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| John after his first (and probably last) biathlon |
Speaking of winter, it's been far more mild so far than last year. And clearing snow has been much easier, especially since I fixed my snowblower. Turns out that it actually WAS a busted shear pin this whole time. I don't remember who mentioned it, but when I told them the issue and said the shear pin was still in there, they told me to double check that pin. They said that sometimes it breaks on the inside while a piece on the outside stays put, making it look like the shear pin isn't busted. Well, lo and behold, if they weren't right. That's exactly what happened. A year of hell shoveling last year that could have been fixed in less than 2 minutes... which is as long as it took me to fix it. Motherfucker. Haha. I had to laugh. We also were gifted a second snowblower by Don Fredrikson, but it's old and very heavy so now it just sits as a backup. Funny, I wouldn't have imagined I'd end up with two working snowblowers this year. I will say our first heavy snow on New Year's Eve was not good for snowblowing and still took almost 5 hours with both John and I (and both snowblowers) out there. Wet, heavy, sticky snow constantly jams up in the blower and the tires just spin in the snow. I finally had to go back to the trusty, dusty shovel for the last quarter of the driveway. I was definitely exhausted after that and axed my run and bike plans. That was more than enough of a full body workout. When we were done, I asked John if he now understood why I was in tears so often after shoveling last year. He said he definitely did. Haha.
So onto the big news... my USATF-NE team change! It wasn't actually my original plan either! After the XC meet on Nov 10th, I spoke to Amy Rusiecki and some other Western Mass Distance Project women I know who were considering starting a new team geared toward the MUT runners. I told them to keep me in the loop because I'd probably be in on that. Fast forward 1.5 months to the end of December. Nothing had been done. I was told they were going to meet with WMDP board members over the following week or 2 to discuss getting more from the team for MUT stuff. If they could get what they wanted, they'd stay WMDP and then I would join WMDP. Fast forward 2 more weeks. I was told the exact same thing. Meeting with the board in a week or 2. Ok. It's early January and I have two USATF-NE events coming up. I waited 2 more weeks and said fuck it;they were being too wishy-washy, and I needed a team. So I joined the team I've truly been wanting to join since early 2019. HFC Striders! It's definitely a team I fit in with. Really fun and still serious about running. I'm excited about it. I won't get my races paid for like at CMS, but I think it will be worth it for a better fit. I won't have a singlet or anything for the USATF-NE Masters Indoor meet, but I should have one for the first Grand Prix race in Cambridge on February 2nd. Looking forward to the change!
While our changeover to Brewster Ambulance still hasn't happened (meaning still no raise), I was officially hired at Conway Fire & Rescue. The fire side of things is completely new to me. While I'm not a firefighter, I'm still working at a fire department so things are different than private ambulance. I've over there twice for orientation and will go back one more time before I'm let loose to respond to calls for the second truck and any available per diem shifts I might want. It's going to be a learning experience for me for sure. Higher expectations, better equipment and a few new-to-me things. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about it. They do intimidate me, but hopefully, I'll do alright.
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| Yellow helmets indicate "NOT firefighters". Haha. |
In my spare time, I made a meme...
Week 1, Dec 30, 2019- Jan 3, 2020
This would be my highest mileage week since the week of Thanksgiving, coming in at a whopping 26.3 miles. Sadly, this is my highest mileage week since, as well. Haha. But it was all good, especially since Steve Brightman put together a fun run of the former Resolution Beach and Trail Race that was part of the now-defunct 4th Season Races in Rhode Island. I was on board as soon as I saw it. No way was I missing out. I didn't even know if I could run or not, but I hoped to at least be able to jog it. The weather ended up perfect! No wind which is unusual. Overcast and not even that cold. It was so much fun getting back out there. I ran harder than planned because I didn't want Stupidface to beat me. Luckily it didn't hurt my hip while running. I think the soft footing took the blow. I ran it 1:08 slower (22:04) than my 2017 time (20:56), but I was still really fast in 2017; this was 2 months before my high hamstring tendinopathy and plantar fasciitis appeared. So I was happy with today's time. I can't say that I felt really awesome, though. Despite being 5lbs lighter than my last race, my body felt 10lbs heavier. Just not used to racing anymore. No "race" photos, but I took some beforehand when I took Phoenix and Chill out. John was asleep in the car.
About half the group went out to Ocean Mist for brunch after. I was STARVING and today was a day to eat whatever I felt like. Irish Benny. A stuffy, of course. And two beers.
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| #stuffiesonthelevel |
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| Bob, Steve and Nick |
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| Steve and Rachel |
My massage with Tina was as awesome as always. Hoping to be able to see her more often if/when I get this raise. Once every 4 months doesn't cut it. Hopefully, every 6 weeks would work. Not planning to spend a ton of money with this raise, but things like deep tissue massage I feel are important for my body. It will honestly just be nice to pay my bills on time, be able to buy new running shoes and, of course, not worry about being able to buy food or gas until my next paycheck. I'm having doubts about this raise, though, so we'll see.
John and I went nordic skiing for the first time this season. He skate skied and I just used my backcountry skis. It was fun.
I decided to give snowshoe running a try with my Redfeather Snowshoes on Corridor 19. Brought Chill along and ran slowly which ended up being ok. 6 miles total. Gorgeous day. I think snowshoe running just might be ok this year, as long as I don't try to race in them. It opens my winter world back up. Well... as long as the hip won't stop acting up. Haha.
I took two snowmobile trail walks this week which I love doing in the winter. Snowmobile trails are a great go-to for trails that you know will be packed down in some fashion. I checked out Corridor 15 with dogs one day and then Corridor 19 with John and the dogs, the same day I snowshoe ran there.
Running Totals: 26.3 miles
Wed- 5 miles. Treadmill. 37:57. 7:35 avg pace.
