Weekly Log 23-Sep to 29-Sep-2019: Diagnosis Confirmation & Mountain Goat

Miscellaneous ramblings:

• For the past few years, I have tried without success to grow pumpkins in my small garden.  This year I abandoned the garden due to my early summer mobility issues and ...

Go figure.  I didn't even plant any seeds!

• With my looming participation in the US Mountain Running Championships this coming weekend, just for the heck of it I double checked to make sure the type of steroids I'm taking (corticosteroids) aren't banned.

NCAA rules:  clearly allowed

USATF / WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) (the governing body for this weekend):  not as clear.  Not prohibited "Out of Competition", meaning if I simply skipped my morning dosage that day or took after the race, I'm in compliance.  Or, I could file a "Therapeutic Use Exemption", as the only reason I'm taking it is that it's prescribed for a medical reason.  But it turns out that filing is only necessary if I'm a "National Level Athlete" (Olympian, or qualifying for World Championship level, or advised by USATF that I am in their registered testing pool).  So no issue.

One article I read labeled anabolic steroids as "performance enhancers" and corticosteroids as "performance enablers".  Interesting.  Sounds about right to me.

Monday:  0
Rheumatologist visit!  Excited and nervous at the same time.  It's been four months now since my rheumatic symptoms started, and 2 1/2 months since I was initially referred for an appointment.

After much questioning, probing, and reviewing of inflammation markers in blood tests series, the doc confirmed this as a "classic textbook case of Polymyalgia Rheumatica".  Good.  The confirmation put my mind at ease, and I could now focus on questions like duration, treatment, next steps, etc.  While he explained that the "typical" duration was 1 - 3 years, he said he was encouraged that I was asymptomatic on a lower initial dosage (10 mg) of Prednisone than others and stated that me being so physically active would likely play a beneficial role in both treatment and duration.

Next steps include additional blood tests, and trial-and-error attempting slight but deliberate dosage reductions over the next two months and then regrouping.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to ramp up the exercising, as well as continuing to avoid or at least minimize foods linked to inflammation and recommended for people with PMR to avoid, including white bread, red meat, and fried foods.

I'm feeling really good about this confirmed diagnosis, outlook, and finite nature.  Sure, this messed up my summer (2nd in a row now), but there are a lot of people out there with worse things than me, and I am thankful for my overall health.

Tuesday:  6
Beautiful 2nd day of fall.  Took a somewhat extended lunch hour to both get the labwork done and then head down to Watch Hill, where I ran four on roads, and two barefoot on the beach.  Jumped in the ocean before heading back to work.  The water is very warm this time of year.

Wednesday:  0
Lazy.

Thursday:  5
A warm up on Burlingame trails, and then two hard miles on Buckeye Brook Road.  6:43 uphill; 5:29 downhill.  Very warm day.

Scary placard at Burlingame brings it home.

Friday:  8
Beautiful sunny fall day.  Went to Ninigret to run at lunch.  72 degrees, just ran shirtless.  Stopped on "Fishing" trail/segment for a bio-break, and was immediately surrounded by buzzing mosquitoes, and one promptly landed on my arm about to bite.  Yikes!  Even in the noon direct sunlight.  Don't think any of those nasty bastards bit me, but with the EEE threat, immediately got going again and didn't stop again until I got to real bathrooms at east entrance to wildlife preserve.  Once I got out of the preserve, I never saw another mosquito.  Better to overreact.

Highlight of my run was a ~4' long black rat snake crossing my path when running on the frisbee golf disk course.  It was awesome.  I didn't see it at first and almost stepped on it.

Saturday:  6
Easy local road shakeout at about 7:40 pace.  Tried to consciously run slower than that, but just felt good.

These new shoes look just a little bit brighter yellow than they did in the NB
catalog at Kelley's Pace.  Oh well, I got the new release 1500 v6 at a great price
by cashing in a few gift certificates won at races, and I'm looking forward to
the 8.1 ounces.  Felt great on inaugural run!

Headed up to NH.  This shot is from kayaking at
Pawtuckaway State Park before visiting Matthew at UNH.

