Pre/Post Boston

Tuckerman Ravine

I'm a little behind since I skipped the week before Boston and and the days after. I've been without a computer this week while on vacation so I decided to come downstairs and use the hotel computer in an attempt to catch up.

It's pretty crazy how different I felt after after Boston was over. Such a dark cloud hung over me before Boston. I wasn't excited. I was hating the way my body just seemed to be failing me since the fall. And funny, it failed me again at Boston. You'd think I'd be depressed, but for some reason, I woke up the Tuesday after Boston with a newfound optimism. Like I'd found the light at the end of the tunnel. I made it out alive! It wasn't just Boston, though. It was also a very tough winter for me. Probably the first time I've ever admitted to myself that at times I was pretty depressed. It WAS depressing. I don't belong there. I just don't. I need to be somewhere I can be more active without having to own $1000s worth of gear or worry about slipping on ice. I will have to deal with it, though, for at least 5 more years. I need to do something about this next year. Not sure what, but I have a few months until the snow falls again. Kidding. Not kidding?

Boston was like the rotten cherry on top. I put way too much into it. I haven't had to start from scratch with marathon training since I trained for Boston 2012, so doing that really made this winter worse. I will NOT be that way next winter. I will only be at the point where I will maintain, and I won't train specifically for Boston at all. If I feel like going for a long run, I will. If I want 12 miles to be my longest and only long run before Boston like in 2014, then that's fine. I think the thing I missed most this winter was the 4th Season Trail Racing Series in Rhode Island. I really hope someone can pick up its broken pieces from Mike Galoob and getting it going again in 2020. These races became my winter saving grace.

I'm just feeling so much better about what's to come. Time to shift to a different training and get back in shape for the mountains and long distance trail running. I've added quite a few ultras into my schedule with the first one coming up in a week. That will just be a training run basically, since I'm in no shape for a 50K. But it's all good. I'm doing well with accepting my present self and focusing on my effort. I've all of a sudden been extremely motivated to push myself and start getting myself back to a better level. I'm not having any hamstring issues right now. Completely gone. And by hamstring, I mean the sore, tight muscles I had for all of February and most of March. The hamstring tendinopathy remains my forever curse. But it's ok. I just have to work with what I can do and that's the best I CAN do. And honestly, it's not bad. Just think if I didn't have this. I'd still be a force to reckon with...on the sub-elite level. Maybe. Ok. Not really. Haha.

Oh so before I move on to the two week recap and leave fucking winter behind, the big reveal....! How much of my life did I waste shoveling the driveway this winter?! Haha. It's off by a few minutes because I'm not including the seconds. I shoveled the driveway 17 times total. 1,784 minutes which comes out to 29 hours and about 43 minutes. I spent over a day shoveling!! WTF. Haha. I wasted a day of my life living in the frozen tundra. An entire day I could have spent trail running, hiking with the dogs/John and then hitting a brewery for a beer. Then a good night's rest, followed by a lazy morning with coffee and another run! My neck was in pain all winter and my knees were bruised, all from snow shoveling. Twice while shoveling, I sunk down onto the driveway and just cried. Sitting in the snow, drenched in sweat and exhausted. Wishing I were somewhere else. No wonder I was depressed. Can't wait until next year already! Woot! Haha.

So anyway, moving away from winter and into the present. I know I change the format of my blog posts all the time. That's how I roll. I'm always changing things around. So this post will be just the day to day. I'll start with pre-Boston but only after the following tangent to address yet another weirdo who has decided to become obsessed with me...

