2007 Running

This was by far my most serious running year ever. Prior to 2007, I'd never done a race longer than a 10k. Even now, I've still never run over 35 miles in a week, and I'm not sure if I ever will. Here's the racing wrap up:

Date	Race	Time	Pace
Jan 14	Raynham Frostbite 15k	1:03:31	6:50
Feb 11	Paddy Kelly 5 mile	30:44	6:09
Feb 18	Foxboro 10 mile	1:06:14	6:37
Mar 18	New Bedford Half	1:28:56	6:48
April 1	Cohasset 10k	39:46	6:24
Jun 17	Easton 5 mile	32:32	6:31
Oct 21	Caring 4kids 5k	18:31	5:59
Nov 10	Bristol 10 mile	1:03:45	6:23
Nov 18	Norwood 4 mile	24:02	6:01
Nov 22	Tiger Turkey Chase	29:31	6:00
Dec 1	Norwood 5k	18:15	5:53
Dec 9	Newport 10k	35:55	5:48
Dec 30	Millennium Mile	4:51	4:51

At least I like the trend. As noted on Feltslave's blog today, yesterday marked the first time ever (including "training") I've attempted to run faster than 5k pace. I'm not saying I liked it. On a bright note, I think I've got my knee issue figured out. Basically overtight/overstrong lateral quad group and weaker medial quad causing tracking issues. Foam rolled on the lateral quad, almost blacked out from the pain, but got it to release and voila, no more grinding. Stuff I need to keep working on. Thanks for reading. (cycling synopsis for the year? maybe, maybe not).

Give it way, give it away, give it away now!

This holiday season, I got quite a shock. Someone got a hold of my ATM card and cleaned out my entire checking account, leaving me with just a $15 balance. Oh yeah, that was me. This morning I was preparing to empty out the piggy bank and take the trip down to the local market and Coinstar my way to weekend solvency. However, the good people who employ me are kind of obsessive about finishing up their annual books like, right on time, so much so that the monthly deposit for December gets made a few days early, and this morning, there it was. Poverty avoided.

One of the other things my employer does extremely well is turn a profit. Every year. It's an interesting story, but I'll spare you most of it. Anyway, since the company has no debt, and only grows organically, most of the profits get paid out as dividends to the (private) shareholders. Before doing that, about 1% of the net, which this year means ~$725K, is given to various charities. I'm not sure if 1% is generous or not, but the stated reasoning is the shareholders will then receive the rest of their monies and make their own decisions regarding charitable giving. Seems fair enough to me. I know for one that the company founder, who still sits in an ordinary cube like the rest of us even though he gets a dividend check with eight figures on it, passes on a substantial amount of his wealth to where he thinks it will do the most good. As employees, we are encouraged to do the same.

My "history" with the IRS is not so great, but I'm pretty sure the year ends next week, and if for some reason you might be motivated to give charitably for tax reasons, that means today would be a good day to finish up business. Need ideas? Good, that's what this is about. Yesterday I stumbled upon the OLPC give one, get one program. Interesting. There are numerous reasons to believe or not believe in the goals of this program, but the give one, get one approach has a certain appeal. The "teach them to fish" idea certainly has potential to bring about positive change. Honestly, I haven't thought about this one too much, but I'm throwing it out there. I know we don't want to make developing countries all fat like Americans, do we? That got me thinking, could this same approach work for bikes? I don't know, but for right now, we still have Bikes Not Bombs doing similar work, among many other things. I know these people, and their efforts are genuine. Consider them for your support as well. Of course, I have a soft spot for the HSUS and have made them the recipient of this year's "found money." Maybe you will too.

Think, and of course be wary, be original, be creative, but we're fortunate, and all of us can do something for somebody. Thanks for reading.

A Christmas Story

Ok, just crap from the newswire, but with half the company out on vacation, what the hey? Here you go. Thanks for reading.

More - on training

If you're too busy to surf the web on your own, you might have missed the last three or four posts on Joe Friel's blog. No matter what you think of Coach Friel (and I happen to think much more highly of him than I do most of the so-called "coaches" with a shingle on the web), the articles are short and worth a read. I'm not sure what to think of the mid-sole cleat idea. When I first started riding seriously, the conventional wisdom of positioning the cleats way forward under the ball of the foot felt all wrong to me. If I'd been left on my own, I think I'd have gone with a setup that's much more mid-sole. That's natural; the way we all rode our bikes when we were kids.

