Weekly Log 23-Aug to 29-Aug-2021: Return from Vacation

Miscellaneous rambling:

• We were originally supposed to return to the office on September 13, but now that is delayed until at least November 1.  No complaint from me!  Whenever we do go back, I feel pretty certain I will never work five or even four days per week in an office again in my lifetime.  Likely only 1-2 days per week, at most.  COVID has shown us there is just no need for it.
• After a week of vacation eating out for every meal and most days having big portion ice cream sundaes (one of my weaknesses), I feared stepping on the scales upon my return I would hear "One at a time, please", but was pleasantly surprised that I didn't gain any weight at all.
• Returned to work and immediately checked how much vacation I have remaining for the year.  (That's the first priority, right?)  Four weeks; that's a good place to be going into September.  I paid my dues for many years at the office and am happy with my work/life balance now.
• My family vacation wasn't the one originally envisioned, and reminded me of the Rolling Stones' lyrics "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need".  Back in late spring and early summer, I was armchair traveling while surfing and dreaming up vacationing in the partially reopened Europe and then dialed that back to a maybe a western US trip, and then when my head wound still didn't heal and it was obvious I had to reset to a shorter and closer trip in order to get to the hospital each Tuesday we chose northern New England plus nearby Canada, and in the end the latter didn't work out either.  But what did I really "need"?  I needed a mental health break from work and complete disconnect, some quality time with my family, and at least get out of RI/CT area as I felt I had cabin fever cooped up during the pandemic.  I got all that and more!
• Speaking of the Stones, was sad to hear of Charlie Watts' passing this week.  I later learned he had already hand-picked his successor in the band and the show will go on.  Maybe someday I will see a Stones concert?  Guess I shouldn't delay too long.

Monday:  7

Final day of vacation.  :(  It always goes by too quickly.  Always.

Ran solo from the house down to the beach, with interest to check out what the beach area looked like after yesterday's Hurricane Henri.  Fortunately nothing like Superstorm Sandy from 9 years ago.  The beaches were closed, some businesses still boarded up, and no power, but no visible damage.

This is a picture I took (on a run 9 years ago)
looking down Atlantic Avenue just after
Superstorm Sandy!  Fortunately Hurricane
Henri yesterday left very little damage to the
beach area by
comparison, despite being a direct hit on Westerly.

Tuesday:  9

AM:  2.5 mile shakeout with Brady at Woody Hill from Fallon Trail.  Slow, short, and easy.

Followed up the shakeout with Week #19 at the hospital Wound Care Center.  For the second week in a row, the wound size has increased, this time by 50% in volume.  Ugh.  I try to think positive thoughts and focus on the outcome to keep myself from getting depressed.  The doctor spent a lot of time with me (and Jana, as she's the one that he gives directions to regarding cleaning my wound and changing whatever dressing and bandage he prescribes).  He said he had peer reviewed my case and my stalled wound healing with other doctors, and wants to start me on a completely different and 3-pronged therapy this week:

1. Medihoney Calcium Alginate Dressing, with active honey from Australia and New Zealand, reportedly with demonstrated efficacy on forming a gel and aiding in wound closures similar to mine.
2. Juven powdered nutritional drink specifically formulated with collagen for wound healing.  The stuff tastes only mildly better than whatever that powder they give you to clean out your bowels before a colonoscopy, but at least doesn't have the same deleterious effects.   (Hope you're not eating while reading this.)
3. Compression on the wound itself by applying a tight band over the wound and down around my chin to secure it, for 2-3 hours per day.

Today's debriding with scalpel was quite painful and I got home to find blood and liquid honey trickling down my forehead and matting into what little hair I have left.  Maybe I should just shave the rest of it off?  No, I will not be posting pictures.  This is all a bit odd and uncomfortable to me, and I'm hoping it's not snake oil, but I'm game to try almost anything.

PM:  6.5 miles total at Battle of Stonington.  Separate race report to follow.

Wednesday:  7

Grills damage assessment run, with Brady.  In the wake of Hurricane Henri, WLT asked CCC leaders to divide and conquer reviewing our wooded properties with trails.  I opted for Grills.  It was a pretty miserable experience, due to the horrendous bugs, overgrowth, and the widespread tree blowdowns.  

I ended up swatting and killing 44 deerflies.  Forty-four!  One week from today is September, and I was really caught off guard by how many there were and how aggressive they were.  At one point, I was on the racetrack trail in the swampiest part and I stopped momentarily to try to free up and move a downed branch.  They attacked me mercilessly, and I swatted and killed three on my upper arm in one fell swoop.  Forget the branch, let's get moving and get out of here!

Back in the parking lot at the end of the run, I went into the sunlight because they hate sun and typically scatter.  They did, except for one on Brady's ear.  When I killed that one, blood splattered out.  I felt bad for Brady as I am the one that brought him on this "adventure".

I marked 16 blowdowns and hangers on the Grills trail map, to be used for cutting these down when CCC resumes September 14.  Hopefully the rest of the nasty deerflies will be long gone by then!

