Running eight days running

Crowded lanes

Today's run (street): 3.6 miles
Yesterday's run (track): 3.5 miles
Thursday's run (street): 3.2 miles
Wednesday's run (street): 3.4 miles

Today is the eighth day of my vacation and I've run every day since it started. I've covered 28 miles since last Saturday, including today's 3.6. The last time that I covered over 25 miles in one week was during my training for the 2014 Brooklyn Half. On top of my running miles, I've also managed to fit in a couple of hikes, the second one happening yesterday. I'll credit my new Fitbit for motivating me to move more.

I planned to do at least one run at Bethpage this week, but I ended up staying local, except for when I ran at the track. I've purposely kept my run distances in the three mile range because I knew I'd be accumulating mileage through the break. Saturday to Friday's total was 40% higher than what I'd typically run within seven days. I've heard that training volume really shouldn't increase by more than 10% in a given week.

Wednesday and Thursday were neighborhood runs and the streets have been quiet because it's school vacation. I've seen a couple of news articles this week touting the idea that ten minutes of high intensity exercise is as beneficial as a moderate 45 minute run. That may be true but I prefer running. I'm not ready to trade that for Tabata-like workouts. Still, I have been incorporating more anaerobic effort into every run I've done this week.

Oval by Garmin

There was a lot going on when I arrived at the track on Friday. The Syosset baseball team was practicing on the adjacent field and they were blasting country music from a big speaker. I was concerned that it might disrupt my peaceful run. The music itself was weirdly anachronistic for suburban Long Island but somehow it worked. There were a few track teams taking up the inside lanes while I ran, but we managed to peacefully co-exist.

Later in the day, my son and I went to Trailview State Park for a hike. Trailview has a hiking trail and another that's supposedly reserved for biking. On our way back we followed the bike trail and found it much more interesting. It wound around in different directions and seemed to go on forever. Just at the point where I thought it was taking us farther away from our starting point, the trail head came into sight. It was a nice second workout of the day and helped me get to almost 14K steps on Friday.

I considered taking a rest day today but we have plans for an end-of-vacation breakfast tomorrow. If I'm going to run on Sunday I'll need to do it early. Knowing that, I decided to get out again today to keep the streak going. I ran okay and covered some streets I haven't run in months. I wasn't under time pressure and thought about adding a few extra miles, but I didn't want to tempt fate and invite injury. My sciatica returned earlier in the week, this time it was on my right side. I was concerned that my herniated disc had been re-aggravated, but I've been pain free over the last three runs.

I'm happy to have the Fitbit and I'm curious to see how much distance I actually travel during a typical work day. I'll find out next week. My work calendar will be even worse than usual because I had the audacity to take a week off and that means lots of catch up meetings starting Monday. I'm hoping that all the walking I do in between meetings will add up to more than 10K daily steps.

Run, hike and Fitbit

ER and ER Jr taking on the trails at Bethpage

Today's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.25 miles
Sunday's run (street): 3.5 miles

It's nice to be out of the office this week. We've had some great days so far. Since work often gets in the way of my weekday running, I try to take advantage of off days to fit in extra workouts. That's been the case so far on this vacation. I've been able to run every day since Saturday.

I can barely remember Sunday's run around the neighborhood, other than that it was windy and a little cold for the short sleeves and shorts I wore. Like Saturday, I had good energy and I felt I moved well. Yesterday I got out fairly early and enjoyed the quiet roads, courtesy of school vacation that kept both buses and parents off the roads.

Yesterday afternoon, my son and I decided to do an impromptu hike in the woods at Bethpage. We parked in the northeast corner of the lot and entered at the trail head at the far end of the picnic area. We followed the main trail that parallels the bike trail and then cut to a path that led us to the big field. We ducked back into the woods and began to take side trails, one of which led us to the paved path where the short but very steep hill begins.