Sunday:  8
US Mountain Running Championships, Waterville Valley, NH.  Earned my 2019 Mountain Goat Status!  Separate write-up to follow.

Weekly mileage:  33

Weekly synopsis:  Intentional cut-back in mileage from several weeks of ramp-up to 45.  I am really beat as I write this, but hoping that's just after-effects from the Waterville Valley race.  I'm otherwise feeling good, and psyched to have completed the mountain series, which I had all but given up on during the summer due to my ailments.  Looking forward to running the Run for the Pumpkins 8K Trail Race next weekend, and then gradually resuming ramping up weekly mileage to the 50s and building a little bit of endurance running before Li'l Rhody.

Weekly highlight:   My euphoria of earning my Mountain Goat status is second this week only to finally meeting with the rheumatologist, getting a confirmation, and on a treatment plan.  Life is good!

Weekly lowlight:  Stupid mosquitoes.  With all the publicity, I'm now feeling paranoid anytime I hear a buzzing sound.  Go away and die already.

Weekly Log 16-Sep to 22-Sep-2019: Beach Race, Nature, Japanese Ghosts, & Summer Wind-down

Miscellaneous ramblings:

• There's something pacifying for me about the goats and donkeys at Manfredi's Farm.  (And their late-season corn is just the best around.)

• Love the fact we have a cheese store in Westerly now.  I should probably patronize it a little more, but had fun learning about and sampling a number of different cheeses, and ended up picking a Camembert from Vermont, and a cranberry Wensleydale from the UK to bring to a neighbor's house for a recent dinner party.  They seemed to go over quite well.

Unique and cool store.

Monday: 0

Tuesday:  6
Final course-marking of a WHS XC meet for me.  I've designed, mapped, cleared (with the help of a number of my WTAC brethren), and now marked the course for four years.  This was the final XC home meet of the season.  Shout outs to Schane, Eric D, and Justin P for helping with the marking this year.  Come next fall Matthew will have been out of high school for three years, and there will be very few WHS runners that I know anymore.  The time is ripe for me to pass this on.

New London train station at right (I had just gotten off the train from New Haven),
and finish of Sailfest 5K in front and below.  Just reminded me of the
fun races I've had at Sailfest.  Rheumatic issues kept me from competing this
July, but I hope to be back in successive years.

Wednesday:  0
Didn't plan it this way, but just didn't get a run in.  Don't like racing without a shake-out run, so I'll make sure I get out in the morning and just make it a double tomorrow.

Thursday:  9
AM:  5 miles.  6AM run at 40 degrees!  Nice cool fall-like weather.  I had an unpleasant encounter with the PM as he chased me through Misquamicut, and I was fortunate to have the safety of porta-jons at the beach.  Easy shake-out pace just north of 8-flat.

PM:  4 miles.  Stavros Memorial On the Beach Run.  My 17th straight.  Was happy that the HS team was there, but disappointed when the race started and it became immediately obvious that they were told to take it out easy.  I followed Chris out, and immediately saw him run less than a straight line as a wave came in and he went inland to avoid getting his shoes wet.  Maybe there's a chance this will delay him enough?  Not even close.  The waves weren't going far inland, and he was quickly gone from my periphery.

Start of the 2019 Stavros Beach Run

One mile in, with the turnaround in sight, I usually have high schoolers right in front of me, behind me, and often alongside me.  Not today.  However, I could sense someone right behind me, especially when running through shallow water, and that kept me moving.  First mile a spicy (for me) 5:49.  Muddy was at the turnaround, and he mentioned something to me about too much splashing.  He's right of course, as the more you splash, it does add resistance (i.e., time).  However, there's an optimal line somewhere between running around the waves and running through knee-deep water, and I'm still trying to strike that balance.

Rounding the cone, I could still see Chris, but he was long ahead of me now.  It was hard to make out people with the sun in my eyes (Justin P later remarked I was squinting), but I could clearly see my challenger was my perennial beach run nemesis, Eric Ciocca.  I've usually beaten him after a hard fought battle to the end, but I wasn't optimistic this time.  Like me, he was running barefoot, so I after I would run through a wave on the beach, I would usually hear him doing the same and from the sounds, he was getting closer and closer.  There was a slight breeze on the way back, and my time slowed to a 6:12 for the second mile.

