After a fairly dry start to the winter, snowfall really picked up in January and has continued into February. The accumulating (and lingering) inches have really impacted my ability to run. I mean this in a good way – the ski conditions have remained fantastic.
More days on the slopes means less days on the streets. More days on the slopes also means more chances to do something stupid and hurt yourself. This happened a couple of weeks ago, and not for the first time. The Sunday before last, the second ski day of the weekend, Katie and I chose to finish the day at Bolton Valley with a fun run down Vista Glade. Always in search of fresh powder, I followed some tracks that took my on the wrong side of some trees. Katie helped me find a path back, but in starting down the chute my ski caught on something unseen (due to the aforementioned powder), which spun me around and caused me to ski backward into a tree that didn’t budge. The result was a huge bruise on my left buttock, but luckily I avoided a direct hit on my tailbone. I am pretty sure the bone itself is also bruised, but there is no break.
That’s all kind of best-case scenario for the circumstance, but the circumstance wasn’t great, and it definitely slowed me down. On Monday and Tuesday I forced myself to get outside for 2+ mile walks. The injury was sensitive and painful, but eased up when I got acclimated. On Wednesday I forced myself into an easy, flat run. I went out and back on the bike path, with the thought that I could turn around at any point if things seemed uncomfortable. I made it all the way to the end (at Dog River Road) and back, for a total of 4.4 miles. The bruise, which is swollen and heavy, was uncomfortable to run with, but as with the walks I got used to it as I went along. I went out the next two days, running mostly on snow, with gradual improvement.
The next three days were snowshoe, ski and ski. In an attempt to not get further injured, we stuck mainly to open trails, with only a couple of forays into the woods. Meanwhile I have had an aggressive treatment program of ice, arnica and red light therapy.
Things are looking up. Over the past three days I’ve been upping the mileage, including a seven-miler today. It felt okay, though for some reason my heart rate has been elevated the last couple of runs. I’m not pushing it by any means, so it seems strange to me, but maybe my body is saying that blood flow to the butt is a bigger priority?
It’s probably okay to have a couple of lower-mileage weeks, but being in the middle of already-short February, it’s putting my streak of 100-mile months in peril. Thus far I have run 55 miles, with only ten days to go. (This already matches my mileage from last February, when I spent some time out sick, but still.) Ordinarily, with two weekends still to go, another 45 miles would be pretty easy to achieve. But with all the snow, it’s not an ordinary running month.
Everybody knows that the December solstice, on the 21st, is the official first day of winter. There is also a concept, that I rather prefer, called “Meteorological Winter.” Meteorological Winter conforms to the calendar months, therefore runs from the beginning of December to the end of February. (The other seasons also have meteorological counterparts.)
I much prefer Meteorological Winter. Aside from the neatness of the way it fits into the calendar, it also fits the climate better, at least in the northern United States. December through February are the darkest and coldest months of the year. Here in Vermont March tends to bring a lot of snow, but the days are longer and warmer, and the snow melts away more quickly. March feels like the start of spring.
The other benefit of using the Meteorological Winter frame is that at this moment, in early February, the end of winter is just weeks away. I was sort of dreading having to run outside all winter long, but it hasn’t been so bad. As I mentioned last time, we were well into it before we got any real snowfall, and temperatures have rarely dipped into the single digits. Ignoring the fact that that last point is extremely concerning in the big picture, it’s been really easy to run.
So easy that I ended January with 125 miles run, still averaging about 30 miles per week. I expected January and February to be low-miles months, given short days, inclement weather, and weekends dedicated to skiing. But this hasn’t been the case. Both the sidewalks and the trails in the park have been in very good shape.
Prioritizing both running and skiing is a challenge. Last year, even in training, I was only getting in 15 miles per week. That helped keep my legs fresh, even on those occasions when I followed a long run in the morning with an afternoon of skiing. This year I’m not in any serious training, but my work situation makes midweek running a little easier, and the weekends can be dedicated to skiing. Last Sunday Katie and I headed up to Bolton Valley on a bluebird day. The snow was fantastic, but colder temperatures kept the crowds down and the lift lines short. (Pro tip – sunshine makes the cold temperatures feel not so cold.) The circumstances led to an epic, 5+ hour, 27 mile ski day. The most we’ve ever done.
