Quad pain? How about a 5 mile hike!

My daughter takes the lead as we head toward the water

Today's workout (track intervals + hike)

I had hoped to repeat the experience of Monday's interval training and headed to the track with family in tow and stopwatch in hand. After a short warm-up around the track my daughter and I ran a few timed sprints. Before long my left quad began to protest loudly. It didn't feel so much like an injury as it did a warning and I quickly backed off. I circled the track again a couple of times at an extremely easy pace and then called it quits. My wife completed her workout on the track and we headed back home.

After lunch (and icing my quad) we headed to Caumsett State Park for a hike. Caumsett, which is located on 1,750 acres in Lloyd Neck, sits directly below Long Island Sound. It's only about 15 minutes from our house yet we'd never been there. The Empire Passport certainly makes it easy to explore new venues since there's no admission fees to dissuade you from visiting. We were amazed by the white-capped waves and ocean spray as we made our approach to the park entrance. We began our hike after looking at the map and headed north along one of the main paved trails.

Due to its adjacency to the Sound, the winds were strong and a little chilly, but that didn't bother us much. At the 1.5 mile mark we reached a mansion that is the former home of Marshall Field III. Directly behind this building are rolling grounds that flow sharply down to a pond that's circled by a dirt and sand path. Directly north of the pond is the beach line of the Sound. The kids played a little on the water but the winds were fierce so we headed back to the pond trail and followed it to another main trail that eventually took us back to our starting point.

We covered about five miles and about a third of that was on hills. It was a great workout for everyone and I had ideas about returning for a long run tomorrow morning. I will admit that the idea of doing a long run with those hills and that wind is a bit daunting. I'll see how I feel tomorrow when I get up. I'd actually prefer a rest day on Friday but with bad weather predicted for Saturday and Sunday, Friday may be my last opportunity to run a measurable distance before the LI Half.