The Wood Is Back

Well after much time off I've finally decided to get back to my blog. I'd been thinking about it for a while, mostly to try and make myself a little more accountable for my mileage. If I stick to this blog then I'll have to tell you all about my lazy 0's, which is embarrassing, so hopefully there will be less of them.

Basically you haven't missed much, I've had some good races I've had some bad races, I've had some good and bad training. I'm pretty much just gonna start from now, but one of my goals is to have more pictures on here so here's a couple from the last year.

This was my first Cani-X race at the Pineland Farms Trail Festival. Tucker and I started out in just about last after he knocked an old lady over and got himself wrapped around a pole in the starting corral. After our crazy start we hauled for a k at probably close to 3:00 to catch the leaders, after another hard K to get away from everyone Tucker and I were able to enjoy our first race together. Tuck, even stopped to take a poop!

 

This is my sweet new dirtbike! This was pretty much my running downfall this summer, but it was so much fun. I can not wait to get back on it this spring.

 

Here's Tuck and I back in action at the Gunstock dog friendly race. We had to start two minutes behind the non-dog runners and still managed to be first across the line!

 

This is nearing the top of Mt. Roberts at the Roaring Falls Trail Race at Castle in the Clouds.

 

 

This shot is the finish, I was dead after running scared from the top of Mt. Roberts to the finish. Probably 9-10 miles of pushing to hold third place, knowing there was a pack of 4 not far behind waiting to eat me up if I fell apart.

After Castle in the Clouds I didn't do too much, besides run Mill Cities Relays and help GCS crush the Co-Ed Open division by like 8 or 9 minutes. That was mostly due to a fast 10 miles from Nacho Hernando though really. It was a fun year, not as much training as I needed to do, but I ran pretty decently considering and had a lot of fun.

Here's hoping I stick to the blog, and that you guys can help hold me accountable for getting some training in. Don't be afraid to call me out when you see those 0's piling up!

 

 

Ruminations on the endless comeback + Hollis and Washington

My latest comeback has been going excruciatingly slowly. I am starting to feel pretty good on my runs, but I need to get used to making myself hurt again. One of the tough things about getting back into shape, is that when you're in a race and it hurts, you can just say oh well, I guess I'm not fit yet, I guess you can just give up. Right now I wanna focus on getting used to running 5:20-5:30 pace again.

I did do some 400's just as long strides to get something under 6:00 pace before Hollis and wound up getting carried away and doing more harm than good I think. I got started easy with a 78 feeling good then 76 75 72 67 69. I was hurting for the next few days and really irritated an abdomen strain I've been dealing with. While running a 67 was nice I think it would have been better to just run 75-73 the whole way.

Other than that, for hard efforts I've gotten in a few good mountain runs and a good hard progression run out in Michigan. I didn't wear a watch, but Abbey said the loop was 7.5 and so I just decided to make sure I was going steady the whole way. I ran pretty fast and by 5 miles I was hurting considerably. I kept pouring it on until I was at 5k pace by the last half mile. I was completely spent when I finished up and felt like I'd had my first great run since December. I don't know how I'd feel if I'd had a watch, but I know the effort was there on that run and I felt really good.

I've had a couple races since I last updated, we can pretty much just say I'm not quite fit yet. I'm making progress though. I ran ok at Canterbury back in may but not that happy with my run, and then I ran like an idiot in the next 5k I ran. Tried to lead the first half mile and then gave up and jogged the second mile. From these races Hollis was big improvement even if It's downhill. My chip time was 16:57 which I know is probably 60 seconds fast. At any rate, I haven't broken 18 yet this season, so if I can go out and break 18:00 this weekend I won't necessarily be happy, but I will know I'm getting somewhere.

Mt. Washington was a lot of fun though, I think part of it was trying to stay relaxed and enjoy the race. I wanted to take it easy enough that I could enjoy the race and not really demoralize myself by trying to race and falling apart. I started out easy and then reeled people in until halfway at about 39:50. I started hurting not far after that but managed to run until about 4.5 miles and then I made the mistake of saying ok that's far enough and letting myself walk. I was feeling ok, but started to just get intimidated by the idea of three more miles of climbing in front of me and just gave in and walked for a while. Once I let myself walk though, running became so much harder! Every time I tried to run I knew that there was an easier option, so I would take it and just start walking. Every time the grade changed for the worse I'd decide ok, I can walk again. Looking back on the experience it sorta felt like walking was a drug or something. "Don't even try walking, It feels so good you'll never go back to running!" I just couldn't get over how much harder running felt after letting myself walk some.
I would powerhike/run on and off for the rest of the climb until mile 7 where I decided to run the final stretch to the finish. I got to the Summit by 1:28:59 I think. I am not happy with that time, but I'm very happy with the experience. I enjoyed myself and can't wait to get back for another try. Barring anymore injuries over the next year I think I'll be ready to really race when I try again. I can't wait. I would post some pictures but I'm too cheap to buy the official photography from the race.