Thurs- 6 miles. Treadmill. 45:27. 7:35 avg pace
Fri- 4.1 miles. Treadmill. First time trying a Peloton training run. I loved this since it made the treadmill far more bearable, and I had someone telling me what to do. It was a really good interval workout with Becs Gentry. Base on the workout, I figured she had to be fast so I looked her up. Sure enough! Becs Gentry. This was the workout:
Sun- 6 miles. Snowshoe run with Chill on Corridor 19. 1:07:46. 622ft of elevation gain.
Spin Bike
All rides are Peloton workouts. I keep track of my HR during every workout. It's how I keep track of how I'm doing during the ride. Warm-ups are usually long so they skew the avg HR a bit low. Most rides, I spend about 40% well above my avg rate. It's just a fun tool to have, especially to see how much more fit I've become on the bike. Much harder to get my heart rate close to max even when it feels like I'm there. Only 2 days this week on the bike since I thought I was on my way back with running.
Monday- 30 minute Tabata Ride with Tunde. Avg HR 128bpm.
Friday- 20 minute Climb Ride with Robin. Avg HR 132bpm
Week 2, Jan 6-12, 2020
Just when I thought I was on my way back, I wasn't. Attempted another snowshoe run on Tuesday on Bear Notch Rd. It was a gorgeous day, and I was the only one out there making tracks for most of the run. I've missed snowshoe running this road so much. Felt great...then the last half mile, my hip really started to ache. Motherfucker. Grrr. Still managed 7 miles. It's a good thing I had to be at Conway Fire at 1pm or I would have run farther out for 11 miles and then my hip probably would have been much worse off on the way back. Ugh. Of course, my brand new La Sportiva Kaptiva GTX shoes arrived after this run. It was painful not being to able to wear them for like 2 weeks.
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| Thank you to Christin Doneski for giving me her 40% off code so I could finally buy these. |
Worked a lot this week since I picked up an extra 10 hours on Thursday. The shift started off ok. Dale and I went to breakfast at Priscilla's which was fun. We stayed busy all day just doing stuff.
An hour before I was done, we got a shit call. Our patient ended up having a massive brain aneurysm and she tanked fast. We did our best, but she just didn't have time. The hospital kept her alive, and she was flown to Maine Med, but she didn't make it. Super sad. Immediately after that, we had a dead guy which kept me past my shift. I just wanted to go home after that. I was happy I had gotten up early to use my work spin bike because I was ready to just veg once I got home.
I finally attempted another run on Friday on the treadmill. More intervals with Becs for 6.3 miles. Felt the hip the last 5 minutes so the workout was mainly good.
I didn't run again until Sunday since I'm trying to be good and alternate it with the spin bike (this was actually my original plan for the winter...just didn't expect to be stuck on the treadmill and such short distance). Sunday was an awesome run since I made it over an hour with no hip pain. Marathon Race Prep w/Becs was awesome. 8.7 miles in 1:03:14. 7:16 avg pace. Cool workout.
I had bid on a pair of Brooks Hyperion shoes on eBay and forgot about it...until I was notified that I won them. Very narrow and thin, but these things don't hurt my foot! All of my road shoes are SO old so that's probably why these feel so good. But these are definitely not a shoe I would run in on the road right now. I'd need more support. But for $42, they're working out fine. Hopefully they continue to workout fine until I get my raise because I can't afford more shoes. I'm super lucky to have 2 new pairs at once right now.
Just like last winter, I'm dropping John's skis with him at Cranmore around noon then heading out for some activity with Phoenix while he skis with his school. I had to get my nails done first so I went straight there and then over to Believe in Books to xc ski with Phoenix. The wind had blown snowdrifts all over the groomed tracks, but it was perfect for my backcountry skis and meant no other people around. Haha. Skied 3.3 miles in just under an hour. Funny how slow I am at xc skiing, but I like it that way. As soon as I was done, I reached down to open my bindings and heard a crack! No! My brand new nails! Took off my glove to find exactly what I thought. Immediately called the nail place to ask if I could come right back after I picked up John. Not only did they take me right in, the nail person refused to charge me for it, and refused a tip. They are so nice! And I was so happy to have my nail fixed.
My new boyfriend took this photo...lies. Haha. Self-timer.
I stayed busy over the weekend, especially Saturday since I did an hour long climb ride spin bike workout in the morning. Broke trail on a snowshoe hike up Heavenly Hill with the dogs in the afternoon and then did the Racing to the Moon Uphill Ski Race at Shawnee Peak that night. Let's just say that I learned this low-carb diet thing will definitely not be sustainable once I start running more miles. I was STARVING. I had to eat a Clif Bar Andrew was giving out while I worked registration. I would have suffered during the race if I hadn't eaten this.
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| Heavenly Hill snowshoe hike |
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| I had to buy an uphill season pass at Shawnee Peak that I can't really use except at the 3 events. |
Afterwards, I had the most expensive Harpoon UFO White, 4 pieces of pizza and a chocolate croissant. Brought John home some regular croissants that I won. And some cool beer from Washington State. So like I said. Low carb diets won't work with this much activity. Good for my days at work or other down days, but definitely not all the time.
Today was the last time the On the Run column would be in the Conway Daily Sun. Cool to see I made it in there.
Sunday, 1/12, I actually went to a party! My second invitation in a month. Another group of Six03 people who are roommates in this awesome farmhouse in Barrington, NH. This was right up my alley with a Stout & Porter party. Everyone brings stuff to share and we all taste. There were SO many beers and a lot of good food. I made sure this was not a low-carb day. Haha. Since I had a bit of a drive, I had to be careful so I brought my own shot glass-sized cup to limit my drinking. Worked out perfectly since I was there about 3 hours and maybe had the equivalent of two 12oz beers. Had the first few as 2oz then quickly changed to make every taste only 1oz. It was the perfect way to still enjoy all the beer and not drink too much. Stuffing my face and walking out with a handful brownies probably helped, too. Haha.
