Vermont Running

It has been pretty tough running in Vermont lately.  There is literally no flat ground to run on and the nearest track is 40 minutes away if I want to get in a speed session.  I am all in favor of conquering hills, but this is not one of those moments where I am just being lazy.  The elevation changes well over 1000 feet to get in any middle-distanced run.  It always ends up being (mostly) uphill on the way back too.  Right now, I am sort of in between with my running goals.  I still want to work on speed and get my 5k/10k times down this summer.  I also want to build a steady base now for marathon training later in the summer leading into a fall race.  Speed is important to work on now so that I run a faster marathon in the fall.  The problem that I am faced with now is fatigue.  Lately, my legs have been feeling tired and heavy.  I pushed myself through a couple of tough workouts and have kept up with double-runs every other day.  My mileage on these hills is in the 80s (avg. per week) and I want to keep adding on.  I, however, do not want to burn out or get injured any time soon.  That would be bad.  This all seems pretty negative and that is one thing I want to touch on: attitude.  If you approach something, anything, with a feeling that it is going to be difficult, it will be.  You have to have the right mindset going into a particularly demanding training block.  Many people reading this may be training for different events then I am.  It is all still the same concept.  You need to have a positive outlook on the situation and remind yourself why you are chasing your goal.  It is important that I tell myself that training on these hills will be worth it.  When I get back to sea level (not much but up at 2000 feet of altitude in the mountains) and flat ground I will see big gains.  My goal is to run a fast marathon time in the fall.  This is something I have said quite often.  I believe that I can run well under a sub-2:45 marathon in the fall.  It does not bother me if someone tells me this is a lofty goal, or worse that I cannot achieve it.  This is what keeps me out there every day.  I have something to prove, but not to others, to myself.  I made a deal that I would run a fast marathon in the fall.  Why?  I did this because I want to achieve this goal.  Running is something I enjoy and something I can learn from every day.  It is all about the attitude.  I have a determination that makes people question why I am doing what I am doing.  This is when you know you are doing something right.  Find something you like.  Then, give 100% of yourself to it and let it take over.  You will be amazed at what you can learn about yourself that you did not know before.  You will experience how far you can push yourself.  You will achieve your goals.  My advice is simple: dream and then turn it into a reality.  Use motivation to help shape your attitude and ultimately find what you are looking for.

I have to believe that running in the mountains is giving me strength for when I road race.  I ran the Hollis Fast 5k last week and ran a new PR!  This is a great local event in New Hampshire.  It draws a big crowd for a 5k (over 1000) and is well organized.  The course is a net downhill and is advertised as one of the fastest in the U.S.  And it did not disappoint!  I ran 17:28 (5:37/mile) and took home 1st place in my age group (21st overall in a fast field of over 1000 runners)!  I see racing as a reward, not a burden.  All of my hardwork has been translating into quality race results of late.  There is a certain satisfaction you have when you toe a start line with confidence from all the miles you have been putting in.  Last year I ran this race and finished in 20:02.  Over two and a half minutes off my 5k in a year!  I'll take it.  It is nice to see some im  I also got a pretty cool apple-shaped trophy.  I saw it last year and thought it would be pretty cool to take it home the next year.  My next race is going to be a 10k in a couple of weeks.  That should be a good test of fitness.  Summer racing and training can be tough so make sure if you are out running, you are being careful.  Hydrate regularly, wear hats. use sunscreen (thanks mom), etc.  Do not worry about a run where you cannot perform your best because of the heat.  Long-term health is much more important then pushing yourself too far in the heat.  Train safe and see ya'll next time.

Run Happy,
David

We Did it Everyone!!!

(Wheeler Farm)

