Training Week 1/31-2/6

M- 5.0 easy on treadmill in 46:00. Right hip a little sore from running on snowmobile trails. Didn't feel like running outside after working outside all day.

Tu- 4.3 miles on the snowy roads with Roger in 47:27, then 5 x 1 mile on snowshoes in Whitaker Woods with 3:00 rest. 7:26 7:26 7:29 7:29 7:32. This workout is supposed to serve the same purpose as the 6 x 1 mile I was doing last winter. Not all out, but around half marathon effort. On groomed terrain I ran 7:00 average for the Whitaker Woods race, so 7:30 seemed reasonable. I was definietly getting a little tired/sloppy by the end. 0.25 mile cool down. I hate cool downs.

W- Got out of work early and headed up to Pinkham Notch. Did two laps of Tucks/Sherbie. 1st lap on skis: 62 minutes up, 19 minutes down (a lot of it on my ass). 2nd lap on snowshoes: 44 minutes up, 21 minutes down (Tucks Trail). The whole thing was a lot of fun. I was definitely tired the 2nd time up, and borderline bonking on the way down, but great fun to plow through a foot of fresh powder. I took video with my head cam, but something didn't work right and I only got sound.

2:26:45 total, 9 miles, 3800 ft gain (4.8 running, 1900 ft gain)

Th- 4.3 in 45:50 with Roger on snowy roads. Ran easy.

F- 6.0 up and down Black Cap in 1:07:52. The plan was to get in a hard hillclimb workout on the snowmobile trails. Unfortunately the trails were a little softer than I hoped and I wasn't wearing snowshoes. I was hoping for something in the 9-10 minute pace range, but it took me 39:06 (13:03 pace) to cover the 3 mile, 1700 ft climb. I realized that pace would be out the window early, so I made it my goal to make my quads hurt the whole time. I did just that.


Panorama from Whitton Ledge at work on Friday

Sa- 0 DOWNHILL skied with Jess at Sunday River. I had plenty if time for a run, but didn't make it happen.


Jess at the top of North Peak at Sunday River

Su- 0 Downhill skied for a couple hours solo in the morning and planned to run long in the afternoon. Got dressed, but couldn't get myself out the door. Downhill skiing takes more out of me than xc skiing.

Totals: 30.7 miles, 6.78 hours, 3600 ft gain. No comment.

Training Week 1/24-1/30

M- 7.0 miles on the treadmill in 1:17. 1st mile flat in 10:00, then 5.6 miles @ 10% grade @11:06 pace, then 0.4 miles at 10:00 pace. Quads felt like tree trunks after yesterday's run. 3000 ft gain.

Tu- AM: 3.2 miles in 30:00. Aborted workout. Was planning on 1 mi wu in 10:00, then 9:30 pace at 12% grade, cutting the pace down :30 per mile every half mile. Made it a mile before my quads quit on me. Jogged a cd after. I'll try this later in the week. Quads are still shot from all the downhill on Sunday. 630 ft gain.

PM: 5.3 miles in 43:39 on the roads from home. 10 strides in the last 1.5 miles. Quads still sore, but better than this morning. Worked outside for about 4 hours today and it was COLD. 3*F when I left the office.

W- 8.2 miles in 1:14:26 on snowmobile trails, first 4.4 w/ Paul. Legs feel better than yesterday, but I think I dug myself into a little bit of a hole on that long run on Sunday. If you play with fire you're bound to get burned once in a while.

Th- 4.5 miles on treadmill in 45:00. Aborted workout AGAIN. Legs felt much better at start, but as I picked up the grade, I couldn't maintain pace. Ran 2 miles at 8:30 pace for a warm-up, then 11.5% @ 9:30 pace for 1 mile, then 9:00 pace for 0.5 miles. Felt like poop at 9:00 pace so took a 0.5 mi jog at 0% grade, then back up to 11.5% grade, but couldn't hold on. Planned on putting in some easy miles after, but the treadmill started acting up and I was in too pissy of a mood to move to another one. 1250 ft. gain.

F- 4.6 miles on the Corridor 19 snowmobile trail in 38:26. Felt a lot better and wanted to go longer, but thought I should play it safe with how I have been feeling and a big race coming up the next day. 5 strides near end.


