Anybody know the song "Birth School Work Death" by the Godfathers?
Well, my vacation is over (which category does a vacation fall into anyway?), so I'm back to the Work mode. Better than Death, I suppose.
After a lot of eating and drinking in CA, I'm back to trying to pay more attention to my exercise and my nutrition. Tomorrow, I'm part of a six-person relay team running 100 miles on the roads here in VT. Each runner does three legs, and mine vary from 4.0 miles to 7.0. This will be my third time doing the 100 on 100 relay, and it's always been fun. But, I've been more fit the two previous times, so we'll see how this one leaves me feeling.
Starting Monday morning, some of my workout schedules will be changing. Students are back in college here in VT, and I use a gym in a college for my lifting. This means early morning lifting to avoid the peak crowds in the evening.
When I've been at my highest fitness levels, I've been exercising in the mornings. When I exercise in the morning, it means I'm not staying up late the night before, doing things I shouldn't be doing. With the days getting shorter and work days seeming to go on pretty long these days, getting back to morning workouts seems to be the way to go. In reality, I want to try to work out in the morning every day, not just lifting days, but I seem to have given that up about 16 months ago and I haven't gotten back to what's worked in the past. So, it's time.
Let's see if I'm still saying that by the end of September. Or next week.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Vacation
Today is the last day of my vacation. I have managed to run a few times, but mostly I've just relaxed and enjoyed great food and wine with many friends. The list of amazing wines that I've had over the past two weeks would put many restaurant wine lists to shame. I have only eaten two dinners in restaurants and everything else has been at the homes of friends.
Tonight, I catch a red-eye from SFO and by tomorrow afternoon I'll be back home in Vermont. After all of the heat in CA, it will be nice to be home for cooler temps in VT.
This coming weekend, my wife and I are running on a 100 mile relay team (6 runners), which should be a lot of fun. After that race, we only have six or so weeks until the Maine Track Club 50K, which will be my wife's first ever ultra. It will also hopefully be the race where I extend a 25 year streak of running at least one marathon or ultra (usually way more than one) per year. If I don't finish that race, the streak might end this year.
Tonight, I catch a red-eye from SFO and by tomorrow afternoon I'll be back home in Vermont. After all of the heat in CA, it will be nice to be home for cooler temps in VT.
This coming weekend, my wife and I are running on a 100 mile relay team (6 runners), which should be a lot of fun. After that race, we only have six or so weeks until the Maine Track Club 50K, which will be my wife's first ever ultra. It will also hopefully be the race where I extend a 25 year streak of running at least one marathon or ultra (usually way more than one) per year. If I don't finish that race, the streak might end this year.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Great weekend
After the race on Friday night, despite how slow I was, I decided to give the legs some rest on Friday. I did an upper body lifting workout on Friday night and then headed home to do some cooking and cleaning.
On Saturday, we headed to my in-laws' camp in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. I was planning to cook a nice dinner for everyone and open some nice wines. During the afternoon, we visited Vermont's newest brewery - Hill Farmstead. They are making some really amazing beers right now and I'm planning that the next beer I have on tap at home will be from this brewery. We tasted a few beers and then purchased a growler of the Everett Porter to go.
After that, I spent the rest of the day cooking and serving a nice meal. We has some sparkling wines, a 1986 Bordeaux (Meyney), 1993 Forman Reserve Cabernet from magnum, and then 1988 Chateau Riussec for dessert. All of the wines were very good and the dinner turned out pretty well too.
After sleeping in on Sunday, my son and I went out for a lap around Lake Parker in our canoe, and then we spent a few hours fly fishing together. But, the weekend was drawing to a close, so after an early dinner, we had to head home.
Tonight, I have a lot of packing to do as I prepare to leave on vacation for a couple weeks. I feel bad taking a trip without my family, but our plans for the summer didn't go quite the way we'd hoped, and by the time some other plans fell apart, I had a plane ticket. So, I'm heading to CA to visit friends for a couple weeks while my wife holds down the fort at home. I feel guilty about going without my family, but I certainly need a vacation right now. And, my wife agrees with that sentiment. I've been working hard and despite repeated offers to stay home for my vacation, she has pretty much insisted that I take the trip I've planned.