I write this for myself, not for the attention, you failing-at-being-creepy idiot who sends me letters every few weeks. You obviously don't read my blog or you'd realize everything you send me is completely wrong/inaccurate. I don't even read it anymore. I'll skim it, roll my eyes and then put it in the pile where I have a stack of your fingerprints on the tape if I ever need them. Nice try with the stalker-ish typed, strangely folded, stapled, Dorcharter BS. If you have something to say, actually read what I write/have written and then respond instead of being a coward. Stop wasting your time on me. Your reading comprehension is lacking. You aren't offending me. You aren't scaring me. You're not even original since your attempt at being creepy is just copying the movies. I think the one who will glow from this attention right now is YOU. That's what YOU have wanted this entire time. Not me. And now you're getting it and probably getting off on it now. Sicko. Stop projecting yourself on me and get a life. You spend more time on these stupid letters than I do thinking about my blog. You don't get it. You don't get me. If you did, you'd realize that I just scoff at the moron you are for trying to get under my skin because you really don't know me at all. You have failed. The only reason I'm addressing this now at all is because it's time to insult YOU. Who wastes his/her life putting in an effort like this? Only a jealous, sad, insecure loser. That's who you are. I'm real here. When are you going to be real? Never, because you're a coward. There you go. I fed you, you troll. Now, I hope you choke on it.

Ok, then...back to the rest of the blog. Haha.

Week of April 8-14, 2019- 26.8 miles total. 1,158ft of elevation gain.

Monday, 4/8- Zero. Did my usual weight lifting, glutes and abs at work. Walked the bay for 30 minutes.

Tuesday, 4/9- 6 miles. I was ripshit over yet another snowstorm, but at least I didn't have to shovel. Snow storms by April melt quickly. Got on the treadmill for 6 miles. Sad to find my incline is no longer working just out of the blue. So I had to actually run faster to make up for the 0% grade. I never run below 1%. At some point, I'll open it up and see if I can fix it. 45:01. 7:30 avg pace.

Actually took this for my mom who was texting me. Haha

I decided to walk Phoenix on Chocorua Lake road before we headed down to pick up John from school early for his dentist appointment. We walked a little over 2 miles. Phoenix found a plastic bottle and was having a blast with it on the walk. So funny.

I nearly fell asleep during John's dentist appointment since we had a middle of the night 911 call the night before. When he was done, we went to Ben & Jerry's for Free Cone Day! (This would be the only sugar I had this week. Of course none of this cutting out sugar or cutting back on beer helped. Haha.) Half of John's mouth was numb so he had trouble eating his ice cream. It was pretty funny.

On a side note, that I completely forgot in the Boston post. For some reason, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, my intestinal issues were worse than they've ever been. I have no idea why. Like I said the only sugar I had was that ice cream. And I had zero beer those 3 days. If this had gone past Wednesday, then I could say that that's why I had trouble at Boston, but after Wednesday, it was back to its "normal". Clearly, I'm having strange off-days with it, but I can't find the cause since nothing changed.

Not sure I posted a good photo of the singlet Tom sent me for Boston. I took this when trying on different outfits that night.

Wednesday, 4/10- 2.5 miles. Hahahahaha! Let me just say that this was REALLY stupid. I wrote in my Strava description for this one, "Decided to try something different..." No, no, no. Never try something new or different 5 days before a marathon!! I did that before OBX in 2010 and suffered greatly. But silly me forgot and thought running stair repeats straight for 30 minutes was a good idea. Felt great at the time...until I woke up the next day EXTREMELY sore. I would end up being sore through Saturday. I was greatly relieved to find the soreness gone by Sunday, but that was a close one and so dumb. It was a good workout, though, and one I will probably do again...just not so close to a race. Haha. I used my watch with the GPS off so the 2.5 miles is inaccurate, but close enough to just leave it at that.

Silly photo that I set up to show what I was doing.

I also got in the usual weight lifting, glutes and abs workout today, as well.

Thursday, 4/11- 9 miles. It was such a gorgeous day today!! I wore myself out, but it was worth it for a nice Thursday. Like I said, I was SO sore and really struggled through the run and the hike I did after, but it had to be done. No wasting a day like this.

