Just Another Day in Studville...

Goatees and Fine-Tuning...

I had an interesting long & hilly run (with all the protesting that my muscles and tendons are doing these days, anything even close to 10 miles is now "long" in my book) with Sourdough and Coach yesterday.  You know how some guys will grow beards in the winter and stay clean-shaven in the summer in light of the heat and humidity?  Well, yesterday I was flanked by two training buddies who opted to do the exact opposite.  Despite the fact that the team is apparently pursuing an image of tough and grizzled ultra-trail running veterans, I'm sticking with the traditional clean-shaven approach and I'll save the beard-growing for the winter.  Maybe.

Despite the facial hair issue, we had an enjoyable run and caught up on each other's goings-on after not running together for a few weeks.  We also had enough time to debate the existence of UFO's and aliens, although I don't recall how that discussion managed to come up.  But do not fear; by the end of the run I think it was pretty well settled that Sourdough's theory that the planet is being overrun by extraterrestrials was soundly trounced.  At least in my opinion.

After the run my full commitment to jump into Race #3 of the Living Well Summer Racing Series (10K) on Saturday was downgraded to "if-y" as the achilles tightened up a bit during the afternoon.  But then it felt 100% fine this morning and I tested it by cycling to and from the GHS track (7.7 bike miles total) and then ran 3 miles at a 6:47 average pace and it felt great.  Once again, the "mystery lady" showed up while I was there to do some intervals and blew by me at one point.  Lucky for her I was tuning up for a Saturday morning race and opted not to seek some revenge.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to racing tomorrow with a genuine lack of concern over time, place and overall performance.  I'm truly going to uncharacteristically "wing it" and see what happens!

Comeback? Maybe?

OK, so it appears that my competitive running career isn't over just yet.  I managed to successfully cover 10 miles on both Saturday and Sunday during a weekend trip to central Vermont.  These long runs were not compelled by the sense that I was truly ready for long-ish runs, but the plan was for Amy and I to tour multiple Vermont breweries and hit multiple brewpubs during the weekend (no, the kids did not join us for this trip), so I was inspired to take pre-emptive measures against the upcoming onslaught of calories. 

Anyway, the two Vermont workouts were pretty slow but I still managed to cover double-digit mileage two days in a row without debilitating myself.  Then yesterday and today I cranked it down to 7 miles each day, but sped up the pace to the 7:20 to 7:30 range and still no post-workout problems other than very mild and manageable stiffness; nothing like I was experiencing a couple of weeks ago. 

So I guess all is not lost.  In fact, as long as I continue to be problem-free for the rest of this week I plan to jump in to the third and final race of the Living Well Racing Series here in town, which is a 10K with a rather challenging hill at the very end.  Objectively speaking, this may not be a smart move.  But I'm a little antsy and this would be an opportunity to finally compete in the series that I have been co-directing for the last five years.  And it's just nice to do a race with absolutely no expectations for a change!

Apocalypse Now

The western world now has crystal-clear evidence that the apocalypse is nearly upon us.  And it's apparently taking place well ahead of the oft-cited 2012 date.

The proof-positive evidence is not the fact that the federal government now owns General Motors, or that I sustained a kickball injury, or even the death of Michael Jackson.  No, the evidence is that Coach clocked an 18:08 5K at the Glastonbury Summer Racing Series on Saturday.  And that, folks, puts him a full 4 seconds ahead of Sourdough's 5K PR of 18:12. 

The Apple Hill Highlanders are still riding high on the euphoria of pulling off a tight win in the Monthly Mileage Challenge in June.  And now Coach's leapfrog over Sourdough in the team's 5K standings has inspired them to issue a throw-down which has been heartily accepted by the South Side Scrappers!

The two teams have agreed to meet at Glastonbury High School at high noon on Sunday December 6th and compete in the 3.5-Mile Santa's Run.  Then, after the times and places are recorded, Apple Hill and South Side will square off in the following categories...