Thursday:  9

Burlingame loop with Brady around the pond, plus North Camp tacked on to give Brady a swimming and cool-off opportunity.  There was an older couple at North Camp Beach with their two Australian Shepherd dogs playing in the water.  Other than Brady wanting to take their toys, they all played together well.

Friday:  6

Final day of heatwave.  Humidity 98% when we (Brady and I) went out for a morning run from the Burlingame campground.  The campground was closed from hurricane damage, and empty except for crews operating chainsaws.  Six miles was enough.  I was a sweaty, disgusting mess.

Today I actually went in to the office!  And into my office for the last time ever, as I cleaned out my personal effects.  What a mess; it had been turned into a dumping ground for paper mail received as it's now scanned and electronically delivered but awaiting some sort of policy on destruction.  Anyway, for those that will NOT return to the office for 3 or more days per week (like me), they lose their dedicated office or cubicle and instead will use "hoteling" whenever they're on site.  A very small price to pay for working from home and one that I'll gladly accept.

Farewell to my old office and
working in a concrete jungle, as I cleaned out the few
photos and personal effects on the credenza.

I like my current office much better anyway!

Saturday:  20

Low motivation, but I got it done.  Fortunately I had mapped out a route the night before, so I was [semi] committed to a plan.  Slept in and was seriously looking for excuses not to run or at least not to run the full twenty miles.  I don't know why sometimes I'm psyched to get the run started, and sometime the interest just isn't there.

Anyway, once I actually got my lazy butt out to West Beach to get started, I was good to go.  I snagged one of the very last spots at the free DEM lot, and since I saw DEM Police there walking around, I made sure to park appropriately (some spots were labeled only for vehicles with trailers, some only for vehicles with cartop recreational boat carriers, some only handicapped, etc).  I was looking for spots labeled "reserved for those doing marathon training runs", but couldn't find that section, so I just took the last general spot.

The whole Quonochontaug area was teeming with active people (kayakers, runners, walkers, bikers) and I was happy to see that, as well as the beautiful scenery.  I never looked at the pace at all, and didn't look at mileage run or mileage remaining (more on that in a minute) until second half of run, and I think that helped me mentally stay engaged instead of "I've only run xxx miles so far?!" or "I'm only running a x:xx pace?!".

Crossing over Route 1 to the north, the volume of people out exercising slowed to a trickle, and I would see very few again until I re-crossed Route 1 near the end of my run.  I remember lamenting the traffic lights on Route 1 being deployed at the intersections of East Beach Road and West Beach Road a few years back, but today I appreciated and planned my route around them as the Route 1 summer traffic is still busy and I didn't feel like taking my chances playing "Frogger" (remember that video game?) getting across four lanes of fast and busy highway traffic.  While I was waiting for all lanes of traffic to be stopped and get my own white light to cross in the crosswalk, I was surprised to hear my name.  Melanie Diamanti (multiple times an Ironman) and a small group of bikers blew by me on Route 1.

Not worth the risk of crossing traffic today;
I pushed the button and waited for the crosswalk light.

There were at least five hills of 100' or more ascents, but I did fine with 4 out of 5 of them.  It was only a long hill on Route 216 on my return that was giving me trouble, and that had more to do with where it was placed on my run (about Mile 15/16).

I am still just scratching the surface of functionality on my relatively new Fenix 5 Plus watch, but what I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING about it is the navigation feature.  I know I've mentioned this in the past, starting with its debut on a Bar Harbor run, but since I'm a picture guy, here are a few snapshots I got while replicating the course run driving part of the course on the way back:

First, select the course you want from
your list of Strava routes (either self
created or borrowed from someone else)

You're always shown the distance to the next
intersection (the purple is the route,
the blue triangle shows my current position and direction,
the red triangle shows North,
and in 277' I should turn right onto Sea Breeze Ave).

I couldn't catch this in time even while driving slowly
and stopping to take a pic, but as you get closer to
an intersection,
you get an audible alert as well as additional turn
arrows (right in this case) appear prominently on the screen.

Now if you missed the visual AND audible cues
and went off course (in this case, I was intentionally 
turning off course to head home),
you now get new audible and visual alerts
that you're off course!
(It's telling me not to continue on my present course,
but instead make a 180° turn and I'll rejoin the intended
route in 142'.)

You can also get instantaneous stats like this,
advising 1:33:24 Estimated Time Elapsed,
8.78 miles remaining, and an ETA of 11:45am.
There are other screens more valuable for mountain
hikes and run, including an elevation chart with elapsed
and remaining elevation gain.
(This pic taken from a Fenix 5 Plus review.)

You can also zoom in, zoom out, and pan as desired.
(Again, this pic is one I found on a review website.)

Maybe you already have this stuff, or maybe you're just not as geeky as I am, but I find these navigation features to be SO cool and SO helpful!  OK, truth be told, with the familiarity I had of today's route, the benefit was more entertainment than helpful.  However, in the case of last week's Bar Harbor run, there is just absolutely no way I personally could have followed the route without the watch.  One of my planned upcoming test cases is Big River Management Area.  That should be really interesting, as I almost always get lost there and don't finish my actual intended route.

