Boston Prep 16 and my running story

I had a witty title all made up, and a theme to go with it, but I forgot them both. Such is life at my advanced age, and that sums up the way my running races have been going too. There's a reason awards get segregated by age (and they do this from the time you're 3 years old, so get used to it). I am getting slower, or so it seems. That's a lot of weak verbs and we're only four sentences into this. Told you my writing sucks lately too.

Most of you know that I'm not really a runner. I ride bikes, and have raced them for almost 25 years, which also happens to be almost half my life. Running is another story. For the record, I was not an athlete from the time I finished Little League until I started bike racing twelve years or so later. I recall the first few winters that I was a serious rider, those being 86-87 and 87-88 as being pretty rough, sort of like this one. I didn't own a lot of riding clothes or a trainer, and there were no fancy lights for night riding. So I tried running, as what the hell, I was already doing "cyclocross" that first winter up at the BRC training series. I recall doing laps at Field's Park in Brockton with Robin, who I'd met at the old Hojo's Wednesday night training rides. And my calves would get sore, my knees would get sore, everything would hurt. I was already used to doing rides of a couple of hours, without too many ill effects, so being brutalized by less than an hour of running made the activity just seem so damaging. As soon as the roads cleared and the days lengthened I'd get back on the bike and forget running.

Every fall, or almost every fall, I'd do cross and dabble in running again, but never really got past the DOMS that came with it. I wasn't consistent enough. Cross was beating the shit out of my body too, and I was never totally free of nagging injury to begin with. Of course I tried to "cross train" too, because we were athletes, right? Around '90 I moved from lifting weights in my basement to working out at a local gym. Exercise science wasn't quite what it is today, but I did OK in retrospect, following advice from the old Eddie B book as well as other sources. Now I wish that I knew then what I know now, and maybe better understood my natural asymmetry and other physical issues, and maybe I could have prevented more injuries. But that's another story, this is about running. Some people from the gym were going to do a 4 mile running race in Canton, and talked Rob (by now my wife) and I into signing up. This would be my first running race. It was in March, and I think. My time was 34 or 35 minutes. And afterward I could not walk for days...

But now I knew what running races were all about. In the years that followed my consistency got much better. While seeking some professional help for riding/cx related back pain I got my first "hands on" experience with modern physiatry, where I was told my body's musculature was totally imbalanced and that I "had no hamstrings nor back muscles." Starting to address these problems suddenly made me able to run without pain, and I raced more, until 95 when I finally had my left knee cleaned up (torn meniscus). After that I got cautious, and was afraid to run at all. I stopped racing bikes too, as I was going to UMass Lowell at night. I got fat, gaining forty pounds before reversing the trend. By now I was 36. I had the other knee scoped sometime in there too. By 2002 I was laid off from my job, weighed over 200 pounds, and was in the homestretch with school, so I was going nearly full time. The job market sucked. I had a lot of time on my hands. Knowing my severance would run out eventually, and the uncertainty that goes with that kept me from riding my bike as much as I could have. Bike racing is expensive too. So to fill up my idle days I started walking my neighbor's two year old Golden Retriever.

Young dogs have energy, and North Easton is a great town for walking. I was still fat and needed the exercise, and I had all day. After a while we were going out for almost three hours some days. And of course, with young dogs walks turn into runs at some point. Since Murray was not my dog, he wasn't always available, I resorted to walking and running by myself sometimes. All the walking had given me a "base" of sorts, and I wasn't riding all that much either, which probably helped my recovery. All of a sudden, for the first time in my life, I was running consistently (and by that I mean maybe 3x/week) and not getting injured from it. Not big miles, but enough to compete in 5 milers and 10ks. Of course, during this time I found a job, finished school, lost thirty pounds, and started racing bikes again, roughly in that order.

