Fall morning

3 miles in 40 minutes. Not bad considering this is our hills workout. It was a cloudy morning and both Long Sought for Pond and the Keyes pond were reflecting pretty fall colors. Here's Keyes pond. I am glad we're running or we'd completely miss this.






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Short runs week

This week has been short runs week - 10/6, Tuesday and 10/8, Thursday 3 miles each one side of Nabnasset lake.

Millstone Hill

Ran down and up from Haystack to the road - 2.8 miles, 40 minutes.


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6 mile walk

Due to unfavorable health outlook, we walked 6 miles around the Nabnasset lake in 2 hrs.

Brook-side trail biking

This afternoon two other people from my lab and I went for trail biking by a brook near Haystack. Two of us from the group had done this before. The fall colors are now starting to show. Couldn't resist taking some pictures along the way.





Here's the map - notice Haystack (my lab) on the lower right corner (just above Terms of Use)


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13.6 miles on Rail Trail

Well, we did it today, a little more than the half marathon distance. We did the entire Bruce Freeman trail end to end back and forth. We started at the Chelmsford center, went to the Lowell end that is 1.8 miles one way. I liked that those 3.6 miles felt like nothing more than a warm-up. Our pace still wasn't great - 15 minutes/mile, but that should improve. The last 2 miles were the hardest. I wasn't tired, but my legs were. I couldn't feel them by the end. But it feels good to have done the whole distance.



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The hills are...

...alive with the colors of foliage! It was the hill workout day. I used my downhill running to chase the falling leafs. So fun :)



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10 mile Saturday

Another 10 mile run today on the rail trail. This time at the end we didn't feel like we were dying, but I wouldn't mind a little more variety than the straight line trail for such a long run. It seems to never end psychologically. Next time we'll try some other paths in Westford I think.

Run in the morning, work in the afternoon, here's the result !


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Hills and fall colors

Yesterday was our hill workout day. We went to a hilly road that we've never been to before. It has pretty steep hills and there is grassland north of Keyes road. I don't know the reason, but all the trees in grasslands all around Westford have already turned colors. It makes for a spectacular sight. Our pace was okay, but in the hill workout we don't look for the overall time.


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5 mile Nabnasset loop

Not a major improvement over yesterday, but it's getting better. The mornings are chillier and the fall colors are starting to show. The grassland on our root looks so different now than in the summer. I should post some pictures.

Not sure whether it was the 3 phys therapy sessions and stretches I did, or the rest I've had, or my technique has improved, or the fact that I've found it to be a rather mental phenomenon than a physical one and have decided to ignore it, or the combination of all of the above, but my knee/shin issues have entirely disappeared. Let's see if it stays that way.


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On the road again

After a hiatus last week due to a fall followed by a crazy work week followed by a sickness, we just started running again today. We did a short 3.7 mile run along the Nabnasset lake in brisk fall weather. I have to say I was quite impressed by our 13 minutes/mile pace today - an improvement from 15 minutes.


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10 miles on the rail trail

Today we did our first 10 mile run on the Bruce Freeman rail trail. We went all the way to the Westford end of the trail. It was filled with bikers and runners of all kinds today and felt like some huge fun community exercise day. Two little kids even had a lemonade stand along the trail. I was a little annoyed though by bikers whizzing past me without announcing themselves.

The time on the first half of our run wasn't so good, but on the second half it was not worse than our regular weekday run, which I thought was reassuring in terms of being able to do that after already having run 5 miles. This time I took water and granola with me, which helped a lot, but I may have to find a better energy substitute. At the end of this I could barely feel that I was alive, but it was a good feeling overall.


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Hill workout

Today we did a hill workout. The Tenney road on the map is on a hill; the slope changes from easy to moderate. We ran a mile to warm up going there then did fast running up and down the hill 7 times.


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6 miles around Nabnasset

This morning it was remarkable that we actually ran 6 miles, since we had no idea how much it was going to be in those little lanes and trails around Nabnasset.


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Back to school day run

Short 3 mile run in the morning. We were greeted by the kids going to school or waiting for their school bus. Getting pretty chilly out there. Our time still needs to improve.


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Evening run

A short 3.8 mile run today near Haystack. It was a new neighborhood to run in. I believe we're going to see the entire Westford this way :).


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Bruce Freeman Rail Trail

We decided to run today on this newly opened Bruce Freeman rail trail. Apparently it was in construction for about 25 years. It's a beautiful trail. It goes through woods and wetlands and pretty neighborhoods, is covered by trees and goes along water streams. We ran up to the Hart Pond and back to Chelmsford center making it about 6.16 miles. We were still running 15 minute miles though. Also I have decided that hydration pack is a bad idea.



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Week 2 Run 2

This was a short 3 mile run. It was a little chilly this morning, but the day is gorgeous! If there was ever a day to be outside this summer, this is it. Clearly I am not outside. However, we still need to increase our pace.


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Trail biking

I went biking today on an old railroad track path close to Haystack. Part of it goes through a pond/brook (Cow Pond Brook in the map) It's a beautiful path, some rocks, some dirt, some tree roots, and entirely covered by trees. My favorite part was many bumps on the trail; you feel about 5 going up and down on those. Wheeeee! There were sections where I had to get down and walk, but I only fell once because it was muddy. All in all it was a 6.8 mile ride and a lot of fun!


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Week 2 run 1

We tried doing a little longer today than the usual 5 miles. This was a 6 mile loop. Time wasn't good, since we were still recovering from the weekend expeditions.



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Weekend run

This past Sunday (Aug 23) I did a 6.5 mile loop. I had never been this far to the north before, and had no idea how hilly it was (I know, I did not look at the terrain view). Another big mistake was starting the run at 10 in the morning. It was about 90 degrees out and I got dehydrated pretty fast and ended up walking for almost a mile. Lessons learned - run early (as we have been doing during the weekdays - 6:30 AM) and find a way to keep self hydrated on long runs.


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Around the Nabnasset Lake

We have been doing pretty much this 3 times a week for the past 2 weeks. It's a 5 mile loop around the lake. Right now our best time on this loop is 1 hr 5 minutes.


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One pretty run

...along the Long Sought For Pond (I know, weird name!) and the Keyes Pond.


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First few runs

We did this 3-ish mile run a couple of times along the pretty Nabnasset lake.


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Usual Bike paths

I bike to work (not very often) along with trucks and 18 wheelers on Rt. 40 -


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And for fun -


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Westford 5k

Then there was the Westford Road Race on May 3rd..


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First training run

We started with running down and up the Millstone Hill.


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