Monthly Archives: September 2011

Bailed out of the Ocean’s Run last night. Wasn’t feeling much better and wasn’t sure I could race well. Deep down though, I felt like I was letting someone down (no idea who that would be). Nobody was counting on me to run this race, nobody considered this an A-race (not even me, though there isn’t much of a concept of a B-, C- or F-race for me). I don’t know what it’s like to race easy… like anything I’m passionate about it, it’s either all or nothing. So last night I was struggling with the decision, when super-friend Emily responded to one of my cries for attention help:

Don’t be stupid … unless being stupid and broadcasting it is part of the fun for you… and you’re ok with wrecking another week of training

Well, if there’s someone I really trust when it comes to running, it’s Emily. Might have something to do with this picture:

Yeah, she’s fast. As long as I’ve known her, she’s been a runner, so she’s been through this before.

Thanks Emily! You saved me from a bad, demoralizing run today that would’ve wrecked my psyche.

Last weekend was my last triathlon of the season: Lobsterman. The swim was as bad (or maybe worse) as I expected. The bike was hilly and felt incredibly slow with a 1:11 split. Pretty excited for coaching to bring those down next year. The run felt pretty good at a 41:30 split for how hilly it was, but that could be improved too. At least my hydration on the run worked (pinch the top of the cup closed and open one small area to pour it down). Stayed hydrated the rest of the day with my Wheelworks.

This weekend was far more fun. My adventure friend Emma recruited (really all she, or anyone who knows me, ever has to do was ask) me to join a Reach the Beach team another Wheelworks teammate has had for the last 10 years. Running a 200 mile relay has been on my list for a while, and this was nearly what I expected. [We started off with 11 runners and lost one in the first 6 legs (family emergency before his leg started). Due to the change, we lost one of the runners in Dead Man Running van 1, so we were down to 5 runners in a van and 5 runners + 1 driver in van 2.] When we showed up in Woburn to ride together up to Cannon, the ribbing started immediately. I had misread the entry form and thought it was asking for our pace in MPH instead of minutes (and fractional minutes). So I had put down 9, thinking 9 MPH, when really I should have put down 6.6. Bit of an idiot, this one.
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Another high mileage week. Since Monday, I’ve dropped 56 miles. Was supposed to be a lot more, but because I did some naive/stupid planning of the schedule, there was an 18.5 mile run on Thursday (with 13 miles at threshold pace) followed by a 22 mile run on Saturday (with 12 miles at marathon pace and 2 at threshold). I think either case wouldn’t be so bad, but putting only a day between the two of them… that’s naive and stupid. I made the first 16 (including 12 miles of threshold work and perhaps a new half-mary PR) of the 18.5 on Thursday (due to bad stomach stuff). Today, the first 6 miles of easy were good, but there just wasn’t enough in my legs to get me to even marathon pace. So after 2 miles, I shut it down and jogged two miles home. Not a bad day, but definitely a reason to change the schedule. I’ll get another 10+ of easy running in tomorrow with my sister, and continue with my plan, albeit with changing my hard days to have more time between them.

Sitting here with my brother-in-law and we turned on one of the Star Wars movies and it made me think of the quote “adventure? excitement? a jedi craves not these things.” (I know that it’s from Episode V, but I think it was more awesome from Mallrats.) Good thing I’m not a jedi. Spent dinner last weekend with my friend Emma and her friend Clayton talking about backcountry skiing. It’s something I’ve wanted to try out for a while (including skinning/hiking/snowshoeing up the mountain). Emma wants to teach me, and Clayton knows what gear is good. So that’s one thing. Then it turns out there’s an adventure race called Tuckerman’s Inferno (run/kayak/bike/hike/ski) in April. Don’t know if I’d be able to get into it, but if I could, holyshitballsawesome. Talked about it with a potential coach for next year, and his response was “No problem…”

So yeah, I’m getting pretty excited for things. Taking control. Doing awesome, epic shit.