Week Ending 09/29/24

 Vacation week so I had a bit more mileage (and a lot more biking) than I'll have going forward.  Took most of the week to start feeling better after using "racing" muscles last weekend. Closed out the week with my longest run (10 miles) since the day of surgery (07/30) and then a very nice bike ride.

In addition to getting 85 miles of running in this week I also got nearly 10 hours of outside biking (9:46).  Great fun!

Week - 85

Month - 293

Year - 2,865

Life - 161,596

15 years ago this weekend, on the summit of Mt Marcy with Robert Molnar and Eric Morse

Vacation week

 I was on vacation this week so the plan had been to get in some interesting rides and runs.  I'd been planning a ride across Vermont for quite a while and was looking forward to getting it done mid-week.

I kicked off the week with an early morning run on the Upper Charles River trail. I'd run and biked on parts of this but never done the complete trail.  After my run I did the 28 mile end to end ride.  It was a nice mix of paved and packed dirt trail.

Next up was the Assabet river trail.  Again, I'd done part of it but not the entire route.  I had to do a few miles on the road to connect sections and could see some construction that will minimize the amount on road.  Another great day to be out running and riding.

Now it was time to head to Vermont.  Unfortunately rain was in the forecast.  A rainy start to the day  meant I'd be wet and muddy and pouring rain the second day had me adjusting what I'd do.  So, instead of the complete trail I ended up running a nice 8 miles and then catching the shuttle to Morrisville.  From there I biked 42 miles to St Johnsbury and closed out the day with another 4 mile run on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail.

On Thursday I rain in the pouring rain on the trail and did another incredibly wet run on the Franconia Bike Path before closing the day out with a nice garage run that was much more pleasant!

It wasn't exactly the vacation I'd planned but it was productive and fun.

Lone Gull (USATF NE 10km championships) - Team results

 I'm glad I was able to help CMS 60+ squad at Lone Gull.  We ended up taking 2nd which kept us in 2nd place for the entire USATF series.  The 50+ squad scored a win with a near sweep of the top spots!

 MALE 60+ USATF TEAM RESULTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1.  WHIRLAWAY RT                                 
            38:10   40:00   44:43 (  47:12) = 2:02:53
         Charlie Bemis, Paul McGovern, Ken Warren, Stan Peijffers
   2.  CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                        
            40:17   43:05   44:35 = 2:07:57
         Dan Verrington, Dave Dunham, Gary Cattarin
   3.  GREATER LOWELL ROAD RUNNERS                  
            41:12   42:22   46:08 (  47:34) (  48:10) (  48:50) (  50:01)
          = 2:09:42
         Peter Danzell, John Barbour, Fil Faria, Timothy Hagerty, Jeffrey Hull,
         Chuck Farrow, Chip Mann
   4.  SOMERVILLE ROAD RUNNERS                      
            40:39   45:16   45:29 (  52:55) (  58:32) = 2:11:24
         Robert Cipriano, Kaz Naganuma, Joseph Sullivan III, Vittorio Montanari,
         Carl Shubitowski
   5.  NOTCH RUN CLUB                               
            39:58   45:44   46:25 (  53:31) (1:03:26) = 2:12:07
         Richard Jordan, Seamus Daly, Marty Lechleider, John Myers, Barry
         Kernfeld
   6.  BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION                  
            43:49   44:43   45:08 (  50:52) = 2:13:40
         Constantino Rago, Garrett Tingle, Brian Sherras, Ernest Cook
   7.  CAMBRIDGE SPORTS UNION                       
            43:46   44:33   48:53 (  49:28) (  51:51) (  54:09) = 2:17:12
         Stephen Yankum, Stephen Binder, Marshall Randolph, Gordon MacFarland,
         Stephen Peckiconis, Jon Waldron
   8.  NEW ENGLAND 65 PLUS RUNNERS CLUB             
            41:32   46:02   56:17 (  58:20) (  58:41) (  59:47) (1:01:57)
          = 2:23:51
         Tom Amend, Paul Funch, David Ritchie, John Keller, Stephen Viegas, Tom
         Miller, Robert Knight

