Looking back - October 1986

 40 Years ago (October 1986) I only raced twice in my final season of cross-country at U-Lowell. I picked up my first win of the season at the URI invitational. Our squad was very strong, losing only to D1 powerhouse Providence College (23-37). I took the lead at 3.5 miles, crossing the line in 24:36 for the 8km course. Two weeks later I picked up another win in a tri-meet versus Northeastern and U-mass over 5.2 miles at Franklin Park (25:44).

Looking back - October 1981

 45 years ago (October 1981) I raced four times in my final cross-country season at Billerica High (BMHS). I started the month a home victory running 14:52 as we beat Tewksbury 21-37. The following week I “took it easy” running 15:50 to win at Dracut where I missed the course record by 1 second – so I was told after the race. I didn’t really care as we won 18-37 and I wanted to save something for the Catholic Memorial meet four days later. At the CM I had my worst finish of the season (including the state meet) finishing in fourth place in 14:22 over the 2.85 mile course. Steve Perkins (Danvers) led the way running 14:03, followed by Chris Gorman (S. Weymouth), and Dan Foley (St Johns), not a bad group to finish behind! The next weekend I took 2^nd place 12 seconds behind Steve Perkins at the Northern Area Championships in Topsfield. I ran 15:22 over the 3 mile course and noted it was “rainy & muddy”, Cross-Country as it should be.

Week Ending 10/04/26

 Week Ending 10/04/26 - Started my two weeks of limited running (just 3 miles at lunch). Hoping that'll get me over the hump and on the road to recovery. So, 27 miles for the week but also got in Bike 236.2 miles in 13:16 and Go 38.5 miles in 2:45 (a total of 16 hours).

The outside biking was the best part of the week.

 

Week – 27

Month (Oct) – 15

Year – 3,108

Life – 170,108

Knee update

 The visit with my ortho went well. The biggest takeaways:

 

Bad

• Grade 2 MCL strain/tear – 4-6 weeks to fully heal
• Stress reaction (micro fracture) – 4-6 weeks to fully heal

 

Not so bad

• “It doesn’t look as bad as I was expecting considering your history”
• Two weeks of single run (3-4 miles) with as much bike and ElliptiGO as I want, then reassess

This week I also got some work done on my foot and ankle. I've been dealing with arthritis in the ankle joint and in the talar/navicular joint. It took quite a while to get in for a ultrasound guided injection in both joints. On Wednesday I got the injections and I'm hoping it puts a dent in the ongoing pain. I'm also hopeful that not favoring my foot will help with my knee.

Can't stop me from hoping!

Biking in Sept

 It is never a good sign when I’ve been biking a lot, typically that indicates an injury. September was one of those months. I ended up with 500.2 miles on the bike over 30.75 hours. Most of that was in the final 2 weeks of the month as I eased back on the running and built up the biking. It looks like October will also be a biking month as I’m slated to take at least 2 weeks with just one short (3 or 4 miles) run a day. I’ll try to get in at least 2 hours a day on the bike during that time. Hopefully after that I’ll be able to ease off the bike and slowly ramp up the running. Time will tell.

This is my "old" bike. I still try to get out there on it at least once a year. 1997 Bianci Strada

September

 Not the month I was hoping for. The most double run days, but the least triple days this year. Low running miles but also put in about 500 miles on the bike.

US Snowshoe Nationals

 It has been quite a while since I have run the US snowshoe nationals. With the championship being held in NH in 2027 and with the Raffio's putting the race on, I could not miss it.

I've raced a bunch of times at Canterbury Shaker Village including snowshoe racing, so this will be close to a "home course".

Info and entry.

2027 US snowshoe page