Finished up my run very dehydrated (no fuel or water for 20 miles; obviously that's no one's fault except my own) and just sat on the rocks at Quonochontaug Breachway for a while downing cold water while watching fisherman, kayakers, minnows, and even crabs walking by.  Really neat place.

Sunday:  10

Low tide barefoot beach run with Brady.  I just love these!  There is something so pacifying about running alongside the mighty Atlantic Ocean and carefree running barefoot through the waves.  Brady adds entertainment for me as he runs in and out of the ocean playfully.  There were quite a few dogs on our beach run today; some on-leash, some off, but all very friendly and a few came over to play with Brady.  Only had to stop once; when a man threw a ball to his two dogs and Brady turned around, Brady outran the two dogs and got the ball himself.  Fortunately, the man was laughing and when I told Brady to drop, he did so right away and we resumed our run.

Weekly mileage:  68

Weekly synopsis:  Always a bit depressing to come back from vacation, but running-wise, I got it done this week!  

Weekly highlight:  The most fun was the beach run with Brady, but the most rewarding was getting my second 20-mile training run in.  Time to buckle down a bit and add in some speedwork sessions (which I do not enjoy), but I'm happy for now that I got in a hilly 20 mile run.

Weekly lowlight:  My finishing time at the Battle of Stonington 5K (18:45).

Weekly Log 16-Aug to 22-Aug-2021: Vacation!

Monday:  9 ride

Unusually long work day that started at 7am and went right through to 6pm.  It's always tough on the last day before vacation as you're trying to catch up on things before leaving.  It didn't help that HR scheduled an interview for me at 4pm and then asked to catch up and get my thoughts at 5pm.  Who schedules a vacation to start on Tuesday?  Just doing what I can to work around my wacky schedule of reporting to the hospital every Tuesday morning.

Anyway, today made for a lot of sitting on my butt (where else would one sit upon?), so I was antsy to get out and do something.  Anything.  I had already vowed to take a one-day break from running, so went for a very short and slow spin out to Watch Hill and back.  

Tuesday:  3

Super short run at Wahaneeta before heading to the hospital.

Week #18 at the hospital Wound Care Center.  Another week, another setback.  The wound has almost TRIPLED in size since just last week.  Argh.  At 2.8 square centimeters now, it's still almost a 90% reduction from the original size back in April, but still VERY frustrating.  I think back to the estimate that the wound would heal by 4th of July and remember how depressed I was when that didn't happen, so I try just to stay positive and think of the long term.  I told the doctor "I'm not even going to ask you for a date estimate", and he said, "Good, because I'm not going to give you one!".

So what happened, and now what?  A lot of talk about hypergranulation, likely due to too much collagen from my five applications of porcine cell matrix, caused this.  So he applied a local anesthetic before a chemical cautery with AgNO3 (I remember enough from my high school chemistry days that this is silver nitrate).  Basically this burns the overgrowth, so the wound is now all black and gross, but if it takes care of the hypergranulation issue and gets me back to resuming healing next week, who cares.  Ugh.  And how was your Tuesday morning?

In the afternoon, Mark (who had flown in three days earlier), Jana, Brady, and I drove up to Dover, NH to pick up Matthew and then continued on to Rockland, Maine for the night.

Wednesday:  5 run, 2 hike, 2 kayak

Run:  Camden, Maine.  One of my favorite places in New England.  Cut short a planned 10-miler as Matthew was having some, er, GI issues.  Started out with a trail climb up the steep backside of Mount Battie, and then the rest were roads.

Start of our Camden run,
with the trail behind Brady as he patiently waits.

Specifically went for and captured the "Mt Battie Rd Real Descent" Strava segment CR.  Yes!  543' elevation drop over 1.26 miles, with an average grade of -8.1%.  My average pace was 4:50/mile, with my fastest mile to date recorded at 4:38.  Yes, that needs an asterisk as it's downhill, and my fastest track mile remains at 5:09.

The Mt Battie Auto Road hadn't yet opened to automobile traffic for the day, so I opted to take Brady off-leash for the run down the road and just re-leash him at the gate at the bottom.  This worked out well, as on the really steep sections, Brady lagged me, but then he would catch right up each time the grade lessened.

Post-run we checked out of the hotel, got our COVID tests (required for entrance to Canada by US citizens, in addition to vaccination proof; must be administered within 72 hours of entrance), and had a nice breakfast in Camden at Marriner's Restaurant outside on the deck overlooking Camden Harbor.

Hike:  Camden, Maine.  Maiden's Cliff hike, identical to the hike the family took last year sans Mark, and while maybe we should've researched something else, Mark seemed just fine with it.

On the Maiden's Cliff hike,
along a ridge on the Scenic Trail

Mark jumping off the boulder he just climbed
(He's braver than me; I'd probably break bones)

Kayak:  Mount Desert, Maine.  Booked two kayaks (Mark/Brady and me) and one SUP (Matthew) from a private company at Long Pond.  While I suspect my wound care medical team would not approve me kayaking (for chance I get my head wound wet and introduce bacteria), I made sure Brady didn't come into my kayak, there was no choppiness or waves, and I was super careful.

