Exeterra Trail Race

My next adventure takes place in Exeter, NH at the Henderson-Swasey and Oaklands Town Forests (also referred to as Fort Rock). You may recall these are the same trails I managed to misplace my position relative to my car about a month ago while coming back from my mystery injury. Now I have no idea where the course goes but all I can say is I hope it's well marked :-)

The race was originally scheduled for last Saturday but I was on vacation and would have missed it (opting for the Mt Greylock race on Sunday instead). Due to all the rain over the last few weeks the town of Exeter asked that the race be postponed a week, presumably to minimize the trail damage. So the race is back on my schedule for Sunday.
When I was here a month ago I ran mostly on the Oaklands side (via the tunnel under RT101). My understanding is this is the more technical section (aka rocks like you read about!). I am told the Henderson side is more fire roads and easier single tracks.

There will be 2 options for racing, a 4 mile and and a 10 mile course. I picked the 10 miler and I'm really looking forward to it for a couple of reasons: 1) there will be no mountains to climb and 2) I don't have to drive 1/2 a day to get there. I really like the technical trails but tend to lose a lot of time when combined with hills. I just don't have my trail legs under me yet.

Fellow acidotic RACING teammates Ri and Sarah (defending 2008 North American Wife Carrying Champs) are putting on the race to help offset the costs for their trip to Finland in July for the World Championships. Check out the video if you want to see what it's all about. You gotta love the prize at the end!

Mt Greylock Half Marathon

Mike Wade and I traveled 2.5hrs to Adams, MA on Sunday for the Mt Greylock 'half' marathon (results). The 13.5 mile course would be my longest run since April 5th so expectations were low. If I could make it through the day without hurting myself I'd be happy.

The weather actually held out for most of the race with temps in the 60's and overcast skies, only raining once we were back in the car on the way home. That didn't make the course any easier, however. The seemingly endless rainy days we've had over the past few weeks made for some very challenging conditions. This year's course started in a meadow near the base of Mt Greylock (I am told around 1200ft) and then climbed steadily for 3 miles to the 3,491 ft summit, the highest point in Massachusetts. I did not enjoy the climb. I ran what I could but decided not to kill myself in the first 3 miles and ended up walking quite a bit, reaching the summit in exactly 45 minutes. That's when the fun began... a mostly downhill 10 mile romp on some of the wettest trails I've run on in some time. At times it felt like you were running down a mountain stream. Rocks like you read about. Mud only a kid could love. It was some tough running and I still can't believe I didn't fall.

The good thing was the time flew by since it was far from boring. I'm still way to cautious on the downhills (and I totally suck on the uphills) to be even remotely competitive in trail racing, but I still had fun. These folks are crazy! I just can't believe how fast most can run on these trails. I'd get passed on some rocky, wet, muddy, super technical section and within minutes they'd be out of sight.

All in all, a good day and I was happy with my run (2:14:07, 34th overall). Congrats to Mike as well, finishing 'just' ahead of me in 2:10:03.

Aging Up and Track

Yesterday was my birthday, and as someone mentioned to me yesterday, "you're not getting older, you're aging up!". Although still a masters, I've now moved into the 45-49 age group. Of course most races don't have a 45-49 category but if they do, I'll be ready!

GCS had their weekly track workout last night. The attendance this year has been amazing (at least to me). They've always had a decent turnout but this year is different. It's almost crowded on the track and can feel like running through the mall at times. By now, most are aware of basic track etiquette so it's generally not a problem.

The large crowd is divided into 5 groups (I think) of differing abilities (group 1 is the fastest). For the past couple of weeks I've been running with group 2 but decided to see if I could hang with the big boys in group 1 this week. The workout would be 10 x 400m repeats with 200m rest. My plan was to run 85 sec laps.

Lap 1 - 80 sec, trailing the group by a few seconds, way too fast, I think I may die.
Lap 2 - 82 sec, see lap one

Ok, so maybe I'm not ready for group 1 yet. I gathered my pride and headed over to the pedestrian-like group 2. Just kidding! This group of unnamed fast masters (mostly) were running 88 sec and 90 sec laps when I joined up. They are actually a really good group to run with and most of the 10+ runners stay pretty tightly packed. I tried to convince them to run a little faster ( as I was hoping for 85 sec repeats) but they would have none of it and was almost kicked out of the group before I even started.
The splits below are from my watch. Our coach was yelling out slightly different (aka faster) times and some in the group panicked and made me run in lane 4 couple of times in order to slow me down a bit (slightly longer laps). Trust me, this group knows when it's running off pace and they're not afraid to let you know! In the end I tried to pace them as consistently as I could and made sure the group was sticking together as much as possible. With a 15k race on Saturday, it was probably a good thing I wasn't able to run 85 sec laps.

Remaining Splits:
Lap 3 - 88 sec
Lap 4 - 88 sec
Lap 5 - 88 sec
Lap 6 - 88 sec
Lap 7 - 89 sec
Lap 8 - 88 sec
Lap 9 - 88 sec
Lap 10 - 86 sec

After the workout Mike Wade gave me with a nice Elmo birthday hat (that said "I'm 45 Today") and the group sang Happy Birthday. Ahh, wasn't that nice? I even wore my hat on my cool down run.