At this point, I'm not sold on changing. Your entire position would need to change quite a bit, and there would be so much for the body to get used to, I'm afraid to take the leap. It's not even something you could casually test. For someone starting out though, without a big cycling base, I'm not convinced that this wouldn't be the best way to set up their first set of cleats. I haven't seen anyone else other than Joe giving it much attention. There are some other noted authorities who have observed many riders pushing their cleats back as far as they will go, and getting good results though.

In Andy Pruitt's Medical Guide for Cyclists, he makes note of this issue. I've been doing some of this light research due to continuing issues with tendonitis around my right knee. Again, going back over twenty years to when I started riding, I noted my left knee tracking much closer to the frame than my right knee. Over the years, I've always tried to "correct" this, and I don't think I've done myself any favors. I hate the feeling of my foot "rolling" to the outside under pedal pressure, but that's the way it wants to sit (forefoot varus). It's almost like pedaling on the outside of the ball of the foot, rather than the "beefier" part just behind the big toe. I'm still messing with cants, but I think pushing the cleat further back may help neutralize the issue. Stay tuned. Right now I just want to be able to train through the winter without interruption. Too much to ask? Thanks for reading.

Five more things...

One for each reader...

1) I have never been to a Celtics game. For that matter, I don't think I've ever watched one beginning to end on TV.

2) I have never been to a Bruins game. I might have gone to a Providence Bruins game once, but I don't remember. I did go to a Boston Braves (the hockey team, not the baseball team, I'm not that old) game at the old Garden once. They became the P-Bruins, right?

3) I sat one row behind an injured and not competing Olympic star Sasha Cohen at the 2001 US Figure Skating Nationals, and will forever regret not asking her to pose for a picture with me.

4) I have only been to one Patriots game. It was an exhibition game against the Rams, the second game ever at the then new Schaefer Stadium, since demolished. Roman Gabriel was the Rams QB at that time. I've only been to one other event there, a David Bowie concert, and I drove a van load of girls, which made it bearable.

5) I have been to dozens of Red Sox games, including the second to last game of the 1967 Impossible Dream regular season. Even while still in elementary school, we used to take the Mattapan trolley, (new pic, classic) unescorted, to afternoon games. And look how I turned out. Take that, all you helicopter parents. I haven't been to a game in over ten years though.

Special, bonus for Gewilli and Il Brucie:

6) Despite generally losing interest in motorsports, and not going to any races since the 80's, Gewilli, Il Brucie, and Solobreak went to a NEMA Midget race at Seekonk Speedway this past summer. Brucie's uncle graciously hosted us at a trackside VIP dinner tent. I had asked them to keep it a secret, you know, to protect my uptown image. Well, now it's out. I feel cleaner now. Thanks for reading.

Not random related link - Is this a young Moveitfred in Beantown honing his turnstyle jumping skills, for future use in 'cross?

One more - Rails would make the crit course more interesting..

Another Caption Contest

Sorry if you don't know the cast. TdF party at the Banshee Club. Thanks for reading.

And, solobreak presents the totally random and unrelated link of the day.

100 things about me

Don't worry, I'm kidding. But like all blogs, it's all about me. For 2008 I'm thinking about making "10 things about me" a monthly feature. That covers one day a month, bonus. Sorry, but a lot of it will end up being historical. Don't worry, this stuff is going to end up varied. The listing order has nothing to do with importance, impotence, or incompetence.

1) On September 28, 1980, I was at Martinsville Speedway when Dale Earnhardt won the Old Dominion 500.

2) One week later, I sat on the Lotus pit roof at Watkins Glen and witnessed Alan Jones winning the last Formula One US Grand Prix ever to be held there.

3) I did not graduate from high school. The last year I finished was 10th grade. I was an auto mechanics major.

4) Before I got into other kinds of motorsports, I was obsessed with drag racing and my heroes were Reher, Morrison, and Shepherd. To this day I can recall arcane details about small-block Chevy motors.

5) I graduated from UMass Lowell with a 3.83 gpa in 2003, at age 42. It took me seven years of attending night school to finish.

6) The most famous person to ever buy me a beer was Ned Jarrett.

7) I have drank beer with one of the founders of beeradvocate.com several times.

8) The only political campaign I ever donated money to was Lois Pines in her run for Mass. Attorney General in 1998. She did not win the primary. She is considered to be quite liberal.

9) I have given bike racing advice to New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte. She is considered quite conservative.

10) I have never been outside the United States of America.

Thanks for reading!

Not random and not unrelated link. Look who is number ten...

