Joe's Running Blog

7/21/20 CVR PS Barre Town Spring Run 5K; 7/22/20 CVR PS Northfield Savings Bank 5K

My habit of training and racing without a real plan came into sharp relief this week when I found myself running 5K races on back-to-back days. I didn’t come into the week planning to do this. I didn’t really have a plan at all coming into the week. But we will get to what happened soon enough.

I guess now is soon enough to talk about what led to the first race. After running the Paul Mailman 10 Mile race on Saturday, I was left with three CVR Participation Series races – the Barre Town Spring Run, the Barre Heritage Days Trail Run, the Northfield Savings Bank Race (all 5Ks) and the Adamant Half Marathon (a half marathon). My modus operandi has been to take a look at the weather for the week alongside my mileage needs and pick a day and a race to run. In this case, picking the race was easy. Katie wants to run the trail run with me after she has a chance to get some training in; the Northfield run will be with the Runders in a few weeks, and the half marathon will be on a weekend sometime in August. So when the weather turned out to be really nice on Tuesday, I was off to the Barre Town recreation fields for the Spring Run.

By “the weather was good,” I mean that the temperatures were in the mid-upper 70’s and any rain had left the forecast. Humidity is still high, but an early-evening run would at least alleviate excessive sun exposure. I’ve never run this race before, so I studied the map and then did a little scoping of what I thought might be a tricky turn toward the end during a brief warmup. It wasn’t going to be tricky.

The course is basically an out-and-back on the Barre Town Rec Path, with a little added on at the start and finish to get to a full 5K. The path itself is about 1.25 miles I recon, and starts in an area with a track, a softball field, a baseball field, a skate park, and a picnic area. It’s actually a pretty nice setup. The start is a little weird, in that it’s on the other side of the track by the skate park, goes up and around the baseball and softball fields and through the parking lot to the start of the path. Then out and back the bike path until the not-tricky turn, which leads you over a bit of lawn and a finish on the track.

This is the first time I have been on this track, soI had no real landmarks. I knew from looking at the map that it goes by the Rock of Ages visitor center, but that was all. It’s pretty flat, though the first mile drops about 50 feet. I didn’t have aspirations to go for a PR on this run given it was just a few days removed from the ten miler. I thought 26:00 would be a good goal, an 8:23/mile pace. Mile 1 was done in 8:15, good.

Mile 2 gained more elevation than I realized, about 100 feet. It wasn’t super steep anywhere, but its a noticeable sustained grade for half a mile or so. This is the type of terrain that lulls me into a slower pace without realizing. I found myself having to push a few times after I looked at my watch and realized I was lagging. At the turnaround I walked for a few seconds to take on some water, which isn’t supposed to hurt my time. But kind of does. The second split clicked at the very beginning of the downhill. 8:55. Yikes! That’s way off pace, but I thought I might make it back on the extended downhill.

Yes, but. I was running the downhill at a sub-8:00 pace. But there was the matter of that 50-foot climb. I had a good pace going, but didn’t have the juice to push it close to 8:00 on the uphill. Mile three clicked in at 8:12. That last tenth would have to be done in 38 seconds to break 26:00, and I’m just not that fast. I hit the track with as much kick as I could muster, and crossed the finish at 26:13. Still one of my fastest 5Ks thus far.

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 5K
Time: 26:13
Pace: 8:27

On Wednesday I was planning a 5-mile run with Lauren, but then got a message that the Runderachievers wanted to do the Northfield Savings Bank 5K that night. I tried to implore a later date partly because a new member had wanted to do this and would not be available, but also partly because I didn’t really want to run races two days in a row, even short ones. But I was told that some folks were absolutely planning on the 5K. And since it was my suggestion originally that we do it as a group, I thought I should go.

Wednesday was a showery day, and the forecast was for that to continue through the evening. At least it was another not-too-hot day. As is often the case I left the house a few minutes late. I drove through some light showers on the way to Northfield, but the rain was stopped by the time I got there. Runder regulars Matt, Kim and Darrel were there, along with Darrel’s wife Cheryl, and a semi-regular named Devin who I had not met before. I had a little time to stretch but no chance for a warmup run before we started.

This had been one of my first races post-injury last year, so I was familiar with the course. It begins with the worst part – a 50 foot climb immediately after the start heading south on Main Street. Then it goes downhill a bit and curls back to town at the edge of the Norwich University campus. Then down across the river for an out-and-back on Water Street before finishing at the monument on the town common. This part we run a lot with Runders, so I’ve done this part a lot.

I’ll admit that this felt like a bad idea on the first hill. My legs felt sluggish, and I was already feeling like the obligatory 26:00 target was a pipe dream. I was ahead of Cheryl, who is much slower, but behind the rest almost immediately. I knew I wouldn’t challenge Matt and especially Kim, but Devin was a wildcard. Nonetheless, I found myself trying to keep with them, and my uphill pace was faster than I expected as a result. The first mile ended back at the center of town and clicked at 8:23. That was really good for the hilly part.

We crossed the foot bridge and on to Water Street. There is a segment going out this road that goes about 3/4 mile until the turnaround. My PR for the segment was 7:09, but I had set a goal to break 7:00 before the summer ends. With that in mind I kept my cadence up. I was also motivated by the runners in front of me. Kim and Matt were well out of reach, but I was hanging with Devin. I used a telephone pole as a marker and determined that I was about 15 seconds behind him. By the time we reached the turnaround I had definitely narrowed the gap. My time for the segment was 6:35, which was far ahead of my goal.

Having pushed the pace along this road, and having the hills behind me, I was feeling really good. Mile 2 clicked in at 8:21. Devin was noticeably slowing by now, or else I was speeding up (actually a little of each), so my focus now was to catch him, which I did with a little more than half a mile to go. And then my focus was to not let him catch me. But I was feeling really strong and confident I could keep this pace up through the end. The mile three split was 8:14, meaning I was just under 25:00 with a tenth to go. Easy peasey. I pushed up over the bridge and sprinted to the finish, with a final time of 25:46. My third-fastest run. Devin came in 30 seconds later, and Cheryl (along with Darrel on his bike) arrived a few minutes later.

I don’t at all think we should be doing large events right now, but after four months of solo races, having even this small group to compete with was very motivating and a lot of fun. And we have another virtual 5K coming up that I’m going to suggest we do as a Runders event. Nothing is “normal” now, but it’s nice to pretend once in awhile.

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 5K
Time: 25:46
Pace: 8:18

7/18/20: CVR Participation Series Paul Mailman 10 Mile Race

For my next race in the CVR Participation Series, I went for another bite at the Paul Mailman Ten Miler. You may recall that this was my first-ever long race last year. You may also recall that I ran the course in honor of the cancelled race in April. Now taking it on for a third time, I am starting to figure out what to expect.

