My turn

Wednesday 5 (last week)

The weather was breaking (warm) on this day – instant message Beth to see if she was going outside. She was but earlier in the day because rain was in the forecast.  Unfortunately I had heavy workload and couldn’t get outside until after noon time. As I was making my way to the fitness center at work – I have to walk about ½ mile – I could feel rain drops. Decided to run outside anyway – thinking it was just going to be a light rain. Wrong – after the fist ½ mile the sky opened up. So this turned into a temp-o/puddle jumping run. I was under dress as well.

Thursday 8 (last week)

This was going to be one of the warmest days of 2014 (so far) so I couldn’t wait to get out and run. I was having a challenging work week so my plan was to get lost for awhile.  I started looking at the space watch after the first mile and I notice I was running/feeling good – just under 7 pace. I decided I would try to maintain this pace for the 8 miles – mission accomplished.

Friday 4 (last week)

Heavy rain - wasn’t motivated plus I was feeling it a little in the legs from the past two days of temp-o runs. Ended up running easy pace on the treadmill

Saturday 15 (Group Run with Chris, Justin, Tom and Jeff)

The email went out on Friday – Jeff was looking to do 15 – no course picked out yet. Tom wanted to swim after the run so he asked to start at the Y. I didn’t want to run the Boom Bridge/Ashaway loop – done that few weeks back. So I mentioned running down to Greenhaven – looks like I have just became the organizer. So I went out to MapMyRun and planed a route that included water stop at my house – just after 11. Chris had to go just after 5 (he just wanted to run around 8 or 10) so he went back via Greehaven Road. We had to cross over 3 major/heavy traveled roads (Route 1, Pequot Ave & Route 2) all sort brief crossings, plus as usual it was early in the day. On that – because of the past couple of days we had a little spring thaw so the roads were little icy in spots – see Jeff blog. I did not plan for Jeff fall on the ice – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. After the water stop we had to cross Route 2 – this is a four lane heavy traveled road and now it’s just over 8 o’clock in the morning so traffic is busy. Do you remember the game Frogger. That’s how we basically crossed Route 2 to get to White Rock. Good company, good run.

Sunday 0

Couldn’t get out on this day which was the warmest in 2014 yet – unlike most of you – I have a life other than running.

Monday 7 (this week)

Wow, I wasn’t expecting to do 7 as my work schedule is little hectic in the beginning of the week (meetings that last forever). I got out before lunch and into a groove.

Rest of week ?

I’m sure it will be the usual 5 or 6 mile lunch run

I would like to get in at least one day of speed work

Last few days

Last week was a challenging week with trying to get outside for runs because of the weather plus work has been little hectic these last two weeks (oh the emotional distress).  I managed to miss just one day (will call it a rest day - Tuesday). The rest of the week all I could get was average of 5 miles.  Sorry, I’m not Jeff or Jonny - I have a life (that’s a joke).  In addition to the hectic week my space watch was not doing the space stuff its suppose to – technology – what happened to the old days.  More on the space watch later.

Saturday 17 (group run)

According to Jeff this was the largest group run (8) that we have had. We started at my old high school – Chariho (4 of the 8 are alumni), so another back-in-time.  I’ll be honest, I was little nervous about this group run, not because of the distance but the pace.  The email that went out mentioned peppy casual.  I wasn’t sure I was ready in my training for peppy.  I figured this was good time as any to see where I stood.  Plus some of the group was bailing out just after 5 for 10 mile run because of obligations (they have a life) so I could always go that route.  Around mile 1 you can hear the beep of everyone space watch so I decided to look at my left wrist to check the pace – all I see is the time.  I thought I lost the signal and started hitting buttons – nothing - errrr.  The group that was going to depart around the 5 mile mark was Nate, Chris and FiveK – yeah, like I’m going to run back with them.  You ever watch a horse race when the thoroughbreds are being escorted by OTHER horses around the track.  That’s what Jonny, Muddy, Seth, Jeff and I felt like – the other horses.  They hit the starting gate at Collins Road running the last half of the 10 miler at sub-6 minute pace.  I’m sure they were calling us suckers as the five of us continued on for more torture as we had HILLS coming.  Jonny – who planned the route, had to get in some kind of trail run – you just knew this was going to happen.  So we took a right turn onto Tomaquag Valley Road (dirt road) - my kind of trail running. At the end of this road you are less than a mile from the world famous Juniper Drive, Ashaway.  We continued on going Diamond Hill, Route 216 to Route 91 which including the climb up Route 91 onto Brudickville Road for a quick downhill into Charleston.  We stopped at the bridge for a quick rest. At this point in the run – not sure of distance as space watch is down – I started to hear moaning and complaining.  I forgot about the second half Brudickville Road which included two miles of hills. I was about 10 seconds behind the group – how I knew, I was counting trying to keep the mind engage and the inner voice silent.  The last third of this hill climb I was starting to fade.  Jeff looked over his shoulder, slowed to my pace and started a conversation on what part of Brudickville Road was more difficult.  You would have to travel this road to figure out what he was characterizing.  For me it’s a sufferfest either way as I have bike it and now run it.  Kudos to Jeff for slowing up and keeping me company – thank you.  As we finally got to the top of the last climb, Jonny house was just around the corner where he had water out for us.  Quick break and back to the run, which now we are on Shumankanuc HILL road – oh shit, not another hill.  This was the hill just before Kings Factory Road which wasn’t that bad considering what we just came from.  I was able to hang with the pack knowing that it was basically downhill on Kings Factory Road than flat rest of way.  As we reach Route 91 the pace started to pick-up and I started to feel good/confident – maybe because no more hills - we ended up back at Chariho. Good run and workout.