Natural Beauty

See, the bottom picture in the post below should dispel the rumor that my trip to Faulkner last week was to blow my bonus on rhinoplasty. Everyone else in day surgery may have been getting a nose job, but not me. As you can see, my air intake is as big as ever. When you have a stellar VO*2* max like mine, this comes in handy. Laugh and mock all you'd like, just give me your best smile while you're at it, with all your teeth showing.

Now's the time of year when retrospective blog posts start to show up. I'll pre-empt, but be brief. Look back to last year's turn of the calendar posts, and you'll see that lots of things have changed, professionally, personally, athletically, even medically. Some years not much happens; this wasn't one of these years. The nose remains the same, but 2008 will be more exciting than ever, and a chance to build on 2007.

The blog has changed a little too, and it's evident when looking at where it was last December. I almost shit-canned the whole thing a few times too, but didn't. Originally this was supposed to be anonymous, but it did not stay that way for long. I still have an anonymous blog too, but since nobody reads it, rarely is it updated. I've also got my two other websites, quartz.he.net/~bits, where all the images you see here live, and davefoley.com, which I've had since way back when even someone with a common name could snag a domain name like that. A few months back I considered the idea of ditching solobreak (google can take on the largest corporation in the world and win, but they can't let us merge accounts?) and focusing on my personal site. I even invested a whopping four and one half minutes of my life installing popular blogging software on it, but after kicking the tires a bit I realized it offered very little that interests me. Continuity and staying power have value, so I'm still here. I want to work on davefoley.com though, as negacoach gets thousands of hits more than my blog does, so I may as well leverage that somehow.

I've had a lot of great ideas for blog posts, but not all of them come to pass. Like my witty retorts to some of your comments, a few of them had to die after I ran them by my legal department. A lot of the rest just died from lack of effort. I'm not sure if I made this up or stole it somewhere, but in one of my index card notebooks (which, back before PDAs, which I no longer use because they suck, and laptops, which I no longer need thanks to remote desktop, I used to use to keep important info and notes, sort of like Gewilli's moleskin book), I have a quote written: "it's not how many ideas you have, it's how many ideas you make happen." I'll see what I can do to make more ideas happen in 2008. And in the rest of 2007 for that matter. Naturally. Thanks for reading, have a great holiday! Take a moment to reflect on how fortunate you are. And smile.

Not the Cascades

Blue Hills are all we've got around here. But, with over a foot of still pretty fresh snow, what better place to end my ten-day break from workouts than with 2+ hours of snowshoeing over the up and downs? Above, the view of Big Blue from the top Hemmenway Hill. We went down through the gulley in the foreground, over Wolcott and straight up Skyline Trail to the top.



We then just looped around the top and part way down the southwest side that faces the highway. Here's the cloverleaf, with Reebok World Headquarters on the right hand side.



I wanted to take a picture of the cube farm from above, but it's obscured by the hill. We didn't feel like bushwhacking down the edge far enough for it to come into view. We left back over the top and down south skyline, finishing with a great stretch along the Halfway Path area, heading up and down a bunch of little ridges, and making our own trail through untrampled snow for part of the way. When we got done I was toast. If it doesn't rain too much Sunday, maybe we'll get back out on Christmas. Great workout. Thanks for reading.

More stuff to smile about

So much more. The first smile was brought on by sleep. Lots of sleep. Probably deserving of a post all its own, but instead I'll just start with it here. Like most regular folks (I'll probably never use "folks" in conversation, but in writing, there it is), sleeping was a big deal in the earlier part of my life. I was probably good for nine to ten hours a night, and then maybe a nap too. So much did I love to sleep, when I was twenty the only way I could hold down a job was to work the evening shift. I was sleeping from about 4:30 am until 2 in the afternoon most days.

I'm going to double-dip right here and work coffee into the story, because since we're headed for chronological order, I may as well cover the two main parts concurrently. I don't remember exactly when I started the coffee habit, but I think it was just after high school, which would have been junior and senior year if I'd gone to high school instead of out sleeping late and starting to drink coffee. Or maybe it was a substance vaguely resembling what I call coffee today. You see, most of what I drank came from three places: Dunkin Donuts, The Windy Ridge all-night diner, or a jar of Maxwell House instant. And no matter which of the three it came from, it had cream and sugar in it.

Far and away, most of the coffee I consumed came from Dunkin Donuts. Remember though, this was a long time ago. Dunkin Donuts was not what it is today. The chain was New England only, and instead of having six or more locations in every town, there were maybe six locations, tops, in all of the Metro South area. The one I went to the most was in North Randolph, and they still had a full breakfast counter with bacon and eggs served off of real plates, with real silverware, and real grease. You could get your coffee in a paper cup, or a real ceramic coffee cup. Kids, I'm not making this up. I think the coffee was a bit better than it is today, but I can't say for sure, because as noted above, I took it with cream and sugar. Then as now, DD did not hold back and if you ordered cream, they put in a shitload, and I used two sugars.