The third mile I felt like I had picked up the pace, although this final mile was the only one completely into the wind (do you like my excuses?) and was my slowest at 6:19.  Anyway, once I was back on the Town Beach and could see the finish area, not knowing where Eric was, I picked up the pace the fastest I could.  I wish Nick hadn't been standing in the way on the hard sand, as I like to stay on that for as long as possible, even if adding a few extra feet to avoid the softer sand.  Crossed the finish in 18:22, eighteen seconds faster than last year, and just eight seconds ahead of Eric.

Tired, but happy with my race and that I hung on to 2nd

After the obligatory post-race dip in the ocean, it was a fun post-race party to get some pizza and catch up with running friends, including a number for which this is the only WTAC event that they come to each year.  17 years down, hopefully many more to come.

With Way

Friday:  2 walk, 8 run
AM:  Work-sponsored Save the Bay cleanup of Charlestown Beach.  This is an annual event that employees can opt into instead of going in to the office in the morning.  The last two years I went to Napatree, so this year I chose Charlestown for something different.  The company provides the tools (gloves, garbage bags, etc), you're outside on the beach, and they feed you and give you water.  Why more people don't opt for this, especially on a work day, is beyond me.  I do really have to give my employer kudos for promoting community volunteerism as part of their culture.

Today's beach clean up team.

Pretty rough surf today!  We had stood at the clean-up sign for a group photo
just an hour prior (pic above this one), and this would make keeping my shoes dry
on a subsequent run near impossible.

PM:  Since I was already at Charlestown Beach, and other employees planned to stick around the beach for a while, it was an easy choice for me to go out for a run.  The temperature had risen from the 40s into the 70s by now, and it was a bright sunny day.  I had running clothes in the car as usual, but opted just to run shirtless.  The only thing I should've brought with me was sunscreen.  Ran down to the breachway on the dirt road, and then onto the beach for two miles.  Unlike last night's beach race, crashing waves were going so far up the beach that it was really hard to run around them.  Despite wearing shoes (as I would be running on roads as well), I just gave up and ran through the waves.  I ran down as far as Green Hill Road, and exited into what turned out to be a gated and closed private association beach lot.  Oops!  Now what?  I asked one of the elderly women if there was a public access point for me to go out, and she cheerfully told me she'd get her keys and let me out.  I told her she looked comfortable lying down and not to bother, but she insisted.  Some of my faith in humanity was restored.

As I ran on Green Hill Road, I made note of a chafing issue against and under my feet.  I imagined a few pebbles of sand had gotten in there and I now feared issues just running back to my car.  It got worse as I ran and then magically as I got to the intersection with Matunuck Schoolhouse Road, I noticed a clear and cold stream running under and alongside the road.  Perfect!  Hopped in the stream and removing my shoes and socks, it was unbelievable how much sand came out!  No wonder it was uncomfortable.  After rinsing my removed shoes and socks a number of times and putting them back on, I was actually ready to add a few more miles now!  Very pleasant run.

Evening:  Went with Jana to watch Deerfoot 5K race in Charlestown.  Only we didn't see it.  Looked on SNERRO online schedule and saw it started at 6pm.  Perfect, we'll have dinner at home and get there 5-10 minutes before start.  Only, as we pulled into the park, a sign for the event said 5pm, and then we as we turned towards the playground (finish line), another sign said 5:30pm start.  So which is it?  5, 5:30, or 6?  Since we saw the clock ticking 24 minutes and a few people finishing up, unfortunately it must've started at 5:30pm, and we ended up missing the whole thing.  Oh well, life goes on.  Clearly the communications didn't line up, but not worth getting upset about.