Week Ending 5-12

Monday- 3 miles. I got started planning on doing 3 repeats up and down belknap mt easy. I was running with Tuck, and when we got to the top I noticed he was limping a bit. It turned out he had some sores on his paws from the dirt roads  we ran on the day before so I had to cut it short after one repeat. I meant to go out for a few more once I got home, but I just couldn't get myself going again.

Tuesday- Steady 7 with Abbey, 7x3:00 min hard/ 1:00 min easy.

Wednesday- 5 miles easy with Tuck.

Thursday- 0 Lazy.

Friday- easy 6 with Abbey and Tuck. I found a way to cut through the woods behind the house and jump onto a trail that will bring me all the way into the Prescott Farm Conservation Center. There aren't too many miles out there, but there's a tough 1.5 mile loop out there as well as the field loops across the street. It's great to be able to get out there with out having to run on the roads or drive, but that one loop is tough.

Saturday- 8 miles and the Shaker Village XC 5k. I think I this went a bit better. Not quite as well as I'd hoped, but I think it was a bit of a better run. It's still gonna take some time, I've got work to do, but I think I've made some gains over the past few weeks. I gotta keep it rolling, but I'm gonna get back there.

Sunday- Hilly 17 miles. I made it, but it wasn't pretty. I tried for a bit to go with Abbey when she started going hard at 12 miles, but I knew within a mile that it was gonna be a struggle to finish, so I just let her go and finished up easy. Very tough, I was crawling at the end. Abbey did great though and killed her MP section. She's gonna roll in a couple weeks. I can't wait.

Week total- 46 miles this week. Felt pretty good. I had been hoping for a while to roll with Abbey for 16 or 20 of her race, but after the way she dropped me today I think it's gonna be a stretch if I can make it through 10.

Training Week Ending 5/5

Monday- Hard 7 miles at Liberty Hill trails. 50:12 I was trying to go under 50 in this run but I fell asleep a couple of times. Still got in some good work though. This isn't an easy course. My best time for the loop is just barely under 45 minutes and I didn't want this to be anywhere near that kind of an effort today.

Tuesday- 9 miles total. 2 mile warm up, then 3x2 miles with 4:00 of jogging rest, mile cool down. ran with Abbey. I don't remember the splits exactly I think we were around 13:10-20 for each set though so a good effort.

Wednesday- easy 4 miles from home. Summit Loop.

Thursday- 7 miles. Funspot loop with Abbey

Friday- day off

Saturday- easy 8 miles with Abbey.

Sunday- 12 miles. Went out and ran out to Sawyer Pond. Went in on Sawyer River Rd. from 302. No snow, nice long climb going up the road but definitely an easier run than going in from the Kanc.

Week Total- 48 miles. Pretty happy with my week. I was hoping to be over 50 miles, but I got in a lot of good running. Maybe I should have run Friday, but I hadn't had a day off in over two weeks so I probably needed it.

Training Week Ending 4/28

Monday- I ran an easy 6 miles with Tucker in Hamlin Forest. Nice run.

Tuesday- Easy 9 with Abbey. Ran some trails on Governors Island, fun run, a little slow in spots.

Wednesday- easy 4 miles over at Ahern Park. I meant to run more, but the park was really crowded with families on spring break, and Tucker is just too much of a barker for all the little kids that were around.

Thursday- I did a 9 mile fartlek with Abbey. 7x3:00 hard 1:00 recovery. Good work out. I tried to make the 3:00 minutes hurt.

Friday- Easy 3 miles with Yannick and Abbey.

Saturday- Easy 4 miles with Abbey.

Sunday- 14 mile long run. nice and slow, but a solid run.

Week total- 49 miles. Another solid week of running. I just gotta keep doing these for a while and I'll start making some progress.

Just Running.

Monday-4 miles. Ran easy before the marathon. Could have gotten more if i'd gotten started earlier.

Tuesday-9 miles. Was planning on running 3x3 miles with 800 rest with Abbey, but wound up skipping the middle interval to run over and use the bathroom at the park. We went 19:31 for the first repeat and then Abbey got in a 19:28 by herself and I caught back up with her for the last set in 19:45. This was a Good work out for Abbey, probably one of her best of this build up so far.

Wednesday- Easy 5 miles with tucker at prescott farm. Field loops. Prescott farm is about a mile up the road from me so it's a nice place to go with Tucker to run him off leash but the field loop is only about 1000 meters long and just runs a mowed perimeter loop of the field. In the summer the grass grows up like 4 feet tall on either side of the trail and it has some gradual slopes, but for the most part it's pretty boring. After 3 or 4 laps even Tucker starts trying to run back to the car after each loop. 8 laps was pretty good. I wanna try and see how many laps I can build upto though. When I was out there, I knew I needed a rest day, but I kept thinking about trying to get in 10 miles on that loop sometime this summer. Not because it would be a good work out or anything, but just because I think it would be a good mental challenge to just do that over and over again for an hour plus.