As for the instant at home, yeah, well, we didn't percolate, and I guess we didn't have a drip coffee maker, and besides, I already told you I got up at 2 pm, and had to be at work by 3, and so I didn't drink much at home. We ate at Windy Ridge about four or five nights a week, so it's a miracle my cholesterol was never elevated. Anyway, over time I started racing bikes and migrating toward clean living, eating less steak and eggs anyway, and even working the day shift on occasion. I stayed with the Dunks habit though. Still slept a lot too, maybe not so many ten hour nights, but a morning ride followed by a righteous afternoon nap was a staple in my repertoire. Then along the way, Au bon Pain opened up a store right next to my place of employment. Actually, we had three adjacent buildings, and my job at the time had me constantly walking among all three (which I must have done well too, because I always received great reviews), stopping by Au Bon for a cup was a natural.

When they first came to this area, Au Bon Pain stores featured Coffee Connection coffee. Now remember, Starbucks had yet to reach their tentacles over to this coast. High-end coffee didn't really exist in the suburbs. We had DD and that was it. To my DD with cream and sugar pallete, the dark roasts from Coffee Connection tasted bitter and nasty. By this time, I was making drip at home, usually purchasing the grind by the pound at DD. Somewhere in the story, I stopped buying light cream and moved to half and half. I also moved aspartame sweetener instead of sugar. I kept on doing this, but the rich, bold taste of the CC coffees grew on me, and once I became accustomed to it, the lighter stuff tasted like shit. DD was turning into the mega-styrofoam crap in a bag, two stores on every corner racket it is today by then, and I'm sure the quality of their beans suffered. The stuff was just plain watery, and still is.

Then Starbucks came to Massachusetts. To gain a foothold quickly, they bought out Coffee Connection and converted all the stores. Au bon Pain saw Starbucks as more of a competitor, and didn't want to buy beans from them, so they switched to Peet's, which was also unheard of around here at that time. So now I'm drinking Major Dick's and Highway 101, and it's even bolder than the CC stuff. A lot more. Aspartame gets a lot of bad press and one day I just stop using it, because now my coffee has real taste and the sweetener just gets in the way.

Where the hell are we going? Oh yeah, sleep. You might be falling asleep by now too. Anyway, as my coffee got more like coffee over the years, the quantity and quality of my sleep went the other way. I'm not entirely convinced that these two facts are related, because as Gewilli has pointed out (you didn't really think I was going to do a ridiculously lengthy post about coffee without linking to Gewilli, did you?), dark roasted coffees generally have less caffeine in them that cheap, shitty coffees do. I'd kind of chalked the declining sleep stuff up to aging. I'd like to sleep more, but I just don't. For the past ten years or so, six hours or so is all I can manage. No more naps either. Even on a weekend, with nothing to wake up for, comfy and cozy, I just wake up. I don't even use an alarm clock.

Here's the weird part: starting about two months ago, suddenly I'm sleeping again. And I mean really sleeping, like a baby, eight hours a night, and smiling about it the next day. I do not have an explanation, but I'm liking it. You biochemistry experts can chime in, but I've read that HGH is only produced by the body when we sleep, and that sleeping is the best anti-aging treatment, etc. You don't have to sell me. Ironically, just the other day Gewilli posted "who needs sleep?" or something like that. Well, more thanks to Ge, as I've written on the blog before, I'm now about one month into black coffee, no additives. Just coffee. It took me about 25 30 years to get to this point. Honestly, I don't like it quite as much as I did with a little cream, but I still look forward to it, and I'm drinking a little less as a result. These days, I almost never buy a cup all made, instead drip brewing it at home. I've tried beans from 53x11.com (before your race too GC, in fact go back on my blog archives and you'll find the pictures from when I bought my first shipment. BTW, I'd link, but you changed your address and I don't remember it, besides, hunting and gathering links is just one more thing to smile about, and I don't want to take that away from anyone), as well as TJ's, Starbucks, and the supermarket. This is still a backwater suburb, and we don't have access to independent roasters. I do mix in decaf though, and by far the best one I've tried is from Vermont Coffee Company. You can get it online, but I bought it at the Stonyfield Visitor Center in Londonderry, NH, right next to the Manchester Airport. Is that why I'm sleeping better? I don't think so, as I still drink the New England crap we have at work most days too, and that is loaded with caffeine.