This is what I brought. Rachel Flaksman gave me the Peppermint Hot Chocolate. At over 14% alcohol content, I knew there was no way I could drink it myself so I brought it to share.
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| Someone thought she was getting a snack at he Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru. I was just getting a coffee. |
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| Couch snuggles |
Tuesday: Bear Notch Rd snowshoe run. 7 miles. 1:11:32
Friday: Treadmill. Peloton Intervals with Becs. 6.3 miles. 46:20.
Sunday: Treadmill. Peloton Marathon Race Prep with Becs. 8.7 miles. 1:03:14
Spin Bike Workouts:
Monday: Peloton HIIT Ride with Robin. 20 minutes.
Wednesday: Peloton HIIT Ride with Sam. 34 minutes.
Thursday: Peloton Sweat Steady Ride with Jess Sims. Good workout, annoying instructor.
Saturday: Peloton Climb Ride with Christine. 1:02:15.
Week 3, January 13-19, 2020
So this week I got a huge surprise! My email was returned by Tin Mountain! I did NOT expect an email, and I certainly didn't expect it to be positive. But it was kind and stated that we could still host the Dirty Girl at the venue! I was floored and excited! Hell yes! So it's on! I'm sure a few people are wondering why I'm continuing to put on a race there after last year's issues. Well, it's as simple as I love the venue and I created the race specifically for it. So I immediately went to work on approving a date and then set up registration. I decided to do something special this year. I decided to use Beth's photo for the new profile photo on the event page and stumbled across one of her photos that she had used for her fundraiser. So I looked it up. The fundraiser she had been a part of has since merged with another to be now known as the Go2 Foundation for Lung Cancer. This was a cause near and dear to Beth because her mother suffered from lung cancer. So I thought, why not start a fundraiser to this charity in memory of Beth and link it to my race! And that's what I did. It's already raised $155 in 5 days! Interested in donating or just looking at the link? Look here:
PledgeReg Dirty Girl Trail Race
I've continued the Dirty Dude option this year, as well, and I already have 15 registered. I love it that the guys are into this. Check out the Facebook page for race information and then the registration is through RunReg.
Race FB Page
Dirty Girl Registration Page
Dirty Dude Registration Page
I'm really excited about the new logo. I think I proved my point with last year's shirt so I'm ready to move on and try out a logo that will appease everyone. My shirt company, Beeze Tees, has already come up with a good rough draft. I just need one small change and it will be good to go. I think everyone will like it.
So, anyway, yay!! I'm excited to host again. It will of course be a high stress week of the race, but it's worth it.
This was another meh running week, but I did decide to run the Whitaker Woods Snowshoe Scramble. Notice I didn't say "race". I will never snowshoe race again, but I love the hometown race so I will still participate in one way or another. I volunteered for registration as usual which is always fun. The poor woman helping me didn't get to check many people in because I knew nearly everyone there and had them checked off and Popsicle stick (bib #) in hand before they ever got to the table. She was super helpful with the day of people, though. Definitely made it easier with two people.
I barely had time to warm up. I literally ran down the trail out of sight to use the bathroom and warm up. And that was it. Right to the finish line. I was treating this as a quick run and would warm up after we started the race. I lined up with Maureen Gillespie and Tom Hooper at the start. Sarah Canney and Haley Heinrich were there to race so I stepped back a row from them. No interest in that anymore. I had my time to shine on snowshoes, and it ended up being the straw that broke the camel's back to cause the High Hamstring Tendinopathy. I won 4 Granite State Snowshoe Series, and that was more than enough. As soon as Chris Dunn announced he was ending the Series, I breathed a sigh of relief. I could finally stop snowshoe racing! So here I was lined up for the snowshoe race, but just like in 2019, doing it just for the enjoyment of it.
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| On the cover of the paper. I'm behind the Paul Smith's College runners in the white top. |
Tim dropped back a bit for the next mile, but I could hear him chatting with some of the runners behind me. Even without trying, I passed all of the Paul Smith's College kids. By the last mile, Tim caught back and we spent the last mile just running easy and chatting. It was nice to do this in a snowshoe race for once. We came around the loop and then finished (almost) together, with Tim getting me by a millisecond. Haha. Fun times. Still a good run. Got my HR up enough to feel like a good workout, but neither my hip nor my tendons were destroyed. Finished 3rd female and 1st in the 40-49. So glad I jumped in the race. I even happier that I can now be ok with not going all out sometimes. The attitude change the last year has been the best thing. I'm still competitive, but I don't let that drive rule me anymore.
Post race was good. Soup, coffee and baked goods by Jess Tilton. Kevin Tilton said this would probably be the last Whitaker Woods Snowshoe Scramble. It's been a good run, but sometimes you're just ready to give it up. I'm happy I've been able to participate in 8 of the last 9 of these races and appreciate Kevin's hard work putting it on every year.
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| Thank you to Tom Hopper for bringing me the Six03 puffy to the snowshoe race! Love it!! |
We got quite a bit of snow on Wednesday night so I spent almost 2.5 hours snowblowing the driveway. While it still takes a lot of time, it doesn't leave me exhausted like shoveling did. Pretty easy walking around, especially since it was powder snow that my snowblowers are much better at blowing! Haha. My phone GPS measured my snowblowing at walking almost exactly 3 miles. It's probably pretty accurate since I don't move in a small space like I did shoveling. It's up and back, up and back. My driveway one way is .07 miles. I just can't get over the difference between this year and 2019. Just having the snowblower working again and less huge snowstorms has made me like winter again. I'm actually enjoying it so far. This, I can handle. I don't hate it here anymore.
Now, if I could just get Bryan to stop messing up my edges of my driveway, that would be great. He's been purposely driving over the edges of my snowblowing which pushes piles of snow into the driveway. Totally fucking it up on purpose EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. I finally said something yesterday. All I got back was, "Alright."