At ten miles, this is one of two races in the participation series that I can’t really take on after work. (The other being the Adamant Half Marathon.) So I planned to run it Saturday morning. I planned to start by 8:00 to avoid the forecasted heat for the day. But, as is common, I didn’t quite make that goal. Still, I got to the high school and ran a half-mile warmup in time to start at 8:45, when the temps were still in the upper 60s but the sun was already beating down.

In April, I set what turned out to be a fairly ambitious goal of 1:35:00 for the race, a 9:30 pace, and I missed that by a little more than a minute. Given my recent results I thought that 1:35 was a pretty safe goal this time around, but given the temperature and a training schedule that wasn’t totally set up for race prep (24 miles already for the week), I didn’t articulate anything faster than that. I figured best-case scenario I could do this in 1:30, and I’d try to start out fast enough to give me a chance at that, but there are no prizes for being fast so I would also listen to my body.

Unlike the first two iterations of this race, this time I started out with a lap and a third on the track. This is the “official” course, which I learned when I ran the 5K version a couple of weeks ago. I have concluded that the track portion, which is also incorporated into the Fallen Leaves races, is designed to spread out the group before it hits the narrow bike path. That was obviously not an issue for a race of one, but the course is what it is.

When I ran this race in April, I started out too fast (9:00 average the first two miles, sub-10:00 the next two miles uphill), before my body started to hurt and then I hit a wall for the last few miles. I figured this time I could shoot for 9:00 – 9:15 miles on the flats, 10:00 – 10:30 uphill, sub-9:00 down hill and back to 9:00 – 9:15 on the final flats. I didn’t really do the math, but I thought that would be safely under 1:35:00.

Things started off good, with 8:51 and 8:58 splits the first two miles. Actually a little faster than in April, but I am in better shape now. Mile three was flatter than I expected, due to the track portion, and didn’t end until the beginning of Jones Brook Road, as opposed to already going uphill. That split was also 9:00. Things were going well so far, though most of this course is exposed and the effective temperature under the direct sun was certainly warmer than the thermometer reading. Before the turn onto Jones Brook Road I took a shot block for energy and a couple of ibuprofen to avoid pain for the last part of the race.

As with the Bear Swamp race last week, the hill wasn’t as intimidating as it once had been, given all the investment in climbing recently. It’s actually a pretty mellow grade. Mile 4 I did in 9:31 and mile 5 in 9:39. I hit the halfway point in almost exactly 46:00, which was a really good pace.

I had read the turnaround instructions, which said to go .12 miles past Cemetery Road and turn around at the second house. But I never actually saw Cemetery Road. At this point I started to question the start – was the circuit around the track just meant for the 5K portion, where the 10 milers would go direct onto the bike path? (In retrospect, this makes no sense because the 5K runners would be going faster and forced to pass all the 10 milers in a real race.) I figured I would go past the 5.1 mile mark just to be sure, and also try to make sure I got all the climbing in rather than benefit from extra flat. At around 5.3 miles I got to Jones Road and then Herring Brook Road. Did one of these USED to be called Cemetery Road? Regardless, there was a downhill portion coming up and no other road in sight, so I decided I should turn around. After I took a leak.

Now, were this a real race I probably would have just held it. But I don’t like to think about my bladder while running. I also figured slowing myself down would put any thought of 1:30 out of my mind and keep me from pressing too much at the end. I didn’t pause my watch, because in a real race you don’t get to deduct pee time, so this was going to add seconds. Then, and after another hit of water, I felt somewhat refreshed for the run back down hill. Even with the pit stop, mile six was completed a few seconds under 10 minutes. At this point I was remembering that the fairly gradual slope also meant the downhill wasn’t going to be extremely fast. Mile seven was done in 9:04, not the sub-9:00 pace contemplated earlier.

At this point I was at 1:05:00. I would need to run the last three miles in 25:00 to break 1:30:00. That would be an 8:20 pace, and that absolutely was not going to happen. I figured a 9:00 pace, and hence a 1:32:00 time might be possible.

Again, this makes no sense. Given that I JUST ran a downhill split over 9:00, why would I think that I’d be able to run a 9:00 pace on flat ground having already run 8 miles in the sun? (The obvious answer is that I had already run nearly 8 miles in the sun and wasn’t thinking clearly.) Mile 8 was done in a respectable 9:06, and while 1:32:00 was no longer likely, 1:33:00 was still in reach.

But this is when the miles and the heat, and I suppose the lack of long-run training took their toll. In retrospect, hitting a wall at 8 miles is an improvement from the days when I couldn’t keep a pace for more than five or six miles. But on the flat part I started to really feel myself dragging. Worse yet, with nothing to pay attention to but my body, I started to question whether or not I’d have the stamina to finish. My legs – were they tightening up? Was I going to get a cramp? But then I convinced myself that I could easily finish the last two miles, even if they were slow. I set a target to get to Three Mile Bridge, about half a mile back on River Road, after which I would take a moment to walk and drink some water in the shade that I expected to find there.

But at 10:15 a.m., heading due east, there really wasn’t any shade. I did my rest and resumed running. I repeated this a couple more times over the last mile and a half, find a small spot of shade to walk a few seconds and take on some water. Mile 9 was done in 9:52, just a few seconds faster than the pee break split, but really not bad given the walking. Mile 10, with a minor kick at the end, I completed in 9:31. Not fast, but still pretty good for the conditions. The final tally was a finish time of 1:33:24, a minute and a half ahead of my goal and nearly three full minutes faster than my April time. I am fairly convinced that an earlier start time would have made 1:32:00 possible, but I guess that’s a target for next time.

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1:33:24 (PR for this distance)
Pace: 9:20

7/14/20: CVR Participation Series Capital City Stampede

One thing I am learning this summer: CVR really likes the Montpelier Bike Path. Last year I started running Tuesday Fun Runs on the bike path. The Fallen Leaves 5Ks run up and down the bike path. The Paul Mailman races go up and down the bike path. And the Capital City Stampede? Yep, the bike path.

I knew this about the Stampede, because last year when I had a broken leg, I sat at the end of the bike path and directed traffic for the race. I helped point people from Bailey Ave. on to the path, and then directed them back from the path to Bailey Ave. Pretty much everybody knew where to go (it’s not all that difficult), so my job was mostly cheering and encouragement. A fair way to spend an hour on a Saturday morning.

