Friday Night Vertical 2021

Friday Night Vertical 2021

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

2019 USATF East Region & NE Masters Indoor Championship

Neat photo of us starting the 800m
For the 4th year in a row, I ventured down to Providence for the USATF East Region and NE Masters Indoor Championship. This has become a permanent fixture in my race schedule, and I plan to keep it that way, barring any unforeseen circumstances of course. There's something about coming back here year after year that I now look forward to with excitement...and always a touch of nervousness. That would be a slight lie this year, though, since I was extremely nervous. This year I decided to change things up from the last two years by sticking to my plan to skip the 5000m. Instead, I had registered for the usual 3000m and mile and also the new-to-me 800m.

As I wrote in my last post, I was questioning my mental game and newfound fear of racing so I was worried about this meet. I also didn't know what to expect since I had NO idea where I was fitness-wise. I knew for a fact that I would be slower, but I wanted to know how much slower. And would I be able to actually get myself to go all out? Would I give up and blame my injury for holding me back? Would my injury actually hold me back? I just didn't know. I can say that I came to the right place for this real test. I think I've written every year how laid back and friendly this is. It takes the super serious younger athletes out of the picture for more of a crowd that is still highly competitive but also very supportive of each other. Maybe not the best track to run on, but definitely the best indoor track meet in New England as far as I'm concerned. Plus, there's always a good group of people I know here from the Tuesday Night Turtles. New here this year were three of my favorite people in the NE running community, Amanda Wright, Kara Haas and Emer O'Donoghue. I was really looking forward to having Amanda and Kara there to help pull me along.

This year was no different than the last three with its beautiful weather outside. Haha. Always funny to be running indoors on such a nice day and especially in a place without snow and ice on the ground! Like a missed opportunity in a way, but I really wasn't thinking about that. I was fretting too much about the three races to come. I got there with plenty of time to settle John in and then take Phoenix out for a run. She's not a super fan of running on leash so she tends to run a little slower than normal AND behind me, but it was fine. Just an easy warm up for me, and I didn't care about mileage today at all. After the Phoenix warm up, I grabbed some cash and ran down to White Electric Coffee only about a quarter mile down the street. I promised John coffee. Cool little place. The guy filling the half and half could have been a little quicker, though. I thought I was in rural Maine for a minute with his meandering speed. Haha. I actually ran back with coffee in hand. Pace was faster than my run with Phoenix. Hahaha.

Jennifer Hegarty had set up her stuff next to us so we caught up and then warmed up a little along the track. I did a few strides to see how it felt. Definitely felt it in my left tendon, but it wasn't bad. Like I didn't feel like it would hold me back, especially in these shorter distances. Jennifer and I had realized earlier that Kara wasn't there, and when it came down to the wire, we realized that it was us in the first and second seeds. NOOOO!!! This would be the 3rd year in a row that I had to lead the 3000m. And by lead, I mean just running inconsistently out front. Haha. I have no idea how to pace myself in this damn thing. Ugh.

I was a little self-conscious about how I looked with my few extra pounds, and I tend not to go the sports bra only route in the winter just because I'm always flabby. But I reminded myself how much cooler it is on the indoor track after having worn a sports bra a few times in years past, so I just went with it. Whatever. It's what I look like, and I'm not out there to impress anyone.

We lined up on the line about to start when I turned around, looked down the line and noticed something wasn't right. We had no barriers/cones to mark our inside line! I said something to Jennifer and she realized it, too. So I told the people in charge, and they were like, "Oh yeah." Hahaha. So we were a little delayed while they figured out what to use. Posts or cones. They wanted to use cones so I had to point out to them where I could see them across the room. Haha. It was a quick fix and we were all set. Looks like I was overdoing it on the serious part.

Smaller group than usual.
I flew off the line feeling great! Which meant I was moving too fast. Fortunately, I had Amanda calling out my splits for me which did actually help a little. 41 for the first lap was too fast in my current (out of) shape. So I slowed it down for the second lap. I had hoped Jennifer would follow so we could push each other, but she had already dropped back. I got my laps up to 45, but I couldn't stop hitting 46 which I felt was too slow. Even with Amanda's help, I still had trouble getting the pacing right. I was going from 45 to 46, 45,46, 46....I just couldn't seem to pick it up. I felt like I did on the last two laps, but I missed her calling out my last split when I hit the bell lap. Those last two laps hurt way more than usual. So much so that I wanted to barf. Came through with my worst 3000m time ever in 11:24.99. Honestly, I was perfectly fine with it. I felt like I put all the effort out there. Leading this race is not my strong suit, but I still felt I gave the best effort I could. I didn't feel like I held back at all. With that, I had a huge weight lifted of my shoulders. That fear I'd had was gone. I did have it in me to go 100%. It's not the result I would love to have, but considering where I am right now, it was good enough.