That was around 2003. Since that time I've been pretty steady with the running every winter, still generally letting it go in the summer. Each year I got more serious about it, pushing my start back toward August, keeping it up until June. Compared to the bike, where I sometimes take prizes in the Cat 3s and masters, I had never been the least bit competitive in running races. I was one of those guys who lined up in the back and finished in the middle with the weekend warriors who were just there for the t-shirts and post-race Devil Dogs. Consistent training and more racing made me faster though, and by 2007 or so I was in a quest to break 40 minutes in a 10k, which I succeeded at. By now I also had this blog, so you can follow the rest of the story in ridiculous detail if you want to read all 800+ entries. Suffice to say I'm still a bike racer, but I run a lot more, and got fast enough in 2008 to start finishing on the first page or two of the results at many smaller local races. I've also found new and interesting ways to get injured, with foot and hip issues being the most recent. But this year I'm training cautiously, as my 2009 and 2010 running seasons were both interrupted by physical maladies.

Bringing us (finally!) to Derry and the race report. Last fall I only did a few races, and my 10k times were a minute or two (or three) off my PRs from 2008. The last 10k I ran was the Topanga Turkey Trot X-Terra on Thanksgiving, where I won my age group, but which was so hilly and gnarly that the times are useless as an indicator of fitness. After that no racing until the Millenium Mile on New Year's Day. Normally I would run a five miler that weekend, but the scheduling did not work out. There is no Raynham 15k anymore either, so the Derry 16 would be my first race of any distance in quite a while. And did I mention this is the longest race I've ever done? This would be my third time. 2008 was run in heavy snow. 2009 I was injured. Last year I ran but was slower than 2008 when my hip got seriously cranky at the ten mile mark. I should have dropped out, but instead I soldiered on, died a thousand deaths, and fucked myself up enough that the issue cut my spring running season short, stopping me completely by March. But you read the blog, so you already know about all that right?

Of course, the weather this winter has -- sucked hairy balls. I'm not a big fan of running out between the snowbanks. And in December, the last time there was no snow cover here, I was taking a much needed break from everything. I got my weight up higher than it's been in four years. Not obese, but a good 4-5 kg more than my best racing weight. I'd run heavy all of 2010 as it was though, so really I only added 2-3 kg. I entered the BP16 as motivation to train. And then it snowed. And snowed. WTF? I had about a month to prepare, so I was going to need a long run every weekend. I still refuse to run on consecutive days, as that's a recipe for injury for me. So I'd do shorter days, hopefully hilly, during the week, and bag increasing mileage each weekend. That was the plan. Snow and ice f'd that up, at least for during the week. Blue Hills was out. So was running on the icy streets in the dark at 6 am. This all relegated me to the company gym and the treadmill. I think in the past five years I've run maybe two hours on a treadmill. I don't think it conditions your body for the pounding of running, and it's boring as hell. But I did it this year, and sort of got into it. Two nights a week for the past month anyway. That left the long runs. Somehow, despite the snows, I got them in, with a 10-11-13-14 mile progression over the past month. I'd run at Field's Park, which is semi-plowed and semi-closed to traffic most of the time, and one week resorted to driving to Plymouth to run in Myles Standish State Forest where there was less snow. Neither of these locations has much for hills, certainly nothing like the Derry course. And all these runs were done very slowly. I simply did not have time for more. So while I got in the required durations, my prep for the Prep 16 was far from ideal.

Anybody still reading? Now we're up to the day before the race. I had an appointment at Quad Cycles in Arlington, the bike shop sponsor of my new bike racing team (did I forget to mention that?) on Saturday. That wrapped up in the early afternoon, and being halfway to Derry, I headed up to pre-drive the course before hitting packet pickup at 4. Of course, I did not have a map, don't own a smartphone, don't believe in GPS, and didn't remember that much of it. I got the idea though; the roads were mostly clear. It was forecast to be bitter cold all weekend, but you could see melting in the spots where there were drifts, so I knew it would not be as bad as they said. After getting my number, I gave zencycle a call, meeting him at a nearby pub which happens to be a favorite of mine... Four pints of good brew and a plate of macaroni and cheese later, sabotaging my slim chance of being the least bit competitive was accomplished.