There was no in-person race this year, so I took it on for a Tuesday night run to collect another ticket in the Participation Race Series. Though I haven’t been doing a lot of race preparation, in terms of following a training plan, I felt pretty good about the distance for that day. Temperatures were in the low 70s, which was a bonus. A good night for running.

The course is really flat, and given my results recently at Berlin Pond and Bear Swamp, I was thinking I should be able to best my PR of 54:56 pretty easily. Remembering that I had done the math poorly the last time around, I calculated that I needed to run a 8:40 pace to run sub-54:00. Cutting a minute off my time seemed ambitious, but I decided to actually target an 8:30 (53:00) pace in order to not miss an achievable time simply because I had’t given myself the chance. (Another lesson from the Berlin Pond Race.)

The race course starts about a mile from my house, on Langdon Street, so I ran downtown for a warmup. The course goes on to Elm Street ever so briefly, before going left on Court Street and across in front of the State House to Baldwin Street. Then it’s a left on to Bailey Avenue and, after crossing the traffic light on State Street, right onto the Bike Path. From there it’s a mile to the end, and another 1.5 up Junction Road. Then turn around and come back the same way. Nothing exciting here, it’s all territory I’ve run many times before.

There’s only one hill each way, if you want to call it that. Just about a tenth of the mile from the start, there’s about a 15-foot incline on Court Street. The “downhill” (and, conversely, the uphill on the way back) is a few tenths of a mile later on Baldwin and Bailey. I started out feeling good, keeping a pretty consistent 8:25 pace throughout. I was pleased that the traffic light was with me and I did not have to stop or slow down to cross State Street. Nor did I encounter a lot of pedestrians or cyclists on the bike path. Mile 1 was near the high school, and I did that in 8:24. Ahead of pace! The two mile mark was near the Amtrak Station. 8:33. Still on pace. Mile 3 was in 8:31, and as I turned at the 3.1-mile (halfway) point, my watch read 26:25. I was on target for a sub-53:00. I took advantage of the opportunity to walk for a few seconds to drink some water before picking up the pace again.

It’s barely perceptible, but the way out is, in general, ever-so-slightly downhill. Which means the way back is ever-so-slightly uphill. I don’t usually notice this in my runs, but this day it seemed obvious. For all the good work I had been doing, I couldn’t keep my pace at 8:30. Mile 4 clicked in at 8:44, which was still great for my official goal but started to handicap my 53:00 target. It was more of the same for mile 5, which incorporates the part of the bike path that always seems to lull me into a slower pace. Another 8:44. By this point I basically needed to finish on an 8:00 pace to break 53:00, and I knew that simply was not going to happen.

The sixth mile included the traffic light, and this time I wasn’t so lucky. The lights were against me and there were cars keeping me from crossing against the light. I paused my watch for this. There is some benefit from the rest, which allows for heart rate recovery, but with only a little over 1/2 mile to go I didn’t figure I was cheating the seconds too much. And certainly not to the extent it would have offset the 23 seconds I waited at the light.

Back up the hill on Bailey and Baldwin, then across in front of the State House. There’s a gate to navigate to get back on to Court Street, and with a quarter mile left it was time to go into kick mode. I didn’t feel all that kicky, but there’s that downgrade at the end of Court, then right on to Elm and left onto Langdon for the finish. When I got to 6.21 miles, my watch read 53:30. This was a PR by almost a minute and a half, and 30 seconds ahead of my goal. I have gotten to the point where I am really confident in my stamina over this distance, and starting out with the faster pace seems like absolutely the right thing to have done to achieve my fastest time.

This weekend I plan to run the ten-mile version of the Paul Mailman Race. I am less confident of my ability to maintain my stamina over this distance. And perhaps more importantly, my legs get stiff and painful on longer runs, which can slow me down. A few months ago I hoped to finish under 1:35:00 and missed that by more than a minute. I will set that goal again, and be confident that I can beat it, especially if I can use the data from the last attempt to arrive at a better plan.

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 10K
Time: 53:30 (PR for this distance)
Pace: 8:40

7/13/20 Training Update, which includes some talk of cycling

It’s just miles right now, and maybe a little too complacently. Good miles, sometimes even fun miles. Hilly miles. But just miles, and not a lot of them at a time.

This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily, running 4-5 miles at a time. I’m still recording 20-25 miles per week, and I’ve hit 100 miles in each of the last four months. I’ve been doing really well on the Participation races, posting times that are generally faster than my expectations. I run hills almost every time out now, and though sometimes my legs don’t want to keep climbing, it appears to be really paying off when race time comes.

Something else that I think is paying off? Cross training. In particular cycling. In addition to the 100 miles on foot, I’ve been averaging 100 miles on wheels the past few months. Most of those miles have been logged on my road/gravel bike. But in recent weeks, I’ve mixed in a few mountain bike rides, too. I was looking for a cheap-o bike so I could join Katie on the mountain bike trails that she loves so much, and Lauren’s partner Matt gave me his old Trek. My next-door neighbor is a bike mechanic, and he got it into riding shape for only $55. Et voila! Time to hit the trails!

As with trail running before this year, mountain biking is something I’ve done only a couple times in the past and decided I didn’t really like. And to be honest, my first couple times out didn’t convince me otherwise, what with all the blood and bruises. But we’ve gone a few other times and – dare I say it? – it’s kind of fun. Certainly I like a good challenge, and getting used to the bike and the terrain has been a challenge for sure. I do not want to be a novice for very long, so I’ve been embracing the opportunity to learn. I’ve seen the benefits of building leg strength without the impact, both in road biking and in running. Strava shows me setting PRs all over the place!

But this is a running blog and not (I promise you) a cycling blog. I am pleased that I’ve been able to pretty comfortably keep building my mileage – I am now a few miles ahead of pace for my 1,010 goal for the year – while not really beating myself up. But I’m not sure I want to be comfortable like this. The participation race series has a ten mile run and a half marathon. There’s also the matter of the Half Marathon Unplugged, which I almost forgot I registered for last winter, and which the organizers are still hoping to pull off this fall. So I need some distance, but the longest I’ve run since the May half marathon is 8 miles, and that only once.

So how do I get out of my comfort zone? For one thing, I plan to rerun the Paul Mailman 10 miler this upcoming weekend. It’s going to be hot, but the goal is more about longer miles and getting another ticket in for the Participation Series raffle. And sometime before September 6 I need to run the Adamant Half, which is hilly as well as long.

And at some point, there’s the matter of doing a run that’s more than 13.1 miles. Somewhere in the back of my head I’ve got this idea that I’ll have to run at least one marathon in the next couple of years, and somewhere along the way I read that training for a marathon should be measured in time rather than distance. So the training plan for the upcoming weeks will include a three-hour run, maybe even before Adamant. Katie and I did a 17-mile ride yesterday, and I was thinking that this would be perfect, uphill for the first part and then downhill the rest of the way. But then I realized that the “uphill” was 1,700 feet of elevation gain and that my first three-hour run didn’t have to be that abusive. Perhaps I will run along the river to Middlesex and back instead.

