Training 5/24 to 5/30

5/24 Monday: 7 miles in 47 minutes

Ran late in the day today. The knee was feeling OK walking around so I figured I would give it a go. I felt better today than I did on Sunday. I actually ran very comfortably for about the first 5 miles and then I started feeling some pressure under the knee cap after that. By the end of the run I was probably just getting to feeling pain. I was also moving pretty well at the end of the run. Covered the last three miles in 6:39, 6:32, 6:19. The muscles are feeling very fresh, just need the knee to come around, and I think it is.

5/25 Tuesday: OFF

I did not plan to take today off. But work was crazy, it was wicked hot out and by the time I got my daughter to bed I was beat and had no desire to run. I guess its probably a good thing. I am just coming back fron an injury so a day off will probably be good

5/26 Wednesday: AM: 9 miles in 66 minutes PM: 5 miles in 37 minutes

AM: Wicked hot out there!!! Got to the track and did 3 miles easy on the roads then 1.5 miles in 8:10 (5:27 pace), 400m easy in 2 min, then 1 mile in 5:27, 400m easy. Then 3 miles easy on the roads. The workout was supose to be 2 x 1.5 mile at LT pace. I hit the paces perfectly but it was so hot on the track I felt like I was melting, and I was getting dizzy, it was just to hot to push it out there today. Plus it was probably good to ease back into workouts. Good news is there was no pain in the knee! I just got a bit of pressure towards the end of the second interval and a bit towards the end of my cooldown. Overall I am happy with it!

PM: Ran very easy from home once it started to cool down.

5/27 Thursday: 8 miles in 60 minutes

Legs felt pretty tired and heavy today. No pain in the knee!! Just a bit of tightness towards the end of the run.

5/28 Friday: 10 miles in 74 minutes

Ran easy today. Knee was a little tight for about the last half of my run. I was expecting it to be a little better than that. Oh well, another lighter day tomorrow.

5/29 Saturday: 7 miles in 52 minutes

Easy running. Felt OK, legs pretty tired from standing and dancing on concrete all night!

5/30 Sunday: 5 miles in 39 minutes

Easy on the treadmill.

Total Miles: 51

Training 5/17 to 5/23

5/17 Monday: 10 mile in 70 minutes

Legs felt great after a day off, except for my knee was still hurting. Its not getting worse, and does not hurt more as the run goes on. It just hurts the same.

5/18 Tuesday: 8.2 miles in 58 minutes

Same thing today. Everything felt OK, except for the knee. Its still hurting.

5/19 Wednesday: 8.2 miles in 58 minutes

More of the same. Knee is not getting better. I may put myself on the DL for a few days to clear this thing up......I hope. We will see.

5/20 Thursday: OFF

5/21 Friday: OFF

5/22 Saturday: OFF

Should have been at the USATFNE 12k Championships today. :(

5/23 Sunday: 6 miles in 42 minutes

First day back after 3 straight days off from running. The knee felt really good for the first couple miles, then that familiar pressure under my knee cap started coming back. By about mile 5 I was once again running in pain. The good news is that this is better than it was earlier in the week. Bad news is that I am still getting pain as the run goes on.

Total Miles: 32.4

Not a good week at all. Lots off time off from running, it felt like forever. I just hope it was the smart thing to do and has jump started the healing process in my knee. My goal next week is to try to run 6 days and try to make sure the knee does not get worse. If things are looking good I will be at the Redhook 5k on Sunday.

Shaker Village XC Challenge

On Saturday May 15th Heather and I went up to Canterbury, NH for the Shaker Village XC Challenge (results). This is the 4th race in the CARS series and the toughest of all the races. This is a true cross country course with plenty of ups and downs, lots of bad footing, some dirt roads, and some mud thrown in for good measure. My goal coming into this race was to survive in one piece, this is where I got hurt last year, and to just maintain my 2nd place standing in the CARS series. I did not want to push myself to hard at this race due to an incident I had on Thursday when I tripped and fell knee first into a big rock. Yeah....not too smooth. The knee has some swelling and its pretty painful on ups and downs.