We stayed on the bike trail for about three quarters of a mile before going back into the woods. We followed a winding path that eventually brought us back to where we'd started out. It was a good hike with some nice climbs and I was glad to get a second workout in on Monday.

Post-run selfie, Sunday or Monday. I've lost track.

We had buckets of rain this morning starting at around 4:00 AM, but conditions cleared up by about 9:00 AM. Even though the rain had stopped, I decided to save a little time and stayed inside, covering 3.3 miles on the treadmill. It was a good progression run and, like the three before it, I finished my last mile running a fairly fast pace (for me).

I'd given my wife my Fitbit a couple of years ago because I got frustrated with it. Not that it didn't work, it was just that I'd frequently leave it on my dresser instead of transferring it to my next pair of pants. And everyone knows that a run or walk that wasn't captured by a device technically never happened.

My company just did a wellness challenge and every participant got a Fitbit to track their contribution to their team. I didn't participate, but I became envious of people when they'd announce their step count. I decided to get back into the Fitbit game and ordered a new one. The building where I work is humongous and every meeting I'm in seems to be as far from my office as physically possibly.

I'll be curious to see how much I actually travel during the workday. I wish I had it now so I could track my progress during this vacation week.

The Runsketeers talk a lot about a supermarket

KWL, TPP, Stewy, ER

Today's runs (Bethpage and neighborhood): 4.6 miles total
Yesterday's run (street): 3.4 miles

I was not feeling too well on Friday morning and elected to postpone my run until after business hours. I had a busy day, but felt even worse by the end. I considered doing a workout at that point, but decided there would be no fitness benefit. I took sinus medicine before bedtime which caused much restless sleep. By morning, the pounding sinus headache was gone and I was excited to get outside for a run.

We've had a lot of snow and ice since late January and I hadn't run outdoors in over a month. I've made my peace with the treadmill but being on the road on Saturday was a welcome joy. Still not feeling 100%, I managed to get around the neighborhood without much problem. Unfortunately, I was not fully recovered and conked out by early evening. That was probably related to the rigorous hike my son and I did in Cold Spring Harbor later in the day.

Long climb to the top at Cold Spring Harbor

This morning I met my Runsketeer buddies for the first time since the New Year's Hangover run. Between schedules and weather it has been tough to find a weekend to get together. SIOR and KWL were looking to run about 10 miles and TPP and I were looking to do less, so we met them in the Bethpage lot after they'd covered five.

We decided to head north and things got off to a rocky start with a discussion about running pants that I still don't understand. That was the first of many discussions we had today that didn't make a lot of sense. TPP and KWL took the lead and SIOR and I ran and chatted until she stopped to walk because my pace was so slow it hurt her knees. We walked almost a mile where we caught up with the other two and ran together back to the lot.

I felt badly that my inability to run my friend's preferred paces interfered with their objectives for today's workout. But they never complain about that and supported the fact that I wasn't feeling great today. I had expected to run at least three miles today but, with the walk, I fell short of that. But I got to have a great conversation SIOR without my usual huffing and puffing.

I'm sure SIOR did this by accident

We decided to switch venues and went to a different Starbucks today. After coffee was ordered, we began the first of many interesting conversations. SIOR, TPP and I talked about strategies to restore my speed to previous levels before we got into some serious discussions. We began with the extremely complex subject of supermarkets. Actually a supermarket called Stew Leonards that recently opened in the area.

I am not kidding when I say that it took over a half an hour to successfully explain the following:

1. Stew Leonards is a supermarket.
2. There is also a Stew Leonards wine store.
3. They are not the same thing.

Once that bit of highly intellectual discourse was completed, we moved onto less challenging subject matter: whiskey appreciation and rock climbing walls. As usual, the time went by too quickly and we needed to start the non-running portion of our days.

Probably due to these energizing discussions, I decided to go for a couple more miles when I got home. Although I ran pretty slowly with my buddies, I did a little better on my second run, I'm sure that being warmed up with my earlier effort helped that.

