Training day

There is one week left until the 15K.  That's 7 days to be able to run 9 miles in under 1:45, according to the site.  As you saw, last week, I was able to do 6 in 1:01.  Today I decided to try a new route.  Instead of driving to the woods or the lake, and then running the 6 miles, I ran from my house to the woods and back.  According to Google Maps, the distance from my house to the entrance of the woods is only 1.5 miles, so it was easily doable.  That's 3 miles right there, just to go to the entrance and back home after all.  Of course I wanted to try and get at least 6 miles in, so my plan was simple.  Run through to Stone Tower, then loop back around and go back home.  Unfortunately, Stone Tower is on the top of a giant hill.  No joke.  If you happen to run Lynn woods and go through the Pennybrook Road entrance, down Jackson Path, towards Dungeon rock, you will encounter a series of hills.  Pretty much as soon as you enter, going down Jackson Path towards Dungeon Rock, you come upon some man-made wooden trail stairs.  (I don't really have a better way to describe them.)  These stairs are like mini jumps, they're just wide enough apart that you have to step in between to run up them, or jump.  Luckily, they head right back down on the other side.  However, after crossing through Jackson path you can either go straight and head up another set of man-made stairs to Dungeon rock, or loop around by Breeds Pond and come up behind the rock.
 I chose the loop because I wanted to add more miles to my run, but there's really no good choice here.  If you go straight, you run up the giant stairs and it sucks.  If you loop around, you run up a giant hill that never seems to end, and it sucks.  It's a Sophie's Choice here, except there's far less on the line.  Either way, you're running uphill though.  After that uphill, you can go straight across and down around Walden Pond (not the Emerson one) or go to the right and head up to Stone Tower.  The Walden Pond road will eventually take you to Stone Tower, should you choose to go that way, but it's almost like running a roller coaster track of up and downs. At least the road to the right just goes flat and then pretty much straight uphill until you reach Stone Tower.  The nice part is that you know when the big hill is coming because you can see the tower seconds before you actually hit the hill.  Not only is this hill steep, but it's covered in loose rocks and gravel, so take caution if you're running up it.
Once I got to Stone Tower, I went against every ounce of good sense I had and decided to stop for a minute to snap a picture.  It's a really nice view if you're not opposed to climbing a few stairs.  And let's face it, if you've just run up here, you can handle a few stairs.  The view is not as awesome as the one you get if you run up to Steel Tower, but I've only been able to find that one once, and it was by mistake, so I didn't want to go looking for it today.  Maybe someday I'll find my way back there and show you the view. Until then, google it.   I wore my zip-ups for the run today and they were everything I hoped for.  Having the second, loose, earphone zipped up with the one in my ear, I was able to keep the cable from bouncing all over the place and I didn't have to worry about that second earphone.  When I stopped for the picture, I put both earphones in, just for good measure.  I think I scared a guy and his dog who happened to walk by while I was up there, and were resting on the ledge when I came down.  Pretty sure he didn't realize there was anyone else around. I got a chuckle out of that.  Here's the view from Stone Tower.  Check out the zip-ups too.  Then go buy a pair.  If you look real close, you can see Boston in the background.  That's what all those buildings are too the left, behind the scraggly looking no-leaved tree.

Once I got through with my photo sesh,  I turned and went back down the giant hill.  I'll say this, it was definitely a more enjoyable run on the way down.  There was a slight uphill, but almost everything else was downhill.  I think I made up a lot of time there.  When I got to the tower, I was clocked at 2.5 miles in 30 minutes.  By the end of the run, I was at 5.5 miles in 1 hour.  So, maybe I didn't make up so much time after all.....Actually though, once I left the tower, the entire route was basically downhill.  I didn't think too much of it as I was running up, but I definitely noticed it on the way back down.  Noticing the downhill run back makes me more likely to run that path again, though I'm not sure it will become a routine for me.  Those rocky hills and stairs in the woods are really a lot of effort.  

Even after all of this though, I'm not sure I am ready for a 15K.  The 5.5 miles seemed a lot longer than the 6 miles I ran last week, and it was a lot of effort to force myself to even go the long way home.  (Full disclosure, this may have had something to do with the donut I ate earlier today; I can't be sure.)  Though I do believe that part of it was because I was running alone. Everything seems to take longer when you're alone.  Maybe with other runners around me, it won't seem so long.  Of course, if I'm dead last, it may still be that bad.  I just keep telling myself to remember that back when I started, I didn't think I could ever make anything more than 3 miles, and now here I am at 6, so 9 maybe isn't too far out of the realm of possibility.  Now I'm stuck though.  Should I try to get to 7 or 8 by mid-week or stay at 6 and hope for the best next Sunday?  I'm sure there's no good answer here, but I think I might try for 7.5 on Wednesday.  We'll see. As a parting note, here's a Charity Miles/Google Earth shot of my run from today.  Enjoy.