On race day, I took f-ing up to a new level by getting there absolutely last minute. There were a lot of clothing decisions to make and I hadn't packed anything, had to eat, etc. You know me. I slid sideways into the satellite parking lot and jumped on one of the last shuttles at 9:35. Start was at 10. But I had my number and chip already. First person I saw at the school was Iron Mary, I think scoping out the snowbank for a place to pee before chickening out and bitching about the line for the ladies room. Guess she'll never make it as a bike racer. I got dressed and jogged to the start, lining up well back from the front. Only about 700 of the 900 registered showed up I guess. And it was not that cold. I wore wool tights over wicking briefs. On top I had a PI base layer, then a Hasyun wool base layer, a cycling jersey (for the pockets) and a windbreaker. I used a hat plus an earband, and two pair of gloves, one super heavy. That proved to be my only real mistake.

The start was slow as the road is narrow and had a lot of snow pack, but it opened up onto a dry road after a few minutes. I did not feel good. Right away my hands were too warm, something I did not expect. My legs felt tight as hell. So I ran slowly. The first mile was 7:55. Every mile is marked at this race, but with the snowbanks I think they may have had some issues spotting their markers for some of them. Hard to tell because the course is so up-and-down that your splits end up all over the place. The race is unique though as they have timing mats at 5, 10, and 13.1 miles. These were accurately placed I'm sure. It's a very cool feature, and for the $40 entry fee you also get a long sleeve technical base layer, a nylon "backpack" thing, a couple of energy bars, and post-race pizza, chili, etc. Pretty good deal for 16 miles.

Miles 2-4 are mostly downhill, but mile 5 is the steepest climb on the course I think. People all talk about the hills at the end, but this one is harder. I was running sort of by heart rate, trying to maintain 7:30 (slow, I know, but I told you I was not prepared, and I was deathly fearful of falling apart at the end again). I was on track nicely, but with my HR up around 140, pretty high for such a slow pace. Last year my HR was super low all year, but lately it seems to have rebounded a bit. Maybe I really needed that break. Anyhow, on the big climb it was in the 150's, above my normal OBLA number, and higher than I wanted it to go this early. So I backed off. People passed me. Mile 5 took 8:07 and I hit the mat at 37:46, a few seconds/mile behind a two hour pace.

I had to take off my outer gloves too. I had flasks of water in my pockets and I drank some. There is a lot of downhill in the middle of the race, and I got right back on pace, hitting the halfway mark at 59:41. The tenth mile has a pretty good climb in it, and I ran this in a big group, getting there at 1:14:51, still nearly exactly 7:30 pace. Here I started to feel pretty good. The next mile is mostly down, leading into Warner Hill. The location within the race is what makes this so feared, as it's just a long stairstep and really not that steep. Suddenly I was free from the group of ten or so I'd been with for the past four miles, and I moved through traffic all the way to the top. Being within 45 minutes of the finish, I could now disregard HR and run at threshold if my legs would allow it, which they did. According to the markers, I ran the uphill 12th in 7:49. I got to the 13th in 7:17 or something like that, crossing the half-mary mat at 1:38:07, still right on 7:30 pace.

Now we were on the flat to downhill final three miles, where I completely fell apart last year. My legs were fine. So I ran. Mile 14 was around 7 minutes. The mile 15 marker came up in 6:08, so that one had to be in the wrong spot. In contrast to last year, when it felt like I was running backward, nobody had passed me in the final six miles this time. I got to the finish and ended up sprinting to come in under 1:58, officially at 1:57:57, 7:23 pace. I'd run the last three miles averaging 6:52. I was all proud of myself until I realized this was still almost four minutes slower than last year's debacle, and over six slower than my course best (in the friggin' snow) from 2008. But it still felt good to finish strong, and the detailed results with splits show me as one of the few who got faster and moved up.