Back to the work week tomorrow. I'm hoping to do at least four workouts this week and dedicate one of them to speed. SIOR made a point that adding distance is a good way of increasing performance. I should probably work on that. I reached my top performance when I was running six days a week and my speed has declined commensurate to the drop in run frequency. I don't have an easy way to get back to that schedule. But the point is, this is not easy.

Runsketeer reunion on the Bethpage trail

Left to right: ER, SIOR, TPP, JC

Today's run (Bethpage bike trail): 6.8 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 5.1 miles

Yesterday morning was a washout that left me with no choice but to spend close to an hour on the treadmill. It was humid to be sure, but I needed the miles. It wasn't all that bad, but today's conditions were FAR better. All the Runsketeers ran together this morning for the first time since Brooklyn, (is that possible?) and we had a special guest on today's run.

Our guest runner, JC, is a friend of TPP's. He's an accomplished triathlete and avid cyclist. SIOR and I arrived at Bethpage State Park at the same time, and I was disappointed to see that they were still collecting admission to the park. My friend who mans the booth gave me a pass, but he gave SIOR a hard time. SIOR's SUV has dark tinted windows that make her Empire Passport hard to see, causing some disagreement in terms of its veracity. He ultimately relented and let her through.

TPP and JC didn't bring their fake Empire Passports, so they ended up parking close to Haypath instead. They ran south on the bike trail to meet up with me and SIOR who were heading north to intercept them. We connected along the path just above the Bethpage woods. SIOR suggested that we go south for a change (we usually end up going the other way). We kept a moderate pace and I was able to stay with everyone. Soon we were back on the older south trail where we continued down the big hill and had an interesting talk about gender equality.

When we run together, the distance seems to go by much faster. About two miles in, JC and SIOR took the lead while TPP and I followed. It was nice to catch up with TPP and every once in a while SIOR and JC would stop and wait for us so we could run together. I wish I could improve another 30 seconds per mile in my pace, but I'm not there yet. After mapping the route based on my GPS output I calculated that I ran 10:17 overall. Not bad for for almost 7 miles.

As tradition dictates, we headed over to Starbucks for our post-run coffee. That was great -- as usual -- and it gave us a chance to get to know JC better and catch up among ourselves. Before we knew it, it was almost noon and we all needed to head out for our day's non-running related activities.

One of Stillwell's steep drops

The old junker 

Later in the afternoon my son and I headed to Stillwell where we followed some very technical terrain and even went off trail a few times. Lots of fun, and not so easy on my legs that had already run a mile past my base this morning. Along the way, we visited the junked car that is inexplicably positioned on one of the cross trails in Stillwell. I don't know why this thing has remained for years in the otherwise pristine woods. I'll admit that I used this car more than once as a landmark when I was learning the trails. Maybe that's its purpose.

It has been a very good week of running and today was fantastic. At one point in the run SIOR turned around and asked, "Isn't this the most perfect day for a run?" I couldn't have said it better.

Morning run and Trailview hike

            Today's route on an old school map

Today's run (street): 6 miles

I came into the weekend with two expectations for running - one that I'd do a speed oriented run and the other that I'd run someplace more interesting than my neighborhood. Neither happened, but I did manage to cover almost 12 miles.

This morning I waited too long to get out and started my run at 8:30 when the temperature was already 68°. I started out easy and figured I'd pick up the pace once I'd loosened up. Afterward, I was surprised to see that the Garmin showed my first mile to be the second fastest of the run. At around the 30 minute mark, I checked my heart rate and saw that it was at 75% of max - too low for what I'd hoped to get out of the workout. I pushed further until I reached 80% and tried to hold it there.

There was a time when I'd comfortably average 85% max on a training run, but holding it above 80% today was hard to sustain. Despite the higher effort, I did enjoy the run. I wanted to cover six miles and did exactly that, with my last mile clearly my fastest. Overall, I beat yesterday's run by 30 seconds a mile.

The Emerging Hiker, Jr.