Crossing the bridge with 1/2 mile to go, Photo by Krissy Kozlosky

Sa- Sandwich Sidehiller 4 Mile Snowshoe Race, 1st 31:48, 5th straight win here. I am pretty happy with how the race went. I knew the snow was a little choppy and would be tough going which plays to my strengths, but this was a tough race right from the start. I am pretty sure I punched through the snow on every step. Double J got out to an early lead on the groomed ski trails and I just tried to keep him in sight. I was already working hard early in the race just to maintain distance, let alone make up ground. As we crossed Bean Rd. I was in 3rd place behind Wes Dinnan.


Crossing Bean Rd. on the way out, Photo by Joe Viger

As I slowly worked my way up to him he allowed me to pass and told me to "go get him." The singletrack in the woods was a little more consolidated and the hills were helping me close the gap on Jim. The upper fields were a mess, as much of the snowmobile track had been postholed. I just kept thinking "keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don't let him get away." This seemed to work as I really started closing the gap on the lower fields on the way back. As we entered the woods again I was right on Jim's tail on the downhill, and knew he was having a rough time if I could hang with him on the downhill. As we made the left-hand turn to go up the sidehill, Jim let me by and gave me some encouragement. This was the same place I passed him two years ago in our epic battle.


Flailing down the hill with Double J in tow, Photo by Joe Viger

I tried to open up as a big of a gap as I could, because I knew there was still some downhill left and the last 1/4 mile plus is on groomed ski trail. I hammered with everything I had and tried not to wipe out coming down the last hill and crossing back over Bean Rd. As I made the final turn onto the ski trails I gave it all I had as I could hear the road crossing workers cheer for Jim not too far behind me. I probably looked like a fish gasping for air, floundering in the sugary snow as I neared the finish line. I crossed the line in 31:48, about 8 seconds slower than 2008 and 6 seconds up on Jim. I was completely spent at the finish. After catching my wind, Jim and I did interviews for Channel 9's NH Chronicle, which is suppose to air in a couple of weeks.


Caught by the camera crew, Photo by Krissy Kozlosky

Great job by Paul Kirsch and the Sandwich Sidehillers for putting on a great race. This race had 16 finishers a few years ago and had 108 yesterday. There were a lot of spectators out and the course was great as usual. I love the road crossing and all the spectators and volunteers cheering you on.

3.0 wu, no cd

Krissy Kozlosky's Photos
Joe Viger's Photos
Animoto video by Joe Viger

Su 18.4 miles in 2:59:39 from Paul's house. Ran the first 7 with him in 1:14 (10:34 pace), then went back out and ran another 11.4 miles in 1:45:21 (9:14 pace). Pretty tired, but a solid way to end the week. 2500 ft. of gain.

Totals: 58.2 miles, 9.00 hours, 7380 ft gain. Decent week. A little pissed that I wore myself out with last week's long run, which killed my workouts, but I recovered and got in some climbing and some volume. I'm really happy with the race. This race is usually one of the highlights of my year, and this year was no exception. I hoping it's a sign of things to come. I'm planning on running at Snowshoe Nationals in Wisconsin in March. I'm hoping to move up into the top 5 this year.

Training Week 1/17-1/23

M- 6.0 up and down Black Cap via Hurricane Mt. Rd. on snowshoes 1:02:23, 36:47 to the summit, nice run under a close to full moon. 5x80m strides after, 1700 ft gain.

Tu- 4.1 miles at Settlers Green with Roger in the snow. No motivation to go any further or do a workout.

W- 9.8 miles of skiing on the Pemi East Side Trail in the Pemi Wilderness in 3:44:38. Broke a lot of trail (10 inches of fresh snow) and made it to the Cedar Brook Trail junction. Was originally planning on skiing for two hours and snowshoe running for two hours, but I was having fun skiing.



Th- 0 This means I'll have a sub 1:10 at New Bedford for sure.

F- AM: 4.6 in 51:41 on the snowmobile trails with Paul, Dave and Laura

PM: 2 hours (hiking) marking the WW course

Sa- Whitaker Woods Snowshoe Scramble 3rd place 28:08, 1:15 behind Double J. Directing a race and running it at the same time is not an easy thing to do. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to race a fun course. The lack of a warm-up definitely hurt me, but Jim was gone on the fast groomed trails. There were some issues with the course markings, which I will address next year. Overall, I think everyone had a good time, especially the TNT crew at the Moat after! Thanks to everyone who raced and volunteered. looking forward to doing it again next year.

Panorama from Mt. Shaw

Su- 28.2 miles in 4:38:32 (9:53 pace) on the Corridor 15 snowmobile trail in the Ossipee Mountains. Somewhere between 4600-6000 ft of elevation gain (see profile of second half of out and back). This was a pretty cool run that I've thought about doing for a while. It's the long way up 2,990' Mt. Shaw. I was hoping to make it to the Castle in the Clouds, but I hit my turnround time about 2 miles early. Hopefully I can try it again another day.

