I’ve missed over 2,000 days of running since December of 1978 (over 15,000 possible days to run, so on average about once a week). The breakdown by day is below. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern, I get hurt at all times of the year! March has the least amount of days off and November has the most and is exactly twice as many as March.
Back to running! After nearly four weeks off (at least from running), I got a reprieve and started back. I tested things out with a 2 mile run on the treadmill at Pinnacle PT. Nothing fell off so I moved forward with a couple of four mile runs over the weekend. So far, so good. The knee is sore but not terrible. My hamstrings and quads are probably more sore than the knee and that is "normal" for me when starting back...perhaps due to the hours on the ElliptiGo and bike.
Week - 10 miles running
ElliptiGo - 11 hours, 176 miles
Spin bike - 4.5 hours, 91.8 miles
Giant touring bike - 2 hours, 23.8 miles
Walking (averaged under 15 minute pace) 15 miles
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| Picked up my $$$ for the CARS from Tom & Ellen Raffio |
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| Sad day, but a really fantastic memorial service |
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| The first Dunkin Pumpkin Latte of the season! |
40 years ago (August 1984): I spent this summer getting ready for my Junior year of XC at U-Lowell. I logged 312 miles during this month (with 2 days off) and a couple of road races. On 08/05/84 I ran the Jim Witt 5m (put on by a local car dealership). I ran a sub-25 (24:53) but that was only good enough for 2nd place in the field of 423. No complaints from me as the winner was Charlie Spedding. Spedding was in town putting the finishing touches on his training before the summer Olympics. One week later he took home the bronze. On 08/19 I ran the Agawam Twilight 8k. The field was stacked (as always) and I could only manage a 20th place in the field of 700. Again, I couldn’t complain as I ran under 24 minutes (23:56).
35 years ago (August 1989): I logged a respectable 435 miles (average 100 per week) for this month and raced four times. First up was the Salem (NH) 10 mile trail race. This was my kind of trail race! It featured a mile on the road then four miles on the Windham rail trail, then return. This was WAY before the trail was paved and the mile of road was the section that just recently got completed (a beautiful section in Windham from Old Rockingham road to Range Road). Back in those days that section was swampy and overgrown. The main trail was dirt and often a roller-coaster ride due to the dirt bikes that tore it up. It is so much nicer now! I won the race in 53:29, heading out in an “easy” 27:28 and coming back in 26:01 (with a 15:10 last 3). Over 135 showed up for the race and were treated to a ton of snacks (I think it was Drakes) that were donated because they were all past the Best By date. Classic! Three days later (08/09) I hit the Cawley Stadium track to take a shot at Bob Hodge’s GLRR 2 mile series record. Pat Sweeny and Brad Hurst did the early pace-setting taking me through the mile in 4:29, splits of 67, 67, 67, and 66 brought me home in 8:56. Leaving Hodgie’s record of 8:54 untouched. A week later I returned for the “1 mile” edition of the series. It was a blast as Bob Hodge and Dave Cremin pushed the pace with splits of 65/64/65 before I was able to muster a kick and bring it home in 61 for a win in 4:15. Hodgie (4:16) and Crem-dog (4:17) were right there. My final race of the month (08/26) was the Exeter Kiwanis 10k. The race always attracted a good crowd as they had cash 5 deep. A good size pack stayed together through four miles before Andy Ronan made a move and broke things up. I managed to get by Hodge at 5m and snag fourth place ($100) with a 29:35. Ronan won in 29:15.