Once Heather and I got our race numbers I went out for a short 2.5 mile warm up. The knee was OK, but I was still getting pain on the ups and downs. I got over to the starting line and saw the usual CARS suspects MacKenzie Kilpatrick, Scott Clark, Dan Verrington, Tim Cox, Taylor Annett, and a new face in Connor Jennings, who is running very fast these days. I put myself in the 2nd row behind some high schoolers and soon we were off and running.

This race started out pretty weird. Connor shot right to the front followed by one other runner, and then a large group of people who just went out slow. I was holding back because of my knee injury, but almost everyone else seemed to be holding back too. The early part of this course has a lot of downs and I wanted to take those pretty easy before I tried to press the pace at all. I must have been hovering around 6th or 7th for a good part of the early stages of the race. Once we hit some of the flatter sections I started to move up, getting past Scott Clark, Neal Graves, and a couple others. Before long we hit the dirt road section and I started to move up to Mackenzie who was chasing down Connor. By the end of the dirt road I was in 3rd place and trying to catch MacKenzie. We made the turn onto "The Hill" and started our way up. This hill is covered in grass, the ground is soft, and the hill goes on for a very long time. You feel like the hill is sucking the life out of you as you make your way up. I lost some ground on Mackenzie and MacKenzie was making up some ground on Connor. As we hit the top of the hill Connor went straight were the course went right. Connor made it about 20-25 meters past the turn before he turned back as people yelled to him that he was going the wrong way. By the time Connor made it back onto the course I had reached the corner and soon all three of us were together as we headed down a steep hill.....which my knee was not liking. I backed off a bit and a gap opened up. This was pretty much the end of my chance to stay with them. I tried to battle back but I could not make up any time. We made our way back up hill and towards the finish. With one more loop around a field and to the finish I was out of time and MacKenzie and Connor kicked to the finish while I just relaxed and finished up the race. Connor out kicked MacKenzie by a second and I finished 13 seconds back of Connor for third place.

I was pretty happy with how the race went considering how my knee was feeling. Heather did not have such a great race as she had to drop out with an injury. She has been battling a foot issue now for a few weeks that just does not seem to be getting better.

Results

MENS CARS STANDINGS

1. MacKenzie Kilpatrick 4000

2. Chris Mahoney 3932

3. Scott Clark 3821

4. Taylor Annett 3811

5. Rod Viens 3791

Training 5/10 to 5/16

5/10 Monday: 8.2 miles in 62 minutes

Very easy day to rcover from the weekend. I tried to keep things easy today, no faster than 7:30 pace. But later in the run I had trouble keeping things that slow. Still it was a nice relaxed run.

5/11 Tuesday: AM: 4.5 miles in 36 minutes PM: 9 miles in 67 minutes

AM: Very easy treadmill run at home.

PM: Easy running, hit the Shawsheen trails out to the high school. Did 6 x 20 sec strides on the way back in.

5/12 Wednesday: 11 miles in 75 minutes

Warmed up about 3.5 miles then did 2 x 2 miles at LT pace in 10:52, and 10:49. Took 1 lap rest between in just under 2 minutes. The I did another 3 miles for a cool down. I actually felt really smooth and comfortable.......the way it should be!

5/13 Thursday: AM: 5.2 miles in 39 minutes PM: 8.3 miles in 61 minutes

AM: Easy running from work, felt OK

PM: Was having a really nice run till I had a run in with a boulder. I went to jump over a large rock when I trip and fell into the rock.....knee first. Not good, limped home a little bloodied and swollen. I have a decent limp going on now....will see how it feels tomorrow.

