Winter Classic recap and end of the year summary

I worked on my costume for about a month. I constructed a curved body and bottle top hat out of cardboard and styrofoam and even some metal frame work for the body. I covered it in shiny metalic green paper to look like glass and then designed and sketched a label for the front of the "HOLIDAY CHEER" bottle.On one of my long runs I came up with a witty warning for the back of the bottle. I even drew a barcode and Santa in his sleigh. I was pretty proud of my costume creation.
Race day finally arrived. I drove into Cambridge ready to spread holiday cheer. I got to the race a little early, walked around to scope out the competition. There were a lot of santa hats and elf costumes and some fun socks and tights. A guy in a speedo and one guy dressed as Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, but no one had a costume as creative as mine. The volunteers loved it, the race officials loved it, the race photographer loved it, and the other runners loved it. Even the cops directing traffic chuckled when I walked by.

I lined up with the other runners and the race began. It was pretty tricky to run in the costume and the wind made keeping the hat on really tough. At the first mile marker I looked at my watch and I had managed to run it in about 9 minutes. Not bad for a bottle of booze. I kept on running and smiled as I passed runners and could hear them reading my label and laughing. I figured no one could beat me in the costume contest - my costume was homemade, original, witty, and holiday themed.


I crossed the finish line in just under 30 minutes, a little slow for me, but wicked fast for running in costume AND the course was long - 3.4 miles not a 5K. People were pissed because it was a fast course and some of them might have PR'd if it was measured correctly, but all I wanted to know was when were they deciding the costume prize. I asked around and found out the awards would be done at around noon. The race was at 10:00am and I was done by 10:30. What the heck was I suppose to do for an hour and a half.

I walked around, got some water and a frozen bagel. Then I went to the bar that was hosting the awards ceremony. Let me tell you, if you were there with friends having breakfast and beers it was a hopping place to be, but if you were there sweaty and cold and dressed as a bottle of "holiday cheer" it lost it's spirit pretty quickly. I was bored, irritated, uncomfortable, and I just wanted to know if I won the costume contest and I wanted to go home. After waiting for two hours because they did the age group prizes and then took a break before announcing the costume prize, the time had come to find out if I won $250. The race director began by saying he didn't pick the winner and it might have had a different result if he did, and my hopes and dreams of a little extra holiday cash were shattered. I was beat by a friggin girl dressed as...............a LOBSTER!


Needless to say I was devastated and all my "holiday cheer" evaporated instantly with the announcement of the Lobster winning the $250.

Anyway, that race sucked and ruined what little holiday spirit I had just a week before Christmas, not my favorite time of year to begin with. I'm sort of a grinch when it comes to the holidays. I hate holiday music, I hate all the TV ads, I hate all the decorations that seem to go up in stores earlier and earlier each year. But, I'm on vacation so at least I don't have to listen to every one at work talking about last minute shopping and family feuds and I don't have to participate in a lame holiday gift swap of stuff no one wants given to people no one really likes. Instead I spend the last 3 weeks of the year doing what I love to do - RUNNING.

Almost everyday, I get up whenever I want and eat a good breakfast and then go for a run and occasionally in the evening when friends get out of work I go for another run with them. I've been racking up miles as if I'm only a few weeks out from a marathon, except this year I'm not running Disney in January. I'm not training for anything in January. Just have Boston in my sights and it's in April. So, for now I can just relax and enjoy running and slowly ramp up my mileage after the new year.

2010 has been a pretty epic year, Goofy challenge, Boston marathon, Maine marathon, a bunch of triathlons, and I even had a near death experience with a garbage truck somewhere in the middle. I will finish out the year with just shy of 1500 miles logged. I could get 1500, but I'd have to run 42 miles in the next 5 days and we just got hammered with a bunch of snow so it'll be near immpossible to do that. I'm just amazed that I logged over 1000 miles in a year. Can't wait to see what I can accomplish in 2011.

And so the training for Boston begins again......

I'm in "officially" now. I made my excel spreadsheet for training 2011. Started with a 26.2 on the week of April 18th and worked my way back to January carefully planning my long runs in cycles to build in recovery weeks and ramp up my mileage over the next 20 weeks including time for taper at the end. Good news is the training is actually stretched out more than it was last year because I'm not doing Goofy this year. So, I can ease into the training and enjoy the mid-long distance runs (12-14 miles) and get in a few extra really long runs (16-20 miles). The 16 and 18 milers are my FAVORITES! I have a beautiful loop I LOVE to run full of hills just like Newton.

