Meet Me at the Mission at Midnight

February?

2010-02-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

Hasn't been much of a winter since the beginning of January. Last weekend a monster storm blew south of us and yesterday we were cheated out of what was supposed to be up to a foot. I have yet to break out the XCD's this winter...and that makes me sad.

The upside is that since it hasn't snowed and since we had a January thaw, the trails are pretty much free and clear. I've been able to trail run and if things stay this way, I'm getting the mountain bike out on the trails next weekend. Cabin fever be damned and it's not in the budget to head north right now, so I'm going to find ways to get outside.

Tomorrow is spin class (serving as my main cycling training right now since the Oak Grove Bike Incident) and then trail running on Saturday. I'm off the road until mid-March when I fly back to Utah for a week so I need to ramp up with the first EFTA race of the year approaching in six weeks.

And if winter decides he wants to show up and drop some pow, let me take advantage of those fun trails at the Fells on something other than sneakers or wheels, well, that'd be fine. For now, I'll work with what I got!

Training!

2010-01-31T16:51:00.000-08:00

I started doing Mark Verstegen's Core Performance Endurance and it's a great program. I've always been a fan of Core Performance but it's amazing to do the exercises that are specific for endurance athletes. Also, despite a week of inactivity due to the Outdoor Retailer show in SLC, I've been getting after it in spin class and on the trail. Yesterday I did the Crystal Springs trail at the Fells twice (just over three miles) and the ankle came through in fine fashion. For running that's going to be my thing for a while. Small distances, few times a week, just rebuilding strength. Cycling will be spin class until winter decides what it's doing. It's freezing now but we had a warm snap last week that melted most of our snow. If that happens again with no dumps on the horizon than maybe we start riding trails early this year!

The first race I'm officially registered for is the Greenhorn AR in Flintstone MD. I'll be racing with my brother and it will be his first AR. Short race, but perfect length to get the ankle back into action. Our team name is Forty Six and True; a play on the Tool song Forty Six and 2 (watch this video to get a sense of what it's about). Also pumped for my brother to cut his teeth in the endurance world. It's a short race, and we're aiming for a podium finish.

I'm hoping that the first race of the year will be an EFTA race, the Burlingame Time Trial on March 28. After that and the Greenhorn, it will be just trying to squeeze in a few more mountain bike races before we head back west. Bottom line is...it's fun to be training again! I forgot how well I sleep when I'm hammering myself every day.

Nighttime Snowshoe Hike

2010-01-02T18:27:00.000-08:00

Getting a nice little storm here on the North Shore. Not a typical Nor'easter, but the wind is still whipping and a storm that is backing in off of the ocean is laying down what will hopefully be our base until April. The last big storm we got melted off with some warm weather over Christmas, so hopefully this one sticks around.

Tonight we went over to the Fells for a little snowshoeing by headlamp. Lily as always performed beautifully and it was great to be out in the dark on fresh pow. As if on cue the intensity of the snow picked up as did the wind making for a brisk night. We rewarded ourselves with cocoa when we got home.

Winter is the most underrated season. Most people hate it, but mostly because they fail to see past the minor inconveniences of the cold and ice and find the beauty that comes with the darkest time of the year. Winter should be a time of reflection and a reminder that sometimes it's good for things not to be so easy. It makes us appreciate the days when we can throw on some shorts and a t-shirt with some flips and roll out the door. Winter gets a bad rep...folks need to see beyond what is obvious and find the beauty and amazement hidden within.

Progress

2009-12-27T16:57:00.000-08:00

So my experiment is working the way I hoped it would. I've now run four days in a row. A little jaunt on Christmas Eve, two 25 minute runs on Christmas and the day after and today I did 3.2 miles, half of which on trails. I was going to go to the gym today, but it was in the low 50's when the sun popped out this afternoon so I said the hell with it and had my best run since last June 25 (literally).

Each day things seem to improve so I'm going to do my best not to over do it and keep building and making progress. But I have to tell you...it's pure bliss to be running again. I missed it, but I didn't realize how much. I absolutely love tying up the shoes and just leaving the front door to get in a great workout. A set back at this point would be just an awful turn of fate...but one I can't control. So I'm taking the optimistic view and hoping that it continues to go well.

I sing...poorly.

2009-12-23T15:08:00.000-08:00

Check me out singing and screwing up other people's songs!

King Kong On My Back

Cover of the Pondering Judd tune (my fave by them).

Silo Song

Cover of the Chris Pureka tune.

Solstice Hike

2009-12-20T07:45:00.000-08:00

So we're not a very religious crew, however if there is an established religion that we are drawn to and dig their ideals it's Paganism. Pagans worship the earth and most of and the best of Christian practices were lifted from the Pagans. Yearly, there are two big days in the Pagan calendar; Samhain (Halloween) and the Winter Solstice. Every year on the Solstice, the family and I get outside to celebrate the Earth and then following some traditional Pagan guidelines we have our own Solstice ritual celebrating the rebirth of the sun. Good times!

This year we have to head to Scranton, PA for some family business on the Solstice (tomorrow, the 21st). So with the Nor'easter raging outside we decided to have our outdoor celebration today (20th) and then do our ritual on Christmas Eve. Like I said, we're not dedicated to the religion just yet, but we do love our traditions.

We woke up this morning to 7 inches of fresh out our door. Carli was out in the storm by 6:30 to do a Starbucks run and shortly after her return we had loaded the car with snowshoes, poles and Kennebunk and we were off to the Middlesex Fells.

This was Lily's second time on her snowshoes and she rocked it! She was all smiles despite the still fast falling snow and the wind whipping it into our faces. We have to leave for Scranton by Noon so we kept the hike to about an hour, just a quick out and back, but enough to enjoy nature and remember that it's because of this amazing place called Earth that we can be who we are and do what we do. Happy Solstice.

"We are men of action, lies do not become us."

2009-12-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

-The Princess Bride

My left ankle. New strategy. I've spent the last year and a half doing rehab, pushing too far, setting back, pushing too far and resigning myself to days at the gym with no running or cycling. I'm not nearly patient enough to endure this any longer.

Intuition reveals itself in funny ways. Religious folks believe if they pray hard enough, the answer will come to them through the mouth of God (or sonny Jesus to quote the toughest screw every to walk Shawshank). Some say it's the fact that they've given birth that allows them to see what needs to be done or know what will happen. Not sure what it was with me, but the other night as I was walking to my car in mesh shorts and a tech tee on my way to the gym, I decided that was going to jog around the block, just to see what would happen.

Until that moment my strategy was going to be rehab, strength and stretching for another 3-4 weeks to see what kind of improvement I was experience. If it was little to none I was going to head back to the doctor for a referral to a specialist and perhaps a second MRI. So this decision to run around the block was contrary to what I had laid out for myself. But the little voice spoke and I didn't argue. I didn't go back in to change into more appropriate running clothing or put my keys away; I walked down the driveway, and starting a light jog around our miniscule block.

As expected the ankle hurt in all the usual places but I figured if nothing else it would feel good just to feel my heart rate up and all the usual running perks. But over the course of the 2-3 minutes it took to round our block, my mind formulated a new strategy: to start running regardless of the pain. I'd go every other day and in between I'd continue to strengthen and do all my PT exercises. Not sure why this makes sense, it just does. The only time my ankle has felt good recently is after stretching or working it, so why not run through the pain?

I ran a little bit longer the day before yesterday, last night at the gym I did a few laps on the track and today I got out for 15 minutes. There are moments that it hurts, but it's nothing I can't run through. The bottom line for me is I don't want to wait around and see if it gets better. The way I figure it, there are two possible outcomes from this experiment:

1. The running helps, the ankle heals and before long I'm back to normal and no longer posting long winded, whiny posts on my blog about my damn ankle.

2. It exasperates the situation. It gets worst, blows up, something tears, it becomes so sore I can barely walk. In this case I go back to the doctor, but at least I'll have something to show her. Even if doesn't get this bad, if it doesn't get better I'm back at the doctor's office.

I'm not waiting around any longer and let this thing linger into 2010. Time to take action.

1:49pm

2009-12-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

...and then, without a moments notice, I saw from the corner of my eye the French Press go spiraling end over end off of the kitchen corner. I could barely react before the deafening shatter of glass filled the air. I simply stood; standing in disbelief as I took in the small yet far reaching pile of shards and coffee grounds. What once had stood to become a pleasant afternoon cup of coffee was now an angry mass of brown with a twirl of twinkling glass mocking my astounded expression. All of this at 1:49 in the afternoon.

WHOA!

2009-12-07T09:30:00.001-08:00

Damn nearly a month? I need to post something...so here are some random pics from the past few weeks...

The girls!

Coolest boss of all time! Driving around Heber, UT

Outside the coolest coffee shop ever. Pretty sure Canice is now engaged to owner who was once a happening roller skating...

Halloween ala Zombie

2009-11-12T10:04:00.000-08:00

IMDB

As I get caught up on movies released in the past few years, I finally got to see Rob Zombie's 're-imagining' of the classic "Halloween". People who don't appreciate the genre may not realize or have forgotten that John Carpenter's original 1978 "Halloween" is a classic. It was the first true movie of it's type and at the time very scary. We've become so saturated with horror flicks copying it's style (Jason and Freddy don't exist without Michael Myers coming first) that we've forgotten that these types of flicks can be original and scare the pants off of you. The horror genre needs more movies like this after going on a several year run of simply spitting out 'torture porn' which isn't scary, just nasty. We watch horror movies because we want to be scared; in the right way.

Despite what most purists say, Zombie made a super fun movie without disgracing the original material. He took what John Carpenter produced and expanded several story lines while maintaining the big scares. This time around when you see Michael wandering out in the open, during the day, on the streets of Haddonfield, you have deeper understanding of what makes him the way he is and what he is capable of. Dr. Loomis went from being the obligatory white knight who would show up shortly after Michael had done his thing and make a profound statement to being a conflicted man who potentially is only involved with Michael to land a book deal. Yet despite his possible ulterior motives, he alone knows Michael's make-up and what Michael truly is.

The best part of the way Rob Zombie makes a scary movie (and I believe this to be the case with "The Devil's Rejects" as well) is that he's able to marry the disturbing and gory elements of what you see in horror a lot these days, yet he does it with a grin and an air of campiness. The movie is, for lack of a better word, fun. You are scared, watching some scenes through your fingers, but at the end you are completely satisfied and leave with a smile on your face. Zombie's affinity for old-school scary movies makes it's presence known in the way he pieces together the film. This makes me want to see more movies from him because let's face it, yes we're there to see something scary, but don't we want to have as well? He also maintains several of the important elements found in most typical slasher flicks: gratuitous nudity, having sex gets you kill and the chaste protagonist makes it through to the end.

If you are into scary movies and have not already, see this flick. Put aside the importance of the original and don't go into Zombie's flick ready to compare the two. That's not fair to this one, which can stand on it's own. Definitely looking forward to seeing the sequel...on DVD of course.

Swimming is Awesome

2009-11-09T17:35:00.000-08:00

Got into the gym for the second day in a row. Did a great core workout than hit the pool. Swimming is so sick. Totally challenging, form is so hard to master (especially without a coach) and totally rhythmic. I'm hopeful that swimming will help fuel my ankle to recovery. The best part is afterwards, feeling a full body exhaustion that is completely unique when compared to other endurance sports. You don't have that pin pointed weariness or pain that you can get from a tough ride or run, it's just an all over sense of being worn out. I could have slept immediately afterwards. Love it. Can't wait to do it again. Plus since I haven't ridden since Fat Tire Narnia, and I still can't run, it's so nice to hit something aerobic.

