Friday, March 29

7mi/48min in Pisgah with Griffin. Have a cold but feel ok. The trails are pretty sloppy. Deep mud in the sunny spots and snow, slush, and ice everywhere else. I'm planning to race at Fast Friends tomorrow and get my long run in.

Thursday, March 28

Am:2mi w/kids + circuits. pm:8mi/56min in Pisgah with Griffin. Man I'm sick today. Took it easy out there and felt ok. Poor little Griffin had to pee about a hundred times. What a pathetic couple of runners! It was pretty in the woods though. I skipped out on the Marathon Road Loop with Ferenc and Najem. Good decision on my part. Went to bed early.

Wednesday, March 27

0mi - Had to get meds for Griffin my dog. Poor girl has a bladder infection. I feel like I'm getting sick. Sore throat achy all over. Ugghh. Probably could have run. Oh well.

Tuesday, March 26

Am:1mi with kids at school + circuits. Pm:10mi/65min in Pisgah with Griffin. The sun was shining and it was 44°. What a beautiful day. I thoroughly enjoyed this run. My legs felt great. The trails were slushy but I got good traction on them. I didn't even have to use my AK...today was a good day.

Monday, March 25

0mi. Planned Monday zero. I really enjoy taking Mondays off and allowing my body to soak up all that good training from the weekend.

Sunday, March 24

10mi/71min in Pisgah with Griffin. I took it nice and easy. There is still a lot of snow in the woods. One snowmobile went by while I was out there. I found a frozen spotted salamander in the middle of the trail in the snow. It looked dead but I'm wasn't 100% sure. I placed it under a log off the trail in case they can unfreeze. I went with Glenn to Elijah's hall of fame induction ceremony for Monadnock High School in the afternoon. It was nice spending time with the Barretts and hearing some of stories about him in high school. He won over 80 races in high school (many of those were relays but wow!). What wasn't said but I think is impressive is that when he was 16-18 he used to do long runs on weekends with Ernie Kennison. How many teenagers bang out 20 milers on the weekends while playing soccer and running xc? I remember him telling me he'd bonk all the time because he didn't know enough to bring fuel. It was a great afternoon and it was fun sharing Elijah's tales. This week was kind of a recovery week. Time to get after it!

Saturday, March 23

18mi/2:09 on the Putney dirt roads with Ferenc and Fyffe(he biked). This was a nice casual run. I was pretty sore from Thursday's effort. The original plan called for 3hrs. I made the smart choice to end it at 18. Windy day.

Friday, March 22

0mi. I needed a day off. Very sore today.

Thursday, March 21

19mi*/1:56 on the Grafton Marathon Road Loop with Ferenc and Najem. This was a good run. We were rolling 6 flats the last 10miles. My legs were still pretty sore from the half marathon. We pushed it the last mile. My legs were super sore after the run and it had me questioning my intelligence and my choice of friends. Weekday long runs are tough, that's why they invented weekends.

Wednesday, March 20

4miS.S./28min in Pisgah with Griffin. The snowmobiles were out so I ran on the packed trails. It was about 20 times easier than yesterday's trail breaking excursion. I saw a former student out there skiing with her family. It's always nice to run into former students especially when they're exercising. It was a beautiful sunny day. Happy Spring!

Tuesday, March 19

4miS.S./35min. I broke trail in Pisgah with Griffin after spending the morning shoveling. We got 12" of snow. Tough run.

Monday, March 18

0mi - planned rest day. Legs sore.

Sunday, March 17 - New Bedford Half Marathon

17mi*/1:41 - New Bedford Half Marathon: 1:11:09(5:26) 29th place. I'll take it. I would have loved to run a p.r. I would have loved to have broken 1:10. Hell I would have been psyched if I broke 1:11. I'm pleased though because I raced to my fitness level and pushed hard the entire race. It really was a great run. I just haven't been doing the road work or the mileage. I ran steady the whole time. I struggled after the 9mile mark when we turned into a strong head wind. A BAA guy caught me and I latched on. We were rolling and picking off people. Two of them were able to hang onto our pace and now we had a good pack of 4 working together into the wind. The last 2miles Uphill and into the wind were tough. I lost contact with my group on the last climb but reeled them in on the final straight. Here are my miles: 5:18-5:29-5:30-5:35-5:09(27:03) 5:13-5:08-5:22-5:22-5:28(53:40) 5:38-5:32-5:43-35(1:11:09)

Saturday, March 16

5mi/34min on the roads with Griffin. Nice and easy. Tomorrow New Bedford.

