Still at it...

Long time no post. I’ve been battling injury for years now… the same injury, too: improper hip alignment due to over training in college – THEN, ignoring that issue and overtraining for a few more years = years of not being able to train due to improper balence/muscle firing/overall movement which inevitably leads to injury. This is essentially my fourth year of doing corrective physical therapy. There is hardly a day that goes by where I do not do some type of PT: usually an hour+ a day… often far, far more. For the past ten months I’ve ignored fitness to focus solely on fixing my body. I’ve averaged 3 runs a week, usually 3 miles each. I’m posting now because I am optimistic enough to say there have been recent moments of breakthrough. I can run a solid 30 a week now with a percentage of miles feeling genuinely good, as in: my body feels like it is working the way it should. Considering how long it has been, this is a new, salvatory feeling (when it happens, that is). I’m also, for the record, moving out of the Pioneer Valley (tomorrow actually). I’ll be commuting from Pittsfield to work in Amherst for the last two weeks of summer and then, (and this is the big move), I’m moving to the UK to go to grad school for acting. (Had to try something new with all those free hours I would have been training)… Anyway, the point of this entry is to post my latest Upper Ridge/Mt. Orient times. I have not given up. Times are below with some of my more memorable performances. Injuries began in 2009.

2007, 6/16       1:15:57            MT WASH, 29^th
2008, 6/1         15:10               5K, RHODY, 10^th
2008, 6/8         18:18               6K, WORCESTER FIRE., 1^st
2008, 6/21       1:08:05            MT WASH, 27^th place
2008, 7/29       52:54               10 MILE, YANKEE, 8^th
2008, 11/23     25:16               5 MILE, SLATTERY’S, 3^rd
2009, 2/13       4:17.57            1 MILE, BU VAL., 45^th
2009, 6/20       1:11:47            MT WASH, 26^th
2009, 6/27       13:43
2009, 7/5         12:18
2009, 7/11       10:54
2009, 8/20       10:21
2009, 8/27       9:59
2009, 9/28       9:58
2009, 10/17     9:59
2010, 3/18       9:49
2010, 4/11       9:09 (BEST), w/Jon Korhonen
2010, 4/24       *****BIKE CRASH*****
2010, 10/30     11:15
2010, 12/18     10:23
2011, 4/23       10:43
2011, 6/1         10:50
2011, 6/18       1:13:26            MT WASH, 27^th
2011, 6/26       10:28
2011, 7/2         9:45
2011, 7/9         9:43
2011, 7/16       9:14
2012, 2/23       10:50
2012, 3/18       10:09
2012, 6/18       10:42
2013, 6/3         10:50
2013, 6/21       10:21
2013, 6/29       10:01, w/Andy McCarron

Running more...

Still doing WASH Workouts:

July 24th: Bobsled Ten Miler Run in Amherst... SLOW, no use recording time (I had biked 86 miles the day before... the ride was great, run the next day = very bad. Effort there though).
July 30th: Cranberry Carver 5 Mile Race: 27:40... it had no hills in it, but instead of quitting (I felt AWFUL), I thought about Washington effort and ran a very fast and hard last mile... it's a stretch, but whatever. At this point I had only been running 20 mile weeks.
August 6th: H road tempo in Acton ME... very hilly road. 4.5 mile tempo, pushed the hills... my alignment felt... okay? Wwwhhat?
August 13th: Bridge of Flowers 10k: 35:26, good for 16th place. The hill at mile 3 I was probably in 24th place. I passed a big group right at the top. Good race. This week I hit 30 somthing miles!

Today: 5x 800 meter repeats on Amherst College trails with approx 1 minute break.
2:37, 2:33, 2:30, 2:26, 2:24.
This doesn't count as this week's WASH workout, but it was a good effort. I am about 60% healthy. When I am 100% (I hope soon...) watch out!

Washington 2012 prep workouts. Mt Orient, aka "upper ridge"

So, like a few years ago, I'm inspired to train year round for the next Mt Washington competition. My plan is to do a "Washington" workout each week for the whole year leading up to the race in June

So far, so good. Four weeks, four workouts. All were the same: a sprint up Mt. Orient.

Times below:
June 26th: 10:28
July 2nd: 9:45
July 9th: 9:43
July 16th: 9:14

I used to do this run all the time in my training for Wash. Here are some old times as comparison:

June 27th, 2009: 13:43
July 5th, 2009: 12:18
July 11th, 2009: 10:54
August 20th, 2009: 10:21
August 27th, 2009: 9:59
Sept 28th, 2009: 9:58
Oct 17th, 2009: 9:59
March 18th, 2010: 9:49
April 11th, 2010: 9:09 (RECORD)
Oct 30th, 2010: 11:15
Dec 18th, 2010: 10:23
April 23rd, 2011: 10:43
June 1st, 2011: 10:50

Related: my health right now is still an issue, but there has been much progress. I run 20-30 miles a week, Bike 50-100 and swim a few times.

Mount Washington 2011

Ran Mt Washington this year. I had not been running much, 20-50 miles a week. It went okay, considering lack of shape: 1:13.26, 27th place. Good picture though...

Workout w/Andy

SouthWest 1000 meter repeats.

Basically, it is a 1000 meter repeat with a big steep uphill in the middle, finishing with a long slightly downhill straightaway. The beginning is all flat.