Depending on the weather after work (potential thunderstorms), I'll either run tonight and lift tomorrow, or vice versa.
On Saturday, we headed to my in-laws' camp in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. I was planning to cook a nice dinner for everyone and open some nice wines. During the afternoon, we visited Vermont's newest brewery - Hill Farmstead. They are making some really amazing beers right now and I'm planning that the next beer I have on tap at home will be from this brewery. We tasted a few beers and then purchased a growler of the Everett Porter to go.
After that, I spent the rest of the day cooking and serving a nice meal. We has some sparkling wines, a 1986 Bordeaux (Meyney), 1993 Forman Reserve Cabernet from magnum, and then 1988 Chateau Riussec for dessert. All of the wines were very good and the dinner turned out pretty well too.
After sleeping in on Sunday, my son and I went out for a lap around Lake Parker in our canoe, and then we spent a few hours fly fishing together. But, the weekend was drawing to a close, so after an early dinner, we had to head home.
Tonight, I have a lot of packing to do as I prepare to leave on vacation for a couple weeks. I feel bad taking a trip without my family, but our plans for the summer didn't go quite the way we'd hoped, and by the time some other plans fell apart, I had a plane ticket. So, I'm heading to CA to visit friends for a couple weeks while my wife holds down the fort at home. I feel guilty about going without my family, but I certainly need a vacation right now. And, my wife agrees with that sentiment. I've been working hard and despite repeated offers to stay home for my vacation, she has pretty much insisted that I take the trip I've planned.
Depending on the weather after work (potential thunderstorms), I'll either run tonight and lift tomorrow, or vice versa.
Friday, August 6, 2010
"Race" report
Berlin Pond 5 miler:
2005: 39:29 a few weeks after a 93 mile DNF at Western States
2008: 36:29 while training for a marathon, shortly after Western States was cancelled due to fires
2010: 52:43!
No, that is not a typo. I'm just in horrible running shape right now. Compared to 2008, I'm fatter, my injury status is worse, my mileage is lower, and oh yeah, it was hot and humid last night. And, I'd done a 5 hour hike/run the previous Saturday.
But, this was a new low for me.
So far, I've only raced twice this year. One was a DNF (timed out) and the other was the slowest time I've ever done for a particular distance.
This weekend, I'm planning some running, hiking and lifting and maybe some fly fishing. I'd rather just lay on my couch and drink beer, but that's not going to improve my race times.
2005: 39:29 a few weeks after a 93 mile DNF at Western States
2008: 36:29 while training for a marathon, shortly after Western States was cancelled due to fires
2010: 52:43!
No, that is not a typo. I'm just in horrible running shape right now. Compared to 2008, I'm fatter, my injury status is worse, my mileage is lower, and oh yeah, it was hot and humid last night. And, I'd done a 5 hour hike/run the previous Saturday.
But, this was a new low for me.
So far, I've only raced twice this year. One was a DNF (timed out) and the other was the slowest time I've ever done for a particular distance.
This weekend, I'm planning some running, hiking and lifting and maybe some fly fishing. I'd rather just lay on my couch and drink beer, but that's not going to improve my race times.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
More than a week this time
Not only am I posting less frequently than in the past, but many of the blogs that I read seem be suffering the same fate. And, almost all of those blogs are written by people who are also Facebook friends. So, I'm left wondering if things like Twitter and Facebook are killing blogs. Do we have such a short attention span that it makes more sense to use other "micro-blogging" or social networking apps to keep up with people and let others know what we are doing?
Perhaps people don't even read blogs anymore (other than me) and I'm simply writing down what I'm thinking, and no one will even notice - trees falling in the woods kind of stuff. Or maybe, we all got tired of writing. Maybe blogging has a lifespan - getting started and being excited, with most people eventually finding themselves bored by the whole exercise.
Just wondering...
Anyway, back to life. My training has been sporadic, with one notable exception, but I've been busy with things beyond training.
My well seems to be dying. At least, it's got problems. The color of the water from our well has ranged from cloudy to looking like something spewing from a BP well. After problems earlier this summer with my oven, both of my lawn mowers, my lawn trimmer, a chip in my windshield yesterday, the last thing I need is a huge bill for fixing my well, but it seems imminent anyway. So it goes. (Unlike Vonnegut, I'm not using that phrase to indicate the death of a character. I hope.)