It was a fantastic day, but it also beat up my 55-year-old body. I ran 5 miles on Monday (fantastic run through the parks), because we expected snow would make Tuesday a built-in rest day. A rest day with a three-mile snowshoe hike in the park, but still sort of like rest. On Wednesday I forced myself out for a little less than than four miles, but the whole thing hurt. Legs, butt, even my arms. Usually a run makes everything feel better, but not this time.
But today the magic happened again. I set out a little after 11:00 a.m. for a 5-6 mile run. The temperature was just above freezing, so I ditched a layer. It’s not a huge difference, but I felt lighter. About two miles in the sun started to peak through, and suddenly I had the urge to just keep going down the bike path, which would have added over a mile. I didn’t do that, in a fit of responsibility to my work duties, but I found myself cruising at a much faster pace than has been the usual. I got to the hill up to College Street, and decided to try to improve my PR on the Sibley/Sabin/Kemp segment. This is a one-third mile climb of over 100 feet, not super steep but steep enough and steady. A few weeks ago I went for it and only matched my best at 3:25. Today, feeling good, I crushed that time with a 3:12.
I ended up running a full 10K, in slightly under 9:00 miles. That’s nothing like race pace, but fast compared to what I’ve been doing this winter, and I was able to do that without really trying. (OK, I did push it a little the last mile.) I find that my pace is naturally faster during the daylight (probably the whole “you can see where you are going” thing). And though the goal of these runs isn’t really speed, I mean, who doesn’t want to run fast?
It’s been a couple of weeks since I wrote a blog entry, and a lot longer since I have written a training update. Part of the reason is that I’ve been in a particularly busy and draining time at work. But part of the reason, I’ll admit, is that I’m not really sure what to write about right now.
Last year at this time I was just a couple of weeks away from running the Phoenix race, and there was some dramatic tension involved with that; it was only my second half marathon, and I was coming off an injury to boot. I was still harboring some concern that I wouldn’t be able to run the race. There was a narrative here.
And yet, the training itself was pretty boring. Other than the winter long runs (which I enjoyed), I was mostly putting in miles on the treadmill. There’s nothing exciting about that!
This winter the treadmill isn’t available to me, so it’s either run outside or don’t run at all. Last winter the snowy and icy sidewalks were a big turnoff that I avoided like the plague. This year, because of the actual plague, I am driven to run on them. The first part of the winter was lacking in snow, which was bad for skiing but good for running. In the past couple of weeks that has changed: more snow, better skiing, worse running.
One of the bigger challenges, I have found, is determining which shoes to wear. One day the sidewalks are covered in snow, which calls for my Saucony Peregrine trail shoes. The very next day, plowing and salt will have cleared the surface, and I’d rather prefer to run in my Altra Vihos, which I use for pavement pounding. It’s frustrating to have the wrong shoe, but it can lead to some pleasant surprises. Last week on a lunchtime run I headed out in the Peregrines, and the clear sidewalks led me to alternate my route and run through Hubbard Park. The soft snow on the trails, while sometimes leading to slippery strides, was soft underfoot. Equally soft was the fluffy snow covering the tree branches throughout the park. Alas, I didn’t have my phone with me to take photos, but it was magical.
Along with snow, winter’s arrival has brought the first really cold temperatures of the season. Last weekend brought high temperatures in the single digits and brisk winds to Bolton Valley, our ski mountain. That is…not fun skiing weather. But it also happened to coincide with the re-introduction of the CVR winter long runs, now with Covid-19 protocols. Single digit temperatures aren’t as bad on a 10-mile run as they are for a full day of skiing. So I went to Middlesex for a run up McCullough Hill Road with CVR members/friends Manny and Graham. I had done a nine-mile run just the week before and was thinking that this distance is getting easy peasy. Accompanied with 1,000 feet of elevation gain in the first four miles, it’s really not though. But the air was crisp, the company was nice, and losing 1,000 feet over the last six miles felt pretty good.
