Countdown to the CT50...and, I'm Out.

Made decision to withdraw from the CT50, due to family obligations.  See below.  Disappointed?  Most definitely.  Wrong move?  Nope.  I'll get 'em next time, and do something almost as cool instead...

Monday, 5-26 - 2.2 Miles (Trails) - Champlin Glacier Park - Met my good friend Sally today, to show her some trails.  She knows I love trail running, and wants to get into races, which I do tons of, so I was the person to ask?  Anyway, we did a easy pace 2.2 mile loop in Champlin, even coming across a lady slipper flower along the trail:

Google photo, didn't have my camera with me!  Cool flower though :)

.  She asked me a bunch of questions, and I rattled on about why trail running is so much more fun for me than roads, and I think I made a pretty good argument for trails!

Tuesday, 5-27 - 0 Miles - Worked construction today, and my mind was all over the place.  My mother-in-law has been at Yale New Haven hospital since last week, awaiting surgery for two aneurysms, which require stents to bypass.  The surgery is set for Friday morning, and I just rightly made the decision to put family first and bow out of the CT50.  Killing me, but it's the right thing to do.  My family (and especially my wife) need me to be close to home, so I'm out.  Already e-mailed race director Ian, and let my family members from New York know, as they were planning a road trip to visit with me.

I'm going to pick up the miles this week, and try for something awesome this weekend, just closer to here.  Stay tuned...

Wednesday, 5-28 - 0 Miles.  1 hour karate, and a lot of yardwork...grrrr...

Thursday, 5-29 - 3.4 Miles (Trails) - Green Falls loop.  Talked to my mother-in-law, who's totally antsy and just wants to get the surgery over with.  I'd feel the same, I think, if I were laying in a hospital bed for a week.  Sucks, but has to be done, and the sooner the better.  Today, I gave another good effort going up to the dam, and shaved 24 seconds off my previous best!  Closing in on Muddy's CR...look out!!!  Looped around the pond, ate a minimum of spider webs, and decided to scout out the service road near the dam, which leads...somewhere?  The Enduro trail cuts across it, so I ventured down that for a bit, not a bad trail either!  More exploration is definitely in order...perfect day out there!  Beat my CR from the dam to the road by a whopping two seconds on the way back to the truck.  Bling!

Overlook at Green Falls Pond

Saw a baby fox on the way home, his Mom was across the road telling him to stay put...

love living in the country!

Friday, 5-30 - 10 Miles (Trails) - Bigger Pachaug loop.  Wanted to make it to Hell Hollow road, but ran out of extra time and bailed onto the connector trail.  The Quinebaug section was a mess - faded blazes and I got turned around a couple of times, as the Enduro trails criss-cross the blue blazed trails, but still fun.  I had printed a DEP map and stuck it in my pocket, which definitely helped.  Perfect weather day, and I didn't see a soul out there???  

Fortunately, my Mother in law did well in the surgery, and we'll get to visit her tomorrow.  Hoping she gets to come home by Mon.-Tues...


Saturday, 5-31 - 0 Miles - Visited MIL at Yale New Haven.  Awesome doctors and nurses there.  My mother in law should be a few more days and then home for recovery, which should take about a month.  If anyone is ever in New Haven, go to the Yale New Haven hospital campus, find the street where all the food vendors are, and get a steak and cheese from Jon's Steak and Cheese cart.  Epic.

Sunday, 6-1 - 13+ Miles (Trail/Road crossovers) - Pachaug/Tippecansett loop from Green Falls.  Great loop, although the web-infested crossover trail that Gazelle and I traversed last year was so overgrown that I missed it several times, and decided not to run it after I did find it.  No problem though, tons of other webs to chew on during the run!  Started below the dam, and went all the way to Beach Pond, crossed the bridge, and took the Tippecansett south to the Yawgoog Scout Camp property on the border.  Solid trail time, although it was quite warm and I ran the CamelBak dry about three miles from the truck.  Needless to say, I was definitely feeling dehydrated for a while after the run...I think I had about 30oz. in the bladder, and ate three GUs.  Maxing the bladder at 50oz. would have made the difference, I think.  Great day though, saw a bunch of cool stuff out there:

The quiet end of Beach Pond

Tippecansett Trail goodness

Eastern Box Turtle, hiding from my fat fingers...