Going to the gym and doing strength training is the only logical explanation I have, but I only do that about twice a week, and I'm sleeping better nearly every night. And I'm smiling about it. What else to smile about? Colin's blog. Now that he doesn't have results to worry about, this smartass has a funny blog. And his smartass friend's write funny comments too, even when they're not trying too. And CR responds. Nothing wrong with that. He should race the road with us. And bring his friends. Or at least blog about why he doesn't.

There's lots to be happy about. The ice age came right when I was taking my break anyway, heh-heh. That's good, because yesterday my roof started leaking (bad), my wound started bleeding profusely (also very bad), and today my car seems to be in trouble. Driving home from Framingham, stuck in traffic right after the toll, suddenly I smell anti-freeze... And then my windows ice up, and I nearly crash, but the Geo is pretty good at four-wheeling off the cloverleaf. I'm not sure if the heater core is leaking or what, but I ended up buying paper towels and driving home with the windows open, steering with one hand and wiping the inside of the windshield (with a vigorous circular motion, rub it!) with the other. Luckily, it was a balmy 18 degrees. See? Lots to smile about. And one of the veal calves called me out for only linking to two three female bloggers, and like fifteen males. And one rarely update, and the other doesn't like me anymore. Is this really a problem? I think it's something to smile about. And baseball stars all take p.e. drugs? Oh my god. Smile. There's more too, but I'm out of gas, need sleep. Thanks for reading.


PS - now I remember. Google search superlatex girl. Yup, there's solobreak, right about six down. Smile.

Smile

Because if you're reading this, you probably have a lot to smile about. Relax a little too. Be happy.

And this is catching on

Thanks for reading and smiling!

This is so f'n wrong...

That I'm not sure how I missed it. And these fucks even stole my warmup routine.
Full story on boston.com.

Thanks for reading.

Pound This

So on Monday, after my huge 10k PR at Newport, GCDavid (btw, perhaps the only human on blogger who hasn't got a link from Gewilli) joked (at least I think he was joking) in the comments that I should "report to drug testing." Well, the funny thing is, on the prior Thursday, I'd had blood work done as part of routine pre-operative testing for the procedure I underwent today. The result? My hematocrit was freaking 40, barely high enough to be considered a healthy male. Obviously, my chimeric twin hasn't been pulling his friggin' weight. Yet, three days later I better my PR by almost four minutes. Makes me wonder what I could do if I was on the hot sauce? Thanks for reading.

Clear Liquids Only

All freaking day. This should be fun. Then nothing at all after midnight, not even water. And of course, I drew the afternoon straw for my time in the OR, so I get to starve all morning tomorrow too. But it's all for the greater good. That switch to black coffee is looking like a good decision today though. I've made it stick too. I actually enjoy it, though not as much, which has helped me cut down consumption. All good.

Speaking of consumption, I passed two months of meticulous food logging. No real surprises. In 64 days, 194,261 calories went on the books, an average of 3035/day. According to the tool I'm using, my running and cycling workouts have totaled 51,703 calories burned, leaving a balance of 2227/day, against an estimated BMR of 1800. The tool does not allow for entry of calories burned during other types of exercise, such as gym training, and it also gives me a much higher number (especially for cycling) than the Polar OwnCalS does. The tool also only works by distance, so for cyclocross, it's useless. What I've done is entered phantom running workouts along with the cycling time entered to bring the total up to what the Polar gives me.

Of course it's all estimates, but I've been pretty careful and over time I think a lot of the up and down inaccuracies get averaged out. The values for foods are always suspect, packaged or not. Restaurant food is nearly incalculable IMHO, but one of the positives that came out of the recent years for me is that I've put restaurant eating behind me for the most part. At any rate, my body weight dropped about five pounds over this time period, meaning I'm managing a deficit of ~220/day, and since I've been very conscious of maintaining protein intake and concurrently doing strength training, I think most of the weight loss was fat. My body weight is now equal to what it was when I entered the second half of my life 23 years ago. I think I'm as lean or leaner than I was when I was 30 years old and at the peak of my cycling fitness. Interestingly, I weighed six or seven pounds more then than I do now, so old age has taken away some muscle for sure.

The rest of the year is going to be break time. After tomorrow I'll need to stay off the bike seat for a bit anyway. Hopefully the snow will all melt and we'll be able to run someplace other than the middle of the street. My annual training totals didn't end up too impressive this year, for various reasons. 305 hours on the bike, and 75 running puts the grand total 20-40 hours short of plan, but overall the year was very positive and I'm pleased with where I am going into 2008. More on this later. For now I need to conserve my strength. This apple juice just ain't cutting it... Thanks for reading.

