Weekly Training Update 1

So, I have been meaning to start a training blog with weekly updates but the last couple of weeks have been pretty rough. I cam down with some sort of common cold- E. bola hybrid that knocked me out for a few days here and there so this is my first week back into real training since I started writing at The Low Place. I am describing my training online for two reasons: (1) There might be one or two people (friends and family) that might actually be interesting in reading about it and (2) I think (hope) that writing about my training will force me to be more introspective about it.

Monday F16: PM 50 minutes of indoor cycling followed immediately by 76 minutes of pool running

Tuesday F17: PM 64 minutes of pool running followed immediately by 60 minutes of running (up Dole Hill road with cemetery out and back and down on the snowmobile trail)

Wednesday F18: AM 69 minutes of running (up the snowmobile trail and down Dole Hill Road with cemetery out and back and Terry Hill Road out and back) PM 76 minutes of pool running followed immediately by 27 minutes of flat run around the 'Field)

Thursday F19: AM 99 minutes running (up the snowmobile trail and down Dole Hill Road with snowmobile trail out and back and cemetery out and back in deep new snow) PM 77 minutes of pool running

Friday F20: AM 65 minute running (up the snowmobile trail and down Dole Hill Road with cemetery out and back in soft snow conditions) PM 76 of pool running

Saturday F21: AM 155 minutes of snowshoeing (semi broken trail to top of Paine Mountain with breaking trail in wicked deep snow north along the ridge- almost got to Irish Hill) PM 60 minutes of indoor cycling

Sunday F22: AM 165 minutes of snowshoeing (semi broken trail to top of Paine Mountain trail broken along the ridge had partially filled in but I still managed to make it out a little bit further than on Saturday- got about 6 minutes closer to Irish Hill)

Weekly totals:
10:40 running and snowshoeing (57% of total)
1:50 indoor cycling (10% of total)
6:09 pool running (33% of total)
18:39 total

Comments: I am still in a phase of ramping up my total numbers and the percentage of this total that comes from running. This was a good week for this point in the season (still two or so months from my racing season) and I was very happy about the state of my knackered knee following 5:20 of snowshoeing over two days. My best workout for the week was the Sunday snowshoe since I was already very tired from the previous day's workout- plus, we got about two feet of snow this week (about 6 inches during my Sunday run) and so the snowshoeing is awesome right now!

What is The Low Place?

The first person to accurately describe the origin of the name "The Low Place" was Paul Bazanchuk who correctly noted that The Low Place is “the point on the Holyoke Range where 7 Sisters proper begins”.

If you have run the 7sisters trail race, you may know The Low Place as the brief portion of the trail that you will encounter after coming down from the top of Mount Hitchcock that is actually very runnable. It is also the location of the first/last water stop (water that has to be hauled in by the race staff on foot!) I like to pretend that this portion of the course is named after me even though I am almost certain that it is not.

I am not surprised that Paul B. was got the geographic reference since he lives in Amherst (MA) and The Low Place straddles the town line between the neighboring towns of Hadley and South Hadley. He also wrote a post about his efforts to clean up this portion of the trail following a recent ice storm. Paul B., I owe you a beer. Below is a profile of the 7sisters trail race course with some of the notable hypsographic features labeled.



Or, you you prefer map view, The Low Place can be found on the map of Skinner SP below where the LP (Low Place) trail intersects the M&M trail.

Introduction

So, I guess that since this blog has two followers and no actual posts, I should get started on actually making posts. The writing herein will be mostly about running with a little bit of personal and professional stuff thrown in as well. After all, the world needs another running blog. Of course, the opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not those of my employer or sponsors. As for the blog title, the first person to accurately describe the origin of the name "The Low Place" in the comments to this post gets a prize.