Running in Connecticut

Barry and Veronica's last place in Norwalk eventually turned out to be not too bad a running location. I never found any real parks, but the hilly neighborhoods were decent. Barry and Veronica recently moved to Trumbull, and we visited for the first time. (Their new big house is quite nice, by the way - I have dubbed it, "Potential".) Now it was time to plot some new running courses.

On Friday I decided to try to get to the high school track. I'd located it in Google maps, but wasn't entirely sure I could remember the route correctly. It was up to Church Hill Rd, then down to Daniel's Farm Rd, then up, up, up to the school area. Once near the schools I became a little disoriented in the cold rain, and, as it turned out, ran right by the stadium and kept going. I found a decent bike trail and wound up doing a couple more miles before I circled back and found the track. It was *open* - what a pleasant surprise. By this time I only had time and energy left for 3 x 1600, but at least I did something of substance. And the best news is that now I know where to find an open (for now) track.

Saturday would be trail day. After some further Googling, I found a trail very close to home. It's called the Housatonic Rails-Trail / Pequannock Valley Greenway. It's a wonderful trail - hard packed crushed limestone with a very pretty creek along the side. And the start was only a very short mile away. The trail head is just off Church Hill Rd. The trail goes on for 3.4 miles to another park. I went on even a bit more from there before heading back. It felt good to pick the pace up for those latter 5.

Considering these runs and a few additional parks and trails that also seem to be nearby, I have to say that this part of Connecticut is outstanding for running. For this reason, and maybe a couple others (like visiting my daughter, son-in-law and grandson-to-be), we'll need to visit more often.

Just one other thing. That makes ninety (that's a nine, followed by a zero) miles for the week. I've done that much before a couple times, but I think those were all weeks that included an ultra of some sort; this week it was simply a lot of training miles. I'll try to ratchet it back down to only 70 to 80 next week. What I really need is quality, but that's another story.