I talked to Amanda for a bit while the men's 3000 lined up then went back over to John. Jennifer told me that Kara had made it. Yay! That meant she and Amanda would be good for pacing the rest of us in the mile. I didn't do much as far as running in between events. Instead I watched the men's 3000m which is always fun. Then I just stood around chatting. Haha. My legs stiffened up pretty fast, the hamstrings and calves, especially. So Kara, Jennifer and I jogged around a bit. I wasn't nervous about the upcoming mile. I knew I'd have some great competition to pull me to the best I would have today.

The start came up quickly so we lined up. I was 4th seed for this one, thankfully. Standing on the line, my hamstrings and calves were pretty tight, but I just hoped for the best. After the gun went off, I noticed all the women to my right surge ahead on the outside. Seeing this bottleneck, I immediately dropped back to get on the inside lane fast where I was behind Amanda, Kara and Jennifer. The other women were stuck on the outside for most of the first lap. It was a little slow with me coming in around 47 seconds. Fortunately, Amanda picked up the pace as she led. The group finally fell in line but we all stayed close for the first 3 laps. With 5 laps to go, I noticed Amanda and Kara pull ahead slightly so I gambled a bit to push early to move into 3rd. It turned out to be the right move as I fell in behind Amanda and Kara with only a slight gap between us. I knew Anna Tomasulo was close, but I could feel a slight gap for the next 3 laps. When it came down to the last 2, Amanda picked it up so I followed. Kara was hot on her heels. I was happy I could keep up. Yay! At the bell lap, as predicted, Kara hoofed it past Amanda and put on a decent gap. I could hear Anna behind me so I put it all out there to stay ahead, almost catching Amanda who crossed the line less than a second ahead of me. Anna, whom I barely beat in the mile last year finished about 3 seconds back. 5:50.99 for me. Yes!  Certainly not even close to what used to be a good time for me, but I'll take it because today that was a great time.


Hitting lap 1 where I was hanging back

Amanda and me coming in to the finish
Now, I was nervous again because the thought of running a faster pace than the mile sounded painful. My legs were stiff and sore pretty quickly after the mile. I thought it would be a quick turnaround to the 800, but it ended up being a long time. I jogged around a bit, but my legs were even more stiff by the time we got on the line for the 800. The only thing I was looking forward to was the fact that it was only 4 laps.

There were quite a few younger women in this event. I was seeded 8th which was fairly accurate since I'm pretty sure I finished 6th. It was pretty funny at the start. Since Emer O'Donoghue put down 3.5 seconds for her seed time, she was seeded first. I thought it was great and told Scott Mason to make sure he got a photo of it. He did!


All I can say is that this race HURT. I was left in the dust quickly by the front of the pack. I had nothing. Haha. I was barely able to pass Jennifer on the 2nd lap, but I couldn't hold off Anna on this one past the end of the 3rd lap and she would get ME by 3 seconds this time. I was all out and my lungs were burning, but I could not hang at all. My body is not built to race 800s. Finished in 2:48. Sad because I used to run around 2:50 during 6x800 track workouts. But with this injury combined with being out of shape there was no way I could give more. I literally was at my max. Since the 800m (indoor or outdoor) is part of the All Terrain Series this year, I will go back and try again on the outdoor track in July. No doubt I'll be much fitter then. Humidity could play a factor in the summer, but I plan to improve on that time for sure. After that, I'm not sure I'll race the 800m again.

Full Results

As per the usual, I didn't cool down. Instead I quickly changed then John and I headed over to Ogie's like we always do with the Tuesday Night Turtles. Steve Brightman came along, too. It was fun. Probably left the earliest I've ever left since it was still light out, but that was a good thing. No need to stay longer and torture John. No photos other than this one; I was trying to get Bob and Nick in their bro hug, but Bob moved. Just for ruining the photo op, I'm posting the bad photo that came out instead. Haha. I should have thought to take photos of the whole group since no one does that anymore.