Thursday- easy 4 AM, Easy 3 PM Nice easy runs. Ran with my neighbor for the afternoon run, his knee is feeling better, but he was happy to hear I was only planning 3 miles.

Friday- Ran Delta Dental 5k ran about 2 miles warm up and then ran a horrible race. Not sure what my problem was, I might have opened my first 800 too fast, but was through the mile in 5:40, Then about a half mile later Abbey passed me. My legs just felt like crap. I tried to go with Abbey for the next half mile but at about 2 miles later I just gave up and let her go. I jogged it in for a 19:12, pretty embarassing. I ran a mile cool down and then went home and cried. 6 miles total.

Saturday- 13 miles at 6 AM. Scott's Idea to get miles in while still fatigued from the 5k 12 hours ago. It worked, I was wrecked afterwards.

Sunday- Red's Road race. I had originally planned on trying to race this kinda hard, but after fridays poor effort I decided to just get a good stimulus with the long run yesterday instead and I think it was the right thing to do. I still went down to run because the organization I work for is one of the beneficiaries of the race. I reall had a lot of fun going and just taking it easy. It was kinda fun to just relax and enjoy the course. I went out around 6:13 6:30 7:00 around half way through the 3rd mile I was caught by a friend who was having a great race so I picked it up and cruised with him until about 4 miles when he dropped me on the downhill and I just relaxed and ran in easy with Abbey (who was waiting out on the course) and Carolyn Durfee who I ran with in High School. 8 miles total.

Week Total- 52 miles! Nice big jump, and my first week of what I consider to be decent training! Feels good.

Week Ending April 14th

Monday- Went out to check out the trails at Liberty Hill today, There was still a lot of snow out there, but most of it was hard pack, and pretty decent for running on. On the hills it was so slick I had to run off the trail in order to get up the hill. Where it wasn't snow it was mud! It was a pretty fun run, and felt good to get muddy and get back out on my old stomping grounds.

Tuesday- Fartlek with Abbey. 7x3 minutes hard/ 1 min off. I was feeling some shin splints during the last couple miles, which is pretty normal as I get back in shape. Usually I just walk backwards up a hill after my runs until they stop bugging me. It usually takes about 3 days and they go away. 7 total.

Wednesday- 2 miles, went up to Prescott Farm with Tucker, got half way through one woods loop and just started feeling like crap, I got through the loop and decided to just call it a day and went home.

Thursday- easy 5 miles, The shin splints were still really bugging me. More backward hills.

Friday- 0 snowstorm? what?

Saturday- Easy 9 miles. Shins are better now.

Sunday- easy 6 miles. Meant to run more this day, but we cut the run a little shorter than we wanted when abbey's hamstring started acting up.

Week Total- 35 miles. I have to start doing a bit more miles now. I've done mid 30's for the past few weeks and it's time to make another good jump. This next week I'll try to be around 40-45.

Week Ending 4/7- Getting hit by a CARS series

Monday- Snowboarding, probably the last day of the season.

Tuesday-1 mile warm up then a Hard 5 miles with Abbey. 33:20. We were hoping to be a little faster but it was really windy out. Abbey toughed out another hard 5 after that. She is a Machine. I played it "safe" and only did one loop, but I think I could have done the second one with her. I felt pretty good.

Wednesday- 0 day off, it was cold and windy out I wussed out.

Thursday- Easy 6 with Abbey and our neighbor Yannick. Fun run with Yannick for his first run since I don't know when. He's not a runner though. He wanted us to take him out for a run and wasn't happy with just going 1 or 2 miles to start. He said he knew the loop and if he couldn't keep up he'd just let us go and walk if he needed to. So we ran and he managed to not walk for the whole loop, even a brutal quarter mile hill just before a mile to go. I was impressed.

Friday- Easy 3 miles before SEA race.

Saturday-5k Race, 18:26 I think? I don't really care to look at the results, you can say 18:30 to be safe. I was hoping to take off a bit more than that this week. I really thought I'd be sub 18. I guess it takes time. Hopefully I can make up some ground over the next couple weeks though. I'm currently in 8th place for CARS and need to gain some major fitness if I'm going to have a chance of scoring this year. I've already used my two throw away races and need to start making some points from here on out.

Sunday- Easy 10 miles after a day of snowboarding. Felt good to get it done, but I was crawling at some points. My legs were toast. At least it was nice and sunny out!

Week Total: 33 miles. a decent week for coming back from an injury, but I should have run on that wednesday that I whimped out cause of the wind.

All Healed Up!