Saturday:  9
With the Run for the Pumpkins 5K/8K Trail Race just two weeks away, Justin Pearce had asked me if I could give him a preview of the course.  Sure, I'd love to!  Kevin Murphy also joined us.  I intentionally got there about a half-hour early, as I wanted to check out the Driving Miss Hazy trail that Elise had suggested to me, and I see Jonny and Muddy also ran separately in the past few days.  The trail did not disappoint as I like the trails that go on continuously without intersections.  I thought I had the whole place to myself, until well along on this twisty trail, I heard, "Hey, it's hunting season!".  Looked around, and finally spied the hunter, up in a tree stand.  I'm not sure if he was telling me I should be wearing orange (which I wasn't) or if telling me I shouldn't be out here.  I'll go with the former and remember to wear orange, and since I don't always plan my runs, I'll try to put an orange shirt in the car.  Maybe also get a pair of orange shorts so I can run shirtless on warm fall days.  I didn't answer or want to engage the hunter, so I just put up my thumb to acknowledge.

In the afternoon, I tended to outdoor chores, including mowing the lawn, putting down starter fertilizer for new grass where I had rototilled dead sections and planted, and fall fertilizer for the existing lawn, and starting to clean up old junk, including a long unused and partially rusted out grill.  Somewhere along the way I just really focused on the wildlife around me, and was duly impressed:

Spied this guy on my grass.  He was quite the jumper!
I found his coloring to be very unusual.
Tried and failed to look up his species.
If anyone can enlighten me, I'd appreciate it.

Bee at center of sunflower in my front yard,
and then two more at 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock.
I know we all take them for granted, but if you
stop and just watch nature for a bit, it's actually kind of cool.

Monarch butterfly fluttering from marigold to marigold.

Sunday:  12
Longest run since a 12.2 miler in Tennessee in late May.  On this, the last official day of summer, I feel like I lost my whole summer to PMR.  I can't gain it back, so just trying to be positive and move forward.

On that positive note, I ran with Jeff Vuono for about 5 of the miles (as part of his hosted Run While You Can weekly group runs) and enjoyed catching up with him.  After the Watch Hill lighthouse, we parted ways as he continued his group run course and I jumped onto East Beach and ran the beach home.

Besides the kind of eerie Japanese ghost mask on the men's bathroom door, ...

the food at Sabuki's in South Kingstown is really good!
("Aquarium Sushi" dish above was my dinner.)

Weekly mileage:  45

Weekly synopsis:  Longest run and highest weekly mileage since late May, so I'm happy with that for sure.  As I'm coming into back-to-back race weekends, I'll probably dial it back a bit, but as mentioned before, I want to be at 50 miles (almost there) by the end of October and then have a steady base of 50+ before starting Boston training in late December.

Weekly highlight:  Running the Stavros beach for the 17th straight year, even if no high school runners racing it this year.

Weekly lowlight:  Lamenting the end of summer.

Trails to a Cure!

Cockaponset State Forest
Chester, CT
Sunday, September 15, 2019

Background:  I had previously contemplated running this trail race for several years now, but somehow had a conflict of sorts each time.  Until this year.  So this past week I contemplated harder.  With no firm weekend plans other than dinner at a neighbor's house Saturday night, after I opted not to do the Wave tri the same day, I couldn't find any reasons NOT to do it, and the thought of a serious water crossing piqued my interest.  Pulled the trigger Friday, and registered for an all-in price of $21.96.

To the race:  It was a pretty easy drive to the race Sunday morning.  Despite only being a 50-minute drive away from Westerly, I'm pretty sure I had never been to either Chester or Cockaponset State Forest, the second largest in the Constitution State.  Almost all of the drive is on highways, and after exiting Route 9 in Chester, you quickly come into the forest and arrive at Pattaconk Lake, the start/finish of the race.  I thought that being "so far away", I would not know a single runner today, but at registration I quickly found myself talking with Kenny Shardlow (the only other Rhode Islander), Way Hedding, Rose Buckingham, Kevin Clendennin, and Bill Bentley who prognosticated that I would be the winner today, which I scoffed at.