I need to get in some serious workouts this week too. Not sure what the situation is going to be in Park City next week. I'm sure I'll have gym access, I just want to go in with zero expectations...so I need to keep after it this week.

Cold.

2009-11-08T07:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I have a cold. It's annoying me to no end.

Mostly because it's not a typical cold. I don't feel rotten and can function fine. This sounds like a good thing, right? Nope. This cold is just a drippy mess that makes me tired. So even though I don't have that typical feeling of being sick that sucks so much when you have a cold, I still don't feel like working out or doing anything productive. At the end of the day I just want to go to sleep. Not my style...at all.

So today I'm forcing myself to the gym to lift and swim. I don't care what happens to me later tonight (or the possibility of leaving a snot slick in the pool...early apologies to other users at the Malden YMCA) I need to get a workout in.

This is my last week at City Sports. Finally I'll be back on a normal daily grind schedule and I think that will only help me be a better father (consistency) and also get me in the gym with more frequency. I thought a retail schedule would open things up for me, but in reality it only made things harder. Psyched to have things back to normal-ish.

Good Lunch

2009-11-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

So I'm weird in that I like to cook...but I never do. Ever. I rely on Carli (who is an awesome cook) for most dinners and when it's just Lily and me I make pancakes (and I'm hell at pancakes). So lately I've found an easy lunch. Boil some pasta with a bit of olive oil in the pot, when the pasta is about ready toss in some frozen broccoli, after a minute or so (so the broccoli can soften up) drain it and top it off with some butter and parmesean cheese. Enjoy. Great recovery meal and it only takes like 10-12 minutes.

I also have sworn off of sugar until Thanksgiving. I'm a sucker for sweets, mostly baked goods, and I'm easily swayed by the temptation of a chocolate chip cookie. To that end I'm purging myself of sugar for most of this month. I did relapse today. Peacuddy's had some fresh baked cookies out, and I indulged in one with Lily as we were spending the day together. But I'm confident that will be the only blemish in this endeavour.

In Waterbox news I'm heading out to Park City to start my new gig on 11/16. Get a quick tour of our new offices below.

Nice Little Swim and a Career Move

2009-11-05T03:37:00.000-08:00

Good gym day yesterday. Did a core-based lift than hit the pool.

I only swam for 15 minutes, my ankle was getting sore from the repetitive motion, but it was invigorating. Something to build on. The soreness in my ankle didn't feel like injury pain, but more like, yeah we have some re-building to do pain, so that's super encouraging. Today my calf and ankle have that great 'day after soreness', not 'holy crap I can't walk pain'...again encouraging. If I can keep on this track, maybe I'll be running again by...January? February? That'd be nice.

In other news I accepted a position with a new company...Waterbox. You haven't heard of them yet, because they're brand new. What you are going to see when the product hits the shelves (later this month at an REI near you...well, 27 doors to start) is going to blow you away! Stay tuned. For me this is a great career move...and perhaps another crack at western living? Waterbox is based in Park City, UT so before too long we may be headed back to the Rockies.

Ankle rehab tonight and more gym tomorrow.

Today Revised

2009-11-03T06:37:00.000-08:00

Slow start to the day and I have tomorrow off so I'm takin' 'er easy this morning, heading to work and hitting the gym tonight. Swim will come tomorrow along with more work in the gym.

Since I live in a world where going to the movies means checking out "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" (fantastic by the way) I'm a big Netflix'r and have finally gotten to see "Away We Go". There are certain movies that strike a chord in you and with "Away We Go" it's apparent that David Eggers and I have some similarities. If you've every questioned where you belong or if you are thirty-something who is still trying to figure it out, defintely go see it. I keep seeing reminders that I am actually growing older (people on Facebook who look somewhat larger and grayer, my father continuing to be in the mirror when I take a quick glance at myself) even though I feel better than I did when I was 18. There's a line in "Away We Go" when Verona asks Burt, "Are we fuck ups?...We're 34 and we don't even have this basic stuff figured out yet." The fact that there other people out there that feel the same as I do (I still don't know how to save money, or at least can't execute on it) is comforting as all hell. The important thing is to continue to learn from all of these little episodes and adventures so that one day I will know how to save money and balance being a father, husband, employee, endurance athlete, dog owner....etc, etc...

Ok...that was deep enough for a Tuesday morning. Off I go...

Off season...

2009-11-02T18:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I swear I'm not going to start whining about my ankle again, but know that I'm still fuggin' dealing with it. Argh.

So, I'm in full off season mode. Which means fitting in gym workouts while consciously trying to beat my sweet tooth into submission during a season when candy and baked goods rule supreme clear through the end of the year. To that end I have sworn off sweets until Thanksgiving. Who doesn't like a challenge?
I've been getting to the gym somewhat regularly and in the name of endurance I purchased some goggles over the weekend in order to start swimming. Day one in the pool will be tomorrow. I'm looking forward to finishing the workout and having that sense of calm that arrives after a run, bike or swim. Nothing like that can be replicated in any other way. I see people who post on Facebook that they have insomnia problems and my response is always: "Start running". Go log a bunch of miles and you'll sleep like a baby.

Since I don't know what the long term holds for my ankle, I'm 100% focused on mountain biking for next year. Definitely some smaller races, but mostly two events: The Wildcat Epic 100 and the Hampshire 100. The Hampshire was my primary goal, I want to be a top five Sport finisher, but the Wildcat looks pretty sick. A two day stage race (each stage checking in at 50 miles) it sounds like a blast. It's the week before the Hampshire but I think I could pull it off. I mean, my boy Canice did Primal Quest this summer and after hearing about it, if I can't do 165 miles over the course of a week...how lame am I?

Fall!

2009-09-17T04:54:00.000-07:00

Fall is upon us and it's getting cooler out there!

Yesterday I took the ole Element out in the Fells and it was amazing. The bugs were all but gone, trails that were overgrown a few weeks ago already have their plants receding and spots that all summer were wet and muddy were pretty much dried up. It was the first time since I can't remember when that I didn't come home with a fresh spackling of mud on me or the bike. I love fall.

We're coming up on Fat Tire Narnia on October 9th. FTN is a celebration of mountain biking and beer (two things that go hand in hand) and this year we'll be heading from the Middlesex Fells near Boston to the Kingdom Trails of Vermont in a New England expedition of riding and good brew. Should be SICK. Let me know if you want to attend.

Otherwise I'm rehabbing my eternally injured ankle and looking towards the 2010 race season. Look for more posts from me soon.

Big Week

2009-03-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

This past week was a great week of training. Kicked it off with a 4.5 mile trail run on Sunday, strength on Monday (incorporating Core Performance and Gym Jones exercises), 5.5 mile mixed run on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and a 20 mile road bike on Saturday. The ankle is responding really well to ratcheting it up a notch.

The mixed run I did during the week was a loop from my office out Memorial Drive in Cambridge across the Mass Ave bridge and back on Storrow. The good part is there are plenty of dirt paths to run on with a few sections of roots and rocks so it's actually perfect to re-integrate trails into my training. I have some thoughts on this loop that I'll post later.

Kicking off this week with a 6-8 mile trail run...we'll see where I end up!

Since last we spoke: Part 3

2009-03-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

Release!

Through six weeks I went to PT religiously, did my exercises at home and scaled back my overall activity as not to aggravate the injury...and it finally paid off.

Last week I received the green light to resume normal activity. I need to continue the band exercises at home and I need to ramp up at a controlled pace but I'm allowed to run on back to back days and I'm eyeing new races. I regret not having gone to therapy last fall, but at least I didn't wait until June and miss most of the summer. Dr. Steve did all the tests that he did on me when I first arrived at his door and the motion had significantly reduced and my range of motion and strength were both almost normal! Yeah Dr. Steve! If you live in the Boston area I cannot recommend the good folks at SMART Physical Therapy enough.

To celebrate my progress I immediately went out and overdid it. On Saturday I took an old pair of GoLite Sun Dragons, turned them into screw shoes and did my 7 mile round trip to Winnekenni, 4 miles of which are on trails (slushy, slippery trails this time of year). Having not run on trails since before my injury I was definitely pushing it, but much like a sober crack head indulging in that first hit in a long time...it felt oh so good. My ankle seemed to survive my jump into poor judgement and I'm excited to focus on training and racing and not recovering. This weekend I'm planning on signing up for the XTERRA Muddy Moose 14 miler up in NH. Really can't wait. I'm not even bummed that I'm missing the Fells 50K. There will be plenty of other opportunities to do a race like that, I'm just stoked that I'm on the path to recovery (knock on wood).

More to come...I'm making a career change and there's a fun story that goes along with that too.

Since last we spoke: Part 2

2009-03-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

Following the ten miler that resulted in my ankle digressing about, oh, two months, I ended up at Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Therapy in Reading. I met with Doctor Steve and I gave him the skinny on the injury itself and what I'd been up to since early October. He took a slew of measurements to gauge the strength of the ankle and range of motion. After everything he deduced that my injury was a grade 2 sprain (meaning torn, but not all the way torn) of the posterior tibial ligament. That night back in October, I didn't sprain my ankle in the typical sense of rolling it to the inside or outside. I planted my foot, and for whatever reason a rock or rut in the trail, my foot stuck and I kept moving forward. I may have did some residual damage to the surrounding muscles and tendons, but the main injury was in the back of my foot, and I did a real number on myself.

At the time of Doctor Steven's diagnosis I still had some swelling and the joint was very loose. All of this confirmed what I had hoped I wouldn't have heard: I should have gone to therapy in November!

And so began my weekly trip where I'd do lots of different exercises, receive massage on the ankle to help break up scar tissue and force blood into the afflicted area as well as a healthy dose of electric stim. Finally, Doctor Steve would take a stick of ice, formed inside a plastic cup that had half the cup removed so that a rather large chunk of ice remain, and he would rub it directly on several spots around my ankle. If you're used to ice therapy, trust me, you've never experienced this. Serious cold.

I would then do several exercises at home with large latex bands as well as continuing to stretch and do my morning yoga.

The last portion of my first appointment was learning that I should plan on skipping the Fells 50K. Even if everything went great, I would be able to start really ramping up until late February at the earliest...and why push it at that point? So I bailed, and scaled back my workouts tremendously, in hopes that the PT would pay off and I'd be back on track in no time.

Since last we spoke: Part 1

2009-03-07T16:45:00.000-08:00

So in December I thought I was making progress with the ankle. I had my eye on the Fells 50K at the end of March and the training plan I had found required me to start running by the middle of the month. I didn't push it and instead went for my first run on Christmas Eve. It was a 2.5 mile jaunt that I did by running a few laps around the block. My ankle felt good the next day so I declared myself "back" and started following the training plan for the 50K.

In the early portion of the plan most of the work during the week called for 2 mile runs with longer (6 - 10 miles) on the weekends. I ramped up steadily but slowly. The snow and cold was consistent so all the work was done on the road. I was fine hitting my daily 2-milers during the week and the first few weekends I capped the mileage at 8 and everything seemed to be going well. I was completely focused on this race and stopped going to spin class and stopped lifting. The Fells 50K also has a 23 mile division so while I was still shooting for the 50K, I knew that I could still do the 23 miler as an alternative.

In mid-January I had a physical and I told my doctor about the ankle injury. She recommended that with such an aggressive goal of a 50K I may want to have the ankle looked at and wrote up a referral to a Physical Therapist in Reading. I planned on going just for due diligence but didn't make it a priority.