MALE 50+ USATF TEAM RESULTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1.  CENTRAL MASS STRIDERS                        
            36:38   36:44   36:53   37:02   40:17 (  43:05) (  44:35) = 3:07:34
         Todd Callaghan, Joseph Shairs, Arthur Besse, David Principe, Dan
         Verrington, Dave Dunham, Gary Cattarin
   2.  GREATER LOWELL ROAD RUNNERS                  
            38:13   38:31   39:07   41:12   42:22 (  44:24) (  45:53) = 3:19:25
         Don Fay Jr., Will Swenson, Jim Rhoades, Peter Danzell, John Barbour,
         Matt Story, Gabriel Kohen
   3.  WHIRLAWAY RT                                 
            38:10   40:00   40:26   40:51   41:20 (  44:43) (  47:12) = 3:20:47
         Charlie Bemis, Paul McGovern, Brian Allen, Frederick Carter,
         John David Toscano, Ken Warren, Stan Peijffers
   4.  BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION                  
            36:24   39:36   40:54   41:27   43:49 (  44:43) (  45:08) = 3:22:10
         Michael McGrane, Jason Porter, Kevin Hill, Chris Vollaro, Constantino
         Rago, Garrett Tingle, Brian Sherras
   5.  SOMERVILLE ROAD RUNNERS                      
            38:32   40:39   43:13   45:16   45:29 (  50:29) (  52:55) = 3:33:09
         Sadik Tokgoz, Robert Cipriano, Joseph Oleary, Kaz Naganuma, Joseph
         Sullivan III, Jason Lachapelle, Vittorio Montanari
   6.  TRACKSMITH BOSTON HARES                      
            41:04   42:21   42:42   43:07   44:51 = 3:34:05
         Mauricio Garces, Andrew Bragg, Peter Cannon, Paul Donovan, Gerard
         Cnossen
   7.  BEN RUNNING CLUB                             
            38:59   40:00   43:54   44:18   47:17 (  49:20) = 3:34:28
         Lixin Qin, Weijun Ma, Yiyong Shao, Li Sun, Jiannan Hu, Zhuang Zhang
   8.  NOTCH RUN CLUB                               
            39:58   41:57   43:55   43:59   45:10 (  45:44) (  46:25) = 3:34:59
         Richard Jordan, Donald Withee, Eric Bowden, Brian Juneau, Scott Cody,
         Seamus Daly, Marty Lechleider
   9.  CAMBRIDGE SPORTS UNION                       
            39:41   40:14   43:46   44:33   48:53 (  49:28) (  51:51) = 3:37:07
         Kevin Delaney, Terry McNatt, Stephen Yankum, Stephen Binder, Marshall
         Randolph, Gordon MacFarland, Stephen Peckiconis
  10.  NEW ENGLAND 65 PLUS RUNNERS CLUB             
            41:32   46:02   56:17   58:20   58:41 (  59:47) (1:01:57) = 4:20:52
         Tom Amend, Paul Funch, David Ritchie, John Keller, Stephen Viegas, Tom
         Miller, Robert Knight

Lone Gull 10k

 I was not planning on racing until late October as I had knee surgery at the tail end of July.  I've been running for four weeks now and phasing out the biking and ElliptiGo.  CMS only had two guys entered in the USATF NE 10km championships (Lone Gull - Gloucester MA) and needed a third to have a scoring team.  I wasn't really ready to race but figured just finishing 10k would be better than CMS not scoring at all.  I told team manager Scott Mindel that I had completed a training run (7 miles in 7:35's) and felt confident I could run under 730s and maybe even as fast as close to 7-flat.  CMS took care of my entry and teammate Dan Verrington would be my transportation.  You can't beat that!

Dan did the nearly 3 hour drive from his new place in Vermont and picked me up at 6:30am.  A quick stop at Dunk's and we were on our way.  It was nice to catch up with Dan as we made our way to Cape Ann.  We got our numbers and met up with many fellow CMS runners including 60'er Gary Cattarin. There were so many familiar faces.  It is always fun going to a New England championship, even if I wasn't really ready to run a race.  Dan and I did an easy 2 mile warm-up, but it did not feel all that easy.  I had felt very good on Friday and maybe pushed it a bit and then felt terrible on Saturday and it rolled over into Sunday morn.  We switched into race gear (although I did not use carbon fiber shoes - saving those for 'real' racing) and we walked across the beach over to the start.  I did another mile to stay loose and it was just a few minutes before the 9am start.