1. Best team based on overall place (cross country-style);

2. Fastest team based on cumulative time;

3. Fastest team based on age-weighted scoring;

4. Team with most consistent splits;

5. Team with the snazziest uniforms.

The team that wins the majority of these categories wins the overall throw-down and owes each member of the winning team a six-pack of their favorite beverage at the team's Holiday Party later in the month.

The only subjective category is #5, so on race day we will take photo's of each participant's uniform and post them on the team's weblog.  Weblog viewers (that's all 6 of you!) will then be invited to cast votes, one vote per viewer.  The votes will then be tallied 70 hours later and the team with the most votes wins category #5.

Please note I requested a MUCH simpler competition, but that was rejected.

One big benefit of this throw-down is that, regardless of which team wins, Team Supreme will most likely sweep the top four places in the town's biggest road race.  And THAT will be quite a feather in the TS cap!

OK, South Side starts speed-training tomorrow!

Clawing Back...

Saturday was a day off as I had to head over to Smith Middle School early (5am) to help out with Race #1 of the Living Well Summer Racing Series.  I reluctantly gave up the directorship of the series, but the workload at the law practice has been steadily picking up (thankfully) and running a three-race series just wasn't realistic.  But I'm happy to report that the new director, Pam Crouch ran a well-oiled, top-notch event yesterday despite never directing a road race before.  Sattler and I were both blown away by the fact that there were no administrative snags whatsoever; it was a wonderful thing to see yet somewhat frustrating at the same time since we always seemed to encounter multiple hitches with each race we've directed!

Anyway, this morning I shoved off for a bike ride and then, on a whim, decided to test the legs on the GHS track.  I'm happy to report that I managed 4 miles at a nice 7:26 pace without any problems.  The track was a perfect surface for someone trying to ease their way back into regular training with its flat, cushy surface. 

So it was 4 miles of running and 10 miles of cyclling this morning.  Not bad...I'll take it.

And tomorrow after work...kickball.  Oh boy, here we go again!

Back in the (Bike) Saddle

Well, I've managed to find a way to keep the body tuned despite my three issues: the ongoing (but gradually abating) achilles problem, the kickball-strained butt muscle and now the strained calf muscle, presumably the result of all the limping around caused by the butt muscle.

Yesterday, on a whim I dusted off the old Trek 1000 road bike, lubricated the chain and pumped up the totally-deflated tires before riding off into the sunrise.  It's probably been close to a year since I took the bike out for a spin, but I was surprised by how easy it was to get back into the rhythm.  And I was especially surprised by the fact that it didn't seem to irritate my various and sundry running injuries.  So I went on a 12.7-mile spin around Glastonbury and then hopped on the bike again this morning for 7.3 miles.

Also, since I've limited my bike workouts to 45 minutes or less (no sense in pushing my luck) I've been able to spend the extra early morning time spiffing up the yard.  I've weeded, trimmed the lawn, started cleaning out the garage, picked up hundreds of sticks & twigs and swept the driveway.  Lots of little things since I wisely decided not to use loud machines at 5am, but they've added up to a much nicer-looking yard.  And all of this while listening to NPR, and occassionally some live John Mayer on the MP3.  In fact, this morning I also climbed up on the roof (very quietly) and finally cleaned out the gutters which had gotten so bad that they actually had weeds growing in them!

So I have to say I've really been enjoying the recovery period.  I can now pull into the driveway without trying to avoid looking at the yard, I'm caught up on the news, Amy's pretty pleased AND I'm still getting in some workouts.

Hey, at 36 is it too early to retire from competitive running?!

Karaoke in the Lion's Den

Here's a little story from my remote training camp at Point Sebago Campground in Maine:

On Thursday, Amy and I were enjoying our new camping ritual of attending happy hour at the Sebago Lounge while all the kids were in day camp.  There was a big crowd that day, maybe 60-plus.  Two DJ's had set up a karaoke machine on the stage and started to cajole people to come up and do a little karaoke.  There were no takers for a while, so they started threatening the crowd by claiming they would start singing their own karaoke songs if someone didn't start things off, and they emphasized that none of us would find such a scenario enjoyable.  Sure enough, they made good on their threat and started singing the old cowboy song, Rawhide.