About a week later I did my first 10 mile run since the injury. During the run itself I had no issues. The next day my ankle felt like it did just a few weeks after the initial injury. Stiff, sore, swollen...it was awful. That Monday when I got to work I made an appointment with the PT. I was still optimistic, but I also had a lingering doubt that this was something I probably should have done in October....turns out that ended up being true.

WHOAAA!

2009-03-04T17:36:00.000-08:00

December 6th was my last post?! Holy crap.

Well, this is the right day for me to come back. Several reasons: my friend Tarah, who is my blogging inspiration has been battling the evils of cigarettes and I told her that I would start blogging again when she quit...low and behold I received a note from on Facebook today that led me to believe that it was time to start writing again. Secondly, my ankle is finally on the road to wellness. Since we last spoke, I began training for the Fells 50K and I couldn't get over the 10 mile mark without being in some decent pain the next day. I finally went to physical therapy, got diagnosed and began getting treatment. Six weeks later and I've been given the greenlight to start ramping up again. I'll write a more detailed post about this whole process, but seeing as the focus of most of my posts last Fall were about my ankle I figured that today was a monumental day and time to get back into this thing we call writing.

I've also begun the process of enrolling back into college to finish my English degree. There are many reasons why I've come to this place...and I'm not quite at liberty to talk about it. To summarize I was placed in a position where I began to doubt myself...and a change needed to be made...and I'm making that change.

I'm going to do my best to blog more consistently. Blogging is sort of like working out. When you're actively doing it, you're always happy that you have, but it's easy to fall off the wagon. Hopefully I keep at it.

We set the clocks ahead this weekend, despite the recent cold and snow Spring is coming...time to start thinking about getting the bike back on the trail. My ankle is doing well...changes are being made. Good times.

Gym Jones and other stuff

2008-12-06T17:26:00.000-08:00

If anyone reading this wants to get me something for Christmas I'd like to take a seminar at Gym Jones in Utah. I've started incorporating a few of the exercises I saw them doing in some videos and wow...It is serious stuff. Check out the site and look up some of their vids here on YouTube.

Despite the fact that my ankle seems to be in a constant state of not healing, I've been getting

after it pretty good. I've decided to spend my weekends on the mountain bike since 1. I need to improve my technical riding and 2. it's way more fun than road riding and pretty soon winter will dictate that I ge

t back on the road ride. So why not enjoy the rest of fall on my fat tire ride?

I've had the chance to ride with two awesome athletes the past couple of weekends.

Two weeks ago I got out for a two hour spin with Jen Shultis of Team EMS. It didn't get above 28 degrees all day and we were frozen up pretty good by the end. Jen showed me around some of the trails near Bedford and Lexington which were super fun to ride and go through

some spots of historical significance; another cool perk of riding in New England. All sorts of

Revol

utionary War memorials.

Last weekend I met up with Kate Walton, who raced a the pro level on EMS's downhill mountain bike team, and since downhills are something I've resolved to work on, I'm thankful that she took it easy on me. We road the trails at

Willowdale and Bradley Palmer which sits in between Ipswich and Topsfield. The amount of quality riding around here never ceases to amaze me. These trails were so much fun, not overly technical but rolling with lots of singletrack. One of those trails systems where it pays to get lost because you never know what you'll find but you'll easily find your way out too.

This week

was pretty intense in the gym, adding in the aforementioned Gym Jones exercises as well as spin class and I got out today for another hour and a half on the mountain bike. I'm officially whupped and with some snow coming tonight, I'm taking the day off tomorrow to do Christmas activities with the family.

I'm going to add a few mountain bikes races to the docket next year in addition to any multi-sport or

trail running races that I do. I'm getting more and more confident on the bike and I think it's time to see what it's like to race them. Plus if my ankle needs to be rehabbed longer than I planned, than it will help to have another few goals in mind if I can't get back to running when I want. If winter takes it's sweet ass time getting here I'm take advantage by riding the mountain bike...but once the snow and ice stick around, I'll start building endurance on my road bike. As well as spin at least once a week. So if anyone knows of any good mountain bike races out there that I should do, I'd love to hear it!

November

2008-11-29T17:34:00.000-08:00

I blame the lack of updates recently to death of my dog. 'nuff said.

Anyway, November has been my mountain bike rebound month. I need to be building a base, and I'm doing that to a degree but I've chosen to mountain bike more than road bike for no other reason than it's more fun and pretty soon it will be snowy and icy and I'll be forced to road ride more anyway, so why not enjoy the fall from my mountain bike?

On the ankle front I've officially moved into "I'm almost there mode". The soreness I feel now is more like re-building muscle soreness rather than awful, squishy, thick soreness. The other night at the gym I managed to run three pain free laps which was almost euphoric for me. So I should be on target to start training next month for the Fells 50k in March.

I'll have pics from a couple of rides as well as totals from those rides in the next couple of days.

Catching Up...

2008-11-18T17:27:00.000-08:00

Oops. Eight days in between posts. Bad Colin.

Last week was a poor training week. I got in 3 days at the gym with weight work and some light stationary biking (ugh). On Thursday we had our company outing which was a party bus ride down to Gillette for tailgating on the Pats game. Super good time, one of the top five best work outings of all time (only behind Rainier and three of the Timby OR parties) but total indulgence of tailgate food, beer and staying out til 4am. I was down and out until Monday, especially since we went to our friends lake house in Maine and it poured until Sunday afternoon. That's ok though, as it was worth the time spent with co-workers and pals alike.

Pretty sure all the standing and walking (and lack of icing) during the tailgate resulted in some the soreness I'm feeling in my ankle right now. However I'm doing my yoga and last night I took a spin class which was awesome. Considering that you're out of the saddle for the majority of the class I'm pretty happy with how my ankle feels and I'm planning a big weekend on the bike coming up. I'm either going to bike with Jen Shultis of Team EMS or with my teammates for the upcoming Frigid Infliction or if it works out (hope, hope) both. If both fall through, I'll plan a road ride one day and a mountain bike ride for the other. Can't wait.

Lastly I want to give a shout out to my boy Chris Boyd and the work he did last weekend at the Ultimate XC Moab event. He placed a very respectable 8th in what was I'm sure a tough race. Dan DesRosier, mastermind of the Jay Challenge put this one on, and he does not allow for a forgiving race course! Nice work Boyd!

Off to the gym for my strength routine.

GoLite/Ankle Update

2008-11-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

Finally! I conversed with the team (through email) today and they're fine. Everyone's healthy, no worst for wear; but definitely a more experienced team. Apparently the course was tough, the areas in which they are/were green as an AR team came back to bite them a bit, but overall they put in a fine effort. Apparently they had some difficulties that weren't totally their fault...and I'll just leave it at that. But still, glad to know my peeps are back home in Boulder and a-ok!

My ankle felt really good today which is a big deal considering I went back to back on the road and mountain bike over the weekend. A little stiff this morning, but the soreness was even better than it was over the weekend! I'm off the to gym to pump up my girly-man arms, chest and back and then home to ice my ankle and wolf down some homemade brownies courtesy of my lovely bride.

Congrats on a strong effort Team GoLite! I miss you guys.

Today's Ride and Totals

2008-11-09T11:03:00.000-08:00

Still no word from the jokers in Georgia. I'm absolutely dying. I'll know more tomorrow.

Got back on the mountain bike today after over a month off due to my gimpy left ankle. I'm glad I didn't push it, like I intended to, and mountain bike a few weeks ago in Arizona because I forgot how much you use every joint and muscle in your legs when riding trails. Also, since I last rode, the landscape has completely changed what with all the leaves off of the trees and down on the ground. Check out this picture and you tell me if you can see the trail.

Exactly. Also when you're riding on leaves this thick you spin out very easily (it also rained last night, even more wipeout fun) and you get to play "what's under the leaves" where you never know when you might hit a rock or log hidden by the leaf pile. So I was off of the bike a bit today, especially on one of the last steep climbs where I kept spinning my back tire and was a bit whupped so I didn't go back down for a second try.

It will be interesting to see how my ankle responds tomorrow. I've already iced it, and I will do yoga tonight and ice it again before doing yoga again in the morning. It feels tired now, so I'm hopeful that it will be sore in the morning with no other repercussions.

Here's today's totals followed by a few more pics from today's ride:

Activity: Mountain Bike

Time: 1:30:42 (that includes stopping to take pics, eat a Gu and chatting with my neighbor for a few minutes after getting home)

Distance: 13.97mi

Avg speed: 9.2mph

Max speed: 20.7 mph

Avg HR: 138bpm

Max HR: 163bpm

Calories burned: 1443

No update from GA

2008-11-09T07:06:00.001-08:00

I'm going to have to give the USARA hell because of their lame attempts at updates on the Nationals race site. No updates since 9:30 yesterday morning?! I'm dying to know how my guys are doing in the deep, deep south.

I'm t-minus 20 minutes from heading out on the mountain bike. Nothing too crazy, just some local trails that I know well. Last thing I want to do is hit the crazy technical New England trails, come to a spot where I have to unclip and reinjure the ankle. That would suck.

...totals and hopefully a Nationals update to come this afternoon.

Today's totals

2008-11-08T11:49:00.001-08:00

Figured that I should start plugging my daily activity and totals here for tracking purposes.

11/8
Activity: Road Bike
Time: 1:13:33
Distance: 22.56mi
Avg: 18.4mph
Max: 30.5mph
Avg HR: 143bpm
Max HR: 163bpm
Calories burned: 1519

Team GoLite at the USARA National Championships

2008-11-08T09:28:00.000-08:00

Quick update following my minute run the other night. I woke up sore yesterday, but I don't feel like I set myself back. That being said, I'm not going to run again for at least another week, maybe two. The "thick" feeling and subsequent soreness has made me realize that I'm not ready to run yet. It's so damn frustrating because if it was just broken, it'd be just about done. This will linger well past me resuming running. So road bike today and I'm definitely mountain biking tomorrow.

So! Team GoLite, my former mates, are at the USARA National Championships in Blue Ridge, GA. By the time this is posted they probably will be across the finish line, as the cut off time for this 30-hour race is 1pm ET today and it's 12:30 right now. The Nationals's have continued to grow each year despite yearly claims by everyone that adventure racing is shrinking. I believe that to be true when it comes to expedition racing and the public's interest in us crazy's who like to run around lost in the woods for long periods of time. However, I still believe the shorter races to be viable and this is continually proven year over year with more events, and more teams at events like Nationals.

Nationals is supposed to be the marquee race on the under 48-hour AR scene. I still see them as needing some grooming and some growth before they are generally accepted as such, but the fact that every year they grow in terms of team participation at their championship event says that they're doing something right. I have a good relationship with the director of the USARA, Troy Farrar and he truly believes in the sport and where it can go.

Every year Nationals is put on in a different geographic region of the country. Two years ago they were in California, last year Missouri and this year they are in Georgia. Each locale has it's own race director who lays out the course based on his or her own local knowledge. It must be challenging because not just any team can show up. For a team to race in Nationals they must qualify by winning or placing at one of the qualifying events that are held throughout the country. This is where it gets hard for the USARA. In order to hold enough qualifyers, the USARA partners with races that are already being held. It would be too difficult for them to try and put on enough races on their own all over the country. To be a USARA Nationals qualifyer race directors pay a fee to the USARA and thus then have to increase the fee in their own event in order to make their money back. It's usually not that much more and if Nationals continues to grow, more racers will want a crack to race against the other top teams in the country and hopefully more and more race directors will allow their race to become qualifying events. Right now their is no representation in the Rocky Mountain region, where many top teams reside. So in order for them to have a crack at Nationals, they need to travel to where a qualifyer is being held.