Forget race reports, this is a maple syrup review!  This summer, I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere in Vermont.  It's kind of great, but can be a little difficult at times for running.  Maple syrup, however, makes everything better.  I've been devouring waffles and pancakes after just about every run.  I get the goods from a place called Wheeler Farm.  When I went to get my syrup fill for the past couple weeks, I followed signs that brought me into the family's farm.  I was greeted on their property by the friendliest dog who ran over to me wagging its tail all over the place and such.  As I was petting the dog, I was instructed by a man doing farm work to go knock on the back door and there I could find this magical elixir called "real Vermont maple syrup."  When I knocked on the door, I was greeted by the oldest and kindliest looking woman.  She simply looked at me and said, "Syrup?"  I nodded and followed her into another room inside her actual home.  She asked me if I wanted light, medium, or dark syrup.  I didn't even know there were types.  I went with medium just to be safe.  I then paid and rushed back to my suite (editor's note- I'm living in a hotel this summer- picture Suite Life of Zack and Cody minus an annoying mother).  When I first took a bite of the Wheeler Farm syrup on a batch of fresh waffles, my taste buds exploded.  It wasn't like anything I had ever tasted before.  Okay, it tasted exactly like maple syrup- except way better.  It had the taste of something that someone put a lot of time, effort, and thought into.  My grade for the Vermont maple syrup experience: A+.  I reccomend it to everyone if you like deliciousness all up in your stomach.  Now I guess I should go back to the whole running thing.  It is literally all hills where I am.  The elevation change is unbelievable.  I went out for 17 miles a week ago and the change was 2800 feet.  That's pretty crazy, seeing as I had to climb half of it.  I've been doing a lot of hill repeats and have really been gaining some leg strength.  I'm also up at altitude in Vermont (not really sure if 2000 feet makes a difference- but I'd like to think it does).  Hopefully this training will pay off when I go back to running on relatively flat ground and that's exactly what happened this past weekend.

(Nom, nom, nom- maybe not before a race)

It's finally happened, I won a road race!  Now I know what you're thinking.  How did you pull off this amazing victory?  Did you out-kick your nearest competitot at the finish?  Well, what happened then?  I was given a free entry into the Castle Awards 5k from my running club (shout out to Rhode Runner- and our awesome bright orange singlets).  I expected this race to draw a good local field and to push myself hard during the race to finish somewhere in the 18:00 range.  This race also included a half marathon that started at the same time.  The race was small and most runners were entered for the half marathon.  I thought about running the half, but really want to focus on shorter distances this summer so that my marathon time will drop considerably.  When the gun went off on Sunday I shot out right away.  In fact I was in the lead, all by myself, right from the start.  This is something I have never even begun to have thought about: lead a race from wire to wire and win.  I went through the first mile (without looking back) in about 5:40.  I was running right behind the lead motorcycle, cool!  I felt calm and relaxed during the first mile (despite the Ben and Jerry's ice cream at 9 pm the night before the race).  My form was spot on and I began to picture the rest of the race unfolding with me at the front.  My goal for this race was to run even splits, but there were a couple problems with this.  The first was that there were no mile markers for mile 2 and mile 3 (they must have only done the half-marathon course because the 5k split from it after the first mile).  Another problem was that the 5k course was a little bit longer than 3.1 miles.  The race director told me he wanted to have the 5k and half finish in the same spot.  I mapped the 5k course to be 3.2 miles, considerably longer when looking at your final pace.  The other factor was that I was running by myself.  I glanced over my shoulder at some point where I thought the second mile might be.  There was nobody in sight.  During the final mile, I pushed my pace, with the fear that someone might come up on me at the end.  When I hit the homestretch, it finally settled in that I was going to win!  I felt an overflow of emotions at this point.  I am passionate about my running (obviously) and got a little emotional being the first one to the finish line.  Another part of me (the more playful side), had pictured this moment for months.  What victory celebration would I go with when I broke the tape?  Although this race was small, I'm pretty proud of what I've managed to accomplish over the past few years.  I have dropped my race times by following a simple formula: hard work + determination = success.  It doesn't matter what people tell you that you won't run a certain time.  All that matters is you are the person you have to answer to.  There have been struggles along the way and certainly a lot of doubt for me too.  I am happy with where I am fitnesswise right now but I want so much more in the future.  I know it won't be easy.  My time for the race (18:36- 3.2 miles, about 18:03 for 5k) will not win me many more races, if any.  There's a certain drive in me right now (ignited by this summer heat) that will help me continue to make progress throughout the summer.  I'm looking forward to some good hard months of training that will translate into a FAST marathon time come fall.  For now, I'm taking things one day at a time.  Good results do not come to you in a single night.  It takes weeks, months, and years of hard training to be able to consistently run solid times and make improvements.  Do not get upset if you have a bad race, use it to push harder and correct whatever problems you may be experiencing.  So, I'm just gonna keep going at it all summer and see what the fall has in store.


(I went with this pose- still working on it)

Be Limitless,
David