I’ve been lucky in recent months, avoiding injuries and generally feeling really good with my running. I’ve lost 10 pounds in the four months since Covid-19 closed everything down, and now I weigh the least I have since 8th or 9th grade. I feel good, and I am pleased to be in a spot to challenge myself. The competitive part of me feels like it should be working on getting faster for when the races start up for real again, but it also feels good to be pushing myself to meet some goals even when the end game isn’t as obvious as it was when I set them.

7/3/20: Montpelier Mile 7/9/20: Bear Swamp Run(CVR Participation Series)

It’s been awhile since I posted here. I’ve been running, but I’ve also been really busy with work. It’s a challenge to fit everything in, so the blogging has taken a back seat in recent days.

However fear not, dear reader, for I HAVE been running! I’ve been getting my 20+ miles per week in. I’m not planning to retrace all my training runs for the last couple of weeks, because that feels excessive. Things have been going pretty well on that front. I’ve been running trails a lot, gaining some elevation, and appreciating that it’s all building the engine for more speed and more distance.

And, in the continued absence of any races, I’ve continued to participate in the CVR Participation Series. Over the last week I picked up two more, meaning I have completed four of the 10 total events.

Every year the Montpelier July 3 party features a one-mile foot race downtown, just before the annual parade. The Montpelier Mile. Every year but this year. Along with cancelled races, of course, COVID-19 cancelled the entire July 3 party, one of the most fun days of the year in Montpelier, in which thousands of people crowd downtown.

Because July 4 was on a Saturday, July 3 was a holiday from work. I figured there was no better time to run this race than on the day it was originally scheduled. The only difference being that, to avoid afternoon heat and foot traffic (for I would be running on the sidewalk and not the street), I decided to run first thing in the morning.

The original plan was to run around 7:00 a.m. but, well, things don’t always get going as quickly as you want in the morning. The race course is in the heart of downtown Montpelier. A perfect 1.25 mile jog from my house for a warmup. After arriving in front of the Pavilion, I did some final stretches to loosen up, then took off a little after 7:30.

It’s a simple course, run down State Street and turn left at the light on Main Street. Then down to the roundabout, where you reverse direction back to the start. My goal for the run was 7:45, and since my watch only does splits in one-mile increments, I had to keep an eye on my watch to monitor my pace. And I was on target. The turnaround was actually slightly less than half a mile, most likely because I’m not sure where the exact start line is, and required a stop-and-reverse direction. This cost a couple of seconds, but I was pretty sure I was ahead of the target. After turning the corner back on to State Street I picked up the pace. By the time I got to the Pavilion I was still a little short of a mile, so I had to keep running until I was in front of the state house. Finally my watch buzzed the mile and I hit the stop button. 7:36! I was very pleased with the result.

Today, Thursday the 9th, I decided to do another race. Because my mileage for the week was looking low, I was hoping to do 5-6 miles today. That left me with two choices: the Capital City Stampede, a 10K in town, or the Bear Swamp Run, a 5.7 mile dirt road run in Middlesex. Had I been able to run in the cool of the morning I would have chosen the Stampede. But because I had to run in the heat of the early evening I chose Bear Swamp, figuring it would be much more shaded.

I have not run this course before, but I’ve been scoping it out on Strava. I figured under good race conditions I can challenge 52:00, but given the heat (93 when I left my house!) I thought 54:00 was more realistic. At this distance, that’s a 9:29 pace. This is a classic CVR course, the first 2.7 miles uphill for about 600 feet, and the rest of the way downhill. I figured if I did the uphill at a 10:00 pace (27:00 minutes) and the downhill in a 9:00 pace (also 27:00 minutes) I would be home free. Then I remember that I’m usually slower than 10:00 going uphill, so change that to 10:30 and 8:30. That seemed doable, as long as the climb didn’t tax me too much, which seemed like a possibility in the heat.

The course is simple: start at the Rumney School on Shady Rill Road for less than 1/4 mile, then turn right on Snow Road, which becomes Chase Road. At 0.7 turn left on to North Bear Swamp Road, and then follow all the other Bear Swamp Roads (non-directional, followed by East and South) around Bear Swamp, before the .2 sprint back down to the school. After the first intersection, there are no right turns – you always go left when given a choice.

In looking at the condensed elevation maps on Strava, I didn’t recognize that the first .3 or so is actually pretty flat, and I was able to run that at a sub-9:00 pace. Hooray for banking seconds! Then it’s a pretty steady climb for two miles, though not as steep as I was expecting. In fact, there was a flat/slight downhill at 1.5 miles. Another opportunity to bank some time!

The first mile split was 9:39, much faster than I was expecting. Other than the brief flat I mentioned a moment ago, mile two was steeper and slower, but still ahead of plan at 10:14. At two miles I walked for a moment to take a Honey Stinger to maintain my energy, and to drink some water. A little bit later I walked again, as I arrived at the steepest part of the run. By now the sustained uphill was really getting to me. However shortly afterward I arrived at the curve in the road and the Hunger Mountain trail parking area, which represented the apex of this race. It would be all downhill from here. I was just around 28 minutes at this point, which meant the last three miles needed to be around 8:30 according to my quick calculations.

After the Hunger Mountain trailhead the road turns to class 4 for maybe a mile. I was dodging ruts and puddles and potholes when mile three clicked in with a 10.21 split. (I was also, I should add, the only mammal to be found on this road, and therefore very attractive to the bugs.) I was slightly over a 10:00 pace now for the full race, so my goal seemed well within reach given the downhill. Only it wasn’t all downhill! Right around the 3.5 mile mark things flattened out and even went uphill a bit. This put a dent in my plan, but I was able to keep a steady pace around 9:00, and take on some more water. Mile 4 was done in 8:43, and after that point it really was all downhill.

Downhill and fast. I slowed down a bit at 4.7 miles to take one more hit of water. I was at 45:00 with a mile to go. Finishing under 54:00 was in the bag at that point. I was feeling strong and gravity was on my side. I waited until there was just a half mile to go to turn on more juice, then when I reached the pavement, with .2 to go, I went into full kick mode. With the sun behind me I could see my shadow as I ran, and I’ll admit it looked like it was running slower than I thought I was! No matter, my pace was under 8:00. I clicked my watch at 5.7 miles in a time of 52:46. Another success!

