Looking ahead to April

Not much of this coming up in April, so time to take matters into my own hands—er, feet.

Okay, warmer weather is moving into our part of the world. That, and a personal vow to get more active just this one month, means more action on the fitness front, including progress on both of the long-term challenges to run in every New Hampshire community and every state in the union.

In the first instance, no races are being held this month in any Granite State places I need, so it's time to start freelancing. The biggest problem on that score is my schedule, which is pretty packed with other commitments. However, my equally important commitment to health must prevail sometime, and that sometime is now.

So, what's the schedule look like? Let's see...it looks like every Saturday this month, the mornings are open for me to get out and bag two towns by means of the "5K on either side of the border" method. So that's April 6, 13, 20, and 27 for a total of eight towns, if I complete the set. Seems doable, so let's commit to it.

But which towns? Well, I don't have my state map in front of me right now, but when I get back to my home office, I'll figure out which pairs make the most sense and then come up with a plan. Let's hope for some nice Saturdays so this doesn't become an ordeal.

And then on the "50 states" challenge, I might be able to bag Texas during a business trip on Tuesday, April 16. Other than that, not sure. Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maine are still open so maybe one of those, depending on the schedule. (I can always double up Maine for a business trip as well.)

The real jackpot for the "50 states" challenge will come during the first week of May, when I should be able to bag Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and perhaps a few others during a road trip to Cincinnati, Ohio. We shall see. Depends on how fast a start I can get on Wednesday, May 1. Right now the schedule calls for Pennsylvania on the morning of Thursday, May 2; Ohio on the morning of Friday, May 3; Indiana on the morning of Saturday, May, 4, and we'll go from there. Could also bag Kentucky, Michigan, or West Virginia, depending on the route back and how I feel.

By the time I get back to home base in New Hampshire, I should feel great! Or dead.

Coming up in August: More races plus I attempt to bike the Kanc

It's Saturday, Aug. 4 and I've been going through a busy period with little room for running, biking, or anything else that keeps me sane. That's a shame because I was doing so well through mid-July. So I need to pick things up again.

Every year this seems to happen: I get halfway through the summer, and something seems to interrupt it.

Last year, I developed problems with my left Achilles tendon and that shut things down in August. In 2009, I was hiking to one or more 4,000-foot summits every weekend until my company unexpectedly started a newspaper in July.

Well, it's now August, and I need to break the pattern, even though I'm as busy as ever and it's now getting dark as early as 8 p.m. But whatever. I'll find ways to fit it in. I'll have to.

So here's a list of what I plan to accomplish before the month is out:

- Bike the Kanc: a 64-mile round-trip up and down a mountain pass both ways, on a road with no services. Done in two segments: Lincoln to Conway, rest and restock, then reverse. First leg starts with 12-mile climb up about 1,700 feet to Kancamaugus Pass, with last three miles at average 9 percent grade. Piece of cake! Very tough cake, that is.

To do this, I need to make at least one more longish preliminary run, and then have my bike serviced. The tires are well beyond their expected life, and the last thing I want is a blowout on the Kanc.

So if the weather is good tomorrow (Sunday, Aug. 5), I may go for the big prelim ride in the morning. I'll take the bike in for service on Monday, Aug. 6, and get that out of the way. And then, I have a 5K race scheduled up north (in Rumney) early on Saturday, Aug. 11, so that might be the day to try the Kanc, if the weather holds.

So tomorrow, I might try getting down to Nashua early, and then going over to Lowell, then following Route 28 back up to Manchester. We'll see...

- Add six towns: One casualty of July was the quest to run a 5K or better in all 234 New Hampshire communities. I only did one, and that's not going to cut it if I'm going to make my self-imposed deadline of May 14, 2016.

So this month I resolve to complete at least six towns. I have road races in two of them: Rumney and Boscawen. So that leaves four others to do. If I complete them in pairs, then that means two days of 10Ks somewhere on the map, filling in back-to-back communities.

- Get back on the 50 states wagon: I haven't done a "state" run since Maryland back in June. So I better get cracking and figure out a way to fit in one more state this month. I think a likely candidate is Connecticut, as I'll be driving down there for a meeting at some point. Just gotta bring a change of clothes. (September will bring Arkansas and Oklahoma and Missouri as possibilities.)

- Another triathlon? I really enjoyed my first-ever triathlon last month, and so doing another isn't too crazy. There's a good one tomorrow in Concord, N.H. (the swim portion is in the Merrimack River!, but I'm not ready for it.

To prepare for more of these, I really need to start swimming regularly, something I don't do. So I need to start looking at options to do that, other than driving up to Harrisville and swimming in the pond.

- Keep at it in general: I need to make time during the day for some activity somewhere. A good way (until recently) has been biking to my mother's house in Nashua (to get rents, etc.) and then back, a 25-mile round-trip or so. Each day should have enough room for some kind of activity, even if it's hitting the gym for an hour. I could get some reading done there, too!

Winding down for the winter

Well, time to update things. I've been going through a cycle where weekends have been burdened with commitments that have prevented me from getting out to any of the few remaining races this season. I missed the "Ghost Train" race on an abandoned railbed in Brookline, N.H., and also the Manchester Marathon (half marathon for me) last weekend, and this weekend I'll be out of town for an odd annual race in Grantham. (Next year for sure!)

But I'm still running -- more than usual, in fact. Lately, as the days have been growing shorter, I've been fitting in hour-long runs with two of our dogs through the streets and woods of Bedford, N.H., our hometown. We have a heckuva time, first running fairly aggressively on trails through a nearby patch of woods, and then, when the initial excitement dies down, in formation along the sides of roads. Abby and Inca have turned into a good and responsive team, at least after they've calmed down a bit.

Partly, these runs are self-preservation. If the dogs didn't get the exercise, they'd go crazy. (Come to think of it, so would I.) But it's also a reflexive response, I think, to the shortening days at this time of year, and the desire to get in as much outdoor activity before the weather really turns and you have to start thinking of what to wear to not freeze to death or be hit by a car when the roads are narrowed and lined by snowbanks.

So as we enter the home stretch of 2011, I feel I'm in pretty good shape overall. Started by bagging Antrim as Town #113 this past April, and got as far as Lempster as Town #129 last month, passing the half-way point (to #234) along the way somewhere. I may still be able to notch a coupla three races around Thanksgiving, although one of them involves a slog all the way up to Whitefield, N.H., something like two hours one-way. We'll see.

And before you know it, we'll be planning out races for 2012. There's still a sizable number of towns with races that I haven't yet run, but we're getting to the point where I'm going to have to start doing "freelance" races (making them up myself) in some towns to keep the momentum going. After, all it's not likely that the town of Odell (population: 0) is about to hold a 5K anytime soon.

Geez, though. More than half-way there. I might actually finish this quest one of these days...