It turned out to be a beautiful day, so my son and I went over to Trailview in the early afternoon for a hike. That section of the Greenbelt trail has some steep inclines and descents and we took them on without a problem. He and I have been hiking that trail for years and he always wants to follow the toughest routes. He's almost my height now and when we run the trails, I can't keep up with him. But I can still outlast him.

I'm satisfied with the weekend's running even if I didn't end up following my plan. The unplanned hike was a fun addition and helped make up for all the hills I missed by staying in my neighborhood.

All trails lead to Mount Olympus

Back to the woods

Last night, sometime between the start and finish of dinner, my headache disappeared. My daylong discomfort and exhaustion were suddenly lifted. I don't know if it was the Ibuprofen, or the nasal decongestant that did the trick. I'm guessing it was neither. My theory is that my fresh New York bagel, full of carbs and covered with real butter, cut through the migraine. Forget Imitrex, this is the cure.

Relief from that headache completely changed my level of engagement and I felt like a human being again. The rest of our night was great and I was able to give full attention to our guests. This morning I woke up headache-free, but I delayed my workout until after our guests had left. At that point, I thought about the benefit of resting versus getting in a run. I decided on rest, but not completely.

Around mid afternoon, my son and I decided to go for a hike at Trailview, a park that connects the Greenbelt Trail north of Jericho Turnpike. The skies looked dark and there was a little rain coming down. We put on hooded jackets and headed into the woods.

A stop along the way

Trailview, unlike Stillwell, is a simple layout with two paths. The segment between Jericho Turnpike and Syosset-Woodbury Road is closely contained so it's virtually impossible to get lost there. Still, Trailview's paths are interesting, with twists and turns and some steep inclines and descents.

The view from Mt. Olympus

We saw a few other hikers braving the light rain, as well as a couple of trail runners. We ended up at the overlook where Woodbury Rd and Syosset-Woodbury Road meet. Crossing that intersection brings you into the south side of Stillwell Woods. For some reason, we've dubbed that "the view from Mount Olympus." At that point we headed back, talking the whole time about the history of PC's, handheld calculators and gaming systems, along with discussions about sentient computers and our common fascination with the movie, "2001: A Space Odyssey."

A hike in the woods with my son beat a run on the streets by a mile. The trails posed a few challenges, but nothing we couldn't handle. I got my workout without pushing so hard as to invite a relapse of yesterday's headache. All in all, a pretty good day. I'll have to decide whether to take tomorrow as my usual rest day or go for my first Christmas week run.

Speed in the morning, lost in the afternoon

Quiet at the track this morning

Today's run (track workout): 3.3 miles - 1 mile warm-up, 8 x 200m repeats, 1.3 mile cool down 

With its forgiving and flat surface, I should love the track. But, believe me, I don't. Running around a big oval is boring. It's not as tedious as the treadmill, but the repetitive scenery undercuts a sense progress in a similar way. My difficulty with the track also relates to the type of workouts I do there. If I'm at the track, I know I'll be feeling some pain.

If I do have to run at the track, I prefer to do it with as few other people around as possible. I try to get there early, before the crowds, but it's rare that I get the place to myself. This morning was very quiet, with a lone woman walking around the outside lane and a couple walking together. A little while later another man joined us, walking at an impressively fast pace. Even with that, it seemed peaceful, with the low sun illuminating the track and field like a scene from Field of Dreams.

I started with a mile warm-up at an easy, mid-9:00 pace before shifting to my speed workout of 8 x 200m intervals. I usually go for 10-12 repeats at 100m, but I thought it would be useful to stretch out the distance this time. I averaged 54 seconds for each repeat and covered that mile in 7:18. Not exactly burning up the track, but good performance for me over a series of 200m segments. The two workouts this weekend represent the last real race training I'll do prior to the 5K.