I think I might be a little excited to start the training because last week I logged a total of 45 miles and I am only at the BEGINNING of the training!!!! That's more than I logged at the peak of my training last year. I did two long runs last weekend, an 11 miler on Saturday and a 12 miler on Sunday. So, I decided this week will be a recovery week and I'm taking it down a notch.

In the last few months I've been analyzing my nutrition in an effort to get to the best body composition for me. I crunched the numbers for about 4 months worth of data and turns out I'm very consistent. I eat 55% carbs, 30% fat, and 15% protein almost exactly without even trying. I've had my body composition measured and I'm at a very lean 17% body fat. I've been able to maintain my weight for the past 3 years while continuing to build lean muscle mass and lose fat. I think when I started at my current weight I was ~24% body fat. I'm having my resting metabolic rate tested again to make sure I'm eating enough and fueling my body right. Basically, I'm in tip top shape and should be able to train hard and run strong in April.

Only a few short fun runs coming up in the next few weeks. The Winter Classic 5K is giving a $250 cash prize to the best costume so I'm going to try and win it. I'll post pictures after the run so you can judge if my creative idea is prize worthy. Then on January 1st I'll be running the 1st Run 10K in Lowell. It was my tune up race for Goofy last year, this year I can just run it for fun.

I really hope the weather continues to behave as it has up 'til now. A mild winter makes for nice training runs. Snow is pretty, but not fun to run in. Happy Holidays! Find your happy pace!

Santa came to my house early......

One of my friends left this on my desk Monday:


It’s a really good thing that I get to work before anyone else and it’s bright and early and super quiet in the office because when I saw it I SCREAMED and then proceeded to jump up and down and do a little “I’m running Boston, I’m running Boston, I’m running Boston” dance. I’m sure it would have been very funny to see if you were a fly on the wall.

I don’t really like the holidays, not big on family, don’t have kids or a significant other and don’t really exchange gifts with anyone so all the commercials and décor every where I turn is really just annoying. I have everything I really need – a roof over my head, food in my fridge, a car to get me from point A to B, a job that pays my bills. Anything I WANT above and beyond those things I can’t really afford so I live simply with what I have and I’m happy with that.

The most valuable thing to me in life is and always will be my friends. I can’t even begin to describe how grateful I am for the awesome friends I have met through running. They truly are the greatest gift I have ever received; although, the invitational entry to Boston is a close second. ;)

2010 Year in Review

So, the year is coming to a close and it’s been a super busy one. I just looked at my race calendar and counted up all the races I did.

Here’s a summary:

3 Marathons
6 Half marathons
5 Sprint triathlons
2 Obstacle course races (Spartan and Ruckus)
~20 5Ks
Several other distance races

Total so far (there’s still 5 weeks left in the year): 52 races

Highlights of the year have to be completing the Goofy Challenge in Disney, setting a PR in my first Boston Marathon, getting the coast to coast medal at the Disneyland half marathon and then breaking my marathon PR in my home town at the Portland, ME Marathon.

Goofy:

Boston:

Disneyland:

Maine Marathon:


I have been neglecting this blog and not really writing much, but I will try to be better in the New Year. Some funny things have happened since the last entry and I really should write about them. I ran the Wicked Half in Salem, MA and although it was advertised as a costumed race, I was the ONLY person that showed up in costume (and therefore won the best costume prize). I dressed as a black cat and looked wicked cute.

A few weeks after, on Halloween, the same race organizers had the Devil’s Chase 6.66 miler in Salem, MA. It was a devil themed race. There were a ton of traditional red devils, a few devils in blue dresses, a Tasmanian devil, some deviled eggs, but I once again wowed them with my creativity and showed up in a homemade costume as Devil’s Food Cake. Some people didn’t get it right away so it was fun to watch the gears turn in their heads and the light bulb finally come on when they understood what I was dressed as and some people never really got it and I got a lot of cheers along the course for “Chocolate Cake slice”! It was awesome.

