Sweet Agony

Every runner knows that there’s a certain emotional ebb & flow associated with the  experience of running. Runners “Highs” and “Lows” are just part of the give & take nature of the beast. Whether it’s the supreme joy of suddenly (and effortlessly) running your daily 6 mile loop a minute faster than you’ve ever run it before, or the slow (but oh-so-sure) death of bonking hard halfway through your Sunday 12 miler, the peaks & valleys of a run are what we’ve grown to love (and also hate) about our sport. And never are these ups & downs more dramatic than when a “run” becomes a “race”.

Such was the case for me Before, During, AND After this year’s Bear Brook Trail Marathon.

Racing Mountains

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the mountains. I’ve been run/hiking the New Hampshire 4000 footers as part of my Summer of 48 - AND - I’ve been doing some racing as part of the Western Mass Athletic Club’s Grand Tree.  And, while these two endevours are somewhat related (lots of ups and downs) they really are two vastly different kinds of efforts.

Run/Hiking 25-30 miles in the span of 10 hours is all about endurance. You must make sure you stay well below the “red-line” in terms of pace if you want to have enough energy to make it all the way to the end. You’re pushing yourself, obviously! But if you’ve become used to spending that kind of time on your feet, it’s not too terribly tough to move at 2½ to 3 miles per hour.

Racing 7-14 miles in the span of 1-2 hours is a completely different animal. The biggest difference is that you have some company - fellow racers that you are trying like mad to beat to the finish line. Therefore, you are pretty much on the “red-line” for the entire event. Mountain racing isn’t done at the same breakneck speeds (at least for me) as road racing, but you’re still moving twice as fast (per hour) as run/hiking. The good news is, after 2 hours, it’s usually over.

The last three mountain races I’ve done are: The Greylock Half Marathon, The Blue Hills 12k and The Cranmore Hill Climb. Each one was very different from the next and each had VERY different results ...

Getting High

(With a Little Help from My Friends) 

This past weekend was Stage Two of my Summer of 48 hiking extravaganza. I was particularly excited (and nervous) about this 3-day trip because of its increased degree of difficulty over what I’d done on Stage One. This time around I would be “bagging” 22 of the 48 four thousand foot peaks (nearly half!) including ALL the higher summits along the Presidential Ridge. It would be quite an undertaking, to be sure, but I felt confident, based on my results last time out, that I could pull it off. Plus, I’d be spending one of the three days hiking with some friends. What could be better than that!

Lost in the Woods

This past weekend I got lost while hiking Mount Cabot.  Not “dangerously” lost mind you, but lost none-the-less.  I had heard all about the poorly marked, off-limits, portion of trail on the Lancaster side of Mount Cabot due to a Forest Service dispute with a land-owner.  But, as part of a last minute schedule change, I moved Cabot from Part Two to Part One of my Summer of 48 hiking extravaganza and was therefore a little bit unprepared for the task at hand.

YouTube Twenty

I  think one of the best things about living in the "internet age" is the instant access to all the great stuff that gets posted on YouTube.  From old Music Videos and TV Show Re-runs to  Inspirational Films and Embarrassing Home Movies, YouTube has it all!   I especially love finding some of the funny and original stuff that people put out there which eventually goes viral.  It's mostly unintentional, but almost always hysterical.   So, without further ado, here are my Top Twenty (for now) Funniest Internet Videos (with links)
sung to the tune of "My Favorite Things" - from the Sound of Music

Web-Caming  Seniors and Shark on a Roomba.
Baby Who's Laughing and Dynamite Boom-ba .
Dick in a Box that’s all tied up with strings.
These are my favorite internet things!

A Trip to the Dentist and Double Rainbow
Ninja and Star Wars  and Don’t Tase Me, Bro
Little Superstar and a Scarlet who sings.
These are my favorite internet things!

I Like Turtles so Leave Britney Alone.
Grape Gal and Ice Dude who fall on their own.
Silver white Whales that Explode into spring.
These are my favorite internet things!

When Charlie Bites, and Howard Dean Screams.
When I'm Driving Bad, I simply remember
My internet things and then I don't feel so saaaad!

Summer of 48

The great state of New Hampshire has 48 mountain peaks that are 4,000 feet high (or higher) and over the years I have climbed 36 of them.  Some, like Washington, I’ve done more than once. But, for one reason or another, there are 12 that I have missed altogether.  Some because they are pretty remote, such as: Cabot, Waumbek, Isolation and Owl’s Head.  And, some because they just weren’t on the way to wherever I was going, such as: Willey, Hale, Tecumseh and The Hancocks.  This summer I plan to rectify this situation.

