Every Road Craftsbury: Mud Season Edition
From GRP Biathlete and Craftsbury resident Susan Dunklee.
Last summer the Craftsbury Outdoor Center organized an Every Road Craftsbury challenge encouraging runners to log all 70.5 miles of town roads during August. Participants tracked miles using Strava or other means and earned points for miles completed, as well as bonuses for things like running together with a friend or taking a picture with a road sign. Local businesses donated prizes. I watched friends pour over the town map strategizing the most efficient routes and I heard about plans to car shuttle for long point-to-point runs. The enthusiasm also seemed to infect people who normally don’t run very much, motivating them to hit the roads. At the end of the month all the participants met up for a potluck to celebrate their achievements and share their experiences. I wished I could join.
I’m a professional athlete. My job is to be the best biathlete I can be and to compete with the best athletes in the world. This means following a very structured training plan which optimizes time on rollerskis and “combo” training sessions at the shooting range. August already featured important team trials races and national team training camps. It wasn’t a great time for me to take on the Every Road challenge, no matter how fun it sounded.
Fast forward to spring and the pandemic lock down. My winter race season ended weeks earlier than expected, the local ski trails closed abruptly and, like millions of other people, I found myself stuck at home struggling to adapt to a new reality. Normally April is a month off for ski racers, our only vacation time of the year, and we try not to think about anything related to our sport. This year, I found myself needing to be active to keep my spirits up during this challenging time. I hungered to add a little routine and purpose to my days. Perhaps it was time to bring back Every Road Craftsbury.
Is Every Road Craftsbury…
Social distancing safe? ☑️
Compatible with Governor Scott’s Stay at Home order? ☑️
A way to stay active? ☑️
Beneficial for mental health? ☑️
Suitable for a professional skier’s spring training needs? ☑️
An opportunity to add structure to a strange time? ☑️
All the boxes checked out: Every Road Craftsbury was a perfect April challenge for me. I would not have to travel more than 10 miles from home to do it. I dove in and even created an extra rule for myself to not drive anywhere to run. If I needed to start somewhere other than my home I rode my bike to that point, stashed it in the woods, ran, and then retrieved my bike and pedaled back.
Early in the challenge my strategy was to create loops or out-and-backs that were mostly 6 miles of running or less. Ramping up mileage too fast is a classic route to injury with running. I made that mistake many times as a high school and college runner. Although I was in excellent ski shape, I hadn’t run very much over the winter and I wanted to avoid injury. I didn’t worry about my modest bike miles because biking does not create the same stress on the body. In the second half the challenge I slowly ramped up the running, introducing days of 8 miles or more.
I did not want to aim for the most efficient loops or to cram the challenge into the fewest days. Instead I focused on creating routes that looked interesting to me. In most cases it meant I needed to return to the same area later with my bike so I could run the out-and-back sections to town lines or dead ends that I had missed earlier.
One of my favorite activities is bushwhacking so I decided to include some. Guy Lot and Morey Hill roads run parallel to each other about 1/2 mile apart. Using a compass, I cut through the woods to connect them into a loop. I also went off-roading on Twin Bridges Road, which used to be a through-road before the bridges washed out. I followed the historical roadway and waded across the stream.
The weather was challenging at times. April in Vermont can have warm “t-shirt weather” of 50 degrees and sunshine, but it is more likely to be 35 degrees and sleeting sideways. As I write this on April 22nd, it is 25 degrees here with 2 inches of fresh snow. No matter which direction I venture from my home I always start with a significant downhill; it can be very cold on a bike. This makes careful layering crucial, and no small part of the challenge!
I started the challenge on April 2nd and am on track to finish in the next couple days. I estimate that I duplicated (in some cases triplicated) 38 of the 70.5 miles, resulting in at least 108 running miles logged. I also biked over 76 miles to shuttle myself to various start points; many of those miles were taxing climbs back up to the Common at the end of the workout. The challenge motivated me to get outside on some of the grimmest days. During my runs I found corners of town undiscovered in my ten years living here. I witnessed wildflowers springing from roadside ditches, red efts migrating in the grey rain, snowmelt spilling over beaver dams, and twanging frog songs blaring from vernal pools. Every Road Craftsbury has brightened my spring and helped me fall deeper in love with my own backyard.
UPDATE: Susan finished Every Road Craftsbury on Friday, April 24th!