I chose to run up Carter Notch Rd since I knew it would be clear and out in the open sun. Plus it isn't an easy run so I knew it would keep me from running fast. Started at the base of Jackson Falls and ran until the dirt road started and was still icy. So it's basically just 4.5 miles up and 4.5 back. I thought I had done this run much faster in the past, so I was pleasantly surprised to find I ran an avg of 8 seconds faster per mile than last year and only 3 seconds slower per mile than the first time I ran it in 2016...when I was in really good shape. 1:12:38. 8:00 avg pace. Slowest mile: 9:54. Fastest mile: 6:54. Big difference. 1,075ft of elevation gain.

View of Carter Dome from my run

I had left Phoenix in the car during my run, but she would join on the hike up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail after this. I changed clothes then drove straight to Pinkham Notch. The parking lot was full, but we surprisingly ended up in kind of a lull of hikers, only running into a handful on the way up and down. The hike up in soft snow was pretty difficult for me with the sore calves. It would have been slow anyway in those conditions, but this was extra slow. We only walked up just past Hermit Lake Shelter since Phoenix was barking at all the people. I walked up the trail a little bit to watch the skiers for awhile then headed back down where I ran into someone I knew who was with a snow ranger. They were about to head up to ski. Sadly, within minutes of me leaving, this same snow ranger was notified of an avalanche that had occurred. He and some others hiked up there to find a skier buried in the snow. He had survived, but sadly, hypothermia caused him to go into cardiac arrest when he jerked himself up suddenly out of the snow after they dug him out. Full Report Here. I didn't find this out until later, but I heard the helicopter just as I got back down to Pinkham Notch. I knew that probably wasn't good, but hoped it was just a training exercise. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Sad that such a gorgeous day had been darkened by that. I guess I was glad I was ignorant to what happened at the time because I was really able to enjoy my day up there. 5 miles round trip in a little over 2 hours.

Growling at skiers

Sorry for the teeth photo. Haha.

You can see the skiers in the zig-zags.

In the background, the opposite side of Carter Dome than from my run

When I got home, I still had to be outside in the sun. My body has been craving this for forever!

Funny owning two cars now. They barely fit in the driveway with all the snow.

Friday, 4/12- 6.2 miles. I got up super early to drive to Boston to pick up my bib number and do the expo thing. Like in 2016, I had planned to run first, have breakfast and then hit the Expo. I left early enough that I only hit a little traffic as I got into the city. I had pre-purchased a parking space through Spot Hero like I usually do, but when I pulled in the lot, the people told me I couldn't park there and that SpotHero wasn't supposed to sell spaces during the day, blah, blah. I was pretty pissed off and in a fit of rage, I turned around and ran over their orange cones giving them my middle finger as I drove off. Ok, ok. Haha. That's not really what happened. I was pissed off, and I did run over their cones, but it was completely by accident. When I turned around the cones were completely out of view on the right side of my car so I ran them over. I'll admit I didn't feel bad at all about it, though. I drove down a quarter mile to the Landmark parking garage and called Spot Hero. So the parking lot people did turn out to be full of shit, but Spot Hero actually refunded my money right away and then gave me a credit for the extra $13 I had to spend at Landmark. So that was cool. Great customer service.

So I got a bit of a late start on my run and had to use the bathroom so badly at this point that I ended up being classy and found an alley somewhere. I was dying after coffee and the drive down. Haha. I was still pretty sore and my tendons were extra sore so I ran pretty slowly along the Charles River. I've been wanting to do this run forever and finally did! Although it's nice, it would get old really fast. Kind of dull running a flat path. 48:48. 7:51 avg pace.

Lone goose just standing in the middle of a bridge under an overpass

I ran back to the car, changed clothes, then walked a mile to the Pour House making it for breakfast with only 5 minutes to spare! Phew. I did not want to miss corned beef hash and eggs. Had a good breakfast beer, too. This place is the best.

The Expo was right across the street. Since it had just opened, I expected to walk right in to pick up my bib without a line, but this year was kind of a mess. They had this roped off area that was so ridiculous and unnecessary. I wasn't the only one literally getting dizzy walking through it.