Tell Muddy the boat goes in the water...

So while it wasn't the CT50, it was a good run, scenic, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  And apparently, the CT50 was an absolute sufferfest with temps at of above 80 degrees, yikes!

Is the Hay in the Barn? I don't think the Hay's in the Barn, Pre...

Shit, I suppose at this point I'll just have to throw myself into the race and see what happens.  Nothing to do but go for it, right?  No races scheduled until Ithaca, just cruisy, mellow trail runs.  If I have strong suits to my training (do I have any?), I suppose they are these:

1. Excellent "trail legs."  I'm confident and sure-footed on trails, even the most technical trails, uphill or down.  I don't get rattled by difficult sections - in fact, I enjoy them even more than the smooth single-track.

2. Trail time.  Almost all of my runs are on fairly technical single-track.  The amount of time I spend alone, in the woods, running tricky trails, is to my benefit.

3. Elevation.  I've substituted lack of time to train with vertical gain.  I've gone for, in most cases, the hilliest trails I have near me, and my short runs have been as steep as possible.  I've also learned that I'm pretty decent at descents...

4. Fueling.  My hydration/fueling, especially during a longer run, has become more sensible and consistent.

5. Mental.  I'm still a head case, but I've learned to adopt an approach that works (at least in my head):  "You have fun every time you go out for a run, no matter what the distance.  Enjoy the run."



Weaknesses?  Anyone?  I'll leave #5 open.

1. Miles.  I don't have enough miles per week under my belt.  True.  No argument there.

2. Support.  Solo trip, after I told Lori about the drive time.  Maybe I'll be able to focus better?  Fortunately, trail runners are quite a supportive bunch :)

3. Travel time to and from, and sleeping in a strange room.  I don't mind the drive, but it's another factor to consider, and I'll have to pop a melatonin and go to bed really early Friday and Saturday...especially Saturday.  6 a.m. start?  Really???  I should be ready to join the 4:45 club after this...

4. Trail time on the race course.  Going in on Friday before a Sunday race, I'm relying on previous runs, and course recon from fellow runners.  Jason (http://mustlovejogs.com/2014/05/16/cayuga-trails-50-the-course/) drove out a few days ago and previewed the course, and was a big help.  Lots of stairs!  Gorges!

5. ???

Monday, 5-19 - 7 Miles (Trails) - James L. Goodwin State Forest, Chaplin CT.  Finally got out to this place, about a 45-minute drive from here.  Secure parking, well-mapped, and pretty damn good trails.  I only managed one wrong turn, and did portions of the yellow and red trails, the blue-blazed lake loop, and a finish on the Natchaug Trail.  It even merges with the Airline Rail Trail, so many options.  Saw a number of hikers, and a couple on horseback with mosquito netting on their heads.  Great mix of single and double track, technical and smooth trail.  Great place, but I had to drive past a bunch of other quality trails to get there...map below!

http://www.ct.gov/deep/lib/deep/education/goodwin/goodwintrailsmap.pdf

Tuesday, 5-20 - 5 Miles (Trail/Roads to and from) - Relaxed Champlin run w/Gazelle.  Another awesome weather day, and after some official WTAC business, we were able to get a short run in over in Champlin, which I hadn't been to since there was snow on the ground?  Warm but very nice in the woods, and slightly too warm on the road.  I'll take it over sub-zero and icy though!

Wednesday, 5-21 - 0 Miles - Sick child.  I'm not calling it the Norovirus or anything, but my daughter got sent home today, along with about 20 other kids in her grade alone.  Not pretty.  So, with that said and an utter refusal to use the treadmill, I opted for a zero day, and took care of my ailing child.  Good Dad (who's praying he doesn't catch it - they even sent a letter home about it...) :)

Thursday, 5-22 - 0 Miles.  Sick child, day #2.  She's better, but had to take another day to get the bug out of her system.  She had a perfect attendance record up until yesterday, but she knew what the better decision was.  I was toying with the idea of doing repeats in the yard, but it wouldn't have done anything for my training so I scrapped it.  Besides, I had a job today that Soph had to tag along on, and she was able to do her homework during the drive and I took her to lunch after.  Lots of heavy lifting for me, good workout although not quite what I'd prefer to be doing!