I'm hopeful for the future of the event and the sport. AR is amazing, and if you have any remote interest in trail running, paddling or mountain biking...you're doing yourself a disservice by not giving it a go.

So, Team GoLite is there in Georgia right now trying to stay awake and navigate through foreign terrain for them. When people think of the ideal place to train and be an athlete, they immediately think of Colorado, particularly Boulder. It's true that they is an advantage to training at altitude and the proximity to the mountains is second to none. However, if you're not used to other climes, than you will have a tough time when you go there to race. One of the first AR I ever attended was with Team GoLite/Timberland at one of the Racing Ahead events in Vermont. They were from Boulder and were feeling pretty confident since they were all used to racing at over 6,000' and the race would all be below 3,000'. The one thing they didn't count on were the dense forest that we have here in New England and that would affect navigation; as well as the rooty/rocky trails that are different from the trails they were used to riding their bikes and running on. So maybe we're not as 'high' here in the east, but we have our own set of challenges. I imagine that's what Tiff, Brooks and James are going through right now. Plus to complicate matters, poor Tiff sprained her ankle last week. Not severely but enough that I'm sure it's hindering, and it rained pretty hard down there overnight, which I'm sure made everything slick. Not fun on a bum wheel.

I'll post some videos from the race website along with the results of how my team finished up once they become official. Until then...Go GoLite!

.65

2008-11-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

I went for a little run tonight. .65 mile, just over 6 minutes. A little jaunt around the block. 35 days after doing awful things to my left ankle, I went out for a jog. Less than a mile never felt so good.

I'm sitting here icing my ankle like I have every night for the past month. I ran out of glucosamine yesterday and that shit is so pricey that it may be another week before I buy a new bottle, but I'm still taking my daily fish oil. Lately there has been sore days and swollen days, but I can see and feel the progress. I figured tonight, I'd give it a go just to see how it felt. Well, it didn't feel great, but it worked and I'm encouraged. Actually the way it felt was weird. Just a general "thick" feeling and a bit weak, but it didn't hurt, so that's really what I was looking for.

I've been having a tough time lately. I don't do well when I can't train the way I want to. I rely on endurance athletics for peace of mind and having had that taken away I feel like ripping my skin off from time to time. Getting on the bike was a good step, and now I feel like I'm really progressing. Yes I know I'm rambling, but I'm excited.

No running tomorrow. Gym tomorrow night than bike on Saturday (hopefully mountain bike). And if I rebound from tonight and things are still feeling good, Sunday would be the next day for another small run. I need to take it slowly and build my strength. But at the very least I feel like it's going to happen. Good night tonight.

Gettin' back at it.

2008-11-02T14:59:00.000-08:00

What a difference a week makes. I feel like I've really turned the corner with my ankle and although I'm not a 100%, I'm probably closer to 75%, I'm starting to feel a little more like myself.

This week I kept it simple and did what my ankle allowed. Each day began with yoga and icing and ended with another round of icing. Each day I took my supplements and ibuprofen. Last Sunday I rode my bike to the gym, lifted and rode home. Got in lifts on Monday and Tuesday and being sore and tired, I took off Wednesday and Thursday (aside from yoga) and on Friday, I felt much better. So I got on my road bike and went for a 20 mile ride. Saturday another round of riding to the gym, lifting and riding home. Today I did another 20 mile ride and although a bit achy, so far my ankle is coming through in fine style. It's definitely tired but I'm also adding in more range of motion exercises to increase strength and flexibility.

I'm beyond stoked at these developments. Without the ability to run and/or bike I've really noticed how much these activities have become part of who I am. I have a hard time focusing, I'm antsy...I'm sure if I kept this up, i.e. a sedentary lifestyle, I'd eventually start to get fat and stop caring. But that's a prison sentence if you ask me.

I feel bad for my wife. I'm sure I've been harder to be around the past few weeks. But after the two rides this weekend sandwiched around another day at the gym...I feel infinitely better. It also is giving me hope of a return to riding at the beginning of December with training beginning in earnest for the Fells 50k around the holidays. Exhale, exhale, exhale...Hope Springs Eternal.

More Swelling?!

2008-10-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

My goddam ankle is still swelling! Different place. I got a bit overzealous this week and did my normal "off season" lifting routine which involved some lower body exercises. Nothing too much, but the main reason I did this routine was my ankle was feeling so much better this week so I figured it was time to do some different things in the gym. Well the past few days the soreness kicked up a notch so I backed off. Today, more swelling. I guess I really did a number on my ankle.

So that's it. I'm doing upper body and yoga and that's it. No more pushing. By the beginning of December I need to be running again so I'm not risking this again for some strength training. Hoping I didn't do too much damage and that this week becomes a big leap forward. Ice, ice, ice, ice....

Halloween

2008-10-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

So tonight was Trick or Treat night in our town. A week early, totally lame, but very fun given that it was Lily's first real time Trick or Treating. Two years ago she was 10 months old and we took her around the Timberland Halloween party. Last year we walked the Pearl St. Mall during the Munchkin Masquerade. These were all fun, but this year Lily got it. She's known for a while now that on Halloween you dress up, and you go out and get candy!

Halloween is a big deal in our house. Both my wife and I love it and we get into with decorating and carving pumpkins and all the pomp and circumstance that goes along with Halloween. One of the things that we were excited about when it came to having kids is bringing back some of the holiday mystique. Let's face it, after a certain age you like holidays, you have fun participating in them and reaping the benefits, but the magic is pretty much gone. Well as parents, it all comes back around through your kids. You should have seen Lily's face when we brought out the Halloween decorations. It brought me back to when I used to do the same thing with my Mom.

So heading into this year's Halloween we were all excited. Lily because for some reason strangers were going to give her treats and her parents were ok with this; and Carli and myself because after three years, we were going to start to see the fun stuff really begin. And that brings me to my point: I'm instituting a global ban on all costumes that are not somehow related back to something scary or magical. Halloween is about scary stuff. Judging be the popular costumes we saw while out tonight, it's about super hero's and farm animals. I admit it, I'm guilty of this myself. I distinctly remember a Halloween when I was under 10 when I was sent out in a C3PO costume. LAAAAME. Look, kids like to dress up. All kids do, whether it's pretending to be a space cowboy or a princess, it's something that all kids go through and enjoy. Well, you can be Spider-man any day of the year; what the hell does Spider-man have to do with Halloween? NOTHING. So let's build a set of rules to abide by when picking out a Halloween costume.

Tier 1

Classic Halloween

This tier is the can't miss icons affiliated with the holiday. Witches, scarecrows, pumpkin heads etc...

Tier 2

The Classic Movies

This includes any of the monsters made famous by Universal Studios back in the 1920's and 30's. Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy...you can't go wrong with these classics. This tier also includes generic versions of these creatures, so if you just dress like a vampire, zombie etc.

Tier 3

Modern day horror figures

I admit, Hollywood plays a role in some of these things. The easiest place to go for a good scare is the movies. So for this tier, we build off of The Classics and go to other movie characters: Jason Vorhees, Freddy Kruger, Michael Myers, Jigsaw, Pinhead. Bonus points for how far you go and how realistic you make your costume.

Tier 4

Dead X

Some of my favorite costumes are those that are creative. I went to a Halloween party one year and she was dressed as "Dead Little Red Riding Hood". It was great, she bought a Red Riding Hood costume and added a prosthetic slash to the throat and painted her face so she looked like a corpse. My brother and an ex-girlfriend of his went one year as "Dead Disco Dancers" where they bought bad 70's clothes at a thrift shop and painted their faces to be zombies. Classic!

Tier 5

Magic

Since there is a certain magical allure to Halloween, we'll allow costumes that aren't scary per see, but deal in magic. So wizards the aforementioned witch, things of that nature. Now that being said, I don't want to see another fucking Harry Potter costume. Dumbledore is ok, but it needs to be dead on authentic. Gandalf is in, but being a hobbit is out. This tier may need some work to further define it.

Tier 6

The List of Unacceptable Costumes

Anything not covered above so: The superhero du jour (based on whatever film was popular the previous summer), princesses, any Nickelodeon character (spongebob, Dora, Diego, Hannah Montana etc...), any cartoon character in general (unless it's from The Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride), animal costumes (unless it's a dead animal costume, like a cow with a machete in it's head and lots of blood), clowns (unless they are evil undead clowns), hippies, hobo's (unless they are murdering crazed hobo's)...the list is endless.

Look this isn't a science yet. There are going to be revisions, but the bottom line is, Lily can dress up like Dora the Explorer 364 other days a year. If when she's a little older, she comes to me and wants to dress up as zombie Dora for Halloween, that'd be great. But sorry, until then, think of a scary costume, because Halloween is the night of the dead! C'mon, let's be respectful of that.

Cheerios and stuff

2008-10-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

In this day and age, who doesn't grow up eating Cheerios? Dry Cheerios are a baby staple world wide. Well I still love the little fuckers. I eat a bowl a day. Usually at night with frozen wild blueberries and raw sugar. Good times. In fact I'm eating some right now.

Post mortem on the 2008 Boston Red Sox: This may be the first year in a long, long time that didn't end with a World Series title and everyone is pretty much ok with it. It's pretty much universally accepted that due to the injury bug that bit the Sox this year if anything the team may have overachieved. Combine that with two titles in the past four years and the Yankees finishing out of the playoffs and everyone, while still yearning for another WS win, is ok with where the Sox ended up in '08. I'm pumped for one of the best parts of following baseball...the off season Hot Stove! I love seeing where players end up and seeing who the Sox are going after.
My World Series prediction: Phillies in 6. The Rays can't quite get it done after the tough 7 game series against the Sox.

The upcoming election is said to be "The most important election in history" or something like that. Not sure if that's general consensus or if one of the candidates said that to pump themselves up, but I will say this...I can't wait to see if Frank Caliendo tries to pull off a Barack Obama impression should Obama win. Barack is thin and black, while Frank is fat and white. It's a stretch when he impersonates Al Pacino because he's so tubby. He should really stick to characters like John Madden and Jason Alexander.

Is anyone else concerned about the leader of the free world have the initials B.O.? Did Obama get lots of deodorant sticks for birthdays and holidays as pranks from other kids?

I got a haircut last weekend and I hate it. I opted for the Supercuts route and I now understand why they're so cheap. From here on, I'm instituting a worldwide mandate that all men shave their heads.

My ankle is improving, slowly but surely. I'm feeling good about a return to running in two weeks.

Back in the Saddle

2008-10-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been hard, no question. I remember when my pal Tiff sprained her ankle and I kept telling her not to worry about it, enjoy the time off, blah, blah, blah...little did I know how bad it sucks.

I got out on the road bike this past weekend and I realized a couple of things. One, I'm in bad biking shape. I've been off of the road ride for some time and it was very apparent when I got out there. And two, It's going to be at least two more weeks before I'm back to running. While the familiar feeling of tired legs was kicking so was the realization of how unresponsive my ankle is. I'm skipping all workouts today and I'm going to ice it tonight...baby steps.

I did register for the Fells Trail Race spring 50k. Mentally it's helped me remember that I'll be able to do the things I love soon. It's keeping me from getting down on the lack of cardio. Working out in the gym has been great. It's rebuilding my base and I've put on a few pounds of muscle. But nothing gives you that "whupped" feeling (in a good way) like running or riding. So I'll be back in the gym tomorrow and the rest of the week, and back on the bike this weekend. I'm in Phoenix in two weeks and I'm hoping to get in some mountain biking out there and by the time I'm back from that trip...maybe I'll be able to start road running...hope...I hear it's a good thing.