Devil’s Chase:


I ran the Spartan Race and the Ruckus Boston obstacle course race with a bunch of friends. Both were toughest ~ 3 mile races I’ve ever run. I can’t decide if Spartan race was tougher because of the terrain it was on. Ruckus was totally flat on a fairground and Spartan was wicked hilly through woods and trails. The Ruckus obstacles were way tougher, but the Spartan terrain was definitely tougher.

Spartan:

Ruckus:


It has been a little over 3 years since I lost 100lbs and I have maintained my weight since then and continue to improve my body composition. I’m getting leaner and faster and I can’t wait to see what kinds of new personal records I can set in 2011.

Graniteman, Spartan, and Disneyland

So, I’ve been super busy this summer racing and training. I’ve kind of neglected this blog, but I’m not really sure anyone even reads it so I guess it’s ok to neglect it. In my last update I mentioned some of my upcoming races. I have now completed most of them. Here’s a quick recap:

Graniteman Tri in Wolfeboro, NH. I did awesome. 10 minutes better than last year and got 4th place; missed the podium by only a few minutes. Next year I’ll get a chunk of granite. It’s a long sprint tri – ¾ mile swim, 15 mile bike, and 4.2 mile run and a very hilly course. I finished it in 1:56:09. My goal was to get under 2 hours. Goal accomplished. Oh and then I did an 18 miler the next day!

Good Times Summer Series – 8 weeks of 5k races, different themes each week. I placed 3rd in my age group which is pretty awesome considering half way thru the series I almost got crushed by a garbage truck. If I didn’t have the accident I would have been first place, so next year will be very interesting.

Spartan Race – One word: AWESOME! It was the toughest 5K I have ever run, but it was so much fun. I can’t wait to do it again next year. I got some great photos and the pro photographers got some good ones of me too. I’ll have to buy them and frame them in some kind of rugged bad ass frame. I ran/walked a 20 miler in the heat and humidity the next day. I made it about 15 miles and had nothing left. It was in the 90s and sunny and I went through ~70 ounces of water before I even got home and still lost about 5lbs. in sweat.

DISNEYLAND Half marathon – dressed as Tinkerbell. I was a little disappointed in Disneyland after experiencing Disney World. It’s SO SMALL. It’s like mini-Disney. Everything at the expo was smaller scale and the whole experience was, well, not the same. The race was a nice surprise though. The course was so much fun. Only the first 3 miles went through the parks and the rest went through the streets of Anaheim and through Angel Stadium. The entire course was lined with cheer squads and dance teams and marching bands. It was a great atmosphere. I got a ton of really great photos. I can’t wait to see the pro photos. I managed to run it in 2:13 AND I stopped at EVERY character to take pictures. Felt great at the finish and could have easily kept going. I wasn’t even sore the next day.

Tinkerbell:


Me and Lightning Mcqueen and Mater:


All my Disney Medals:


This weekend I’m running the Nahant 30K, then next weekend is Reach the Beach. I kind of want to do another half before my full, but I don’t think I can afford to after spending so much in Disney. We’ll see. I might be able to scrape up some spare change.

Hot fun in the Summer Sun

WOW, it’s already been a month since the last time I posted anything. This summer is FLYING by. I can’t believe there are only 3 weeks left until Labor Day. I’m wicked excited though because Labor Day weekend I’m going to Disneyland with a friend for the half marathon and to claim a Coast to Coast medal! Before I talk about what’s coming up on my race calendar I should mention what has kept me so busy in the last 4 weeks.

As I mentioned in my last post, I crashed my bike then did two 5Ks and a tri. My road rash is totally healed and I have some nice scars now to make the memory of my near death experience really last. The hematoma on my hip is still there, but getting smaller every day. There’s still a weird red blotch on my back like a bruise that just has never gone away. Aside from that, I’m pretty much back to normal. Not quite back to the speed I had before the crash, but slowly getting there.

Here are some picture from the Urban Epic Tri I did (July 10th):


The week after that I continued to rest and recover and then got right back into training for the Peak Performance Portland, ME Marathon. I did a nice 16 mile run and felt really good. I averaged just about 10:15s which was my pace for Boston. I started out a little fast and was averaging 10:00s and under, but the last 3 miles were really hot and humid.