Today was sunny and warm (upper 20’s), and I had time to run during my lunch hour. I strapped on the Peregrines and did a Mr. Hubbard Face loop. I started on the North Branch Park side, where the trails were beautifully groomed for skiing and other uses. Then up from North Branch Nature Center into Hubbard Park. Here the trails hadn’t been smoothed with a groomer, but were well packed with foot traffic. Importantly, the air temps have stayed below freezing, the snow remained soft and supple, and the knobby treads of my shoes held their own. It doesn’t make for the most efficient stride or a fast pace, but it was again a joy to be healthy and able to run free, and I guess that’s all you can really ask for.
As October begins and fall starts to settle in, it’s natural to think of the year as winding down. From a running stand point, things were still pedal to the medal. For one thing, there were two virtual races and one live race on the docket. The live race and one of the virtuals were half marathons, meaning October was destined to be a big mileage month.
The action started right away, as I ran the Leaf Peeper’s 5K on October 1. I had grown tired of running all my 5Ks in 25:35 – 25:45. The consistency was nice, but it seemed I should be able to improve, and given a flattish course I set out to target a 25:00 race, and I beat that by two seconds. I rested the next two days and then returned to Waterbury for the Leaf Peeper’s Half Marathon, with a goal of 1:58:00 (9-minute miles) and I beat that by nearly a minute. Another PR!
There was another race to come, but in the interim I wrapped up the map project, running the final street in Montpelier on October 22. Two days later it was off to Burlington for a live race, the Half Marathon Unplugged. Given the Leaf Peepers result, I set a goal of 1:55:00 for this race, which I beat by nearly half a minute. Yet another PR! After that the winddown really did start, and the month finished with a fun costume run on Halloween.
October summary: Total miles: 126.69 month / 990.25 year to date Vs 1010 goal: +148.6 miles Longest run: 13.1 miles Significant Races: Leaf Peepers 5K, Leaf Peepers Half Marathon, Half Marathon Unplugged
November began with the first of the three Fallen Leaves 5K races. The first two were impacted by course changes due to Covid-19 protocols. I improved my time each time I ran this race last year, and maintained that objective this time around. I kind of sandbagged the first race, but on week three I vowed to run my fastest race, and I crossed at 24:34, another PR and my first 5K with a sub-8:00 pace. In a year I had dropped my PR by over a minute and a half, so yay me!
November also marked the month when I met my mileage goal for the year. In January I set the goal of 1,010 miles for 2020, and I reached that on November 5, with a full eight weeks to spare. By mid month, the race season was over and I had met literally every goal I set for myself during the year. But the weather was still really good for running (and not at all good for skiing), so I kept going, including running a “for fun” half marathon before the end of the month. Somehow I crept over 130 miles, a new single-month record.
November summary: Total miles: 130.87 month / 1121.12 year to date Vs 1010 goal: +196.7 miles Longest run: 13.1 miles Significant Races: Fallen Leaves series
December featured more of the same from the second half of November: no races, unseasonably warm temperatures, and a delayed ski season. Some more 30-mile weeks ensued. Finally we were able to hit the slopes in the second half of the month. The year ended with a virtual running of the New Years Eve 5K. Because there is a big hill climb I didn’t set a record time, but it was possibly my best race ever, with a 10th-place finish and an age group win. The cooldown afterward brought my mileage for the year to just shy of 1,250, over 20% more than what I thought was remotely possible for the year. It was quite a surprising year on all fronts, in this case in a good way!
December summary: Total miles: 126.65 month / 1247.77 full year Vs 1010 goal: +237.8 miles Longest run: 8 miles Significant Races: New Years Eve 5K
Ah, the joy of reminiscing about races past! Some have special meanings attached to them. The New Year’s Eve 5K from two years ago is one such race, as it was the first time I became aware of Central Vermont Runners. After the race I looked into the club, discovered the race series, and decided to join. Two years later I am a totally different runner. It all seems a bit strange if I step back and take a look at it all.