Kayaks Mark and I rented;
looking out on Long Pond

Paddled right up to these three guys (or gals);
they didn't even move

Mark and Brady
(and Matthew in background on SUP)

Thursday:  11 run, 5 hike

Run:  Bar Harbor, Maine.  Kudos to Matthew for devising a really cool route through Bar Harbor.  Some roads from our hotel, then the beautiful Shore Path along the ocean, crossed into Acadia National Park and run some single-track including up and over Kebo Mountain, and a number of carriage roads arounds ponds before finishing up.  I'll touch on navigation in a later post, but I was just amazed and impressed by the color maps and navigation capabilities of my Fenix 5 Plus.  

View from our hotel balcony in Bar Harbor,
looking out to the ocean

Hike:  Mount Desert, Maine.  Matthew had mapped out a loop encompassing four peaks that I'm quite sure I had never visited:  Bald, Parkman, Gilmore, and Sargent.  

Easy start to the hike

Matthew in front, with Mark just behind him

Nice view over Jana's shoulder

Peak #1 is done, three more to go

Everyone looking in different directions,
even Brady

Brady cooled off every chance he got

Friday:  10

Lincoln, NH.  Had a nice breakfast at a place called "Two Cats" in Bar Harbor before heading to Brunswick, Maine to drop Mark off at the Amtrak station (he was heading to Boston for two days with friends before flying back to Tampa).  

The plan was to drive from there to Sutton, Quebec, but we still didn't get our frigging COVID test results!  Ugh, frustrating.  OK, let's drive towards Sutton and hopefully the results will come in during the day.  Nope, that didn't happen either.  Now what?  Decided to book one of the few remaining hotel rooms in Lincoln, NH (that wasn't cheap, plus it's on top of the already paid reservations in Sutton) and the four of us (Jana, Matthew, Brady, and me) went to run the Franconia Notch State Park bike path.  Plan is now that COVID test results will probably come in overnight, we'll lose one day's paid lodging and head to Sutton in the morning. 

Five miles uphill on the paved recreational trail with pace in the 8s.  What goes up must come down (spinning wheels ...).  So five miles downhill, with pace in the 6s.  That was pretty neat.  Stopped at cold clean rivers for Brady to get a drink.

Saturday:  2 hike, 1 rock-hopping, 4 run

Hike:  Franconia, NH.  Woke up only to find that we STILL did NOT get our required COVID test results needed to cross the Canadian border.  Ugh.  Even if they came in shortly, we would be outside of the 72 hour test window crossing the border, so we're done.  Let our host know we won't be making it to Sutton after all, as a courtesy plus on the off chance he can rent out his condo tonight.  It won't help to get angry or sulk, so we planned the day contemporaneously and booked a hotel room we could find in North Conway.

On to the hike:  after searching dog-friendly options, we headed to the Cannon area and hike Bald Mountain and Artists' Bluff.  A short and mostly easy trail, except for the spur headed up to Bald Mountain peak.  We encountered a troop of NH Boy Scouts here, and I'd expect them to be experienced hikers, but quite a few were anything but as a young family with two very young girls when past them with ease as a junior leader barked out commands like, "Three points of contact at all times!".  Was a relief when we finally got past them and the rest of the hike was very nice.

King of the Rock
(this was a pretty technical section of the trail)

Love this pic
(from top of Bald Mountain,
with Cannon ski slopes visible to right)

Rock-hopping:  Albany, NH.  Lower Falls on the Swift River.

OK, maybe this wasn't a sport in the Tokyo Olympics, but it should be!  If you can have canoe slalom (which looks pretty cool!), why not rock hopping?  Just under a mile of walking, rock-hopping, and swimming along the Kancamagus Highway.  I asked a forest ranger if dogs were allowed, and he said yes and said he appreciated me asking.

Fun in the Swift River

No fear.  He got banged up a little on the slippery rocks
in the fast flowing river, but fortunately seemed just
fine the next day.

Run:  Conway, NH.  Plan was to run Cranmore plus Whitaker Woods.  Got out of the car, got the space watches ready, and Matthew, Brady, and I were off.  Except right away Brady wasn't with us, when he normally bolts ahead.  Looked back and he was limping and barely moving.  Uh oh.  Not good.  We speculated that it was when he slid and fell a bit on rocks in the Swift River that he might have injured or pulled something.  It was hot and I didn't want to leave him in the car while we ran, so we drove him back to the air-conditioned hotel to rest and returned to run.  

I tried but couldn't remember the route we took at Cranmore Mountain Run (I've only run it once), so we just kind of made it up as we went along.  It turned out to be more enjoyable than the actual course anyway as the route we took was much more runnable.  Just over 1,000' of gain.  Fast downhill miles, including Mile 4 on dirt service roads at 5:55 pace.

Sunday:  10

Wolfeboro, NH

Woke up, checked e-mail, and found two surprises:

1. The COVID test results finally came in.  Totally useless now as they're four days old.  Recommend never to go to Walgreens if you need a PCR COVID test for travel.
2. The condo host in Sutton e-mailed me, said he felt badly about the situation (obviously not his fault!) and offered that if I could make it back up this year, he'll give me a free stay.  Wow!  I love moments like this (besides potentially getting to redeem my paid lodging) because it gives me just a little bit of faith in humanity in a sometimes divisive and cruel world.