Friday, March 15

10mi/66min on the Keene Rds solo. Trails are all ice so I took to the roads. I picked it up at the end and focused on smooth form. Feeling good.

Thursday, March 14

5mi/34min. I ran a couple miles on the trails in Pisgah with Griffin but they were pretty much unrunable. They were all ice. I turned around and got 3 more miles on the roads. Legs feel crappy.

Wednesday, March 13

11mi*/70min. Track workout at Monadnock. I got a nice warm up in and then spent ten minutes clearing the backstretch turn of snow. The rest of the track was snow free. 6x1000m with 400 rest. (3:04,3:05,3:03,3:05,3:07,3:02). Ok workout. The wind was a factor on a couple of the repeats. My legs felt ok. Not a stellar day but I got some quality in.

Tuesday, March 12

9mi/60min on Putney dirt roads with Ferenc. It was pouring rain while we ran. The valleys were freezing cold and I was getting hypothermic. We'd climb out of the valleys and hit warm 50° air. I'd go from shivering to warm several times during this run. It's nice having somebody to run with in crappy weather like this. Lifted weights in the morning.

Monday, March 11

0mi. A much needed rest day. Went for a short hike with Jen and Griffin.

Sunday, March 10 - Prospect Mountain Snowshoe Race

13miS.S./1:36 - Jen and I drove to Woodford, VT with the goal of playing one last day on our snowshoes. I had new Dion's that I was eager to test out as well. The weather was another gorgeous bluebird day with bright sunshine and warm temps. I'd be racing in short sleeves for the second day in a row. Ross and I took the lead at the start and my legs felt tired but the pace was ok. Once we hit the real climbing I found out just how tired my legs were from yesterday's race. They were dead. I had no power at all on the hills. I was reduced to walking and slow shuffling. Ross dashed away from me and DD caught me and passed without a fight from me. Time to just survive the climbs and enjoy the beautiful day and tough course. It really was an awesome course. Climbing, groomed trail and deep snow single track. It had it all. Mercifully I got to the top and TiVo said we had 2K of downhill. What he meant to say was there was a little downhill on single track with the deepest snow imaginable followed by up mountain traverses in more deep snow, with a couple of sadistic climbs thrown in for fun. I may have cursed about TiVo being some kind of sick course designer. Finally, I hit the real fast groomed downhill just as I was being caught by 4th place. I took off and my dead legs could turn over a little. DD and Ross were minutes ahead and had been out of sight since they passed me early on the climb. Just when I was getting in a nice downhill rhythm, there was one more climb that forced me to walk and to curse at TiVo again! After that hill it was through the slalom course in deep snow and then through the finish in 3rd place in 57:42. Wow! That was tough. I have to say it was fun it would have been interesting to race on fresh legs. Jen was all smiles at the finish. It ended a fun season of snowshoeing: Jen's first season racing, I got 3 wins, and I got to do a Harlem Shake on snowshoes!

Saturday, March 9 - Granite State Snowshoe Championships

13miS.S./1:26 - I drove to Bear Brook State Park with Mark. We were both looking forward to good competition and racing in the gorgeous weather. At the start, JJ took off fast. Mark and I followed closely. After about a minute I was hurting and realized that JJ was going to win. You can't fake that kind of start! He was fit! Mark and I gradually fell behind. After about 10 or 12min of racing I started to crack. It wasn't long before Kevin Tilton passed both Mark and I. I was blowing up. The early fast pace was getting to me. JJ was well out of sight and Kevin was quickly putting distance on us. Mark and I leap frogged a few times and I was hurting bad. Soon I could feel the presence of Jim Pawlicki and Dave Dunham. We hit a snowmobile trail that was brutally slushy. Mark dropped back and I tried to stay in front of Jim and DD. Jim caught me on the snowmobile trail and we battled back and forth a few times. We went back into the single track with Jim leading. We were moving well and making up ground on Kevin whom was now firmly in our sights. We wound through the forest with Jim really hammering. I was exhausted and he kept opening small gaps on me that I'd fight hard to close. Jim was killing it! We wound through the switch backs and I knew we were getting close to the finish. We dumped out of the single track to see the finish about 30 yards away. I sprinted as hard as I could and tried to move around Jim but he held me off in a photo finish. I wound up 4th in a strong field with a time of 46:30. We ended up only 5 sec behind Kevin, but we were a mind blowing 3min behind JJ. He annihilated the competition and proved he is the top dog this year in New England on snow. After the race I had mixed feelings about my effort. On one hand, I went out too hard and blew up which was dumb. On the other hand, I'm glad I at least tried to go with JJ and I did rally a little after cracking. I also really just loved the course, the weather and the strong competition. It was a blast and I'll be back next year. Thanks to Ryan Welts for putting on a great event.