The following week (July 25th ) I did another triathlon, SheROX Tri in Webster, MA. I finished it in 1:27, 20 minutes faster than the Urban Epic tri, proof that if I wasn’t injured I would have totally kicked my brother’s butt. I came in 13th out of 168 and had the 6th fastest bike split. Here are the pictures from that tri:


Next up was the Yankee Homecoming 10 miler. Every year it’s on the hottest day of the summer and I hate every minute of it and say to myself, never again. But then sign up for it again the following year anyway. This was my 3rd year running the 10 miler. It was a little cooler than the past years and there was a slight breeze. I was just hoping to beat my time from the year before which was 1:43. I was really hoping to even be able to get under 1:40 if I felt good. I wasn’t feeling very confident at the start of the race. I had to rush to get there and almost didn’t make it in time and I was a little stressed, but once I started running that stress melted away in the setting sun along the course. The miles went by and I was maintaining a very comfortable rhythm. I got to the last 2 miles and I felt great. I started to pick up the pace a little and passed people left and right that were struggling much like I had in the years before. I made it to the home stretch and saw my friend Ann and she screamed at me “You’re going to get 1:35!!!” and I took off like a bullet firing out of gun. I did it! Not only did I PR, but I got under 1:40 and by a couple of minutes! It was amazing.

That weekend I did another 16 miler. Still feeling great and getting stronger everyday. The following week the Good Times Summer Series started up again with the Bikini Run. I’ve run it 3 years in a row now. I may not have the best body out there, but it’s MY best body and I’m happy to run in a bikini even if my tan lines look a little silly. I didn’t PR or anything, but for me running in a bikini is a huge personal accomplishment no matter what the clock says when I cross the finish line. Here’s a photo:


August 8th was the Witch City Tri in Salem, MA. ½ mile swim – 13 mile bike – 3 mile run. I did pretty good. Finished in 1:28. I had a few fumbles along the way. I stubbed my toe on a giant rock in the water warming up. It wasn’t even really warming up, the water was FREEZING and the only way to warm up was to get out as fast as possible. When I was standing on the beach listening to the announcer and waiting for my wave to start I looked down and noticed I was bleeding, a lot! Great way to start the day. Luckily, as the woman next to me pointed out, the water was too cold for the sharks to come up the coast from the cape. The race started and I swam really well. I’m not fast by any means, but I wasn’t last either. Then getting out of the water I hit ANOTHER giant rock and tripped getting out of the water and gashed open the side of my foot. So now, my toe AND the side of my foot were bleeding. I got to the transition area and couldn’t get my wetsuit off. FINALLY, I got out and got to the mount your bike space and my chain was stuck and I couldn’t get started. Eventually, I got going and passed a ton of people and flew through the bike course in no time at all. Pulled on my sneakers and finished the race. I thought I did really great until I looked at the final results online the next day. I came in 8th place in my age group, out of 8! Apparently a bunch of local tri teams practice on the course and only really fast people registered for the race. I did really well, but everyone else did better. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I did an 18 mile training run the day before the race. Here are the photos:


Up next is the Graniteman Tri in Wolfeboro, NH. Then the Spartan race in Amesbury, MA and then DISNEYLAND! After Disneyland I’m doing Reach the Beach, maybe a few shorter races I haven’t decided on yet and then the marathon. No wonder time flies by, I’m always running, riding, or racing.

Epic Week

Well, last week was … I can’t even think of the right words to describe it. I was sick the entire week before and I started to feel better over the holiday weekend. Even did a 10 mile run on Sunday and a 20 mile bike ride on Monday. Tuesday morning I got up early to bike to work. I made it about 3 ½ miles from my house. I was flying down a hill going about 30mph when a trash truck coming from the other direction turned left in front of me!!!! I jammed on my brakes and went flying over the handlebars through the air and hit the pavement HARD. Cracked my helmet and landed just under the front of the trash truck. Somehow my bike landed 10 or 15ft. away in the opposite direction and one of my blinky lights landed a few feet behind me in the road. My water bottles were scattered on the road in front of me and the truck. It was pretty much a huge mess. The driver of the truck immediately got out and started asking me if I was ok. I just put my hand up and said “gimme a second to catch my breathe and assess the situation”. My first thought was “F*%&^& I have a triathlon this weekend!!!!!!” My second thought was “there goes my place in the good times summer series 5Ks” (I was tied for 2nd). Then I thought I hope my bike is ok. THEN finally, I thought I hope I’m ok.