With a half-a-bottle of Sebago Boathouse Brown Ale and a handful of nacho's in my system I was feeling pretty loose and unusually bold.  I then decided that I didn't want to listen to these clowns sing Rawhide for the rest of happy hour!  So...despite Amy threatening to rip my kidneys out, I strolled up to the stage, filled out the form to indicate the song I'd like to sing and handed it to the DJ.  I looked back at Amy to find that her head was down on the table, buried in her arms.

As I bounced up on stage the DJ started reading the form I filled out and announced, "Yup!  Rawhide does it every time!  OK...it looks like our first singer today will be Mike Keenan from South Glastonbury, Connecticut and he will be singing...oh good Lord!" 

He then re-read the form.  "Great.  It appears that Mike here has decided to touch off a full-blown riot."  He then looked up at me and noticed for the first time that I was wearing a Yankees cap.

"Hi everyone,"  I shouted.  "By a show of hands, how many Yankee fans do we have in the house today?"  Immediately, half the crowd stood up and started yelling at me while flashing thumbs-down signs and other inappropriate hand gestures.  Please note that this was southern Maine, which is a whole lot closer to Boston than it is to the Bronx.

"Not one Yankees fan," I replied.  "Perfect!"  Then, right on cue, the music started and I launched into New York, New York by Frank Sinatra.  It was hard to concentrate on the screen with all the profanity being screamed at me, but I managed to get through the whole song (I noticed, for the first time, that the song is mercifully short).  I then took a long and dramatic bow, which only triggered even louder boo'ing, and then had a hard time finding my seat at the back of the room since Amy was now hiding under the table.

Sure enough, after I left the stage there was a surge of people who were suddenly interested in doing some karaoke.  The next act was a pair of women who shouted, "Sit down, Mike!!!" into the microphone as soon as they got up on stage and then launched into some song about Boston and dirty water.  Well, at least we didn't have to worry about hearing Rawhide again.

Did I mention that I recently started drinking beer?...

Downshifting...

The injuries are now beginning to pile up.  To demonstrate that I have little or no ego, I would like to announce that I have suffered a kickball injury.  No, I'm not kidding.  The Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce organizes informal kickball games every Monday evening in the summer as a way to get some exercise, do some networking and to blow off some steam after a long Monday. 

I happened to be playing center field at the top of the 5th inning when I quickly exploded to my right in an attempt to catch a line-drive kick.  Well, after more than 20 years of distance running my lower body muscles have become quite adept at moving straight ahead, but moving side-to-side is no longer an area in which I excel.  My left butt muscle has been sharply protesting that sudden movement ever since Monday evening.  And no, I didn't end up catching that line-drive.

So now I'm hobbling along.  I ended up running nearly 8 miles with Sattler on the track yesterday morning, which was probably ill-advised in light of the problems with my achilles and left butt cheek.  If it wasn't for the constant flow of good conversation I would have hated every step of it.  Now the plan is to take it very easy until both problems clear up.  The cheek should be fine in a day or two while the achilles could take a little longer.

This morning I discovered that pedaling a bike didn't aggravate either injury, so I cruised around the Tryon neighborhood for about 30 minutes before returning home to attend to some grounds-keeping duties on our badly-neglected property.

Not being in a competitive mode is admittedly a bummer, but I'm certainly enjoying the less-stressful mornings while still getting in a little exercise and having time to do other things. 

Although I will say that I'm a little stressed over the question of whether my butt will recover in time for hte next kickball game on Monday.

Running From Rotary

6:30 AM Good morning everyone!  Its time for America's second favorite game show: Running From Rotary. Today’s contestants were Art, Chris and Kevin, with cameo appearances by Jay and Rick.