This was a run where all the miles on the hills and trails really paid off. The 600+ foot elevation gain would have been very intimidating six months ago, but now I do that on the regular running my park loops. Combined with gravel roads instead of single-track trail, the uphill portion of this run was much faster than I expected. And the downhill felt like recovery for my cardiovascular, so I was able to push the pace. I look forward to running this as a real race next July!

MONTPELIER MILE RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 1 mile
Time: 7:36
Pace: 7:33 (I must have gone a little over)

BEAR SWAMP RUN RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 5.7 miles
Time: 52:46
Pace: 9:15

6/30/20: CVR Participation Series/Paul Mailman 5K

I am already fully embracing the CVR Participation Race series. It’s so easy to squeeze almost all of these into my regular training schedule. 5 miler at Berlin Pond on a Thursday night? Easy peasy!

Midweek 5K on the Paul Mailman course in town? Can do!

Today was another “gotta go to the office” day. The end of our fiscal year, and I had some checks to deposit so we get credit for them. Always the perfect opportunity for me to run something different than the routes outside my front door. It was just a short jaunt over to Montpelier High School for this race.

I’ve run the Paul Mailman 10-miler twice now, but this was my first time running the 5K. Evidently the year I ran the official race, they changed the starting line due to the torrential rain. I learned in looking up the 5K course that the race is supposed to start on the track at the high school, before heading out the bike path and a ways down Junction Road, before turning around and ending on the track.

I got to the track thinking that I would run a couple laps to warm up before starting the official race. When I got there, there were a bunch of shirtless teenage runner bros doing intervals on the track. I figured it’s not an official practice, so I could also use the track, but I waited until they passed the corner I was on before starting out, lest I get trampled.

I was also mindful of the weather. We had a series of thunder showers today, and I was hoping to find a window. When I got out there it was cloudy, but okay. I stopped after a lap to assess, and who do I see but my friend John Martin trotting my way. He had seen me on the track and came by to chat. We chatted for a few minutes, mostly about the ‘rona, and as he trotted off some darker clouds moved in. I stretched a little, then I heard the rain hitting the leaves on the trees across the river.

Now seemed like a good time to go check on my car. I took shelter there for a few minutes until the rain looked mostly stopped. I did a few stretches but decided to run my race while there was a bit of a window.

Having run yesterday, I wasn’t as rested as I would be if I were prepping for a real race. But my legs felt good. On this flat course I thought I would have a chance to lower my PR of 25:35. I considered setting an unrealistic target of 25:00 (just over 8 minute miles), but decided to shoot for 25:30 instead, which would require me to aim for 8:10’s.

The rain storms brought some good news, with comfortable running temps. They also brought some bad news, with a sloppy course. The race starts with about 1.5 laps around the dirt track at MHS. It was in pretty good shape, but not super fast. When I checked my watch I was running 8:30, which was already too slow. Rather than obsess over my watch, though, I decided to just focus on keeping my cadence up, knowing that pace would likely follow.

Coming off the track, I ran over a swath of grass and turned left onto the bike path. The other good news that the rain brought was a lack of company out there. I had it pretty much to myself. I felt good about my cadence, and the occasional check showed me in my target range. 8:10 already seemed like a reach, but 8:20 (sub-26:00) seemed doable.

As I got to the end of the bike path and headed out on Junction Road, the rain was really starting to come down. It’s about 1/2 mile out the road, a portion of which is unpaved, before turning back. I felt good with the cadence, but had to make some mini adjustments to avoid puddles and such. I checked my watch at one point after the turnaround and my pace was under 8:00. Did I have a fast finishing mile in me?

No, I did not. I’m not used to pushing the cadence this fast for this long. And while I was able to keep my cadence up, I didn’t have an extra gear coming down the stretch. And there is a section of the bike path that always seems to trap me, there’s just a slight hill and slight curve, and I always find myself going slower than I want right there. So it was again. I caught myself and was able to push on to the finish, with a final time of 25:44. That’s only 9 seconds off my PR, and I thought it was really good considering the circumstances. I think under better conditions this is a course that I could definitely do in 25:30. And best of all, another ticket in the raffle at the end!

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 5K
Time: 25:44
Pace: 8:17

6/25/20: CVR Participation Series/Berlin Pond 5 Mile

As mentioned previously, Central Vermont Runners has cancelled all scheduled races through the end of August, and replaced them with what they are calling the Participation Series. The Participation Series is designed to encourage, well, participation more so than actual competition.

In contrast to the previous virtual race series, the Participation Series requires participants to run the real courses for the cancelled races. However, since individuals will be running under varying conditions, self-timing and reporting via the honor system, there are no prizes for “winning” the race. Instead, for every race entered, the runner will get a ticket for a drawing for fabulous prizes at the end of the season.

There are 10 races, and we have approximately 10 weeks (from now until September 6) to complete them. They are all within a few miles of my house, and all but two are in the 5K – 10K range, so I figure I can pick most of them off just in my normal training run schedule. No need to worry about speed!

So it was today, when trying to figure out what route I wanted for a 5-ish mile run, that I decided to “enter” the Berlin Pond 5 miler. This was the first race I ran post-injury last year, so I was aware that it was a climb at the start, followed by a downhill, and pretty flat for the second half. There is another race in the series that I considered, the Bear Swamp 5.7-mile run, but that is hillier and rougher than Berlin Pond, and given the hills I’ve been accumulating recently I didn’t want to take that on tonight.

I got to Berlin Pond around 6:15. It was breezier than I expected, and with temperatures in the mid-70’s and low humidity, it felt downright comfortable for a run. I did some stretches and noted the activity. Lots of cars in the parking area with bikers and walkers and people kayaking or paddleboarding on the pond. I didn’t see other runners, but this is a popular loop, so someone was probably out there. At 6:30 I toed the starting line and was off.

The course goes counter-clockwise around Berlin Pond, starting on Brookfield Road. The first half mile is flat, before climbing for the next 1.5 miles. There are two hills, and both hills have a false summit to strive for, before dipping down and making you climb some more. Last year these hills felt huge, but this year not so much.

My time last year was just under 50:00, or basically a 10-minute mile. This time around I was counting on beating 45:00, which is a 9-minute mile. I know I can do better than that on the flats, and felt like I could sustain that pace over five miles, but I wasn’t sure how badly the hills would slow me down. The first mile, encompassing the lesser climb and some downhill, I finished in 9:06. That kind of time would make my goal easily attainable. But the bigger hill loomed. There’s about 100 feet of gain over the next 3/4 mile, then it drops a little before a big downhill on Mirror Lake Road at the very beginning of mile 3. My second mile I finished in 9:13. Still really good. After 2 miles I was 19 seconds off a 9:00 pace, but I figured I would be able to run 8:45 the rest of the way and be well under 45.