30 years ago (August 1994): I ran 464 miles (14.9 per day) for the month that included some big mileage weeks while I was in Europe. I raced five times as I prepared for the World Mountain running championships. I started the month racing the 5k distance at the Yankee Homecoming races in Newburyport. I normally wouldn’t go the shorter route but was flying to Europe for the next month and didn’t want to overdo it. I ended up topping the field of 700+ finishers with a 15:03. Four days later I was racing in the mountains of Switzerland! The race director of the hugely popular Sierre-Zinal race was covering my hotel for 2 weeks in exchange for me doing two races and the folks at the Challenge Stellina (Susa, Italy) were covering the cost of my flights. There was also some under the table food money and as always, some prize money to win. Things started out on a bit of a rough note as my luggage went somewhere other than where I was. Fortunately, I always keep my racing flats and singlet in my carry-on. The airline gave me some cash to purchase a few other items and 5 days after I arrived I did get my bag. The first race was a very tough 10 miles from Thyon to Dixence. It was a beautiful course that ran out of Thyon (at an altitude of 6600’) and continued up to the tallest dam in Europe at Dixence. (The Grande Dixence Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Dixence at the head of the Val d'Hérémence in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. At 285 m (935 ft) high, it is the tallest gravity dam in the world, fifth tallest dam overall, and the tallest dam in Europe. It is part of the Cleuson-Dixence Complex). The footing, altitude, and surprising amount of descent did not work in my favor and I only managed a 10th place finish in a field of 900. I spent the next week in Sierre near the finish line of the 19+ mile race I’d be doing. I had plenty of time to train and rest. The Sierre-Zinal race went well. I had the lead through the initial tough ascent but then got crushed on the downhills. The views were amazing on the course and it was interesting how the race officials would blow whistles to tell the “citizens” (early start) to move out of the way. I was still in the top 5 when we reached the final summit, but the final 40 minutes of running was all downhill and I just could not roll with the fast descenders. I hit the finish line in 2:42:31 which was good enough for $200 (and even got me a little more per-diem money from the RD as I spent a few more days in Zinal). Mid-week I headed via train to Susa to meet up with my USA teammates. On 08/21 we took on the Challenge Stellina mountain race (9.57 miles of mostly uphill running). I had a pretty good run taking 3rd place after leading through half-way. The course featured 5,000’ of climb and 400’ of drop. Most of the drop was right after half-way, so you can guess how I lost the lead. Thierry Icart (France) won in 1:22:27 and I picked up $750 for my finish 21 seconds later. Our group made our way to Zermatt Switzerland for the final race before Worlds. We had a lot of fun training and hanging out. The Matterhorn Lauf was a tough 7.6 miles with 4,000’ of climb, all on trail. The toughest part was that it was all between 5,300’ and 9,000’ a bit high for a low-lander like me. I almost didn’t start the race as I was having some digestive issues. Once I got going it wasn’t bad and I managed a third-place finish in 59:29 (2 minutes behind the winner).
Catching up on the last two weeks.
Week Ending 08-11-24
After a week of just walking I eased back into biking. Richard Bolt joined me for my first outside ride as we got poured on while biking the Freeman Rail Trail in Concord, Acton, and Carlisle. I closed out the week with a much nicer outside ride in Concord NH and was able to handle the hills around Oak Hill with not much of an issue. In between I also slowly increased the indoor ElliptiGo. Totals for week Bike 11:30 (199 miles), ElliptiGo 3:25 (54 miles), Walk 8:06 (32 miles). Just missed my goal of 24 hours of activity.
Week Ending 08-18-24
This week I focused on upping the mileage on the ElliptiGo and Bike along with continued physical therapy. I got my stitches out on Thursday and consistently walked under 15 minute pace and even had a couple of walks under 14s (which is about as fast as I can go without running). Totals for the week Bike 9:01 (162.6 miles), ElliptiGo 9:30 (152 miles), Walk 6:49 (28 miles). Over 24 hours of activity.
25 years ago (August 1999): This started as a promising month but ended with me in a hospital in Italy with a “distorted ankle”. I got in 282 miles missing the final 9 days of the month with the ankle injury. I was able to race four times. I started the month off with the short (3m) race at Yankee Homecoming in anticipation of racing the Beach to Beacon 10k that weekend. I finished in 2nd place in 14:48 and was thoroughly pissed at the winner for his antics (waving to the crowd then back to me). I’m not a fan of showboating and told him so in the chute. I thought it was real bush-league crap. A few days later (08/07) I joined 3,300 others for the Beach to Beacon. I had a decent enough race running 30:47 for 27th place. The next weekend I had a lousy run at the Newmarket Healthcare 5k taking 2nd place in 15:17 on a hot and muggy day. After that I was off to Italy with Richard Bolt for the Challenge Stellina mountain race. My ankle was killing me leading up to the race and was just brutal during the 9.6 mile trail race that climbed 5,000’. I ended up in 21st place and also ended up in an ambulance as I couldn’t put any pressure on my foot after the race. That was the end of my mountain racing for the year.
20 years ago (August 2004): I only raced twice this month due to lingering hamstring issues. On 08/16 Richard Bolt and I ran the Moose Milers trail series in Mine Falls park (Nashua NH). Richard won in 17:54 with me 1 second back. Two weeks later I ran a leg of the Moose Milers relay a 4x2.5 mile race in Mine falls park. I was the weak man on the CMS squad that took first place in 54:04. I was the leadoff leg which I ran in 14:20.