On a lighter note, here's the preliminary revision of the elevation at Cayuga, OH SHIT...

Section 1 = 2.9 miles, +1,020', -560' = +460'
Section 2 = 4.0 miles, +790', -1,250' = -460'
Section 3 = 5.5 miles, +1,170', -1,180' = -10'
Section 4 = 5.7 miles, +1,210', -1,200' = +10'
Section 5 = 4.0 miles, +1,250', -790' = +460'
Section 6 = 2.9 miles, +560', -1,020' = -460'
Total = 25.0 miles, +/-6,000'
2 laps = 50.0 miles, +/-12,000'

Talk about upping the ante...that's crazy...

Friday-Saturday - 0 Miles - Newport overnighter, lots of walking and eating :)

Sunday, 5-25 - 5 Miles (Trail) - Green Falls.  Easy miles from now until...then.  Good stuff, technical and scenic, and I felt like I could have gone all day (which I'll have to!)...

Countdown to Annihilation! Week of 5-12 to 5-18

an·ni·hi·late

  [uh-nahy-uh-leyt]  Show IPA

verb (used with object), an·ni·hi·lat·ed, an·ni·hi·lat·ing.

1.

to reduce to utter ruin or nonexistence; destroy utterly: The heavy bombing almost annihilated the city.

2.

to destroy the collective existence or main body of; wipe out: to annihilate an army.

3.

to annul; make void: to annihilate a law.

4.

to cancel the effect of; nullify.

5.

to defeat completely; vanquish: Our basketball team annihilated the visiting team.

(Definition courtesy of Dictionary.com)

This should be fun...three weeks to go, and the serious mind games have already begun.  I got an e-mail from race director Ian Golden yesterday, which read, in part:

"The gorge took a really hard hit w/ the creek flowing through up over 10 feet last August. It went up and over several bridges, taking them out of commission, and tearing away the most scenic spot on the course which was the upper gorge. They've been hard at it but just not enough time. I had to reroute the course up what's called the Red Pine Trail near the top of the gorge, and taking it back down the Rim Trail. On the Buttermilk side I'll shift you to the other side of a low reservoir. Upside is it's got some runnable terrain. The downside is (and there wasn't a way around this), it took your elevation up a bit more, from somewhere around 8,500 to somewhere around 10,000. I can't get an accurate read as even solid GPS units lose their signals in the gorges."

Awesome, my mental victory over finding out the vert was more like 8K vs. 10K just got wiped away like the bridges in the gorge...but then I think, well, you did sign up for it when you thought it was 10K of vertical, so that's nothing different, and I got some encouraging words from a runner named Yoshihiro Nozaki, who's done some monster races in the 50-100M range, saying how much he liked the course.  The meet and greet Friday is at Ithaca Brewing, where they're putting together a special "Ultra Brew," Saturday has a screening of the Trails In Motion Film Festival (http://trailsinmotion.wordpress.com/), and there are a bunch of cool activities going on to distract me from Sunday morning's reality...although, I have to say I'm looking forward to it.  I haven't been to Ithaca in over 30 years, and I'm going to try to find my family's cottage on the western side of Cayuga Lake.  We even had a gorge behind it, with a trail that led to a waterfall.  If I can scope it out, I'll make that my Friday run and get pictures...

Here's a recap from last year:

Monday, 5-12 - 2.5 Miles (Trail) - Post-karate run at Green Falls.  Thanks, Muddy!  Spider season has kicked in, and as I friggin' hate spiders, the post that Muddy made on Strava about eating webs made my run decision for me.  I had a smallish window to run, and the technicality of Green Falls was the ticket.  Besides, I'd set a goal a few weeks ago to run the "Dam to Road" segment in 4:45 or less.  Got it in 4:31, scrambling like a bastard.  Even at a downhill run it's a bitch, but at least the water crossing has been fixed!  So good times there, and I saw people on the trail!  I love this time of year, the trails are such an underutilized natural treasure around here.  On the west side of the pond, I even found a stream/spring/waterfall hidden underneath a cluster of boulders?  Need to get out there again with a headlamp or a flashlight, because it looked pretty damn cool, from what I saw!