One of Muttontown Preserve's descending trails

Later in the afternoon my son and I paid a visit to the Muttontown Preserve to see if we could find the ruins of the old mansions from the 1930's. We didn't locate them, but we managed to get very lost, something I do every time I go there. It took us about 20 minutes longer to get through our hike than planned, because we got turned around a few times. No matter, hiking places like the MP are fun, even when you're not exactly sure where you are.

Father, son and the Bethpage trails

Take a hike!

Today's workout (Bethpage State Park): Hike - 60 minutes

Without a daily run to start my morning, I had little excuse but to get directly to work. I can't say that I used my time very productively, but I appreciated having a guilt-free break. The weather has been decent, so my son and I decided to go for an early afternoon hike.

We typically go to Trailview State Park or Stillwell Woods for our hikes, because these parks are located very close to our home. Just for a change, we headed over Bethpage to hike the dirt trails. It was fun seeing my friend who mans the entrance booth at Bethpage. We usually have a brief, but highly spirited conversation when I show up early on weekend mornings. He was surprised to see me there on a weekday.

Our hike went by surprisingly fast and, before we knew it, an hour had passed. I thought we'd stay on the main paths and circumnavigate the woods, but my son was having none of that. At each trail intersection he insisted that we follow the more challenging route. That was fine with me, and though we took a number of different paths, we somehow avoided the sand trap.

I had some business calls scheduled for the afternoon, so we steadily worked our way back to the trail head. Overall, today was more play than work. That's okay. There's only so many Fridays left before summer ends.

Two part post on this Stillwell Sunday

No actual pandas sighted today 

Today's run (street): 3.8 miles
Today's hike (Stillwell Woods): 3.7 miles

Part I - Running
Yesterday's run at Stillwell Woods was a nice change from the road and it presented a nice level of challenge. Although I started out feeling strong and energized, after 20 minutes I reached a point where I needed to take a short break. It wasn't the first time I had to take a minute to reset myself while running at Stillwell. What surprised me was how quickly I went from feeling fit to feeling fatigued.

I recovered quickly and had no issues for the rest of the run, but I was frustrated that I needed to take a break. I take it as a point of pride that I never stop during road or bike trail runs. While the shaded woods helped keep me cool, the inclines and careful footing on more technical trail sections took a toll. I've had weekends where I ran with difficulty on Saturday, only to rebound with a great run on Sunday. I was curious if that would be the case today.

I got out early this morning, before the sun became a factor. We had hosted friends yesterday afternoon and evening and I'd done a lot of unintentional glycogen loading. I figured the upside was the possibility of having more energy for the run today, but I was a little tired at the start. I tried to get my speed up during the first mile but my legs weren't cooperating. I eventually loosened up and, by the last mile, I was running at a decent pace.

I would have liked to perform better overall, but achieving negative splits was good consolation. More importantly, I experienced no fatigue during the run. This confirmed my theory that yesterday's tough times had mostly to do with the challenging terrain. While that's good, it also confirms the fact that my conditioning isn't where it needs to be.

Part II - Hiking
I downloaded my Garmin after today's run and looked at Saturday's Stillwell route map. I saw that Trailview intersected with my standard loop and decided I'd follow it south the next time I ran there. My son has been asking me to go on a hike so, I figured this was good opportunity. After preparing for the bugs with an application of OFF, we headed over to Stillwell. A light rain that had started to fall, but we figured that once we had tree cover, we'd be fine.

Once we cleared the big field, we moved south and then east, until we reached the Trailview path. At that point, the trail is rugged, with lots of steep rises, drops and gnarly roots that could easily trip someone up. We made our way carefully down the path until we reached the point where the trail paralleled the LIRR tracks. I knew that there was a trestle located east of our position and we navigated to it. We ended up in a mini bamboo forest that felt like an enclosure. My son asked, "Where are all the pandas?"

Adjacent to this section was a small road leading to a private neighborhood on the left and the trestle on the right. We passed underneath the tracks and into the northern part of Trailview Park. The sign said "Trail Closed" but we concluded that was just for one path. The trail rose from there and made our way up without much trouble. We decided to turn back after exploring Trailview for about ten minutes.