I was able to get up and walk over to a grassy spot to sit and check out my bike. It looked ok, just a little banged up. I was in the same condition. Ok, just a little banged up. I had road rash on my arm, shoulder, back and hip. I don’t know why the driver didn’t just call 911. I was too out of it to make any kind of good decisions. I just asked him to drive me home. From there I took myself to the Emergency room. Luckily, nothing was broken. I just had a mild concussion and a bunch of bruises and abrasions. It could have been A LOT worse. I am extremely lucky. After the ER I went to the Police station to file an accident report and then to the bike shop to have my bike looked at. I rested for most of the day after taking care of everything.

My hip:

My elbow:


Wednesday, I went to work (not on my bike). I was in a lot of pain, but I couldn’t really sit around my house all day and with a mild concussion it was probably safer to be near people anyway. My hip really hurt and my shoulder started to turn lovely shades of purple. My elbow was still oozing and not really healing that well. I couldn’t focus on anything and I struggled all day with some short term memory loss. That made for a very long day at work and a very frustrating day. I went home after and fell asleep on my couch at about 5:00 and slept straight through til the morning.

Thursday I felt better so I took my bike (all fixed) out for a short test ride. The handlebars were a little twisted and the new saddle was a little too low and my new pedals were too loose. I made the minor adjustments and I was good to go. I followed the ride up with a short run. I was registered for a 5K and I decided to give it a go and just take it easy. I took it REALLY easy and finished in about 35 minutes. The first mile hurt, but after that I felt ok. So, I figured based on these efforts I could still do the tri on Saturday.

Drove up to Portland on Friday night and picked up the race packet and racked my bike. After leaving the race check in we drove around downtown Portland looking for parking for what seemed like an eternity. I was so friggin hungry I was getting really cranky. It was almost 8pm and I hadn’t eaten since lunch time! We actually found a parking spot but these ho-tastic b*tches were standing in it trying to save it for someone else. If my brother had stopped the car I would have jumped out and throttled the girl for the friggin parking spot because I was so hungry. Instead we ended up circling the block 3 or 4 more times before settling on parking in a garage. We had dinner at flatbreads (me, my mom, and brother). We ordered a Nitrate free pepperoni and mushroom and a veggie special that had pesto and summer squash and zucchini and grape tomatoes and, of course, the organic salad with blue cheese to start off with. It was yummy.

Then Saturday morning was the Urban Epic tri. The swim sucked. First of all, pulling on my tri top in the morning I split open the road rash on my elbow and my shoulder. Then my wetsuit, even though it’s sleeveless, came right over the road rash on my shoulder and rubbed it off completely. It was a ½ mile swim, but it felt like it took FOREVER. I felt good in the first ½ of it, but then I got really winded and a little dizzy. Got out of the water and stripped off my wetsuit. Then there was a ½ mile run to the transition area. Hopped on the bike and blew past people left and right. ALMOST caught up to my brother. I saw him on my first lap and my second lap. He was way faster in the swim though and had a 3 minute head start. The last mile of the bike course was this insane hill, actually two hills one right after the other. Both were ~10% grade (which is REALLY steep). I made it up the first hill fine and thought, that was easy, I can eat hills like that for breakfast. Then the second hill hit hard like a sucker punch. I dropped it into the granny gear and made it over the top ringing my bell for the people cheering. I saw my brother already a mile into the run and knew catching him was not going to happen. I made the fast descent to the transition zone and put on my shoes for the run.

I started to run the wrong way out of the transition area, but then got my bearings and I was off. Got comfortable pretty quickly, but then about ½ a mile into the run there was a huge grass hill to run up. It was more like hiking than running. I got to the top and I was gassed. Still 2.5 miles to go and I was out of energy. I pushed through and continued. My hip started to really hurt a lot and then after a little out and back loop we turned down a trail and had to run down a steep hill on a dirt trail and that hurt A LOT. Then at the bottom of the hill despite the huge orange sign with an arrow on it everyone in front of me turned the wrong way down the trail and I followed them not really paying attention and we got about ¼ of a mile down the trail before we realized we went the wrong way and had to turn around and go back. Got back on track and finished the race with a little kick at the end and then straight to the med tent for some ice. Overall, it was a fun race, tough course, but good times. If I was 100% and not injured I think I might have been able to catch my brother. Afterwards we hung out at the post race party for a while and I gave away my two free beers to some of my brothers friends. Pictures from the race will be posted as soon as I get them.