The steep downhill allowed me to make up some time. I should point out here that I’ve been working on my form for several months, both on uphills and downhills. I find this easier on roads than on trails, because I don’t have to adjust my stride for roots and rocks. For the downhill I was able to get into enough of a forward lean that I was able to land on the bottoms of my feet (as opposed to the heels) and still keep my feet under me, resulting in more controlled speed. After about 1/3 of a mile, the course flattens out, and even rises gradually as we turn to run North on Paine Turnpike South. This tends to be a trap for me, where I slow down more than I realize. I looked at my watch and it said my pace was 9:30. Way too slow! I picked it up and got back under 9:00. My split for mile three, with the benefit of all the downhill, was 8:29. I was now officially ahead of my goal pace.

The first half of this course is kind of nice. When you get up high you’re running past farms and there are lovely vistas to the pond below and the hills beyond. The second half is pretty bland. It’s a straight gravel road surrounded by trees, and there’s really no view, even of the pond. This goes for 2 miles, the final portion of which runs along the Interstate highway. There’s really nothing to do here but keep up your cadence and pace. So that’s what I tried to do. Mile 4 was slower than the previous. Still respectable at 8:40.

At this point I was half a minute ahead of my 45:00 pace. This also meant that I only needed about an 8:30 final mile to break 44:00. I wasn’t thinking about that, though. In fact, I felt myself bonking at the start of the final mile. In looking at the Strava data, this may have had more to do with a relatively imperceptible uphill rise than any real fatigue. I was confident that I’d be able to work through it and comfortable with the knowledge that I would easily meet my goal. The only thing to do was to think about cadence. Maintaining cadence = maintaining speed. I got my pace back up to 8:35 or so.

By the time I turned back on to Brookfield Road, I was at 4.79 miles and 42:24. I did the math quickly and roughly in my head. If I ran the last bit at a 9:00 pace, I figured I would finish in the 44:10 – 44:15 neighborhood. Of course, I was already running faster than that, and I also would be kicking at the end. Starting right about then, actually. I found my top gear, such as it was, and sprinted past the parking lot, checking my watch occasionally and finding a guidepost to aim for to ensure I ran through the finish. My watched buzzed me when I reached 5 miles, I hit the stop button, and looked down to see 44:02.

Now, I realize that round numbers, though widely cited (even throughout this post), are arbitrary benchmarks. And I realize that I didn’t stop my watch precisely at 5.0 miles. Strava says I ran an 8:48 pace, which is exactly what is needed for 44:00. But on the other hand the finishing time was on the wrong side of 44:00. It just would look better on the screen if I had cut three seconds off along the way. And honestly, those seconds could have been trimmed had I really thought breaking 44 was a possibility.

One thing I haven’t learned yet is how to not run to a goal, but to instead just run my fastest possible time. My problem is that I go out too fast, tire out too quickly, and don’t have the juice to pull through at the end. So I set benchmarks to work toward. Sometimes I do better, sometimes I do worse. And maybe the key is to just set an ambitious benchmark – something faster than I think is possible but not completely unrealistic – and try to keep that pace up for the full race. After all, you usually don’t hit a target that you don’t shoot for. Another lesson learned.

But, still, it was a great run.

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 44:02
Pace: 8:48

6/22/20 Training Update: Slowing it Down

Maybe I’ve said this before, but maybe not. I’m in this in-between phase of my running year when there are still no real races to run, so nothing to “train” for. Other than to be in shape, I guess.

It’s different for me this year than last. After my broken leg put me on the sideline for a few weeks, I had goals. Races to prepare for. And my objective was to for each run to be faster than the previous one. I wanted to learn how to run faster, and so I tried to run faster on pretty much every run. That’s how it’s done, right?

Well, yes and no, based on some of the reading and advice I have absorbed. I don’t think I was doing the wrong thing last year. But that approach is certainly not the right thing this year.

Summer only officially started over the weekend, but hot weather settled in well before that and seems to be sticking around. The only way to beat the oppressive heat is to get out of the sunshine, off the pavement, and into the woods. And, around here, woods means hills. So the choices are to either bake or climb, and climbing comes with its share of baking. Both heat and hills take a lot out of me. Put them together and…

And, well, you just do what your body tells you you should do. Which, for the most part, is to run slow. Don’t be afraid to walk for rest. And hydrate.

On Sunday the 14th, Katie and I went on a long bike ride. She has a goal of getting in a 40-mile bike ride this summer, and then probably a 50-miler some time after that. Last weekend was the 40-miler. We copied the route of a Strava (and Runderachievers) friend, for a 43 +/- route through Northfield and Moretown. There was a lot of climbing, but the last quarter of the ride was going to be pretty flat. By the time we got to 40, we realized that we could do some flat tooling around to add the few extra miles needed to reach 50. So that’s what we did.

Monday, then, was a dead legs rest day. I went for a walk in Hubbard Park to scope out some new trails. On Tuesday I decided to run in the park. I chose a double-uphill route. I ran down to the Meadow and up Winter Street to Corse Street. It was slow, but I was able to “run” the full way up. Then I ran back down Corse, which is winding and steep, to Court Street, from where I ran back up the hill behind the statehouse to the tower.

This I did not run the whole way. My glutes were questioning my decision making. With a few walking breaks, however, I was able to make it. After that, with just a few “ups” mixed in, it’s downhill out of the park. I chose to go to the Seven Fireplaces and run the segment out to the North Branch Nature Center. I was feeling good, so I thought I would go for a PR on this stretch, which I managed by 11 seconds. There is another stretch that starts at NBNC, and I felt emboldened for a moment to go for a PR on that part, too. But now I was in the hot sun and my tired legs were talking to me. I bailed out at the pool for the shorter way home. Still, 5 good miles in the books.

On Wednesday I went back up to East Montpelier to run the Lauren Loop with Lauren. This is the opposite of the Matt Loop (aka MattLoop) that we ran a couple of weeks ago. It starts off uphill on Center Road, then a long downhill on Bliss and Murray Roads, then uphill from Towne Farm, through some trails, and back to the house. The uphill start was a slog in the heat, but we got to the top after a mile. Then, three miles downhill before climbing back up. Most of the final gain is in the first .7 miles before it flattens out for the last half mile or so. We almost made it without a walking bit, but the last rise did me in. But another good 5.5 miles in the books.

