2014 Year in Review

Another year just about done.  And that means it's time for another year end recap!  Looking back at last year's post, I laid out several goals for 2014:

• Run another road marathon - nope, that did not happen.  I never really found the desire to run 26.2 miles on the road.  
• Run another 50k - yes, indeed.  In fact I ran two.
• Run 2000 miles for the year - nope.  I petered out around 1,700.

The year started with another great South County 4th Season trail series and I was happy to be able to participate in all five races.  They were a fun mix of old-school efforts and memorable snow-trudging events.  It culminated with the Big River Half where I ran very well.  I had a steady increase in mileage through the spring as I focused on the Pinelands 50k over Memorial Day weekend.  During the summer I mostly ran what I liked while taking part in a few choice races.  Then I upped the mileage again as I prepared for a big 1-2 punch - the NipMuck Marathon and Bimbler's 50k.

A big change for me this year was a new job in East Providence that began in April.  I left Smithfield, RI and morning access to some great trail networks and became acclimated to mid-day city running.  My mileage went up because I could run during lunch but the variety went way down.  I've found a few trails in nearby Seekonk but they pale in comparison to Wolf Hill or the dirt bike trails behind Fidelity.  Otherwise I'm sticking to city streets, trying to keep things fresh with as many locations as possible.  Also I spend a goodly amount of time on bike paths now.

I didn't keep up with the P90X videos as I had over the last two years.  Instead, I adopted a basic push-up/pull-up regimen that I sprinkle throughout my mornings.  It allowed me to fit in some upper body work while doing morning chores.  I don't know if/when I'll return to P90X - it'll be tough to fit into my new morning schedule and at any rate I think the basic push-up/pull-up regimen is doing the job.

Faithful readers know that I paid a heavy price for NipMuck and Bimbler's.  I pushed through both races with knee pain that had cropped up and ever since I've been battling aches and pains in right knee.  It's on and off and while I can run with the discomfort it's curtailing my enthusiasm for running and skeeving me out from attempting anything longer than 12 miles.  Couple that with a pinched nerve that's radiating down the right side of my body and I've been in a fitness funk lately.  I'm finding that no upper body stuff and scattered shorter runs without purpose makes me feel like I'm loosing fitness left and right.  Pretty funny idea considering that a few years ago I had no fitness and just played video games but there you have it.

Mileage was on pace for 2000 until Janky Knee made itself known

I'm sort of stumbling across the 2014 finish line and harshing the mellow of this review with all the injury talk.  Let's move on to the highlights of 2014 which is always my favorite part of this to write.

5. Twin Range Exploration

Not a race but definitely a fun run/hike up in the White Mountains.  After jealously reading of Adam Wilcox's many solo adventures, it was great to take one of my own while on family vacation.  18 miles of mountain trails definitely gave me all I could handle but the views were spectacular and it was satisfying to cover so much ground in 6.5 hours.

4. NipMuck Marathon

This should probably be higher on the list, considering I took almost a minute off last year's time.  Call it the effect of diminishing returns, I suppose.  It was my third year and was tough going in the second half battling the janky knee.  Still I made up enough time in the first half to account for the decrease on the second leg.  It was a hard race but satisfying in retrospect.  A great showing by Muddy and Jonny as well.

3. Bimbler's Bluff 50k

Running 31 miles isn't easy and when the course is actually more like 33 and your knee begins to really hurt at mile 13 it makes for a long day.  This race, which I sort of chose by default, became a really challenge and just finishing as well as I did is quite remarkable, I think.  I ran most of the race by myself in some form of discomfort but I held it together and finished 9th.

2. Big River 1/2 Marathon

I'm very pleased with how I paced myself in this long trail race.  I stayed with the Mighty Gazelle and another runner for much of the race before putting distance on them over the last mile.  A tough battle on what's becoming my favorite Rhode Island course (it's a nice epilogue that the following day I did very well at the Jamestown Bridge 10k.)

1. Pinelands 50k

Everything came together for what I easily consider to be my best race of 2014.  After death marching the last 12 miles of my first 50k last year, I wanted to make sure that I was better prepared for the distance.  With another year of mileage on my body and a more focused spring ramp-up, it all came together up in Maine.  There were some challenging miles but I didn't fall apart and the course format was a tremendous help.  My second 50k and the first one I raced, not just survived.