I went to the doctors Monday, and got an x ray to make sure everything was healing well, and the fractures have healed up nicely. The two compressed vertebrae aren't going to go back to their normal shape, but they are healed up and now look to be solid bone on the x ray.

It was good to SEE that it has healed, and with that news I went out for a 7 mile "long run" when I got home. Everything felt good, except for the fact, that I am totally out of shape, and came in just under 8 minute pace with multiple stretching breaks. At least I got it done with out any back pain or anything stupid like that.

Monday- 7 mile, Funspot loop slow.

Tuesday- First workout of 2013! 4x800 hills 3:22, 3:23, 3:33, 3:23. I was starting each one with Abbey and then just pulling away from her over the hill. First time working out on this hill, maybe it was a bit long. I'm honestly happy I just stayed in front of Abbey. It will be all I can do to beat her at Gilmanton saturday. 7.5 total.

Wednesday- Long walk, day off.

Thursday- Easy 8 miles with Abbey. I had to stop and stretch a few times.

Friday- Easy 4 with Abbey.

Saturday- Gilmanton Road Race. 12th place, 19:29! Ouch. Slow slow time, but then I've never even broken 18:00 on this course even fit. For 2 weeks of running I'll take it. I took it pretty conservatively trying not to put myself in the hurt box too early. I went 5:43 6:24 6:40 something for the hill. Ugh pretty darn slow. It'll take some time to get fit again. I guess that's what 8 weeks off will do. At least I'm feeling like I can start doing some real training again. 7 mi total.

Sunday- day off.

Week Total- 33.5 miles. Not a bad week. Getting back. This next week will be about 40 maybe a little more. If everything is good after that ill go closer to 50 the week after that. The race was a bit discouraging but ill take off a big chunk this Saturday on SEA's flat course.

Week 2

Monday- easy 3 miles, not a lot of time today.

Tuesday- came home and shoveled 0

Wednesday- The back was really sore after shoveling, so I took the day off.

Thursday- Easy 4 miles with Abbey.

Friday- Easy 3 miles on the trails on Liberty Hill. I was missing my old stomping grounds, but I just wasn't ready for those trails yet, especially not in the snow. My legs were sapped after about 2 miles running in the snow, and then the snowmobile tracks stopped, and so I decided to turn back too. I was so wiped I wound up walking one of the longer hills.

Saturday- Steady 5 miles. Felt like I was killing it, but was barely under 40 minutes. Apparently I'm not very fit.

Sunday- Snowboarding at Jay Peak all day. The back felt great and still does today despite riding pretty hard yesterday. I love Jay, they got over 60 inches in the prior week and it was awesome! Fluff everywhere!

Week Total-15 I meant to make it 20 this week, but The early week got screwed by that snowstorm.

Running again! Woohoo!

Well I've been healing up nicely and the back is feeling pretty good. I've been getting out on the bike for about a month now, and a couple weeks ago I got the ok to start doing some light running again. I have started out very slow because the first couple runs caused some inflammation. Not painful, just uncomfortable. So pretty much I've doing about 10 or 15 minutes at a time every few days, and supplementing that with biking. I've been doing a lot of just riding with Abbey while she runs, which isn't really a work out, but it's nice to be out with her. a couple weeks ago I biked while she did her hill work out and that was tough! It felt good to get a high intensity work out in. Another day I got in a very hard 11 mile ride. I was supposed to meet Abbey for lunch, and got a late start so I had to haul. I made it in about 40 minutes I was wrecked after that ride and it wasn't even that fast.

On Sunday I felt good and wound up running 5 miles and feeling great afterwards! I'm excited to have gotten a real run in again. With that I've decided to start tracking my milage, and I'll see if maybe I can't get in a 20 mile week this week.

Monday- easy 15 minutes on the prescott farm trails, used yaktraks but I was still slipping around a lot. I just wanted to get in a bit of running to shake out after yesterdays "long run". Everything felt good, looking forward to tomorrow to try and get some more time in. 1.5 miles total today.

Tuesday- Easy 4 miles back and forth on White Oaks Rd. (my road). I did 4 long strides on the way home in the last mile. Just going by telephone pole and trying to drop a gear each one for 4 or 5 telephone poles, and then easy for 2 or 3 until my breathing was easy again. This felt like a nice reintroduction to some faster running, I felt ok, a little clunky at the faster end of the strides. In a week or two I'll start hitting some hills

Wednesday- Day off nice easy walk with Tucker.

Thursday- Steady 4.5 miles, abbey kept complaining I was running too fast, but I felt good and was just clipping along for my short little run.

Friday- Easy 5 miles with Abbey and Tucker at Ahern Park. Where there was snow it was nice and hard and crunchy, but when we hit this half mile long flat section along the lake, it was like an ice skating rink. Had some fun sliding on the ice, and throwing sticks onto it and watching tuck slip and slide trying to get em.