Our hike back went by quickly and we soon encountered a group of mountain bikers looking to take on the difficult terrain of that area. None were wearing helmets, a bad move generally and an especially bad idea on these treacherous sections. They didn't appear to be experienced riders either. I hope no one got hurt.

Next time we may start at Stillwell and follow the trail all the way to the trail head on Jericho Turnpike. Eventually, I'd like to hike it north all the way to Cold Spring Harbor. Today's hike was just the right distance and a nice adventure for me and my son. I was thinking recently that I haven't spent enough time at Stillwell. I certainly don't feel that way after this weekend.

A run on the road and hike at Caumsett

Take a hike!

Today's run (street): 3.9 miles

Yesterday was a tough one. Bad coughs can be exhausting, and I never got to the point on Friday where I felt strong enough to do a workout. I was determined to run today, but not if it would compromise my recovery. The weather was near perfect and, while I was still coughing, I decided to head outside.

I would have liked to do a tempo run but I settled for a more moderate pace. I'd coughed all throughout the night and morning, but not once on the run. It seemed as though every landscaper in the area had come to my neighborhood to work, so I needed to be wary of workers and equipment as I made my way past all the trucks. I used the sidewalks when things got too tight.

Even though it was a fairly short run, I felt very tired by the finish. Despite that fatigue, I was glad to return to the road. Since my bout with pneumonia in early 2010, I get concerned whenever I develop a cough like this one. In this case I'm confident that it's nothing but a cold. Extremely annoying, but nothing particularly severe.

Entrance to the Caumsett grounds

After lunch we headed to Caumsett State Park for a hike on the paved trails. It's a great park with beautiful grounds, including views of Long Island Sound. We finished our walk and spent some time in the "Walled Garden" where the kids played a scavenger hunt game using pictures taken on their cell phones. I want to return there for a run sometime, although I'll need to be prepared for a lot of steep hills.

Scavenger hunting in the Walled Garden

Trail fun (times two) at Stillwell Woods

Mountain biking is Scott to be fun

Today's run (Stillwell Woods): 4.4 mile + 4.5 mile hike

I returned to the trails in a big way today. This morning I went over to Stillwell for a run, and saw that Scott Sports was there, hosting an event. Scott, who also has a line of running shoes, was providing people with the opportunity to test their mountain bikes on Stillwell's trails. The Scott folks offered me the chance to try a bike, but I really wanted to get my run in.

I was concerned that the trails would be packed with novice riders, but that wasn't the case. I saw more bikers than usual, but most were skilled and courteous. Last night I noticed that the Fitbit had recorded over 10,000 steps, but only three staircase equivalents. My son and I decided to knock out a bunch of stair climbs, so we did another 26.

Despite some concern that I'd pushed too hard last night, I had no trouble taking on Stillwell's steep sections today. I ended up covering 4.4 miles and appreciated the change of surface after so many recent runs either on the treadmill or on pavement.

Choosing the difficult path

Later, my son and I returned to Stillwell for another hike. Our goal was to take on Stillwell's toughest trails and to find the elusive Ewok Forest. At every fork, we took the "more difficult" option. We found ourselves so far east that we intersected with the Trailview path toward Cold Spring Harbor. We doubled back from there, taking a circuitous route that involved a few side paths. We finally decided that we'd covered enough ground and headed back to the trail head.

One of Stillwell's sharp drops

When we returned to the car, I checked the Fitbit and saw that we'd covered 4.5 miles, which worked out to 10,200 steps and 23 staircase equivalents. We saw new trails and I introduced my son to the junked car that I always pass as part of my regular running route. We didn't end up taking advantage of the Scott event, but we certainly had a Stillwell workout. Today, that went double for me.