The new roof that I planned to put on this summer seems to have been preempted by emergency fixes. I hope the roof can make it one more year and that our deck lasts two more years.
Last week, I took my children and one of my daughter's friends to PA for a few days. We spent a day at Hershey Park, a place I've been visiting for at least 40 years. I take our children there almost every year now. Regretfully, my daughter's friend didn't feel well, so she didn't have a lot of fun at the park. I promised her a repeat trip for next year. I got to spend some time with my uncle as well, which was nice. I saw my brother and niece. And, I even ran (part of) an ultra.
Earlier this year, my friend Deborah told me she was planning a vacation on the east coast around this time of year, and suggested we do an ultra together. After going through calendars, we settled on the Catoctin 50K in MD on 7/31. But, as the season progressed, my motivation was low, my injury issues continued, and I simply didn't train enough. The course is an out and back with a 4:15 cut-off at the turnaround. The cut-off isn't strictly enforced, partly because the race is closer to 33 miles than 31, but I doubted I could do that much distance in 4:15 at my current level of conditioning. But, I'd signed up and I wanted to spend some time catching up with Deborah.
The weather was perfect, and after a few equipment problems (leaky bladder in my hydration pack, forgotten clothing), we were off. We were instantly near the back of the pack, waiting for a logjam to clear at some stairs. The course was more down than up on the way out, but I found myself struggling to make good time on some of the downhill sections.
The terrain reminded me very much of the terrain where I grew up in PA and the terrain on the Appalachian Trail in southern PA. This shouldn't be surprising, given how close we were to those locations. But, the type of terrain was familiar to me and it felt like I should have been moving faster.
A few miles into the race, I lost my footing while crossing a stream and went down hard. I still have bruises, but no real damage was done.
About mile 6, my Forerunner showed that we weren't moving close to fast enough to make it to the turnaround in time. I tried to get Deborah to go on without me, but she said we'd just do it together and take what we got. And then, she started to get mean! Instead of leading, she dropped behind me and kept telling me when to run. Around the 9 mile mark, I took another fall when I tripped on something.
By the aid station at mile 9.5 or so, it was clear we'd never make the turnaround. But, Deborah kept pushing and I kept trying to run. All spring, I'd been telling her I was fat and out of shape, but she didn't believe me until last Saturday. She believes me now.
We kept moving, hoping that maybe the cut-off at the turnaround was very liberal. But, about a mile from the turnaround, we encountered the sweep runners heading the other way. That guaranteed that we would be done at the turnaround.
The sweeps going our direction ran the last half mile or so with us and suddenly we were done - 16.3 miles in 4:58 according to my Forerunner - just over 18 minutes per mile, when we'd needed to average closer to 15 minutes per mile to make the cut-off.
Deborah barely got in a good workout, but the truth is that I got worked by the trail. Four days later, I'm still sore.
The day after the race, we drove home. Monday night my wife and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary with some nice Champagne. This weekend, I'm going to cook a nice dinner for my wife and her family at her family's camp in northeastern VT as a second anniversary celebration.
And then, next week, I'm going to abandon my family for two weeks while I take a much needed vacation trip to California. I'm going to visit with old friends, drink some nice wines, eat some good food, relax as much as I can, and do some hiking and running.
At the end of this month, I'm on a six-person relay team for Vermont's 100 on 100 race, so I need to do some training to get ready for that one.
Perhaps people don't even read blogs anymore (other than me) and I'm simply writing down what I'm thinking, and no one will even notice - trees falling in the woods kind of stuff. Or maybe, we all got tired of writing. Maybe blogging has a lifespan - getting started and being excited, with most people eventually finding themselves bored by the whole exercise.
Just wondering...
Anyway, back to life. My training has been sporadic, with one notable exception, but I've been busy with things beyond training.
My well seems to be dying. At least, it's got problems. The color of the water from our well has ranged from cloudy to looking like something spewing from a BP well. After problems earlier this summer with my oven, both of my lawn mowers, my lawn trimmer, a chip in my windshield yesterday, the last thing I need is a huge bill for fixing my well, but it seems imminent anyway. So it goes. (Unlike Vonnegut, I'm not using that phrase to indicate the death of a character. I hope.)