Friday, March 8

Am:6mi/44min in Pisgah with Griffin. I got the surprising news that we had no school today. Snow day!! 3" of fresh snow on the trails. Pm:10mi/71min in Pisgah with Ferenc and his girls. Nice run. The weather was warm. Feeling good.

Thursday, March 7

0mi...ahhh meetings. I didn't have the fortitude to throw on the headlamp and run in the snow and dark. Lifted weights in the morning.

Wednesday, March 6

6mi*/37min in Pisgah with Griffin. I didn't go to Baker St because I got out of school late and it turns nobody else could make it either. I did 6x1min pickups with 1min rest. I tried to keep the rest honest (sub 7 effort). After I did 6x10sec hill sprints. Feeling good.

Tuesday, March 5

13mi/1:28 in Pisgah with Griffin. Awesome run. Warm weather 39°. Trails a wee bit slushy but decent traction. Lifted weights.

Monday, March 4

Am:1mi with kids at school + circuits. pm:0mi. A planned rest day.

Sunday, March 3

9mi/65min in Saxton's River with Ferenc, Goupil, Najem, Matt Haley and the girls. Nice run in great weather. It was sunny with snow flurries. We broke through some crusty trails for a few miles that cut up the dogs feet. Najem and Haley were wearing really low socks and they were bleeding too. It would be interesting to know what someone following are tracks was thinking...there was a good blood trail! I was supposed to go long today but feeling too tired. I made the smart choice not forcing it. I need a good long run next week. I'm jealous seeing what my brother and the Rhody crew did for a long run. Looked awesome! Total miles: 74. I need to double a few times next week and do a good workout.

Saturday, March 2 - Hawley Kiln Snowshoe Race

Jen and I headed down to Hawley, Mass to run in the Hawley Kiln 5mi snowshoe race on Saturday. It was a nice ride down through the back roads of Buckland and Hawley. It was evident that there was a lot of snow still in Western Mass. I did a short warm up with Tim Mahoney to preview the course. The course started and ended on groomed snowmobile trails, but 80% of it was on single track that winded through the forest. The snow was crusty and I could stand on top of the snow with my snowshoes without sinking in. Unfortunately, with a running stride I would sink in. The conditions made me wish that I had brought my 30" back country snowshoes to test if they'd be faster than the smaller running snowshoes that sank in. Next time I'll bring them with me for giggles. At the start of the race, I took the lead with Dave Dunham right on my back. We climbed the early groomed hill and DD stayed right with me, I was hoping to open up a larger gap, but it wasn't to be. We hit the single track where we would be running for the majority of the race. This was brutally tough! It was crusty and soft underneath and just exhausting work. Occassionally, I would punch through the crust and almost fall down trying to lift my snowshoe back through the crust. I managed to stay upright the entire race which was a major feat. DD asked to pass me around the 3 mile mark. I was more than happy to let him lead for a while. The trail was already broken, as Ed Alibozek had hiked the trail to mark it, but it did seem easier following. DD was really setting a good pace and I was getting pretty tired. I was getting to my breaking point, the single track seemed to go on forever and I was physically and mentally exhausted running on that stuff. Mercifully, I saw the 4mile mark on a tree. Ed told everyone that the race was 4.7mi, I knew I could hang with DD for another 7 tenths, especially since some it was back on the snowmobile trail. DD continued to hammer and as soon as we got onto the groomed trail I bolted into the lead. DD was very gracious and waved me by him. I was able to put a little distance on him and get the win. Damn! Those were tough conditions. DD amazed me by how strong he was on that crusty single track crap. It was brutal but very fun! Tim Mahoney and TiVo were next to finish and then Jen came in 5th! Well actually she had stomach issues and opted for a shorter snowshoe adventure! I did a short cool down and we headed back. It was really fun driving the back roads home and driving past the childhood dwelling of Mark Miller. Here are some pics demonstrating how the snow conditions were and how I felt after the race.

Friday, March 1

Am:3mi/20min in Pisgah with Griffin. Pm:9mi/60min in Pisgah solo. Trails were a little soft in the afternoon when I ran. Second afternoon in a row wearing shorts. Legs a bit tired today.