Today contestants were treated to a route that included: Rotary to Founders, to Coleman, to Chestnut Hill, Dropped Kevin, saw Sour Dough and Jay-Dog (Rick was helping Jay through his long run that had started at the ungodly hour of 4:40 AM.), up Sunset, then Coldbrook to the powerlines. This was topped off by a run up to the Mesh for a nice trail session. The trail was a god-awful mess today as the rain had washed and rearranged all of the mud and rocks. The pond by the old Chevy had washed over its banks to provide another foul smelling knee deep tick bath in the gully. We pressed on and hit Crystal ridge, hung a left on the road, took the alternate parallel trail, then exited at the major intersection, before taking it to the Nike missile site. Ran through there then exited back around by Crystal ridge and headed back via the orchard route. I was still beat up and had nothing in the tank and started to run out of fuel and dehydrate a bit. Chris hung in there pretty darn well for a domesticated roadrunner type. He gave me some of the details of his ongoing Iron Man training.

As I ran down founders I felt my kidneys act up and knew it was time to wrap it up, and call it a day. A little shy of the 3 hours I was looking to go, but still not too bad. At least I got some lovely parting prizes; a ravenous appetite and new and improved mitochondria.

glorious Race Report

The Glorious Gallop 5K was held last night in East Hampton, and after hearing about this race for a few years, I finally ran it. So was it actually "Glorious"?

First let me give myself credit for setting a new, 9 second, 5k PR at 18:18. So it’s a PR, and I am not allowed to complain, yet somehow, I am not thrilled.

I had heard about this course and wanted to run it, as it has a lot of down hill to it and figured it would be an easy PR. In that regard the course was Glorious. The weather was glorious too, for a July night in the low 70’s. However, I was a bit disappointed, as with the course and the day I felt I could have gone under 18 min if things went well. This is a point to point race, ala Boston. So I boarded a shuttle bus and headed up to the start. The course organizers were a little sketchy as the official start line was determined to be a temporary real estate sign on some one’s lawn. The course started out with a screaming down hill that left the bottom of my feet just burning with heat. The organizers did not feel it necessary to put out mile markers which really bugged me and messed me up mentally a little as I ran. So its hard to give the mile by mile post mortem or splits. But I think I can safely say that I hammered the first downhill mile, held steady for most of mile two, up until I got a bit of a stitch in my side and slowed just enough to let a runner pass and gap me. I think my legs were a little shot still from the fast track workout on Tuesday. But perhaps not. For some reason I did not recognize that it was the same guy that I out sprinted at the finish of my last 5K. I finished with runners 4, 6 and 7 seconds ahead of me. Although at the time they seemed to be really far ahead. As most of my fans could have guessed, this once again placed me 4^th in my age group.

I define a Glorious race as one where I take a huge risk, against odds, and somehow make it work, or die the death of the proud warrior. I fought at this race, and was suffering at the end. But I ran a somewhat safe race, and did not get full the blood lust of battle. No fights were consciously avoided, yet for some reason, it did not occur to me kill myself trying to catch the runners in front of me, until it was too late. I did not punk out, yet I did not really risk it and step up. Let’s call it glorious with a small "g".

Team Supreme Notches Another Race Victory!

This is shaping up to be a banner year for TS in the hardware department.  We just passed the halfway point of the year and the team has racked up four overall road race victories.  Please note that this is not the Boston Athletic Association.  We're talkin' 4 guys ranging from mid-30's to mid-40's with day jobs and young kids (10 kids among us), while fully 25% of the team is preoccupied with actively pursuing the world record for the number of bananas consumed in one minute.

Well, soon after commiting to scaling back on mileage and intensity in order to allow my achilles tendons to heal up, I couldn't help noticing that the campground that I'm vacationing at with my family was holding a 2-mile road race this morning.  Tendonitis or no tendonitis, this was too hard to pass up, especially when the start/finish area was about 1/4 mile from our campsite.

Technically it was a road race in the sense that it was billed as such and awards were handed out at the end.  Realistically, it was a fun run, which I suppose was not a shocker (pronounced "SHAW-ka" up here in Maine) since the field was limited to campers at one campground.  There were approximately a couple dozen runners and I won with a 12:45 and the 2nd place guy clocked a 15:00, which means he was running my long run training pace.  I also put in 8.5 miles earlier that morning.  As a footnote, the Keenan's dominated the event with my 9-year old son, Cameron, winning his age group pretty easily.

So...not quite the Manchester Road Race, but our team is happy to take any victory it can get!