5/14 Friday: 8 miles in 59 minutes

Tried to go pretty easy today. The knee seemed OK for a bit, there was pain but it did not seem to be affecting my stride or pace, so I went ahead with my plan of 8 miles. Then late in the run, on some ups and downs, things got pretty painful and it slowed me down to a crawl. Not good. I am going to ice the crap out of it and try to rest it up for tomorrow. I was hoping that since this was not a "running" injury it would not have much of an impact on the running. We will see how it feels tomorrow.

5/15 Saturday: 9.5 miles in 68 minutes

Went up to Canterbury NH for the Shaker Village XC Challenge, a CARS series event. Warmup and down about 6.5 miles and ran the very challenging 3.1 mile XC course in 17:59, good for 3rd place. Full race report with all the details to come soon!

5/16 Sunday: OFF

Was going to run today....but decided to try to be smart for once and take a day off to rest up and let my knee have a day of recovery. I will try to go long tomorrow if the knee and time permit.

Total: 63.7 Miles

B1st Peepers 5k

On Saturday May 8th Heather and I went up to Barrington NH for the B1st Peepers 5k. Heather was not racing this weekend due to an injury to her foot, but she came up to cheer me on anyways because she rocks! I was actually not going to race this weekend, that was until I looked at the racing calender and saw quite a few races with cash prizes. I knew that Bob Wiles had nothing on his schedule, and Jim Johnson was going to Big Lake Half Marathon, so that took two really good guys out of the picture. Plus with the number of races with cash prizes over the weekend I figured the talent would be spread out. So I chose to go to Barrington, NH figuring it was further away than most races, thus giving me the best chance to place high and score some money.

Just as I pulled into the parking lot I looked up to see Jim Johnson's yellow X-Terra pulling in. So much for thinking I may score some easy cash! Jim and I headed over to registration where we ran into Dan Verrington, Jeff Goupil, and Mark Gibson. Registration took a little bit longer than expected and we did not get out on our warm-up with much time to spare. Jim, Dan, Jeff and I ran the course as a warm-up and saw a very fast New Balance Boston guy (Dan Hocking 14:20 5k at Penn Relays 2 weeks ago) that Jim recognized from a track meet a few weeks ago. After a quick change into my racing flats I headed over to the starting line with about a minute to spare. Soon we were off and running.

As the race started Jim, Dan H, Jeff and myself were off the front pretty quickly. The pace felt quick but controlled. I settled in behind Jim and Dan with Jeff right with us. The course had some gentle ups and downs but, nothing I would call a hill. We hit the first mile mark in 4:59 and soon after that Jeff dropped off the pace a bit and it was just Dan, Jim and myself. The pace remained solid as we hit the half way turn around cone. I hate these things, you almost come to a complete stop as you make a sharp 180 degree turn and try to get back up to speed as quick as possible. All three of us made the turn together and started back for the finish line against the traffic of the runners still heading out for the turn around. At one point I made a move across the street to the other side of the road cutting through the oncoming runner traffic. I was not alone for long on the other side of the road as Jim and Dan also made the same move a moment later. As we hit the 2 miles mark Dan was leading with myself right behind then Jim right behind me. We Hit the two mile mark in 10:08 (5:09 2nd mile). Just after the two mile mark Dan started to make a move and pick up the pace, or maybe I was throwing in a fade. Either way Dan was starting to gap Jim and I and soon I felt Jim falling off of my pace. I tried to pick it up and keep Dan in range but he was looking strong and moving away from me pretty quickly. At this point my thoughts turned to securing 2nd place and keeping Jim behind me. I built a small gap over him, but he was still close enough that I could hear him. Over the slight up hill heading back to the finish I kept trying to pick it up a bit and trying to keep Jim as far away from me as I could, but I could hear him gaining on me and I knew he was getting closer. In my head I kept thinking just beat him to the 3 mile mark and then take care of buisiness with a good kick. My thinking was, Jim had just run the Boston Marathon (in 2:30:00) a few weeks back and I figured his legs were probably still beat up a bit and I could probably match or beat his kick. I acomplished getting to the 3 mile mark before Jim as I hit it in 15:18 (5:10 3rd mile) but Jim was now right behind me, maybe only a second or two back. So I kicked like mad for the finish line! I hit the finish line in 15:47 covering the last 0.1 in 29 seconds, which is fast for me. I managed to hold off Jim by three seconds. Dan won the race in 15:39, Jim and I were actually gaining on him in the last part of the race, but he is a 14:20 5k guy and had the victory in hand shortly after the 2 mile mark and was probably just cruising into the finish. The woman's winner was Dan's wife Lesley Hocking in 17:55.