Besides some pick-ups here and there, I haven't been doing any hard workouts since the crash, so this was a stretch. I thought I'd do 3. Andy wanted to do five. I figured I'd stay with him a bit, then die.

Results:

Me: 2:59, 3:03, 3:02, 3:01

Andy: 2:59, 3:03, 3:01, 2:59, 2:56

Andy had a great workout. I ran way above what I thought my fitness level was. So that was good too.

Yip, yip.

Long time no post...

Injury from the crash finally starting to heal. I took 5 months off, then started running in September. Here's a summary of progress:

SEPT:

W1: 3 miles

W2: 17 miles, 1 LIFT

W3: 11 miles

W4: 20 miles

OCT:

W5: 21 miles

W6: 17 miles, 1 LIFT

W7: 18 miles

W8: 28 miles, 1 race (17:26 5k), 2 workouts, 1 LIFT

NOV:

W9: 19 miles, 1 LIFT

W10: 29 miles, 1 workout, 1 swim, 1 spin class, 1 LIFT

W11: 26 miles, 1 spin class, 2 LIFT

W12: 32 miles, 1 workout, 1 swim, 1 LIFT

DEC:

W13: 33 miles, 1 swim, 2 LIFT

W14: 35 miles, 1 race (16:42 5k), 2 workouts, 1 swim, 1 LIFT

W15: 42 miles, 2 workouts, 3 LIFT

What I've also done is hours and hours and hours of PT, fixing old injuries besides the crash related knee problem, completely changed my running form to toe and forefoot running (feels amazing) and spent $1,000 dollars on rolfing, which was worth every penny. Here's to continued improvement.

Mt. Washington 2010

I won't be running Mt Washington 2010. So I am posting this to re-cap my year. As next year I plan to run it. I also plan to attempt once more to run a Wash workout every week until Wash 2011.

In late April I got run over by a car while biking. I took a sharp right hand turn, hit some sand and slid (at 20 mph) into the opposite lane and under a 2009 BMW 328i which was coming in the other direction.

The above picture is of me near-passed-out after the crash. I initially got up and apologized to the nice old lady who drove the Beamer, then some pain and dizziness set in. For the record, my good friend Jon Korhonen who was biking with me, (along with fellow CMSer Andy McCarron), could not avoid me after the crash so ran over me with his bike too, which was funny. It went ground, car, then another bike for the tri-fector.

The bike I road broke as the weight of the car was transferred through the frame and onto my knee - which is what is keeping me from running Washington. I had no broken bones, but the inflammation has been serious enough to more or less sideline me for the better part of six weeks. Cortisone this week and doctors (very) strict orders not to run have been the nail in the coffin for the race this year - SAD FACE!!! :(

THE POSITIVES:

Those of you who know me know very well that working out is a large part of my life. Shallowly, I'd say, it is at current the largest. And has been the largest with seemingly no end in sight for years now. So knowing that - and knowing that I have been continually hampered by injury for the past three years, (thus kept far from where my efforts and passion aspire) - you might think this cute accident has been especially tough to swallow. Amazingly, that has not been the case. It's had far more positives than negatives as far as I can see. Let me list them:

1) I am alive. Although only moments after the crash Jon and Andy where making jokes to my incoherent self (also to the little old ladies horror) about "my finishing the ride," "getting back up to run home," or, the "drat, he's still conscious," it was pretty clear immediately that I was damn lucky. So, there's that. the car didn't run over my chest or skull. It wasn't going 40 mph. Hooray!

2) I have great friends. Besides Jon gregariously taking pictures while I was down, then developing them while I was in the hospital so I had appropriate mementos when I got back... as well as Andy's motherly cooked dinner, with other attentions (wink, wink) - the two of them less than an hour after the crash began planning to get me a brand new road bike. This is no small task or minor gift. Since I'm injured constantly, I've become a mightily decent biker - I don't own a car, I bike everywhere and compete with the Northampton Cycling Club - a new bike is a dream gift - something I could never afford. Loosing my red Cannondale in the crash (it was my fault so the Beamer lady was not obligated to replace it) was perhaps the biggest down of the entire event. Long story short, with the help of over 50 close friends and family, the two of them raised enough money to get me a state of the art Trek Madone 5.2. Basically, a rocket-ship. It's a freakin rocket-ship. Literally the best gift I've ever received.

3) Biggest positive of all - and related to all of the above -My Life Has Been Decided. Or, at least, my life for the next few years. Indeed, I'm obsessed with working out, but this is hardly all I want to do - it's just all I do do. It's all or nothing with me, thus, the only way - I've continually thought - to get out of this workout habit, is to get INJURED! Seriously injured, so I can't return. It's a sick thought, but I've had it often. So, as I am sliding without fail into this red tank of a car, what is on my mind? Obviously, this will suck, but I may be free. So, the irony here: I should have been seriously injured - (all the doctors where amazed I was not) - I should have been out for at least a year, or longer... enough time to do something else... But, instead, I get a brand new bike out of it - bike of my dreams actually - just the thing I needed to compete seriously at the elite triathlon level. Well, that and some more swim training. (I've been swimming 5+ miles a week for six weeks because it's all I can do). The crash decided my path. I am not meant to break - but continue to train. Cool. I can do that.

My Bike. It's a beauty ~