Obviously, I went out too conservatively, but since I never do this, and was taking this as training, it was the right thing to do. I was not prepared to "race" 16 miles, and I knew it. Other than some expected soreness, I seem to have weathered this one pretty easily, and expect to bounce back. It's good to have this out of the way. I need to decide on goals for the rest of the spring, but I can do whatever I want now. Next up is the Paddy Kelly 5 miler in Brockton on February 13. That will provide a good benchmark for tempo (if the snow stays away long enough for us to actually train). After that I'll probably do the Foxboro 10 on Feb 20, but I'm considering finding a half to try again instead. And of course at some point I need to start riding my bike. We'll see. Reading this must have felt like running 16 miles to you. Thanks for reading.

2010-2011

Since my writing has been uninspired lately, I've resisted trying to post unless I had a photo or two to share. Almost five years ago I started this thing as a place to write, and I used to put a fair amount of effort into creating daily essays with decent form, structure, and themes. Over time I've allowed that to slip, more often than not just shooting from the hip with a hurried piece, or falling back into a diaryesque note, with or without photographic support. Through it all readership has remained steady (near as I bother to estimate), but I'm not sure if held up recently. It's no secret that daily blogs have lost participants due to the popularity of Facebook (a crowded road I've chosen not to ride on) and Twitter. Maybe the former is an easier way for people to share hastily posted photos and daily musings, but for more journalistic content I hope blogs don't die. The real power of blogs is EVERYONE has the opportunity to be their own publisher, to share their voice with others. This is a really big deal. For sure the sheer volume of stuff out their diminishes the impact of each voice (compared to when each major city had one or two news outlets, and cycling had one monthly gazette), but if you've really got something to say, people will find you and take interest. Publishing for the masses.

Microblogging (since I'm not a Facebooker, I'm talking about Twitter here) has a different sort of potential to spread timely information quickly. Here in the New England cycling world though, the circle I'm in uses it more like a big unruly group ride, sort of an unmoderated chatroom. Not particularly useful, but fun most of the time, and very difficult to ignore once you get sucked in. The fact that about half my blogroll participates doesn't help. So while it fills the void left by the lack of blogging somewhat, as Dougie laments in a recent post, you don't find any "stories" there.

I wish I had a good story for you today, but unfortunately this one is just a diary entry. Having never done any recap of the 2010 season, beginning there makes sense. This was a good year for me competitively. I won a weekend USCF race for the first time in 14 years with a flukey last lap solo against a small but stacked 45+ masters field at Ninigret in April. The rest of the year was decent too, with podiums at the WMSR TT and the 35+ Concord Criterium, which was probably my strongest day on the bike in this millenium. I had lots of fun training rides, including of course D2R2.

Running went OK too, after a tough start with a mysterious hip ailment cutting my winter campaign short back at the Boston Prep 16 in January. After that I ran decent at Paddy Kelly in Brockton, but the pain just wouldn't go away, and my times were all slower than 2008 when I was at my best. So I gave up on running and just rode, which is probably one reason why I had a good year on the bike. In May, a chance to work with Patty from CPSC physical therapy while we both helped out at Goodale's super sale let to me sorting out the cause of my hip problem in just ten minutes. Not completely, but she helped me understand my body's asymmetry and other dysfunction, and what I could do about it, better than anyone ever had before. This put me on a path to a more productive structural maintenance program, which not only got me back running, but has helped my overall fitness as well. This winter I've been able to run a few races without issue, and though I'm not as fast as I was two years ago, at least everything has been going predictably.

The other weird thing that happened was I ended up racing almost as many days of cyclocross as on the road this year. I think it ended up being 25 and 20 respectively, or something like that. Plus 8 running races for a total of 53 competitions. I don't remember whether in total that is more or less than last year. My training hours are down, exactly 400 on the bike and just 63 running. I don't track gym time, but there was more of it for sure, most of it being stretching, bodyweight exercise, and stuff like that rather than traditional gym-ratting. I did not DNF any race all year until the 1/2/3 at Ice Weasels, which was my second race of the day, so that one shouldn't count. And I only dropped out because I was having trouble getting beer feeds. Not to mention doing back to backs helped me realize how poorly my cx bike rides for me. In the singlespeed race I road my P.O.S. Scattante and even that handled better. Combined with coming off of two weekends racing in SoCal on the Fisher I keep out there helped hammer home how the geometry and fit of my ancient Hot Tubes bike simply does not work on tight courses. On faster stuff like Noho it's ok. So I really need to get a new cx bike, and have had one on order since... September. That saga continues. Maybe next year. But for now I have imposed a moratorium on bike-related spending. There's simply too much crap in here now, and I've got to learn to consume less.