I was happy to get out for one hike with Phoenix this week. After we dropped John's skis at Cranmore, we drove up to the Red Tail Trail where I was lucky to have a completely unbroken trail. There's something so satisfying about breaking trail in snowshoes. Gorgeous day, but pretty cold. I had planned to hike up to the clear cut and turn around, but I noticed that it was getting colder as we got higher up and Phoenix was starting to shiver. I turned around at 1.7 miles.
After picking up John, I swung by Tuckerman Brewing to pick up a 4-pack of their latest attempt at their Double IPA. It only took over 3 years, but they finally nailed it. This is good. Unfortunately, they don't tend to keep their good beers around, though.
We had another decent snowstorm come through starting Saturday afternoon that lasted until about 3am. John and I were leaving around 7am to drive to Norway, Maine so I stayed up really late so I could snowblow before bed. I went around 11:30pm to take care of the 5inches that had already fallen. Pure powder so it only took me an hour to clear it. I just wanted to be able to get out in the morning without having to clear the driveway. Turned out to be the right move since we got maybe 3 more inches after I was done. Made it a breeze to get out on Sunday.
I had registered John for a nordic biathlon at Robert's Farm Preserve after he said he thought that sounded cool. Well, he did not think it was cool come morning. And I was even questioning it when crossed over the border and onto the bullshit plowing of Maine roads. They're horrible they really are. And I'm an idiot. I really am. I followed my GPS to Norway which took me on ever more bullshit backroads that were just fucking ridiculous. Maybe plowed once by some small truck. It was awful. I made sure we drove the main roads home through Bridgton.
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| Not the way to tour Maine |
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| Learning how to use the rifle |
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| The finish! |
John was ready to sit in the warm car and veg for a bit so I took Phoenix out on the "Dog Trail" which was the ungroomed, singletrack snowshoe trail. Dogs aren't allowed on the groomed trail which I totally agree with. (Just attempt to skate ski at Whitaker Woods and you'll see what I mean. Boot prints from the humans and dogs running over the groomed classic trail). This trail would end up being SO much fun to ski. I'm glad I brought my backcountry skis for this. It was awesome. We skied out and back for 2 miles. I could have kept going, it was so much fun, but I didn't want to make John wait too long. Robert's Farm is awesome. I'm bummed it's not closer, though. Free to use the trails and free rentals on weekends. Total gem they have there.
When we got home, I went back out with the snowblower to get it smoothed out again. Only took just over 30 minutes. Breaking it up into two was the right way to go. Instead of 1.5 hours total, doing the whole thing after all the snow fell would have taken 2.5 hours.
It was dark shortly after I finished but I somehow still had enough energy to get on the spin bike for a really tough climb ride Peloton workout.
Running Totals- 20.9 miles. Still had setbacks with the hip and Sunday ended up just doing other things.
Tuesday- 6.4 miles. Treadmill. Video for my Peloton workout kept lagging so I did an easy progression run. Planned 8 miles, but the hip stopped me at 6.4. 46:31. 7:16avg pace.
Thursday- 6.3 miles. Treadmill. Peloton HIIT Run w/Chase. Decent workout.
Friday- 4.2 miles. Treadmill. 31:35. 7:31 avg pace. This was half of another one of Bec's Marathon Race Prep workouts, but I really started to feel the hip and ended the run. Went upstairs to finish up the workout on the spin bike.
Saturday- 4 miles. Whitaker Woods. 34:56.
Spin Bike Rides for the Week
Monday- Recovery Ride with Robin. Very easy 20 minutes on my work spin bike. Just to do something.
Wednesday- HIIT and Hills Ride with Tunde. 30 minutes. This was not an easy workout at 4:52am, but way easier to get in a quality workout that early on the spin bike as opposed to the treadmill.
Friday- Power Zone Max Ride with Matt. Avg HR of 134 really doesn't show the brunt of the the workout was in the 143-157 range and peaking at 164. Another tough ride in only 22 minutes!
Sunday- Aforementioned ass-kick of a workout. Climb ride with Jess K. 30 minutes.
Things are finally looking up!! My first week with no hip pain. Well, I had one run where I felt it, but it wasn't painful. It was while running downhill on the road, but that was it! Could the hip bursitis finally be on its way out?! It seems to be, but that doesn't mean I won't still be cautious. I actually ran 5 days this week! Still fairly low mileage at 28.2 miles, but that's still more than I've run since the week before Thanksgiving. So 2 months now!
The end of this week would bring my first real chance at racing, and I was really nervous. I had no idea where I would be speedwise. I know that I'm fit. I actually feel more fit than I did at this time a year ago. But as far as running goes, I had no idea. I was also super nervous about the hip while going all out on the indoor track at the USATF-NE Indoor Masters Championship. Everything seemed so up in the air when I walked in there. On a positive note, I would at least know where I am with my running and have a base to start back with. This was my 5th year in a row doing this meet. While I know I was much faster in 2016 and 2017, I was really only focused on 2019 when I had just taken time off, as well. Except, I'd already been back running a month by this time last year. I remember feeling slow and heavy last year. I was about 5lbs heavier. I made the decision to stick to only 2 events this year. The last 3 years, I've done 3 events, but I had no interest in the 5000m or 800m, so I was sticking to the 3000m and mile, just like in 2016. It was a good choice.
First up was the 3000m with a very small field of women. Unfortunately, this would mean the 4th year in a row where I would run our front all by myself. My best time here in the 3000m was in 2016 (10:54) when I actually had competition and finished 3rd. Other than that. I've had to "race" it all by myself which is difficult even if you know how to pace indoor, which I don't. I at least had Nicole L'Etoile right behind me the first two laps, but with me leading, the pace was still a little slower than I would have preferred. Once I pulled ahead and started lapping everyone, I found it really hard to focus on speed. I could still smile the last few laps. I feel like I'm definitely capable of running this faster than I did, but I was super psyched to finish in 11:19.02. 5 seconds faster than last year! This was a good sign. I won't say it felt easy exactly, but I never felt like I was going all out. The best part about this race was NO HIP PAIN. I had honestly expected it to hurt and possibly cause me a DNF, but I felt nothing!
