Discomfort Zone

I have found, through a LOT of trial and error, the most effective racing strategy for me is: “Find a good, strong rhythm (that I think I can maintain) and just crank away”. This has worked well in the past from the 5k distance all the way up to the 50 miler. My comfort zone. It’s easy, it’s efficient and it makes figuring your splits really, really easy!

Entering the Discomfort Zone

Unfortunately, not all races are set up in a way where this type of racing is practical, or even possible. Such was the case this past weekend at the DH Jones 10m in Amherst, MA. This challenging 10 mile course is one of the most sadistic pieces of tortured tarmac I have ever had the displeasure of running on. I have done it three times now, and have yet to figure out how to beat it. I’m beginning to think it’s not even humanly possible!

Tri Outs

Since the beginning of January I have been heading over to the Nashua YMCA a couple nights a week to do some swimming. Nothing crazy. Just an hour of easy free-style swimming as a nice way to get some low-impact, cardio work in on my easy/off run days. It’s also been a great way to burn additional calories at a time of day when I’m usually stuffing my face in front of the TV.

Pop Quiz

If races are a true test of a runner’s fitness, then tempo runs are like a pop quiz. Nothing too taxing, just a quick check to make sure you’ve been keeping up and have a good grasp of the material.

If you are not familiar with what a Tempo Run is, it’s a run of varying length (usually between 20- 40 minutes) which is done at, or slightly above, the pace where lactate starts to build up in your muscles - leading to muscle fatigue. Generally, this pace equates to your 15k or Half Marathon race pace. It should feel “comfortably hard” for the full duration of the run, but not all out. Greg McMillan does a pretty good job of explaining it HERE.

Moderately Challenged

As stated HERE previously, I have some big plans for 2013 and January started off exactly as I’d scripted. Week 1 included a couple of nice snowshoe runs, a tempo run and an epic 9 mile run up (and back down) Pack Monadnock Mountain. Then God laughed - and all hell broke lose. I was sick for most for Week 2 (logging all of 12 miles) then messed up my calf when I foolishly tried to run a snowshoe race while severely dehydrated. Week 3 followed much like its predecessor, ie. hardly any running. And, as a result, I ended up with just one quality week of training - out of three! Certainly not the way you’d like to kick off what you hope to be a season of PR’s!

Harbor Light

This is a poem I wrote which is a shorter (and rhymier) companion piece to the story I posted HERE earlier this week. Enjoy!

Harbor Light
A captain stands strong in the face of the storm
His crew huddles low staying close to stay warm
The ship they called home is tossed in the fury
As the waves crash down the picture turns blurry

Three battered souls are thrown to the land
Their boat is destroyed and awash in the sand
Lost out at sea they’re alone and afraid
Unsure what to do with the plans they had made

They must build and move on the captain decides
He gathers the wreckage amid stifled cries
A skiff is what’s needed to cast off these chains
So he fashions a raft with all that remains

Push off from the shore leave the old world behind
Concerned with what new worlds they would find
For months they did drift in and out of the haze
Discouraged and tired in this fog-induced daze

A sound came to him as the sleeping crew stirred
It started out low and just barely heard
Then a flash in the night that cut through the mist
Like a new lovers lips just before they are kissed

The captain exclaimed and started to shout
His crew quickly turned the small craft about
A harbor light gleamed and showed them the way
To a safe haven where they were welcome to stay

Arriving on the shore he found a first mate
Who thought it was near to being too late
Two more soon were added - number six and five
A family at last they were awake and alive

Now when they travel they do so together
A vessel they sail no matter the weather
If the fog does roll in and they feel all alone
The harbor light’s there to lead them back home

 - Dedicated to my Wife


If you like this, I have a few more you can read HERE.

The Making of a Dad

 

I write about running quite a bit in this space. But, running is only a small part of what makes me who I am. What I am mostly, is a Dad. I became a dad for the first time when my son Casey was born. I was 23 years old. Much too young to be married let alone a new father. But there I was, in 1992, with a new-born baby boy, a degree in Architecture and a job at a t-shirt factory. Not exactly how the “big plan” was supposed to turn out!

Those early days of parenthood were completely surreal. My wife and I were living with my newly-divorced mom, in the house I grew up in. Our baby’s nursery was a closet that I papered with Beatrix Potter wall prints and outfitted with new wood shelving for his teeny-tiny clothes and all those diapers. And now, this “little alien” with a misshapen head was looking to me, barely out of childhood myself, to care for him and guide him through this crazy, mixed-up world!