Totals: 46.9 miles, 11.5 hours, 6700 feet gain

Training Week 1/10-1/16

M- 15 minutes on the stationary bike. Lungs and throat still not feeling up to running outside, so I thought I'd try the bike. What a mind numbing piece of equipment that is.

Tu- 3.3 miles with Roger at Settlers Green. Must have walked 3 miles up and down a small mountain at work today.

W- 3.9 miles in 58:27 on snowshoes going up Rattlesnake Mt. in 8-10" of fresh powder. I love snowshoe running. Lungs feeling a little better. 400 ft gain

Th- AM: 4.0 miles up Rattlesnake again in 54:40. Made it 0.2 miles farther up, but the run took 4 minutes less after packing down the deep snow. 600 ft gain

PM: 2.0 in 28:24 with Roger at Whitaker Woods. This was Roger's first snowshoe run!

F- 5.4 miles up and down Rattlesnake in 1:18:04. I made it to the summit this time! (45:13). Thanks to Tim Livingston who packed out the rest of it on a hike yesterday. 3 strides on groomed trails near end. 1200 ft gain

Sa- Feel Good Farm Snowshoe Race, 2nd by 9 seconds (38:04) to Josh Ferenc. We battled back and forth with me leading the ups and him the downs. He caught me with about 1/4 mile to go and I had no response. I am in good climbing shape, but need to get stronger. Only 45 seconds slower than last year on a slightly longer course in much slower conditions. 2.0 wu, 2.3 cd, 1200 ft gain

Su AM: 12.1 miles on the snowmobile trails around Silver Lake in 2:12 with Paul. It felt good to get out on the groomed trails again. We were planning on a 6 mile / 60 min out and back, but were having too much fun to turn around. I was planning on 3 hours, but knew I still had skiing ahead of me.

PM: 1:51 of classic skiing at Jackson w/ Jess. Nice and easy.

Totals: 39.0 miles, 9.8 hours, 3400 ft gain. Glad to finally get the volume up. Not a lot of miles, but snowshoeing is slow and takes some time to cover the distance. It was a little risky racing on Saturday after fighting the head cold and not doing any workouts in over a week, but glad I did it. This week I need to concentrate on getting out every day and getting the workouts in. I'm looking forward to hotsing (and hopefully racing) the snowshoe race at Whitaker Woods this coming Saturday.

Moving Forward

Below is an example of how NOT to spend two weeks training if you have any type of goals. My training log looks like a yo-yo right now.

12/27-1/2

M-AM: 3.5 snow roads with Matt Lunt and Mike Lansing 32:45, nice to finally have some snow!

PM: 4.8 on snowshoes in the backyard (160 acres of condo common land and neighbors' woods lots) 53:40

most of the trails had been tracked out. I don't run out here enough. I need to work on some making loops though as most of the trails dead end at neighbors houses. I tried out the new heart rate monitor that Jess got me for Christmas. Interesting watching the heart rate spike on the 3 strides I did near the end!

Tu-AM: 11.4 miles on snowshoes, 3.6 wu then 1:02:50 for a 7.8 mile tempo on the Whitaker Woods snowshoe course. HR between 160 and 180 for the whole tempo while running 8:03 pace!

PM: 5.0 easy at Settlers Green with Roger, 54:02

W- 3.9 on snowshoes in 45:00 with Jim Mitchell, including some running on the Cathedral Ledge Rd.

Th- 3.2 at Settlers Green with Roger, felt like JUNK, cut it short

F- 0 long day of field work on Foss Mt., then headed to Portland for New Years Eve with Jess.

Sa- 0 stayed out late, but didn't drink and felt like death all day

Su- 0 spent the day on the couch, not sick but not feeling up for anything

Totals: 31.8 miles, 5.24 hours

1/3-1/9

M- 10.0 on Bretton Woods snowmobile trails in 1:23:50 using the Inov8 Oroc 280s, hamstrings a little tight, 10x80m strides on pavement after, 1000 ft gain

Tu-AM: 10.6 miles in 1:14:04, first 2.4 miles wu, then fartlek for 8.2 miles at 6:36 pace. Doesn't sound impressive, but this was at 6AM over a course that included 660 feet of elevation gain!