I'd looked up last year's results and found that 730 pace would put me about 350th out of 700. That gave me a decent idea of where to line up.  I counted about 25 rows back which put me around 300th and was surprised to find Dan back there.  He mentioned something about a slow start which made sense, you don't want to get dragged out too fast.  It was close to 60 degrees and there was a strong wind that'd be a tail wind for the first 2 then a cross wind through 3.5 followed by a LOT of headwind to finish the race.  I figured whatever I hit the first half-mile in (for pace) would be what I'd aim to run the whole race.  Off we went and I just tried to not get tripped up by people not really paying attention and cutting across my path.  I nearly got taken out at the mile by a woman who basically went from one side of the road to the other without ever looking, she nearly clipped me and when I put a hand on her back she turned and gave me a very dirty look. Gary C was there and he laughed and said "I saw that!".  Too funny.

My first half-mile split was 3:30 so I figured it'd be 7-minute pace that'd be my goal.  I had a bunch of people blow by in the first half-mile but after that I guess that maybe only 3-4 people passed me the rest of the race and after 2 miles I passed a LOT of people.  As I worked my way back along the ocean after the 5k (21:40) the wind was tough.  I was catching a lot of people and any time I tried to tuck in I found it too slow and would move on to the next pack.  Around 4 I noticed a couple of 60+ guys up ahead and set my sites on them.  I had a pretty strong finish with a second 5k of 21:25 despite the wind.  The 43"05 got me 12th in the 60+ and 277th in a field of 747.  Dan had a solid run just missing breaking 40 minutes and Gary was just 2 places behind me.  I'm happy with how it went although both my knee and my other quad were quite sore after.  Hopefully nothing too serious.  It was fun to get out there and always great to be able to help the team.

We finished the day with a very achy 2 mile warm-down with others flying by us but luckily no one knocking us down.

Week ending 09/22/24

 Intended to hit about 70-75 miles but things were going well and I ended up with 83.  Left quad has been bothering me off and on probably due to some compensation for the knee.  Knee was a 3 all week which is better than the 5 last week.  I ended up running the Lone Gull 10k on Sunday because CMS needed a third man for the 60+ squad.  I made it through...

We'll see what next week brings.  I'm on vacation and planning on doing some biking :-)  This week I only rode four times for a total of 41.3 miles (2 hours).

Week - 83

Month - 208

Year - 2,780

Life - 161,511

Saw the white squirrel twice this week after not seeing one for about a year.

Some September injury years

 September 2004 -20 years ago: I passed 90,000 lifetime miles near the end of the month while getting in 280 miles and racing twice oddly both were 3rd place finishes and both were timed in 17:57. The two cross-country races were the Governor Dummer Invitational (Newbury, MA) which was a fun event with the Winner’s Circle Running Club racing the High School team. Two weeks later I ran in the 3x5k Chamberas XC relay in Greenwich RI.

September 2009 – 15 years ago: I had spent six weeks off with a stress fracture and was just starting back in running in late August.  I got in 230 miles and raced twice during the month.  The first race (09/12/09) was the USATF NE 5 mile championships in Boston.  Unfortunately, the cone at the turn on the out/back section of the course was put in the wrong location and nearly 800 finishers did not get their money’s worth running only 4.9 miles.  I managed a respectable (all things considered) time of 28:36 which was under 6:00 pace (my goal going into the race).  Two weeks later I fell into a solid pack at the USATF NE 10km championships in Gloucester MA.  I ran most of the race with Dave Quintal (35:13), Reno Stirrat (35:14), and John Barbour (35:18).  I was very happy to run a 35:17 for 15^th place in the master’s competition.

September 2019 – 5 years ago: This month was pretty rough.  My back had been bothering me since May and was slowly getting worse.  I visited a bunch of Trustees locations over the long weekend (August 31 into Sept 2) and things got much worse.  That ended my 223 day streak of running.  Recovery was VERY slow.