Saturday- Easy 3 miles with Abbey. Didn't have much motivation today, I could have skipped it but Abbey needed to get out for a shake out anyway. She did a bit more, but I just called it at 3.

Sunday- Went down and cheered at the NB half. had a lot of fun seeing everyone out there. I was on my bike, and after cheering for Abbey I tried to catch back up to the leaders to see them one more time, but wasn't even able to make it. at first it was tough going because I was on the side walk dodging spectators and curbs, but once the road opened up, and the traffic let down I rode on the opposite side of the road and had to haul to catch up to the front of the race. I made it up to Hammett, and gave him some encouragement before heading back to see how Abbey was doing. Really fun day, some really hard riding. Abbey had a great race for this time of the year with a 1:25:14. I'm looking forward to seeing what she runs for half marathon this fall.

Weekly Total: 18 miles. Not bad everything felt good.

The legs have been super sore getting going, but it feels geat to be out there again. The back feels great, so now it's just gonna be a matter of building back up again. I'm not really injury prone, so I'm tempted to just jump right back into it and get rolling hard again, but I wanna be smart about it. I'm really paranoid that even though everything feels good that I could re-injure my back by getting going too fast. I have Charted out a very conservative plan that has me in the 60's again by June, but if things keep going well then maybe I can ramp up a bit quicker than that.

Looking at a long unintended break

Well Abbey and I had our honey moon in Hawaii and had a great time. Lots of great hiking, lots of great snorkeling, some awesome waves, some really nice runs and really just an awesome time. The only problem was I wound up breaking my back cliff jumping. I had been looking forward to this swimming hole that was supposed to have great jumping and got there and found some guys jumping, and asked em where it was safe to go and they pretty much showed me, but apparently forgot to tell me to avoid the area I landed and I wound up hitting a big "cussing" rock. I struck with heels first and slipped straight to my ass. I knew I was in trouble as soon as I hit the rock and came off. My breath was knocked out of me which wasn't too surprising, but when it came back and I couldn't breathe with out my back hurting I started getting a bit worried. I got out and was in a lot of pain, but I was able to stand and walk a bit and after a few minutes I was breathing easier. After I could breathe it felt like I'd messed up my sacrum or coccyx more than anything else. We decided that since I was walking ok that maybe i'd just bruised my butt really bad and I'd be ok. We had a few days left and figured I could get an x ray when we got home. So pretty much we just went on and as long as I kept moving, I had pretty good mobility. So I tried to keep moving and probably did a lot of things you shouldn't do with a broken back.

I made it home though and got an x ray yesterday. Basically all I know is that my heels are good and that I compressed two vertebrae in middle back, but the nurse didn't say anything about my lower back/butt which is what is really bothering me. I'll be getting more info at an appt on Monday. I guess we'll see what they say, but Abbey says that's usually about a 6-8 week recovery time. So we'll have to see how things go. I'm gonna try and figure out what my best cross training option is and try my best not to lose all my fitness. This really sucks because I was finally starting to come around and now I'm gonna have to start all over again. Anyway see ya guys in a couple months. I'll try and get some pictures from Hawaii and some hiking reports just for fun. Catch ya later guys!

Getting ready for Track

Getting ready for the first BU mini meet of the year, gonna keep the milage around 45-50 for the next few weeks and focus on speed and track work for the rest of the month. See if I can run a decent mile and 3k before Abbey and I go to Hawaii in January.

Monday 12/10- Easy 5 miles. felt good.

Tuesday - track work. 2x800 4x400 half rest. This was my first time doing work at 3k-mile pace in a while so I decided to keep the work load pretty low today. 2:26 2:30 70 71 71 68. The fast work certainly felt like a shock to the system, but I was pretty happy with how the work out went. My guess is the next one should feel a bit better.
2 miles warm up 2 mile cool down. 7 mile total.

Wednesday-easy 7 with Tucker. Feels so good to have hunting season be over. I always try to wear bright colors and put as much orange on tuck as I can, but it sure feels nice to be out there and not have to think about hunters at all.

Thursday-easy 7 with Abbey. funspot loop, felt really sluggish today.

Friday- easy 4 miles while my I was getting my winter tires put on the Yaris.

Saturday- BU mini meet 9:18 3k and 4:45 mile

Felt great in the 3k, I got out nice and easy and just tucked in on the inside rail and told myself to stay there and run 37's. There were a few guys in my heat trying to do the same thing, so we packed up and I just tried to stay comfortable. Everything felt great til 10 laps in and then it started getting a bit harder. I held it together slowing down to 38's for a couple laps and then kicked a 33 to finish out the race. Thanks to Greg Hammett for the splits.

The mile, was a bit tougher. I felt pretty comfortable the first 800 in 2:20, but I was hoping to be closer to 2:18, I hoped to be able to close, but just wasnt able to change gears as I got further into the race. Had a weak last lap or two, and was kicking myself afterwards for not bearing down and giving a good last lap.