Caption Contest

I know PRs are supposed to hurt, but WTF?

The last two tenths.

If you like it, hit previous from there to put it in context. Kind of a bummer that the watermark obscures the view of my ripped quad. Thanks for reading, I guess.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Yes, that's correct, I've stooped to stealing titles from Bold. You know how it is. Lets' start with the GOOD.

My 2007 racing season is officially over. I know there are a few races in the next few weeks, but I'm going back in for more surgical repair of my back porch on Thursday, so stick a fork (or something sharp) in me, I'm done for the year. And it's been a pretty good year, with a good final race today. Not as good as it could have been, but you'll need to wait for the BAD to find out why. The 24th Christmas 10k Run & Walk for Women & Infants Program in Women's Oncology race was today in scenic Newport, Rhode Island. The course was way out on the point, not downtown or on Bellevue. It ran by the Jackie O Hammersmith farm, then onto the serpentine Ocean Drive along the water before crossing back over to near the start. The race was pretty much the only game in town this weekend, at least for outdoor running races. I wanted to test myself in a 10K before the end of the season, so I made the fifty mile trip down...twice. But I don't want to mix up the GOOD with the BAD. Sticking with the good, I'll cut to the chase. There's no snow or ice down there, temps were in the high 30's, and remarkably, there was absolutely no wind today. Dead calm. The course is pretty flat, so it would be fast. About 450 runners toed the line, and there were a lot of club runners, as it's too late in the year for the casual folks. There were a bunch of Whirlaways and some others from the RI clubs. I lined up in the front, and was rewarded by landing a cameo in the photo on the results page. You can see me in the white shirt and blue hat. Bonus.

The race started out pretty fast. The first mile has a little downhill in it and I clicked off 5:31. Second mile is flat, 5:45 as I settled in. Third mile you're along the water, 5:44. That's 17:01 cumulative, way under my 5K PR pace. Mile four 5:55. Mile five I'm getting passed by a young kid who's been on my heels the whole way, and he brings along another guy who looks to be in my age group. Not to worry, as at least a few of the dozen or so already ahead of me look grey enough to put me out of medal hopes anyway. Still, I try to hang on, and the marker comes 5:50 later for a 5 mile time of 28:47. Holy shit. They out pace me on the run in, but I still make 5:53 for the sixth mile and 1:15 for the two-tenths to make the line in 35:55.

That's almost four minutes under my previous PR, and I'm already skeptical about the distance, but the course would have to be a half mile short for this to have not been a PR. This is even faster than my pace in the Norwood 5K last week, but conditions there sucked, and I think that course is long. And the season is over, Woo-hoo!

The BAD

Saturday, I had a lot to do at home. It's all snowy around here, and I'd been late getting home all week, and the driveway needed to be cleared first and foremost to at least give it a chance to melt down to pavement. Then I did a bunch of other shit that nobody else is going to do, because I live by myself. For these reasons, I did not attempt to make it to the cyclocross race in Rhode Island in time for the 10 am masters start. I did, however, leave the house, actually, the dry cleaners, at around 10, trying to make the noon start of the 2/3 race, in which I would be thoroughly outclassed, but for which I am technically eligible to race in. With the snow up here keeping me off the bike, I figured the workout would be worth the $30 post entry fee, and afterwards I'd jump over the two bridges to Newport across the bay, and preview the run course before driving home up the "normal" way on the eastern side.

Well, it was a good plan. I'd like to blame the directions on the race flyer, but I didn't really follow them. I knew they said Division Street, and after getting on Rt 4 there was a sign that said Division Street was exit 6, but I don't know because it wasn't there. Long story short, I got a tour of that part of the Ocean State and missed the start to the race. I took off before anyone could spot me, because I didn't want to waste time in idle conversation about my stupidity, instead preferring to make a beeline to Newport and at least get in a ride. I only had the cross bike, but it was fine. Saturday was sunny out, and like I mentioned earlier, there was no snow at all down there, as Newport sticks way out into the bay. I rode four laps of the running course. Traffic was light. I wore my Timex GPS, and each lap I got 6.21 miles, or maybe just under... Hmmm.