Checked out of the hotel and headed south to Dover to drop Matthew off at his apartment to start his senior year at UNH, before heading back to RI to start another year as empty nesters (it does get a little easier). 

And on to the run:  Once again, Matthew had mapped out a neat route.  We started from a small and likely little known XC skiing trailhead (Sewall Woods), and ran a loop of roads, dirt roads, and grass double-track, culminating with a fun gravel rail trail that actually crossed several lakes on man-made causeways.  It was unique in that the actual rails still remained in many places.  Fun route with nice views of Lake Winnipesaukee and several other lakes.  It rained off and on during the run but it felt just fine, even refreshing.  At the conclusion of the rain, we went for a quick dip (well, Matthew went for a quick dip and I waded) in Lake Wentworth.

Final run with Matthew for a while.  As for Brady, he seemed much better today but we gave him a couple days off from running to fully recuperate.

Weekly mileage:   43 run, 9 hike, 9 ride, 2 kayak

Weekly synopsis:  The run mileage wasn't what I was looking for, but we had a busy fun-filled vacation and some good family time and that was more important this week.  I put the Canada disappointment behind, and had a lot of fun hiking, kayaking, spending some down time, and eating too much, which most days included blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup, and ice cream sundaes (not at the same sitting mind you!)

Weekly highlight:  If I have to pick only one, I'm going to go with the Bar Harbor run.  Honorable mention to the Wolfeboro/Lake Winnipesaukee run, my fastest ever downhill mile, kayaking, hiking in Acadia, and ice cream sundaes.

Weekly lowlight:  That's an easy one - our failed entry into Canada.  Moving on.

Weekly Log 9-Aug to 15-Aug-2021: Bottone Mile

Monday:  7

Victory Day holiday!  It's nice getting so many holidays off.  Ran at DuVal with Matthew (Brady still recovering from Lyme; vet confirmed a positive result).  Probably not the best choice of undulating hills after Matthew ran an 18-miler yesterday and I ran a 20-miler two days ago.  Live and learn.

Tuesday:  8

Ninigret with Matthew.  The pace was easy but for some reason I just felt terrible throughout.  It happens.

Wednesday:  3

AM:  Very short 1.5 mile shakeout at Avondale.  Super hot; kept it slow just to stretch out the legs pre-Bottone.

PM:  Bottone Mile.  I was nervous from an RD perspective, especially as this was the first time that WTAC self-timed a race (the background is with SNERRO "scaling back" and no longer timing any races in RI, we lost our free timer and likely no company will ever give us that again).  We borrowed a Seiko timing machine and while I thought I had it working perfectly in my living room the night before, and had replaced the thermal paper and reprogrammed the time successfully, at the event itself the printer was just not working.  PANIC!  What now?  Long story short, the timing machine still retained times internally to be recalled, and another volunteer who is also a coach volunteered to time as a backup on an app she has used.

We got through that successfully but had a few other minor issues, mostly with bib tear-off collection and not having support to keep finishing runners in line in the same order they finished, but I'm determined to make this into a learning opportunity and continue to improve over time.  Other than that, we received a number of unsolicited accolades, including that a number of runners liked the modified course better and appreciated the elimination of the final turn, that registration was very orderly, the event was well organized, it's just a great community event, etc.

The inimitable Nick Bottone giving some
background points on the history of the race.

Now on to my own very brief race report, and I'm happy to say that I am very pleased with the result:

While we've had worse weather, it was not favorable at 76° and 93% humidity.  I tried to keep my remarks to a minimum, as did Nick Bottone himself.  I lined up in the 3rd row behind all the fast guys and gals (this would be one of the most competitive fields in years).

And we're off!  The fast guys and gals up front;
I'm somewhere in the 3rd or 4th row.

The race just "flew by" and I don't remember a lot of particulars writing this five days in arrears now, so I'll just bullet-point a few points I remember:

• The stacked field seemed to take off so fast off the starting line.
• A bunch of youngsters went past me in the first quarter mile.
• I dread the first two tight 90° turns, but they went by so quickly and were not an issue for me.
• Turning onto the "long" straightaway on Crandall Ave, I repassed several of the young runners that overtook me early on, including Brandon Tallardy and a few youngsters I don't know.
• I pass a few runners (not many) carrying a phone in their hand and having wires dangling from their ears to their phone.  I am perplexed as to why they "need" them for a 1-mile race and remember thinking that this must be a performance detractor in such a short race, but whatever works I guess.
• The last two turns are much smoother as the roads are wide and deplete of any traffic.
• Rounding the final turn, I pass a few more runners, including Aaron Tallardy and Justin Madry (the latter of whom I just met at Kelley Half).  Justin will retake me in the sprint to the finish; Aaron will not.
• I did not look at my watch the entire race, and am pleasantly surprised to see my finishing time!

Finishing up (in orange cap).
The next runners look spread out behind me,
but the reality each is just a second behind the one in front of them.