So concludes another year.  Thanks to my wife and family for giving me the time to pursue my crazy goals (Amanda was no slouch this year either, among other things completing the 1.7 mile Save the Bay Swim!)  It was another fun year running with the WTAC guys - it was inspiring watching them rack up some impressive performances, especially Masters dominator Mike Galoob.  Thanks to everyone for reading my blog and I hope to catch up with you on the trails in 2015!

 

Weekly Log: 12.22.14 - 12.28.14

Overall I'm feeling much less Doom & Gloom after yesterday's race. My fitness hadn't dropped off nearly as much as I feared and I'm more optimistic about my recovery from this knee injury. I hope to build off that positive experience and have a good week with some decent if short runs.

Monday - 0 miles

I want to run more even if the knee is achey but not the day after Old Mountain. My legs are sore. I guess a hard trail effort after a break will really tax my quads. They're beat up. The knee hurts too of course but nothing major.

Tuesday - Seekonk, MA - 3.5 miles

Last day of work until January 5th! Unlike the last job where time off around the holidays was a pain in the ass to obtain, here the office just closes shop for a few weeks. A major improvement! It was drizzly but not cold so I went over to Caratunk Preserve for one more short run before the break. No one else out there and the trails were in good shape now that the fall leaves had settled/scattered. Knee ached the whole time but it was maneagable.

Wednesday - 0

Christmas Eve and much to do! No time for a run.

Thursday - 0 miles

Merry Christmas! It seems that all my running chums get out there for short Christmas runs in mid-morning. Never really been my thing - I prefer to stay in PJs for as long as possible and shove cookies in my mouth.  At any rate Amanda and I had to make the house ready for both of our families.

Friday - Charlestown, RI - 4.6 miles

I took Oliver out for a noonday run. Driving to the town hall in the morning, I passed Richards Trail on Route 2. It's been awhile since I had been there and I was curious as to if they had expanded the brief trail. They had. They've added a second longer section. Additionally, the trail intersects an unmarked trail heading into Indian territory. We explored it for about a 1/4 mile before returning. I have a feeling it would have eventually led to the Indian church.

Saturday - 0 miles

Sunday - Stonington, CT - 11.7 miles

Jeff sent out an email about a run at Barn Island.  I generally don't make the arduous journey to these group runs in Connecticut but this one worked out.  Garvin arrived at my house and we drove over together.  I met Chris in the driveway to avoid exciting the dog but I learned afterwards that Oliver had gone apeshit anyway and woke up my wife.  Sorry honey.

Met up with Jeff, his speedster son Matthew and Mike B as the sun was coming up.  I've never been on these trails and I was surprised at the amount of land and variety of trails.  Plenty of singletrack but also enjoyable doubletrack along the marshes.  The miles went by fast with plenty of conversation and while the knee ached a bit it wasn't that troublesome.  Overall a fun run and I'm glad I finally got to check these trails out.  Thanks to Jeff for showing us around.  Only about 12 miles but I'm calling it a long run because that's where I'm at these days.

Weekly Mileage: 19.8 miles

Year to Date: 1,717.2 miles

A couple good runs this week - looking forward to finishing the year strong.  I've been battling a pinched nerve in my back which has kind of radiated down my right arm.  It's improving so hopefully I can add some upper body stuff into the mix next week.

Old Mountain 5k Trail Race 2014

Official time: 20:45.  14th overall.  8th in Age Group.  Results here.

Another winter is upon us and with it comes the annual South County 4th Season Trail Series.  This has become of fixture of running here in South County, with races that start at the 5k distance before reaching 1/2 marathon length by the end.  In addition to plenty of individual rivalries, the team competition would hopefully make a big return.  TNT easily took the honors in 2013 and WTAC returned the favor in 2014.  What would 2015 bring?

I went into this race pretty ambivalent.  My janky knee had limited my running considerably and recent back pain had added my woes.  The trails were clear and the temp was in the upper 30s so I knew that besting last year's time in the snow and frigid temps would be no problem.  But would I better my 21:23 from 2012?

I did a brief solo warm-up on the last section of the course in reverse.  Knee felt a little twitchy but otherwise fine.  Made my way back to the start and everyone lined up (over 170 runners this year - a great turnout!)  As usual this race starts with a mad exodus towards the singletrack.  We're all running way too fast, afraid of finding ourselves behind a train of runners in the woods.  I skirted past a kid just after entering the trail and then my position was set for a bit.  I found myself behind Jeff the Gazelle who was behind David Principe.  There were people close behind but once we crossed the bridges and ventured into the muddy section those folks fell back.