Leading all to this month. Last winter I never really took a break from the bike. I think maybe five days at one point. Made for a good season, but by August my enthusiasm waned significantly. Training during CX season proved to be a real struggle. When December finally arrived and the CX season ended, I rode once or twice just to enjoy the road bikes, then hung them up on December 21, not touching them again until yesterday. Thirty-one days has to be a record for me, at least when there was no surgery involved. The weather totally sucking made the whole thing pretty easy. I was ready to ride again a week or so ago, but not in this shit. However, I'm not sure if it's just because the Twitter crowd is younger and more dedicated or what, but I can't recall ever hearing about so much hard-core training going on in the first half of January. It's nuts. People doing five hours, hard intervals, etc. Is there a secret stage race in February that I don't know about? Makes it easier to understand why no promoter can fill a field in the summertime. Does it really take fifteen weeks to get ready for Battenkill when you're coming off a twenty race CX season? Good for them I guess, though I harbor doubts about whether doing group rides between the snowbanks is a smart idea, never mind that it doesn't generate much good will for us. Yeah I know, you have a right to the road, blah, blah, blah. I'll stay hopeful that driving on the clogged arteries with snowbanks taking two feet off of each shoulder will make drivers realize there's plenty of room to share with a bike or two in the summertime. Personally I'll be confined to the trainer for a bit, or at least be down the Cape or something.

Not that I've been totally idle during my break though. I've been running 3x/week, although even some of that has been indoors on a treadmill, something I normally avoid. On New Year's day I got a chance to race at the Millenium Mile again, even managing to squeak in under five minutes, equaling last time's 4:58. And I'm signed up for the Boston Prep 16 again on Sunday... Not sure about this one. Getting in long runs has been a real struggle, but the past three weekends I've pulled it off. Field's Park in Brockton is sort of plowed, but not open to cars some of the time, and has a lane dedicated to runners anyway, so I've gone over there. Last weekend was 15 miles on packed snow, wearing YakTraks. Monday I followed that up with the 3.5 hour snowshoe in the Blue Hills. But I've hardly run any hills, and my overall mileage has been pretty light, with just short sessions on the hamster belt during the week. In total it significantly diminishes the appeal of heading into the slop on Sunday when the forecast high temp is 12 degrees F. Seriously, I know we all hear the HTFU stuff (mostly from people who have never ridden past five hours in their lives, not exactly Jens's if you know what I mean), but this might be a good day to exercise reasonable judgment instead and just bag out. We'll see. Stay tuned. Watch this space. And thanks for reading. This took too long to write, and would take way too long to proofread, so in the unlikely event that you carefully read the entire thing, feel free to suggest edits in the comments. I'll fix them but not publish so you don't look like a nit picker. Speaking of which, I heard there is a lice outbreak in the toney schools of the metrowest region. Good luck with that... Or play it safe and go with the Stuey haircut. Thanks again.

Solo goes to Emerald City

I'm working on a post, honest. But for now, here is your hero enjoying a 360 degree panoramic view of the fair shitty o' Borston and its surroundings, from the summit of Buck Hill. Snow is still ass deep in there. Lots of fallen limbs and trees. Did some bushwhacking and trail blazing. Thanks for reading.

Two more

Here's one of Robin riding at Wompatuck on the famous Marukin, in its second life, after road bike, before TT bike. It had not yet had the Moots mounts installed and was still sportin' sidepulls. This dropoff was so steep that the approach was blind, and some people were afraid to ride down it.




This one is for Gewilli and his cx-in-the-snow fantasies. This has been published before, Alicia G at the old Plymouth CX Stage race one year. Thanks for reading.

Old Pic for the New Year

I am working on some old CX photos that I have not published before. As you can see, I've always had style. Thanks for reading. Here they are.