Ogie's always has the weirdest stuff on their TVs. Today was the Nyan Cat. Haha.
So, overall, I was very happy with how the track meet went. I got over my fear of racing hard. Plus, I have an idea of where I am fitness-wise. Pretty far behind, but after only 6 weeks back running and low mileage I wasn't expecting greatness. I have a long way to go to get back, and as I sit here at work writing this 3 days after the meet, I'm really sore. Ugh.

Three gold medals in the 40-44. Two were by default since I was the only one in the age group.
Week Recap

Running- This week ended up being kind of a bust. I did not hit my goal of 45-50 miles. A lot of that was due to weather/conditions and then taking an unplanned zero on Wednesday. Only managed 41.1 miles this week. Tuesday's run didn't work out well so it ended up short and causing me tendon pain so that I didn't want to run on Wednesday. Highlight, though, was that I did get a 13 mile run in. Yay! Granted, it was on the treadmill, but still that was a goal I did hit.

Monday, 1/21- Treadmill before work. Only 3 miles. Nothing fancy. 23:10. 7:43. Avg HR was 137 which is a good sign since I did up the elevation for the 2nd mile to 2% grade. Hopefully an indication of increased fitness.



Tuesday, 1/22- I had 14ish planned on the snowmobile trail on Bear Notch Rd. Drove all the way up there only to find the trail ungroomed with only one snowmobile having gone through. I made 1/10 of a mile of an attempt before turning around. Wasted almost an hour on that so I just drove home and decided to try out the road from there and run less miles. It turned out to be very snow and ice covered except for a few sections so it was super slow. 8 miles in 1:09:36. 8:39 avg pace. 601ft of elevation gain. After seeing that my avg HR was 153, I realized I was actually putting in a decent effort despite the conditions. Unfortunately, all of the sliding steps caused major irritation in the tendons. I was in quite a bit of pain so I played it smart and took Wednesday off. Not worth 3-4 miles on the treadmill.

Thursday, 1/23- The weather was horrid. Pouring rain. That meant the road was not happening. Pouring cold rain over all of the existing ice. Gross. Plus, had I survived it, my tendons would have been hurting again. And I really didn't see the benefit of it so I got on my treadmill. Since Tuesday's longer run didn't work out, I decided to give 13 miles a go. This would be the most I've ever run on a treadmill, and the thought of it made me procrastinate until 10:30am. I figured the best way to get through it was to find a good suspenseful action movie on Amazon Prime to watch. I chose The Commuter which turned out to be perfect and only 1 minute longer than my run. Couldn't have chosen it better. And the movie was fun to watch. I made it an even-paced run after warming up the first 2 miles and just settled in at a 7:30 pace for the remaining 11 miles. Stayed at 1% grade. 13 miles in 1:38:07. 7:33 avg pace. Avg Hr was 148. It started to creep up the last 3 miles which makes sense that my top fitness level is around 10 miles right now.

Finally learned what happens when my treadmill hits 100 minutes since I walked a bit after. It shuts off. Haha

Had to stop in mile 4 for about 20 seconds.


Friday, 1//25- I didn't really know what to do for a run. It was nice out, but I knew the roads wouldn't be clear and the snowmobile trails would be a soft mess. After thinking about it for awhile, I just decided to get back on the treadmill for an easy 6 miles in 46:35. 7:46 avg pace. This was perfect with the track meet 2 days later and also the uphill ski race that night.


Saturday, 1/26- Not sure why I thought the roads would be good since we got another dusting overnight. They sucked pretty bad so it was once again a crappy run through Cranmore Shores. Only the flat stretch on Pequawket felt decent enough if I ran in the middle of the road. The rest, forget it. Icy nightmare. 5.3 miles in 43:00. 8:06 avg pace. 305ft of elevation gain. Not a big deal really since the track meet was the next day.

Jack Frost Ln. Fitting name. That black part of the road was covered in black ice. Super fun. Skipped this section on the way back.
Sunday, 1/27- Between the warm ups and the meet distances I got in a whole 5.4 miles.