Ode(s) to a Sendentary Mountain Bike

2008-10-13T06:53:00.001-07:00

So, yeah, I'm fucking nuts.

I'm writing poetry about missing mountain biking. So for your sanity and mine, pray I heal faster!

(Oh and just a note that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't format this post like I wanted to. So after each stanza of the second poem, there should be a break - sorry)

Haiku

Lonely mountain bike.

Loneliness, single tear (track).

It is not injured.

Rhymey

Champion of dirt and rock,

Clipped into my Sidi's and SmartWool socks,

Now residing in a hallway of locks

And collecting dust from the ceiling.

How long until we ride again?

Until we fly together as dear friends?

Through flowy muddy turns and bends,

Full suspension bobbing and wheeling.

While the swelling comes and goes,

And the pain ebbs and flows,

From my knee down to my toes;

Resolve and spirit with it stealing.

Against the wall my head goes thud,

All I want is to ride the mud

To climb hills and scrape off crud

That collects on my legs and requires peeling.

Alas no more will I cry

A few more weeks will spell a lullabye

For this wretched 'thorn-in-side'

That keeps me squealing.

And then I will mount and go

A few solid weekends, before the snow

Flies about and makes me throw,

You back in the house, for a winter's worth concealing!

Well then!

2008-10-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

Shame on me for the lack of updates, and oh what an update there has been. After my last post, I did go out for a nighttime trail run and it went superbly. Got a little lost with my weak headlamp, but it was really fun and I felt good. Two days later and I decide to do it again. This time the plan was a longer run around the less technical loop over at Winnekenni. I was about two miles from and about .5 a mile into the woods when on a downhill my foot must have slipped either into a runoff ditch or a impression in the trail because I sprained my left ankle badly, the pain exploding so hot and quickly that I can't even remember the motion with which the sprain occured. As I lost my balance I fell forward landing on my hands before turning onto my right side and getting abrasions from the gravelly trail from my right shoulder, down to my right hip and finishing up on my right knee. I distinctly remember letting out a howl and then immediately thinking, I wonder if anyone heard that.

Just like after my crash on the mtn bike in May, I shot up off of the ground with little regard to anything that might be wrong. Instinct just sort of lifted me up and I tried to weight my left foot with little success. I looked at my hands and started to pick out the small bits of gravel that had lodged into my palms. I've had light sprains and painful twists in the past so I did my best to walk it off and wait for the initial pain to subside to see if I could continue on...I waited. And waited...and waited some more. Pretty quickly my mobility went away and I could feel my ankle blowing up like a balloon. Time to head home.

Of course I didn't have a phone with me, I mean, that would have been a smart thing to do. So I gimped it the two miles home. Every so often I would try to jog in order to see if it was easing up and maybe then not so bad and also to expedite the journey. However each time I'd make it about 100 feet before abandoning the run in favor for a brisk walk. Each step sending jolts of pain up my calf and giving a sickening squish as my ankle flexed with tendons that weren't tight enough to quite hold everything in place.

About halfway there I shined the beam from my headlamp onto my foot and that's when I knew that this was not something that would heal in a few days. Still with my sock on my ankle looked like someone had stuck a grapefruit inside of it. This realization made me a bit light in the head, but it also made me move. The last thing I needed to do was stand around and freak myself out anymore, I had to get home.

Finally my street came into view. I labored up the stairs to our place and practically fell into my wife's arms. Icing and ibuprofen commenced immediately. It was after 9:00, and the last thing I wanted to do was spend the next three hours in an ER waiting room so I collapsed in a rough sleep and went to have x-rays in the morning. The swelling was about the same but I was relieved that there was no break...just a bad sprain.

So the past week has been a battle against the swelling. I've been icing, popping fish oil, walnuts, berries, anything known to reduce inflammation. I've been taking twice-daily doses of Glucosamine/MSM and eating a ton of Tuna. And it's actually paying off. The pain is much better. The swelling is down, though not gone and the bruising is getting better every day. The picture above does no justice for how this thing looked at it's apex.

So the plan is this: in the gym most days. This week I'm swimming at least twice a day and if the pain continues to improve I'm going to try a spin class. But I'm hoping that by next weekend I can try a road ride. I'm targeting early November for a return to running...road at first. But back on the trails by Thanksgiving. And yes, I'll be going back out at night too. People sprain their ankles when it's light out all the time. I'm not going to give up something super fun because I got hurt once!

(Remind me to come back at re-read that last sentence after my 18th nighttime sprain!)

Try

2008-09-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

Time to give it a whirl. I'm headed out for a nighttime run tonight. I was in Phoenix last week and ran twice. My foot was kind of sore one day, but I attribute that more to the work we were doing than to the runs. Heheh...runs.

I know these posts are all starting to sound the same, but I'm starting to feel like a lump. So I'm optimistic that I'll run tonight and it will all be better...I'm ok with not competing again this fall so long as I'm healed and can run and bike for fun whenever I want...which is like every day.

At any rate things in life are good right now. Carli and I are reaching a level of financial responsibility that while we maybe should have been there, oh I don't know, ten years ago, it's good to get there even now. We both love our jobs and Lily is the apple of my eye. Cliche? Perhaps, but if you don't have your own kids, don't judge. Most of you might think that you'd find it annoying when you're updating your blog while your daughter is taking a bath and you hear, "I have to poop!". So you stop typing, go and assist the removal from the tub, quick drying off, help up on the toilet, leave the room (because she needs "privacy"), help back into the tub, get back to your blog for 5 minutes before hearing, "I have to poop again!". But you know what? It's a riot. Having a nearly 3 year old around is great.

I just turned 33 and it has only affirmed my belief that things are better as you grow older. I don't understand the fear of getting old. Every year poses new opportunities to learn and to gather experience. Yes I shake my head and smile when I meet people who were born in the late 80's and are now in the job market, but that's because I have vivid memories from that time. It's not because I wish I was 10 or 15 years younger. I love knowing what I know and being where I am...and I have sympathy for those who can't embrace where they are in life. That must be very hard to not have that confidence...

Anywho, this week is a big test for the foot! I'll keep you all (which is to say no one) updated!

Death Magnetic

2008-09-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm the least qualified person in the world to write an objective review of anything Metallica does. I've loved each album they've put out and defended all their different phases when other fans abandoned them because they're newer material didn't sound like it would fit on Ride the Lightning. I think St. Anger was great and that Load and Reload contained a few absolute classics and when I some day compile my own Metallica greatest hits, I will definitely pull songs from those album's. That being said:

DEATH MAGNETIC IS AWESOME.

Ok, there it is. For those of you who liked their older material better, go buy this you'll love it. If it had come out in the early 90's instead of the Black album old school fans would have had no complaint. Personally I was happy to see them branch off and create different sounding music. People hated St. Anger and I listen to that album way more than I listen to Black or Lightning. It's gritty and different. For some reason, band's are crucified if they branch away from what made them famous. Like it's an insult to their fans or something. People fear change in the worst way. Metallica will always be my favorite band and no matter what they put out I know I'll like it. 9 studio albums have proven that everything they put out is to my liking.

Anyway, if you've ever been a Metallica fan...spin this album, it will knock your socks off.

Hope is a good thing...

2008-09-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

...maybe the best of things.

Good recovery week. Since I'm not running right now, I went into the gym old school last week and did basic muscle development isolation exercises. I hadn't done this since I discovered Core Performance 4 years ago and found how well that routine fit with my pursuits of cycling/running. It's been fun to focus solely on lifting and interesting to see how hard exercises are now that used to be easier. It's great to feel that burnt feeling of lifting heavy. But it's also killing me to not have that exhausted feeling you get after a big run or bike.

Yesterday I went for a two hour mountain bike ride which was super fun. The terrain here is incredibly technical...and we were on trails that some consider easy. I have a lot of work to do to improve as a biker on these trails. That being said, after our ride and so far through today my foot feels good. I was off the bike quite a bit yesterday on uneven terrain so I definitely worked my foot, so to not hurt today is a good thing. I'm going to keep moving forward with my lifting routine this week, maybe sprinkle in a yoga and/or spin class and if next weekend I'm feeling good, I may try a short run. Hope, hope.

Derailed?

2008-09-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

Pretty sure I've mentioned this here before but now I'm actually worried. A few weeks ago I thought I had a pinched nerve in my foot as there was a pain there that went away after a day or two. This was following the 15 mile run that started my disdain for the GoLite Versa Force and eventually led me back to my Sun Dragons. Well, the pain has persisted, particularly after longer (10+) mile runs. I didn't think much of it as after a day or two of rest the pain would subside, never completely, but enough so that I wouldn't really notice it when I walked or even run short distances.

This morning, after yesterday's ten, I started browsing around online. We've all become qualified doctor's afterall in the age of the internet (I'm pretty sure my wife is about to open her own practice: True/WebMD) and I found this on www.orthoinfo.aaos.org when I Google'd 'stress fracture foot':

Symptoms:
Pain that develops gradually, increases with weight-bearing activity, and diminishes with rest
Pain that becomes more severe and occurs during normal, daily activities
Swelling on the top of the foot or the outside of the ankle
Tenderness to touch at the site of the fracture
Possible bruising

Yeah, I pretty much meet all of those symptoms. I haven't noticted much bruising, but everything else is dead on. Especially point numero uno, with the pain diminishing with rest.

Ugh. I was really mentally prepared for the 23k this weekend, but if my little doctor work is on target and I keep running I could potentially fracture my foot. This sucks...I think I'll stop running entirely this week, hit the gym religously and plan a few big days on the mountain bike and see how it goes from there. I'm very tempted to take the risk and do the race, but I need to be smart and not find myself on the DL any longer than I need to be. Pissed off is not a strong enough phrase for how angry I am...how about Fucking Agitated.

I swear this year is cursed. I ended 2007 in the best shape I'd ever been in, and between injury and disease I've had an awful 2008. Hopefully that means I've paid my dues and 2009 becomes an epic year, but I'm not holding my breath. The worst thing I can do right now is believe that it's all related, because it's not. Shit like this happens. Hell, look at Ken Griffey, Jr. Talk about a string of bad luck. I really shouldn't be complaining. But disappointment, is disappointment regardless of what it is that you're disappointed about.

I'm rambling. I'm in the gym tomorrow...hopefully they'll let me use the spin bikes.

Viva la Sun Dragon!

2008-09-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

Yep, I'm back in the old school Sun Dragons and they are treating me much better than those awful Versa Force's. Down with posting in Trail Runners say I!

Last weekend was pretty fun. We were up on Lake Winnipesaukee so on Saturday Carli and I went running on Mt. Major. This tiny mtn on the south side of the big lake is a popular summer hiking spot. It's only 1780' tall, but the trailhead sits at 780' and the trail is straight up over about a mile and a half. So you gain the 1000' in elevation really quickly. Also, the trail is pretty much either loose gravel and baby heads or slabs of granite and cliffs. So for it's small stature, Mt. Major has its challenges. I hadn't been doing too much work on hills so this was a great way to test the legs and lungs. I made it up and down in about 35 minutes and I"m pretty happy with that. I did have to take a few breathers and walk a bit of the uphill, but I hadn't done anything this steep since Brooks and I ran up Bear Peak in Boulder last December. Carli did well also, making it to just below the final slabs before meeting up with me and running back out. The trail is ankle turner city so we were both happy to come through with no injuries.

