Charlestown Track 6x800

Beautiful day, bit of a headwind but otherwise perfect running weather. Having not run this pace for some time, it was a bit of a shock to the system on the first two but the rest went by fairly solid. A good effort, not too tough, but no too easy either. Took a 1/2 lap jog in between.
1-3:07
2-3:12
3-3:13
4-3:11
5-3:10
6-3:03

A great weekend! With No Running!

Logged only 21 miles last week. A variety of ailments working through the house, I had a cough and fever Weds-Friday. My son has the same and my daughter had an earache, fever etc on Saturday morning. So with beautiful weather over the weekend I just decided to give my body a break from running and enjoy it. My poor wife and daughter spent Saturday morning in the doctor's so my son and I tried to make the best of it, so we ended up spending the morning at the beach!!!! It was absolutely a perfect day for flying kites, digging holes, and collecting "stuff" Was probably some of the best one on one time I've had with the little guy in a while. We went as a family to gammy and gampy's on sunday and had a great day burning leaves in the perfect weather. That afternoon Allison and I even got to spend about 3 hours alone recollecting on the joys of having been married for 7 years (Anniversary today).  I'll get back to the mileage this week and hopefully the fatigue and funk I've been trying to plod through for 2-3 weeks will be behind me.

C.R.A.S.H. B.'s 2010

I've gotten in pretty good shape over the last year so I figured I'd relive the Glory Years and head down to the Indoor Rowing World Championships on Feb 14th w/ my best bud Pat and hammer it out one more time. Last time I did this was 1998.  At about 900 meters down I remembered how brutal this sport is. It is unbelievable how in about 3 1/2 minutes you can feel utterly spent.  With no rowing under my belt but a significant amount of running I felt very confident aerobically going into it, but once I hit half way my legs just crapped out. My goal was 7 minutes and for the first 2/3 I was right on target, but the wheels came off the cart pretty quickly with about 800 to go. Final time was 7:03, Pat kicked my ass with a 6:54, there is always next year! Turned out to be a great day, grandparents had the kids so Allison and I went out for a nice  Valentine's dinner afterward.

2010 Stew Chase 15k

Some pretty steady headwinds on the way out (this is an out and back course). You can tell by the mile splits which miles were the toughest. I didn't feel particularly great, especially when I hit some of the more difficult miles and saw how poor my splits were. But, I was almost 4 minutes faster than last year so it is hard to complain too much. I also haven't really run hard in over 3 weeks, so pushing an aggressive pase for 9+ miles was a little bit of a shock to the system. My biggest fans were there at the finish braving the frigid wind to see daddy drop the hammer. All in all a great day.  Splits below:
1 mile-6:43
2 mile-7:01
3 mile-6:47
4 mile-7:14
5 mile-7:28
6 mile-6:40
7 mile-7:10
8 mile-6:56
9 mile-6:53
.3 mile-1:59
Total: 1:04:58/6:59

Sick Again?

On Saturday before the snowshoe race when I got up in the morning I felt a tickle in the back of my throat. After the race I was hacking pretty good, but thought it would pass. Sunday and Monday I ran but my throat was soar and I had this dry cough lingering. Took Tuesday, weds off didn't get much better and I've been sleeping on the couch  coughing. So today I went to the doctor and got the standard arythromycin, but he was wondering if there isn't an allergy thing going on so I got a couple other things. So basically I don't know exactly what the problem is but I am on medication for allergies and an infection. So, hopefully one of those things will clear it up. 10 miler tomorrow.

Ye Olde Salem Green 5k Snowshoe Race

Pretty sweet, this race took about 9 minutes to get to. Family stayed home for this one due to the fact that it was 15 degrees and would require standing around for a half hour on a wide open Golf Course. This was my first snowshoe "race" and I spent just about the entire 3miles saying to myself "this f....ing sucks" What makes it so difficult is not the fact that it is challenging on your legs and lungs-which it is and basically mirrors running up stairs the entire time (quads on fire and lungs burning) but it was nearly impossible to establish a rhythm. Step, step, step, trip, step, step, slip. I've been snowshoeing enough to expect this, but I was amazed at how exhausting it is when you are trying to put forth a hard effort. Also, it is real easy to fall in behind people that you would normally pass on the roads. The reason being-it takes a substantial effort to pass, normally you might just creep by; but snowshoeing you have to find a straight away, dive out into the soft snow, sprint past and then maintain a faster pace. You need to really have confidence in your fitness and also have a clue as to how much distance you have left. The pace tends to be so slow that the decision to go for it and pass or settle in behind is hard to make-it was hard for me to judge my pace, even harder when your quads are on fire basically from the start. I loved the start, snow flying everywhere and mass chaos. I'd definately do another one. Thanks to all the folks at Dungeon Rock for making this a kick ass event, Jay & Co.  introduced me to the sport, and the huge turnout at this event is a testament to thier ability to buid interest in snowshoeing. The picture above is by Bill Wooley, who did a great job. Running pictures can be so boring but these are really something else-way to bring an artistic flare to snowshoe photography See the write up, pictures and results here .

Wicked Frosty 4 miler, Salem MA

Decided last minute to head over to Salem and do the 4 miler, instead of the 10k in Salisbury. Turned out to be the best decision, my family came to watch and it is about the perfect distance to hold their attention. Anything longer than 30 minutes and my wife would just be suffering w/ two freezing kids and another half hour to wait until they can head to the car. I ran the first mile in 6:03 and then faded pretty well over the rest of the course, I actually think that is the fastest mile I have ever run period. There was some slippery conditions in mile 3 that slowed me down a bit, but overall I am pleased with the results. Splits below:

1st mile-6:03

2nd mile-6:14

3rd mile-6:28

4th mile-6:23

Total-25:10/6:18pace

Warming up with my son before the race.