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| One of the better signs |
In my seemingly never ending attempt to run nearly every
trail in New Hampshire
this summer, I headed over to New Ipswich, NH for the Wapack Trail Race.
I had done this one twice before. In 2009 I got so dehydrated that I needed to
sit down and “collect myself” in the closing miles of the race. I staggered
across the line in 3 hours and 16 minutes. Last year, I ran it a little smarter
(and lucked out with good weather) And I finished 3 minutes faster – over a
longer course. What would this year
bring? In a word … Misery.
As discussed previously HERE,
once you become a parent, your life is no longer your own. And, even though
this fact of life is widely accepted, it’s still sometimes hard to accept.
Parents try to hide it, run from it, or even gloss over it. But, it’s still
there, bubbling beneath the surface of our collective consciousness. That is,
until we take our kids on vacation. Then it’s front and center. Like a slap in
the face. With a sledgehammer!
It used to be (in “once upon a time” time) that vacations were enjoyable and
relaxing. A
tranquil time to get away from your troubles at home (or at work)
and just recharge your batteries. This is no longer the case. Now, vacations
are soul-sucking, brain-bending, heart-breaking feats of super-human strength
that end up leaving you more tense and tired than when you began. The reason
for this sudden, but colossal, shift of fate? Kids!
Don’t get me wrong. I love my children.
But there’s no denying that “vacations” are dead. And my kids killed them!
Over the course of the last 3 weeks I've been transitioning from "base" phase to "prep" phase in my Baystate Marathon training program. During that period I've also been having a very difficult time getting my legs to turn over. I've been feeling sluggish and completely out of sync - in short, "run down".
At first, I thought it was just the warmer "dog days of summer" weather and a recent inability to get an adequate amount of rest. However, after looking through my training log for the past 10 weeks, I think I may have discovered my problem. Overtraining!
For the past seven years I have been the race director of what was once a small trail race series held in Mine Falls Park (in Nashua). The Mine Falls Summer Trail Series is hosted by the Gate City Striders and is a shorter version of the 24-race trail series that Mike Amarello had put on as part of his Moose Milers Club. When we took the race over we decided to add a 5m race to the existing 5k course to offer a bit of variety in terms of distance and terrain. At our first race in 2007, we had 42 runners. Which I thought was pretty good considering it was about double what Mike was getting every week during his tenure.