Tuesday, 5-13 - 10 Miles (Trail/Dirt Road) - Arcadia run.  I'm still getting used to Arcadia.  The trails there are awesome, and I did a 10 mile loop today that could have been extended a lot (including the Mount Tom section), given a bigger time frame.  Some technical sections, but mostly just really runnable single- and double-track trails,  I did the Frosty Hollow to Breakheart to Penny Hill run, threw in a stretch of dirt road, before finishing up on the Root Trail (aptly named), and back to the truck.  Good 10-miler on a perfect weather day for running.  Still haven't ventured much yet into the southern part of Arcadia...plenty more to explore there as well!  And wear lots of orange!

Nice pine forest to run in...

Awesome single-track North of Breakheart Pond

Wednesday, 5-14 - 2.6 Miles (Trails) - Short window Lantern Hill run.  Had to make a trip to the transfer station, so Lantern was the choice.  Besides, I wanted to get some vert, and take a shot at beating my "Lantern Top to Bottom" segment, with a stretch goal of getting below 4 minutes.  Took it easy on the way up, then hammered the downhill for a time of 3:56, pretty stoked about that as it's almost 30 seconds faster than my best time.  Meanwhile...some dude from New York and his friend were taking one of my uphill segments by about 8 seconds, so I'll have to go get that back at some point...perfect weather today, sunny and breezy and mid-60s.  Great short run!

Thursday, 5-15 - 6.5 Miles (Trails/Dirt Roads) - Humid Pachaug trail run.  Muggy miles in the woods, saw a couple of hikers and some campers today.  Overcast and started to rain just as I was finishing up, beautiful day!

Easy singletrack section...Nehantic Trail

Friday, 5-16 - 0 Miles - Spent the day with my better half, and we even managed an impromptu date night at Mohegan Sun, where we grabbed a pizza at Pepe's and ice cream at Ben and Jerry's, and walked around the casino doing some people-watching.  Great day!

Saturday, 5-17 - 5+ Miles (Road) - Warmup/cooldowns, and the 5th Annual KIAI 5K road race.  My friend Julie Conte is the race director for this race, which is permanently on my schedule.  It's also the only race I've done since its inception, which makes me a streaker?  Not the cool kind that goes running through the quad, sadly...

Ahhh, college...what an experience...

Changes for 2014?  A completely different course.  And tech shirts!  20 bucks gets you a race entry, great shirt, fed, and (in my case) a $25 restaurant gift cert.???  Sign me up!  I knew from research that the new setup was near the "Gear and Beer" 5K course, and was thinking about the hill...that hill.  Mercifully, the hill was cut from the equation, but there was still a rolling course which seemed more hilly than the Strava elevation profile would lead me to believe.  Great volunteer/police coverage all along the course, too!  FYI, ya'll, the prizes went three deep per age group, and there were tons of awesome raffle prizes, I was blown away by how much there was, actually.  The Foot Pursuit didn't have nearly the same amount of swag!

So I woke up early to pouring rain, made coffee and watched it clear up quickly.  Relief.  The Sun came out, and I hit the road to pick up friends Jim and Ben.  We chatted on the way over and I was glad to have some conversation and company.  Jim and I did a short warmup after we checked in and we got ready to race.

My race was a no expectations, cruise at a moderate pace type of race.  Rolling streets, and my first road run in a while so kind of weird.  Awesome downhill to the finish.  Nothing to write home about time-wise, not a PR, but a good effort and good for 14th place and 2nd in my age group at a 23:02.  I got a $25 gift certificate to Applebee's for 2nd in my age group?  That's how deep the awards went.  The raffle awards were even better, from what I saw...Awesome.  This is a great cause in South County.  I've been there every year, and I'm glad to be a part of it!

Sunday, 5-18 - 0 Miles, just an all day yardwork affair, followed by a Southern-style BBQ dinner at my in-laws...perfect weather...

2014 Shad Bloom Trail Race - Block Island, RI

Awesome day.  It was overcast, chilly and threatening rain as I left the house, and all I could think of was last year, and the rain coming down sideways throughout the race.  I arrived at the ferry early, too early, and a brisk wind was coming off the water.  This was gonna be interesting...

