Bear Brook Trail Marathon

I’ll be honest, the first time I heard about the BearBrook Marathon & Ultra at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, NH I thought to myself, “A 26.7 mile race, on those brutal trails in the middle of the summer and height of the deerfly season?! No F’n way! Who’d be crazy enough to sign up for that?!”  Well, as it turns out – me!

In my never-ending pursuit to become a stronger runner (or injure myself beyond repair) I put my name in the BBM hat just three days before the race. Hmmm. Deciding to run a marathon at the last-minute with no specific training, build-up or taper. Where have I heard that one before? Anyway, at $26.70 the price was certainly right and I figured it would be a good way to get a long trail run in (with support) as I work my way up to the 50-Miler in the Fall.

The Ultra-met Challenge

I’m not sure why, but lately I’ve been much more interested in running long than running fast. Maybe it’s because, as I age, I’m finding it near impossible to come close to my previous race PR’s - despite the fact that it feels like I’m training harder than ever! Maybe it’s because I seem to keep breaking down when I try to run too fast. Or, maybe it’s because there’s just something inside me that likes to see just how far I can go!

Progress Report

Seeing as though we’re almost exactly half-way through the calendar year I thought I’d take a look back to see how I’m doing on my Running Goals for 2012.

Training Goals:

Stay injury free for the duration of 2012.
Grade: C+ Only one semi-injury and the 3-week duration was fairly manageable. Still, I’d really like my hamstring problems to be behind me once and for all.

Get my weight below 180 (184 currently) and keep it there for the year.
Grade: B-  Got to 180, stayed there for 2 weeks, now back up to 184.
It would be a lot easier if the cookies, chips and ice cream didn’t call me by name!

Add more (and varied) cross training exercises to my training routine.
Grade: B+  Been swimming, biking, trail running and have even spent some time at the gym. Shocker!

Learn to swim. Not just treading water, but proper swimming technique.
Grade: A-  Took a class. Began slowly but have really improved as I’ve started to figure some things out. I really enjoy it and I'm looking forward to my first open-water swim later this summer.

Summary: For the most part I've been pretty happy with my training so far this year. I'm averaging more miles per week than I ever have in my 15 years of training. And with the biking and swimming it's been a very good mix of workouts. Certainly not bored.

Stepping Back

Rock Bottom. Ground Zero. Nadir. All-Time Low. These are not words that one would wish to use to describe the results of a recent important race or, in this case, a series of recent important races. But, that’s exactly the sort of lingual ballpark I find myself in after my current string of personal worst performances capped off by this weekend’s USATF-NE 10k Championships in Newton, Mass.

Tourist Season

"I am a Passenger"

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. After last year’s “Lost Season”, 2012 was to be my big comeback. I planned it out. I did all the phyiso work. I ramped up my mileage carefully over the winter. I cross-trained like a mad man. I built a pretty strong base. I threw in some hill & tempo work. And I even added some track intervals recently to sharpen my speed. But, despite all my hard/smart work, my spring racing season has been nothing short of a bust.

I’ve signed up for, and run, a bunch of big races with top-notch runners to help push me to achieve the success that I was hoping for. But instead of stringing together a handful of PR’s it’s been one PW after another. For some reason, I just can’t seem to get on track and these races (and racers) have passed me by like I’m standing still. Just sitting by the side of the road watching the world go by and helpless to do anything about it. Honestly, it’s been more of a tourist season than a racing season.

Double Trouble

I ran two races in consecutive weekends (one almost exactly twice as long as the other) but both with nearly the same result - The Bedford Rotary 12k & The Pineland Farms 25k.  Two races, so different in character yet so similar in feel that it was almost like they were the same event.  This blurred together race - let’s call it “Bedland” (or better yet “Pineford”) - was the start of what I hoped would be a late spring/early summer string of success, building upon the quality training that I’ve been doing recently.  Unfortunately (I seem to use that word a lot these days) this was not the case.

Training Daze

Not much happening on the racing front since my latest debacle at Muddy Moose.  Although I do have a series of races scheduled in the coming weeks including the Bedford 12k, Pineland Farms  25k, Newton 10k & Hollis  5k.  So, lately it’s been all about the training. Some good, some bad and some bizarre...

Muddy Moose Trail Race (Short)

Last weekend I packed up the family and headed up to Wolfeboro, NH for two very special events.  The first was a memorial service for my Step-Grandmother Arlene “Gigi” Jillette who passed away earlier this year at the ripe young age of 98.  And, the second was the Muddy Moose 14 Mile Trail Race.  This race was one that I’d been eying for a few years and since we were going to be in the area anyway, it seemed like a good a year as any to do it.  Unfortunately, as it turned out, I’ll need to make a return trip to the “Borough of Wolfe’s” if I’m going to check this race off my to-do list.

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill

One year ago today, I tore my hamstring on an easy training run in the woods. The accident happened the day after watching a thrilling Boston Marathon and (by no small coincidence) the day after my quickest tempo run ever. It’s been a long, difficult road to recovery since that fateful day and when given an opportunity to run this year’s race I quickly jumped at it.  Because running Boston (at least in my own twisted mind) was my little way of saying - I’m back!

Unfortunately, the weather gods had other plans.

The Sounds of Heartbreak

Hello Boston, my old friend,
I've come to run with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
The obsession that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of Heartbreak

In restless dreams I ran alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my Nike’s to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of
The Citgo Sign
It blew my mind
And touched the sound of Heartbreak

In Monday morning’s light I saw
Ten thousand runners, maybe more.
People talking without listening,
People stretching without warming,
People taking leaks that toilets never share
But no one dared
Disturb the sound of Heartbreak

Fools said I, You do not know
Heartbreak like a side-stitch grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my gels that I might feed you.
But my words, by screaming coeds drowned
And echoed
In the wells of Heartbreak

And the people bowed and prayed
To the running god they made.
And the statue flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the plaque said, the words of the dropouts
Are written on the Green Line halls
And Med Tent walls
And whisper'd in the sounds of Heartbreak 

Sung to (and stolen from) "The Sounds of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel

10 Things

10 things I’ve figured out since I re-started learning to swim:

1. Goggles are very important.
2. Ear plugs are important, but not as important as goggles.
3. A nose plug is not important and actually quite annoying.
4. A swim cap is also not important but still very cool.
5. Swimming with your mouth closed (the entire time) is hard and stupid.
6. Lifting your whole head out of the water to breathe is not recommended.
7. Breathing with a right side head turn is hard but with the left side it’s easy.
8. Kicking should be continuous and not once every swim stroke.
9. Kick turns are cool but physically (and genetically) impossible for me to do.
10. My shoulders, neck and upper back hate me for trying this.

Oh, and I still have no fucking idea what I’m doing.

New Bedford Half Marathon

At the start of the year, The New Bedford Half Marathon was to be my “Goal Race” for the Spring of 2012. I geared my early season training plan around it in order to peak for the March 18th race date and hopefully run a new Half Marathon PR. And, while my training did go pretty well for the first 2+ months of the year, I realized after the 10 miler that a HM PR (1:23:06 or better) was a little bit beyond my reach at the moment. So, going into the race, my "new" plan was to put in a good, hard effort and just have fun with it.

As usual, the start at New Bedford was crazy. It took me a while just to worm my way up through the tightly packed corral area to a place where I thought I should be, pre-start. The temps were near ideal – Sunny, 45 degrees and almost no wind. Of course, we were standing amongst the taller buildings in downtown New Bedford, so any wind was bound to be somewhat minimized. That was not to be the case, as it turned out, down by Clark’s Cove and New Bedford Harbor. But, more on that later …