I skipped last year’s race as I was trying to figure out what was wrong with my leg, though it gave me the opportunity to get my volunteer duty in, a requisite to qualify for the CVR Race Series. Little did any of us know that this would be the only club race run live in 2019 and the series would be cancelled.
For a period of time during the fall, there was hope that we could hold the New Year’s Eve 5K live, but then Covid-19 cases began to spike again and any thought of of a live race were scuttled. However the race sponsor, the Montpelier sporting goods store Onion River Outdoors, still wanted to provide prizes if the club could arrange for a virtual race. And so it was decided that the 2020(-21) NYE 5K would be run in downtown Montpelier between December 31 and January 2.
I had New Year’s Eve off and wanted to follow tradition, so I convinced Katie to take a long lunch so we could run on the first day. (The fact that it looked like the best day of the three weather-wise may or may not have factored into the equation.) It’s a mile from her house to the start line, which made for a perfect warmup run. The temperature was in the mid 30’s and, though there was no sun, it was a delightful afternoon for a run. We toed the start line and took off at 1:00.
I ran this race in 31:00 two years ago, a 9:59 pace. In reviewing the results from that race, I saw people who I should be competitive with who finished in the 26 minute range, so I figured that would be my goal. Then the morning of I was checking out Strava and I saw somebody who I know to be much faster than me who ran in 27:40, which caused some alarm, so now 27:00 was my goal.
That said, I didn’t really look at my watch much during the race, I just ran. The course starts on Court Street, heads down to Taylor Street and the Bike Path, then over to Bailey Avenue. The start of this race is a little downhill, and there are two street crossings that fortunately didn’t slow me down. After .6 miles the climbing starts for the next mile, including a 2/10 mile stretch on Terrace Street with almost a 10% incline. Then things flatten out for a stretch before gaining another 100+ feet at a more gradual pace. Around the cul-de-sac on Dunlap Circle, then back downhill for the next mile-plus and a sprint to the finish.
I was thinking a little above a 9:00 pace for the climb, which I would then make up on the way downhill. I did look when my watch buzzed the first mile and saw I was in the 8:40 range. Faster than expected. I felt pretty strong all the way uphill and knew I was making good time on the upper part of the climb. I crossed paths with Katie as I was exiting Dunlap Circle, which was a little over the midway point for me, and I was pleased that she was so close. She was running a good race.
Mile 2, which was still mostly uphill, clicked in at 8:33. I was a little over 17:00 minutes for two miles and, with a lot of downhill in front of me, 26:00 seemed like a real good bet. I wasn’t looking at the watch, just letting myself go fast knowing that I didn’t have any real reason to hold back. I was flying, relatively speaking, at one point getting up to a 6:15 pace. There is one section as Clarendon Street approaches Bailey where things flatten out, and I recognized that I was starting to relax. So I pushed again on Bailey, around a utility truck, then the flat sprint along State Street in front of the Capitol before a short climb on Governor Davis Avenue and the finish line. I was startled to see the finishing time of 25:37, which was what I was running flatter 5Ks in over the summer.
After taking some time to regain my breath (for I had really pushed myself at the end), I ran back so I could run in with Katie. I spied her as she was turning on to State Street and paced her to the finish. (That is, until she passed me on the final hill!) She finished in 28:47, which was a really good race for her as she’s building up strength, speed and stamina.
There was no doubt in my mind that this was one of my best races, and Strava confirmed with a “Grade Adjusted Pace” of 7:54, which matched that of my PR race on the last Fallen Leaves 5K. And yet, I knew that others in my age group are capable of running at least three minutes faster. And so it was a matter of waiting. I was the only 50-59 male who ran on the 31st, which was a good sign because bad weather was supposed to come on January 1. And it did, but not until late in the afternoon. Two others ran on New Years Day, but they were both over 27:00. After two days, I was still in the lead.