Thursday was the hottest day yet. I was not overly inspired to run, but I waited until the evening for the sun to lower a bit. It didn’t really help, as the temperature was still 90 when I went out. This time I started on the North Branch side and went uphill toward Seven Fireplaces. This is a segment called “Falling Uphill.” There was no way I was going to run the whole thing under these conditions, so I walked a couple of the steep bits. Imagine my surprise then when Strava later told me I had a PR on this part. Evidently the hills are paying off and I can run the flat parts faster. I did a loop around the Fireplaces then took the out toward North Park Drive. I was going to fall short of three miles, so I went up to the end of the cul-de-sac before going back down and home. The whole thing was 3.3 miles.

Katie and I were planning a mountain biking weekend for her birthday, so I knew I was going to fall short of 20 miles for the week running. On Friday I went for a run at noon. It was going to be hot, so back into the woods I went. This time I chose to do the North Branch climb, then back down and up North Park Drive for the shorter climb into the park. From there I would track a couple of my newly-discovered trails back down to the Meadow and home. The North Branch climb went better than expected. Again, no stops. And the run-out was fun. On the other side of Elm Street things again weren’t so good. The second hill always kills me, and I had to walk a lot of this again. Once I got to the first big intersection, I went to the Heney Trail that swings out of the park for a bit before coming back in by the Fitness Trail, then I went up and took the Natural Area Trail back to the downhill to Winter Street. I actually didn’t know how long this run would be, but I was taking my time. The hot miles were taking a toll. After 4.8 miles I was home, drenched in sweat.

Over the weekend we went down to Southern Vermont for some riding and exploring. I recently acquired my first mountain bike so I could share Katie’s passion with her. It was quite an adventure, and I got pretty beat up. That’s a story for another day, and probably a different blog. The biggest problem was a huge bruise I had on my right knee. I was planning to take today (Monday) as another rest day, but I really wanted to take a physical inventory and see if there were any negative repercussions from the riding. I waited out a little thunder shower, which served to bring in some clouds and cool things down, which enabled me to run a short, flat (i.e. paved) route through the Meadow. It was an easy run, and everything felt surprisingly good. I have a segment for the kick from Cummings street back to the house, so I decided to sprint that, which is about .2 miles. To my surprise, I beat my PR on that segment by five seconds. So speed is coming even when I’m not explicitly working on it.

CVR is starting a new virtual race series to replace all the summer’s races that have been cancelled. I’ll start up on those soon. Most are in the 5K – 10K distance, which is really my sweet spot, but there is another half marathon in there, a hilly one at that, in Adamant. Most of these I can run without special training, but I need to get some more long runs in before the Adamant race. My friend Lauren is on a training program of her own, and she’s due for some longer distance later in the summer. She said she would be happy to pace me for this run, which may save me from my usual problem of going out too fast.

I look forward to more virtual races, but I am pleased to find it surprisingly easy to keep up the miles even when I have nothing to train for. I’ve said this before, but I am enjoying enjoying running this summer. My only real goal is to get to 505 miles, halfway to my full-year goal, by July 1, which is the halfway point of the year. That’s 34 miles in 9 days. And I actually need 35 to get to 100 for the months, so why not have that be the goal. Doable, but maybe I need to dial back on the biking at least one day this weekend.

6/13/20: Whiskey Run 5K Virtual Race

As far as virtual races go, this one is extremely virtual. And yet also quite rewarding.

View from the finish line. I did not run in this shirt.

A few weeks ago I saw an ad on Facebook for the Whiskey Run 5K virtual race. Basically if you click on one of these things, you’ll see ads for all of them. I clicked on one a few months back – the Bigfoot Social Distancing half marathon – and now this is all I get. Ads for virtual races.

The Whiskey Run had its appeal, however. Entry is only $25, and for that you get a shirt, a bib, a medal, and a whiskey glass. It’s a charity fundraiser (cancer), but what’s going to be left over for charity? There was an option to make an additional donation, so I sent another $10 their way. Totally worth it.

And you get this sweet glass. I didn’t run with this, either. Nor did I drink whiskey beforehand.

This was completely low-stakes. I wasn’t even sure if I needed to submit a time, or if it would be posted anywhere. (Not really, but yes if you do.) They sent me everything but the medal before I ran. The medal is supposed to come in a few days.

Regular readers of the blog know that I’ve been making efforts to train for my virtual races this spring. Not so much with the Whiskey Run. The last couple of weeks my goal has been nothing more than to get my 20 miles in. I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to run on the weekend, much less did I actually plan for this.

By the time Saturday rolled around, I had 18 miles under my belt for the week. Not bad for not planning. Katie needed to go see her mother on Saturday, so that was a good window for me to run. Saturday’s weather was mostly cloudy with temperatures in the mid-50’s. Pretty crappy if you’re eager for summer to start, but not bad at all for running.

For not putting much thought into this, I decided to do the course that my friend Darrel has been running with his wife Cheryl for CVR 5Ks. It’s basically the second half of the 10K course I ran last week. Start on the bike path in front of the co-op, run almost to the end – Darrel’s turnaround is at Country Club Road – and then run back. Darrel created a Strava segment for this, which I looked at and decided I could probably get in the top five.

Here’s to going for completely made-up achievements!

There is really nothing all that interesting about this course, or this race report. I took off around 2:30 in the afternoon. I enjoyed the cooler temperatures, and I got off fast. I looked at my watch a few times and my pace was under 8:00. It’s a pretty flat course, and I was hoping to break 26:00, which would require a pace of 8:23. I was targeting 8:20 splits.

I didn’t think my pace was sustainable, but I felt good and wasn’t straining my heart or lungs, so I kept at it. I didn’t spend a lot of time looking at my watch, but I was focused on keeping up my cadence. Mile one was complete in 8:08. 12 seconds ahead of pace.

On the way out on Old Country Club Road, just before it crosses over where they are redirecting the train tracks, there was a section with a ton of dog poop on it. I was ticked off that people don’t pick up after their dogs. Pet owners are a pet peeve of mine. It’s rude. This is just as the path goes uphill. There is one rise on the way out, but two on the way back. I pushed through this, then down to the turnaround. My time was 12:45. Everything felt good.

Mile 2 ends back at this same spot almost, just before it goes back downhill. My split clicked at 8:20, which I was pleased with because it encompassed two of the three small inclines on this run. I was still 12 seconds ahead of pace. As I ran back down on to Old Country Club Road, I decided that the poop all over the path was probably from wild animals. It is highly unlikely that even an irresponsible dog owner would manage to get their pet to poop in this exact same spot every time they walked them down here. I did not bother to speculate what kind of animal was using the bike path as a bathroom.