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| Start of lap 2 in the 3000m with Nicole behind me. |
I was seeded 3rd in the mile. I put down a 5:45 for my seed time even though I ran a 5:50 last year. I was being a bit optimistic. Seed 1 didn't show up so I was in the 2nd starting position. Looking around, there would be plenty of competition in this race. Yay. The woman in lane 1 (Amy) was super nice. She introduced herself since she's friends with Terry Ballou (who was also at the meet). She was also intimidating because she was RIPPED. Looked like a total powerhouse. Next to me was one of my new teammates I recognized but never met. Her seed time was 5:48 so I figured she would be good competition, too. The unsuspecting one was in lane 5 (seeded 6). Upon go, she blasted out right into the front of the inside lane. I fell behind Amy, while just edging out my teammate who almost got in front of me. I didn't want that to happen so I made a quick move that pushed me into 3rd. Through 6 laps, us top 3 would run close and in a line. I had no strategy and even questioned my ability to hang to this pace by lap 3. But I just did. I pushed myself to do it. No lolligagging like the 3000. I was all out. And it was tough. Every new lap, I expected one of the two in front to pull away, but it just didn't happen. By lap 6, I just hoped to hang on to 3rd, but then 3/4 of the way around, 2nd (Amy) all of a sudden fell back and I found myself passing her. This ended up pushing me to the outside on the curve a bit to the first woman got a slight jump on me as she hit the bell lap. I had to go around another person we were lapping on the outside so I just assumed that 1st would pull away from there. But as soon as we were back on the straightaway, I all of a sudden caught her and passed her. What?! I don't do that! Haha. But after passing her, I floored it. I had no idea if she was holding back to kick it past me for the finish so I gave all I had and hoped it was enough. And it turned out to be enough. I took the win in 5:42! 8 seconds faster than last year!! Yes!! And still no hip pain!
What a good day I had!! Faster than last year after hardly running for 2 months. 2 wins. And no hip pain! I was ecstatic. And wow, the support from the other racers was just awesome. I hung out with the usuals and then got to know a few new people, as well. I love the friendliness of this meet.
So now I know where I am. I think all of the spinning kept me fit enough for short-distance stuff. Plus, even though I still feel the High Hamstring Tendinopathy, I feel like the time off did help it improve. Going on 3 years of chronic pain, but I can say that I feel 10x better right now than I did on the Wednesday following this meet last year. So many positives. The negative is the loss of distance training. Having to build that all back up again is frustrating. I'm just thankful I didn't sign up for Boston. Doing the Vermont City Marathon gives me a whole extra month to train. Focus for February will be building up to the half marathon in hopes of a sub-1:30 at New Bedford. I haven't run over a 1:30 since 2013 when I ran a "horrible" 1:31. And I don't want to do that again. I'm actually looking forward to New Bedford this year because it will be really good training for me. Taking a year off from it has really helped, as well. I don't like the race, but the break from it has helped me see the positive in it for 2020.
After the Indoor meet, John and I drove down to Long Live Beerworks/Knead Donuts. I had been looking forward to these donuts for weeks. We walked in an hour before closing to no donuts!! They had sold out. CRY!! John was disappointed, too. Ugh. Walked over to Long Live to meet Steve Brightman and Scott Mason. We had tacos that took 45 minutes to make (only 3 things on the menu). The place wasn't even that busy when we ordered so I'd hate to think how long it took the people behind us to get food. I was getting super hangry. So my advice, skip the food at Long Live. Haha. The beer on the other hand was awesome. I only had one full pour and then 2 tasters.
We weren't there that long, maybe just over an hour. I told John we were getting donuts even if it was Dunkin' Donuts, dammit. Drove down Elmwood Ave. Noticed two cop cars pulling out of a DDs with lights on going on a call. I pulled in the lot to 4 more cop cars. At first I thought it might be crime scene or something, but then I realized they were all sitting at a table. I walked in to every single one of them getting quiet and turning around to look at me. Yikes. I must have looked suspicious or something. It was a little unnerving. Bought a dozen donuts which I took back to the car. We ate a few of them then made the drive home.
This whole week was decent since we had mostly good weather. On Tuesday, I ran 6.3 miles on Corridor 19. The snow was pretty soft, but microspikes were fine.
We haven't had running water at work except on occasion for 3 weeks due to a busted underground pipe, and apparently my co-workers think that's a excuse not to do their dishes. I managed just fine with the bottled water we had. The dishes in the photo were literally there for a week until someone finally did them. I refuse to do other people's dishes. Ridiculous.
And we can still mop the truck at the hospital, lazy jerks....
Thursday was another gorgeous day. After reading FB posts from Sunday, it appeared that Red Hill would be packed down enough to run with just microspikes so I decided to run up there. It just so happened that a friend working in Moultonborough needed a gift picked up in Conway and brought down her way that morning. When I saw her FB request, I was like how perfect is that since I was driving right by her place of work. Funny how that ended up working out perfectly.
What didn't work out perfectly was the run. It's a short run up so I planned to go up and down twice, going a different direction each time. I brought Chill and Phoenix with me since there was no way I couldn't bring them along on such a nice day. The first part of the trail was packed, but it quickly became too soft and I realized that I should be running in snowshoes and not microspikes. For the uphill, enough boot prints had been made (not frozen) so I tried to stick to those and not make new ones. Although it didn't really matter because I passed a woman hiking up in snowshoes near the beginning so she would actually be fixing whatever I messed up. I was still mad at myself for not bringing snowshoes. How those guys ran it on Sunday is beyond me. It was barely runnable today. When we got to the top, we stopped for awhile. It was just too pretty not to. And I knew I was scrapping my plans for a second loop.
