Stony Brook to Pomona: Long Trail Run

Start: Red Trail to Blue:  50:57, HR 133

The temperature was about 40f when I headed up the red-blazed Pine Meadow trail, running at a leisurely pace at first, keeping my heart rate under 140 to ease into the run. I felt pretty good and was almost fully rested for the run, but one more day of recovery from my other recent long runs would have been perfect. after getting warmed up on the flatter red trail I crossed the creek at no-bridge crossing (got washed out) and soon was climbing steeply up the hill on the blue trail with some views south over the creek valley I'd just come up:

From the views south, the blue trail runs northeast across the mostly bare rock of Diamond Mountain before descending some and crossing the Red trail, which I then turned right on, heading more east. A view of Lake Sebago across seven lakes drive from Diamond Mountain:

With the training plan I made out at the beginning of the year, I'm doing these extra long runs about every 3 weeks, increasing slowly up to 4 hours in duration. This one was scheduled to be about 3 hours, so a couple of days before I began the process of looking for an interesting route to run, preferably on a longer loop route, with some trails new to me. When I've tried doing long out-and-back routes, it can be so uninteresting to retrace the same way going back that I avoid it whenever possible. With a loop route you have a fresh experience of the landscape the whole way.

Second Red Trail to Eagle Rock:  54:46, HR 140

Shortly after starting east on another red-blazed trail, the Tuxedo Mt. Ivy trail, I came to a quiet spot and decided to stop for my first  break about an hour into the run. I ate some protein bread and some regular bread, drank some water and half a small red bull, pouring the rest into my liter water bottle. Part of the planning is bringing enough food and water to be comfortable out there.

Ok, I admit it, my longer trail runs, and even some shorter ones these days are very much like hikes, just done faster. For gear, I carried in my smallish Golite Impulse pack my nylon jacket, a windproof hat, poly liner gloves, an 8oz red bull, liter and 26oz water bottles, about 4 slices of different breads, and 3oz of wheat crackers. I also had a tyvek map and a compass, and a lighter to make fire in an emergency. I wore my Montrail mountain masochists over smartwool socks with nylon zip-off hiking pants and a midweight top. I discovered this morning that my recent favorite shoes, the Trekstas, were both shredding on the outside, so I made a shoe change for this run. Even though those only lasted 5 months I will get another pair because they're the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn on technical trails.


After enjoying my break for a little while I heard voices and a few minutes later I saw people approaching, a big group of about 20 Korean hikers. I talked to the lead guy and understood through his limited English that they were heading for the shelter out on the Suffern Bear Mountain trail (SBM). Not wanting to have to pass 20 people on the single-track trail, I resumed my run ahead of them. Thinking about their hiking group, they were doing a pretty ambitious hike for a winter day, and at hiking speed, would be back much closer to dark than me.

I started to enjoy this second red trail that was new to me, finding it smooth running in many places, but with enough technical rocks to keep you concentrating. This trail section would lead me a few miles across the park to the yellow SBM trail, and I found it to be very nice running and worth coming back to run again. I paused where the white breakneck-mountain trail splits off to the left, considering for a moment doing that trail but thinking better of it when judging my time to that point in the route. I took note that the extra loop north on that white trail would be great for later when doing 4 hour runs. I came across some lingering snow:

After crossing Woodtown road, one of the many dirt roads that also crisscross the park, I knew the trail junction for the yellow-marked SBM trail would be coming up before too long so I made note to keep my eyes open for it after a little while. The trail was flowing so nicely and I was enjoying it so much that I somehow missed the trail junction even though I was looking out for it. I paused at one point in the trail and read the contours and thought to myself that it should be right there, but usually in such cases you're not as far along as you thought you were and you have to make sure you keep going far enough or you will stop and get confused, thinking you should be seeing it. So I kept going and came to another trail junction that didn't make sense at first unless I was much too far past the yellow trail. I decided to double check by seeing if the red trail started descending a little farther ahead, and indeed it did, so I had missed it.


Eagle Rock back to Yellow Trail: 11:55, HR 155

Backtracking and reading the map as carefully as I could I retraced the red trail and soon saw the ridge the yellow trail would be coming down from the north on, so when I got up to the apex of the saddle, there it was, marked clearly on the rock slab, but much higher up on the rock than the line I had run the first time, which is why I missed it. In a case like that, slower-moving hikers might have seen it when I didn't, but these things happen. Overshooting the yellow trail cost me an extra 23 minutes and a couple of hundred feet of vertical climb, and a little peace of mind because that was the farthest point away from my start. It didn't bother me much because I was feeling very good and had extra capacity today. The higher heart rate though shows that I didn't want to waste any more time finding my original route to make the turn south and head for home.
 
Yellow Trail (SBM) to Red Trail Turnoff: 28:22, HR 148

After settling onto the much more rugged SBM trail for a little while, I came to a couple of great views east, and I stopped at the second one for my second longer break about 2:10 into the run. I could see Pomona and hints of the sprawl of Rockland county to the east, so while I didn't run all the way to Pomona, I came within a short distance of it when I overshot on the red trail earlier. I ate most of my remaining food, drank more water, and relaxed for a few minutes, then took a couple of pictures:

After the break on the SBM trail, it crossed rocky Panther Mountain before a partial steep technical descent where it picked up the original red trail that crosses almost the entire park, the same Pine Meadow trail I had started on. It ran along with the yellow SBM trail for a ways up a fairly steep hill back onto the top of the ridge, before splitting off to the right.


Red Trail to Pine Meadow Lake: 19:19, HR 146, then Red Trail along Lake: 11:12, HR 149

I followed the red trail as it split off to the right and headed over toward Pine Meadow Lake, back southwest across the park. On the map you couldn't really see it, but the trail climbed up for a while and I realized the lake was at a higher elevation. Once I saw the lake I got to enjoy a little bit of downhill before the trail had several ups and downs on the various embankments along that northwest side of the lake. I stopped at the south side of the lake, finished the last of my food and water, and snapped a few pictures:

Red Trail Home from Lake: 33:33, HR 150

I was starting to get a little tired as I started home on the red trail, but I was then back on very familiar ground so I relaxed into it and worked my effort a little bit. Still, I thought better of taking the challenging white trail south and stuck to the red: you enjoy the hardest technical trails when you have fresher legs. Toward the end, I snapped a shot of stony brook and the final optional rock bed that's so fun to run on, right before the finish:

Overall it was yet another really fun long trail run for me, and I was still feeling pretty good at the end. I could have run for another hour without any major discomfort. The run took me 3:30 of moving time to complete, with probably 45 minutes of total stopped/break time on top of that. My goal had been to run for about 3 hours, and my estimation for the run would have been fairly close to that, had I not overshot the trail on the far side of the park. About 2300 feet of climb and descent, with an overall average heart rate for the run of 142, which is about where I want to be, even slightly lower until later in the season.

My plan of doing the big long run every 3 weeks (and then another somewhat shorter long run in between) seems to be working really well as so far I'm having no problem increasing my distance, and I felt fantastic for today's run. If you can time your key training efforts properly, which in my case means these long runs, your next effort will come exactly when you've fully recovered from your previous effort, and then you built a higher fitness on top of that with the next cycle. Three weeks seems to be perfect for me at this point.