Overall this was a pretty good day though, Very encouraged by the 3k, because I felt super in control the whole race, even when it started getting harder toward the end. Looking forward to being a bit more aggressive next week and trying to take off some more time. Got in about 10 miles total with WU/CD

Sunday- easy 4 miles. Abbey's calves and mine were killing us after racing in spikes on the track, so we just ran an easy half hour. Felt good after my calves loosened up, but we decided to just keep it short.

Week Total: 44 This has been about my average week since the marathon, and i've been racing well off that. I know I need to start bumping it up again though before I get too used to running 40's every week. Hopefully around 60 next week.

Back to the Blog

Hey guys I know it's been a while. I've had a handful of races since the wedding including a failed marathon attempt. I'll try to go through em pretty succinctly just to bring you all up to date. I guess it doesn't really matter, there isn't too much interesting about any of it but here we go.

Let's see the week after the wedding we went down and ran a race hosted by the Merrimack XC and Track teams. Abbey and I got our first win as "Newlywoods". We got that one from my 6 year old neice. I ran a solo 16:51 and felt pretty good about my fitness for the marathon.

We rested up until the marathon and I felt pretty confident. The morning of the race came and it was windy, but not too cold. I felt pretty comfortable getting in a nice pack of guys looking to go around 2:50. Felt great through 10, in 65:40 and through half in 1:25:20 and then not long after that I started slowing down like crazy by mile 15 I was running 8:30's. I gave it a mile or two more to see if I could recover and get going again, I scarfed down a GU and hoped I'd get going, but no. I just struggled and by about 17 I'd given up and started walking. I walked until I could catch a ride with Abbey's dad around mile 19. I felt pretty horrible dropping out, but I knew I was saving myself recovery time so it wasn't too tough a decision. Abbey ended up running a great race for the amount of training she'd done and finished up in 3rd for the second year in 3:07.

The week after the Marathon Abbey and I decided to go run a little road race in Franklin. I had a nice race with Scott Clark right up to the line. Another Double win for the Woods.

Wanted to run Club NE's for cross, wound up running pretty shitty, 29:10 or something. I got out a little too fast probably and struggled, I also had to stop to tie my shoe which didn't help at all either.

Thanksgiving I had a good 5k. We have been going down to the Portsmouth Turkey Trot for the past couple years and really enjoy it. It's got a great course, with some ok hills in the first half but you are rewarded with a mostly downhill second half which makes for a pretty good time if you race hard. I wound up running a 16:41 which was a seasonal PR, so I was pretty happy.

I ran Mill Cities Relay with GCS on the Co-Ed team which was a lot of fun. Got to catch up with a bunch of friends, and meet some new people. Unfortunately I wasn't very happy with how I ran. I was the first leg and I think I was about 14th or so, and I went through 5 miles around 29:04. I probably could have run faster, but I had no idea how competitive the Co-Ed division was gonna be and thought I'd be able to coast it. By the time I realized how competitive it was gonna be It was too late for me to get the juices flowing I guess.

This past Saturday I got back at it and ran a 16:27 for my first time cracking 16:30 since 2009. I was pretty happy with this and felt like it was a corner for me fitness wise. The course had no splits so I have no idea how it broke down, and I guess that's just as well. I know I got out pretty hard, and then got caught by Connor Jennings at around the mile. I tried to hang with him, and was able to keep him with in 10 meters until about a mile to go when I started falling off. I was able to convince myself that I had a good time going and to keep pushing for the finish. Despite almost being hit by a car with 400 to go, I was able to finish up strong for 2nd place 12 seconds behind Jennings.
I love this course and haven't gotten a chance to race it since 7th grade, but they had some serious traffic problems. they had a crossing guard at the intersection that actually had stop signs, but just beyond that there is an intersection with two lanes of traffic and no stop signals at all, that runners were forced to navigate with no one stopping traffic, I had to take the gamble that this car would see me and sprint out in front of him with my arm out. As I got into downtown, the traffic was backed up and I again had to work my way through that traffic to get to the finish.
Everything else about the race was great, and I had a lot of fun, but I'm hoping they can find a way to close downtown for the race next year.

Looking forward I'm just gonna run some of the BU mini meets for the next few weeks and then run some miles through January while Abbey and I take our honeymoon to Hawaii.

Wedding Week! 10/7/2012

Monday- Hilly 11 miles 65 minutes. I didn't feel like this run was too hard, but my legs started getting sore that night after the run.

Tuesday- Woke up this morning and could hardly get down the stairs. I just had those super sore, can't walk quads. All day at work I kept having my quad lock up on me and I'd start to fall backwards and have to catch myself. Ridiculous. I did manage to get in an easy 5 miles that day still which felt better than walking actually.