The new roof that I planned to put on this summer seems to have been preempted by emergency fixes. I hope the roof can make it one more year and that our deck lasts two more years.
Last week, I took my children and one of my daughter's friends to PA for a few days. We spent a day at Hershey Park, a place I've been visiting for at least 40 years. I take our children there almost every year now. Regretfully, my daughter's friend didn't feel well, so she didn't have a lot of fun at the park. I promised her a repeat trip for next year. I got to spend some time with my uncle as well, which was nice. I saw my brother and niece. And, I even ran (part of) an ultra.
Earlier this year, my friend Deborah told me she was planning a vacation on the east coast around this time of year, and suggested we do an ultra together. After going through calendars, we settled on the Catoctin 50K in MD on 7/31. But, as the season progressed, my motivation was low, my injury issues continued, and I simply didn't train enough. The course is an out and back with a 4:15 cut-off at the turnaround. The cut-off isn't strictly enforced, partly because the race is closer to 33 miles than 31, but I doubted I could do that much distance in 4:15 at my current level of conditioning. But, I'd signed up and I wanted to spend some time catching up with Deborah.
The weather was perfect, and after a few equipment problems (leaky bladder in my hydration pack, forgotten clothing), we were off. We were instantly near the back of the pack, waiting for a logjam to clear at some stairs. The course was more down than up on the way out, but I found myself struggling to make good time on some of the downhill sections.
The terrain reminded me very much of the terrain where I grew up in PA and the terrain on the Appalachian Trail in southern PA. This shouldn't be surprising, given how close we were to those locations. But, the type of terrain was familiar to me and it felt like I should have been moving faster.
A few miles into the race, I lost my footing while crossing a stream and went down hard. I still have bruises, but no real damage was done.
About mile 6, my Forerunner showed that we weren't moving close to fast enough to make it to the turnaround in time. I tried to get Deborah to go on without me, but she said we'd just do it together and take what we got. And then, she started to get mean! Instead of leading, she dropped behind me and kept telling me when to run. Around the 9 mile mark, I took another fall when I tripped on something.
By the aid station at mile 9.5 or so, it was clear we'd never make the turnaround. But, Deborah kept pushing and I kept trying to run. All spring, I'd been telling her I was fat and out of shape, but she didn't believe me until last Saturday. She believes me now.
We kept moving, hoping that maybe the cut-off at the turnaround was very liberal. But, about a mile from the turnaround, we encountered the sweep runners heading the other way. That guaranteed that we would be done at the turnaround.
The sweeps going our direction ran the last half mile or so with us and suddenly we were done - 16.3 miles in 4:58 according to my Forerunner - just over 18 minutes per mile, when we'd needed to average closer to 15 minutes per mile to make the cut-off.
Deborah barely got in a good workout, but the truth is that I got worked by the trail. Four days later, I'm still sore.
The day after the race, we drove home. Monday night my wife and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary with some nice Champagne. This weekend, I'm going to cook a nice dinner for my wife and her family at her family's camp in northeastern VT as a second anniversary celebration.
And then, next week, I'm going to abandon my family for two weeks while I take a much needed vacation trip to California. I'm going to visit with old friends, drink some nice wines, eat some good food, relax as much as I can, and do some hiking and running.
At the end of this month, I'm on a six-person relay team for Vermont's 100 on 100 race, so I need to do some training to get ready for that one.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Plagiarizing myself?
I wrote this to some friends on a running list about my weekend at the Vermont 100. I guess I'm too lazy to write anything more about the race:
"I went down to the race late on Friday, mostly to say hi to friends. In past years, I've worked at the race all day Friday, but I needed to work at my job this year. So, I got there about the time of the pre-race meeting, saw a bunch of friends, confirmed my pacing duties and work assignments for Saturday, and had a couple beers with friends.