On January 2 we woke up to half a foot of snow. Suddenly I was feeling a little confident. This could be a great equalizer. As it turns out, none of the men I was worried about ended up running. One other guy did run on Saturday, but he was also over 27:00. For the first time ever, save for the time I was the only 50-59 male in the race, I had won my age group. What a way to start the year!
July was the month when things started to move up to yet another level. With a fair amount of cycling in the mix, the first couple of weeks maintained a 20+ mile pace. July 3 featured the Montpelier Mile, and the following week was the Bear Swamp race, both virtual. The weather was hot and humid and not great for running per se, and I was learning about how the heat slows you down. But I love hot and humid weather and the long days of summer. It’s when I feel most alive.
Things kicked in during the second half of the month, and I started piling up the virtual races. The week of the 13th featured the Capital City Stampede 10K and the Paul Mailman 10 miler, along with two other 5+ milers. Suddenly this was my biggest week yet, at 34 miles run. The following week was lighter on the miles, but with two 5K races. Runderachievers started getting together, and even ran the Northfield 5K as a small group race. The final four days of July I ran 23 miles and finished the month with 111 miles run, 10% more than my previous high month.
July summary: Total miles: 111.53 month / 618.40 year to date Vs 1010 goal: +30.6 miles Longest run: 10.0 miles Significant Races: Bear Swamp 5.7 mile, Capital City Stampede 10K, Paul Mailman 10 mile
August 1 was a Saturday, and the day that I made the commitment to running even longer distances. I got up that morning and ran to Middlesex and back, a 15-mile, 2 1/2 hour jaunt that was my longest run ever to that point. It finished off a 38-mile week that was the highest I’d run to date. I had already completed most of the Participation Series races by the end of July, and I was preparing to run the Adamant Half Marathon in early September, so the race schedule was light. Instead, I committed myself to my project to run every street in Montpelier, which I started in July but really delved into in August. I built more long runs into the calendar, and completed two more 30-mile weeks. By the end of the month, I had shattered my one-month record with just under 130 miles.
The first weekend of September, Labor Day weekend, I ran the Adamant Half Marathon, accompanied for the second half by my friend Lauren. This run was a significant achievement, because I set a PR by 5 minutes and almost broke the two-hour mark, despite it being a really hilly course. There weren’t a lot of other races in September; Runderachievers did a mini Sodom Pond 4-miler mid-month, and I joined some co-workers for a mini Corporate Cup at the end of the month. Otherwise, September was dedicated to the map project, which was aided by some cooler weather as the month progressed. The project led to three runs of 8-miles plus, capped off by a massive 15.75-mile afternoon that remains the longest run I’ve done. That capped off a 38+ mile week that bested my previous record, set in August, by half a mile. I was now firmly in 30-miles-per-week territory, which would be the norm for the rest of the year.
September summary: Total miles: 115.40 month / 863.56 year to date Vs 1010 goal: +107.4 miles Longest run: 15.75 miles Significant Races: Adamant Half Marathon, Sodom Pond 4-miler, Corporate Cup 5K
After the initial shock of the pandemic-related lockdown shutting down the state, April was a month of adapting to the new reality. It was actually a good time for this to happen. Things slowed down at work, and since I was working from home I could take the time mid-day to get in a run. Temperatures were warming, but were still quite mild, and the running was great. In the absence of Runderachievers, I was running weekly with my co-worker Lauren, and she started to introduce me to trail running, which I wasn’t all that interested in but went along with anyway.
In keeping my commitment to run races I had previously signed up for, I ran a virtual version of the Half Marathon unplugged on the 12th. I had visions of breaking 2:05 and setting a new personal record on that race, but failed pretty spectacularly, missing by six minutes. In training for this, though, I found a new threshold. When I got to doing a long run on Sunday the 5th, I saw the opportunity to get to 30 miles for the week, so I did a 9.5-mile run to reach that goal. I had gone over 20 miles in a week a handful of times previously, topping out at 27 the week of the 2019 Leaf Peepers, but this was a new record and what felt like a new reality.