The race has said it would be run under USATF rules, but there was no mention of course certification. Still though, 24th annual, it had to be correct, right? But I'm riding counterclockwise, and on the right side of the road. Of course, along the water, the road is curvy as all hell, so cutting the tangents edge to edge, the way they measure courses when they certify them, could potentially cut quite a chunk of distance. But the road is marked every mile, and they're right there with the path I'm riding, staying on my side of the road. Whatever. I rode four laps, then I did some exploring, then I changed into my running gear and did five easy miles as people lined up their cars on Breton Point to watch the sun set over the water, not an easy trick when you're dealing with the Atlantic Ocean. It's almost the equinox though, and so the sun is setting more in the south than the west. Everyone had a camera, and as I'm cooling down, I remember that I've got mine in the car; the pink sun is about to disappear under the horizon, and sure enough, as soon as I get back to the car, it's gone. Oh well, again.

Back to the race. I'm not even out of the chute yet and I hear a guy say "but the course is a little short." That's what I suspected, but before the race, I noted this to a guy in the parking lot, and he said no, it used to be, but this year they lengthened it after USATF certifier Ray Nelson had measured it. Soooooo, when I got home, I sent an email to Mr. Nelson. He got back to me quickly. Yes, he said, he measured it last year and found it was 94 meters short. They lengthened it, but even though he offered to remeasure and certify it, they declined. Consensus was the course is still about 20 meters short. Now for a 10,000 meter course, that doesn't seem like much, but I think the certification rules actually stipulate they add 1%, or 100 meters to the measured distance just to be safe, which would make it 120 meters short of certifiable. So figure 25-30 seconds. Still a huge PR for me, still well under a six minute pace, still incredibly satisfying, but still pissing me off just a little bit that they didn't get this certified.

The UGLY



Returning the favor for you Bold, with an arm shot no less. I may have missed the sunset, but the sky is pink, how fitting. Thanks for reading

Put a wee dram of scotch in your bottles

To keep them from freezing this weekend, in honor of Tommy Young, who passed away this week. Tommy was one of the nicest people I ever met, in or out of cycling. He always had a smile and was more fun to talk with than anyone. I will miss him. Thanks for reading.

Logfile entry of the day

I get these all the time. I'm don't know who it is, but their ISP is a company called choiceone.net. Somebody over there who names servers has a sense of humor. At least I suspect that's what is going on...

host-69-95-154-251.pro.choiceone.net - - [05/Dec/2007:12:00:12 -0800] "GET /images/bikeseat_200x150.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 2651 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"

Thanks for reading.

What off-season?

Eleven weekends have passed since the final road race of my 2007 cycling season. After the Bob Beal Masters Stage Race, your hero did enjoy a 26 day period off the bike due to saddle area issues, which helped facilitate a transition to fall running. Since getting back up to speed though, I've done seven cyclocross races and five running races, all in just 43 days. One more to go, with a 10k in Newport this Sunday (slim chance of me making an appearance at Goddard on Saturday, but you never know). Thus, the October-November campaign has become almost a season unto itself.

The Battenkill-Roubaix website now proudly proclaims there are just 136 days left until the 2008 edition. I didn't make it in 2007, but if all goes well (as in not too snowy) I should be ready this year. However, rather than being the first event on the road calendar, with a spot the third weekend in April, I'm guessing we'll see at least two non-training road events before BKR. That makes only 13 more weekends to the start of the road season. That's right, we're almost halfway.

Of course, in the winter I run. Already, five weekends in January and February have races I plan to attend scheduled, and in a few cases I've pre-entered because they might fill up. Most likely there will be a few more. Throw in the holiday and that only leaves about a half-dozen open weekends, and at least a few of those will be allocated to getting back out on the road bike for some big miles late in the winter. Doesn't leave much time to get all the bike projects done, let alone lay about the crib doing absolutely nothing, the way the off season should be spent.

It's all good though. I've been enjoying competing. Spell out goals for next year? Not so fast, at least not clearly. Suffice to say I'm not hanging up my road helmet just yet. I'm looking at a full campaign in the 45+ next season. This means I'd like to wrap up the running season a bit sooner than in 2007 in order to be ready for the early season road courses (like Jiminy and Turtl Pond), which suit me. The New Bedford Half Marathon comes a little bit too late, so I may skip that in favor of something earlier, maybe a (warm) destination race. Any full marathon ambitions are being put off until after I at least make a good effort to complete some unfinished business in road cycling. Just getting faster in running races provides enough of a challenge for now. Duathlons? Hmmm, I had those plans last year, only got to one, the others...fizzled. Cross? Who knows. I did more this year than I thought I would, and came out of it in one piece, but my aged body still isn't entirely thrilled with the concept. You youngsters just keep on enjoying it while you can. Thanks for reading.