Another Trailview adventure

This must be the place

Today's run (treadmill): 3.6 miles

This morning was very busy, especially for a Sunday. My wife and daughter went to an early cooking class and my son and I had planned to go to the high school to run intervals at the track. Instead, he completed his weekend homework and I ended up doing a treadmill run. We finished our tasks, only to discover that our freezer was failing. So our morning time together involved salvaging food and trying to (unsuccessfully) restart the refrigeration process.

Ripped from the ground

Yesterday afternoon, my son and I returned to nearby Trailview State Park for another hike. I had run close to five miles in the morning, but I still had lots of energy. My son was also anxious to go. We took a different trail than we had last time, and we saw some new tree damage. One tree, measuring over 30 feet, had been pulled up from its roots. Another had broken off near the four foot point. Other than those trees, the trail was mostly clear of obstructions. We went off trail once, just to see where it led, but the thorny brush discouraged us from traveling too far into the woods.

You've learned well, grasshopper

It was a hike, not a run, but my son attacked the steep sections like an ultrarunner. He said he prefers hiking to trail running, and I'm good with that. With the rate he's growing and the speed he already possesses, I know I'd have trouble keeping up with him. We'll probably head to Stillwell Woods next time so he can get a bigger challenge. There are some sections on Stillwell's trails that make Trailview's tough climbs look mighty easy.

Bugs, sun, hiking and running

Mislead by the map, much more to the east

Yesterday's activity (Stillwell Woods hike): 2.2 miles
Today's run (street): 4.4 miles

Surprise! It's hot in July

Despite the popular idiom, it really is the heat (but the humidity doesn't help). People talk about the heat like it's some sort of unusual phenomenon, but every July it's just like this. Today's temperature should get close to 100° F, so I got outside relatively early. Even at 7:50 AM, the thermometer was edging towards 80°.

Yesterday was equally hot, so after a morning of working from home, my son and I headed over to Stillwell Woods for a hike. A midday hike on a hot summer's day may sound like torture, but we knew that the tree canopy would keep the sun off our heads. For the most part, that was true, but we didn't count on the clouds of bugs that we encountered as we moved deeper into woods.

Despite the heat, gnats and occasional hard climbs, we had a great time looking for the elusive Ewok Forest section on Stillwell. I used Endomondo to record our hike and I referred to its real-time map a few times to help locate our position. The simple graphics on the map led me to believe that we were further east into the woods than we really were, so we never reached our intended destination.

My son did a great job tracking our direction and, when were ready to go, his compass skills led us straight back to our stating point. We headed home and cooled off in the pool with my wife and daughter. Our serenity was interrupted when a town worker in a lift truck surprised us by swinging over the tree line to trim around some adjacent telephone lines. Surprise!

I took it very easy on this morning's run. I briefly considered turning off the GPS so that I wouldn't track my pace. I tend to be self-competitive when I know I'm being recorded and I didn't want to move too fast in increasingly warm conditions. I ended up recording it, but I didn't look at my time until the end.

I needed to keep reminding myself that pace didn't matter, and that this workout was just about maintenance miles on an extremely hot and humid morning. The run never felt hard but I was glad to end it. I'm pleased that I put in a few miles today and I'll look forward to some easier activities in the pool this afternoon. Before too long, the T-storms will be here to finally cool things off.

Impromptu stop at Trailview

Today's run (treadmill): 30 minutes

The areas west and north of NYC got hit with snowy weather this morning, but Long Island only got rain. Still, that was enough to keep me indoors on the treadmill. I wasn't sure how strong I'd feel because, on top of yesterday morning's workout, I did an impromptu hike in the afternoon.

It turned out that all of yesterday's activities must have worked to my advantage. I managed a brisk progressive speed run and covered the last couple of minutes at an 8:00 pace. Or maybe it was just returning to caffeinated coffee.

My hike was at nearby Trailview State Park, where my son and I decided to stop on a whim. I'd run the Trailview paths a few weeks ago and followed the bike path. My son and I chose the hiking path yesterday just to see where it went. We encountered a few steep sections where roots served both as obstructions and as steps to the higher ground. We took on each challenge with hard charges up every hill.

