Last day of the month. What's the verdict?
Well, it finished with a good week for outside activities.
• Monday, May 27: My annual Memorial Day weekend bike loop from Bedford through New Boston and Goffstown. Little more than two hours. Nice to finally have dry weather and sunshine after five days of rain.
• Wednesday, May 29: Took dogs for hour-long run on humid night. Felt strong all the way along five-mile loop until turning ankle right at the very end. No serious damage, though.
• Friday, May 31: Up early and biked to Nashua to pick up my mother's mail, then back home on the other side of the Merrimack River. Six towns, about 35 miles, two hours and 17 minutes.
One note is that Thursday night I stayed late at work to try to get things done prior to a weekend visit to Chicago to see one nephew receive Confirmation and another graduate from high school. By late, I mean until after midnight, and then was up for another hour at home before finally getting into bed.
And then I tried rising at 5 a.m. to hop on the bike for a lengthy ride. Uck! Maybe I used to be able to pull that off, but not anymore. Nothing complicated about it. I need sleep, or I feel like a piece of garbage and have no fun.
• Looking ahead: The trick will be to keep up this pace through June and the rest of the summer, making the most of the long days that will be with us from now until mid-August.
That means it's prime mountain-climbing time, and also prime lake swimming time. And that means it's time to make progress on climbing all 48 of New Hampshire's 4,000-foot peaks, and to try to get into the water and work up to doing better at a triathalon this season.
There's one coming up in June, right in my own backyard. The Greater Nashua Triathalon, parts of which cover the exact same roads I just biked this morning to my mother's house. Maybe, maybe not. Not sure if I'll be up to a third-mile swim in just three weeks.
Still, need to stay focused on keeping the momentum going, with larger or longer events every other day or so.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Back on the local running circuit:
Coming in nearly last in Bedford, N.H.
That's what I thought after completing the Bedford (N.H.) Rotary Club's 12K race, which was held under sunny morning skies on Saturday, May 18.
My time? 1 hour, 21 minutes, 31 seconds, giving me a pace of 10:56. Pretty good for me!
The good news? I wasn't absolute dead last. The bad news? I was 47 out of 47 people in my age group.
But still, I can take some solace that I finished ahead of 17 people. It would have been only 16 if not for my last-minute sprint right before the finish line, which enabled me to finally power past a guy I'd been chasing pratically the whole race. Nothing like a strong finish! (My wife pointed out that I should be proud of outrunning a 65-year-old guy.)
The Bedford Rotary 12K was a consolation race for me. What happened was, I got up too late to make it up to the small town of Hill, N.H., where they were running a rare 5K that started at 8 a.m.
Since Hill was out, I figured I'd run the Bedford race, which starts and finishes a short walk from my driveway. How often is that possible?
Even so, I didn't get to the registration table until about 10 minutes prior to the gun—cutting it close as usual. Just enough time to stretch out a bit and get to the starting line.
It's weird to run a race in the town where you live, and on roads you know so well. For one thing, it's very stress-free. I knew exactly where the hills were and how long they were, what kind of shade was present (or not), and so on. No surprises there.
But I did experience things I'd never encountered before. At the start, the bagpiper sent us off with a bagpipe version of 'Chariots of Fire.' And on Patten Road, a small band of elderly folks were manning an unofficial water stop, handing out cups of water filled from a garden hose while a sound system boomed Elgar's 'Pomp and Circumstance' March.
In local news, I saw that a long-time town resident's house is sale, so the race helped me keep up with neighborhood scuttlebutt.
The race seemed short in part because I thought the mile markers were kilometers. This delusion was in effect until about Mile 5, when it became clear that we were more than half-way through, so the numbers couldn't be kilometers. This might be why the whole thing seemed relatively easy, even though I was running continuously for more than an hour. :)
Physical deterioration department: I was pleased to find that I survived the whole course pretty much without developing serious problems. The only part of me that felt like it was taking a beating was the feet. About two-thirds through the race, both felt like someone had taken a ball peen hammer to them. Just stress on the tissues and bones, I think. But no muscle cramping, chafing, or other complaints. Guess I'm starting to build up my tolerance and resistance.
So that's primed the pump for more road races or independent runs in the next few months.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Three more states added
and some notes for May
Since the middle of last month, I've added three new states (Texas, Ohio, and West Virginia) to my quest to run at least a 10K in all 50. I haven't had time to write up the runs in detail, but will soon, as each had its own profile and there's a lot that I want to record for future reference.
For now, the page that tracks progress in this pursuit (see the link at right) is updated with basic info. After a little more than a year, I'm already up to 14 states, and not just easy close-by ones, either. Just three more, and I'll be more than one-third done!
Will try to pick up North Carolina later this month; also Maine/Massachusetts/Vermont this summer if chances occur. In September, a silent film gig in Iola, Kansas provides the chance to pick up some combination of Iowa/South Dakota/Nebraska, and possibly Oklahoma as well. And a quick trip to Seattle at some point in the next months might add the state of Washington to the trophy list.