Riding the ferry out to Block...chilly...hmmm

Once aboard the ferry, I looked around for some of the people I knew were going to be there.  Nobody.  A quick check of Facebook?  Paul Gray and family had gone out early, and he mentioned me by name that I'd better have an iron stomach, as the seas were quite rough.  I've been surfing for 25+ years now, and I don't get seasick.  Lucky me.  Not so lucky for quite a few others once we left the harbor, though, as I finally met up with Mike K., Tracy C., and their friend Greg.  Turns out Mike, among others on the ferry, were prone to seasickness, so we made conversation on the ride out and Mike made it without hurling.  It was rolling pretty good out there!  I loved it.

We decided to walk up the hill from the ferry, much to the dismay of the shuttle bus driver.  He even yelled something at us about walking, when there was a perfectly good bus right there!

Got checked in at the race, and it looked like the Sun might even come out!  Found Paul and Carol Ann, got caught up with Way, and changed into my singlet, ready for a warmup which I ran right before the race with Paul.

Last year my Strava app had the course measured at exactly 6 miles.  Knowing that miles 1-2 were for banking time, as the trails and hills at miles 4-5 were abrupt and cruel, I went out at a mid-7 pace at the beginning.  Mike went out fast and I soon lost sight of him.  I caught Paul a mile in, then got passed by Tracy and Greg, but I stayed with them for pretty much the entire race.  The mile 4 hill sucks.  Everyone I saw was power hiking it, it's just a tough point in the race for a hill of that grade (10-15%).  I created a segment for it on Strava as well...

So after a series of climbs and drops, to the tops of hills and bottoms of ravines, the Sun was pretty much out and it had gotten very, very humid.  I sweat like a whore in church in the winter, but noticed that my singlet was now ready to be wrung out, and sweat was starting to sting my eyes.  I knew there was a gully with wood planks near the end of the trail section, then a short hill to a ladder climb over a low stone wall, followed by a short gravel road sprint to the finish.  Hey, it's the ladder!

I'm an idiot.  Next to the ladder was a sign that said "Go Left!" but it had wilted and couldn't be read, so I traversed the wall and my first glance was to my right.  There's an orange directional arrow pointing in that direction, so off I went.  Never bothered to look left.  Cruised past one, then two arrows (that were for the beginning part of the race when we started...), and looked over my shoulder to see who was behind me.  Three or four people popped out from the woods and took off in the other direction...and there you go, dumbass!  I immediately double-timed it back the other direction, all the while watching all the people I'd passed popping out and trucking toward the finish.  I was 100 yards behind Tracy for most of the race, and she finished in 27th at 50:30?  I'd had been right behind her for 28th place; alas, my blunder bumped me to 45th place in 53:23, unofficially, out of 230-ish runners?  My mistake, and I had a great time at the race so it's all good!

Got to watch the awards before leaving.  Tracy had mentioned that she thought it was so cool that age group winners got a special t-shirt that recognized they won their division, but that the awards only went one deep.  Guess who won her age division?  This gal:

Tracy wins her division, awards presented by Way Hedding!

Who's the big winner?  Tracy, that's who!

She also got a super cool beer stein, with plaque and Shad Bloom logo.  We were all pretty jealous about that!  Hopped the ferry back, and oddly, ran into Muddy at the packy, where I gave him a short recap of my race and headed home to drown my sorrows in a steak and some heavily-hopped IPAs...

Great race, great day, and I really need to stay a bit later next time for a post-race burger and beer, as I was starving all the way home...

Road Trip! Shad Bloom Trail Race, week of 5-5 to 5-11

Last year, I took the ferry out to Block Island with Gazelle for this scenic and pretty damn cool race.  He's still healing up so it looks like I'm solo for this one.  It rained sideways last year and everyone got soaked, but I had a great time there and I'm looking forward to running it again.  I know a few people who are also running it, so there may be a few familiar faces on the ferry ride over!  Last year I was 38th out of 200+ runners in 51:41, which I believe was right on the target time that Paul Gray set for me before the race.  No expectations this year other than to enjoy the experience again, it's an awesome race (when, during a race, do you ever have to climb a small ladder to cross over a stone wall???) with incredible scenery.  Can't wait.

I also want to make another attempt this week at a good, long run.  4 weeks to go now, but I did get some good words of encouragement from Muddy and FiveK yesterday...

