Last Week of 2017! Week of 25 December 2017 and Year-End Recap

2017 is coming to a close, and I'm really looking forward to 2018.  Why?  I think it's going to be a great year, for running and everything else.  My 2017 stats, which I'll list below, weren't what I was expecting, although I think given my overall mileage were successful.

For 2018 I should have a clear idea of exactly what races I'm doing after midnight on New Year's Eve, as half the trail races in the country are opening registration at the same time!  Places, everyone!!!  I'm shooting for 4 Ultras, the World's End and three others TBA.  All trail races.  Some gnarly AF, some not so much, but each with their own unique challenges...

That said, here's some stats!

Total Miles:  1,080
Elevation Gain: 96,526
These are two of the stats I'm going to correct in the coming year.  Unacceptable.  Setting a goal of 2,000 miles and 150,000' elevation for '18.

# of Races: 16
Trail Races: 15
Road Races: 1

Ultra Races: 5.  3 completed, 2 DNF.  However, even the DNFs were 27 and 33 miles, respectively. Better than a DNS, anyway!

Best Ultra performance: Goat Hill 50k in 6:53.  Got a goat trophy!

Favorite Race: Run4Kerri 4-mile road race.  Yes, my only road race in '17 and still my favorite.  Had an absolute blast the whole day, from the pre-race warmup with Tommy 5k, to the awesome run with "Team Jodi" (me, George and Jodi), to the afterparty at the Mews Tavern, just a totally memorable day, at a great race put on by a great family for a great cause.  Already on my calendar for 2018.

***Honorable Mention for favorite race goes to Whiteface.  Hands down, one of the toughest (but best) weekends of racing I've ever had.  Vertical K on Saturday, Sky Race on Sunday, total of 18 miles and 10,500' of vertical gain.  Yes, I felt like I got hit by a truck two days later, but damn was it worth it!  The course, the views, Lake Placid...if the Adirondacks were closer I'd be there a lot.  And the Red Newt Racing events are incredible!

Least Favorite Race:  None.   Even the couple races I had issues at and didn't finish, I met incredible people, enjoyed a great day on the trails, and smartly called it a day when injury arose.  Never a bad day out there.



Weekly Update, 12/25 to 12/31:

So overall, I'm running happy, without any pressure to perform, and my mileage, although low, has been filled with quality over quantity!  So it's all good.  Now for the weekly update:

12/25 - Merry Christmas!  No run for me, but I did receive a new pair of snowshoes (my first ever!), a new pair of Salomon Speedtraks, the book "On Trails" by Robert Moor, and various other running-related paraphernalia.  Happy me!

12/26 - 8.4 Miles.  5.3 Mile Pachaug loop with Faith in the snow, and a treadmill 5k at home to bump the mileage up.

12/27 - 0.

12/28 - 3 Miles.  Canonchet Preserve trail run with Jim.  Cold!  -10 with the wind chill, but we cruised through a 3-mile out and back.  Great time.

12/29 - 10 Miles.  Treadmill 10.  Nothing special, other than I settled into a rhythm and watched Salomon videos on Youtube until time was up.  My watch lags on distance, so it was almost 11 by the treadmill's count.

12/30 - 4 Miles.  Nature Center trails, Mystic.  Late afternoon, snow falling, 19 degrees and zero wind, and I was surrounded by silence except for the crunch of my feet on the snow.  Didn't see a single person.  Awesome.

12/31 - 7.6 Miles.  Bluff Point/Haley Farm trails w/Faith.  Ran 35 hours with Faith this year, more than any other friend, so who better to close out the year with?  10 degrees and 0 wind chill, but we opted to hit the singletrack there as much as possible, and the wind was mostly blocked.  Perfect cold weather run with a good friend!

So I close out 2017 with two weeks of consistent, solid running, and a 32/33 mile weekly combo to round out the year.  I'm really looking forward to 2018, have I mentioned that?  It's gonna be awesome, I have no doubt!

Blog's Not Dead!

