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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Training week 6/19 - 6/26

M 5.1 mi failed tempo on beach - 2 x 1 mile at 6:50/mi, St. Augustine beach
T 7.1 mi road easy, St. Augustine beach (7:32/mi)
W AM 5.3 mi failed road interval 4 X 800 (2:54 2:54 2:54 2:56) + 2 x 400 (1:29 1:30)
     PM 4.8 mi road easy (7:21/mi) St. Augustine beach
T 4.5 mi easy St. Augustine beach (7:26/mi)
F AM 5.4 mi easy @ Back Cove (7:21/mi)
    PM 6.2 mi, incl. 4 mi tempo (6:54/mi) @ Twin Brook
S 10 mi easy @ Bradbury (9:47/mi)
S 15.3 mi road easy (7:38/mi)

Total distance - 63.6 mi
injury report: stepped on a rock during a short road last Friday (9 days ago) and bruised my right forefoot (I was running in the Asics Pirahnas which have thin foam soles). This didn't bother me on the roads in Florida but the gravel at back cove and the roots at Bradbury absolutely killed me.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Once a runner sequel

Short sequel to "once a runner":

Chapter 1. Too hot to run
Chapter 2. Too hot to run
Chapter 3. Too hot to run
Chapter 4. Too hot to run
Chapter 5. Running in Florida sux. I'm retirin' from milin'

Life has brought us to Florida this week and the family is staying at my parent's house in St. Augustine Beach. I ran 8 1/4 miles last night along A1A starting a little after 9PM and it was still 88-90F! But that was pure pleasure compared to my 5 mile beach run this morning at 8:30AM. It's just too hot to run on the beach and the sun is too strong.

Here are the numbers for last week
M rest day
T PM1: Back Cove easy (7:27/mi); PM2 TMR TNR easy + 2.5 at MP
W 9x300 @ 2-3K pace @ Back Cove, 7.1 total
T 8.5 easy on Piscataqua Trail (8:46/mi)
F 8 at Twin Brook incl. 3 at 1/2MP
S AM: 11.1 easy at Bradbury; PM: 4.8 east on Brook Rd (7:51/mi)
S PM: 8.3 easy (7:48/mi)

Total distance: 60.5 (that's good for me given 1 rest day and no run longer than 11)
Total time: 8:47



Monday, June 13, 2011

road kill

Poor time-management skills on my part in combination with Cacky's birthday, my parents visit, and three functions related to Sam's HS graduation conspired to keep my away from the trails this week. The only upside is the Woodville/Field rd. loop is mostly dirt shoulder and cars are rare. Monday was a planned rest day. Wednesday was not. I almost missed thursday too but snuck out for a late night interval workout while running home from FHS awards night.
M rest
T PM1 - 4.7 easy@back cove; PM2 - 8.1 @ TMR TNR incl. 2.5 miles at tempo
W rest
T 7.6 interval (4 x 1200 @ 5K), woodville rd.
F 8 easy incl 8 strides, woodville, 
S AM 1.5 w/u + 5 mile race (30:11); PM 4.1 recovery, Brook rd.
S 11.1 easy, Woodville rd.

Distance: 50.2, including 3 workouts. Not a great week mileage-wise but given the 2 rest days and all the competing activities I'll take it.


Saturday, June 11, 2011

Run for Honduras 5 mile road race

I've been busy with my research and Cacky's birthday (she just turned 29!), Sam's graduation and have not had much patience for taking the time to trail run so I've resorted to three road runs over the past 6 days, which is more road running than I've done all spring. My goto road run includes the Woodville-Field Rd. loop, which has few cars, a beautiful dirt shoulder, magnificent farmland scenery, and sweet rolling hills (it drops and climbs, drops and climbs from the East branch of the Piscataqua River). Thursday night, I still hadn't run and had little time left, so I banged out a 7.5 miler on this loop that included a 4X1200 at 5K pace. And yesterday afternoon, similarly pressed for time, I did an easy 8 mile run using the loop. But after this run, I decided that I needed to take the time to return to the trails.

Cue forward a few hours and I decided to race the Run for Honduras 5 mile road race which uses the same Woodville loop. This decision was made after I was reminded that my son Tom was running it and he pre-registered a few weeks ago. Son Will also decided to run it. McMillan has my 5 mile time at 29:33 but I was not gunning for this time given the course and my workout only 36 hours earlier. I figured 6 min/mi and 30:00 would be a good run.

The race is organized by the Foreside Community Church and the Falmouth Congo Church and raises money to provide basic health care for rural hondurans. The FHS track coach legends Danny Paul and Jorma Kurry encouraged the track kids to race this since a FHS track alum had something to do with organizing it so I figured there'd be lots of FHS runners and alum but it was mostly members of the churches I think.