Pre-race:  Warmed up for just over a mile and immediately had three concerns:  1) the race is on ASPHALT! Ugh, 2) there are no course markers, and 3) my calves are really, really tight.  All three were unfounded, as 1) only the first 0.6 miles were on asphalt, and when I caught up with veteran trail racer Kenny, I got this cleared up, 2) true, there were no markers in the first 0.6 miles, but the turnoff to single-track (and subsequent turns) were all very well marked, and 3) fortunately the calf tightness was gone by the end of the warm-up.  (Hey, moron, that's part of why you're supposed to warm up - to get the kinks out.)

We all (most of us) sang the Star Spangled Banner off-key and not in unison as we lined up on the shores of Pattaconk Lake.  Following that, I listened intently to RD Charlie Iselin (veteran runner of Rhody) as he described the markings and course.  It was pretty funny to me when he characterized the optional water-crossing in the 8-mile course as "not very pristine", as Chris had used those exact same words just yesterday, referencing the online race video he had seen.  (As a side-note, thank you Chris for not being able to make this race.)  The RD then went to say to say, in fact the water crossing is actually kind of disgusting, with deep mud and strings of algae, so feel free to take the trail around it, but be aware that the water crossing is typically about a minute quicker than the trail bypass.

Pete from SNERRO (left) and RD Charlie (right)
facing runners and giving some great pre-race info.
(Pics from Jana, unless otherwise noted)

I'm pretty much dead in the middle.

The first two miles:  Pete from SNERRO started the race, and across the field and then up the asphalt road we climbed.  A guy in a blue singlet ("Blue Guy") kind of led us out, and then a guy in an shirt emblazoned with "Army" went by him, putting me in third for most of the road climb, which if there was silver lining to, it's that at least it was gated off from traffic.  Just before the turn-off onto single-track a guy with high black socks ("Socks") bombed in front of me.  Thus I entered the trails in fourth place. 

Me in bib #482

Army, then Blue Guy, then me
(the runners in yellow bibs were running the shorter 4-mile course and would
quickly drop off)

I was hoping someone in the tight group of three ahead of me would show faltering signs on the trail, but no, they all seemed confident and competent running the trail hard and even jumping the occasional log that jutted out across the trail.  And with rain the night before, they knew to avoid the slippery wooden bog bridges where possible.  Darn, they all seemed comfortable on the trail, until ...

The technical sections!  Yes!!!  We hit a very short rock garden and all of a sudden the pace slowed.  Well, of course it slowed, you say, we were in a rock garden.  Yeah, sure, but I mean it REALLY slowed.  I had to back off to avoid running into the guy in front of me and considered just bombing around the group of three ahead of me.  (The fifth place guy had long ago dropped back.)  I figured it was just the lead guy that was slowing so much.  At about two miles we come out to (but not onto) Route 148, and then negotiate an almost 180 degree turn ...

Miles 3 to 4:   ... onto asphalt again.  What?!!  Seriously?!!  Well, I'm glad I didn't try to pass anyone yet, and I certainly wasn't passing anyone here, as the three of them went bombing down the road leaving me in the proverbial dust.  Ugh.  Fortunately, this asphalt section was less than 1/4 mile and we turned off onto single-track again.  The next mile was a battle for me as we had a gradual but constant 200+ foot climb over about 3/4 mile, and not being technical at all and uphill not my strength, I struggled to stay within reach of the three guys ahead of me.

State Forest Road was only the first 1/4 mile of this segment, and then uphill on single-track.

Fortunately, what goes up must come down.  After the top of the hill, about three miles in, finally there was the first bit of jockeying.  Socks (3rd place just ahead of me) went passed Blue Guy.  I followed suit, although I felt badly (somewhat) that I elbowed him in the process.  Socks jumped one more spot ahead into the lead, but the trail had narrowed now and Army was right on him, so I kept my position now in 3rd.  Going down the hill I could no longer hear Blue Guy and sensed he dropped back.  Good!  And now there were three.  Oh, but not so fast ...