Wednesday- Legs were still completely beat, I began to worry about them not recovering by the wedding. I kept  Imagining walking out and doing one of those drop steps when my leg locks up on me. The 5 miles the day before weren't easy so I decided to do laps of the main loop at Ahern Park with Tucker. It's about a 1.5 mile loop and I took it a lap at a time, and before I knew it I was at 9.5 miles.

Thursday- Abbey and I did an easy 8 miles. Legs still felt like trash, I was still worried, wondering if the 9.5 yesterday was a bad idea.

Friday- Finally the legs are better! I can walk again! In celebration I spent the whole day cleaning for all the company we were having over the weekend. 0 miles.

Saturday- easy 8 miles with Goupil and Najem. Ran out in Sanbornton near the reception site.

Sunday- Super hectic morning, but I still managed to squeeze in 9.5 with Goup and Pete before the wedding.

Week Total- 50 miles. Pretty happy with that for my wedding week.

Running Week Ending 9/30

Monday- 0. I should have run this day, but I was really busy.

Tuesday- 10 miles. I ran 7 with Abbey and Tucker out on the Lib Hill trails. We were thinking about going up Mt. Whiteface, but I spaced it and ran right past the trail. It was a good thing we missed it though, because it was pitch black as we were coming out of the woods. Another half hour out in the woods, would have kinda sucked. When we got home I decided to go out for another few miles. I felt great today though, I noticed going up the hills on the trails that I was snappy, and driving and feeling strong. When I got home I decided to go out for a few more miles, and wound up with another 3 at about MP.

Wednesday-10.5 miles. Made it up Mt. Whiteface this time, and came back down the way I came, instead of finishing out the loop. Felt good.

Thursday- 3 miles am, 9 miles pm. 2 mile warm up and then ran 3x2 miles on the roads. 11:32 11:43 11:24. Ran this on the 10k course I ran this weekend, which has marked miles. Just jogged off 4 minutes between sets. That second set had a pretty good hill.

Friday-0 Have I mentioned that I'm getting married in a week?! I spent the day getting a bunch of projects done around the house before we have company arrive this week.

Saturday- Easy 5 with Abbey and Tucker on some nice trails out in Center Harbor. Good run.

Sunday- Tanger Outlet 5k- 1st 18:00. Easy win today, still wanted to run a bit faster, but I was taking it easy, and the second mile was all up hill. 2 mile warm up, mile cool down. 6 mi total.

Week Total: 43.5- Ugh! I really wanted to get more miles in this week but I have plenty of time to run miles and only one more week now til the wedding so we'll just see how this next week goes.

Week Ending 9/24 and The Take Opeechee 10k

Monday- Easy 10 miles down in Durham. Ran the Sweet trail out to Long Marsh. I felt good.

Tuesday- Easy 8 miles with Abbey. It was warm with a light rain, we started out fairly easy and were moving pretty well by the end of the run.

Wednesday- Hilly 11 miles.  Went up Whiteface for the first time in a while, I'd forgotten how nice it was up there.

Thursday- 5x1600 with 400 rest. 5:40, 5:43, 5:36, 5:30, 5:18
This work out went well, I got a good warm up in, took my time doing some stretching and drills, then striders before getting started. I felt pretty relaxed through most of the work out, and focused on keeping a good stride rate and moving fast with out pushing too hard. I got a little carried away on that last repeat, but I felt good so I decided to just keep pushing. When you work out by yourself it's rare to feel good, so ya gotta capitalize when you can. 10 miles total with warm up and cool down.

Friday- Easy 4 miles with Tucker up at the Prescott Farm fields.

Saturday- Take Opeechee 10k. Easy win in 35:58. I don't remember my splits exactly, but i went through 2 miles around 11:40, 3 miles in 17:30, 4 miles in 23 something. 5 miles in 29:10 and 6 miles at 34:50, with a 68 for the last .2. Felt pretty good, just trying to run a respectable time, which turned out to be a bit harder than I expected. 9 miles total.

Sunday- Easy 17 miles. Ran 10 by myself and another 7 with Abbey. Felt ok, some spots really good and some not so great.

Week Total: 69 miles. This is my highest week in almost 4 years. Feelin pretty good.

Week Ending 9/16

Monday- After Sunday's calf troubles I decided to take Monday off and just got in a lot of walking. My Achilles was snapping loudly every step I took all day though, and my calf was really tight. I did a little massage later in the evening to loosen it up.

Tuesday- 7 miles easy. I was a little nervous about how far I wanted to go today, but decided to do the funspot 7 miler which has a couple bail options.

Wednesday- 10x400 meters half rest. I did a 2.5 mile warm up and got into the work out. I was trying to run 75-70 depending on how I was feeling. I started out at 75 73 74 75 74 75 74 73 73 69 I was getting worried when I started slowing down by the 4th repeat. I tried to relax and remind myself that if I can cruise 75's comfortably then that's perfect. Being able to hammer 70's doesn't really do much for me when i won't be running anywhere near that pace until indoor season anyway. Once I relaxed about it the work out felt pretty good. After cool down I had about 8 miles.