Conclusion – I’m glad that I decided to go long as this is needed in my training and that hills SUCK like that snowman Jeff made

Sunday 5

Saturday night during the snow storm I did some Google-ing and found out how to re-set the space watch. After I cleared the driveway I went out for a quick run – little slushy and windy and it didn’t help matters that I was little under dress. Didn’t matter as I wanted to make sure the space watch was working. It was funny – like running with it for first time – always looking at it making sure it was working

Back in time

Sunday 0 – rest day

Unfortunately I was not able to run the Belleville Pond 10K with WTAC team mates (sorry Mike G). I had family obligations  

Saturday - 13, 14, 15 something (space watch wasn’t working properly) 

This I will call the Back in Time run (Huey Lewis and the News – just for you Chris). I’ll explain - settle in as I have a lot to share. Muddy has been running on Juniper Drive in Ashaway past couple of times. This is the street that I grew up on. So Saturday morning I was urging some Ashaway memories. Went into the garage and started the DeLorean time machine making sure the Flux Capacitor had enough fuel. Got up to 88MPH and BOOM ended up Ashaway (ok, I said boom). I decided first that I would see if Muddy was up. Ran into the driveway, touch his truck and turned around waving (dame it, I needed some water at this point). So, off to Juniper Drive via Diamond Hill. Diamond Hill was picturesque with snow still on the trees dripping with ice drops – very cool. Turned onto Egypt Street for a quick downhill than a hard right onto Juniper Drive.

Juniper Drive – this was Americana in the 70’s & 80’s. Everyone on this street was blue color working class families. This was the place where you know your neighbor and you could leave the door unlock at night along with the garage door open and keys in the car. This is a true fact – we did this in the Boumenot household. We invented how to play outside ALL DAY – we were told – get out and play and don’t come home until the streetlights are on.

I’ll share some of the things WE invented on Juniper Drive: (remember this is my story)

• Whipple Ball – with invisible runners, strike zone and if you hit the house, you’re out.
• Snowball fights – when I like winter
• BMX biking
• Sledging – when I like winter
• Skateboarding – when you just went down the hill on a skateboard
• Building snow forts – when I like winter
• Ice hockey on a pond in the middle of the woods - we never checked the thickness of the ice. Just get out and play hockey. When the ice cracked we would say it was a season crack – yeah right
• Capture the flag on bikes at night
• Street Hockey – we actually painted the goals, blue lines and face-off spots on the street
• Throwing snowballs at cars at night – I will deny this if someone mother or fathers car got hit
• Freesbe Football
• Building tree forts
• Climbing trees
• Exploring in the woods – this was the early version of trail running
• You could ride your bike to school – we were the coolest kids

Everyone wanted to come play on Juniper Drive. Ok, you get the point. Juniper Drive / Ashaway was the best place in the country to grow up in the 70’s and 80’s. Brought home the DeLorean, clean-it up and parked it back in the garage. SO, in closing I challenge you to come get the DeLorean time machine making sure the Flux Capacitor has fuel and go out to a place in time – could be anywhere. Speed up to 88MPH and enjoy the RUN down memory lane.

Friday 8

The 4:30 club decided to do a 4:00PM workout. This was one of FiveK workouts. We did hill repeats (6) on the Surftown hill in Watch Hill. Then we went out to Ocean View for (5) 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy followed by (5) 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy. Prefer this instead of track workouts - minus the hill repeats. On the way back to our cars we had to run by the Ocean House were on the third floor someone came out on the balcony and yelled – we turned around look up and it was Ryan Woolley. He was there staying the night before his big day – he’s getting married – sucker (hi Julie). We wished him well and good luck. Summary - good workout, good company – the only bad thing was, it was cold

Recap of the weekend and my RANT & RAVE

Friday 6

4:30 club without Jeff who decided to sleep in. We ended up going on the beach – not good as the snow drifts were knee high. Turned around and headed back

Saturday 6.6

Small group run – just Jeff, Jonny and I. We started from Jeff house on roads then went into Champlin Glacier Park. Not a trail guy but for some reason I enjoy running in these trails with breathtaking views. Wish the park was bigger. We ran a slow pace as race day was approaching – good conversation, good company.

Sunday 5 (warm-up, race, cool down)

Super 5K – Never run this race before but a fun out and back race. 19:40 for first of the year 5K race. Great showing for the WTAC club as we took the ladies and men’s title. Started slow but ended strong with a 6 minute mile for the last mile - according to space watch. This is encouraging so looking forward to spring racing. I’m not going into detail for re-cap of the Super 5K – everyone reading this blog has a blog and did the race – I think you know how it went  

I want to discuss what really went on this weekend

Groundhog Day - celebrated on 2 of February. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog (Weather Prophet) emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early: if it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks.  Modern customs of the holiday involve celebrations where early morning festivals are held to watch the groundhog emerging from its burrow.

So Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow on and predicted SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER.

This F-ing rodent came out of his subterranean residence early in the morning as eager spectators waited to see this spectacle – I would have ran him over, then back up and ran him over again. SIX more weeks of winter, really - I HATE WINTER. I’m going to run over every rodent that tries to cross my path and I just might run trails with my shotgun looking for this Punxsutawney Phil the Weather Prophet. RELAX you tree hugging, environmental loving, earth loving goobers – this is just humor. Go back to your driving your family van or SUV and generate more greenhouse gases that will effect global warming - so we can get back to 90 degree days.

wanted DEAD or ALIVE