Lincoln Train Station

There's nothing like this place.

Just came back from a long run with Matt Jennings that began at the entrance of the lincoln reservations, aside the lot of the Lincoln Train Station.

I've blogged about this place in the past. It is a truly unique venue for running in the Northeast. There are fewer places in MA where you can go out for a 90+ minute run (if you wanted to) and never cross the same path that you had been running on. The Lincoln Train Station path is the gateway to miles of trail/forest reservations in Lincoln, including the great paths of Walden Pond! (Probably 3-4 trail miles away from the Station)

Every Sunday in the summer, going in to the cross country season, I would meet up with a bunch of the Deis guys to crush 12-16 miles. Matt and I have been doing this for years, and have since gained expertise on the layout of the trail. I ran 7 with him and added on a little in one of the farm paths near the station towards the end of the run. Finished a lovely 11 miles in an hour and 17.

I love running at this place not only because of the network of trails, but because of the serene beauty of Lincoln. The clear trails take you for miles past vast farm lands, with livestock chatting about. They take you past legendary tall trees, giant hills (Including Mt. Misery), and famous landmarks. There is one excellent view that is hidden in the reservation, that overlooks most of the eastern Massachusetts area - even showing a glimpse of the Boston City skyline.

I plan to do more running here, as I am getting in better shape, and will be looking forward to every minute of it.

Side note: While on a recent date [more like January?] with a girl, I described my Sunday runs with the guys as a barbarian-like experience. I used the metaphor of us being like a pack of wolves crushing through miles of unsettled territory. She seemed to think that was too much, and there was never another date after that... but that's her loss. I doubt she'd appreciate Lincoln in the same way.
Cheers.

James' and my new year's resolution

A couple days after the 1st of January, I got a call from James - who is living out in Fort Collins, Colorado.

We shot the shit for a little, caught up on some of the important stuff... James had been working long hours at his restaraunt, and began talking about running... surprise surprise!

We both had talked about the desire to get back in shape. Not just "run 4-5 times a week" shape, but "feel good" shape - a term given to us by our High School coaches Matt Capstick and Steve McChesney.

The desire was to get back in good enough shape where we could feel like we could race again at a higher level. For James, this meant get the base and mileage up so that he could prepare for running either a Half- or Full Marathon in Providence this spring.

Now, after graduating high school, James and I had also made a pact to run the Boston Marathon together one day - wearing the Newton South Lions Singlets.
I still have my jersey, and am going to hold James to this pact.

I digress, so James and I talked about what it would take to get to that higher level. We would start running every week, and try to be consistent for the next couple months. We made an agreement to text each other a couple times a week to check in on each others progress. Essentially, it would be a motivating factor and a "get your lousy ass off the couch" kind of reminder.

Well, I would say that January was a pretty big fail.. both of us ran limited mileage and texted/called infrequently. However, recently we both started becoming a little more consistent.

Today was the 5th day in a row that I've gone on a run. I haven't done this since August. I had been running 5 miles for most of my runs the past couple weeks, but today I felt pretty awesome. I ended up running 7 miles in a little over 49 minutes, and felt like I could go much longer.

During my previous runs I had a heaving type of feeling, and felt some weird pressure in my lungs. I thought this might be my allergies flaring up, or me just being intensely out of shape.

Today I didn't have that. I finally felt a little bit more like my old self!
New year's resolution is starting to look achievable now. I just want to make sure I continue to not push it, stay healthy, and build up that mileage.

I got back from my run, and had a nice text from James telling me to catch up on the latest episode of Naruto, and give him a call. Pleasant surprise.

I'm starting to feel a little bit of that fire coming back.