Mile three I felt my pace start to flag. I looked at my watch and I was going at 8:35 on the flats of Old Country Club Road. Up the last rise and onto the path along Barre St. 8:35 again. I was still in good shape to break 26:00, but I’ve gotten in trouble assuming I was in good shape before. This is where the hills and the longer runs paid off. I had less than half a mile to go. I can’t “sprint” that far, but I knew I could withstand a faster pace for that distance.

And so I jacked it up like it was a real race. As I was getting toward the end, the mile 3 split clicked in also at 8:20. I had made up the time I needed, and everything was home free now. The segment Darrel created, that I wanted to finish, is actually 3.16 miles. That’s a little longer than a 5K, which is 3.10 miles. So I watched my watch as I was getting down the stretch toward the co-op. 25:35 at the 5K mark. Well ahead of the goal! The full run, 3.16 miles, took 26:11, which was a second faster than my previous fastest 5K. A rousing success!

There’s something to be learned here I think about running in heat. Just like hills, the warmer temperatures really take a lot of energy out of me. When things get above 70 degrees, I really slow down. Maybe heat training is the only thing I can do to get faster in the heat? Although all the real races have been cancelled for the summer, there will be another series of virtual races and, well, I want to run in the warmth like I do in the cooler temps. Unless I get up really early, I can’t count on the cooler temps during the summer.

It’s something to work on. It’s good to have something to work on to keep you motivated, I guess. And I am thinking still about the Corporate Cup this fall. It’s going to be a virtual race, and I have a goal to finish that course in under 26:00. This run gives me real hope that that can happen!

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 5K / 3.16 miles total
Time: 25:35 (new PR) / 26:11 total
Pace: 8:15
Place: N/A
Age Group: N/A

6/11/20 Training Update: Mixing It Up

It’s been another week of enjoying the freedom of not “training” for anything. Other than one last CVR Social Distancing race, which turned into a bit of a disappointment, I have felt free to not put any pressure on myself. And it’s been great. CVR has cancelled all races through August, and has a new scheme for virtual replacements that will probably rope me in. But for now, freedom.

So last weekend I put almost 50 miles on the bike on the days surrounding the race. Katie and I did a 13-mile cruise up Gould Hill Road to Jacobs Road on Friday night, then drove up to Burlington to enjoy a nearly 35-mile road on the flatter terrain near the lake. (Editor’s note: this is not flat terrain.) At the end of that one, I had a bit of a sciatica problem from all the sitting, but that cleared up soon thereafter.

A rest day was called for on Monday, but oh man was it a beautiful evening for a run. I decided to go for a walk in Hubbard Park after work, and I intentionally wore clothing not appropriate for running to keep me in check. While in the park, I took the opportunity to do some exploring on trails that I’ve never been in before. Some gorgeous running terrain that creates a real nice 4 mile loop. I will probably run that tomorrow.

One development over the last couple of weeks is that, given the loosening of restrictions for in-person gatherings, the Runderachievers started talking about getting back together starting this Wednesday. I’ve been running with Lauren on Wednesdays, but switched to Tuesday to accommodate. Evidently, this screwed up her entire comprehension of the day of the week, for which I apologize.

A couple of weeks ago, Lauren suggested that we take the North Park uphill trail, but keep going until we hit Sparrow Farm Road. “You‘ll love it,” she said, which always means I won’t actually love it. We ran up the so called Baseball Drive climb, almost a mile, with little problems. It wasn’t all that long ago that this hill caused me significant problems. So this was progress!

The “keep going” part, on the other hand…that caused problems. The trail gets much steeper just after we cross the Montpelier town line. “We do things differently here in East Montpelier,” said Lauren. Not only was there no running in spots, it was actually faster to walk. This went on for another mile, before flattening out in a lovely meadow that goes for close to another mile before reaching Sparrow Farm Road. Then, turn around and go back. The downhill was nice, albeit steep, except for the deluge of mountain bikers also descending. We had to stop and allow probably a dozen bikers to go by, which was annoying at times, but otherwise it was a speedy run back. A nice 6-mile jaunt with 750 feet of elevation gain!

The Wednesday Runderachievers run was somewhat underwhelming, in that a bunch of people who said they were interested didn’t actually go. It turned out to be just me and Darrel, who will run pretty much anywhere under pretty much any circumstances, and who really enjoys socializing with other runners. Sadly for Darrel, his knee and hip have been bothering, so he’s really slow these days. We ran up Paine Mountain in Northfield, and usually he charges up the hills, but I had to walk on occasion to allow Darrel to keep up, but I didn’t mind because this is also steep, gaining 870 feet in a little over a mile. The run down actually bothers his hip more, so that was also slow. It wasn’t a killer workout for me, but it was fun. I like Darrel and we had a nice conversation during the run and over a beer afterward.

Today was a “field trip” day, which is what I call the day every week or two that I go into the office to take care of checks. I wanted to run afterward, so I went dressed in my running clothes and planned on an in-town run, which I haven’t done a lot of lately. I ran a slightly modified version of a 5.5-ish mile run that I’ve done quite a bit in the past during lunch hours. Today I decided to run the Sibley-Sabin-Kent route up the hill to College Streeet. It’s about 1/3 of a mile at a 6% average grade, steeper at the bottom. I’d only run this two times before, but I decided to push it and try for a PR on the segment. My effort (and previous training) really paid off, as I ran in 3:25, over 30 seconds better than my previous best on this, for a 9:40 pace which is really unheard of for me on an uphill. Success!

The rest of this route loops around town by the state house, then out the bike path. Most people come back on the bike path, but I don’t like to repeat terrain in most cases, so I go up Junction Road. Heeding advice that Darrel told me he had given his wife, I decided to continue to put extra efforts into the uphills, even though there aren’t any significant ones the rest of the way. One that is somewhat significant is the Junction Road climb, but I felt strong and somewhat fast going up. I actually got a toot and a thumbs up from a passing motorist, which is nice.

After Junction Road, it’s a bit of a downhill and then flat back to the office. For the last 1.5 miles I decided to focus on keeping my cadence up. I tend to lose sight of cadence on my trail runs, but I’ve been told that 170+ is good. My stats indicate that I was running about 175 this last bit. I felt really strong and never really tired on the way back. This distance seems to be right in my sweet spot, and it felt good to feel good throughout.

CVR is planning to replace all cancelled races with virtual races to be run on the actual courses, and participation puts one in position to win some prizes, so I will probably try to do as many of those as possible in the coming months. The biggest downside, of course, is that we are entering hot temperature season. But on the other hand, most of these races are between 5K – 10K, distances I enjoy. The Paul Mailman 10 miler (which I already ran once) and the Adamant Half Marathon are the only long runs in the series. I might try to do them all. It will be interesting to see if I can keep the training “fun” while trying to do actual race preparation.