On Saturday morning, my wife and I had no work assignments before noon, so we slept in a bit, dropped the dogs at the kennel, and drove to the race. We went to a major aid station at 30 miles to watch the runners come through. I had decided to pace a 60+ friend (they can have pacers the entire way) from about mile 38 to 47. The aid station at 47 is also used at mile 70, and it's the busiest aid station in the race. My wife and I were scheduled to work all day at this station.
My wife arrived at the station around 1:00 and I showed up with my runner about 3:00. He was hurting and I was guessing that his 12th finish was in jeopardy, with the heat and humidity being a major factor. I'm amazed at some really good runners who either quit or had terrible performances on this day. I didn't run a long way, but I ran in some of the worst heat of the day and didn't find it that terrible. But, perhaps it was because I didn't go that far that I had no issues with the heat.
Anyway, we worked through the afternoon and my wife's runner came through mile 47 near the back of the pack, but well under cut-offs. I found out later that the friend I'd paced to 47 quit at 55 - too much heat and perhaps too little training. We saw some really good runners struggling, especially as they got to the 70 mile mark. I heard later that there were quite a few ambulance rides and IVs during the day. Around midnight, only a few runners remained on the course and my wife's runner finally showed up. This is an hour before the station closes, but you really need to be through that station by midnight.
I followed them as crew for the rest of the night. By the next crew station at 77, they were near the back of the pack, but doing OK on cut-offs. At mile 88.5, only two runners remained behind them, and they were within 15 minutes of the cutoff. Of the two runners behind them, one was pulled and one missed the cut-off, putting my wife and Mary in last place. Also, you really want to be at least 30 minutes ahead of cut-offs at this station, not 15. I gave my wife's runner a quick warning when she wanted to sit for a while. I sent her down the trail while my wife was using the facilities - no time to waste. I honestly thought they were done. But, it turned out that the sunrise brought Mary back to life and they started hammering. They got to mile 95 ten minutes ahead of the cut-off, and that allowed them to walk 20 minute miles to the finish. But, Mary was still strong, and she ended up dropping my wife in the last mile and passing another runner for a next-to-last place finish in 29:43.
It was one of the best paced ultras I've seen anyone do. My wife was amazed at how hard the nighttime running and trail running were, but she stuck it out. She's still sore but very happy and planning to enter a 50K later this year.
All in all, it was a fun weekend. It's my "home" race and so many friends show up that I have to be there, even if I'm not running at all.
My first real test of the season comes on 7/31 at a very technical Catoctin 50K course in MD. I think the chances of finishing are low, but I'll give it my best."
Since the weekend, I've lifted once and run once. I was very surprised when my wife ran with me last night. She was feeling pretty good after the 30 miles on Saturday/Sunday and she was running pretty well.
Tonight, we are supposed to get some serious storms, so I think I'll plan on lifting again.
"I went down to the race late on Friday, mostly to say hi to friends. In past years, I've worked at the race all day Friday, but I needed to work at my job this year. So, I got there about the time of the pre-race meeting, saw a bunch of friends, confirmed my pacing duties and work assignments for Saturday, and had a couple beers with friends.
On Saturday morning, my wife and I had no work assignments before noon, so we slept in a bit, dropped the dogs at the kennel, and drove to the race. We went to a major aid station at 30 miles to watch the runners come through. I had decided to pace a 60+ friend (they can have pacers the entire way) from about mile 38 to 47. The aid station at 47 is also used at mile 70, and it's the busiest aid station in the race. My wife and I were scheduled to work all day at this station.
My wife arrived at the station around 1:00 and I showed up with my runner about 3:00. He was hurting and I was guessing that his 12th finish was in jeopardy, with the heat and humidity being a major factor. I'm amazed at some really good runners who either quit or had terrible performances on this day. I didn't run a long way, but I ran in some of the worst heat of the day and didn't find it that terrible. But, perhaps it was because I didn't go that far that I had no issues with the heat.
Anyway, we worked through the afternoon and my wife's runner came through mile 47 near the back of the pack, but well under cut-offs. I found out later that the friend I'd paced to 47 quit at 55 - too much heat and perhaps too little training. We saw some really good runners struggling, especially as they got to the 70 mile mark. I heard later that there were quite a few ambulance rides and IVs during the day. Around midnight, only a few runners remained on the course and my wife's runner finally showed up. This is an hour before the station closes, but you really need to be through that station by midnight.
