt less tired than they did on Monday, which was a real plus... but I still doubt I have what it takes to do Greylock on Sunday.

JMH