Weekend in the Berkshires

While I admit this is not much of a running post, even the most dedicated runner needs a "rest" day. So let's file this under cross-training, travel, and gorgeous autumn scenery.

Traveling this weekend for a wedding, I spent a couple of days in eastern New York and western Massachusetts. It was a bit early for the peak of fall "leaf peeping" season, but the Berkshires are gorgeous any time of year.

On the last day of the trip, I went for a morning hike with my family. The trailhead is at the Housatonic river, just outside the tiny town of Stockbridge, MA. From there, we trekked to Ice Glen (1.4 miles, 275' elevation).

Trailhead signs.

Bridge at the trailhead

The trail starts out wide, flat, and easy, but turns into a boulder-clambering adventure about 1/2 mile into the hike. It rained earlier in the morning, so to say we got muddy would be an understatement. I only packed running shoes for this trip (the hike was a last-minute decision), so if anyone has recommendations for shoe-cleaning, I'd appreciate it!

Then we went back down to the river, and hiked the Laura's Tower trail, adding another 1.5 mile round-trip and 600' elevation (not counting the stairs to the top of the tower).

Stairs to the top of the tower.

View from Laura's tower.

I only ran enough to get ahead and take pictures of my family coming up the trail. I considered running more, but then I slipped and fell on my arse, so I decided that was enough running. Fortunately my camera and my tailbone survived the fall.
I suspect a trail running career is not in my future...

Any recommendations for getting ground-in mud out of running shoes?

Do you have any favorite fall hikes or trail runs?

Albany - the Mohawk-Hudson Trail

Live from New York... It's Saturday Night!


Except I'm in Albany, not NYC. And as I type this, it's Friday, not Saturday.

So my weekend isn't as glamorous as Alec Baldwin's record 16th hosting of SNL, but I did wrap up a pretty fantastic 9.5 mile run. If you're ever in the Albany area, I highly recommend the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail. Why they left "run" out of the title, I'll never know... but people here seem to take the name seriously. I passed, or was passed by, at least three dozen people on foot and on 2 wheels, but only saw three other runners. Is Albany not a running town? With a trail like this, I can't imagine why it wouldn't be? But I digress...

I found the run by piecing together a couple of suggestions from MapMyRun's "search runs" tool. I have Hubby to thank for the map-my-run idea. I probably wouldn't have found the path, or the route from hotel-to-path, any other way. (The hotel front desk staff looked at me like I had three heads when I asked about places to run. Albany really isn't a running town, is it?)

Because my hotel was a couple of miles away from a trailhead, I only ran 4 miles on the trail, but the Mohawk-Hudson stretches about 40 miles along the Erie Canal. I'd love to come back and run more of the trail on another trip. But next time I'll find a way to start at the canal, rather than running to it. The stretch of bike path between my hotel (south part of map) and a business park (around 1 mile marker) was creepy and secluded. I wouldn't run that alone again.* Also, the little stretch of Route 7 was no fun either. There were sidewalks, but there were also way too many cars for my liking.

My run had short, ugly stretches that looked something like this:

But once I got near the river, it looked more like this:

Maybe it was the thrill of running in a completely new place, or maybe it was because the weather here is cooler than in Florida, but the miles flew by. I wasn't expecting to feel good at all on this run, as I did speedwork yesterday (4 x 400 and 2 x 800 @ 7:00), woke up at 4:45am, and spent all day in airports and on airplanes.

But the miles felt good. Rather than looking at my watch and wondering "how many more minutes/miles 'til I can stop" I looked at my watch and thought "wow, that much time has already passed?"

Mohawk-Hudson trail = win.

*Safety note: both Hubby and my brother knew where I'd be running and what time I'd be back. I'm a proponent of runner safety. Speaking of safety, by the time you read this I will also no longer be at the hotel. I enjoy shareing my travel experiences, but am not about to post my current location and room number here!