We continued on to the trail that would take us back down. I was a total hypocritical asshole. After we got down a bit, the trail wasn't packed AT ALL. No prints, which means the wind had blown snowdrifts over it because I know for a fact those guys ran up this trail on Sunday. By the time I got to this point, to turn and go back up would have been miserable so I did the thing I HATE. I bare booted the trail. I'm even cringing as I write this. I was so mad at myself the whole down this section of trail to the snowmobile trail. "I'm such a hypocritical asshole!" Honestly, if I lived closer I would have gone home, grabbed my snowshoes and fixed what I had done, but I didn't have time since I had to go back and work the overnight shift later. Hopefully, over the next two days someone went snowshoeing on the trail and fixed it. Maybe even the woman behind me did. But I really did feel bad about that. Dogs enjoyed running downhill through the powder, though!
I put the dogs in the car when we got back to the lot then I went out for 2 more miles on Red Hill Rd. I kept my microspikes on because some of the road was still messy. The road was also super hilly. It felt extra hard after trashing my legs on Red Hill and ran a 9 minute pace. Haha.
Stopped at Cup & Crumb for a coffee and splurged with a blueberry oat bar. Ermehgerrrd. So good. Then filled up the water jugs at the spring in Sandwich. Could I look more NH? Haha.
Friday was a pretty busy day, and I learned the hard way that low-carb does not cut it for uphill ski racing. That morning I had a really good 5.8 mile run through Cranmore Shores. My first road run on pavement with NO hip pain. I felt so good. So much power from my glutes. The first and last mile paces are always a bit skewed in winter because of the 1/4 of a mile on slippery ice and snow. But I even ran that section faster than usual. On the way back, I hit a segment I made up the hill on Pequawket. I have run this segment 98 times. I ran it the fastest on 1/1/17, prior to the HHT (High Hamstring Tendionpathy). Today, I ran it my 2nd fastest!!! I felt so good running up it and knew it would be one of my better times, but out of 98 times, it was 2nd fastest?! I couldn't believe it! I've run this same route 26 times so I decided to look at the history. My last time I ran it under a 7:30 avg pace was literally a few weeks before I got HHT. Today was my 2nd fastest time on this route since I got HHT. So WOW. The whole run came out to a 7:32 avg pace (43:51 for time). Excluding the 2 icy miles, my splits were 7:09, 7:23, 7:09 and 7:15. Very happy to have a good run like that. Gave me a huge boost of confidence for the track meet.
In the afternoon, I took Phoenix for a 2 mile walk on the snowmobile trail. I ate dinner when I got home, but I made a huge mistake in making it low-carb. The uphill part of the ski race is very much like running a fast, short-distance race. I felt like total ASS on the first loop. Struggling to move. No energy. HR around 170. Just awful. Perfect conditions for the downhill so I flew down. I love that kind of downhill. 17:16 to the top. 2:30 for the transition (not bad, but could be better). 2:55 downhill. 2:30 transition back to uphill mode. Felt awesome on this second loop. No idea how I all of a sudden had energy, but I felt great and even got up there slightly faster in 17:10. I feel like I should have had some sort of high carb energy food right beforehand to get me through the first loop and will next time. Not sure where the energy came from for the second loop, though. Much faster transition in 1:39 and 2:37 downhill. Negative splits! Woohoo! 2nd woman for the 2 lap race in 46:40.
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| Licks from Squall on my sweaty face |
I was total trash after this. Had no food until I got home, although I did have a beer that Rick Chalmers bought me. I was beat. Granted I did a lot today, but I definitely did not fuel properly. And this affected me on Saturday.
The next morning, I did almost the same run. Just added on to make it 6.2 miles. Barely had the energy to run faster than an 8:22 avg pace. I did chores around the house then took the dogs out in the woods for a run while I skied. Only a little over a mile, but I was so beat. All done. When I got back I had to sit down on the couch for awhile before I made dinner and put the laundry away. I decided to look up information about running and keto diets and found quite a bit. One was actually a good study done and the rest were all personal accounts. The Article on the Study did actually find what I suspected.
Researchers found that when the participants followed a keto diet and exercised at less than 60 percent of their VO2 max—the amount of oxygen you can efficiently consume and use—their exercise efficiency remained the same.
But in exercise over 70 percent of VO2 max, their speed and endurance declined. In fact, running speed at VO2 max declined by 5 percent after keto-adaptation—when your body shifts from using carbs to using fat as the primary energy source.This suggests that the keto diet would be just fine for moderate running efforts, but if you want to get faster, or work out at more intense levels, like powering up a hill, it may not be the best diet plan for your goals.
One reason? Fat is a less-efficient fuel source when you are exercising at high aerobic capacity, study author and registered dietitian David Shaw, Ph.D. (c), of the Auckland University of Technology, told Runner’s World. It requires more oxygen to create energy than carbohydrates do. Plus, the fatty acids were not as helpful in producing energy needed for muscle contraction, which may have contributed to the loss of speed.
In my own experience, I'm finding this to be true. The personal stories correlated with this as well. Seemed like marathon runners did ok on the diet, but the short distance runners did not. So this meant one thing, carbs for dinner the night before the Indoor meet! Haha. I don't know if it helped or not, but I certainly had two good races and felt great. To be honest, though, I would never do a race without having carbs beforehand, but I just didn't think of the uphill ski race in the same light as a fast running race when it's nearly the equivalent! Lesson learned. I'll continue to experiment with this diet, though, since I feel so much healthier on it. Obviously, I can't do a strict Keto diet since it's proved not to work for me at all times, but I'm still keeping it to a minimum. I'm making such good food now. Everything from scratch. (I spent 3 hours in the kitchen last night). And my gut is happier. No gross fat layer covering my body. I just feel good. There has to be something to that. I think the key is actually keeping the processed and/or sugary foods to a minimum. Like this week, I had sugar two days. The oat bar on Thursday, and the donuts on Sunday. Not healthy, but no harm done at the same time. It didn't cause a downward spiral of binge eating sweets or pounding 3 beers. So I'm basically my own case study to see if I can find the perfect balance between eating healthy while still fueling properly for my level of exercise. Just hoping I don't mess it up for a race in the process. Haha.