Mud World

It’s been over a week since I ran the Pineland Farms 25k Trail Race.  I don’t know why I’ve waited so long to write about it.  I guess it’s because there’s really not much to say.  It rained for the better part of the week leading up to the race, rendering the dirt and field trails barely passable on race day.  I had hoped to run well this year to “avenge” last years personal worst, but I ended up sliding all over the place, straining my calf (again), slowing down to stretch it out and even stopping to change shoes (mid-race) on the way to setting a brand-spanking NEW Pineland personal worst!

My splits were all over the place – as low as 21:47 (5k) and as high as 27:56 (also 5k). My finishing time was 2:04:30 which was a full 9 minutes slower than my Pineland best and nearly a minute slower than last year’s debacle.  It's been 3 years now that I've run this race, and I really like it a lot.  But, it's also been 3 straight years of getting slower, and that's no fun.  IF I run this race next year, I sure would like to stop that particular trend! But that's a big IF.  Right now, this 15.6 mile slip-n-slide race has left a bad taste in my mouth.  One that I'm hoping will be rinsed out by a nice, quick Hollis Fast 5k next week.  Oh well, at least the rain stopped (eventually) and the team won some beers!

Road Mode

For better (and worse) most of the training (and racing) that I’ve been doing over the past month or so has been slow and on the trails. At this point, I had hoped to be doing more speed work on the track and tempo runs on the road, but my on-again, off-again calf problem has slowed me down for the last four weeks. Anything faster than about 6 to 6 ½ minutes per mile and the calf/achilles immediately starts to tighten up and ache.

I got the calf worked on last week, however, and things improved enough for me to feel comfortable about giving track another go. “Slow and Rusty” would be the best way to describe my first full track workout of the season. But, thankfully, “Pain-Free” was also a key ingredient to the workout! So, if I’m lucky, I just may be past whatever it was that was holding me back.

Of course, any fears I might have had about messing up my lower-leg certainly didn’t keep me from attempting to run this month’s New Hampshire Grand Prix Race selection – The Bedford Rotary 12k. I’d have to look at the numbers, But, I’m pretty sure I’ve done this race more times than any other annual NH event. My first time was in 2000 and my last time was in 2012. I’ve run as fast at 45 minutes and as slow as 50. This time, I expected to be somewhere right in the middle. But, hopefully faster than the 49 I ran last year!

Surviving Seven Sisters

I was warned. This race is a monster! It’ll chew you up and spit you out! I’d read the humbling race reports. I’d heard about insane terrain. I’d poured over the ridiculous elevation profiles. I’d broken down all the heart-breaking splits. I’d seen the post-race photos – in all their gory detail. And, I'd read the Runners World article calling this the toughest up & down trail race in the country! Still, somehow, I was intrigued by this race and wanted to find out for myself what the 7 Sisters fuss was all about. And now, after running it for the first time, I can tell you that it definitely did not disappoint!

Eighteen

Eighteen and I like it!

Counting the two years I ran in High School, I've been running for 18 total years. During that time, I've also run 18 Half Marathons and 18 Marathons. Here's the breakdown:

The Cost of Freedom

Last week was school vacation here in New Hampshire, so my wife decided to take the week (and the kids) and drive up to Canada to visit her family. She left me with a sizable “honey-do” list but also with the freedom to spend the rest of my non-working, awake time however I saw fit. Last time this happened I nearly hiked myself to death - which I documented here, here & here. So, what would I do for an encore? Plenty!

Let's Play Two!

I’ve been biking a lot lately. So, on the First Sunday of Freedom (after the First Saturday of Basement Cleaning, naturally), I decided that I wanted to do a long bike ride. How long? A hundred miles sounded about right. So, that’s just what I did! I laid out a route from Nashua to the Ocean and back, packed the necessary supplies (disregarded the fact that I’d only biked 30 miles in a row so far this season) and then headed off to see what happened.

Rollin on the Rivah

10 days ago I ran my very first Merrimack River 10m Trail Race. Given everything that’s happened since then, it seems like a lot longer than that!  But, I checked the calendar.  And, yup, it’s only been 10 days!  Anyway, I’ve wanted to run the “Rivah” for a while but it always seemed to conflict with another important race on my calendar - either Boston, or Red’s or Soup Kitchen.  This year, my schedule was clear so I headed down to Andover, MA for this 22 year old (Really?!?!) trail race.