   

September 1999

 September 1999 – 25 years ago: I missed the entire month with a messed-up ankle.  I biked every day for 3 to 4 hours but would not race again until 2000.

I did travel with the USA mountain team to Malaysia which was tough to watch but a fun trip...

September 1994

 September 1994 -30 years ago: A bunch of nagging injuries (left adductor, ankle, and hamstring) kept my mileage lower than I would have liked I didn’t miss any days and got in 368 miles and four races. I wrapped up my five race trip to Europe with the World Mountain running championships in Berchestgaden Germany. Maybe I trained a bit too much while over there? I had dead-legs at the start of this 8 mile climb and found myself outside of the top 50 at the first kilometer. I slowly moved up and by 3k I was in the top 20. By the end I worked my way up to 15th in 1:03:21, a little over 2 minutes behind the winner. Dan Verrington was our second man in 50th running 1:06:34. The following week I was back on the road running the Millyard 5k. I locked my keys in the car before the race and had to run in my heavy trainers. I ended up running 14:50 for third place. On the 17th I ran the 11 mile leg of the Lake Winnie (Fred Brown) relay. We were crushed by Whirlaway who beat the CMS squad by 15 minutes. I had the 2nd fastest time of the day on my leg running 59:10 over the hilly course. The final race of the month was the U-Lowell alumni cross-country race held at Chelmsford High School. I battled with Dave Cremin through miles of 5:00 and 5:04 before Dave buried me on the sand hill (the hill is no longer there, lost to expansion of the Drum Hill rotary). I took second place in the field of 35 running a 15:47.            

Looking back - Sept 1989

 September 1989 - 35 years ago: I covered 378 miles and raced four times during this month. I started the month at the New Haven 20k, it wasn’t the U.S. championships that year, but it was still a pretty stacked field (back then the field was 2,000 strong…now more like 7,000). I ran 3 mile splits of 14:36/14:52/15:28/15:08 to record a 1:02:08 or just a couple of ticks under 5-minute-mile pace. I was well out of the money taking 9th place. Top 4: Reifsnyder 59:20, Rex Wilson 59:30, Andy Ronan 59:35, Derek Froude 60:44. A week later I raced out in Amherst MA at the Collegetown 8k which was the USATF (then NEAC) New England championships. It was 95 and very muggy, the course was flat and fast but fast times were not run on this day. Mark Donahue did run a solid 24:12, Zimmerly (24:57) and I were the only other guys under 25 (24:54). It was ugly. The following week I shifted gears to XC and got a win at the Dartmouth invitational. I was 34 slower seconds than I’d run five years before, but it was fast enough to hold off GLRR teammate Bob Hodge (29:25 to 29:30). The following week saw 600 gather in Wilton NH for the NEAC 15km championships. Canadian Norm Tinkham won over the hilly course in 45:44. I took fourth in 46:21 (a personal best at the time). Paul Gompers and Hodge had a good battle running 46:03 and 46:08 respectively. In a bit of a shocker our GLRR open team beat the CMS boys by 7 minutes (4:04 to 4:11).

September 1984

 September 1984 - 40 years ago: I had a bunch of issues this month with plantar fascia woes and a series of back spasms but managed 374 miles with no days off and one race during my junior XC season at U-Lowell. I kicked off the cross-country season at the Dartmouth invitational (Hanover NH). The Dartmouth duo of Jim Sapienza and Bob Kempainen were expected to go 1-2, but Kempainen must have had a bad day as I snuck in between the two and got one of the two silver bowls that were handed out. Luckily, they hadn’t engraved names on it prior to the race! Sapienza ran 28:46 for the 5.8 mile course and I finished 5 seconds behind him. It was a good start (at least for me) of the XC season. Kempainen would go on to make the USA Olympic team in 1992 & 1996 (marathon).

Week Ending 09/15/24

 Steady progress as my last 3 weeks have been 44, 56, and 63  Had my 6 week post-op appointment with my doctor this week.  The pictures from inside my knee were a bit scary (some pretty significant wear) and talk of "seeing what you can tolerate" weren't exactly what I hoped to hear.  On the good side, I was assured that the pain I'm feeling now (3-5) is typical post-op pain and that I won't really have an idea of how much I've gained until 12 weeks.  I got in my longest run (7) and my fastest as well (7:36's) on Friday.  Onward!

