Morning is the best time to run

Ah, the humidity and high temps make for sticky evenings this time of year... not conducive to running distances. So I set the alarm for 4:45 this morning and took advantage of some low temperatures and low humidity, not to mention low traffic as I headed down Rt 2 south to South Rd. The construction on the Rt 4 overpass makes navigating that area of Rt 2 very precarious - there's literally no shoulder on either side of the bridge, so I had to run down the median. Not something I'd recommend during normal waking hours, but not an issue at about 5:30.

Knocked off a portion of South Rd west of Rt 2 - holy hill! It's brutal from Rt 2 up to Tillinghast... I might need to plan on doing that in reverse if I ever head that way again. Finished up the southern leg of Tillinghast too.

Today's route:

Overall progress map (covered area is in the bottom middle of this view):

I have almost completed everything east of the imaginary Shippeetown / Tillinghast line - just a couple stragglers off of Frenchtown, the extreme southern piece of Rt 2, and the South Rd extension (and offshoots) to the east of Rt 2. That's a big accomplishment, but it shines a bright light on that tough western part of town - some really long ventures out there in the next couple months.

Runs to date: 40 (!) runs covering 237.3 miles for an average of 5.93 miles per run. As currently mapped, I have about 111 miles spread across 8 runs remaining until I reach my goal.

Rt 2 north is finished

Decided to follow the advice in my last post and went for a short one tonight - just under 5.5 miles, to knock off the northern part of Rt 2 and the little road behind CVS and by NE Tech. Humid night, so I'm glad I didn't venture out for a longer run. Also, we did a bunch of work Sunday at my Mother-in-law's lake house, so I was still recovering a bit from putting in docks, A/Cs, etc.

Tonight's run:

Overall map:

Totals to date: 39 runs totaling 226.65 miles, averaging 5.81 miles per run. If I follow the courses laid out, I'm down to 122.3 miles.

Uh-oh

Last night was the first sign that I'm going to have to abandon my approach of long run followed by long run. I did a 10+ mile run after two 8.5 mile runs earlier this week and I just didn't have it. My pace wasn't bad, but I was feeling some aches and pains during the run that weren't normal - knee and hip pain on the right side. I might have to abandon my approach and go with the more traditional approach of shorter runs surrounding longer runs to both strengthen and recover. Not what I wanted, as that will lead to this effort stretching longer than I had hoped, and will also lead to unproductive runs. I only have one sub-10 mile run on my list of planned routes, but I'm not doing myself or my goal any good if I hurt myself and have to reset my mileage / endurance - in order to complete this, I'll have to work my way up to a 17 miler so being careful now is key. Anyway...

I ran the Shippeetown stretch between Middle and Division, including some REALLY nice neighborhoods - the Blueberry Hill area had the nicest houses I've seen thus far, and there are a handful of lots for sale in there for anyone who's looking ;)

Yesterday's coverage map:

Full EG map (the area completed yesterday is in the upper left corner):

Totals to date: 38 runs totaling 221.16 miles for an average of 5.82 per run. That leaves 127.94 productive miles left (more if I change my approach and mix in short runs for the good of my body). On a personal note, 4.5 more miles and this will be the farthest I've ever run in a single month - my prior max is 86.11 and I'm sitting at 81.69 right now.

East of Rt 2 and 4 almost done

Yesterday, I ran through the mobile home neighborhood across from Flood Ford on Rt 2. I also knocked off the Davisville road snippet. Nearly 8.5 miles, leaving only the southern portion of Rt 2 and the South Rd portion to the east of Rt 2 until the entire eastern half of the map is done.

Yesterday's run:

Complete map:

You can see way down in the very bottom right corner the area that is outstanding to the east of Rt 4... There's construction on the Rt 2 bridge crossing Rt 4, bringing it to 1 lane on each side, so I'm a bit hesitant to run that area outside of early weekend mornings - I have 2 or 3 runs planned down that way, so I'll probably have to slot them in for the next several weekends.

Totals to date: 37 runs and 210.9 total miles for an average of 5.7 miles per run. I also combined multiple runs into last nights route and eliminate "to go" mileage - if I don't combine or redesign future runs, I've got 138.2 miles remaining.