Lastly, I'm registered for the Quahog Mile on Sunday, which also happens to be Mother's Day.  Didn't realize that when I registered.  As I'm shipping off to Block for the bulk of the day on Saturday, I'm going to be a smart cookie and not run the mile.  Very interested to see what kind of times get thrown down there, but I also have a family Mother's Day event happening now that can't be missed...

Monday, 5-5 - 3 Miles (Road) - Post karate run in town.  Finished karate and hopped in the truck to go find someplace to run until the dog was done at the groomers, and I see a runner coming toward me up one of the hills...and hey!  It's Beth!  I slow down and holler at her, and she responds by growling something about screwing up her segment.  Too much.  She's on the tail end of her run so I get a mile in with her, and then tack on a couple more past the Y and through the park.  My Space Watch decided to record time, but not pace/distance, and I ultimately had to completely reset the damn thing at the house.  Working fine now.  No kudos from Mike B. for my run, but he runs on a treadmill all winter so he's suspect anyway.  Nice day, windy, and got to run for a few with a friend - that's a success in my book!


Tuesday, 5-6 - 7-ish Miles (Road/Trail) - Mystic roads and Peace Sanctuary/Pequot Woods preserves.  I had planned on today being the long run day, but the time frame I needed got swallowed up.  Still managed to cruise out to the unmarked trails at Peace Sanctuary, then over to Pequot Woods for some swampy, muddy fun, then back down into Mystic  Next time I'm going to make the connector to the Beebe Pond Preserve and come in from Noank.  Scenic, and a good day :)

Mystic Seaport from the Peace Sanctuary trails...

Well?

Wednesday, 5-7 - 5 Miles (Trail) - Post dump run "Dump Run."  After dropping off all the crap I'd loaded up in my truck, I had a window of opportunity that would have shrunk considerably if I drove anywhere, so Lantern it was to be.  Two very cool things happened.  The first?  Seeing a pileated woodpecker moving from tree to tree:

Saw one of these guys today, very cool!  Photo by Josh Laymon?

Unfortunately, it wouldn't let me get quite close enough to get a decent picture, twenty feet was the limit.  The second cool thing?  As I gave up trying to take its picture, and started moving again, another runner was coming up behind me?  I hardly ever see anyone out running at Lantern.  We struck up a conversation, and it turns out he's a poker player from New York named Mark.  He was just running the lower loop as he's not really a trail runner per se, and I offered to show him the upper trails.  He really liked the view from the top of the hill, and some of the technical aspects.  Always nice to show off my favorite stretch of trail.

After my second ascent, I'd just started to head down my "Top to Bottom" segment when a tiny branch brushed across my left eye, just enough to swipe my contact lens out.  Lucky I didn't get scratched, but I have horrible vision and had to negotiate the downhill with a blurry eye, and then drive home.  Not much fun there, but a great day to run nonetheless!

Thursday, 5-8 - Long run?  Nope.  5-ish Miles (Trails) - Lantern run again with new trail running convert Mark G.  Mark and I exchanged info. Wednesday, and agreed on a run in the morning.  It was threatening rain, but we set out and did the Lantern Hill run again, but over to the transfer station, across to Wintechog for a bit, then down the road back to Two Trees.  Rain really kicked in at the top of Lantern, but it was a fun run!  Just before the parking lot...is that a trail?  With faint remnants of blue blazes?  Indeed, it's the original Pequot Trail terminus, and it looks like somebody's been doing some work on it.  We ran a short section until it came to a road, then returned and parted ways.  Cool dude, Mark, lives just over the Hudson and has some prime trails right near him to explore...

This from Wikipedia, regarding the Pequot:  "Plans are underway to lengthen the trail and return the southern terminus to its original location with the Narragansett Trail on Lantern Hill in North Stonington via the Mashantucket Tribal Nation property near their highly regarded museum and research center."  I can't wait...

Friday, 5-9 - 0 Miles.  First mow of the year.  2 acres of lawn takes 3+ hours to mow, in addition to the yardwork that needed to be done.  Good day for it, though, and gives me a rest before the Shad Bloom race in the morning!

Saturday, 5-10 - Shad Bloom 10K.  See separate writeup, WTF...

Sunday, 5-11 - Mother's Day...