The following week, CVR started the spring Virtual Race Series, which was to last for eight weeks. I ran a 5K that weekend (and backed down to 15 miles in a rest week) before running ten miles for what was supposed to be the Paul Mailman race. The final week of the month I saw that I was close to 100 miles again, so I mad sure to get the miles needed to make it two months in a row.
April summary: Total miles: 101.23 month / 306.05 year to date Vs 1010 goal: -27.9 miles Longest run: 13.1 miles Significant Races: Half Marathon Unplugged, Paul Mailman Ten miler (virtual)
May was originally planned to be a big month for me, where Brock and I were going to do the Half and Half relay for the Vermont City Marathon. That race was already cancelled by the beginning of the month, but I wanted to run the distance on the date anyway, so I spent the first part of the month prepping. I got into a pattern of running 3-5 miles on weekends with longer runs built in on the weekends. Katie and I were also getting out on bikes at least once a week. I did a couple of 10Ks for the Virtual Race Series as well as a fake Corporate Cup. For the most part I was disappointed with my race results, as I wasn’t prepping well and running at bad times (hot mid-afternoons mostly). But I did voluntarily take on a 10-mile run way uphill on Jacobs Road that actually felt pretty good as part of my training. The actual Half Marathon itself, on Memorial Day weekend, turned into a chore. In re-reading, I was a bit more disappointed in my final time (I missed my goal by over two minutes) than was probably warranted, but this was definitely a month of learning. As with March and April, there was the opportunity to get to 100 miles by the end of the month, so I made sure that happened for the third week in a row.
May summary: Total miles: 100.35 month / 406.40 year to date Vs 1010 goal: -13.1 miles Longest run: 13.1 miles Significant Races: Vermont City Marathon Half (virtual)
June began with no significant races to look forward to. The Virtual Race Series was coming to the end, and there hadn’t been any other races on the radar save for the original CVR Race Series. I ran a disappointing 10K early in the month, followed by a fast 5K. One thing that was changing is that my 3-5 mile runs were becoming 4-6 mile runs. That doesn’t sound like a huge difference, but it can amount to 4-5 additional miles per week. If you see the monthly summaries above, you can see that the deficit against my goal was quickly shrinking, by 13-14 miles per month. My hope was to be back on track and finish June with 505 miles run, halfway to my goal. Toward the end of the month CVR started a new “Participation” Race series, allowing us to run virtual races on the original courses of the races that had been cancelled. I ran a good race at Berlin Pond, missing a goal by two seconds, which made me reconsider race strategy to target a pace faster than my goal, which would give me some cushion when the tired times come. I ran the Paul Mailman 5K on the 30th to reach the halfway point of the year and my goal.
June summary: Total miles: 100.47 month / 506.87 year to date Vs 1010 goal: +4.6 miles Longest run: 8.0 miles Significant Races: Whiskey Run 5K, Berlin Pond 5 mile, Paul Mailman 5K
As I was discussing last time, calendars aren’t “real,” but they are helpful. Time will move on regardless of what the denomination on the calendar looks like, and the calendar itself changes every four years, adding an extra day to tidy up the sloppiness. (As if we needed an extra day of 2020.)
They are good, however, for chunking events together, and so I fully intend to embrace the construct of the 2020 calendar to tread ground that has been tread by many a writer before me: the annual “year in review” column. Or actually, series of columns in this case. It’s been a long, strange year. Let’s look back at the first three months of 2020.
January started with me nursing a sore leg and not running much. I had rested from running most of the month of December, but I was being cautious. I had an appointment the sports doctor (“Dr. Tim”) on January 6, and he said things looked healthy, and that most likely I was suffering from some sort of post-traumatic response to the ankle I had broken the previous May. From then on the goal was to get fit enough to run the Sprouts Mesa Half Marathon on February 8. I did a little more research and decided that over-pronation might be the issue, so I bought some orthotic inserts and built up the mileage through the winter long run series. I also had established an annual mileage goal of 1010 for 2020. That would require me to run about 19.5 miles per week. I was already falling behind!