Surpassed 200 total miles!

I ran a few of the small neighborhoods east of Rt 2 and south of Frenchtown - the roads behind Pizza Heaven (our favorite local pizza joint) as well as the neighborhood behind Di Mare / Harrington and Rhodes / etc. Overall, an 8.81 mile run on a warm, humid evening (I'm getting to be able to judge the humidity based on how wet my shirt is when I return from a run). That put me over the 200 mile mark for runs dedicated to this goal. I'm pretty sure I'll have to hit 300 before I finish this exercise; if not, it'll be pretty close.

Last night's coverage:

And the map in full:

Progress to date: 36 runs, 202.51 miles, 5.63 miles per run on average.

Update... I mapped out some routes to cover the remaining roads and it looks like I have over 150 miles to go. Nice that I'm over halfway there, and much of that 150 will be retracing my steps, but there's still quite a ways to go. At 25 miles a week, I'm looking at more than 6 weeks to complete; if I jump up to 30-40 miles per week which is certainly in the cards soon, I can bring that down slightly (4-5 weeks). Injuries and weather permitting, I'll be done with this thing before the kids go back to school. Then what will I do? October marathon, anyone?

Inner High Hawk roads

This AM, I broke the 10 mile barrier for the first time this year. I trekked out Middle and made a left onto Tillinghast. On the right is Arrowhead Trail which connects in with the High Hawk neighborhood, so I did the "inside" roads in that neighborhood - I'll return at a future date to complete the outer roads, which leads to a longer run and the reason that it didn't occur first. The return trip was just a reversal - Arrowhead Trail to Tillinghast to Middle. This exposes the frustration of this folly - of today's 10.32 miles, 6.86 miles was retracing previously completed paths.Ten plus miles to knock not even 3.5 miles off the goal! Argh!

One cool thing to note - there's a really cool water wheel on the west side of Tillinghast just north of the Arrowhead Trail intersection. It wasn't working when I went past, but it looked like it could be engaged manually.

Tillinghast is a difficult little road - lots of rolling hills, vs. Middle which has giant hills on either side of the Rt 2 valley. High Hawk was hillier than I expected - nothing major, but I found myself struggling at times. Which leads me to...

I must be either the worst runner ever or the most predictable runner ever. If I'm on a downhill, my mental state is all "Yeah, no sweat, I won't have to walk at all on this run"; if I'm headed the slightest bit uphill, I'm all about "Wow, I'm gonna need to walk to recover a bit." I'm waiting for the runner's high to kick in - I've only experienced it a couple times, but I found it to be incredibly invigorating and made me feel almost invincible.

Here's the new ground that today's route covered. I also covered a teeny little cul-de-sac off Middle but it's not worth calling out with its own picture.

Totals to date: 35 runs totaling 193.7 miles, for an average of 5.53 miles per run. And here's the new consolidated map - you can see the High Hawk progress in the left center below:

Next run should push me over 200 miles!

Tillinghast North

Took on the northern part of Tillinghast yesterday - between Middle and Frenchtown - along with a couple neighborhoods hanging off the sides. That completely closes out the Middle / Tillinghast / Frenchtown / Rt 2 square. The new area covered yesterday is below:

That run added 9.36 miles to the total, giving me 183.38 total miles in this bizarre exercise, averaging 5.39 miles per run across the 34 total runs.

Progress to date:

Division = DONE!

I executed my plan today, though it was in doubt at several times. I set the alarm for 4:30 AM to get up and out before the traffic on Division picked up, especially around the highway on / off ramps. Forces were aligned against me last night, though, as my wife was out at a wedding with her mother and returned around 11, followed shortly by my daughter coming in to report that she was having scary thoughts that prevented her from falling asleep. So, instead of falling asleep at 10:30 or so, I was up until about midnight. The alarm went off at 4:30, I shut it off and reset it for 7:30, but the birds - the damn birds! - were already up and happily making noise, so I hauled myself out of bed and left the house by 5 for the run. We'll see what that does in the long run - I'm working this morning and possibly into the afternoon and on-call all afternoon / overnight, the girls have skating tests this afternoon / evening, Game of Thrones is on tonight at 9, and - oh, yeah - the Penguins are playing a slightly important game tonight at 8. If I don't squeeze in a nap somewhere, I'll either be asleep by the second period or will be a complete waste at work tomorrow.