After banging out two ultra distance races in the last two weeks of October, I decided to shut it down for races until after the new year.  No injuries, just wanted to not have anything scheduled, and be able to do what I wanted when I could.  So I did.  Had a pretty unremarkable November, other than some good trail miles and runs with friends, and a great time spectating at the Li'l Rhody Runaround.  I can count on one hand the number of times I've gone to a race purely as a spectator, and it was a blast!  Got to see/catch up with a lot of friends, and attend a fun after race party at Jonny's place.

So I wrote off November as just a shitty, low-mileage month with a couple of highlights, and was just happy to be running at all.

But here's to a great holiday season of running!  I already have my sights set on a couple of races for 2018, too...

So we'll start off December's fun on 12/2.  Nehantic Trail, Voluntown CT - 13 miles.  Brian R., one of the CT contingent at the Yeti race (and who finished 5th overall in 19:41 for his first 100-miler), has decided to knock off all the CT blue-blazed trails and hit me up for an E2E run on the Nehantic Trail, a rugged in places but totally runnable 13-mile trail in Voluntown.  Of course I agreed, and with a last-minute shout out to the Trailmixers group, we also picked up Scott D. (another badass ultrarunner) to join us!  

After dropping a car at Green Falls, we three set out from the Hopeville Pond end of the trail.  Temps around 30-35 degrees, but very little wind and totally comfortable.  I have to say that my new hydration vest is awesome, with two soft flasks in the front and lots of stretchy pockets around the sides and back, and doesn't shift around at all.  Love it.

We stopped to take a short break at Mt. Misery before continuing on toward Green Falls:

Brian and Scott at Mt. Misery

Lots of chatting during the run, and a great overall pace.  I did the navigation, and I'm happy to report that there were no wrong turns, and I knew exactly where we were the entire time.  Not too many blowdowns, and the trail was in overall great shape.  Took about 2:30 to make the North to South run, but we weren't trying to push the pace, and covered 13 miles with about 1,400' of climbing.

After we finished up, Brian wanted to take advantage of the day, so I drove him to the Northern terminus of the Quinebaug Trail, so he could check that 8-mile stretch of trail off his list, and I called it a day!  Great way to kick off December.

We've started to get snow!  I was getting a bit discouraged about the lack of daylight hours and the turn to cold weather, but the first snow we had, I got out to the Hidden Lake area of Yawgoog and hit some untouched trails, and remembered why winter is pretty damn awesome.

Hidden Lake!  Nobody out there but me.

I've also made peace with the treadmill (sort of).  It's going to have to be a part of my training schedule, and I've found that putting on a Salomon Running playlist on YouTube definitely helps me cope with the monotony...

Not so Dread-mill?

So that said, my mileage is FINALLY coming up!  The week of Christmas I put together 32 miles, including a 15-miler at Bluff Point, a run on Napatree Point beach for the Winter Solstice, a Green Falls loop with Jim where we got lost on unmarked trails and bushwhacked, fells-style, back to my truck, and had an Xmas Eve. run at Bluff with my most frequent running friend Faith!  According to Strava, we've run 32+ hours together :)

Happy running at Bluff Point!

Mother Boulder?

Winter Solstice beach run at Napatree/Watch Hill!

Frozen Hidden Lake!

Faith at Bluff Point!

So heading into Christmas, I asked Santa (Lori) for a pair of snowshoes, as I've wanted to try some for the last couple years, but there hadn't been much snow.  And Santa delivered!

YES!  New Dion running snowshoes, and some extra running-related gear...so excited!

So there we go!  All (sort of) caught up, and gonna try to get back to some sort of regular posting.  I've restructured my racing goals for 2018, and it's basically going to include 1 race per month, not counting smaller local races.  So far, here's the official registration list:

WE100K.  Should be epic.

Return to Kismet Cliff!  3rd time.

The rest of 2018's fun will be worked out once the races have opened registration, but it'll be an interesting list for sure.  Most of the races I haven't done before.  So right now it looks like the Wapack 21.5 in May, WE100k in June, a new NH ultra (maybe?) in July (or Escarpment!), an ultra in August (Undecided, it's between two:  Ragged 50k or ADU 24), Kismet Cliff in September, and one grand finale in October.  To be continued...