Workouts- This also didn't go as planned. Supposed to be my last week of Insanity Max 30, but I only ended up completing 3 of the workouts. I purposely skipped Max Out Sweat on Thursday because of the 13 mile run. And then, 10 minutes in to Friday Fight Round 2, I quit. My legs were really fatigued from the uphill ski race the night before. I didn't want to make them worse for Sunday so I just stopped. Still got in workouts on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Got in 3 days of 10-minute glute work, too.

Looking to move away from Insanity now that it's time to pick up my running distance. I don't want to lose what I've gained, though, so I *think* I'm going to move on to LIIFT 4 from Beachbody just for upper body weight training. The only thing I don't like about it is that he does these HIIT workouts in some of the daily workouts, and after trying one, it's just pointless. Way too easy. The core work is too easy, also. So my plan is to keep doing Insanity Abs regularly and just do the weight lifting portion of these workouts. I don't like his leg day since it involves half cardio along with weights, so I'm going to give this leg workout Chris Dunn shared a try. I'll try that out next week when I have no races in the near future.

I'll be honest that I'm feeling a little lost without my Insanity Max 30 workouts. I've gotten so used to them after 12 weeks that I feel like I'm missing something in my daily routine. I might have to add one or two back in a week just to keep up with the plyometric training, but we'll see. My focus is back to running now.

Walks/Hikes/Skiing

Tuesday, 1/22- First Tuesday in 5 weeks that John has gone to school so I had a little time to still get in some skiing despite the lost time during the morning. I had planned to ski on the Flat Mt Pond snowmobile trail, but as I was driving, I noticed the Mt Katherine ski trail was freshly groomed so I changed my mind and parked there. I love going up this trail, and it has me considering buying some skins for my backcountry skis for this type of stuff. Uphill is a pain in the ass without them. It was a beautiful day out, and the dogs and I had the trail all to ourselves. 2.8 miles up and down Mt Katherine. The downhill was super scary. Haha. Out there just over an hour which was perfect timing to pick John up from school right after.





Friday, 1/25- Walked the dogs on the snowmobile trail to Pudding Pond. This has become an easy go-to after dropping John's skis off at Cranmore. I really wanted to be skate skiing, but I was doing the Friday Night Lights Uphill Ski Race later and didn't want to completely destroy my legs. Walked 3.1 miles round trip. On the way back, I noticed a fat biker had come through part of the way behind us. Turned out that it was Kevin Tilton, and we had just missed him.





As I suspected, the deluge of rain caused Shawnee Peak to close on Thursday so I decided to try out Friday Night Lights at Black Mt instead on Friday. This is basically the same deal as Racing to the Moon except we have to wear headlamps, and there were way more people. I actually didn't realize most of the people doing it there are just doing it for fun and not entering the race. I didn't even know this was a thing until I got to the top and there were all of these skiers up there hanging out at the hut. Haha. The race itself didn't really have that many people so our start was actually not too tight. I was excited about the headlamp idea until it was time to execute it. It turned out that my helmet was too slippery to keep it from popping off the front. Paul Bazanchuk tried to help me with some ties, but that didn't work either. I'd just have to wear my headlamp on my forehead under the brim of my helmet. I had a feeling this wasn't going to go well. I would be right. The headlamp fell into my face the entire time like literally every 10 seconds...on the way up and the way down. This would be super scary on the way down since it decided to fall in my face just as I was going over a super steep hump on the downhill. I'm surprised I didn't die. Haha. I also struggled big time in my transitions and even forgot to lock my toe clips for the climb on the second lap. Only realized it after both skies were wobbling underneath me. So it was a bit of a rough go. The uphill was still awesome, though. I'm good at this part and just really enjoy it. Took just under 17 minutes for the 1st lap and 17:55 for the second. The downhill was super scary since Andrew took us down two of the slopes I always refused to ski when we had season passes there. Haha. This included the one I thought I might die on. Omg. Like straight down. I yelled out loud to myself not to die. Fortunately, I knew the rest of the slopes by heart and found those easy. Came in dead last (so we thought!) for the 2-lappers in 56:13. So similar time and distance (3.2 miles) to the last Shawnee Peak race. Transitions sucked but the climb was a bit easier and faster. Downhill was about the same.