PM: 3.6 miles easy with Roger in North Conway

W- 0 felt a head cold coming on, decided to play is safe and take a 0

Th- 5.0 easy with Roger at Settlers Green in 50:32, throat felt better, for a day.

F- 0 another cruddy day in the cold department

Sa- 0 pissy mood with this head cold

Su- AM: 6.1 with Paul from his house. I love running on crusty/icy/snow/leafy mixed trails

PM: 1:48 classic skiing with Jess at Bretton Woods

Totals: 35.3 miles, 7.0 hours

Now that I have that out of my system, goals for 2011: have fun, run well in some mountain races (i.e. finish Mt. Washington, top 10 at Cranmore), run first ultra at White River 50 miler in July and try to have a more positive outlook about running. Right now I'm not setting any time or place goals for my big races. I've done a great job the last couple of years of getting in good shape before my races and tanking once they come, leaving me disappointed and unsatisfied with my running and life afterward. My running and my life are a little different than they were 5+ years ago when I graduated from college. I have already accomplished a lot of things that I never would have dreamed of by my 29th birthday (Jan 7th). I'm married to a beautiful, smart woman who also has the patience to put up with me, a pretty good career that challenges me intellectually and physically and gives me the financial freedom to do all the fun things in life without worrying where my next meal is coming from. I also have a great family that has supported me in whatever I have done. There is definitely a hole there since my Dad passed away this summer, but I was lucky to spend 28+ years of my life with him, even if we didn't always get along. My Dad always supported me in my running or skiing, or any other endeavor I decided to pursue. He was always there when I needed a little encouragement to get me through the tough times.

I hope to remember him by raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association by trying to run 3000 miles this year. If anyone is interested in pledging a penny a mile, that's a $30 donation. I know some of my friends have already pledged and I greatly appreciate it. I'm already behind on my goal a week into the year, but I'm dedicated to doing this.

2010 totals: 2337.50 miles, 374.77 hours (6.4 miles per day, 62 minutes per day)

Back From the Dead

Running is supposed to be fun. I have to remind myself of that sometimes. I love running all types of races. Track, cross country, trail, mountain, road, relay, snowshoe. I enjoy running different types of races at different times. Unfortunately, when I schedule some of these races I don't quite have the motivation for them that I need to do well. Case in point: this year's cross country season. I decided after Washington that I needed to switch gears a little and work on some speed and racing tactics, especially after running a couple of 10k PR's during my mountain training in the spring. I have always loved cross country, but it has always conflicted with a fall marathon or half marathon.

My summer slowly dragged along as I couldn't get motivated to get any consistent training in. I put in a few good workouts and a few good weeks of training here and there, but I just couldn't string them together. I ran the Topsfield XC race slower than last year (it was pretty windy), and dropped a stink bomb at Mayor's Cup, basically jogging in the last half mile. I knew NE's wouldn't be any better, so I decided to pull the plug.

After wallowing in self pity for a day, I started getting in some good mountain runs, because I wanted to run, not train. By the end of that week I had run 66 miles in 6 days, and climbed 12,000 ft. in 11.5 hours. The next week saw me cover 61 miles in 11.9 hours, climbing 12,250 ft. This last week I only ran 5 days but got in 50 mile s in 10.5 hours with 7900 ft. of climbing. I have really been enjoying my runs. I haven't done a workout since Mayor's Cup, but my 3 long runs have been 18.6 miles/3h 40m/3100 ft, 23.2 miles/5h 18m/5350 ft, and 19.5 miles/5h 04m /4400 ft of gain. And they have genuinely been fun.

As for the upcoming year, I have a few things planned. I don't know what exactly I'm going to put my focus into yet, but I know I want to try few new races. I may also race a little less too and focus on getting in some good quality running and not travelling so much. I made some gains in the last year and I hope to build on them. Whatever I do, it will be fun.


View of Crawford Notch from Mt. Willey

Venting

It's 7:30PM. I'm sitting on my couch eating dinner. I haven't run yet. I have accomplished pretty much nothing today. My motivation to train has pretty much been in the shitter. I have been racing ok, but I could be racing a little better if I actually got in some solid training. I'm not in the worst shape of my life, but I know I am not anywhere near where I was this spring. I know the solution is as simple as getting out and running more and stop being such a whiny little bitch, but the day to day grind of life seems to have caught up to me. I'd like to know what happen to the days where I was willing to run up mountains at 5:30AM or do speed work around snowy parking lots in the dark. I'll stop my ranting and get some sleep so that hopefully I don't embarass myself at Mayor's Cup on Sunday.