I've always picked up my bib for Boston on a Friday because it's usually empty, but this year was chaotic and the Expo already a nightmare. I needed some gels, to I went down to Clif to buy 5 for $5 then thought I'd peruse the rest. I was fortunate to come across the best booth in the expo. Marathon Sports selling all of its shoes for $60 and other stuff at a huge discount. I hadn't planned to buy shoes, but I jumped at the chance to get a pair of the Brooks Launch 5s. I didn't care for the Launch 4s, but these felt so much better so I bought them. Then I got the hell out of that nightmare. I hate the Expo. I really do. And if I had to see another person wearing a Boston Marathon jacket, I was going to vomit. Haha.

Mine was easy since it was the first number in the box

I walked the mile back to the car and then headed back north. John was actually going to a friend's house for a sleepover so I didn't have to rush back. I had Phoenix with me so we stopped at the Breakheart Reservation for a walk. I decided to walk in my new Launch's to see how they felt. They ended up being great, and I wore them on Monday for the race. We walked a loop that came out to just shy of 3 miles. It was funny that the last time I walked here was also the Friday before the Boston Marathon when we were on our way down to the Expo in 2011. We took a walk, but I was having bad foot pain at the time and remember being nervous. I would end up having a really good Boston and an 8 minute PR. Sadly, that didn't happen this year. haha.

My new Launch 5s

She had to be leashed. The horror!

Where she belongs. The bark place. Haha

I was kind of in a Boston mood when I got home so I had a beer in my 26.2 mug from 2012. The night was dull with John gone, but the dogs entertained me. My life is so exciting! Haha.

Saturday, 4/13- Zero. I decided not to run today since my tendons had been so sore the day before. This would end up being the right move as far as pain on Monday, although it didn't stop my DNF. I did do my shoulder workout and abs then took the dogs on a walk to Sunset Beach at Purity Spring before picking up John at his friend's house. We walked 2 miles. The sun finally came out during the walk.

John gave me directions to his friend's house with this description, "It's the sketchy long road with the mansion at the end." Hahaha. That was actually pretty accurate although I wouldn't have called it a mansion, just a very large house. It did turn out to be the house I see up on the hill from Silver Lake. Amazing view. I asked John if his friend's dad was single. Haha. He is, but doesn't sound like my "type". Hey, I'm 43, divorced and a woman. I earned the right to be picky. 😃

The sun had come out completely by this point so I HAD to do what I've been waiting for all winter. Sit outside Saco River Brewing in the sun with a beer so we went straight there. Just as awesome as expected. And a cute dog, too!

When we got home, I still had to sit in the sun, but here I could take my shirt off to catch some rays. Need Vitamin D pronto. The dogs enjoyed the sun, too, but they still only had a small space on the porch to sit in the sun since the yard was still buried.

Sunday, 4/14- 3 miles. I ran a really easy 3 miles on the treadmill because I only wanted to do something short and flat. 24:07. 8:02 avg pace. I was happy to find the calf soreness gone and the tendon pain lessened.

Today was a really down day. It was raining off and on. I didn't want to go anywhere so John and I took Phoenix on a walk around the neighborhood and that was it. I knew I would be getting very little sleep so I wanted to take it easy. I ate pasta with ground beef like I always do. The only thing I deviated from the norm on was that I didn't have beer. I always have one beer the night before a marathon, but I didn't because I wanted to make sure I wasn't dehydrated. Could this have thrown my body off for the next day? Not likely, but it's possible. But, since not having a beer didn't help me at all, I see no reason to ever opt out the day before a marathon again. Hahaha. Funny how my intention to make my body healthier for Boston by cutting out sugar and cutting back on beer didn't help me at all. I did lose some belly fat, but no actual weight. I didn't feel any different. It did, however, help me stop craving sugar, so I guess there was some sort of positive.

April 16-19, 2019- I'm going to leave out Sleepy Hollow and our vacation. Save that for the next blog post. However, total mileage for the week was 48 miles!

Tuesday, 4/16- 9 miles. I obviously covered this in the Boston post. 1:14:36. 8:16 avg pace. Felt good.