On Sunday we went mountain biking at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, NH. BBSP is a known mountain bike hot spot and man did this place deliver. The trails are super fun. Fast and flowy, especially for New England, with lots of quick technical steeps to challenge you, but always turning back down so that you don't lose too much momentum. I cannot wait to get back to Bear Brook and put in a full day. We didn't have much time as my folks were watching Lily so we needed to beat it back to the lake.

On Monday, Labor Day, we came home and I did my standard 8 mile trail run from the house. I was slow, being pretty sore from Mt. Major, but it was a great way to cap off the weekend.

Today, we've been waiting for Tropical Storm Hanna to make it's appearance in New England. While it didn't rain most of the day, the humidity was off of the charts. If the sun had been out, I really would have given pause to running today. Just being outside made you sweat. I spaced out in prep to do my triple lap 15 mile run and didn't bring any Gu or Clif Shots with me and with the heat and humidity the way it was I definitely would have bonked had I attempted the third lap. Still 10 miles was good given that a week from tomorrow is the Pisgah 50k/23k trail running race. I'm going to attempt the 23k so I should begin tapering anyway. I'd like to get in a decent day tomorrow, take my standard Monday day off and log 3-5 miles on Tue-Friday before resting again on Saturday before the race on Sunday. Should be a blast.

Beat up

2008-08-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

After my whiny post about losing out on more GoLite footwear this will come as a surprise, but I'm pretty sure that those shoes knocked me back about a week. I'll explain.

The newer models of the GoLites have posting in the heel, and if you're a footwear designer take note, is worthless in trail running shoes and only added in as an extra sales/marketing point and to appease retailers. The range of motion that a neutral positioned trail runner will roll through is beyond anything that posting can affect. Also, most posting is added in to help pronators (ankle rolling inward), well, mine naturally supinate (roll outward) so posting can negatively affect me. That being said, I've really had zero issues with both the Carbon Fyre and the Versa Force. Until I upped my mileage.

Last weekend I did 15 miles, this past Sunday I did 10 miles and after each day, in my left foot it felt like there was a pinched nerve and both my ankles were sore and beat up. The other night I went to the gym and just wore an old pair of Sun Dragons, no posting, and boy did that squishy heel feel good. So I am done running in the Versa Force. I'm going back to my Sun Dragons until I head out and get another brand altogether.

With my legs feeling it, I haven't run since Sunday, which is a bummer, but I'm feeling good and planning a light run in the morning with my planned mountain run on Saturday. Updates to come.

Tough Weekend

2008-08-24T17:28:00.001-07:00

So the plan heading into the weekend was to run in the Moose on the Loose 10 mile trail run. However with a sick kid I started to think about skipping it, but at my wife's urging I figured I should go and run. I checked out the races website to print off a registration form and I checked out the race course. Turns out it is a fairly flat, mostly double track 2.5 mile loop that you just run four times. Now not to sound like an elitist, but this race was supposed to be just a step towards the 23k that I want to do in three weeks. To be honest, I knew I'd get a greater challenge doing my normal runs locally, so I decided to bail and save the $20. Yeah, I know sorta weak, but I definitely made the right choice.

Yesterday I headed out to do a repeat of the 15 mile run I did last weekend. I was feeling a little worn, but not too bad. During the first 5 milesI fell apart. My legs felt heavy and sore and I had no jump at all. Looking back on the week I determined that I hadn't been eating enough, or even the right things. Not nearly enough protein or veggies and indulging a bit too much in the sweets category. I also felt dehydrated. I got back to the car and went home. I stretched, ate a protein heavy dinner as well as a balanced fruit/carb/proten pre-bedtime snack. I drank a ton of water and went to bed around 8:45. Needless to say, today I felt better.

I didn't push the 15 miles today, but I did 10 and felt a hell of a lot better than I did yesterday. My wife and I are doing the vegetarian thing, and while it hasn't affected me that much when I eat what I'm supposed to, when I go away from what works at all, it seems to really hurt. My goal the next two weeks is to keep track on my day to day eating and see how I feel when running the next day. The plan for next weekend is a challenging hill workout up on Mt. Major on Lake Winnipesaukee, a full day of mountain biking on Sunday followed by a long run on Monday. Than taper towards the 23k. Updates to follow.

Theme Song

2008-08-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

While the advancements in portable music have all been praised over and over again, easy to use, no skipping, streamlined players, affordable, the one thing you don't hear about a lot may be their greatest attribute: Theme Music.

Remember in the flick "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" when Jack and John Spade were setting out to go after Mr. Big and as they hit the street, Jack sees a band behind John and asks, "Who are they?" to which John replies, "They're my theme music. Every hero's got have some." With the onset of being able to carry around your entire music library via an iPod or...uh, well, via an iPod, you can walk the streets with your theme music on at any time. And because they can store so much music you can alter your theme. This morning from the train to my office it was "Little Tom" by Johnny Hickman, yesterday it was "46 and 2" by Tool. Whatever the mood, your theme music is right there waiting. It's fantastic.

Of course all the world sees is another jackass walking around with white ear buds in, but in your head and in your view, you're in a scene in a movie, maybe walking all "Reservoir Dogs" style as you cruise down the street. I've noticed this more and more now that I'm in the city every day. I get to create the soundtrack to my own flick. Which is pretty cool. Definitely the most underrated part of the advancement of the portable music player.

Still lovin' the bike.

2008-08-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

So the majority of what I've been doing lately, as noted in this space repeatedly, is trail running. Running is a great sport and I love it. It's definitely the sport I'm most suited to do, I seem to get stronger the more I do it and it's good for me in terms of slowing down my mind and dealing with crap in my head. Also right now, given my work schedule and personal commitments...it's the one sport I can do consistently and train and do races. So it's a good thing that I like to run...especially on trails.

But if you posed the desert island question (what is the one _______ you could take on a desert island) to me about the sports I enjoy the most, mountain biking would come out on top. I'm definitely still learning the technical aspects of the sport, so in terms of the things I like to do, it's probably my worst from a pure skill level...but it is so much fun. It's easy to be reminded when you're running that it's a lot of work. And that's why trail running is so much better than road running. Rarely on a road run do you lose yourself in what you're doing. You're constantly surrounded by man-made objects and you can usually always see where you are going and the terrain doesn't change. Trail running is on twisty trails in the woods (or plains, or deserts, or in canyons or on mountains) so it's a super fun way to enjoy the outdoors and you still get a good workout.

Mountain biking, is just pure fun. Sure there are physical and technical challenges, but what's the one thing every kid loves to do? Ride their bike. And now, you're in the woods (or plains, or deserts on in canyons or on mountains) and you are getting to ride your bike! You get to scream downhill over rough trails and through windy groves of trees. You get to try and get your bike up and over obstacles in the trail that give hikers pause. It's super fun.

Yesterday, on the heels of my long run the evening before, I went out to Pawtuckaway State Park in southern New Hampshire and went for a ride with my pal Gary. He's pretty much a roadie and while I was living out west I've pretty much traded in my road stripes for singletrack and the dirt. The frustrating thing about moving back east is that I just getting comfortable on the terrain of the Front Range of Colorado and the terrain here couldn't be more different. There it was big climbs and long descents, you didn't think much about which chain ring you were on because it was the little ring on the way up and the big ring on the way down. Here there are climbs sure (especially the farther north you get) but mostly it's rolling trails. The trails there are decomposed granite and sandy wash (even up in the mountains the trails are pretty loose) out here it's loamy, muddy dirt which is much more grippy, but there are a ton more trees here so the trails have a lot of off camber roots that when wet (and this summer it's been pretty damn wet) become super slick. There are rocks in both places, but out there it's consistent because your grade is steady (either up or down) so you learn how to go over the rocks or step downs in either direction. Here, because it's rolly/twisty trails, you tend to be bigger gears because you're not on a sustained climb, but then you hit rock gardens and you find yourself in the wrong gear.

The point is...I spent 8 months getting good at the trails there...now it's like learning all over again. But that's ok, and that's another reason mountain biking is so great. Running is running, and yes the terrain changes and causes different challenges, but not like different biking trails.

By the time we wrapped up yesterday it was starting to click for me. The nuances of these trails were becoming clearer, and I was taking more chances like I was before leaving the arid high-desert of Boulder County. I'll keep doing the weekly weekend ride (especially with fall on our door step) and next year we're hoping to move closer to our jobs which will result in more riding time...and hopefully a few mountain bike races. For now I'll take it when I can get it. And if anyone out there stumbles across these unorganized thoughts and has not tried to ride some dirt yet...do yourself a favor and get out there. It may be hard, but you'll see how much fun it can be.

15 miles.

2008-08-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

Today was black and white, yin and yang, apples and oranges. I woke up feeling hungover but without the preceding good time to go along with my sluggishness and ill-will towards pretty much the world. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with work being nuts and the week going quickly but being jammed packed and getting the opportunity to relax let all that tension out in a negative way. So there was one thing I was looking forward to: doing a big run to purge the nasty's. But the day kept throwing me curveballs. First a family outing took longer than planned, than another round of thunderstorms rolled through pushing back a planned 3pm start time to 5pm. But regardless...there I was in the early evening ready to run.

Depending on your source, the loop around Kenoza Lake is somewhere between 4.2 and 5.1 miles. The sign at the park states the latter while I used Google Earth and came up with 4.2. Granted my margin for error was high because you can't see the trails on GE, and I wasn't really taking my time. But for ego's sake, I'm going to roll with the higher number...and I did three loops tonight. The best part is that as I was finishing up my third lap, I totally felt like I could rip off another one.

As I figured, the bad mood dissapated and now I'm just whupped. Going to cut this short though, as I'm meeting a buddy at 6am for a mountain bike ride up at Pawtuckaway State Park in So. NH. I've never ridden there, so I'm pumped to have some fun on the bike and check it out.

'night.

Daylight...she's a fadin'...

2008-08-14T17:32:00.001-07:00

I've been able to get on the trails yesterday and today. Apparently the dark skies on Tuesday morning were mostly from the storm we were getting. That being said, even though I was on trails the past two days, it was just light enough. Pretty soon it will be too dark at that time, storm or no storm, and morning's will become road runs.

So the big loop is listed at Winnekenni (the one I did twice on Sunday and plan on doing three times on Saturday) as being 5.1 miles long. If that's accurate than I should hit 15 miles on Saturday and if I come through feeling pretty good, than I'll be more than ready for next weekend's 10 miler in Nashua.

Work is nuts right now. Super, super busy and between that and early morning runs I'm a bit tired today. The good thing is that I've been running in the morning and adding in some evening workouts at the gym so this afternoon I was pretty spent. Day off from running tomorrow (will hit the gym in the evening) than run Saturday/bike Sunday. Good times!

I need to get more creative on this thing...but usually when I have time to make posts it's late and I'm whupped and I'm not feeling like being creative...but it's on my radar. Stay tuned.

And as the pictures may indicate...I'm very much looking forward to some snow!

Road Run!

2008-08-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

So it's come to this. This morning I got up to run and by the time I reached the trails it was too dark to run without lighting...so I did the unthinkable and did my entire run on the road.

Now, it was super cloudy and storm was moving in, so there's a chance that tomorrow morning if it's clear out I may be able to get in some trail time...but the writing on the wall is clear that if I want to keep running in the morning...I better map out some good road runs and/or get a good lighting system for running!

Today was also Lily's first day at her new school and it went great! She had a good time with all her new friends and her teachers were really impressive. I'm sure there will be an adjustment period, but overall we couldn't be happier about where she is going.

Off to the gym...