I followed them as crew for the rest of the night. By the next crew station at 77, they were near the back of the pack, but doing OK on cut-offs. At mile 88.5, only two runners remained behind them, and they were within 15 minutes of the cutoff. Of the two runners behind them, one was pulled and one missed the cut-off, putting my wife and Mary in last place. Also, you really want to be at least 30 minutes ahead of cut-offs at this station, not 15. I gave my wife's runner a quick warning when she wanted to sit for a while. I sent her down the trail while my wife was using the facilities - no time to waste. I honestly thought they were done. But, it turned out that the sunrise brought Mary back to life and they started hammering. They got to mile 95 ten minutes ahead of the cut-off, and that allowed them to walk 20 minute miles to the finish. But, Mary was still strong, and she ended up dropping my wife in the last mile and passing another runner for a next-to-last place finish in 29:43.
It was one of the best paced ultras I've seen anyone do. My wife was amazed at how hard the nighttime running and trail running were, but she stuck it out. She's still sore but very happy and planning to enter a 50K later this year.
All in all, it was a fun weekend. It's my "home" race and so many friends show up that I have to be there, even if I'm not running at all.
My first real test of the season comes on 7/31 at a very technical Catoctin 50K course in MD. I think the chances of finishing are low, but I'll give it my best."
Since the weekend, I've lifted once and run once. I was very surprised when my wife ran with me last night. She was feeling pretty good after the 30 miles on Saturday/Sunday and she was running pretty well.
Tonight, we are supposed to get some serious storms, so I think I'll plan on lifting again.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Another two weeks gone by
Perhaps when I was writing something here every day, it was overkill. But, being too busy to post more than a couple times a month doesn't seem right either, unless no one reads what I write.
Let's see, right after my last post, my mom went into the hospital and things didn't sound very good. So, we abandoned our family plans for the 4th of July weekend and headed to PA to visit my mom and see other family. Luckily, my mom recovered very quickly and by the end of the weekend, she was ready to be discharged from the hospital.
I got to spend some time with my sister and uncle, who I don't see often enough. My wife and I did a few runs in brutal heat, but we got out there.
I got in a few good weightlifting workouts over the past two weeks.
While running, my left knee continue to bother me. I had a chiropractor appointment on 7/2, and the chiropractor, who works with some other docs in a sports med clinic, referred me to the orthopedist to figure out my knee.
Then, my lawn mowers died. Well, one was already on life support and my son killed the other one. For about three grand, I got a nice new John Deere hat, but it came with a free lawn tractor. I'm still not sure if I won or lost that one. That was a nasty hit on top of having to replace the kitchen stove earlier this summer.
Then last Friday, our drinking water (from a well) started to get cloudy. We deemed it undrinkable, but didn't really panic until the water turned dark gray on Sunday. Last night, I flushed our basement water tank and turned off the water. Tonight, I'll turn things back on and see if there is any improvement, but I'm not counting on that. If we need a major repair to our well or pipes, it could cost more than a stove and tractor combined.
Well, at least I have health insurance. I went to the orthopedist this morning. He was grossed out by the noises my knee was making. He took lots of X-rays. Those didn't look too bad, although he saw a couple bone spurs that might be causing the clicking. He said it also looked like I had grade 1 (mildest form) of osteoarthritis in my left knee. Given my larger-than-the-average-runner size and the number of miles and races I've done in the past 25 years, plus an ACL replacement, he thought the knee was in pretty good shape. But, he was also sympathetic to the issues I was having. He then used an ultrasound to look at the meniscus as much as possible. He didn't see any glaring issues there. So, he suggested Synvisc, but told me I could wait a while and think it over. He also told me I could get it done in three sessions or one "big" session. I thought it over for a few minutes, and I guess the ultrarunner in me came out. I went for the do it now, do it big option. The single injection cost $750, so my visit to the doc today had to cost in excess of $1000. The injection itself was uncomfortable, but I got through it OK. Now, I have to rest the leg completely for two days and then ease back into running.
Oh yeah, work is interesting with the addition of a new CEO to our small company this week.
This weekend, I'm planning to volunteer and hopefully pace at the Vermont 100 mile run.
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