Wrentham CX Movie

Moscow on the Neponset

Gewilli pretty much already covered Wrentham. Good course, mostly cow pasture with a long, gradual climb through the woods. The maze was laid out in such a way that braking was almost non-existent. There were a few energy-sapping ruts here and there to make it interesting, but if you stayed on the good lines, the entire layout had a fast flow to it and was a lot of fun. Despite the width being more than ample for passing, doing so required you to move off the smoother line and use even more energy bouncing up the side. This led to a lot of little packs riding along.

The big news of course was that winter finally arrived. Wrentham was run in temps just above and below 30F, but at least the winds were much less than on Saturday. We've been spoiled though, so it seemed much colder. Unlike Gewilli, I rode with a liner hat AND a knit hat under my helmet, electing to keep my ears warm. I wore wool tights too, along with kneesocks and shorts. Bulky gloves made shifting and braking a bit cumbersome. I was never even close to overheating though. Started at the back as usual. There were only around 35 starters, and also as usual at least half a dozen of them fell by the wayside on the first lap with various mechanical issues. I'm not sure if these guys don't train, don't warm up, or just don't have a clue, but it happens every week. Of course, nearly everyone rides way over their heads at the start too, so that probably brings some of this stuff on via mistakes. As I made my way past a few of other backmarkers who managed to stay on their bikes, "I'm blown sky high" breathing was the rule, not the exception. I know it's important to race for position, especially if you're a real contender, but damn, what these guys are doing is the equivalent of starting a 10k at a 200 meter dash pace, then trying to settle in. As Friel says, not the most comfortable way to race.

By the end of the second lap I'd moved up at least ten spots. Then a few of the guys who either had issues or had just started conservatively came roaring back by me. I don't think I had slowed down much, but maybe a little, as I had managed to dig a bit too deep at times, taking the bouncy line, as noted above. I ended up in a group of three with Dave Belknap (Bike Link) and Matt H (Bikeman). The Cronoman was giving me splits to grouppo Gewilli, who were about fifteen seconds ahead of us. I wisely decided to just sit on the other two, as there was no way I was going to get rid of them. I was able to stay on them easily on the main section of the course, but they were gapping me a bit on the twisties just after the start/finish. I could comfortably get back on their wheels for the long drag through the woods though, which was the best place to draft.

As we took the one to go bell, Gewilli was in sight just ahead. They dragged him back, and Matt went by in the woods. Dave B stayed behind Ge, and I wound it up nearing the end of the woods straight, planning to pass them both on the left. At the end of the straightaway there was a big tree in the middle of the track. Every lap I was going around it on the left, but Dave B was taking it on the right. Well, just as I went to blow by them, Dave quickly moved left as if he was going to pass Ge, but then he didn't. I don't know if he was throwing a block or just couldn't pass, but I was pissed, so I made a banzai move up the right, where it was all gravel. Narrowly squeezing by the towering Gewilli, I found myself headed straight for the tree at full speed. My life flashed before my eyes as I fumbled for some brakes with my heavy gloves, and I just barely slowed down enough and took the right hand line for the first time. I lost a lot of momentum, but I think Dave B might have had to check up too, as he did not come around.

From there I went after Matt, and closed in on him when he bobbled the 180 coming back up the dirt road before the gate. He was pretty fast on the top slalom, but he'd been a bit slow on the uphill barriers and the little rise after that. I closed on the barriers and took him on the riding rise, only needing to get off the smooth line for about ten meters. From there it was big gears and big gas down the straight and into the log jump. I fumbled my clip in, but just held off Dave B in the rush to the line, getting credit for 17/33 overall, just 4.5 minutes down on winner Kevin Hines. This was by far the most competitive cross racing I've been involved in all year, and it was a lot of fun. Afterwards I cooled down and the Cronoman took the requisite end of cross season, 25 degrees out shirtless photo in the parking lot. Not sure if I'll post it though, as I'm sporting an embarrassing muffin-top rolling out of my Under Armour.

Updated the sidebar this weekend too. Ran the Greater Norwood Running Club's HO HO HO 5k on Saturday. Despite bitter winds in the cold, I somehow managed a PR of 18:15, good for 4th overall in the small field of about 100 runners. The out and back course has some gradual grades to it as well, and the final mile was a mostly uphill drag into the wind. Despite this, my splits were pretty even, 5:50, 5:48, 6:00. The final tenth seemed long. May have had a shot at 3rd, as my HR the first mile was only 152 average. I was marking Steve Warren, and the other three simply got away before I went around him. Ended up only seven seconds back from third and another ten or so from second, with the winner long gone. Oh well. I'm happy to still be improving. More on this later in the week, maybe. Thanks for reading.