A chewed up puppy and a long(er) run

2008-08-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

Crazy day today. This morning while taking the dogs out, Porter was off leash and ran out to greet some folks who were walking there dogs on the sidewalk. Well, one of their pups, an older Golden Retriever, wasn't too psyched about Porter's enthusiastic greeting and gave him what for. Totally our fault for having Porter off leash and the Golden was on leash. Porter ended up with about a three inch laceration on the left side of his face and had to be taken in for a slew of stitches. Poor guy had to go under to get them and now his looking like he survived a bar fight. Some lessons are learned the hard way I guess...for him and us both.

After the Porter Incident (as it's come to be known), I took advantage of a beautiful afternoon to do my double of the 4.5 mile loop at Winnekenni park. I parked my car and left a water bottle on windshield so I could grab a sip on my way by. The run went great. I actually felt my best during the second lap so that was very encouraging and after an off-day tomorrow (from running, still planning on hitting the gym tomorrow night), I'm going to do my morning run Tue/Wed/Thurs with another possbile off day on Friday, then do a triple of the same loop on Saturday. That should push my towards half-marathon distance and get me ready for the 10 miler in two weeks.

Overall this was a great last week. I mixed it up a bit yesterday by going out on the Mtn. bike instead of running and it was super fun. The trails are really wet right now from all the rain we've been getting so I was pretty well coated in mud by the time I finished up. I definitely miss biking more, but I'm feeling great about my running and it fits into the schedule the best. The majority of my down time belongs to Lily so running fits in great and it's somewhat of a relief to not have to train for multiple sports. To focus on one is refreshing. I'm sure my ADD will kick in in a few months and I'll be itching to focus on the bike, but for now as long as I mix in a bike ride here or there, my running is still a lot of fun...which is the point.

Also this weekend we hit up an organic pick-your-own farm in Hamilton. The wet weather hasn't treated them very well and the only things they had for picking on your own were string beans and herbs. We indulged and picked a full bag, than bought the rest of our weekly produce at their farm stand which had tons of veggies that they had grown by organic means on the farm. Lily got to feed tomatoes to the farm's pigs, and we saw a ton of turkeys (sure to be gracing a table near you this November). Felt good to support a local farm with the major pay off being that the veggies we bought will taste awesome and fresh.

**Note: our camera died. Hence the lack of current photos recently. We'll be getting a new one in a few weeks, but wanted to call that out. I'll continue to post older pics just so my posts aren't so boring.**

Weekend and No OR

2008-08-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

The weekend is upon us and we don't have any firm plans...while I'm happy about that in one regard, another part of me hates not having a plan. I'm sure we'll end up doing something fun.

For the first time since Summer Market 2004 I'm missing Outdoor Retailer. OR is the bi-annual tradeshow in Salt Lake City where outdoor product manufacturers show off their new goods. I'm psyched to miss the rigamaroll that the show puts you through (set-up, late nights, long time away from family, break-down, more late nights, lots of booze) but I have a lot of friends that I made through the Outdoor Industry who I won't see now until perhaps next OR (if I go to that one). I have a feeling when I figure out what I'm doing this weekend and it includes mountain biking, trail running and/or hiking I'll be a lot happier to go outside and do those activities versus being stuck in the Salt Palace talking to people about doing those activities. But I'll still miss my pals.

Blueberries!

2008-08-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday to celebrate being back in New England after a week in Delaware, the family and I went up to Stoddard, NH, about 35 miles west of Concord, to pick wild blueberries on Pitcher Mountain.

The day started as a hike. The trail to the summit is a short half mile and graded gently over only 400 feet of gain so it was

the perfect trail for Lily to claim her first 'summit' on her own. H

owever, about 2/3 of the way up the dark skies that had been lingering around opened up on us. This being pe

rhaps the first time in years that I've been hiking without shells, we turned around and went down.

In the parking lot the shower had passed and we found that there was a dirt

road that went up the backside of the mountain to where the bulk of the blueberry fields lie. So we hopped in the Matrix and drove up.

We spent the next two hours picking, and ended up with about three quarts of ber

ries. These are the good wild berries. Super small, but super sweet.

Not like the cultivated jumbo blueberries you see at the store most of the year. Lily soon discovered the fun of eating them right off of the branch and we talked at length about how blue our poop was going

to be the next day.

That night we went home and Carli made Acadian Blueberry Grunt. So good. Wild blueberries are one of things I missed about New England so having them now is like a welcome home. Plus it means that apples and pumpkins are next...fall is on our doorstep.

Back on the Trail

2008-08-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

I'll post a blog about a great Sunday spent picking blueberries later as I have pictures, but they're on my other computer. Check out the picture to the left to get a feel.

Today however, dawned with me getting back on my local trails. I'm afraid that within a month my morning trail runs are either going to be first shortened significantly than go away altogether. It's definitely darker at 4:45 than it was a month ago. Now when I hit the first trail on the way to Winnekenni park it's getting tough to see in the woods whereas before it would be pretty bright at that time. By the time I'm in the woods of Winnekenni it's brighter, but every day is getting shorter and while on one hand I'm super pumped because I can't wait for a good New England autumn...I'm also bummed because it means that it's getting closer to the time I'm doing more road running than trail running. Ah, so it goes.

This morning it felt great to be back on the trail. I'm battling some pain in my left shin (I'm going to blame my two road runs at the beach last week rather than the more obvious slack off in training), but once I warmed up I felt great. Tomorrow will be a better gauge of how this will play out. I think I'll be good to go though. This weekend I'm planning on doing the 4.5 mile loop twice in order to up my miles a bit as I prepare for the 10 miler at the end of the month. I'm going to plant a water bottle by my car so I can refresh at the halfway point. Looking forward to stretching it out a bit and start doing some longer runs. Next weekend the intent is to do three laps.

Which brings me to something that has me nervous...no more GoLite footwear. Having worked for both sides of the GoLite brand (footwear and apparel/gear) I've been in constant supply of my favorite trail running shoes for over a year now. Say what you will (and many have) about the shoes, but I'm convinced that the technology in the outsoles take a lot of stress off of your body...and I'm on my last pair. I actually have a pair of the first season Sun Dragon's left, but the fit in those are subpar to the newer Versa Force that I'm currently running in. Thankfully the shoes appear that they will live on with a new home away from Timberland...but they won't be available for some time which means...I'm going to have to buy new shoes.

First of all, I haven't had to buy new shoes for a long time. One of the perks of my previous life, but that's not the problem. I'm going to have to be super picky about the brand that replaces GoLite for my feet. Based on prior experience I'm going to give the initial edge to Saucony, because I always liked their road shoes. But I'm going to shop long and hard and take a long time to make this decision.

Moving along...aside from the darkness in the morning, the weather today (and yesterday for that matter) was just stellar. The air is drying out and the temps were very nice. Getting to the point where I want to wear a shirt while running. As I mentioned I am very much looking forward to fall. Last year in CO, cold weather was pretty short lived. We had a few cool days in the fall, than some coldish weather around Christmas and after New Year's I really can't remember too many cold days. Many people would love this, and I have to admit it was nice to run in February in shorts and to bike on dirt trails in March was sweet, but I missed the harshness of winter a lot. Fall in New England is amazing and I'm really hoping for a good typical fall with foliage and snow in the high peaks followed by a cold snowy winter. All this means is that it will be warm and mild throughout and it will have been three years since a real winter for me, but oh well. The anticipation is great, and see the blueberries arrive means that the apples and pumpkins aren't far behind.

(Note: I tried to post a bunch of pictures that would relate to the content in this post, but for some reason I kept getting an error from Blogspot. Must be something going on with the site, so I'll add them in later.)

Seashore Strider YMCA 5 Mile Road Race - 14th Place

2008-07-30T11:17:00.001-07:00

"Back, back and we're glad he's back..."
-The Mighty Mighty BossTones

I'm back from a week at the Delaware Shore (I mean, Delaware) at a family reunion. The high point of the constant party that is the First State, was running a road race my first full day there. I found the Seashore Strider YMCA 5 miler online a couple of weeks before and the only one of my family who showed any interest was my Nephew-in-law Eric. When we showed up last weekend and he had already registered, I decided to run too. I hadn't registered prior to arriving because it was a road race and it was a 7:30 start time. But once I had a companion, I was in.

I wasn't expecting to do much at this race. The roadie crowd is different from the trail crowd, I mean it's entirely different sport and the turnout is always higher at a road race; so my plan was to use this as a workout. Which means I'm pretty pumped to report back that I finished 14th overall. I don't know my exact time and I don't know the amount of attendees, but I would conseratively estimate 300 runners. The person who finished ahead me told me that she was in around 32 or 33 minutes and I was less than a minute behind her, so I really couldn't be happier with my performance. However, I would really appreciate if they would post the results from the race, as promised, on the Seashore Striders website. It's been a week and they're still not up there. The only reason I know I was 14th is I saw the finisher board they were piecing together before I bailed for a day of beach and beer. RD's take note: part of putting on a race is finishing it with the results posted ASAP. Oh well, regardless, it was a good showing.

I don't think that I'm going to do the XTerra 12.5k next weekend. After the 5 miler I only ran one other time this week, so I don't feel very prepped. I'm sure I would do fine, but if I'm going to pay to race and after the 5 miler and the trail 10k two weeks ago, I'd rather save my money for something I've prepared for. So barring a change in heart my next race will the be the Moose on the Loose 10 miler in Nashua, NH at the end of the month. Details to come.

To celebrate returning to New England, I took the mountain bike out for a 1.5 hour ride today. So fun to be on the bike on these trails. They're much more technical than the trails we rode in the Front Range. More roots, rocks and mud...but less steep climbs and more rolly. Super, super fun to rip around through the tight turns of the forested Massachusetts trails. Next year...I am definitely doing an XTerra triathlon and at least one local AR.

On another note, at the beach I finally got to see The Dark Knight and it immediately found itself residing on my all time top movies list. Holy crap what a film. It was the perfect blend of thriller, drama, comedy (some small moments), comic-book-flick and action in one movie that I have yet to see. As a former comic book guy I'm pretty forgiving on the movies based on funny rags. But this flick stood on its own. You could loath comic books and comic book movies and you'd still dig this movie. Good times. Can't wait for the next one.

Winnekenni Downpours and New Trails

2008-07-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

So as the 2 people who may actually read this blog may have heard, there was some crazy weather here in New England the past few days. New Hampshire actually had a tornado touch down, not too far from where I used to live. Yesterday morning I was up and running at the crack of dawn and I lucked out to not get too wet.

My go-to place to run these days is Winnekenni Park and trails around Kenoza Lake. The trails are super fun and varied for the amount that are there. Everything from fire road to singletrack and some decent hills make for a good close to home destination. Yesterday morning I woke up with the intention of doing the long loop that I've been running there and instead woke up to some major thunderstorms passing through the area. I got up and checked out the weather channel to see that there was about to be a small break in the weather so I laced up my shoes and headed out.

It was super dark out but I managed to negotiate the trails pretty well given how wet everything was and the lack of light. I decided to forgo my plan of the long loop and try to find some singletrack that I had heard about on the south side of the lake. Well, I found it and it was fun! The trails lead all the way over to Lake Saltonstall on the southwest side of Kenoza lake and then opens up into a fire road that leads to more trails around this smaller lake. I've only had my mountain bike out once since coming back, but I'm super motivated to get out on the bike and do some serious exploring around these two lakes.