Traffic was perfect - no issues in either direction at the highway ramps or while crossing Rt 2. The run itself wasn't bad - a bit slower than the Adirondack run, but I'm not doing this for speed. I only walked for a small distance on the return trip, right after the 4-way stop signs on Division at Shippeetown. Had something bothering my ear, got in a good brow wipe with my shirt, then off and running again. Really humid this morning, so I was drenched - very different from the Adirondack run which was a similar temperature but the air was so dry that my shirt was only wet in spots. I was drenched from head to toe today.

Here's the new ground covered today:

Can't believe I was over at Centre of New England - I never knew EG went that far, but I was warned by some friends who commented on EG being involved in approving the McDonalds that was built over there. You'll also noticed I ran outside of EG and off map at one point - it just made sense to continue on vs. back track - nothing in my "rules" prevents me from doing that, and I'm all about minimizing the distance these days :)

And the full map (new area covered is in the very upper left):

To date, that's 33 runs totaling 174.02 miles - that's an average of 5.27 miles per outing. I'm still hamstrung by the Division time limitations - I really only feel comfortable heading that way early in the morning on weekends for obvious traffic reasons, so I'll have to pick my spots carefully. In the meantime, I'm torn between finishing the Rt 2 neighborhoods (both the mobile home area near Flood Ford and the Canonicus Trail neighborhood further south, across from the National Guard location) and finishing the areas between Middle and Frenchtown. I think those decisions will be based on the distance of each run, how I feel, and how much time I have.

Adirondack and PI

Ran down to Frenchtown and through the Adirondack development on Thursday - 9+ miles. I'm shocked at the amount of poison ivy that I see on the roadside - I had no idea how common it was. I had a rough time with PI as a kid - my house backed up to the woods and I was in there constantly. My parents thought I might be so allergic that I'd get it somehow from the air - maybe someone nearby burning brush? My biggest paranoia as I'm running is that a car will lose control, head towards me on the shoulder, and I'll have to ditch into the PI alongside the road to save myself. I'd almost rather risk the leap onto the hood of the oncoming car!

Anyway, slow week due to some work stuff and uncooperative weather. Aside from the Adirondack run, I only snuck in a short one to knock off the little road behind ON Semiconductor. Not even worth calling out separately, so here's the view of the Adirondack coverage:

And the complete picture to date:

I'm up to 32 runs covering 165.33 miles, for an average of 5.17 miles per run. My goal for tomorrow is to get up bright and early and run the length of Division and cover the northern end of Shippeetown and Crompton as well, making my way very close to BJs and the Centre of New England plaza.

Solid week to knock out northeast

I finished up the area north of Frenchtown and East of Rt 4. Early in the week, I concentrated on a bunch of roads near Post, between Cedar and Sweet Twist. Then I took on a long run yesterday and covered the Middle / Rt 2 / Frenchtown / Post loop, finishing off the road behind Hilltop and a small dead end up behind Sweet Twist.

Here's this week's coverage area:

And the overall master view of coverage to date:

I'm now left with the scariest chunk, which is the long run down Rt 2 and the large areas across Rt 2. This thing is getting real now - no short runs left, unless you count the tiny road near ON Semiconductor on Rt 2 / Middle, or the mobile home park on Rt 2 across from Bostitch or whatever it is now (Toray, I believe?). The north end of Rt 2 is also available, but I was kinda hoping to save that for a short celebratory concluding run :)

Stats to date: I started this foray on Feb 23, but it was still winter so I had a bunch of treadmill runs in late Feb and March that didn't provide any progression on the map. So far, I've had 30 EG runs for a total of 152.51 miles, which is an average of 5.08 miles per run. The mileage and average per run will certainly be climbing quickly given the areas I have left to complete.