In terms of other quests: After a winter of no progress whatsoever, I intend to start adding conquests to my ongoing quest to run a minimum of a 5K in every city, town, or unincorporated place in New Hampshire. I have to keep reminding myself that my self-imposed deadline to finish this project is May 14, 2016. I have something like a hundred more to go, so I better get busy.
In terms of actual races, Hill and Brookline are coming up in the next month or so, but after that it looks like a pretty dry season for new towns. So all the more important to embark on 'do-it-yourself' 5K runs to start filling in the gaps. I expect this will be the first year 'do-it-yourself' towns will outnumber official race towns.
With the nicer weather, I've been out on the bike quite often, and also running with our dogs, so my fitness level is trending better, I think. I've also been going through a process of moving away from all processed foods and trying to limit my intake to whole foods high in nutrition and low in processing. While driving out to Ohio and back this last weekend, I noticed just how rare it is to find real food along the way, but that's a whole separate post.
Anyway, back to the bike: Feels good to ride again, and it's a necessary joint-friendly aerobic counter-balance to all the pounding from running. Speaking of which: all the two-leash running around the neighborhoods, with dogs pulling me in every direction, has made a noticeable difference in my upper body. Another incentive to keep doing it! :)
On the bike, I hope to do several long rides this season. 1. White Mountains loop up and over Kanc, Bear Notch, Crawford Notch, Franconia. 2. From York, Maine over new Memorial Bridge and all the way to my driveway in Bedford. 3. Lake Winnipesaukee loop, from my house. (That's about 120 miles. Doable but would take all day.) 4. More rides out through New Boston/Francestown to hill region of southwestern New Hampshire. Harrisville for lake swimming, or perhaps to my old stomping grounds of Charlestown/Claremont.
Swimming and biking will provide the base for at least one triathalon this summer: maybe a longer one rather that the "sprint" one I did last July, if my swimming allows for it.
And then there's the long-stalled challenge to run on every street in my hometown of Bedford. This remains about half-finished. One reason: I've always felt I should always start/finish at my home, and I've done all the reasonably close streets. So I might have to modify the rules to include remote starting points. We'll see.
My next physical is in June, about six weeks from now. We'll see if any progress has been made. :)
For now, the page that tracks progress in this pursuit (see the link at right) is updated with basic info. After a little more than a year, I'm already up to 14 states, and not just easy close-by ones, either. Just three more, and I'll be more than one-third done!
Will try to pick up North Carolina later this month; also Maine/Massachusetts/Vermont this summer if chances occur. In September, a silent film gig in Iola, Kansas provides the chance to pick up some combination of Iowa/South Dakota/Nebraska, and possibly Oklahoma as well. And a quick trip to Seattle at some point in the next months might add the state of Washington to the trophy list.
In terms of other quests: After a winter of no progress whatsoever, I intend to start adding conquests to my ongoing quest to run a minimum of a 5K in every city, town, or unincorporated place in New Hampshire. I have to keep reminding myself that my self-imposed deadline to finish this project is May 14, 2016. I have something like a hundred more to go, so I better get busy.
In terms of actual races, Hill and Brookline are coming up in the next month or so, but after that it looks like a pretty dry season for new towns. So all the more important to embark on 'do-it-yourself' 5K runs to start filling in the gaps. I expect this will be the first year 'do-it-yourself' towns will outnumber official race towns.
With the nicer weather, I've been out on the bike quite often, and also running with our dogs, so my fitness level is trending better, I think. I've also been going through a process of moving away from all processed foods and trying to limit my intake to whole foods high in nutrition and low in processing. While driving out to Ohio and back this last weekend, I noticed just how rare it is to find real food along the way, but that's a whole separate post.
Anyway, back to the bike: Feels good to ride again, and it's a necessary joint-friendly aerobic counter-balance to all the pounding from running. Speaking of which: all the two-leash running around the neighborhoods, with dogs pulling me in every direction, has made a noticeable difference in my upper body. Another incentive to keep doing it! :)
On the bike, I hope to do several long rides this season. 1. White Mountains loop up and over Kanc, Bear Notch, Crawford Notch, Franconia. 2. From York, Maine over new Memorial Bridge and all the way to my driveway in Bedford. 3. Lake Winnipesaukee loop, from my house. (That's about 120 miles. Doable but would take all day.) 4. More rides out through New Boston/Francestown to hill region of southwestern New Hampshire. Harrisville for lake swimming, or perhaps to my old stomping grounds of Charlestown/Claremont.
Swimming and biking will provide the base for at least one triathalon this summer: maybe a longer one rather that the "sprint" one I did last July, if my swimming allows for it.
And then there's the long-stalled challenge to run on every street in my hometown of Bedford. This remains about half-finished. One reason: I've always felt I should always start/finish at my home, and I've done all the reasonably close streets. So I might have to modify the rules to include remote starting points. We'll see.
My next physical is in June, about six weeks from now. We'll see if any progress has been made. :)
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