Only pic I could find from the race. This is the start. I'm just barely visible in the blue and black jacket. Guy in the forefront was first in HALF the time it took me. Haha.
I hung out after for a drink and the raffle. When it came time to announce the awards, Andrew asked if any other women had done two laps since he only had me in the results. A girl raised her hand, so he gave her the first place award. He thought she had only done one lap. Kind of funny because I think he just assumed that since she's probably a better skier than me then she must have beat me. I didn't recall any women passing me, but it was very possible that it could have happened without me noticing during the transition. Whatever, I still won some Clif Granola in the raffle that would be my dinner that night when I got home.


I got into my car to leave, but it was snowing and the windshield needed defrosting so I had to wait a bit. Looked at my race on Strava and saw that the other woman who was given 1st was on there. (We were the only two women to do 2 laps). That's when I realized I beat her...and by about 4 minutes! Just to be sure, though, I looked at the Strava Fly By when I got home, and sure enough, I was ahead of her the whole race. What had happened was that instead of going to the transition area for the second lap, she came through the finish and got marked as only doing one lap. So Andrew assumed when I came in that I was the last person. Turned there was also at least one other person besides her who also got counted as one loop and did two. So I wasn't dead last for once! Yay! I didn't care that I wasn't given first. It's a laid back event so I won't even say anything. But funny, that it was assumed that I was second. Haha. I liked the Friday event, but I'll probably stick with just the Thursday ones. I like it better without the headlamp and with the smaller crowd.

Saturday, 1/26- Got John and the dogs out to High St. Had a short part on the active snowmobile trail which ended up being crazy busy, and I didn't hear them coming because of the hill and had to rush to get the dogs out of the way. Fortunately we were only on it .1 before heading down the High School Loop Trail and out on an old forest road that I run to get to the former Moat Mt Trail when I do my traverse loop. John was pretty funny. Decided to test out some ice over a brook. I told him that he would probably go through it and sure enough, splash. Both feet. Hahaha. Then he decided to walk on the snow off the trail that had a fairly solid outer layer, but I could tell that he was going to break through. But he kept trying and then he sunk into it. Haha. Asked, "How did you know?!" Pretty funny. Just walked out almost 1.5 miles then turned around and ran into some fat bike tracks that must have been right behind us and then turned back around. I said to John, "That would be funny if that was Kevin Tilton since I almost ran into him yesterday." That night, Kevin commented on my Strava that it WAS him. Haha. He said he turned around because he saw a guy (John) up ahead dancing and flailing down the trail and didn't want to continue. Too funny. I guess we like to venture to the same places. 2.9 miles total.


Typical walk with John Haha



Random Photos and Stuff


True to my word. I found a pizza box in my yard when I got home on Tuesday. I didn't let it get to me. Just texted Bryan a message asking if he could pick it up when he dropped off Chill. He did, and that was that.

Tuesday night with Phoenix
Since there was no Racing to the Moon race on Thursday, I went to Saco River Brewing instead to grab some cans to share with Steve Brightman, a howler and just have one drink. Well, the Fryeburg Rotary Club was there and I ended up gabbing with them for over an hour. They even bought me another beer. And now it looks like I might be joining their group. Why not? I need to be more social around here in ways outside of running. They were really nice, and I like to volunteer so I'm considering it.


I know it's overboard with the dog/family photos, but I don't care.




Phoenix was very unhappy that Chill was on "her" couch.

Love how Chill is staring off at the wall. 
John and dog photos. He stayed outside playing in the snow after I picked him up on Friday. Sent Chill out to play with him.




Phoenix's eyes scream, "Help me!"


Haha
Took some photos of all the stupid snow we've gotten this winter. And this is after Thursday's rain and any other melting this year. SO MUCH SNOW. And it won't stop!





Spot's grave is barely still visible


Melting on Friday
Decent week besides the running getting slightly messed up. The Masters meet went well. I got a lot of walks in and some skiing. I like to stay busy and not waste my free time. I'm usually successful. Work is my boring, down time, but I still do something for a workout while I'm here and write my blog posts. I also spend 30-45 minutes on my acupuncture mat which still knocks me right out.

Nothing much on my agenda other than the Mid Winter Classic. I've decided to do it even if it's slow. It will be good training, and I currently have no other races planned unless I decide to do the Cowtown Half Marathon after all. Right now, I'm leaning towards a no. I might find a 5K or something to throw in the calendar instead. We'll see. Not much else going on. Just the same ol', same ol'.