overtaking haynes

breakneck ridge trail hike. 3.1 miles features 1250ft vertical in 0.75 miles. probably the most fun trail i've ever been on! 

run after school. no warmup again, no time. had a much better showing than last week when i did the same loop in the morning. ran 33:09 instead of 34:46 with equal effort. can morning running really be that much worse? i wonder if i could ever break 30 on this loop? very doubtful. it's weird how i enjoy tempo runs as long as i'm not running very many miles. i actually look forward to them when i used to dread them before. 

am before work. 

am 5.5 miles

pm raced my 2 brothers down whortleberry rd. they stayed close for the first 1/2 mile but then i crushed them by 1.5 minutes. I ran 10:30 for the 1.6 mile road. I enjoy how my little brother who is 13 consistently dominates my other brother who is 24 by about 10-15 sec.

did a 2.5 mile hike up topstone mtn afterwards.

ran after work at tarrywhile park which i haven't been to in a long time. i used to go mtn biking there in hs and had a bad mtn biking accident. it's really good terrain though and really great when it's not crowded. it was raining tonight so i only saw a couple people. there's a pretty good sized mtn there and some beautiful lakes and fields. i pretty much ran all the trails and it got dark on me because i didn't have my watch. i have to estimate that i probably ran at least 10 min/mile and i ran 1hr 25mins. i saw at least 3 different herds of deer. one herd of 6 had 2 deer that weren't afraid of me. one of the deer actually started running toward me for about 50 ft which scared the crap out of me. i'm going to start running with this joggers mace i got last weekend so i don't have to worry about loose dogs and apparently deer!

legs a little tired from yesterday.

am run before hiking. 1.1 mile warmup then 5 mile tempo run starting up limekiln. an extremely poor 35:03 time. i wonder if i even get much benefit running 1.5 mins slower in the morning than i would in the afternoon? is it even worth it?

after, went hiking in the shawangunks. i thought last weeks hike on the breakneck ridge was interesting and had challenging scrambling. what i did yesterday was absolutely incredible! we hiked about 3 miles to the mohonk mountain house and did the labyrinth trail which consisted of crawling under rocks and up ladders. then we went up the crevice and possibly heard a rattlesnake. the crevice was ridiculous, there was this narrow set of ladders and i had to remove my tiny camelback to fit through. we then decided to try another side trail which was also closed, probably because there was still some snow and ice, though barely. we went down the giant's path which literaly you spiraled down like on a staircase, scrambling down and then under rocks. there was one section which was quite dark. the shawangunks in ny are apparently one of the most popular places to rock climb in the US. a very interesting place. 5hrs 3 min of hiking/scrambling. it's depressing to know that no hiking trail can surpass this day. it was literally hiking heaven. especially because there was no one on the trails because they were closed :)