Tue 4/28 - PM 75 minutes very easy

Round trip to 10 Spencer, along the rail bed for much of it. Felt like utter garbage from first step to last, no energy whatsoever. I was considering taking the elliptigo out for a spin instead to make this particular trip, in hindsight I absolutely should have done that and saved myself the drudgery of this slog. I have to put the flatness down to lack of sleep and adjusting to the workaday routine again, i.e. a temporary readjustment but boy did I feel like crap. More blustery cool conditions.

Mon 4/27 - PM 35 minutes easy

Out and back along the Charles in Watertown/Newton. Slow pace to start, but felt a bit better by the end and going a bit quicker as a result. More blustery winds, of course. Some stiffness in right leg from yesterday.

Sun 4/26 - PM 50 minutes incl. 5k road race

Groton for the umpteenth time, which never gets old. Arrived a bit later than I would have liked thanks to catching up on errands at home, which resulted in an abbreviated warmup. With the change in schedule this year doubling is no longer an option, and in hindsight I chose wisely with the 5k. With the week's travails, both the mountain runs and hours spent behind the wheel, it was apparent going in that I wouldn't be bringing my A-game. Thankfully it wasn't needed and I was able to relax a bit in the second half of the race. This is reflected in the mile splits, which went 5:17/5:37/5:45ish. I'm not sure I could have gone much faster if pressed to be honest. Overcast and blustery conditions yet again, not especially cold but not warm either.

Sat 4/25 - AM 40 minutes very easy

Central Park. A nice mellow putter starting along the Bridle Path and winding around to Belvedere Castle. A few stops included to admire the spring scenery. A nice morning, sunny and lot less windy than it was yesterday. Spent the rest of the day doing a lot of walking around town.

Fri 4/24 - PM 65 minutes

Van Cortlandt Park. Five-plus hours of driving yesterday followed by four more today left me feeling quite frazzled, with the added joy of negotiation the NYC traffic to get to the park. The run offered a much-appreciated opportunity to decompress and blow off steam. Started out easy and gradually picked up steam, with the last 20 minutes or so being close to a threshold effort. Felt reasonably good considering all the sitting in the car and sleeping in a chilly tent last night. Still, the underlying fatigue is palpable. Continued blustery conditions, only a bit cooler still now that I'm hundreds of miles further north of where I was the last six days.

Thu 4/23 - AM 70 minutes

A final out and back along the AT in Virginia, this time from SR 600 to the summit of Whitetop Mountain and back. After a couple of failed/misbegotten attempts at this particular summit, went with the simple and short route and got it done before leaving the area and heading back north. Similar to other sections of trail I've seen, there was a mix of delightfully smooth footing and more tocky sections, with runoff from the rains earlier in the week making things slippery in spots. The actual summit was quite underwhelming with a bunch of cell towers and a maintenance shed gracing the spot. The wind was nearly overwhelming at times in the exposed open sections of the mountainside access road, and hastened my retreat to the relative shelter of the AT in the woods. Still a nice finish to an edifying week in the mountains.

Wed 4/22 - double, 3 hours total

AM - 2. 5 hours, Mt. Rogers. Reached the VA high point via AT, then descended along Lewis Fork and Cliffside trails back to the road. Fairly smooth footing for the first two miles of ascent before things got more gnarly with exposed rocks and roots. The spur trail to the summit went relatively quickly, with unexpectedly thick forest growth at the summit itself. Green and mossy in fact, unlike the bald areas below the summit. Trip back down included some steep descending before a long fairly gradual stretch to get back to the road where I was able to move reasonably well. Some stiffness in TFL and hip flexors but overall legs held up well to the day. Went with the shortest, most manageable option for getting to this summit and glad I did in hindsight. More clear cool weather, with big winds developing once the sun came out.

PM - 30 minutes very easy, shakeout along the Creeper. A pretext to do some stretching and core work in the town park. Quads sore but nothing unexpected after all the thudding descents this week.

Tue 4/21 - PM 60 minutes

Out and back, and out and back, on the AT from SR 601. Garden variety clusterfuck as my pie in the sky plan to reach the summit of Whitetop came to grief. In fact, the original plan was to bike to Green Cove in the morning along the Creeper trail and then run to the mountain from there. A bridge way too far, instead I ended up doing just a bike ride out and back along the Creeper (with an ill-advised short cut up and over a mountain road thrown in as well) between breakfast and lunch. Upon arriving at the trailhead/intersection at 601 I merrily took off down the trail and realized just under 15 minutes later I had in fact gone the wrong way after misreading the map. Turned tail and headed back to the intersection and headed the correct way towards the mountain. Very embarrassing to get east and west so thoroughly mixed up. The trail towards Whitetop steadily climbed along the flank of Beech mountain, seemingly endless. With shadows lengthening and feeling quite exhausted, I decided to turn tail and make another try later on in the week instead. The warmer weather of the last two days has been replaced by clear cool conditions with a steady westerly breeze.