After catching my breath,
came back to assist with bib collection, and then
see the rest of the field come in.

Official results:  5:22.  17th out of 80.  (78th percentile doesn't sound very good, but if I want to make my position sound better, I can pull the "age card" and just say 1st out of 7 in age group!)  Full results here.

Thursday:  8

Yawgoog with Matthew, and Brady's return to running.  I was very surprised when Matthew suggested Yawgoog, but sure, why not?  It's one of my favorite running places.  Ran from North Road up Narragansett Trail on west side of Yawgoog Pond, and then a trip around Green Falls Pond and back on Tippecansett.  Felt very slow and I'm sure the heat and humidity added to that.  

BTW, Brady fared fine and really responded well to the Doxycycline and whatever fever and inflammation medicine he was prescribed with.  It was hot for sure, but there were plenty of ponds and streams for him to cool off in, and this summer has had plenty of rain, so the streams did not dry up as much as usual.

Friday:  12

Groton Fun Run at Bluff Point, plus a few miles before and after, some solo and some with Matthew.  87° even at 5pm, so I started on shaded trails and kept the pace really slow.  Didn't dare bring Brady out in this kind of heat.  Ran the Fun Run with a group of about 6, including the XC coach of Ledyard HS and some of his athletes.  Remembered being surprised at how well I fared in the heat.  Until I got home, that is.  All of a sudden just felt very weak and like I had to throw up.  Pretty sure it was heat related.  After I drank some Gatorade and got some food, I was fine.  Have to be careful in the heat; 12 miles probably was not smart for me.

Saturday:  10

WTAC August group run.  13 including Brady.  Good time, and some new faces to the monthly group run.  Out and back on the beach from Weekapaug Breachway to Watch Hill and back.  Post-run swim in the ocean for most of us, including Brady.  I really wanted to dive under the water too, but my time will come.  About half the group got together immediately afterwards at the nearby Weekapaug Innlet for coffee and food.  While I go for the run, I really enjoy the social get-together and catch-up with folks afterwards.

Sunday:  14

Richmond / Hopkinton road run with Matthew from Arcadia Y.  Cut back the original planned 16-miler; just wasn't in the cards today.  I do like these quiet roads and will probably incorporate at least one more run here into my marathon training.

Weekly mileage:  61

Weekly synopsis:  Good running week.  Hit my mileage goal and had a great mile race.

Weekly highlight:  5:22 in the Bottone Mile.  Fastest for me in years.

Weekly lowlight:  Didn't get in a long run.  It happens.

Weekly Log 2-Aug to 8-Aug-2021: First Twenty

Monday:  0 run, 16 ride

First ride in several weeks.  Solo late afternoon.  Pensive as I try to eke out any semblance of the family getting together at all this summer, plus I had a staff member resign today before I even had chance to replace the last departure, and of course I'm frustrated and depressed over my stalled and lengthy wound healing in its 4th month now.  End of rant.  For now.

Tuesday:  10

AM: Week #16 at Westerly Hospital Wound Care.   Fourth application of porcine-derived cellular tissue, and a huge improvement in wound size reduction since last week.  The end is near (hopefully).

PM:  Ran the new race course at Grills.  Not sure I would've chosen this myself, given that I new it would be overgrown, but I was happy to go with Matthew's choice.  Brady joined us as well.  Of course he did!

For a mid-afternoon in August, we remarked how the weather was relatively comfortable, and not the stifling heat or unbearable humidity that accompanies many a summer day.  Some of the overgrown sections were really bad and I got a lot of nicks and bumps from itchy plants we had to run through.  The worst is the white trail in the cleared field near the Larson foundation.  The racetrack trail that we cleared in the spring is much better than I expected.

Wednesday:  8

AM:  Procrastinated getting up and out of the house, and paid the price:  had to cut the run short before work meeting.  Really no excuse since today's first meeting was 9:30am.  Ran with Brady at Burlingame:  out Sammy C's, back Vin Gormley.  Nobody out there.  Quick stop at The Bakery.

PM:  Final Tom McCoy Family Fun Run of the year.  Tommy had called me earlier today and told me that he was under the weather and wouldn't be able to make the final run.  Speaking of weather, this would be the only Fun Run this season where it actually rained.  There were threats of rain and storms earlier this summer, but they never materialized.  

Nice coverage from The Westerly Sun
on our final Fun Run of the season

My own run went exceedingly well, lowering my time from last week and notching my fastest Fun Run 5K since 2014, in 18:15.  Ran 1st mile a little too fast in 5:36, my 2nd mile was much slower in 6:05, and 3rd mile a 5:42 before "kicking" it in.  Really happy with this one!

Thursday:  10

I conducted an 8am 2nd interview at a coffee shop in Cranston.  Brady waited patiently in the car, and Matthew got a coffee and went to another table.  Since I was in Cranston and didn't have any more meetings in the morning, we planned to stop at Big River Management Area on the way home.

Pouring rain, mud, and flooded trails awaited us, as did temps in the low 60s!  For me, with anything over a 5-miler in Big River, it's pretty much inevitable that I'll get lost, and today was no different, but again, I didn't have anything pressing to get back for either.  Fun run!