This muddy portion had plenty of opportunities for spills and the jumping on the slippery rocks was dicey.  As we left the mud, Principe and Jeff passed a guy in blue and I found myself behind him for a while.  P & J pulled away from us and as we cut across the powerlines I pushed past the blue guy too.  I was breathing hard at this point and wondering when I was going to run out of steam but there was a good gap between us and those behind so I felt pretty good about holding off anyone else.

On the climb up to the cliffs, P & J passed a dude in grey and I caught up to him near the top.  After a few turns he got twisted up and I took the opportunity to pass.  Jeff was long gone but I was hoping that I could hold off grey dude and blue guy.  Now came the awful switchback section - it's hard to run fast here and the turns come fast and furious.  I saw that grey dude was right behind me and now there was an orange guy gaining on us.

After running alongside the parking lot, we ventured up into the woods for one last trail section.  Orange guy passed me here - it was Chris Fox who's something of an adversary of mine.  He passed me with a 1/2 mile to go at Li'l Rhody a few years back.  It seems to be his M.O.  Fox put distance on me quickly and as we hit the field he was already far ahead.  As I made the last turn past the ballfield I looked back and saw I had a decent lead over grey dude.  I crossed the finish line pretty exhausted from the whole thing.

Overall I'm very pleased with this race.  It's a tough one and you have to work really hard on the twisty trails to maintain your pace and position.  The knee wasn't an issue and I didn't feel like I lost as much speed as I did last month at the Mew's.  I suppose you could say that with my recent break from running I did a super-taper for this race.  I didn't stick around as I had to get back to preparations for our winter solstice party but I learned afterwards that WTAC picked up the win.  A good way to start the series!

Weekly Log: 12.15.14 - 12.21.14

This will be a pretty insignificant blog post (and probably ultimately unnecessary).  I don't plan to do much in the way of running this week.  Hopefully I'll be able to run the Old Mountain 5k on Sunday.  But otherwise I may not run at all.

Monday- 0 miles

Tuesday - 0 miles

I got up intent on getting in a solid P90X workout.  Threw on Chest & Back thinking a good 40 minutes of push/pull-ups would be just the thing.  Well on my first set of pull-ups I felt a neck twinge and abandoned the effort.  By the afternoon it really hurt and my neck rotation was limited.  So much for hitting up the P90X this week.

Wednesday - 0 miles

Pajama day at work.  Boss brought in donuts and I ate three four.  I have no shame anymore.  My fitness days may be over.  The age of Donut Seth may well have begun.  Went down to the WTAC Holiday Party at the Pizza Place in the evening.  Surprised how many folks were there - WTAC is a strong club!

Thursday - 0 miles

My neck twinge still hasn't gone away.  Briefly considered a run at lunch and then laughed at my funny thought.

Friday - 0 miles

Sweet biscuits, my back actual feels even worse today.  The neck pain seems to have moved to my shoulder and now radiates down my right arm.   This is wonderful.

Speaking of biscuits, I could really go for some.  Had our holiday party at work with lots of delicious treats.  This Sunday we're hosting a party which will feature more delicious things.  I WILL EAT THE WORLD AND I DON'T CARE.

Saturday - 0 miles

Yep, back is still all janked up.  Spent the day getting the house ready for our party.  Luckily running doesn't affect janky back much.  I have no goals/preconceptions for tomorrow's race.

Sunday - Old Mountain 5k - 7.8 miles

20:45.  14th overall.  Report forthcoming.

After a great race at OMF I returned to the homestead to prepare for our winter solstice party.  The dog still needed to get walked so we did a quick loop through the woods over to the Narragansett trail before returning on Old Coach Road.  Completely lost the trail early on in the woods and had to bushwack through a maze of Russian Olives before we found it again.  Knee was finally beginning to feel achy by the end.  Had a fun party and was glad a bunch of WTACers could make it.  Props to the Gazelle for scaling my hill in his hunt for fuel for the winter solstice fire.

Weekly Mileage: 7.8 miles
Year to Date: 1,697.4 miles

So only one day of running this week but it was a good one.  I'm feeling much better about things after the race and follow-up dog jog.  Onward and upward!