Mine Falls Summer Trail Series

Tonight begins the 12-week Mine Falls Summer Trail Series put on by the Gate City Striders. It's a nice, low key race held every Monday at 6:30pm, starting from the Stello's Stadium entrance to Mine Falls in Nashua.
Actually there are two races to choose from, a relatively flat 5k trail race run mostly on the well groomed trails along the canal and a slightly more challenging 5 mile trail race that takes advantage of some of the more technical single tracks in Mine Falls. In fact, the last mile runs along the Mill Pond Trail, one of my favorite trails in Mine Falls. For $5, you can't go wrong.

Don't be deterred by my description of slightly more challenging though. Unless it's pouring rain, regular running shoes are just fine. The 5 mile course has some rocks and roots but for the most part is a fairly easy, dry trail run. Heck, some of the times aren't that different from a road 5 mile race.

The past couple of years I've volunteered more than I've raced, marking the course or manning the water stop (or both). We even put mile markers out there for all you split-nazis, but I can't guarantee they're accurate (what do you want for $5?). This year I may try to sprinkle in a few races along with my volunteer duties. Who knows, you might even see me out there tonight :-)

Rhody 5k

Gate City Strider Teammates at Rhody

I headed down to Lincoln, RI today for the Rhody 5k (results), part of the New England Grand Prix Series. I really wanted to get a race under my belt after 5 weeks off due to some mysterious oblique injury, followed by 2 weeks of decent running.
I literally had zero expectations today and no pressure to speak of. This was purely a fitness test for me today.

It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and temps near 80 for the mens only 9:30am start. Unfortunately for me, a beautiful day does not make for a great racing day. I'd prefer it to be about 30 degrees cooler and overcast, especially since 3/4 of this race is run on the perimeter road of Twin River Casino at Lincoln Park Greyhound Park which means we run around the parking lot (this place is huge by the way). Actually, it wasn't that bad of a course and had its share of hills, nothing serious just enough to mix up the pace and keep you honest. Flat courses are boring.

As a side note, I started, ran and finished with my teammate Mike Merra. I can't recall a race that I ran with the same person the entire race from start to finish. Interesting (to me anyways).

Ok, the race: I wanted to go out real conservative and then try to pick up the pace as the race progressed. I went through the first mile in 6:08, but it felt too slow. My effort was too easy and I didn't feel like I was pushing hard enough. I mean, it's a 5k, it's not supposed to feel comfortable. Right after the mile marker was a nice gentle downhill followed by a long curving run around the perimeter of the parking lot (with a barely noticeable incline) and I hit the 2nd mile in 12:12 (6:04 2nd mile) with Mike by my side. Mike started to put a few yards on me and I almost gave up (aka let him go) but decided to try to stick with him and push the last mile as hard as I could. I was now running an uncomfortably hard 5k pace (which was good in a strange way).

Near the 3 mile mark

I passed Mike (that's him above with the hat on backwards) with about 1/2 mile to go and was afraid to look back and as always, ran scared. This race tactic works for me, helping me keep the gas on when I really just want to quit and walk. I hit the 3 mile mark at 18:05 (5:53 3rd mile) and was obviously tired. The last tenth of a mile heads down to the greyhound dog track with a sharp right then left up onto the banked corner of the track then about 100yds on the 'home stretch'. Nice novelty but a lousy way to end a race. You lose all sorts of speed and momentum getting onto the stupid track and running on a dirt track with racing flats doesn't do much for me.

So, overall I was very pleased with my 18:43 effort and the fact that each mile was faster than the last. Mike finished 5 seconds back with a PR! Nice job and thanks for the pull.
I'm slowly coming back, finally!

Splits:
Mile 1 6:08
Mile 2 6:04
Mile 3 5:53
Finish: 18:43 (6:02 avg)

Running and Racing

Well I completed my first full week of running last week, 35 miles total (5 days of running). Like any good runner, I probably jumped in a little too fast and did more than I should have. By the end of the week my legs were tired and heavy. Live and learn, light on the learn.

Things I did learn last week:

• My endurance did not suffer too much, surprisingly.
• My easy pace is roughly what it was before I got injured (with a slightly higher heartrate)
• My speed is essentially gone compared to what it was.

So I guess I need to find a nice slow, long race to run, right? Um no, I'll be heading to Lincoln, RI this weekend for the Rhody 5k, part of the USATF New England Grand Prix series. Talk about a humbling experience. Yikes! Hopefully I'll be able to score a few points for my team (if I'm lucky).

For the first time in a long time I actually added a couple of races to my race schedule (as opposed to deleting them for the last few weeks). I've penciled in the Bow Lake Dam 15k on June 13th and the Exeterra 10M Trail Race on June 20th.

Track Workout

I decided to try my luck at the weekly GCS track workout last night. Although I've only been running again for about a week I thought the workout was manageable, 4 x 1 mile repeats with 800m rest. I settled in with the second group, most of whom I guessed would be running between 6:00 and 6:30 pace.

I let others in the group pace the first mile and stayed tucked in the middle but I thought it felt a little slow and a little erratic so I decided to pace the group on the remaining miles, keeping each 400m split in the 1:30 to 1:32 range. Once I get dialed in I can generally run pretty consistent, repeatable laps.

Splits for the workout:
Mile 1 6:20
Mile 2 6:08
Mile 3 6:04
Mile 4 6:00

Effort wise it felt comfortably hard but this was obviously the fastest my legs moved in a very long time so my legs were pretty sore by the 4th mile repeat. So with a couple of miles for a warm up and a couple more for a cool down I ended up with 9+ miles for the day. Probably more than I should have so today is what I refer to as a grow day. No running for me.