I took Phoenix on a short walk on the road portion of the McGrillis Path in the afternoon before picking up John at school. The trail part was still covered in snow so we turned around there. Only 1.72 miles. A beautiful day.

I was in a crazy good mood. Maybe it was because I knew we were about to go on vacation the next week combined with Boston being over. I don't know. But I just felt good.

Sadly, though, I had to work a 48 hour shift starting Wednesday. I had to pick up the Thursday 24 in place of taking off Monday's 24 for Boston. Since I took earned time for the trip that never happened the week John broke his shoulder, I didn't have enough left for our replacement vacation AND Boston. Taking off one day is the equivalent of 3 days of a regular job. It ended up not being bad, though. I was able to run outside finally, even though a quarter of my trail out back was flooded. I ran 3 miles each day and did my usual weight lifting both days. I also got to sit in the sun on Wednesday. But the best part... my Thursday partner brought in baby goats!! There were only 4 days old so they were SO cute. He raises them and these two hadn't been able to be taken care of by the mother so he had to bring them to work. Only in rural New Hampshire! Haha. I didn't mind. I even got to bottle feed them. My Thursday partner is someone I've had ups and downs with over the years. We weren't on speaking terms again until today. He made the comment, "Now I know that if you make Leslie mad, just bring in baby goats to work and all is good again." Hahaha. Couldn't be more true. It is funny how Dale and I fight like brother and sister. We had a good day this time, though. I'm speaking to him again until he pisses me off again.

My new car is actually comfortable to sit in the back!

Sexy work boots

Found my JetBlue eye cover. Game changer for sleeping at work now.

Am I the only one who was dying laughing at this statue of a guy standing behind William Barr when he released the Meuller report? Ok, released part of it?

John took a field trip Wednesday to Rockland, Maine to see Melt Down, a artistic display on climate change. I thought this exhibit was cool. One pic is John's. The other was taken of John. Haha.

Friday, 4/19- 6.3 miles. Someone called out "sick" last minute and they asked me to stay at work. Oh, fuck no. 48 hours was enough, thank you. Not my problem you keep this person employed here. And thank goodness I declined because I got home to find John had overslept. So I got him up and out the door for school. After he left, I got on a roll of cleaning the downstairs room. I vacuumed the floor and the Chill fur. I also washed all of Chill's window bed cushion covers. He was sad to see his cushions gone when he got home. Glad I got that done since I'd been procrastinating on that for awhile.

Sad Chill missing his cushions

I really didn't want to run on pavement and the trails were a no-go, so I drove down to Wolfeboro to run the Cotton Valley Rail Trail. I was told it was clear of snow from the center of town to Albee Beach. I parked a little over a mile north of Albee Beach at Fernald Crossing where I found most of this mile still covered in ice and snow. Luckily, I had my microspikes in the car so I went back for them, ran all the way to Albee Beach then ditched them behind a log to pick up on the way back. I then ran the middle 4 miles as a progression run with the last mile back in the heavy microspikes. 8:11 for the first mile. Then 7:53, 7:30, 7:27, 6:59. Finished it off with 7:23 for mile 6 and jogged in the last .3.

When I got back to the car, I was pouring in sweat. The temperature had really warmed up. I changed shirts and then took Phoenix on a 2.2 mile walk in the opposite direction from my run. This part of the rail trail was still 99% covered in ice and snow so I stuck with the microspikes. Typical NH spring. Shorts and microspikes.

I decided that since my vacation had already started, I'd head to Lone Wolfe Brewing for lunch and beer before heading back to Tamworth to pick up John from school. I had a chicken, bacon, ranch flatbread for lunch. So good.

After we got home, I finally got to sit in the sun on the small deck!! There was just enough melted out to put my chair down, but you can still see the snow pile in the background. This would all be gone a week later!! Yay!

The Sleepy Hollow Mountain Race was coming up the next day and then it was going to be another night of no sleep since we had to get to the airport early Sunday morning for our trip to Hilton Head! But I'll recap those in the next blog post!