After the race a big group of us (Dan H, Jim, Jeff, Mark, Dan V, and Lesley) hit the course for a cool down. After the cool down we hit the cookie table, which had an awesome spread of all kinds of home made cookies, for some much needed nourishment! Overall I was very happy with this race, it was the first time in a long time that I have felt "in control" and not just dying out there. It was also my fastest road 5k since 2005. I hope its just a sign of things to come!

Results

Training 5/3 to 5/9

5/3 Monday: 8 miles in 60 minutes

Very easy run from work. Legs still feeling the race on Saturday and long run on Sunday. Just tried to keep things comfortable for the whole run.

5/4 Tuesday: AM: 5miles in 36 minutes PM: 10.1 miles in 74 minutes

AM: Very easy run, ran in the new Nike Free 7.0. I really liked them, very comfortable.

PM: Was going to do a track workout, but the threat of severe thunderstorms kept me off the track. I did 10 miles easy from home after the storms had passed. Felt OK, but my right hip got a bit tight late in the run.

5/5 Wednesday: 8.3 miles in 56 minutes

Did 4 miles of warm-up then 10 x 1 min pickups with 1 minute rest. Over the 20 minutes I did pick-ups I averaged about 5:50 pace, so I was really happy with that. wasn't sure I was going to do a workout today, but the legs and hip (which was tight yesterday) felt good after 4 miles so I decided to do some work!

5/6 Thursday: 10.1 miles in 75 minutes

Easy run on the Rattlesnake Hill Road loop. Felt a little heavy from yesterdays workout, but OK otherwise.

5/7 Friday: 8.1 miles in 61 minutes

Easy running. Awesome morning for a run! Felt OK, but the legs are a little tight.

5/8 Saturday: 9 miles in 64 minutes

Went up to Barrington NH for the B1st Peeper 5k Road race. Warmed up and down with a few of the CMS guys and a few others, and raced 5k in 15:47 good for 2nd place. All the details in the full race report to come later!

5/9 Sunday: 17 miles in 2 hours and 3 minutes

Went over to Maudsley to get in some miles on the trails. I always forget how awesome this place is to run in. I will have to make sure I get back over there more this year. I felt alright, but a bit tight from the race yesterday, but I managed to finish up the run pretty strong.

Total Miles: 75.6

A good week, with a solid race and some nice training. I need to put more of these kinds of weeks together.

5/1/10 Footbridge 5k

On Saturday May 1st Heather and I went up to Dover, NH for the Footbridge 5k (results). This race benefits the Children's Museum of NH and is then first race of the Seacoast Series. I was really looking forward to this race since I also did it last year and I wanted to see how my time this year would compare to last years. This would help me get an idea what kind of shape I am in compared to last year. Last year I eeked out a 5 second win over John Mentzer (2008 Olympic Trials qualifier and 2009 Marine Corps Marathon Champion) with a 15:57. Jim Johnson was third last year in 16:13.