We weren't familiar with the hiking path, but after 20 minutes we'd reached a high point where we could look down on a road that separated us from Stillwell Woods. There were a fair number of hikers and a few runners on the trail, and we watched a couple run down to street level so we could see where path actually ended.

Our hike back was a little easier because we'd done most of the climbing on the way out. There were still some sharp inclines and my son told me he preferred uphills to downhills. We decided to head to Stillwell at another time so he could experience the joys of the Snake Pit and the Uh-Oh trail.

I'm not counting yesterday's hike in my weekly mileage, but we probably covered more than two miles of changeable terrain on our hike. With today's treadmill run and whatever I can cover over the weekend, this will be my highest mileage week in 2012. The seven miles I ran on Wednesday helps that number. However, I'm not sure if I'll try another long run this weekend. Building my base is important, but I also want to avoid injuries.

Morning at Stillwell and Caleb Smith at noon

Today's run (Stillwell Woods): 4.25 miles

Today is Mother's Day and it's been busy. I wanted to get going early but due to some ad hoc celebrating, I didn't get out the door at 7:00 as I'd planned. By 8:15 I was at the trail head at Stillwell Woods with temperatures in the low 50's and bright sun. The holiday had kept most people at home. While I love company on the trails, I was glad to have the place more or less to myself.  I saw some bikers staging in the lot but didn't encounter anyone but hikers during my run.

The woods were alive with birds, rabbits and other creatures and the humidity was so low I didn't even break a sweat until I'd completed my second mile. I wasn't paying attention to my pace but knew I was moving well and I managed get through the hills without much trouble. Due to our tight schedule I kept the run to around 40 minutes but that was sufficient for my needs. My knee is much better at this point but I still feel some soreness when I go from sitting to walking. Happily this disappears with activity and I don't experience any pain when I'm running. Keeping my distances under five miles this weekend was a good move. I'll look to add more distance next weekend.

Things were ducky on the lake at Caleb Smith

One of our Mother's Day activities today involved a return to Caleb Smith Park Preserve in Smithtown, NY. We like this park a lot. It has well groomed and well marked trails, good access to its lake and a small but interesting nature museum. Four miles of trail running and then some hiking at Caleb Smith made for an active day. Later we spent some time setting up umbrellas and furniture in the pool area, providing an unexpected but welcomed upper-body workout.

Running and hiking make a great combination

Caleb Smith State Park has 543 acres of trails and wetlands

Today's run (street): 4.6 miles at 9:07/mile

I'm nearing the end of my vacation so we jammed a lot of activities into the day. My kids are happier because they don't return to school until next Wednesday. It's been a great week and there's still another day left before I have to head back to the office. After yesterday's moderate workout at the park I decided to only do a 4 mile run this morning because we planned to go for a hike a little later. I headed over to neighborhood #2 where I covered about three miles and finished up back in my own neighborhood after completing a total of 4.6. Conditions were near perfect, 44 degrees and dry, and I dressed correctly. I pushed my pace a little more than I have been doing and was not disappointed to average 9:07 per mile.

A few hours later we headed to Caleb Smith State Park in Smithtown, a 543 acre preserve with groomed, well marked trails. The park is beautiful, featuring ponds and streams, with lots of small side paths that take you over wooden bridges. We saw lots of interesting trees and plants and we even saw a snake. The biggest surprise for me wasn't seeing the snake in the woods, it was the fact that my kids wanted to pose next to it for a picture. There are a number of trails to follow. A circuit that includes the yellow and blue trails is 2.25 miles. I'd like to do a couple of laps around that course sometime.

I'm not sure how I'll finish my vacation in terms of running but I think a trail run would be the best choice tomorrow with temperatures in the low 70's expected. I'm not sure if I should head to Stillwell, Muttontown or Bethpage but either way I'd be making a great choice.