Thursday- Just an easy couple miles with my little sister today. Trying to take it easy before RTB this weekend.

Friday- Didn't run until around 7 pm. Leg 9. 6:10's for 6.5 miles.

Saturday- 8.5 miles at 4 AM around 7:00 pace. Next Leg was around 1pm. 4.1 miles at 6:00 pace.

Sunday- Hiked Belknap and Piper with Abbey in the afternoon. Nice day.

Week Total- 36 miles this week. Wanted to take it easy after the calf scare last weekend. Things seem to be good though, so it's back to the milage this week.

Week Ending 9/9

Monday- Great 14.5 miles with Scott McGrath. Pretty fast first 10 miles about 65 minutes and then after a water break we meant to run another 35 but I was dying so we cut it back a few minutes earlier for 1:37 total. Good day.

Tuesday- Easy 6 miles with Abbey and the Olafsens out on the Liberty Hill trails. A little weird doing a Tuesday run with out the T-man there. He'll be back in action soon though.

Wednesday- easy 7 before work

Thursday- Work out 5x1 mile at half marathon pace w/400 rest. after a 2 mile warm up It took me a lap or two to warm up and get going in this work out so my first mile was a little slow. but overall the whole thing went ok.

1-5:53
2-5:47
3-5:43
4-5:39
5-5:36
I had kinda wanted to keep these closer to 5:40 pace through out, but I felt stronger the further into the work out I got. I probably should have done one more to cancel out that 5:53, but oh well. I'm not really sure what I'm at for half pace right now, but this workout felt pretty good and is reinforced by my 1:13 half, where I had pretty similar splits for the first first five miles. I did about a mile and a half cool down and headed home.

Friday- easy 5 miles pre race.

Saturday- Jail Break 5k in Laconia-1st 17:21

A nice easy win for a $200 pay day this weekend. Awesome! I was so pumped. I was by myself from the start and was able to just cruise along comfortably for the whole race. Felt great. I was also happy with the race because back in April I had race my ass off to run a 17:20, and today it felt really easy. Abbey also won her race comfortably and so it was a great day!

Sunday- 17 mile long run was planned, I mapped out a great hilly loop, that went out to Ellacoya State Park and then climbed up Cumberland rd through the acres and back to Laconia on Cherry Valley road. I managed most of the loop. Around 6 or 7 miles I started to feel some real tightness in my calf. I kept running on it through mile 8 and it still wasn't feeling good. I thought about turning back here and avoiding the hills, but after stopping for some water at Ellacoya I decided to finish the loop I'd set out to do. The 9th mile climbs up through the acres and by the time I got up to the top of the hill at mile 10 my calf was really feeling shitty. I just took it easy, but the downhills to get back down to Cherry Valley weren't helping either. By the time I got to mile 12 whatever was going on with my calf was breaking my stride and I wound up walking the last half mile to Patrick's Pub where I'd stashed a water bottle. I got some water and started running but it wasn't happening. I walked over to a marina down the road and gave a call to my little sister who came and gave me a ride home. It would have been a long walk home if she wasn't around. Abbey was out with her mom for the day so I would have been on my own. I'm not really sure what happened on this run, it feels like a strain sort of, it's not the whole calf that hurts, but just one muscle that's been killing me. It feels a bit better today (tuesday) but yesterday it hurt just walking all day long. We'll just see what's happening.

Week Total: Besides the failed long run on sunday this was a good week. I would have had 65 if I'd finished up, but instead I got 61.

Week Ending 9/2

Monday- Easy 10 by myself.

Tuesday- Easy 8 with Abbey, The Olafsen's and the Goslings in Meredith. Tucker was exploring a culvert pipe and wound up catching his butt on a sharp spot and giving himself a two inch gash. We were halfway through the run so we had to finish up with it wide open. didn't bleed too too much, but we had to get him stitched up the next morning.

Wednesday- 6 mile easy in the AM with Abbey. I meant to get another 6 in before work, but I was caught up with Tucker and his stitches and couldn't get it in.

Thursday- Work out- 2mile(800 rest) 2x800 (400rest) 4x400 (200 rest) 11:16, 2:38, 2:38, 74, 74, 74, 74 9 miles total.

Friday- easy 5 miles.

Saturday- 3 mile warm up then Keene Alumni 5k 18:44, mile cool down. I'm not sure what to take from this work out I guess I just gave up after going out too fast. It was a bit embarassing but oh well we'll see how the next one goes.

Sunday- 10 miles easy.

week total: 55 miles. I was supposed to run about 10 more miles this week, screwed up by wussing out on my cool down and not getting in my second run wednesday.