Friday:  7

AM:  Brady scared us with his lethargy.  He didn't want to move, when he did, he was limping, and he didn't want to eat.  Uh oh.  Wondered if it was somehow tied to his running yesterday and I should just wait and see if he improved.  But even when he's been tired from running before, he ALWAYS wants to eat.  Hmm.  Decided to call the vet, and was told they could get him in in THREE WEEKS.  Three weeks?!  They gave us a list of other vets to try to call, and fortunately there is a new vet in town that just opened this week, and they were able to get him squeezed in for this afternoon.

PM:  Once we had Brady's visit scheduled, I finished my work obligations and went with Matthew to run mid-afternoon at Haley and Bluff.  With temp right around 80°, I just found it miserable.  Stuck to fire roads, which are mostly shaded under a canopy of trees.  Matthew seemed to do fine, and I kept with him for about two miles, and then was dropped hard as appropriate and ran on my own.  Not to whine incessantly, but just felt awful the whole way.

Finished, returned home, showered, and brought Brady to the vet.  Poor thing - I actually had to lift him up into the car.  The first issue they told us right away is that he had a high fever with a temp of 105°.  As to the underlying issue, the vet found he had inflammation in all of his joints.  He took some blood work, and suspected Lyme.  He gave us a fever and inflammation reducer medicine, and some Doxycycline to get him started on while we awaited lab results.  By bedtime, we could see a mild, but certainly not full, improvement.

Saturday:  20!

Change of plans:  Today was the Block Island Tri.  This is what I was looking forward to and had planned to participate in after my wound healed in 3 months or less.  Only my wound still hasn't healed.  Life doesn't always go the way you want it to, and life is short.  So rather than sulk, I planned out my first 20-mile training run of the fall marathon season, incorporating the free and popular John & Jessie Kelley Half Marathon.

Got up at 5:45am and got my running clothes on.  Normally Brady will get up right away, especially if I'm preparing for a run, but he showed no interest at all in getting up from his dog bed.  I felt badly, but thought the best thing to do was to let him sleep until Jana got up, so I went downstairs on my own to get some breakfast before heading out to New London.

First seven:  Arrived at Ocean Beach Park 1 hour 15 minutes ahead of race time, picked up my bib and started my planned 7-mile pre-race run at 6:55am, leaving up to a 10-minute buffer figuring a conservative 7:30 pace.  I wanted to come back to the car to get a drink, pick up 2 GUs, and have time to get to the start.  So why not just start earlier?  No, I wanted my stopped time to be as short as reasonably possible.

Pretty uneventful pre-race run.  I had mapped out a 7-mile route the night before, memorized street names and approximate mileage, and it was pretty easy to follow.  There was one porta-jon on the route at a house under construction, so I ducked in there to take care of business and avoid having to wait in a long line upon my return to the race start (there were 1,000 entrants).

Returned with a good 12 minutes to spare, and caught up with a few WTAC runners pre-race before getting in line.  I was very surprised as we were treated to Nick Bottone singing his own rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.  I won't lie and say he hit all the notes perfectly, but I couldn't have done half as well, so I give him a lot of credit.  

Back thirteen:  The race started and the flood of runners were off.  I saw Nick Alge moving up quickly and fought the urge to try to chase.  Despite my self-professed target pace of "low 7s", my first three miles were in the 6:50s.  Heard my name called out about a mile in, and caught up with Steven deCastro for a short conversation.  He is training for an October marathon as well.  Boston, maybe?  Can't remember.

About Mile 3, I caught up with fellow age grouper Clay Howland (frequents Westerly as his mother lives there) and ended up running with him for the next 8 miles and talking and catching up and offering each other encouragement along the way.  Really nice guy.  He started running about the same age as I did (39) but where I thought I had done decently with having run 20 marathons, he's run 52!

Anyway, I was feeling fine running in the high 6s and low 7s until Miles 7 - 9 of course (Miles 14 - 16 on my run) where there were two hills right after one another that I thought would do me in.  Neither was terribly long or steep and both were just under 100', but enough to wear me down.  At the top of the second hill, Clay pulled ahead and I figured that was it.  But in the final mile I picked it up to a 6:44 mile to finish ahead of him and passed several others along the way.

I crossed the finish line (1:30:45) with Nick Bottone calling out my name, and Pete from SNERRO looked at my clock time, looked at me, and threw up his hands as in "What happened; what's going on with that time?".  He then came over to me and asked "was that a training run or something?".  I told him he nailed it and I showed him my watch reading:  20.39 miles.

Post race:  Had three bowls of chowder, and drank a copious amount of liquids.  I was very dehydrated.  Caught up with a number of runners.

The fire hose from the NL Fire Department was great.
Although I couldn't go fully under it and get my head
and wound wet, I could still step into up to my waist
and cool off nicely.

The race finishes right at the beach.
Same thing in that I can't go in deep, and
can't swim, but I waded in to my chest.

Somehow I still finished 2nd in my
old man age group, and took home a 
health hydrangea as a prize.
(It's still sitting outside; I should actually
plant it real soon.)