Week - 63

Month - 125

Year - 2,697

Life - 161,428

Looking back - September 1979

 September 1979 - 45 years ago: I started my sophomore year at Billerica High School with my first season of cross-country! I did some training over the summer (6 miles a day 5 days a week) with the goal of making the varsity squad by the end of the season. I got in 138 miles with 8 days off (mostly weekends) and raced three times during September. My first XC race (09/17/1979) was a dual meet at Billerica’s home course against Lawrence. I finished in second place (JV) running 16:29 for the 2.6 mile mostly paved course around the parking lot of the high school. A week later I won my first XC race taking first in a dual meet against Dracut at Dracut with a 14:21 for 2.4 miles. Five days later I was back on my home course this time against Central. I took 1:24 off of my time from two weeks before. I led the JV squad running a 15:05.  This would be the highpoint of the season as I only raced a couple of more times due to multiple ankle sprains.  

Long ride/fun weekend

 Next up was the Maine Lighthouse ride.  Byrne Decker and I had done a nice 50 mile ride last year and he brought this ride to my attention.  They had many options (25,40,62, and 100 miles).  I thought that 100km (62 miles) would be fun, although Byrne really wanted to do 100 miles.  I’ve found that those extra hours after 100km are just not that much fun and settled on 100km.  I headed up early to get a couple of Maine towns I’d never run in.  I parked in Westbrook at a nice trailhead and chatted with a hunter who was very excited as it was the first day of expanded hunting season.  I got in my 3 mile run mixing in a little trail and track.  Then it was off to South Portland, I parked at the ride parking lot and headed out to Bug Light and Spring Point for a scenic 3 mile run.  I should have skipped the section running on the break to the lighthouse.  The boulder hopping was VERY slow going for me.  I did not want to fall, that would ruin the day! 

I arrived back at my car and Byrne had parked just a few minutes before.  We did our final preparations and biked the ½ mile over to the start line.  At 7am it was still in the 50’s but with the sun shining and knowing it’d get into the 70’s we both went with shorts, t-shirts, and arm sleeves.  It was just about perfect conditions for a ride.  There was a big turnout, and they should have split up the start on the 100km as the start was narrow and soon after we were on a narrow bike path.  For most of the first 10 miles we had to ride single-file and it made for some very slow going.  No real complaints as we weren’t racing this, just out there having fun. 

 It opened up a bit after 10 and we increased the tempo.  That only lasted a little while as I took the lead on the section on the Eastern Trail (unpaved).  Most riders including Byrne were on narrow tires and the recommended speed was no faster than 10mph.  Around 19 miles we had our first stop of the day (a quick bathroom stop and then another at the aid station).  We spent less than 5 minutes but took our time getting a drink and some food.  Byrne really liked the pickle juice, and I was all about the chocolate kisses.  Our next five was quick and then we were soon after back at the next aid station taking a few minutes to drink again and fuel up.  We had a much quicker next 10 miles and rolled into the 41 mile aid station feeling good.  This was a very scenic stop on the beach with views of Wood Island light.  It also had the fantastic dark chocolate peanut butter cups.  So yummy!  

The next five miles was our quickest of the day as we were now seeing a lot of the 40 mile riders and catching them (which made it feel even faster).  We had our last short break at 51 miles and rolled out knowing we didn’t have an hour of riding left.  Byrne was floating away on the climbs, and I made up some grounds on the downhills (heavier bike).  We arrived back in South Portland 4:42 after we departed, covering the 62 mile route in 4:24 of actual riding or almost exactly 14 mph.  All in all, it was a fantastic ride, we chatted most of the way and took in the views and just enjoyed being outside on such a nice day.  Great fun.

The weekend wasn’t over, and Sunday was a blast with a pleasant 5 mile run with Scott Spence and Petey (bike) before getting a real taste of Fall with a bright sunny but chilly (55-60) ride in Concord/Loudon.  An excellent ride that was the cherry on the top for the weekend.