A very short incline brought us to a rock boulder (as opposed to what other kind of boulder I don't know) that you literally had to scramble over.  Sure, it was slippery, but the two guys in front of me SLOWED TO A WALK AND STOP!  Oh, come on.  Sure enough, Blue Guy caught up right behind me.  When it was finally my turn (there was no room to go around anyone here), I went up and over, and as I did, I heard "SH*T!" behind me.  I looked back to see if Blue Guy was OK.  He was, it appeared he may have just slid back a bit, so see ya.  At the next switchback, I glanced back and saw that he was still running, but now he was a bit behind our merry group of three again.  Shortly thereafter, we came to the course split between 8-mile and 4-mile and I was surprised to see Jana there, so I gathered we were somewhere near the start/finish.

In 3rd place, behind "Army", at the halfway mark.

In 3rd place, at the split / water stop,
going back into the woods.

Miles 4 - 6:  Alright, we're halfway through the race now, and I've had enough examples to have learned that my challengers' weakness appeared to be technical sections and to a lesser extent, downhills, so it was time to make a strategic move.  As soon as we hit a slight downhill, I accelerated first past Army and then past Socks.  I knew they would go with me, and then at the bottom of the hill, I got a gift!  A very technical rocky section.  It was the start of an appropriately named segment (see snippet below).  The rocky technical section was short, but nonetheless, when I got across it, no one was with me anymore!  Unfortunately, that was followed by a dirt uphill section, and I knew they were gaining on me as I could hear their breathing behind me.

Very appropriately named segment!  And only 7 seconds off the CR!
That means I have to go back next year, right?

As I crested the top of the hill and now started a descent, I thanked my lucky stars that they had not re-caught me, and at this point, I was starting to think that an overall win might be possible.  Please have more technical sections!  Please!  I could occasionally hear someone a ways behind me (especially on some not so steady rocks) but it was tough to judge the distance.  At one point, I thought I was being clever by avoiding a slippery looking rock and instead ran on leaves.  Except that the leaves were wet and just covering more slippery rock.  Down I went and banged my knee into a rock.  I seemed stunned that I had fallen and paused for a moment on the ground.  Get up and get going, you old fool!

At the northernmost part of the course, I was disheartened to turn onto a dirt road (Old County Road).  No!  I feared my chasers catching me here and thus I poured it on.  Fortunately, the dirt road section was only about 2/10 of a mile long before we headed south back onto single-track, and as I did, I glanced back on the road and saw no one behind me.

Miles 6 to finish:  Just two miles to go.  It would be so easy to slow down a bit here with no competitors within sight or sound now, and I've committed that faux pas previously and paid for it before.  I was getting tired and pushing my recent limited endurance, and just kept telling myself mentally to forge ahead, as I really wanted the win.  The terrain here was not as technical as I had hoped and fairly flat as we were now following the shore of the reservoir, so I would have to look for other advantages.  When we came up on a stream bed, and a bridge was just off to the right slightly out of the way, I ignored the bridge and took the shortest distance between two points.  With about a mile to go, the trail went down a dry, but rock-laden river bed, and I just bombed down it, hoping this would give me some additional separation on those pursuing me.  Shortly thereafter, I saw a paper plate sign on a tree indicating the water crossing required a left turn, just as the RD had described.  Let the fun begin!

Part of the reason I chose this race was BECAUSE
of the water crossing!  Now leading the race and armed with the
RD advice that the water crossing was about a minute quicker,
there was just no way I would risk the W by taking the boring and slower route.

Check out above Strava comment from 2017 race.  Oh man, what a price to pay indeed!

Now THIS was a water crossing!  No pussy-footing around here, as the dirt trail ended abruptly and just dropped you off into the lake.  Are you in or not?  Hell yeah, I'm in!

And here's the infamous water crossing.
You come in from the top of the picture,
immediately drop into several feet of water,
follow the rope
and exit at bottom of picture.

Not sure on best technique for water crossing.
I tried grabbing the rope and used this to pull me along,
but it's slow due to depth of water at chest high (above).

I also tried swimming (yellow arrow above in video still)

And finally, once the water
was shallower than waist-deep, close to the water exit,
I could kind of run again.

Except that I was fairly unbalanced, as there are uneven
rocks under the water.