January summary: Total miles: 48.08 month / 48.08 year to date Vs 1010 goal: -37.5 miles Longest run: 8.1 miles Significant Races: None
February was all about the Half Marathon. I was building up distance and ran 10 miles in a winter long run the weekend before the race. I was being mindful of form, and generally my legs were feeling really good. Race day came and things went about as well as could be expected, as I beat my target time by nearly 5 minutes. And immediately afterward I got sick and didn’t run for nearly two weeks. (Looking back on my description of events, which involved a lot of coughing and shortness of breath, I wonder if maybe I got the Covid from the race. Nobody was really thinking about it back then. But I also don’t seem to have infected anyone around me, like Katie. So probably not.) At the end of the month I had a physical therapy session in which I was able to examine and adjust my form, and learned some new exercises to keep the lower leg fit. It would make a huge difference over the rest of the year.
February summary: Total miles: 55.77 month / 103.85 year to date Vs 1010 goal: -61.7 miles Longest run: 13.1 miles Significant Races: Sprouts Mesa Half Marathon
March was when everything changed, and 2020 really became 2020. In rereading my February blog posts for this entry, I am struck by how completely oblivious I was (we all were) about how drastically things were going to change, and how rapidly it was going to happen. On March 2 I noted that the next race on the docket was the Kaynor’s Sap Run, which was scheduled for just three weeks later. A week later I was still planning for it. That race did not happen. Nor did any other race for the next several months.
I did an 11-mile long run with CVR on the 14th, after which things basically stopped from a group standpoint. The rest of the month was work from home and run on your own. The one silver lining, if you want to call it that, was that not being bound to the office enabled me to be more flexible in going out for runs. That resulted in more runs and more miles – March was my first 100-mile month. On the 22nd I started my tradition of running a virtual race in place of those I had been planning on but which were cancelled, by running a faux 10K Sap Run. It was the first of many solo races I was destined to run this year.
March summary: Total miles: 100.97 month / 204.82 year to date Vs 1010 goal: -46.3 miles Longest run: 11.1 miles Significant Races: Kaynor’s Sap Run (virtual)
Some say that time is a human construct that doesn’t really exist in the natural world. I don’t know about that, but I do know that the calendar is a human construct. We find it helpful for planning and organizing our lives, but nature knows nothing of the calendar. It’s not like anything actually stops at the end of December, to be replaced by something new that starts on January 1. Just as our natural world doesn’t abide by geopolitical borders, time is going to move on no matter what the calendar says.
Still, the calendar is useful in a real way, in that it helps us know when to expect weather to be cold and when we expect it to be warm. It helps us plan when to plant crops for their best yield. It helps us know when to stock up on fuel to heat our homes for the winter. And it helps us know when not to schedule road races, because nobody might show up in the crappy weather. So hence, here in Vermont, we have a running “season.” And that season is winding down.
But then again, not really. Except for days that the weather is really unfavorable, it is possible to run all year round in Vermont. And, for that matter, there can be really unfavorable weather any time of the year. I ran in 90+ degree weather several times last summer, and believe me that’s not better than running in zero degrees. And so far this year, we’ve not had any unfavorable weather. Whereas last year’s Fallen Leaves races were all run at temps in the teens, and two with snow and ice on the course, this year’s temperatures have dipped below freezing only once or twice, and only by a little.
All of which is to say, my subconscious thinks it’s time to wind down and scale back the running for the rest of the year. But the weather isn’t paying attention to the calendar, and my brain is taking sides with the weather. My body is just going along for the ride. So instead of “winding down,” I’ve continued to average 30 miles per week. And a funny thing has been that my body, or maybe it’s my brain, has been craving more miles on some of the runs. As an example, when I had to go to the grocery store in Berlin on Friday, I took the opportunity to run the five mile-loop around Berlin Pond. About halfway through there’s an opportunity to turn right onto Paine Turnpike South, and go as far as you want to add some distance. For a moment, feeling good, I considered doing that, but I stuck to the plan – not just for the run, but for the day – and kept it to five.
