Tag Archives: Hiking

Hamptons Marathon Training – Week 16

Sunday 8/30

18.5 mi @ high nines + a birthday brunch at Cafe 44 and a 7 mi birthday hike at Baldplate Mountain Perserve!

Even though I got an early start it was a rough one. SOOOO humid! We survived though, with visions of omelets and pancakes and coffee dancing in our heads…

If you’re even in the Pton area and hungry, Cafe 44 is an absolute top choice place to hit!

So, after a grueling 18.5 miles and a proper face stuffing, why not go get in another 7 mile hike at Baldplate Mountain Preserve? This is actually the second time I’ve been here and while it’s not the most serious hiking terrain I’ve ever seen, it is a really pleasant place to go for an interesting, yet manageable, walk. And just to make sure things were interesting, the sky decided to open up on us ~0.5 miles from the car!

 

Soaked!

Soaked #1! (P.S. Why are we smiling?!?!)

The torrential downpour pulled a lot of the humidity out of the air, which was nice, but it it’d efficiently deposited the majority of it right on us, which was NOT nice! (…especially with zero towels in the car and slimy leather seats for the 30 min drive home…)

Monday 9/1

rest

Tuesday 9/2

7 evening (read: “dark”) mi @ 9:23/mi

Evening but still hotter than hell and HUMID. My clothes were totally soaked through by mile 3 and I don’t think I’ve had leg-sweat like that all summer — and at 8 pm!!

I totally didn’t need a mirror to do inventory when I got back as going up the stairs I ran into my neighbor and:

Dr. T: Hello!

Dr. T neighbor: Wow! Did you just get back from the pool?

Dr. T: silence 

**In both of our heads I’m absolutely convinced the following reply was playing “You idiot! We live above a Papa John’s! We don’t even have a laundromat, never mind anything even loosely resembling a swimming pool for miles!!”

Dr. T neighbor: Actually, never mind. Don’t fall.

(Now this raises an interesting question. Does something about me just scream that I fall a lot, even with no immediate falling threats? Or, was I really that sweaty that Mr. Neighbor was concerned that I might slip on myself and fall down the stairs?)

Soaked #2!

Soaked #2!

Wednesday 9/3

rest

Thursday 9/4

8.34 mi @ 8:43/mi

Friday 9/5

rest

Saturday 9/6

22 mi @ 9:50ish/mi with my new awesome running buddy/mathematician Dr. T2!! 😀 We started off before 6 and soaked (again) through our clothes before the sun was up.

P.S Pre-sunrise start times is a great excuse to dress head to toe like a fluorescent highlighter 🙂

Safety (and style) first :-)

Safety (and style) first 🙂

East Coast humidity can be WICKED. I brought the camel back mostly full, re-filled it at just over the half point and then emptied it again by the time I was home. Having great conversation for 3 hrs first thing on a Saturday morning while getting the longest run of the training season out-of-the-way before 10 am is a wonderful way to start the weekend!

Stay tuned as I’m sure there will be plenty more to come regarding the adventures of Drs. T^2!

Total:  55.5 miles

Today was a good week! 🙂 Last Sunday was solid, the week went well, and the long run on Saturday was the best (and the LONGEST), although challenging, all season! Let’s hope this keeps up for the last 3 weeks of Hampton’s Marathon prep!

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Filed under Marathons, Running, Work out

Baldpate Mountain and Cafe 44

Dr. Trot went on adventure today!

As the ass crack of dawn…while it was still only 85F…a few new-found “friends”, guilted into this role by Jamie via Patrick I presume (thank you Jamie and Patrick :-),  escaped from the death grips of Princeton and drove ~20 miles to Baldpate Mountain for hiking! The thickly wooded “mountain” was really nice. There were over 12 miles of marked (and, importantly, largely shaded) natural trails for hiking and horseback riding.

Baldpate mountain

Baldpate mountain

There were a few creeks, ponds and old ruins to check out along the trails. I totally wish I would’ve brought a camera to snap a few pictures. 😦 We came upon an abandoned farm at the end of the white trail with collapsing remains of the house, 4 or 5 farm buildings + well/milk storage thing next to a little pond. Cool 🙂 We hiked around 5 miles (this might be way off as I am stupid and forgot my GPS watch in the car :-/) in a little over 2 hours. I’d definitely like to come back to either re-hike the same trails as today or check out some of those that we didn’t get to.

I’m not sure if we were supposed to pay, but we didn’t. 

Driving home hunger set in and because Princeton has awesome face-feeding opportunities, we decided to check out Cafe 44YUMMY!! I’m not sure if it was because I was knocking on the door of hangry by the time my food arrived (by our own doing…we arrived ~2 pm after trucking through the woods for over 2 hours…the service was plenty fast) but it was delicious! I had a fresh mozzarella and veggie sausage omelette (I should have added some veggies) with potatoes, toast and coffee. Again, there are sadly no pictures. Shame on me. I guess that just means I am obligated to a make a second trip. 🙂

Hope everyone has had a nice Saturday!

Does anyone have favorite hiking trials in their area or more importantly in my area?

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Filed under General, Trotting