For a free race, this sure comes
with a lot of bling, including a medal for
each finisher.

Sunday:  7

Stonington XC trails with Nick and Kevin.  As they will be helping marking this year, gave them a preview of course turns and intersections where we need signs.  Good thing we got out there, as some maintenance will be needed by the Town of Stonington pre-race.

Weekly mileage:  63 run, 16 ride

Weekly synopsis:  Great week!  A number of good runs, and my wound is back to healing fast again.

Weekly highlight:  Running an 18:15 in a 5K, followed closely by getting in my first 20-mile training run.

Weekly lowlight:  None!

Weekly Log 26-Jul to 1-Aug-2021: Seventy

Monday:  5

Normally Monday is my day off, but I'm looking to build up mileage a bit this week.  Easy trail run in Burlingame North.  I was expecting a barrage of deerflies, but it was mosquitos that were unbelievably out in masses.  At one point, there was a cloud of at least 50 mosquitos trailing Matthew's head.

Tuesday:  8

'Round the Pond road run with Matthew.  Finished up with just enough time to shower and grab something to eat before heading to the hospital.

Wound care treatment - Week 15:  Bloody.  Painful.  Depressing.  The wound has resumed shrinking, but barely.  Trying hard to stay positive and keep the faith.

Wednesday:  11

AM:  Eight mile Burlingame run with Brady.  Ran the Rhody course in reverse.  Obnoxious mosquitos; there must have been a cloud of about forty trailing Brady.  Deerflies not terrible, but they're still out there for a few more weeks.  Nobody out on the trails.  Finished the run at Watchaug Pond boat launch, where Brady was happily swimming and jumping off the dock.  I took off my shoes and socks to at least wade in the water while he frolicked.  There was an older woman sitting in a chair on the dock reading a book and Brady shook off getting her wet.  I apologized, but she just laughed and said she was enjoying watching him [Brady] play in the water.

PM:  Penultimate Fun Run 5K of the season.  At the starting gun, Tommy 5K asked me what pace I was looking to run.  I knew I was looking to run this fairly hard, so I said about 6-flat pace.  Mile 1 split was 5:43!  I was feeling really good, so I kept going.  Unfortunately, Tommy dropped back a bit at this point (I would later learn he was feeling a little weak from having given blood earlier today).

Dave Goodrich was ahead of me, so that gave me someone to focus on to push myself.  I never caught him, but narrowed the gap on Crandall Ave and pushed hard the rest of the way in.  Crandall is the longest straight section of the Fun Run at 1/2 mile and it just seems to go on "forever".  Mile 2 5:50 and Mile 3 5:47.  Overall time 18:24 - fastest Fun Run time in seven years!  Feeling really good about that.

Thursday:  10

Barefoot beach run with Matthew and Brady.  For a 6:30am start, there were many more people (and dogs) than I expected.  Near the turnaround at East Beach, Watch Hill, there were about 40 teens running very short wind-sprints on the beach, as coaches whistled and barked orders.  I was thinking these are very short sprints for a fall cross country team, and no offense but there were quite a few shirtless guys that let's just say weren't skinny.  Then on one of the coaches' shirts I spied a "Stonington Football" insignia.  Ah, now that makes sense.

There were two (fortunately leashed) German shepherds that snarled and growled at Brady, but all of the rest of the dozen or so dogs out there were super friendly.  Finished my run and really wanted to go for a dip in the ocean.  I could tell Brady did as well, and since the water was very placid with no waves, I felt I wouldn't slip and get my head wet, so I waded out waist-deep and walked around while Brady followed me swimming.  At least I could get someone (somedog?) out for a swim vicariously, if not myself.

Friday:  8

Trails at Woody Hill with Brady.  First time running here in a while.  I brought my deerfly defense (deerfly patches) and was ready for the onslaught of the nasty pests, but it never materialized.  Clouds of mosquitos in the wet areas, especially running through Wahaneeta.

Saturday:  18

Had planned out a long run from/to Fort Adams in Newport.  Little did I realize that the Jazz Festival is going on for a second consecutive weekend, until we saw signs indicating parking $25 and entrance only allowed for advance ticket holders.  Went to nearby Rogers High School and improvised.  I warmed up two miles solo before Matthew joined me for 16 more on a CCW shoreline tour of most of Newport, including the Cliff Walk.  The Cliff Walk was a little busy, especially the northern end, but actually not nearly as bad as I feared.  Think I only had to come to a complete stop twice.

The entire run my calves hurt and I figured they would quickly loosen up, but they didn't.  I can only guess they were tight from the beach run two days ago?

Sunday:  10

Trail run with Matthew and Brady at Burlingame.  More nagging calf pain.  Vin Gormley, plus Burlingame tacked on.  About halfway through, I tripped on a root in the trail, went off trail, and impaled my leg into a branch sticking out of a log.  Ouch.  Not much blood, but it did hurt. 

Weekly mileage:  70!

Weekly synopsis:  My biggest mileage week of the year, so really happy with that.  Hopefully the calf pain/discomfort is just fleeting.

Weekly highlight:  Running an 18:24 in the Fun Run 5K.

Weekly lowlight:  None.