Running totals- 28.2 miles
Tuesday- 6.35 miles. Corridor 19 snowmobile trail. Microspikes. 1:06:36. 663ft of elevation gain.
Thursday- 3.4 miles. Red Hill Loop w/dogs. Microspikes on super soft snow. 53:14. 1,332ft of elevation gain.
2 miles. Red Hill Rd out and back. Microspikes. 18:41. 204ft of elevation gain.
Friday- 5.8 miles through Cranmore Shores. 43:51. 422ft of elevation gain.
Saturday- 6.2 miles through Cranmore Shores/Tasker Hill. 52:01. 449ft of elevation gain.
Sunday- 4.3 miles. .9 mile warm up. .5 mile warm up with Phoenix. Both outside in Providence.
3000m- 11:19
Mile- 5:42
Spin Bike- Only one day. Wednesday. A really excellent ass kicker Peloton tabata ride w/Alex. 32:20.
Week 5, January 27-February 1
Yes, that's short one day (Feb 2), but that will be its own race report post. So yay! Finally on the last week of my January post. I'm not planning to continue writing only monthly recaps. I just did this time because I wasn't running much. Kind of silly that I did it this way, though, because I was literally writing each week as it was completed so I could have just published them. But oh well. Here it is at once.
I'll include February 2nd in this week's total mileage since it was my first week over 30 miles in over 2 months! Yay! 32.8 miles! And for the most part, I felt really good. I ran all outside and just enjoyed the mostly runnable trails and roads. It feels good to be running in the fresh air and not on my treadmill. I've finally gotten over my fear to run outside. Mostly no hip pain for the second week in a row. I only just kind of felt it after Friday's run down Mt Kearsarge North, but I iced it immediately and just did an easy spin bike workout on Saturday instead of running. It was the smart thing to do since it would end up being fine for my race on Sunday.
I actually got quite a bit of climbing in this week and didn't do anything fast at all. I was insanely sore in my calves from racing in spikes. I could barely walk Monday and Tuesday, but it was finally gone by Friday. I was able to run Tuesday, but they definitely hurt, and after the run, I could barely walk again. Guess I shouldn't race in spikes after only running in spikes once in the last year. Haha. Oops. No damage done, just needed extra recovery time... until that downhill on Kearsarge on Friday left my quads insanely sore (even through Sunday's race).
I planned to run 5 days, but I also ended up with a bad head cold! I woke up with it Monday morning, but it wasn't until Tuesday morning when I felt like my head was going to pop from the sinus pressure. Wednesday was even worse so I couldn't get up and run or bike early that morning. Once I'd been up for a few hours, I felt fine. And running/spinning was just fine with no issue. Just those first few hours after waking up were the worst. I still have this head cold now (a week later), but it's on its way out. Thank goodness it wasn't a chest cold. That's all I'm saying. I'd be down for the count from quality training for the next 6-8 weeks.
Tuesday, I decided to go back and run on the Chocorua Lake Rd. I used to run this all the time in the winter, but I kind of got sick of it after awhile. Wanting to avoid the weight of microspikes, I decided to finally put my Ice Spikes on a different pair of shoes. They have been on my Brooks PureGrit (original models!) which had long overstayed their welcome. I decided the Saucony Kinvara's had the perfect sole for the spikes so I switched them over. In the process of getting my Ice Spikes tool, I found a sealed envelope that I'd forgotten about. It was Coy's Therapy dog ID, bandana and tags. I won't lie. The tears were flowing. I'll forever miss that sweet dog.
Once I got the shoes in order, I headed down to Chocorua Lake. It really is the best winter run. Only 10 minutes from house and hardly a car. I expected the road to be mostly ice, and I was right. In fact, microspikes would have been the better choice, but the spikes were perfectly sufficient and way more comfortable to run on. My plan was 8 miles so I basically ran 3 out-and-backs. It was a gorgeous day. My only run over 8 miles since November. Not a fast pace, but it never is here, and I just don't care. 1:09:39.
In the afternoon, I took Phoenix skiing on the mountain bike trails behind Walmart. The trails were completely destroyed by bare booters. I kind of deserved this after my bare booting the week before, but it really sucked badly. It was totally frozen and made skiing difficult, but I tried to ski around it or next to it to make it better, and overall, I enjoyed myself and Phoenix got a good walk. About 2.5 miles. Weird for me that I didn't take a signal photo!
That evening was a nice winter sunset and then couch snuggles with Phoenix. The reason she is SO bad is that she's SO cute so she gets away with everything. Haha.
Like I said, Wednesday, I woke up pretty sure my head was going to pop from the sinus pressure. I could barely get up on time, let alone attempt a planned treadmill run. So I had to opt for a 20 minute workout on my work spin bike later. At least I have this option now!
I worked with a Brewster AEMT today as a partner. He'd already worked up here before so I knew him. Unfortunately, we didn't have any real calls so I didn't get to really work with him. But he's definitely different than the crews I'm used to up here. Kind of sad he was being paid about $20 more an hour than me since this was overtime for him. Still no pay raises in sight and yet another person just got hired to work for CarePlus at the Brewster rate! I'm getting really annoyed with this. But what can I do? Our manager is really going to bat for us, but that's all she can do. And it's so refreshing actually having a manager willing to fight for her employees for once!! She's trying her hardest. Hopefully, it will work soon.