After exiting the water, you only have about 1/4 mile to go.  I was fully confident the win was mine now, but I still hammered it home.

Final trail home to the finish.  Easy terrain.

First across the finish line!!
Pete, race official from SNERRO, announces me as I go past.
(from Trails for the Cure FB post)

Final results:  59:56, 1st overall!  Full results here.

Point in time results.  46 finishers total in 8-mile, plus another 41 in 4-mile race,
the latter of whom were all behind me at halfway course split.  
The only sub 1-hour finisher in long course.  Barely!

Ecstatic!!  I ended up finishing 93 seconds ahead of the next guy, and as my competitors crossed the line, I caught up with them as we introduced ourselves.  Jon, aka "Blue Guy", said he "sucked" at downhills and technical.  While I didn't use that word, I just said I figured out those weren't the strengths of the group and I used it to my advantage to strategize when to make my move.

While the water in the water crossing might not have been pristine,
the water behind me certainly was, and that's where I headed next
and dove right into.

Runners were treated to wood fired pizza from a portable pizza oven ...

... where each participant was given a 1/2 pizza (4 slices)
of a variety of their choice.  (Mine here was margherita.)

My award was a "pink popcorn" plant.
(from race FB post)

I actually had my choice of a plant or a homemade bread,
and as the plants were soon exhausted but there were a few loaves
of bread left over at end of awards ceremony, Jana scrambled and scored both a zucchini
AND a pumpkin bread!  They're both delicious!

Just such a great day and race today!  My first win in I believe five years (since Stavros 2014) and obviously that added to my excitement.  (Correction:  Jana reminded me that I won the local Sneeks for Beaks 5K this past spring, but it's still a rarity and today's race I had to run smarter and harder to win.)  My winning time would have put me in 4th place in the previous year's results, but I have no idea if the course was less slippery then or if I would have gone out with those leaders, etc.  You play the hand you're given, or as Muddy often says, you race who shows up.

Besides the win, this was just a fantastic low-key race, very well marked, and with cool and unique awards.  And then there's the water crossing.  OMG!  The pictures don't do it justice.  That was just such an incredible blast!  Who knows what September of next year will bring, but I'd certainly love to run this race again!

Weekly Log 9-Sep to 15-Sep-2019: Fun and Varied Running Week

Miscellaneous ramblings:

• After two years of solid gains for TF Green Airport attracting additional carriers and non-stop locations, more and more are pulling out.  Some are over the Boeing SuperMax groundings, but regardless, it's a loss.  Recently, Norwegian pulled out, ending all direct flights to Europe, and just this week (after the summary below was printed), Sun Country ended all service, including new direct flights to Nashville, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and New Orleans.  Ugh.

• After a seven-year hiatus, I'll be returning to Boston in the spring.  No, this will not be an annual pilgrimage.  My fellow quinquagenarian colleague and New Haven running host is already talking smack with me that his goal is to finish physically behind me (gun time) but finish ahead of me in chip time (his qualifying time 3:07 and I know he can run faster vs. mine at 2:57).

• Do you think the USA will ever modernize and move to the metric system?  In my lifetime?  In my children's lifetime?  We can't decide if we're on the outdated British imperial system (which they themselves have officially long abandoned) or if we want to join the rest of the world and use the metric system. 

Only THREE out of 195 recognized countries in the world still do NOT use the metric system!  The other two are third-world countries:  Liberia and Myanmar.  Embarrassing.

The drink menu from my AA flight last week.
Look at the silly disparity in unit of measures above.

US Congress passed the Metric Act of 1866 (yes, 1866!!) and much later
US Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 to make the metric system the
"preferred system of weights and measure for commerce and
trade in the US", yet we continue to use substandard medieval measurements.
End of rant... for now ...

Monday:  0
First core workout since PMR rendered me pretty much immobile over the summer.  Definitely  weak, but you're got to start somewhere.