After getting parked we headed over to the registration area to get our numbers and timing chips for the race. After collecting our stuff and dropping off our bags near the start finish area it was time for a warm up. Heather and I met up with the CMS crew of Bob Wiles, Jim Johnson, Dan Verrington, and Dave Quintal and ran the course for a warm up. The course has its hills, but its a fair course, but not a course I would call fast. During the warm up I learned that John Mentzer and Mark Gosztyla were also there for the race. With this crew of guys I knew it was going to be a very fast race. Besides John, Bob is coming off an indoor season with a sub 15 minute 5k, Jim just ran 2:30:00 at Boston, and Mark has multiple road race wins to his credit. For myself I knew this was going to be a tough race, I have not had very consistent training, and a top 3 finish was probably out of the question. But I still wanted to stick my nose in there and find out what kind of shape I am in.

The gun went off and once we got about a half mile into he race all those that I expected to be at the front were. John and Bob were leading things along followed by Jim and myself. In the first mile it felt like we were moving pretty fast and the effort felt hard, I expected to see something right around 5 min or a touch under, but we went through in 5:10. I guess the hills in the first mile really slowed us a bit. Not to long after the mile I knew that I needed to back off a bit, and that I could not hold that pace for much longer. So as we made our way into a neighborhood section I backed off a bit and the other three guys put a bit of distance on me. Not too long after that we started heading up hill again and I could see Jim starting to fall off the pace as it appeared that John and Bob were picking up the pace. After exiting the neighborhood we hit a big down hill and passed the 2 mile mark, which went by in about 10:27 for me (a 5:17 mile). At this point I almost thought Jim was coming back to me. Then I knew he was hurting because he must have looked over his shoulder 5 or 6 times in a matter of a few minutes. I tried to press a bit, but I was hurting too, I could not make up any ground on him. After another (and final) uphill, I was making the turn onto the footbridge and it was at this point I knew I was not catching Jim. I could not hear anyone behind me and I figured I was good for fourth place. I passed 3 miles in 15:40 (a 5:13 mile) and made the last push for the finish and finished in 16:13 for fourth place and an age group win worth 2 lobster dinners. Bob ended up winning by 1 second over John 15:37 to 15:38 with Jim in third in 15:53. Nice win Bob!!

My time this year was about 16 seconds slower than last year. So I am not to far off where I was at this point last year. I do need to get more consistent with the training and workouts, then the racing will improve. Heather ended up running 19:27 good for 2nd place and 8 lobster dinners! Nice race Heather! In other news my daughter Caitlyn also made her 2010 racing debut in the 4 year old kids dash. She placed very well beating all but 2 kids and getting a nice ribbon for her efforts. Nice job Caitlyn!

Article

Training 4-26 to 5-2

4/26 Monday: 7 miles in 53 minutes

First day back at work in almost 3 weeks. It was nice to get out on the trails for some running during the day. Leg still feel like crap.

4/27 Tuesday: 10 miles in 71 minutes

Rattlesnake Hill Loop. Felt ok, but the legs still feel heavy.

4/28 Wednesday: 7 miles in 53 minutes

Treadmill run at home. Yes I am a wuss. It was cold and wet by the time I got around to running. So I stayed inside.

4/29 Thursday: AM: 8 miles in 55 minutes PM: 5 miles in 38 minutes

AM: Legs felt much better today. Did 8 x 20 second strides during end of run.

PM: Easy run from home with Heather. Very windy out there.

4/30 Friday: 7 miles in 52 minutes

Awesome day out there. Felt ok today, did half the run on the Shawsheen river trails.

5/1 Saturday: 9.3 miles in 65 minutes

Ran the Footbridge 5k up in Dover, NH. Did the course as a warm up with Heather and a bunch of CMS guys, then ran 16:13 for 4th place, then another 3 miles of cool down with the same crew. Full race report to follow soon.

5/2 Sunday: 16.3 miles in 115 minutes

Got out for a nice long run today. Felt real good and smooth. Started out real easy around 7:15 pace and held it for the first 10 miles. Then I let myself roll a bit more and ran some miles at 6:50 down to 6:24 for the last mile. Got hot out there towards the end, but over all it was a very nice run.

Total Miles: 69.6

Great week of running! Hope to put in a few more miles next week. Finally starting to feel good and motivated again.