Success!

Suc-cess (suk ses’) n. Achievement of something intended or desired; attaining wealth, fame or prosperity. ~ Webster’s Pocket Dictionary

Success in running CAN be a very easy thing to measure. How fast did you run? Did you win? If so, how many times? Did you set a record or win a medal in the process? It’s simple. There’s a clock. There are winners and there are losers. It doesn’t require an interpretation to be made by a judge or a referee. It’s as black and white a sport as there is, with no gray area. Heck, at some races, there are even cameras at the finish line to ensure there is absolutely no question as to who won and who didn’t.

Looking Both Ways

Before I look ahead to what’s on tap for this year, let’s look back to see how I did on my Running Goals for 2012.

Training Goals:
1. Stay injury free for the duration of 2012.
Grade: PASS - Only one (brief) minor setback this year and the time off was fairly productive. Stayed healthy enough to achieve an all-time record high in mileage for the year at 3130!

2. Get my weight below 180 and keep it there for the year.
Grade: FAIL - Got to 180, but stayed there for only 2 weeks. Averaged in the 182 – 186 range for the majority of the year. Now I’m up to 188 again. Gotta do better in this area!

3. Add more cross training exercises to my workout routine.
Grade: PASS - Did some swimming, biking, trail running and even spent some time at the gym. Shocker!

4. Learn to swim. Not just treading water.
Grade: PASS - Took a class. Began slowly but really improved as I started to figure some things out. I really enjoyed it and even did an open-water swim!

The 2012 Mill Cities Relay

The Mill Cities Relay is a 5-leg, 27.1 mile race from Nashua, NH to Lawrence, MA. It began in 1984 as a way of celebrating the end of the local road racing season and determines bragging rights among the 21 participating Merrimack Valley Area running clubs. The race starts not with a starting gun, but with the drop of a ceremonial brick. The five leg distances are 5.6, 4.9, 2.5, 9.4 & 4.7 miles and points are awarded to teams in each of the 15 age/gender categories. Teams finishing in the top 3 get a trophy brick with a small plaque on it. After 29 years of competing, my running club The Gate City Striders has received enough brick trophies to build a small house!

Movemberfest!

Curley Goulet

Over the course of the year I have run some BIG IMPORTANT races including: The Boston Marathon, The Pineland Farms 25k, The Stone Cat 50 Miler, and nearly every race in the New England Grand PrixSeries. So, last weekend I decided to mix it up a bit and run a LITTLE IMPORTANT race – The Curley Goulet Memorial Novemberfest Trail Race and Party

The Curley Goulet Novemberfest is organized by members of my running club – The Gate City Striders. It is named after the deceased former president of Club National.  Curley opened the doors of his club on Pine Street in Nashua to all Striders who affectionately referred to it as "church" for over 25 years. And, in that tradition of giving, all the proceeds from Novemberfest benefited one of Curley's favorite charities, the Nashua Children's Home. 

50 Miles from Home

I signed up for the Stone Cat 50 Miler back in June of this year and then spent the next 5 months trying to wrap my mind around it. Being nearly twice as long as any official race I’d ever done, I was both excited and overwhelmed by the sheer “bigness” of it. So many questions bounced around my brain as I formulated my plan of attack. How should I train? What pace should I run? What shoes should I wear? How long will it take? What should I eat? And, the biggest question of all: What exactly happens beyond that mystical 26.2 mile mark?

Well, now that I’ve done it, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. 
Running 50 miles really isn’t all that hard!

Perfect 10’s

10 miles is probably my favorite distance to race. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because I’ve had some good experiences in the past. Whether it be at the Foxboro Old Fashioned 10m (a traditional Boston tune-up for me), or at the now defunct Run for the Border 10m (where I set a tailwind-aided, never to be duplicated, dream-like PR) I generally seem to do well with this distance. Of course, for every “rule” there is the “exception” and my 10m exception would have to be the Yankee Homecoming race. I NEVER do well there. Too crowded, too hot & too late in the day!

   

Another reason I like the 10m distance is that it’s long enough that the pace required to maintain even splits throughout is just slow enough to allow me to breathe fairly easily – unlike a 5k or 10k. But, the entire race takes just over an hour which is short enough so that my legs don’t start to feel like concrete cylinders – unlike a Half Marathon. I’m sure there’s some physiology that explains this phenomenon, but for now, I’m content in knowing that, for some reason, the 10 miler is my “sweet spot”.

This month, I ran two very different ten mile races, on two separate continents and both were perfect in their own special way.