It was so hard to decide what to do on Thursday. So many nice days this week. I don't know why I always opt for something local, but I guess, I like to do more than just run on my days off, and the other mountains mean more driving. Plus, the places I go mean very few people, and I saw no one today on my run on Hurricane Mt Rd and Black Cap Mt. Complete solitude. It was awesome. The North Conway side was in the worst condition I've ever seen it. Boot prints and a snowmobile track all frozen. The only saving grace was the awesome person who dragged a sled up at some point since it made the smoothest path. Once over the height of the land on the Chatham side, the footing was perfect. This side is groomed snowmobile track so it's usually in better condition. It was even just slightly on the too soft side, but still as perfect as you can get.
It's a long haul from the Chatham gate to the summit of Black Cap, but I like adding on the summit to the run. The trail up was perfect (except one small section) since it's a snowmobile trail. Unfortunately, all the snowmobilers get off their snowmobiles at the summit and destroyed it with boot holes. I'm talking frozen boot holes EVERYWHERE. But luckily it was only the summit. I ran back down to my car for a total of 10.3 miles. 2:04:54. 2,835ft of elevation gain.
I went right to my nail appointment as soon as I changed clothes. Went for blue this time.
I took Phoenix on a walk in the Albany Town Forest after I got home. Just a short 1.7 miles loop.
Unfortnately, I picked up yet another Thursday overnight shift at work. So tired of these. And this wouldn't be my last shift of the week either. I picked up another 12 hour overnight at Conway Fire on Sunday making this a 72 hour week. Luckily, we had no calls tonight, but I still couldn't sleep between Dale's phone blasting, his snoring and him getting up multiple times all night. I finally got sleep and then one of the replacement crews showed up at 5am! Woke me up. No idea why he was there so early.
I was so happy to go home on Friday morning. After seeing that Victoria Weigold had run up Mt Kearsarge North the day before, I asked about the trail condition. She said it was pretty good, so that was my run today. This was a pretty slow run up for me, but it's ok. I'm definitely not in mountain running shape, hence why I'm trying to do a lot of it now. Last winter, I hardly did any at all because of the snow. I made a plan way back before I was injured that I would be doing a lot more winter mountain running this year. And luckily the weather has been cooperative for this. Yay!
The trail was packed down, but it was still lumpy from the bare booters who had to have destroyed the trail a week ago. Luckily the high amount of traffic over the week packed down the prints to make the trail about as smooth as you're going to get nowadays. It's gotten so bad over the last few years, and I don't see it getting any better so it's really something I'll just have to adjust to.
I passed all of the people ahead of me on the trail to end up with the summit to myself. It was so warm and beautiful up there. A few pieces of rime ice were still hanging on to the railing of the fire tower. I couldn't resist knocking one of the pieces on the outside railing to the rocks below to hear and see it smash. Haha. I didn't stay long since I had to get back down to take John his skis at Cranmore. 5.7 miles. 1:30:51. 2,553ft of elevation gain. The run down didn't do me any favors. As aforementioned, my quads ended up destroyed and sore, and I was kind of feeling my hip afterwards. So that was actually not the smartest move. I'll have to figure out what to do about long downhill runs for awhile. Two days in a row is probably not a good idea for awhile.
I had time to go home and sit outside in the sun with a beer! On January 31st! I love it! Phoenix was still a little chilly so she jumped up in my lap.
Spotted this truck in the Lowe's lot from North-South Rd while I was driving and took a detour to check it out. I knew it was a prank right away so curiosity got the better of me...
Phoenix and I had time to take a short 1.3 mile walk in the quiet section of Whitaker Woods before picking John up from Cranmore.
Saturday was a very enjoyable low-key day. I got in a 20 minute low impact spin workout in the morning, then John and I took both dogs on a walk on the Conway Rec Path for 2 miles. The shadow of the coming 3 weeks of hell was hanging over my head so I really focused on enjoying this moment with John and the dogs. I won't have a lot of time for this for awhile. But it's all for good so that I can get my Advanced EMT.
Back home, I spent a lot of time packing for the next 2 days. First the next day's first Grand Prix Race at the Super Sunday 5-Miler and then enough clothes for 36 hours of work thru Tuesday morning. Ugh. It was too much. I really shouldn't have picked up the 12-hour shift at Conway Fire, but they needed the shift filled, and I honestly felt like it showed goodwill that I was willing to work and not just be a part of the fire department which is a status symbol in firefigher world. Haha. I didn't pick it up for the money. I could make more working overtime at my regular job. It's really more about just being apart of a different aspect of EMS and with better providers. Plus, I really want to get out of the awkward, nervous phase and get the hang of things.
The next post will start with Sunday and my race recap so I'll just leave this here. As I'm writing this I'm at the start of the hell weeks. In order to still get my shifts in for the following pay week, I had to stack my 24s onto the end of this week, Friday and Sunday, in order to take the following Monday and Wednesday off. This means I'm working a 96-hour week. The thought of it makes me want to cry. Not only will I see little of John, I'm going to see little of my own bed and the outside world. Nevermind trying to get runs in. Just when I'm feeling better and need to train for New Bedford, I'm going to be too busy. Oh well. It needs to be done.
Luckily, the week after this my course starts. It's M-F 8-5 plus two evenings. The brightside is that I get to be home every night until Sunday when I do a 24 hour shift in place of my Monday 24. I'm using earned time for my Wednesday shift. This means I don't have to work at all the 3rd week, just go to the class and be home every night. Although I'll be mentally drained, the break from the overnights and just work in general will be nice. I'm looking forward to that part. And hopefully by the time my schedule returns to normal the last week of February we'll be close to getting our raises so I can cut back on overtime for a bit. So anyway, that's my life for the next 3 weeks. It's going to be tough, but I'll get through it.
On a different note...wtf, Active? Thanks for the heads-up. Luckily Dave Dunham posted a link to the archives. Who knows how long that will be available, though.
(Edited to add: Thanks, Jeff Walker, for making me realize I forgot to include that link. Here it is.)
So anyway, that's my January! I promise to be more blog active from here on out... well, except during my course. But there will be nothing to write about then. But there will be one more post by the end of this week at least.
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