Anyway, by this time another thunderstorm was gearing up so I high-tailed it back towards Kenoza and ended up getting rained on for most of the way home. Ended up doing a roughly 50 minute run which I duplicated this morning in better conditions. Tomorrow we leave for DE, so I'm not sure how many updates I'll post...hopefully a few...and hopefully I find some trails. I'm not looking forward to road running, but so it goes. Cheers...

Long couple of days

2008-07-23T17:45:00.001-07:00

I'm whupped. Got up yesterday for a client meeting in Providence, RI. Got up at 4:50 to go running and left early to beat the traffic around the city, but didn't get up early enough. Spent all day calorie and water deprived (lunch was at some awful mexican place...not kidding when I say that Taco Bell would have been better) before getting in a good dinner in downtown Providence and headed home to arrive around 11pm. Skipped running this morning so I basically got up and went to work. Yeah, I'm whupped.

But motivated! I'm up early tomorrow for an hour long run. First run of any length or intensity since this past week, so I'm psyched to stretch out my legs. We leave Saturday for our DE beach vacation and will probably be road running most of the week so I'm going to build in some interval training and hopefully some good sand workouts.

Very psyched for vacation. I'm going to eat, run, sit by the pool, sit by the beach, play guitar, drink frosty cold beer than go to sleep, get up repeat. I'm going to have so much fun with my little Lily who has become obsessed with the water. Good times.

Sore Feet

2008-07-21T17:45:00.001-07:00

So, I don't think it was the terrain, but my feet are still sore today from the race on Saturday. Weird.

Anyway, I'm back at it tomorrow morning. It will be the kick off to a long day as I'm heading down to Providence for a client meeting that will last through dinner. But I elected to skip today so I have not choice but to do the 4:50am rise for a 40+ minute run before heading out to do battle with Boston area freeways.

As noted last night my next race will be in Hanover, NH on 8/9, the XTerra Stoaked 12.5k. I decided on this one over the 10.5 miler in Oxford, MA by the scientific method of telling my wife about both of them and seeing what she thought. She said that she had a hankering to check out Hanover so that was where her vote went. It actually makes the most sense since it's roughly three weeks away and slightly longer than the race I did this past weekend. From there I'll do the the Moose on the Loose 10 mile race in Nashua at the end of August. That seems to make sense.

Next week we're heading to the Delaware shore for a family reunion of sorts. I've found a state park nearby and I'm hoping it has some trails, otherwise it's on the road or the beach for me. It will be great to head down there and take a week off. I haven't had a vacation of any length in two years and last year my family did a reunion in New Hampshire but I had just moved to Colorado so I missed out. This isn't the best timed trip with work, but it was planned before I started my new job, so I'm not going to miss it and frankly, I'm pretty pumped!

The last trip I really took, was two years ago when I climbed Mt.'s Shasta and Rainier. Amazing, amazing ten days. I got the itch to do another "expedition" so I'm working on organizing a winter trip to Katahdin. I use the word expedition in quotes because by most standards, Shasta, Rainier and Katahdin wouldn't qualify as an expedition. But for my purposes they're about as close as I will ever, or even want to get. I have very little interest in climbing big mountains, and I've realized that most of the fun of those types of trips is planning them, the road trip to get there and the approach to the peak, much more than the actual summit. Heading out west to start on Shasta was just my buddy Gary and I. The flight out, the drive up to Shasta, the subsequent drive up to Rainier from No. California after climbing the mountain; that's where most of the memories from that trip were forged. On Rainier we had an amazing crew and the day and a half leading up to our summit attempt also resulted in some great memories. To this day and I'm sure for the rest of my life, I will be unable to talk about or with these folks without remembering back to the time we all climbed Rainier together.

I've found that I love to be in the mountains. I have a drive to climb them, but it's more for the outdoor experience with friends. Some climb big peaks because they are driven to do so. They wake up in the morning and if they aren't headed to the hills something gnaws at them until they do go. I get that feeling about different things and I'll take care of that part of my personality either trail running or mountain biking. The mountains were meant to be savored. They were meant to be visited with your pals and be climbed with no agenda, and plenty of long photo indulgent breaks. They were meant to build friendships. Cheers Team TBL OP '06.

Next Race

2008-07-20T19:17:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update that my next race will be the XTerra Stoaked 12.5k on Sat. 8/9. More details to come...

Run for the Hills Recap

2008-07-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Whew. It was sticky today.

I'm pretty please with my results (see post below) and this race was the perfect first race back in New England. The race was broken up into a 5k and 10k with 52 participants in each category. This is the first year this race has been held, so that's a pretty decent turn out. I actually just found out about the race this past Monday when I was trolling around on Trail Runner Magazine's website. The course was a classic New England rooty/rocky singletrack trail in the woods; a 3.1 mile loop. So the 5k racers did one loop while us 10k'ers did a double. The day was sticky from the get go. I went out to walk my dogs at 6:00 this morning and while it wasn't too hot yet, the air was thick. By the 9am start time the clouds had burned off and it was well into the upper 80's with soupy conditions. The heat doesn't bother me too much, but the humidity does make it harder to breathe deeply so that slowed me down a little.

The first lap was classic for me. I started off a bit too quick, which provided separation from the pack but I had to force myself into a steady pace rather than spend all my energy in the first loop of the run. It's easy to start worrying about who's around you and not letting other runners pass you and trying to chase down those in front of you. But in a race like this that's silly because you don't know who's doing the 5k v. the 10k so you could run down someone who's going super fast, and as you set out to start your second loop you realize that he/she has stopped because they're only doing the 5k! So mentally I tried to get into a rhythm and not think too much about who was around me.

I finished my first loop in 20:37, which was mainly a product of my quick start. I was happy with that because I knew that unless I bonked under the heat or I hurt myself I should definitely finish in under 50 minutes. I kept up my pace through the second loop. The most techy sections of the trail were mostly within mile 2, with lots of mud (it rained last night) rocks, roots a big blow down and some short uphills. I started notice the toll that the heat was taking on a few of the uphills when I didn't seem to have the seem pop in my legs that I had during the first loop. Between miles 2 and 3 I started to catch a few folks and I had to resist the urge to attack the remainder of the course. One other race and I stayed with each other until just before the mile 3 marker when I left what I had been saving on the trail and took off toward the finish where Carli and Lily were there waiting for me.

A few variables to consider: Although running is my strong suit, my last 3 months in Colorado I pretty much exclusively mountain biked. I was at my peak for running last fall, but then through a bad winter cold/flu season I backed off, had to miss an adventure race in April due to a lingering chest problem, than the last event in CO before moving back east was the aforementioned 24 Hours of Erock mountain bike race so I pretty much stopped running altogether and focused on the bike. After that I didn't do much of anyting for a couple of weeks to deal with the actual move and than once we got here at the end of June, I started trail running again. So, basically what that long-winded diatribe was meant to spell out is that I'm still finding my running legs a bit. With that in mind and with how I performed during the first loop I'm feeling that I can definitely run a sub-40 minute 10k. Time to start working on some hills and getting some speed work in.

I'm encouraged with how I ran today and starting to look towards the next race, either 10.5 miler in Oxford, MA or an 12.5k in Hanover, NH. The 12.5k is put on by Xterra (there's an Xterra triathlon the same day) so the competition will be much more intense, so the 10.5 miler may be a better option, but we'll see. Either way, I'm psyched to be back on track and racing. Today was a lot fun and I can't wait to get back out there!

-ct

Results

2008-07-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

Run for the Hills, Greenbelt Trail Run 10k
Overall: 11th out of 52
Category: 5th out of 13
Official Time: 46:07

Race recap with pictures will be posted later...

My pain box

2008-07-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of what my pain box looks like. Or at least that's how I picture it looks like. Jen Seggar (http://challenge-by-choice.blogspot.com) once told me before a race in Tennessee that she was dealing with plantar fasciitis. I asked her how the hell she made it through long races. She told me that she just puts it all in her pain box and she doesn't think about until the race is over.

After doing these kinds of events a few times...I realized that it's not a bad purchase...so I went out and got my own pain box.

I'm not as good as keeping mine shut as Jen. I feel like I have everything squared away and the the mental demons start to creep in, telling me to stop, that I'm not fit enough, that I'm going to hyperventilate...and every once in a while one of them picks the lock to the pain box and everything starts to hurt...and I start to think that I should listen to the voices telling me to stop. But invariably I force them to the back of my mind, re-lock the box and continue on. That's the hardest part of racing for me and I would be lying if I said that I had control over them yet.

My last race in Colorado was a 24 Hour Mtn. biking affair, and by the afternoon of the second day one of those classic Colorado gusts was blowing across at a steady 35 mph. Of course the first leg of the course was directly into the wind. I was tired, not quite as fit as I wanted to be, and the idea of stopping started to become a little too tempting. I had wrecked hard on my first lap and though I had fought through some light injuries, they were beginning to take their toll. Eventually my times got to the point where it was agreed that I should be skipped for the last lap. I'm happy I didn't quit...but I wonder if I had better control over the mental side of things if I wouldn't have muscled through a little harder. Hard to say, I think I went hard for what I had, but I come from a long line of second-guessers, so the only way to know for sure is to keep trying to get better.

(Aside: The good news is that we finished second in that race. The winners were a crew of pure mountain bikers and our team was comprised entirely of adventure racers. The finish was great for us since we typically compete in events that are made up of multiple disciplines, so to finish second, and only by minutes at that against a team that is dedicated to their sport...let's just say it gave us the warm fuzzies.)

Tomorrow I run. I tweaked my foot and ankle this week, but I intend to put those injuries in my pain box and run hard. I'm using tomorrow as measuring stick of where I need to get to in order to be competitive with the local trail runners here

in New England...but I'm also trying to notch a victory over my own head. Tomorrow my pain box will look like this, and I'll let you know if stayed this way:

Welcome home and my first race back

2008-07-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! I'm a 32 year old endurance athlete who is married with one kid. I just recently moved back to New England after a year spent in Boulder, Colorado and before I went west, I was into outdoor sports, but after my time out there, short as it was, I came back with a renewed vigor to try and be competitive in the sports of trail running, mountain biking and adventure racing.

Being a father with a full time job, I have to pick and choose which events I'm going to participate in so that I'm being a good Dad, and not shirking job responsibilites. It's a challenge that most racers in their 30's go up against and it usually results in early mornings and late nights out running and riding. Since moving back, I've been focusing almost solely on trail running. Running is the easiest activity to work into a busy schedule. Get up early and go, or go out later after everyone has gone to bed. So until we figure out our exact weekly schedule, and where I can fit in riding, I figured I'd focus mostly on trail running. So, I'm entering my first trail running race this Saturday. The Essex Greenbelt Trail run in Hamilton, MA. I'll post results later this weekend.

I'm not really sure what to expect. Based on how I was running in Boulder, I know I can hold my own and of all the sports I do, I'm probably best at running. But I've never focused on one sport before, and I'll be going up against people who have been running for a very long time. So this race is to be used as a measuring stick to see what I need to do to become competitive with the local trail folks. The weather isn't going to be a huge help...forecast is for high's in the 90's and very humid...I hate the heat.

Seriously, I hate the heat. I feel that when it's cold, it's easier to get warm. Just go run around the house a few times and you'll warm up. But when you're really hot...it's not always as easy to cool off. When running or biking, it's hard because the humidity doesn't let your sweat evaporate so you don't get the cooling effect that your body is going for, so you have to be really careful. With that in mind, Saturday's results should be interesting. I have to think that most folks will be going slower than usual. Oh well, so it goes...I'm just looking to see what the local trail scene is all about and how I can improve so that I'm competitive.

I'm hoping to update here frequently...so please come back and see what I've been up to.

-ct