Tuesday:  11
AM:  5 miles.  With mid-morning planning meetings in Providence, I decided to venture somewhere different and run the Arcadia Baker Pines NST out to Roaring Brook, then Arcadia Trail back.  I really like these trails and wouldn't have known about them had it not been for Jonathan Short's Strava segment challenges two years ago.  There is some overgrowth in swampy sections, but that'll likely be gone after a frost next month.  Challenging, technical, hilly trail fun.

Chilling to see this newspaper on the ground at the
start of my run from Baker Pines.  If there's a "bright spot", at least it's from
New Jersey, and not here?

PM:  6 miles.  First of two WHS XC home meets.  Met up with Schane and Eric D to mark the course, and then Justin P joined in to get in a short run with me and help break down the course.  How does that old adage go?  Many hands make light work.  I think that's it.  Top time today was 17:27.  Westerly boys went 1-2-3 and won the meet overall.  Westerly girls won as well.  The top boys were telling me the "sand" (stone dust) now covering root/rocks sections actually slowed them down as it's soft.  Hopefully some rains will solidify the stone dust a bit.

Wednesday:  4 run, 1/4 swim
Should've gotten up and out early.  Shoulda.  Coulda.  Woulda.  I had planned to run 5 miles in Burlingame and swim 1/2 mile in Watchaug Pond, but I was up against a hard stop for a training session at work, and due to my procrastination had to cut down both the run and swim.  Very humid on the run this morning, and thus the short swim felt especially good, save for the wardrobe malfunction.  Try as I may, I just could NOT get my wetsuit zipped up.  I felt like I was just stuffed like a sausage into the suit.  I ended up swimming with the wetsuit unzipped, which didn't exactly work well and rubbed a lot, but it served my purpose of seeing whether I had the mobility to swim for the first time this summer (fortunately, I did).

You know, I really do like open water swims, even if I'm slow as a tortoise; hope to return to tris next year.  Didn't I say the same thing last summer?

Thursday:  6
I have a new work project for a subsidiary in New Haven, which will require me to work in New Haven occasionally over the next four months or so, including three out of the next four business days.  It's actually a very easy commute:  three mile drive to Westerly train station, a comfortable ride on Amtrak to New Haven, and then an easy 1-mile walk (or I suppose Uber if raining).  One of the principals of the firm is a big runner and also just signed up for Boston.  He was kind enough to take me out for a running tour of New Haven today.  I'm truly fearful of running on the busy city streets, and he's a pure road guy, but he humored me by running on a trail and then a bike path for much of today's run.  Great to get out and run in a different place, and a nice break-up of the day after a three-hour vendor meeting and demo.

Friday:  6
Took the train from New Haven back earlier today, and hit the Westerly Town Beach by 4pm.  Fun, barefoot, shirtless run on the beach.  Mostly at about 8-minute pace, but ran the last mile hard in 5:49.

Finished my run, jumped in the ocean (refreshing!), and as I was walking back across the beach pavilion en route to my car, an older gentleman engaged me in conversation that went something like this:
Him:  How was your run?
Me:  Pretty good.  I felt great out there.
Him:  Man, oh man, were you moving!
Me:  Thanks!  I was trying to recapture some of my lost youth.
Him:  Well, you're doing a really good job of it!

I'm pretty sure I had a wide smile the whole ride home and then some.  Isn't it nice when someone goes out of their way with compliments?  He certainly made my day.

Saturday:  7
Redeemed a raincheck from Chris from two weeks back.  This was to run in Great Swamp.  It might have been two years since I had last run there.  So nice not to be bothered by the deerfly inhabitants.  A great run and catch-up on everything from families to injuries/setbacks to deerflies to 529 plans to of course, running.

Sunday:  9
Trails to a Cure.  Separate write-up forthcoming shortly.

Weekly mileage:  43

Weekly synopsis:  The mileage is inching up!  I'm really feeling very good both in general and on runs lately.  My plan is to continue gradually ratcheting up the mileage.  I'd like to have a sustained base of 50 or so going into Boston training at the end of December.  Don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but looking very achievable at the moment.

Weekly highlight:  Trails to a Cure!  Just awesome.  More to come.

Weekly lowlight:  My laziness on Wednesday cutting my running and swimming short.  No one to blame but myself.