In reflecting back to last winter, things were a lot different. I entered December with a leg injury and took most of the month off from running. (In fact, I just checked the log – I ran six (6) miles for the full month last December. Today, December 1, (in 60-degree weather!) I ran 6.6 miles. So I’ve already beat last year.) When I did get back to running in January, it was mostly on the treadmill at the office gym. Outdoor runs were group runs, either CVR long runs or Runderachievers. Running outdoors, solo, in the winter is just not something I’ve done. But the coronavirus has taken away the treadmill and the group runs this winter, so I am adapting.
It’s not true to say that it’s all been solo running. Katie’s leg injury seems to be fading into the background, and she’s up to running 16 miles per week now. We are doing our own thing during the work week as it’s difficult to match up schedules, but have been getting out together on the weekends. And since this past weekend was a long one for Thanksgiving, we got to go out three times together, starting with an in-town 3.6-mile Tofurkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day that gave us permission to eat 1,000 calories for dinner.
Katie had to work a little on Saturday, but she had a window in the afternoon for a run, and the timing was perfect because the morning rain was forecast to move away for a partly sunny afternoon. The mid-40’s temperatures were ideal for running. Katie wanted to get some elevation gain, so we ran up North Street to Gidney Street on the East Montpelier town line. I’ve only run this way once before, on a long run back in March, though I’ve run down this part of the road a couple of times since then. It was remarkably easy for me this time around, or easier I should probably say (it’s not “easy”), and Katie handled it better than I had done the first time even though I was running her at a pace faster than she’s been accustomed to. We had enjoyed the sunshine for the first six minutes or so when the clouds rolled in, and things were looking ominous as we ascended North Street. Just as we reached the turnaround the rain started to fall again. As we ran down the hill, we noticed some unusual texture on the road beneath our feet. “Is that ice?” Katie asked. And sure enough it was. We were able to moderate our speed and fortunately the ice was soft enough for us to keep our footing, but it was surprising how quickly the weather turned on us. Shortly after we got back to the house, the sun was out again.
On Sunday Katie wanted to go for a hike, and we chose Spruce Mountain in Plainfield. “What if we turned it into a run?” I suggested, to which Katie agreed. I have never really run up a mountain before, but I was eager to give it a try. Oh how things have changed in just a few months!
View from the tower
It was another unseasonably warm afternoon, with a temperature in the low-40s, and any breeze buffered by the trees on this woods run. For some reason I hadn’t really considered that the footing would be trickier on the mountain. The trail head is at just under 1,900 feet, or about 900 feet higher than the high point of our North Street climb, and the mountain peaks out at just over 3,000 feet. There was a little bit of snow at the base of the mountain, but it was largely tracked off on the trail – the parking lot was full and the trail was pretty busy on this day. We took off running on pretty decent footing, which lasted for a mile. At that point the trail forks and the path to the summit gets noticeably steeper. And moreso, noticeably rockier, wetter, and muddier. In some places toward the top the rocks were covered with a sheen of ice. These were not running conditions, so we power hiked to the top instead. It’s a little over 2.1 miles to reach the peak, which has a fire tower. We got there in 38 minutes, which was faster than I expected. We climbed the fire tower, which was not protected from the wind, took a quick look around and a couple of photos, then headed back down. The descent was actually a little slower so we could be careful with our footing, and also there was more foot traffic both ways to navigate. Once we got back to the final mile, we were able to let it go for a nice run to the parking lot.
I think it’s going to continue like this for the next little while. The forecast, albeit ever changing, remains unseasonably warm, and my work schedule should allow me to get out for mid-day runs on most days. The lack of snow, which I am not happy about because I love to ski, should at least lead to decent footing so we can continue to run the trails in the parks. And then, with the solstice just three weeks away, the days will start to get longer, and running season will soon return.
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