After an easy 1.5 mile warmup and change into my race shoes I arrived at the start line and didn't really have to push my way to the front because the front consisted of two boys that were maybe 10-11 and a skinny post-collegiate-runner-looking guy who turned out to be Nathan Huppe from NH (not sure what about this race attracted him!). The gun went off and the two kids and Huppe went out fast. Not wanting to be seen running behind two middle schoolers, I went out fast too and was on about 5:35 pace after a quarter mile and was in control of 2nd place. I decided to slow it down a little and hit mile one in 5:59. That was a little too slow because mile one drops about 80 feet to the Piscataqua River. I could hear footsteps behind me for only the first half of the first mile and was maybe 150 m behind Huppe so from here on out I'd be running alone. The course went around the Woodville/Field Rd loops clockwise so mile two was a climb of about 100 feet (total climb of around 130') and I went through that mile in 6:19. Mile 3 drops sharply down to the river and climbs a bit (5:57). At this point I was feeling the toll of the hills (or my workout) and still had a long climb and I was alone in 2nd place with 1st place 400 m ahead and 3rd place was out-of-sight behind me. That is, I had little motivation to push it to the limit. But I continued the race and hit mile 4 in 6:12, which isn't bad considering it was all climb up from the river. The last mile is pretty typical road race flat; my split was 5:45 for a 30:11 2nd place finish. Will had a good race (35:11) but Tom seems to have inherited my susceptibility to sidestitches and got one by mile 2 so jogged in in 39:59).

Results are now up

The organizers served up a yummy Honduran breakfast burrito filled with egg, cheese, refried beans, and fried plantain with cantaloupe on the side.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Weekly training 5/30 - 6/5 2011

Moved from Pineland phase (Daniel's tempo + hills + long run) to summer-of-malmo phase

M 5.2 easy @ Pineland
T AM 4.2 easy @ Back Cove w/ 10 strides; PM 7.7 easy @ TMR TNR
W 7.9 @ Back Cove  w/ 4 X 800 @5K (2:50, 2:52, 2:52, 2:54)
T 5.1 progression @ Back Cove
F 9.4 easy @ Back Cove and East End hills
S 6.1 easy @ Bond Brook (hilly!)
S 11 w/ 4.5 mile tempo @ 30K pace

Total mileage 56.5
May mileage 205.8
Year mileage 622

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Is that a snake in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?


I missed the Pineland run this morning because I wanted to be sure Son #1 had everything he needed today for his double header: 1) State Outdoor T&F meet in Augusta (he ran 4X8 and 800) and 2) Camden-Rockport HS prom. Cacky and I watched the FHS 4X8 team sail to second place with a really great run and we had about 4 hours until the solo 8 so we headed out to Bond Brook Recreation Area, which I had heard alot about because they hired John Morton to design a Morton Trail for xc ski racing (Pineland, Libby Hill, and Twin Brook are also John Morton Trails).

The parking area is in the back of a cemetary next to the airport. Good luck finding it. The entrance trail drops about 100 feet in a very short distance and would be wicked fun in skis or snowboard or cafeteria tray. I started on the blue loop which was typical pineland then cut over to a red loop, which was cut but not cleared. The slash was difficult to run on and the trail went dead straight down what I'm guessing was a 30% grade. If this becomes a ski trail I cannot imagine going either up or down it. The cut of course dead ended at the bottom of the hill so I turned around to run (mostly walk) back up the slash and return to the blue trail. I then took another detour off the blue trail which was a very grown over road with a big washout much of the way down. The road just dropped straight down to Bond Brook. Near the bottom was the red marked trail and looking at the map I was not far from where I'd just been but it wasn't cut yet. Bond Brook is a beautiful, large creek but really none of the ski trail follows it so I turned around to again climb what I had just descended and returned to the blue trail. The blue trail continued to climb until I noticed I was on the other side of the water towers by the parking area, which was the high point in the system.

From the high point, the trail dropped through the "halfpipe" which I'd heard alot about because some college racers had some trouble with it this winter. No duhhh! The half pipe was indeed a natural ravine and the trail snaked its way up one wall and then the other and then back as it descended down. I have to give the Augusta Trails group some credit for having the balls to put this into their trail system. Anyway, because it was a little too much, they are spending some time this summer taming it, which is a little too bad because I know a dozen FHS skiers who would love to ski it as is.

In all, I got a 6 mile run in with 1150' total climb. Ian said there is a race here later in the summer. I predict some carnage on this course.

Cacky and I walked around a bit to enjoy the weather and a beautiful Eastern milk snake was sunning itself on the trail and quickly slithered into the grass cover. He was easy to catch but was a little feisty and snapped at the air for a minute. Milk snakes and rat/corn snakes are usually quite mild and gladly curl up around your arm but even after he stopped snapping he never really calmed down. Maybe it was my sweaty arm? Cacky got my phone and took a few photos.

We worked in the car for a while at Bond Brook (ok some of us surfed the web and fb on our phone) and then returned to the track meet to watch Sam in the solo 8 and then see him on his way to Camden. With more days like these, I'll stop looking for summer camps in New Foundland.